Jump to content

The League shall fall if I'm in control - A bad tactician plays Berwick Saga, Ironman mode!


Saint Rubenio
 Share

Recommended Posts

 
6vkogjck o

Once, it was ruled by a vast empire called Lazberia.

The god-kings of Lazberia built their empire on the blood of the enslaved citizens.

For centuries, it stood untouchable. Yet still, time brought it to ruin.

But the people lived on.

From the ashes of Lazberia, they built two great nations.

One, the Empire of Raze. The other, the Kingdom of Veria.

Br5ygceo o

Endless blood was shed in the name of holy war.

Chaos, slaughter, destruction and hate consumed the hearts of the people.

And now, a young man comes of age in these chaotic times.

5wqdulmt o

Cq7air96 o

 

 

 

8tjhaqyn o

My initial plan was to wait for Aethin to drop the next patch, and/or April Fools.

Txfnuz2h o

You know, so I could prank everyone by starting a thing for real the day people don't start things for real.

1uonukiq o

But then the crownvirus happened.

Flekrqik o

Did you know that "corona" in Spanish means "crown"?

45ze87qg o

Those of you who have read my other stuff know how much it peeves me when people use spanish words as names. It's like ours is some kind of alien language!

Etkoaqrl o

Anyway, I was doing an internship, and I was pretty happy with my workplace, for once. Learning more than in the past two years put together, my boss was surprisingly awesome, I actually looked forward to going there every morning.

47qvns3h o

But now I'm stuck at home with nothing to do.

Qaovokzc o

Also, my oldest cat died a couple days ago.

X7jfsrnf o

So I decided, "what the hell". Let's do this now.

Swxqdlw4 o

Thus, the time has come for us to ask ourselves one question.

Qhtahcq9 o

Are we ready?

4t0lyewf o

Are we ready for a journey...

4ufwdhmg o

...filled with death, tragedy and despair...

Qurc9ihz o

...but also happiness, hope and glee?

Pespmylx o

Are we ready...

Uxrpsgaj o

...for this intro to end already?

R7f6iw50 o

Nah, just kidding. I love this intro. I recommend that you go and find a video of the full opening, because it's seriously gorgeous.

J3hbvytr o

But I'm running out of things to say.

9ntomnt4 o

This was supposed to be shorter, but the gifs were too big, so I had to split them into multiple parts.

Bvwfjsky o

Still, you won't deny that it was worth the effort. These visuals, man! Why did you have to go 3D, FE? You're so ugly now!

Kwrlskm2 o

Well, no matter. The important thing is that it's time.

Time for...

H7w48jl1 o

 

 

 

Mc4asw6e o

Title screen!

 

Hello, everybody! Remember me? It is I, Saint Rubenio, the guy who can't play FE, hates just about everything and is moderately entertaining on occasion! I have returned with an even more obscure game, because that seems to be my thing. I couldn't play the popular ones and get all the views, nooooo gotta play this one that's only been played by 776 people.

Anyway, yeah, I'm back! I already said everything I needed to say between the awesome gifs, so without further ado...

Wait, hold up, hold up! What is a Berwick Saga? I didn't know Ricky Berwick got his own game!

Don't be silly. TearRing Saga Series: Berwick Saga: Lazberia Chronicle: Chapter 174 (rolls right off the tongue) is a game made for the PS2 in 2005 by Shouzou Kaga, the legendary creator of the forum's titular series (which, I imagine, requires no introduction). This game only came out in Japan, but it has been fully translated by the amazing @Aethin and his programmer partner, Lightgazer.

It is also Kaga's greatest work, and the best strategy game I have ever played. This isn't like my past LPs, where I played games that I loved and hated in equal measure. This is a game that I have a profound love for.

Berwick Saga stars Reese, heir to the March of Sinon, and his advisor and general, the veteran Ward. They travel to the city of Navaron to respond to the call to arms of the King of Veria, the country that leads the Berwick League, which is waging a losing war against the Empire of Raze. There, his life shall change forever...

It's a game that sort of looks like FE on the surface, but then you start playing and you realize that it's way different. And better.

Those of you who have played it, I welcome you to witness as I fail miserably to get through it without casualties. The rest of you, take my metaphorical hand and allow me to show you around this masterpiece. And, well, also watch as I fail miserably. It's one of the selling points of my LPs, after all.

Ruben, the rules.

Yes, yes, of course. In my first LP, I broke every single one of my self-imposed rules. In my second LP, I forgot to make any, and had to improvise. In my third LP, I covered my back by making a bunch of exceptions, but I couldn't take advantage of them because of a few unfortunate losses I hadn't foreseen, and then I broke the Ironman.

With any luck, we'll actually do something right this time. Though I'm not too hopeful.

- This is an Ironman run. That means anybody who dies remains dead. Prepare yourselves to watch your favourites die at the hands of my incompetence.

- On the matter of game-overs, this game has saves every five turns, so if I get game-overed, I will only go back to the latest save I have. Any units that died before the reset will be used for the remainder of the chapter, but they will be benched forever afterwards, as if they were too injured to fight any longer.

- At the moment, I can think of two exceptions to these two rules: two critical captures that I might have to rig. Capturing is RNG-based in this game, so if I want to showcase as much as possible, I might have to save-scum those two captures.

I reserve the right to make up more exceptions as we go. Don't worry, though, this won't be an "Ironman on the second attempt" or anything like that. I will not use this to undo my own failures.

- As always, I will not be warpskipping. Mainly because warp is not a thing in this game.

Ruben, are you going to be doing your lame sidestories here?

Yeah, probably. See, in my past LPs I sort of winged fanfics to go with the main story. Mostly for fun, as a nod to the veterans, and to flex my mediocre skills as a spriter. If you find it to be too cringy for your tastes, though, you can just ignore those segments. I will not change the main story in any way, save for a quick joke.

Speaking of the story, how will you show it?

Same way as in the last LP: by painstakingly transcribing everything, with portraits to go with the text.

9qk5ifz8 o Since I poured my heart and soul into this self-portrait, I will be using it to speak my mind during dialogue. Also, italic text, because now that I am in the artstyle of the game, I don't stick out as much.

I want you to use X unit!

Go ahead and tell me to do it! I won't make any promises, but Berwick Saga is much more flexible in terms of what kind of a team you can have than FE. You don't necessarily have to stick to a single team, so most units will see at least some use. So do throw some suggestions my way, and I'll see what I can do.

Don't even mention Volo, though. Why? Because I despise OP edgelords. I let Navarre die in FE12, I sacrificed Rutger in FE6, I made Vega into a mere shopkeep in TRS, and you can be sure that I'll screw over Volo as well if I must.

What if I really really feel like spoiling something?

I know just about everything this game has to offer, but not everyone does. If you want to talk about something spoilery, do it, but put your spoilers in a spoiler box, and place a big warning on top. Just so those who have never seen this game before know not to click.

What will be the schedule of the LP?

Same as usual: when I'm done with the update and when I'm not busy facing technical problems. Normally I try not to take longer than a week, but we'll see how it goes.

DISCLAIMERS

This LP will contain:

- Profanity. I swear like a sailor on a bad day.

- Blood and gore. The game doesn't have any, but one of my gimmicks is that, when people die, I edit their portraits to be all bloody and awful. Watch out if you can't stand those things.

- Dark humor. Also bad humor, at times.

- Injokes that new readers may not understand. I cannot imagine what a nightmare it must be to start reading my stuff and encounter the same five recurring jokes that I've been using for the past two and a half years. See what I meant with "bad humor"?

- Intense hatred for the most popular titles in the FE series. I am elitist scum who despises everything that's made FE into a mainstream franchise. This will be first and foremost a Berwick Saga LP, but be warned, I will often stop to say "man, this game is SO much better than Three Houses!". Other titles that I dislike include, but are not limited to, FE9 and FE7. If that sort of thing infuriates you, exercise caution.

- Unhealthy amounts of character deaths. Growing fond of playable characters is unadvised.

 

Is that everything? I think that's everything. All right, then! Fasten your seatbelts, ready your prayer books, and let's dive right into the world of Berwick Saga!

...not right now, though. As always, the first update will take a few days to come out. But at least you know it's coming, so it's all good, right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 980
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Great, another Berwick Saga LP to follow... good to see you are doing well, stay safe, hope you can break all of your rules this time around. You have managed to kill off each of my favorite characters in your previous LP's, but this time my favorite is an OP unit, so you likely won't even use them, will tell when they become recruitable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aethin: BERWICK'S DONE

Rubenio's immediate response: 349.jpg.c1be83e679103027490eefc7e2608d12.jpg

Mine: Can't, too many kids to deal with.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Anyway, I was doing an internship, and I was pretty happy with my workplace, for once. Learning more than in the past two years put together, my boss was surprisingly awesome, I actually looked forward to going there every morning.

47qvns3h o

But now I'm stuck at home with nothing to do.

Oddly enough, absolutely can relate.

I've put myself up for volunteering with this crisis.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Bvwfjsky o

Still, you won't deny that it was worth the effort. These visuals, man! Why did you have to go 3D, FE? You're so ugly now!

Eh, they're beginning to get there.

My real question is WHO THE FUCK NEVER THOUGHT TO LOCALISE THIS FUCKING GAME 15 YEARS AGO

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

nooooo gotta play this one that's only been played by 776 people.

Oh come on Thracia's been played by more than that-

Ah wait, that's not Thracia. Thracia wouldn't have had graves.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wait, hold up, hold up! What is a Berwick Saga? I didn't know Ricky Berwick got his own game!

ALSO WHO'S A RICKY BERWICK?

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Don't even mention Volo, though. Why? Because I despise OP edgelords. I let Navarre die in FE12, I sacrificed Rutger in FE6, I made Vega into a mere shopkeep in TRS, and you can be sure that I'll screw over Volo as well if I must.

At least recruit him for ranking.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

- Intense hatred for the most popular titles in the FE series. I am elitist scum who despises everything that's made FE into a mainstream franchise. This will be first and foremost a Berwick Saga LP, but be warned, I will often stop to say "man, this game is SO much better than Three Houses!". Other titles that I dislike include, but are not limited to, FE9 and FE7. If that sort of thing infuriates you, exercise caution.

Well that's awkward. Still have 2.5 playthroughs left in 3H and I've been having a blast.

Also, sorry for the loss of your cat.

Edited by Dayni
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess it's up to me to make Lee jokes this time.

 

Also, yeah FE7's not that good IMO.

Use Abel Adel, pretty please?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Hopefulee this title's misleading?

I consider myself to be among the eleet of puns. I'm not Leeding the way, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Did you know that "corona" in Spanish means "crown"?

Yes. It gives me the same feeling when a game calls wind "Ventus" or something like that. English speakers probbaly think it's a cool name, people that speak spanish just groan at the obvious name.

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Those of you who have read my other stuff know how much it peeves me when people use spanish words as names. It's like ours is some kind of alien language!

seconded, like above.

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Also, my oldest cat died a couple days ago.

My Fs for you.

 

4 hours ago, Dayni said:

Aethin: BERWICK'S DONE

Rubenio's immediate response: 349.jpg.c1be83e679103027490eefc7e2608d12.jpg

Lol.

Also:

Z38g9WR.png Mom, can we go get  good SRGP?

Mom: No, we already have good SRPG at home.

SRPG at home: FE7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/19/2020 at 10:26 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

I recommend that you go and find a video of the full opening, because it's seriously gorgeous.

It just so happens that I have one right here!

no that definitely isn't my youtube channel what are you talking about

On 3/19/2020 at 10:26 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Did you know that "corona" in Spanish means "crown"?

Wait, it's not "coruña"?  *furious googling*
Well dang, apparently that's just the name of a town in Galicia... You win this round, Spain!

In that case, I'll do you one better: In Latin, virus means "scum, slime, toxic liquid." So basically, people are all afraid of crown-scum these days.

On 3/19/2020 at 10:26 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Mainly because warp is not a thing in this game.

You say that, but if you hack in item 0x141, you will find a fully-functioning Warp orb

Also, 0x13F was apparently planned to be an Again orb, just to break the game extra hard

On 3/19/2020 at 10:26 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Don't even mention Volo, though. Why? Because I despise OP edgelords. I let Navarre die in FE12, I sacrificed Rutger in FE6, I made Vega into a mere shopkeep in TRS, and you can be sure that I'll screw over Volo as well if I must.

You would rob me of a chance to use this image?!

vololo.png.6c2d87d0a9018007b369ba0198ceaad8.png

Spoiler

vololo

Everyone should be prepared for my bad Berwick picture edits that I have already swarmed the r/fireemblem discord with

 

And finally, I'd be happy to provide any background information, translation quirks, etc. upon request. Or--let's be fair--I'll most likely bring them up without any request, too. If I'm coming along on this journey, then you guys are gonna hear some trivia, dammit!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never used Volo myself. Just looking at him makes me feel like something is crawling through my skin.
Although he can't possibly be a bigger edgelord then Faramir.

Edited by BrightBow
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Aethin said:

It just so happens that I have one right here!

no that definitely isn't my youtube channel what are you talking about

Holy fuck where did Kaga get all that money to make this cinematic?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, This boi uses Nino said:

Holy fuck where did Kaga get all that money to make this cinematic?

From his bank?

Can't wait for this LP to final lee get started!

The Lee dup to this is too intense!

Edited by Benice
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Part 1 - Critical Saga.

First update, folks! Much like in the previous LP, this one'll be a little messy, since I have to explain a bunch of mechanics and get myself back on track. Bear with me, please. Also, this game can be quite confusing for newcomers, so if you've any questions, don't hesitate to ask them, and I'll answer as best I can.

Replies:

Spoiler
On 3/19/2020 at 3:29 PM, ranger016 said:

Great, another Berwick Saga LP to follow... good to see you are doing well, stay safe, hope you can break all of your rules this time around.

Ahah, thanks for the kind words, Ranger-- wait, you hope I break all of my rules again?!

You have managed to kill off each of my favorite characters in your previous LP's, but this time my favorite is an OP unit, so you likely won't even use them, will tell when they become recruitable.

Ouch... I'm so sorry. Though, in my defense, it would've been difficult not to kill your favourites in FE6, considering the amount of people I lost... feeble defense, I know.

 

On 3/19/2020 at 3:29 PM, Pengaius said:

Oh, goody, you're back. I'll do the thing when it comes up. 

Goddamnit, Butterman... Why must you spook me as your first contribution to the thread? What in the world are you talking about?! Being you, I can only expect the worst...

 

On 3/19/2020 at 4:10 PM, Dayni said:

Aethin: BERWICK'S DONE

Rubenio's immediate response: 349.jpg.c1be83e679103027490eefc7e2608d12.jpg

Mine: Can't, too many kids to deal with.

Hah! Yes, that's basically it.

Wait, you'd take Three Houses over Berwick Saga? Do not speak to me, filthy prebeian!

Oddly enough, absolutely can relate.

I've put myself up for volunteering with this crisis.

Good luck with that.

Eh, they're beginning to get there.

Beginning to get-- are you kidding me?! Three Houses is the most hideous game on the Switch! The anime cutscenes are... decent... very average animation when compared to actual anime, but decent... but the game itself? Jaggies are everywhere, textures look 10 years older than they are, visual glitches are all over the place, everything clips through everything, the same five animations are shared across the entire cast, conversation backgrounds are stretched out JPEGs, the game fades to black every single time anything remotely interesting is about to happen during dialogue, particles are overused, depending on the screen size the text is so small that it cannot be read, the artstyle is bad and ugly because I said so...

It's without a doubt the ugliest AAA game! Heck, plenty of indies are better-looking! You have to bring up budget shovelware for Three Houses to even stand a chance! And they had to put a 30 FPS cap to handle those crappy graphics - a FPS cap that does not work, because the game still manages to suffer from frequent slowdowns despite the cap!

Leaving aside my own personal dislikes for the game, it's objectively a technical disaster. It's not "beginning to get there" just because it has a few salvageable cutscenes. Three Houses looks 15 years older than it is, and that's just sad.

...aaaaaaaaaaaand there we go, rant nº 1. More to come. It's the price to pay for bringing up Three Houses in my presence. Seriously, I cannot contain myself. Somebody please help me...

My real question is WHO THE FUCK NEVER THOUGHT TO LOCALISE THIS FUCKING GAME 15 YEARS AGO

Considering they went under after Berwick... probably couldn't have even if they wanted to.

Oh come on Thracia's been played by more than that-

Ah wait, that's not Thracia. Thracia wouldn't have had graves.

Pffff...

ALSO WHO'S A RICKY BERWICK?

Some famous guy I don't really watch. He's... difficult to explain, let's leave it at that.

At least recruit him for ranking.

Since when have I cared about rankings? May I remind you that I'm the same guy who, just last LP, did something entirely detrimental to myself just so I could screw with a fictional edgelord?

Well that's awkward. Still have 2.5 playthroughs left in 3H and I've been having a blast.

I'm happy for you. Seriously! Half the reason I hate Three Houses as much as I do is that I'd love to love it as much as everyone else, but I can't. If only I could stomach a single run of Three Houses, let alone four! I want to like Hanneman's game, I really do. Hanneman's, like, one of my top "old wizard men" in the series. Somehow.

Also, sorry for the loss of your cat.

Thanks, but it's all right. She lived a long life and died on her own terms. It's just weird, not to see her every day at supper time.

 

On 3/19/2020 at 5:28 PM, Benice said:

I guess it's up to me to make Lee jokes this time.

But he's not even in this game... ah, that's fine. Lee was awesome enough to survive the Ironman. Literally.

Also, yeah FE7's not that good IMO.

It's not difficult to see this opinion these days. Bring me a Path of Radiance or Three Houses hater, and then I'll be a content man.

Use Abel Adel, pretty please?

I tried in my second run. I was unsuccessful.

I'll give him a shot.

 

On 3/19/2020 at 5:32 PM, Dayni said:

Hopefulee this title's misleading?

 

On 3/19/2020 at 6:14 PM, Benice said:

I consider myself to be among the eleet of puns. I'm not Leeding the way, though.

No! Stop! It's too soon... you dereleects, you're turning my precious thread into a wasteland before it's even had a chance to begin!

 

On 3/19/2020 at 6:34 PM, BrightBow said:

Fantastic.

I think this is the most emotion I've ever gotten out of you.

Just kidding, don't take this the wrong way, please don't leaveeeeeeeeeeeeee I need your viewwwwwwwwwwws for my egoooooooooooooooooooooo...

Gonna be interesting to see an ironman run in a game that has an actual cemetery.

Don't remind me...

 

On 3/19/2020 at 7:45 PM, eclipse said:

Well now, if this is. . .amusing enough, it might be enough to convince me to change my member title again.

What do you mean, "if"? This is me we're talking about. I am the greatest comedian this planet has ever hosted. Of course it'll be "amusing" enough.

...

...urk... I can't stand it... must... be... self-deprecating... gah!!

 

On 3/19/2020 at 8:25 PM, This boi uses Nino said:

Yes. It gives me the same feeling when a game calls wind "Ventus" or something like that. English speakers probbaly think it's a cool name, people that speak spanish just groan at the obvious name.

seconded, like above.

Italians, Portuguese and Brazilians also suffer from this, if I recall correctly.

My Fs for you.

Thanks.

Lol.

Also:

Z38g9WR.png Mom, can we go get  good SRGP?

Mom: No, we already have good SRPG at home.

SRPG at home: FE7

Bahahahahahaha! This one got a good laugh out of me. To think, so many years ago I couldn't fathom the idea that any of the other FEs could be better than FE7... what an integral fool I was.

 

On 3/20/2020 at 2:20 AM, lightcosmo said:

I would like to see what this game is about, since I loved playing TRS, so I'm for sure watching this!

Welcome aboard, GIFman! Or GIFwoman! I'm not sure...

...GIFundisclosed? GIFundisclosed. Welcome aboard, GIFundisclosed!

 

22 hours ago, Aethin said:

It just so happens that I have one right here!

no that definitely isn't my youtube channel what are you talking about

I see you're adopting the Saint Rubenio strategy of plugging yourself for views even though you don't get anything out of them.

Wait, it's not "coruña"?  *furious googling*
Well dang, apparently that's just the name of a town in Galicia... You win this round, Spain!

It's an understandable confusion, I suppose.

Yay, we won! I'd celebrate, but I'm busy eating paella and watching bullfighting.

In that case, I'll do you one better: In Latin, virus means "scum, slime, toxic liquid." So basically, people are all afraid of crown-scum these days.

Language is such a fickle thing.

You say that, but if you hack in item 0x141, you will find a fully-functioning Warp orb

Also, 0x13F was apparently planned to be an Again orb, just to break the game extra hard

Thank goodness they didn't do it. Warp would've destroyed this game.

You would rob me of a chance to use this image?!

vololo.png.6c2d87d0a9018007b369ba0198ceaad8.png

  Reveal hidden contents

vololo

Oh my goodness. Now I feel even less inclined to use him!

Everyone should be prepared for my bad Berwick picture edits that I have already swarmed the r/fireemblem discord with

You think you can best me? I am the master of the lame edits! Huzzah!

Txrycfai o

And finally, I'd be happy to provide any background information, translation quirks, etc. upon request. Or--let's be fair--I'll most likely bring them up without any request, too. If I'm coming along on this journey, then you guys are gonna hear some trivia, dammit!

It'd be my pleasure to have you here. Bombard us with that trivia!

 

20 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Never used Volo myself. I feel like cutting myself just by looking at him.
Although he can't be a bigger edgelord then Faramir.

I wouldn't know about Volo, but Faramir at least has some kindness going for him, he's not entirely edgelordish.

 

19 hours ago, This boi uses Nino said:

Holy fuck where did Kaga get all that money to make this cinematic?

I have no idea. He wasn't exactly a millionaire. But I'm glad he somehow managed it. And the game itself is not too far off, either. The combat sprites are gorgeous.

 

19 hours ago, Benice said:

From his bank?

...well, that is... a possibility? I guess?

Can't wait for this LP to final lee get started!

The Lee dup to this is too intense!

Sorry, but I don't play ahead. I play along with the thread, so that I am just as in the dark as everyone else as to who's going to die.

 

16 hours ago, Dayni said:

*Turns blue

You know, AoE priests would be OP in FE/KS.

I wish I got the reference. Another LP, another thread's worth of Ruben not getting any references because he lives under a rock.

Of course, Aethin has to leed by example with shitpost edits.

My thread has been hijacked by Lee puns, shitposts and digs at my elitist nature. And it's only the OP.

 

Update:

Spoiler
Jpe8d3oi o

My old savefiles are called Ruben and Barlowe, can you believe it?

Recnht0w o

First screw-up of the LP: somehow I managed to create a system file just called "Sys. File". Can't delete or rename it. Oh, well. Guess that'll be for my next run.

Qxjbhhgk o

That's better.

Tebhlb04 o

This is the music for this first scene. Not sure if I'll link all of the soundtrack every time, but I'll do my best.

19gazxsi oThe long-standing Fort Sakiria

G8lmgkmr o

9qk5ifz8 o The map scenes are going to be a bit of a pain to record in my style. I like using as few screenshots as possible, but this is far too dynamic for me to just transcribe the text.

9qk5ifz8 oAnyway, those people there are the Imperial Prince of Raze, Faisal and three of his highest-ranking generals. See if you can guess which one is the prince.

Is7nodnr o
 
9qk5ifz8 o Look, it's a dad! Since this is totally unrelated to FE, I'm certain he will enjoy a long, peaceful life.

19gazxsi orode forth with 80,000 brave knights to aid the Kingdom of Pesil.

Gx6kvhs5 o

Lgjkwhcy o...Well, that didn't take long at all...

19gazxsi oIn the subsequent battles, over 100,000 men were lost to the war.

K8ghvuwr o

19gazxsi othe renowned Berwick League.

9qk5ifz8 oHence the thread name. Four LPs and I still haven't used a single title that doesn't insult me. I must say, I'm not as proud of this rhyme as I was of the previous one.

19gazxsi oSince its founding, Veria's kings had led the League against Raze, but with King Mordias now gone, they were disorganized and scattered. The front slowly crumbled away.

Mjhwdgpk oT4vjetll o
 
Ylfoy53y o

9qk5ifz8 oAh, yes, Volcens. He's one of my favourite characters from this game. A quite amazing person, all around. Look forward to meeting him. He's just great.

19gazxsi oVeria attempted to regain control of the situation.

Nedph9ht oWaigfcgy o

19gazxsi oValemtine's fall was inevitable.

9qk5ifz8 oDamn, that does not look good. So where are we going to flee? Riana seems to be completely cornered. Yutoria, perhaps? Or Serenia?

55hvxu4p o

Lgjkwhcy o Oh, for fuck's-- even more problems. These faces appear, and one second later they're covered by the next one. How am I supposed to LP if the game doesn't want to be shown? Sigh... well, I could've taken three screenshots, but here. These are the covered members of Volcens's court.

Jhvoux35 oHxq4hdqj o

9qk5ifz8 oTrustworthy-looking dudes, that's for sure. Way more than that bloke with the gray hairs.

Quwamqek o

Lgjkwhcy o ...What!? Why are we going there?! That's so far south! Are we just handing them all those nations along the way, is that it? Whose idea was it!? I'm betting it was the guy with the gray 'stache. He doesn't look like a good person.

Du3itsyu o

9qk5ifz8 o Speak of the devil, there he is again, with even more dads. I wonder which of these dads will be my dad in this game.

19gazxsi oHe called for all forces to gather at Narvia's capital, Navaron. When the call reached the small land of Sinon in the far west,

Ojp2bflv o

9qk5ifz8 oAh, there we go, it's that one. No, not that one, that's the protagonist. The one you can barely see behind him.

Owifxoye o

9qk5ifz8 oMore covered faces. I won't show these ones, though, because we'll be seeing them again before long, unlike the other ones.

19gazxsi oJune 16, Verian Calendar 618. With Navaron not far off, Reese stopped to rest in a small village.

68ragrhi o

Txzubig9 o Yes! Our TearRing Saga Series: Berwick Saga: Lazberia Chronicle: Chapter 174!

Umtbynde o

And with that, it's chapter 1 time. Any reason is good to kill mooks for experience.

Wzz2hasa o
 
Ahdfz3r2 o

The music here is extremely intense for whatever reason.

Our main character, Reese, is introduced as he parleys with a bald man. The burly man standing to his right is Ward, his advisor, general and lead beard.

Meoilxpy oYes, and it's been quite the trip to make it this far. Six months, day and night.

Ggjwymro oAll the way from Sinon... Forgive me, sir knight, but I'm rather shocked the Margrave sent someone so... inexperienced, shall we say?

Meoilxpy oI am the Margrave's own son. You needn't worry about me.

9qk5ifz8 oErgh... how does that change anything, Reese? You are inexperienced. Perhaps bring up Ward overthere? He's the one that'll ensure there's nothing to worry about.

Ggjwymro oO-Oh! Please forgive my ignorance! I had no idea, Lord Reese!

Meoilxpy oForget about it... Please, tell me, what has everyone in this town so panicked?

Ggjwymro oAh, you noticed? Yes, it's rather unfortunate. We're in a bit of a tight spot.

Meoilxpy oA tight spot? Please explain.

Ggjwymro oThe truth is, some soldiers have taken the town east of here.

Meoilxpy oSoldiers? From the Empire?!

Ggjwymro oGood heavens, no! They're actually soldiers from the League, much like yourselves... Or at least they were, until Duke Roswick barred their unit from the city due to troublemakers.

9qk5ifz8 oDuke Roswick is the stacheman from the intro, and Narvia is his duchy. So I guess it really was his idea to come all the way down here. In all seriousness, I understand the move. It's important to gain enough time to regroup, and sitting right next to Veria wouldn't have helped with that.

Lgjkwhcy o We better hope the Empire doesn't have a strong navy, though... Narvia is a stone throw's distance from Raze itself, with only a stretch of water separating the two.

416dzwos o

Ggjwymro oNow they're just bandits,

9qk5ifz8 oAh, there's the word I was waiting for! We've got ourselves our earlygame bandit map, ladies and gentlemen.

Ggjwymro oraiding and looting the countryside.

Meoilxpy oDespicable... What about the city's knights? Why haven't they taken action?

Ggjwymro oI petitioned the city for aid, but my request was denied. They've already got their hands full. With the war going on, they can't spare any troops just to help out backwater towns like ours.

Zf3qhcrh oSzzfipub o

The music changes at this point, and

Uedfz3v4 o OH MY GOD THAT MAN DOES NOT HAVE EYES

Ggjwymro oSo, it's come to this... We'll have to evacuate... Tell the people to head for Navaron. And do call Sister Izerna for me.

Dfievfxn oBut she's not here, Father! She already left earlier today for the eastern village...

Ggjwymro oW-What?! Why would she go there?

Dfievfxn oEarlier today, she received news of a sudden disease outbreak there. We told her it was too dangerous to go, but she refused to listen... She set out on her own when no one was watching.

Ggjwymro oNo...! If anything happened to Sister Izerna, I couldn't bear to show my face to Mother Quescria ever again...

Lgjkwhcy o What a predicament! Brigands prowling about, a missing cleric... I sure wonder how our heroes will react to these dire news.

K4ugsczp o

9qk5ifz8 oOf course, we're volunteering. Kaga took a lot of steps to ensure he wouldn't be sued like in the TRS days (to the point where he didn't put his own name in the game's credits), but old habits die hard, it seems.

Meoilxpy oMy knights and I will take care of these cowardly traitors, and we'll search for Sister Izerna.

Ggjwymro oD-Do you really mean it? Veria's blessings upon you, Lord Reese! I beg of you, please do whatever you can to help her!

Cff29rph o

Meoilxpy oIf we can capture the center of the town from these deserters, they should disperse easily enough.

Wfckghij o

Lgjkwhcy o Ward, you could solo this map and the next ten maps without breaking a sweat. What in the world are you worrying about?

Meoilxpy oWe'll be fine without them. The only difficult part should be locating this priestess.

3cxl4xfi oUnderstood, Lord Reese. By your command.

9qk5ifz8 oMuch like Eugen in TRS, Ward is a pretty awesome character whose introduction makes him out to be a generic Malledus kind. He does take a little longer than Eugen to get going, though - but trust me, there's a good character behind that beard. In fact, I would argue that he's the game's second protagonist, both as a unit and in the storyline. You'll see.

Ggjwymro oLord Reese, if you do find her, please tell her to meet up with us as soon as possible. We'll all be anxiously awaiting news from you in Navaron.

Meoilxpy oNaturally, Father. Take care of yourself.

U4cmorfv o

Reese and Ward leave the church, alongside three others (fun fact, those three are the only ones who don't get any dialogue until their character arcs begin. Poor guys)...

Wab6dgkq o

And they mount upon their steeds. It's ass-kicking time!

Ofibfran o

Map theme. This is no "winds across the plains", this is actually pretty badass. And they're only going to get better from here!

Straightforward enough conditions. Seizing wins the map, losing either of the protagonists loses the map. As you can see, Ward game-overs you just like Reese. Like I said, though Ward seems to be just your usual advisor type on the surface, he's really got far more agency than the lot of them; he's a Lord in all but name.

In any case, let's see the tactical hints.

Py0krjcw o

That's... a lot of text. A lot of text that I won't be transcribing. I'll be explaining most of this stuff along the way.

Whatever. First order of business is to see if I'll be able to use the game's map, or if I'll have to make my own.

84z9zac4 o

...well, would you look at that! That actually looks... presentable, for once. I think I can use this. It's a bit ugly, but still a thousand times better than TRS's maps.

On 11/27/2018 at 10:39 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

gOaJNXU.png

Nope, definitely not! I can't even begin to tell what that may be!

I shudder just thinking about them...

84z9zac4 o

Anyway, this map! Berwick Saga doesn't play around. It's the first map, and already we've got quite a lot in our plate. There's two paths that we can take. The northern path is devoid of much opposition, but the river will slow us down, as we can only cross through the gray-ish tile to the far east (and that tile is very difficult to cross for knightly types such as our starting roster). The southern path is way more crowded, but it's a straight line to the boss. As if this wasn't enough complexity for the very first map, we've got two enemies, an axeman and a spearman, that are carrying gold coins. We need to catch them before they flee east. And there's, of course, the matter of the cleric, who is nowhere to be seen...

Before anything else, though, we have to take a look at our team.

Sce8obml o

Starting with Reese. This looks really confusing, I know. I'll try to explain everything as clearly as I can.

First, an explanation of the stats themselves. The green gauge is Reese's HP. The yellow one under it is his horse's HP - that's right, horses can die in this game. Coupled with how frequent rough terrain is, it helps make horses more of an asset and less of a necessity. The stats to the left are self-explanatory enough. For the most part, they work like in FE, with minor differences. Magic doubles as resistance, like in Thracia. The first avoid is for physical attacks at range 0 or 1, the second one is for magical attacks at range 0 or 1, and the third avoid is for any attacks at range 2 or higher. "Rng" is range in this case, not the thing that'll make my life miserable going forward.

Reese having 0 range doesn't mean he can't attack: 0 range is melee range in this game. A unit attacking at 0 range needs to initiate the attack from the tile adjacent to their target, but when fighting, they will move to the target's tile. What this means is that, in the fight, both units will be affected by the terrain the target's standing on. Range 1 is classic FE melee: also initiated from the adjacent tile, but the units are affected by the terrain they're each standing on. Ranged throwables like handaxes and pilums, as well as most crossbows and some magic types, use this range. Range 2 and above works the same as in FE. It's most commonly found in magic and bows.

As for counters, range 0 units can only counter range 0 attacks (unless the unit has more than 10 AS. Then they can counter range 1 too. Weird). Range 1 can counter range 1. Range 2 and above can counter ranges 1 and above.

WpSkill isn't FE weapon ranks. It's actually the skill stat; it was split into multiple stats in this game, one for each weapon type. As you can see, Reese is skilled with swords and small shields. Unlike in most FE games, skill is extremely important here, because accuracy is a lot tougher to improve and hitting is much more important (you'll see why when we get into a fight). There's also another reason, but we'll get to that.

 

Now, his inventory. Reese's got a sword, a shield, and a bag containing two shortswords (why didn't you take a screenshot of that Ruben for fuck's sake...). Bags are like extended inventories. If you're carrying one, you'll get an additional 8 inventory slots. Extremely useful, since this game doesn't have a convoy.

If you guessed that the rapier is Reese's personal weapon, you guessed wrong. The Perseid's his personal shield. That +7 defense? That's the defense he gets from the shield. Shields need to be equipped, and they slow you down, but there's a chance (dependent on your shield skill) that you'll block any oncoming hits with them, gaining increased defense (in this case, 7 more points). There's three types of shields (small, medium, large), the Perseid being a small one (though that +7 defense is really high for a small shield).

Notice the blank circle next to the weapons' icons? That's the durability. Durability in this game is RNG-based, because Kaga is a very kind soul. It goes like this: weapons have a durability rank assigned to them, from S (unbreakable) to F (extremely brittle). After a set number of uses (determined by the durability rank), the weapon's durability goes down a level. Levels go blank (cannot break), green (1% chance to break on use), yellow (2%), orange (4%) and red (guaranteed to break the next time it's used). It's not as awful as you'd imagine, but let me tell you, having something break on green is the worst feeling ever.

Not everything works like this, though. Magic, most throwable weapons and ammunition (bows and crossbows require arrows in this game) have the standard numbered durability.

The rapier is actually a weapon that anyone can use. It has mediocre might, but high hit and crit, and it bypasses shields as a bonus. However, its rank is so high that only Reese and Ward could use it properly right now. What dictates whether or not you can use a weapon is not your skill with them, or a seperate weapon rank stat, but rather the unit's level itself. You can use weapons with a higher rank than your level, but they will occasionally fail, and any special properties (such as the rapier's ability to ignore shields) are lost.

So you may be wondering, if the rapier has such a high rank requirement, how is it that Reese can wield it if he's only level 1?

Fmnvjydz o

Simple. He has a skill.

Battle skills in this game are extremely important, to the point where having a strong skillset dwarfs raw stats in terms of usefulness.

Reese's skillset is pretty solid. He has:

- Canto, which works much like in TRS (read, you canto after everything). It comes with the horse, he'll lose it if he dismounts or loses his steed. Also, you cannot Canto if you get hurt in combat, which makes cavalier attack chains less effective. Not as much as you'd think, though - more on that later.

(By the way, can I just say I've never understood why this skill is called "Canto"? "Canto" in Spanish means "[a] chant" or "I sing". What's up with that?)

- Adept, which grants Reese a chance to hit twice. More useful than usual, due to the way combat works in this game. More on that later. Again.

- Commander. Easy enough.

- Robust. Essentially, it means you cannot be captured. You can capture units in this game, so long as they've the "crippled" status, which also prevents them from doing anything other than moving and waiting. The "injured" status makes crippling easier. There are quite a few weapons to increase the odds of either status, but overall, it's not too reliable. This is not Thracia's capture system.

- Expert. Reese can use weapons up to rank 8, which is why he can use the rapier.

- He also gets +2 speed from his horse, since it's a special horse.

9i5dxde4 o

Still with me? There's one more screen to go. I know this is all very complicated. Berwick Saga is a confusing game to get into, but it'll make sense in time, trust me. For now, just try to hang in there. The fact that I'm an awful teacher does not help. Maybe that's why I hated Three Houses so much...

Anyway. This screen shows your unit's growth. I'm really only showing it because it is kinda related to a point I want to talk about: promotions.

In this game, you do not promote by using an item. You promote by getting to a certain level and increasing your weapon skills to a certain point. That goes for most units, but there are some outliers, who promote in different ways (Reese being one such outlier). This is the biggest reason why skill is so important; you need loads to promote. Thus, Berwick Saga becomes the one game where I'm perfectly fine with a skill-only level. In fact, I pretty much only want skill levels, every other stat is pretty useless so long as you've got enough of a base.

Another thing that makes the other stats less relevant is the bracket system. Every unit (except for one) is subject to it. What it does is ensure that a unit's stats cannot deviate too much from their averages. If a unit is RNG-screwed, the game will force them to gain enough points to catch up. If they're blessed, the game will make them slow down. Weapon skill isn't affected by this, though. The result of this is that you end up hoping for skill over anything else, because not only is skill so important, but you're also guaranteed to get everything else sooner or later.

This is why I won't be posting growth rates for the most part. The only important ones are the skill ones, and those are affected by formulas that I'd rather not get into. Also, I'm lazy. But you knew that.

Oh, by the way, speaking of the formulas: you can get skill by fighting as well as leveling up. Every time you use a weapon or a shield, there's a chance (dictated by a complicated formula that I don't really understand myself) that the unit will gain a point of skill. It's really sweet when it happens.

 

Okay, I think that's all the mechanics I can get out of these screens. A few words on Reese, and I'll move on to his subordinates.

So, Reese! Reese is a great Lord, for multiple reasons that are not yet in effect. Indeed, Reese's start as a fighter is quite weak, to the point where he may appear to be a Roy-tier Lord, in spite of the mount. That is not to say he's a complete liability like Roy; he can support others with Commander, which is huge in this game, as you'll understand when you see the hitrates our guys can currently muster. He's also pretty tanky early on, thanks to the Perseid. A big flaw of his, however, is that he has rather shaky availability.

Yeah, I did say that. No, it's not a typo. The game's protagonist has bad availability. You'll understand soon enough. I know-- I'm sorry, I know! I keep saying outrageous things and telling you to wait! All will be clear in due time, be patient!

Well, at any rate, that's been Reese. On to the next person.

3odse79p oEns9mqgk o

It's a green cavalier called Adel. Oh, sorry. Spear knight. So he's a green Finn called Adel. He's a spear knight, and not a lance knight, because lances in this game are called spears. Lances exist, but they're a completely different thing. Wrap your head around that.

Anyway! Unoriginality and confusing terminology aside, Adel's... rather unfortunate. Adel has awful base stats outside of speed (which, again, isn't as bad as it'd be in FE, but it's still not something you want), and probably the game's most difficult promotion to get to (he needs to get to 10 unit level, 20 shield level and 30 spear level. With a spear base of 4. With a 30% spear growth. Wow). He's also kinda outclassed by a prepromote that we'll get in a couple of chapters.

Still, this does not mean he's useless. There are arguably no units in BWS that are useless, and Adel's no exception. His skillset singlehandedly saves him:

- Vantage is huge in this game, but... as always, you won't know why until I explain how fights work, and I'd rather not do that here. This is difficult enough as is. Best take in one thing at a time.

- Throw works with range 1 weapons, like the pilums Adel is carrying. It'll grant him improved accuracy, but most importantly, Adel will automatically equip back the weapon he was previously holding after the attack. This means you can go in, chuck a spear at someone, and then Vantage their ass when they come for revenge. Without Throw, you can throw stuff, but you'll be shackled with it until the next turn (and no, you can't do the trading trick, equipped stuff cannot be traded in this game).

Vantage + Throw is a pretty strong combo, and it turns Adel into a pretty good defensive unit.

- Pitchfork allows him to use three weapons that are otherwise enemy-exclusive. I'm unsure as to why he has this skill.

- Supporter is his best skill. If there's another unit with Supporter in his range, Adel will gain a whopping 20 hit, and 4 crit to boot. Coupled with Reese's Commander, it puts his hit in the 90s, which is impressive, in this game.

Overall, not the best unit, but he has plenty of uses, especially early on; hitrates are difficult to raise at the beginning, so Adel and his Supporter skill are a wonderful asset. Of course, he needs a partner for it to be any good, but, sure enough...

Q6vc5vbj oS76tbypf o

He's got his red friend-- Wait... green too?

I really don't understand what's up with Leon. His shirt is green in his portrait, but it's red in his combat sprite and his official artwork. What gives? There are many inconsistencies like this. For example, Reese's colors are inversed in his combat sprite (red cape, blue shirt), and Ward has a blue cape as opposed to the green one he has in his official artwork. These do not tarnish the quality of the animations, which are top notch, but it's a little weird.

Anyway, whereas Adel is good for defense, Leon's great for offense. With higher strength and defense, he's best suited to charge right in and skewer the enemy (staying in Adel's Supporter range, of course). He's also easier to promote than Adel; the requirements are the same, but his spear base and growth are far better that Adel's. His skills are as follows:

- Deathmatch is risky, but quite rewarding if used correctly. This is another skill that I cannot fully explain until we've seen how battles work in this game. Don't worry, I'll come back to all these things when the time comes.

- Robust makes it less risky to do Deathmatches, as you don't risk him getting crippled and captured in the process.

- Supporter does the same for him as it does for Adel.

All in all, really solid unit. I'd say he's better than Adel, but their niches are different, and they're best used together anyway, for those sweet, sweet Supporter bonuses.

43wuoj25 oQ34ji5gx o

We had Holmes in TRS. Now we have Sherlock. And he's a horseman, of all things. Amazing.

Sherlock's beginning is the worst of the entire starting cast. He has no accuracy, awful might, and really nothing to him other than his range. However, this is not his fault. His equipment is to blame; early bows and arrows are horrendous. He has a bag with another 60 bronze arrows, but frankly, Sherlock'd be better off selling them for a single pack of better arrows. Once he gets better equipment, his performance will drastically improve (he's also easy to promote: 30 bow level, 15 unit level). That's when his absolutely excellent skillset will truly shine:

- One-two allows him to use the attack command twice. You can weaken a guy with a strong bow, and then finish him off with an accurate one, for instance - or fire arrows at two guys in the same turn. Really good skill.

- Double-shot is a brave effect with a cooldown. And yes, it stacks with other brave effects. Another strong skill.

By the way, all of these skills, Throw, Deathmatch, One-Two, Double-Shot... they're not RNG-based. They are activated on command, and they have other downsides (for instance, Sherlock's skills have cooldown times to them). Vantage, Robust, Supporter and Commander are pasives. In fact, I think the only RNG-based skill we've seen so far is Adept. As you can see, chance skills exist in Berwick Saga, but they are far rarer than in FE, which is for the best, I believe.

Anyway, in summary: Sherlock's pretty awesome, he just takes a bit of time to get going. We'll have to be patient with him until then.

Only one unit left. Last, but certainly not least...

Adeq8zzp oZqrfofoq o

Jeigan. Except, no, he's not a Jeigan. In fact, he makes the likes of Seth look like babies. See that beard? That beard's endgame-ready. Not even joking, Ward is ready for the endgame right off the bat. "But Ruben, I thought you said this was a challenging game!", I hear you say. Why, yes. Due to the way combat works in this game, Ward is far from gamebreaking. He also shares Reese's availability problems. The fact that they managed to design such a juggernaut of a unit and yet keep him from trivializing the campaign is one of the most impressive things about this game, for me. Great game design, right there.

Ward only has one unique skill, but it's a pretty good one:

- If Guard Wards a unit (...that's not right, is it?), any enemies that attack the guarded unit will automatically fight Ward instead. His defensive stats will be halved, but that doesn't really matter at this stage of the game, since Ward is effectively invincible. You cannot use this to cheese the entire map, however, as neither of them will be able to do anything but wait. Anything else, even something as small as trading, will cancel the guarding. Still, when you need a unit to be protected at all costs, Ward's your man.

In conclusion, Ward is beard/10. He will teach those dummies how he earned the right to keep such an unkempt appearance despite his high rank.

Y5tq8jxf o

That's it for the starting team, so let's visit this blue house. You have to dismount to enter house tiles. Thankfully, dismounting is a free action in this game (though it can only be performed before moving).

H3oarnaf o

...oh, wow. That's fancy.

Uxzwxvxs o

This store is not very interesting. Worse weapons that the ones we have, overall. The vulnerary's interesting, but I don't want to waste Sherlock's turn.

Vlohaxjl o

So let's have Ward lead the ch-- ah! Hexagons!

Yeah, this is the first of what I'd like to dub "Kaga's Anti-Sue Mechanics". Kaga was determined not to be sued to hell and back again, so he made a lot of changes to the gameplay. The hexagons are pretty interesting: they make it easier to get around, but everyone is open to more attacks at any given time. This means that protecting units is more difficult than in FE, and it's often better to use a skill like Guard, or erase the enemy before they can erase your squishies.

20l8xxzi o

Oh, I almost forgot! Before moving, let's have Ward equip his longspear. Most spears have increased might if you move with them equipped (this is evidenced by a "+1H" symbol next to their might, you can see it in Adel and Leon's statsheets). So if you're going to use a spear, it's always better to have them equipped before you charge.

Zu0dvc1g o

...

Ergh... yeah. Let's not do that.

By the way, see his hitrate? 68%, for the endgame-ready guy? Yeah... this is why skills like Commander and Supporter are so good.

Z7icnsrm o

Ah, fuck it, let's just wait--

Hold on! I didn't do anything! Why is Ward attacking?!

(Incidentally, here's the standard combat theme. It's pretty awesome, but it lasts the whole game, so it can get old)

4znadzet oC6moiyqp o

...the enemy attacked?! How!?

Scroll up a little, if you please. Up to the screenshot where I was equipping Ward's spear. Look to the upper right corner. See those colored thingies there? That's the move order. There is no such thing as "phases" in this game, both factions move simultaneously.

When it's your move (blue piece), you can move any of your units; but once you run out of moves, it'll immediately be the enemy's turn. The amount of moves each faction gets depends on the number of troops they've got deployed - since we're severely outnumbered, the enemy gets four moves for every one we get. It's a really interesting feature, and it really changes how the game plays.

Once everyone has moved (the "end" command makes everyone in your army wait), the actual turn will end. At the beginning of any turn, the player faction will get a guaranteed move, but only one - afterwards, it goes on to the enemy, even if by that point it's us that outnumber them.

Ysk5ms5b oWakh8b4u o

By the way, endgame-ready man did not double. You know why? Because battles in this game also don't work like in FE! This is best explained with an example. So let's say I had attacked with Ward earlier. It would've gone like this:

Ward attacks -> If enemy took no damage, enemy counterattacks -> If Ward took no damage and his AS is higher than the enemy's, Ward doubles

As you can see, standard battles end when either of the combatants takes damage. Of course, there's a plethora of weapons and skills that change how this works. One such example is Ward's Knight Sword. You may've noticed that, when I showed off his statsheet, his attack had a + in front of it. That's because his sword is a + weapon (there's a term for it, but I cannot remember it). It adds one more round of combat to the fight, but only for the unit wielding the + weapon. In this case, the battle would've gone like this:

Ward attacks -> If enemy took no damage, enemy counterattacks -> If Ward took no damage and his AS is higher than the enemy's, Ward doubles -> Ward attacks again because of the + effect

This is rather complicated at first, I know, but before long it all clicks, and it's so satisfying. I honestly love how battle flow works in this game, especially when coupled with the lower defenses everyone has in this game. It adds such an emphasis on offense, and makes ranged units all the more useful, since they can escape all of these contrivances.

This is also why Vantage is so good: Adel can end battles before they even start, and essentially become an impervious wall (so long as his AS is higher than the enemy's). Reese's Adept, when it procs, allows him a second chance to avoid all damage if he misses his first swing. Deathmatch is also much more dangerous, because Deathmatch battles work much like FE ones: counters and doubles happen regardless of damage take. Deathmatch consists of five consecutive, "classic FE" battles, so deathmatches usually end with the death of either of the warriors - hence the name. And no, it does not stop if a weapon breaks.

Lastly, this is what makes speed so irrelevant in this game, and another big reason why skill is so important. Aside from increasing avoid, speed allows you to double - but, since you have to miss and avoid taking damage, doubling is actually an undesirable outcome. Meanwhile, higher skill equates to a higher chance of ending the battle before you can take damage.

Berwick Saga: The one game where speed is bad and skill is the best stat.

54tyzbsx o

Notice the subtleties of the map design. Ward is closer to the action, so one'd be naturally inclined to lead the charge with him. If the player didn't know about the way turns work, this would allow them to discover it without risk, as Ward's beard cannot be defeated by the likes of these enemies.

As well, due to the way combat flow works, Ward can't just solo the map. He can't double and destroy enemies. He'll cripple everyone (as in, damage them a lot, not inflict the "crippled" status... man, that's gonna be annoying) and take no damage, but he'll need help to finish everyone off quickly.

It's tough to get your head around it all at first, but personally, I think this game works like clockwork.

Kmps5cuy o

You know what doesn't work like clockwork? My luck, as usual. He had a 42% chance to dodge and a 65% chance to shield, and he did neither. Amazing.

1l91navc o

Sigh... Sherlock, I love you, man. You really showed me your true potential in my last run. But why in the world didn't you bother to get your hands on better equipment?

Mtolzxsb oN9ne4zjt o

This'll be Sherlock for a couple of maps. Oh, well...

Sogryzkb o

Main character time! For reasons beyond my comprehension, his combat sprite in the intro (you know, when he's charging in front of the sunset) fits his portrait, but in the actual game, his colors are reversed. Personally, I think the red cape looks better on him, but what do I know.

By the way, he can't even two-shot that mook. As I said, great unit, bad start.

Nx3lkamc o

Never mind, I stand corrected! Hoho! Excellent, Reese, that's what I like to see!

Vctdlutz oPlecvzgn o

Ergh... why Ward? I guess he couldn't reach the others...

0xrqdusn o

Adel and Leon can't reach anyone, so they'll just move forth. Next turn, next turn. There's no reason to rush things.

Zulkuqhk o

Maybe there was, 'cause it's text time. Noooooo...!

U0ub1lhl o

Look, it's a cleric that totally looks nothing like Enteh. And another eyeless person. But this one is evil, so it's okay for him to have no eyes.

7ajnehbu oWe've been waiting for you. We were told you'd come running if we spread rumors of a disease...

Ddhhu3vu oWhat?! Then the terrible news I heard this morning wasn't true...?

8wkhrd47 oWhen we heard there was a beautiful cleric in the western town, we just had to see for ourselves! And boy, you are a beauty...

Uedfz3v4 o ...I don't think I quite like where this is going...

Ddhhu3vu oEnough! I have no time for this nonsense. I must return to the abbey.

Bj85dcqk o

Lgjkwhcy oShe tries to leave, but of course...

Deywzkqk o

Uedfz3v4 oHoly shit they mean business! You're not supposed to penetrate her with that spear, man!

Tem2wym8 o

9qk5ifz8 o Ah, the hero of the day is here! He looks ordinary enough, but best be wary. For all we know, he might be an edgelord.

B38odxdo oDo5fda1x o

8wkhrd47 oWhat the... Who are you, boy?!

Xmshkuj6 oTruly astonishing... I had no idea this part of the country had talking beasts...

Txzubig9 o Pfft... okay, no edgelord would make a quip like that.

Xmshkuj6 oSister! You wait outside!

Ddhhu3vu oBut...

Xmshkuj6 oDo it! Now!

Ddhhu3vu oA-All right...

Ffjhwiyu o

8wkhrd47 oNow you've gone and ruined all the fun! Hope you're ready for a shallow grave, boy!

Xmshkuj6 oAnd here I've been trying not to kill random strangers, but I guess it just wasn't to be...

Lgjkwhcy o ...okay, he may not be edgy, but I do question his sanity...

Tcu7l0zu o

And down goes the other one.

9m3geg41 o

Dean exits the house, and reunites with Izerna.

Hjmaeutq o

Ddhhu3vu oWhat did you do to that man?

Xmshkuj6 o...Can't you see the blood all over my clothes?

Ddhhu3vu oNo... You mean... You killed him?!

Lgjkwhcy oIzerna, didn't you watch him decapitate the first guy? What, were you expecting him to gently coddle the second one?

Xmshkuj6 oOf course I did. If I hadn't, he would've just gone on causing trouble for everyone.

Yl3myhk4 o

Lgjkwhcy o...well, somebody's thankful.

Xmshkuj6 o......

Xmshkuj6 o...Look, Sister. This place is dangerous. You should get out of here. Cross the river to the north, then go west till you find a road. Follow it to get to a village.

Ddhhu3vu oOkay... Ah... Your shoulder... Are you wounded?

Xmshkuj6 oOh, this? Don't worry. It's not that bad.

Ddhhu3vu oYes, it is! Hold still, I'll heal you!

Ddhhu3vu oO Compassionate Mother, please hear the plea of thy loyal servant... Let thy light bring renewed life to this man...

2lpumdxi oMaurbf7m o

Cool, bright lights!

Xmshkuj6 oThanks, Sister...

Eik9ikgd o
 
0zg98eg7 o46ysj1je o

New units. Let's check out Dean first. Right off the bat, Dean is a step above Reese's army. He has better stats, and he uses axes, which are, as usual, mightier than most weapons, but unreliable. He also has way more weapon skill than anyone in our army not called Ward; he's over halfway through to his promotion threshold (30 axe level, 15 unit level). He possesses the following new skills:

- Vengeful grants him a chance to counter even if he's hit. There is a Counter skill that guarantees counters even if the unit takes damage. Vengeful is less reliable (it depends on the damage Dean takes), but it deals increased damage. You can use this skill to break a few encounters, since the more damage he takes, the more he'll deal in return and the more likely he'll be to proc the skill.

- Desperation is activated on command. It has no cooldown and heavily increases Dean's hitrate, offsetting the lower hit of axes. However, much like Deathmatch, it makes combat work like standard FE combat: Dean will always eat a counter. Not only that, but the enemy's hitrate is set to 100 if Desperation is used, so Dean will always take damage, unless the enemy dies on the first hit. Not only that, but Dean's own defense is reduced to 0. This skill is best suited to finish off weakened enemies more reliably, and to defeat isolated enemies that you just really really need dead.

Mj6rvt6d oBfxetgyh o

Izerna. Izerna, Izerna, Izerna. Izerna's awful. To be honest, I'd argue Wrys is better than her. Because Wrys at least heals more than 8 hitpoints per shot. Izerna can't take a hit, has an armor knight's movement, can't heal worth a damn, and her one skill is irrelevant. It can't even fight off poison well, because poison in this game can deal more than 3 damage. She can promote (30 light level, 10 unit level), but I've never seen any reason to get her there. And as if all of this wasn't bad enough, she's completely outclassed by a Lee-like Bishop that we'll get in a while. I might use her for something, but don't expect me to deploy her very often.

Or, maybe I will. Just to see what the heck one's supposed to do with this girl.

(By the way, notice the icons to the right of Izerna and Dean's names? They're different than the ones Reese's soldiers have. It's not important now, but they'll be next update, so keep 'em in mind)

Bilhe6s0 o

Izerna's situation is immediately dire. Dean can't properly cover her, and she cannot run away from everyone. We had better back the two of them up quickly, but how?

5buhi9tw o

Well, we could cross the bridge, but there's a... slight problem.

9rpkw2bm o

That's right - chapter 1, and we already have a miniboss. Benner is extremely tanky, sporting a fuckton of HP and a medium shield that's as good as the Perseid. He's a pretty tough opponent, and even Ward couldn't defeat him in a hurry.

D5b8oxsu o

So let's begin by having Dean attack this spearman. Awesome! See those trails? Those who are familiar with TRS know what this means!

Z3uzjwrr o

It means he gets to whiff it again.

Fliio2s6 o

For goodness's sake, what is this contest of clowns!?

Uinm96so o

Finally! He blocked, but Dean's too strong for these dudes' flimsy little shields.

I didn't show it, but Dean moved forward and sat on the cliff to make it harder for the enemies to reach Izerna. The problem is that cliff tiles severely impair a unit's avoid. I hope I won't regret this move...

Pl86ft2v oTkorjt6s o

Oh boy, it's a handaxe. Range 1 weapon. That means Dean cannot counterattack in any way.

Uxfkdzgn o

Not that it matters, as he got hit. Damn you, cliff!

Reibnm7p o

Crap, Sherlock!

Ildwchhy o8hzh38nm o

Ah-HAH! Heheheheh... this is exactly what I was talking about. That guy didn't even get to swing. So satisfying.

W3kttw6p o

He dropped his shield, so now Adel can use it. He just has to equip it. Perhaps next map, I'll actually remember to do it. Not even kidding, I completely forgot to have him equip the shield in this map. Urgh...

Another thing. There's a pop-up showing that an item was obtained, but I missed it. My LPing skills are rusty, and with a rewind-less emulator, I'm going to have difficulties taking screenshots of these things. Bear with me.

Wtchmmrm oXhlbdkcn o

Dean is hurt, so while Izerna flees, she'll heal him. The "perks" of having no movement, I suppose. Man, wouldn't this be so much easier to visualize if I'd actually remembered to screencap the overworld?

Kd6ugojl o

Awful, Izerna. Awful.

Xxhmnjkc o

Gah! Reese! Why is nobody using their shields?

Epgvwidv o

It can't be helped. I want this guy dead, so it's time for a Deathmatch.

Mwyeotl3 o

Those are some pretty good odds, I'd say.

Jwsu5cmk oTpupypmi o

Good show!

Ruugynqt o00jxvpxm o

Gooder show! That was a crit, if you couldn't tell. Astounding!

Kiy9moud o

I keep neglecting to talk about experience, so let's do it. Experience is quite scarce in this game. Chip damage, getting hurt... none of that gives any. There are only two ways to get experience: healing others with magic, and killing. Leveling up is, as a result, more difficult than in mainline FEs - which, in turn, is another part of what makes levels not that relevant.

Iwpaktcu o

C'mon, miss or Vengeful, miss or Vengeful...

Dtjlzsty o

Neither. Of course.

1fvew17y o

Well, I guess it's as good a time as any. Reese will be heading north, but he might as well smack Benner while he's at it.

Unless he gets hit, of course. Then he won't be able to go north. But I've faith in our blonde boy.

By the way, here's the theme for most of the bosses in main missions. It's... unique. I don't think I've heard anything quite like it. I enjoy it!

Hgorjk8b o1stllhqb o

Here you can clearly see what I meant when I explained the whole range 0 thing. Reese is standing on a plain tile, whereas Benner is on a bridge. In order to attack him, Reese moves to the bridge.

Also, not sure who Benner thinks he's facing. Reese's color-shifting cape alone is probably worth more than everything he has! What do you mean, "backwater hicks"?

9hyoix8o o

Wa-- Holy hell, Reese! That's the third crit you've gotten today! Calm down, man!

...on second thought, don't. This is great.

Bbod845n o

He even injured the bastard! That's what the green damage message means. Benner has had his weapons unequipped, and a good blow should cripple him. Let's see...

Pc1jmcl6 o

I had to move with the sword equipped. Charging with the spear gave Ward just enough attack to kill him.

2czvowtb o

D'oh! What!?

Edvi0xd4 o

Fine, so be it... huh!? Where's this guy going?

Kgxipz3l o

...oh.

Well, I don't think we'll be getting that. I was careless... ah, what can you do. It's not important. The gold coin only amounts to 1000 denarii (the game's currency), anyway.

Dq87bdmq o

Back to the western front. Adel wounds a guy.

Yg43zyx9 o

Oh, please... Sherlock!

(By the way, see that green cross above Benner? That's how you know he's injured. It'd be red if he was crippled)

Sulb8dfj o

At least he got 'em. That's something.

G4bo0mvq o

The bowman behind Benner runs up to fruitlessly attack Ward, and the turn ends.

Vkhwhgoq o

Aaaand text time! This game is a lot less verbose than TRS, but it still does enjoy the sound of its own voice.

3dxqhwvz oQ5plsjj5 o

Qw7oq4ks oI beg of you, please! You've already taken so much, we won't be able to feed ourselves!

Oi8hiy9n oShut your yap! If you don't want to die, you'll do as you're told!

Qw7oq4ks o......

Pgegvelc o

9qk5ifz8 o Wow, a name? And she's not the only one, her father's named Laszlo. No, they aren't recurring characters. This is actually the first example of one neat little habit of Berwick Saga: it loves to name its one-off NPCs. No generic "villager"s here. Most NPCs get their own names. I like it, helps make them seem more like people and less like walking quest givers.

7ajnehbu oI see, the rest is scattered all around the house, eh? Fine, I'm feeling generous.

A7ryhrli o

7ajnehbu o...you all right there, buddy?

Oi8hiy9n oWhaddaya mean?

7ajnehbu oYou had a nasty cough there... Sounded somethin' like "COUGHCOUGHTURNFIFTEENCOUGHCOUGH".

Oi8hiy9n oYou're losing your mind. That's not at all what it sounded like!

Gttcvgrx o

A question mark has appeared over Laszlo and Katya's house. I imagine you can guess what that means.

Gxe9saqu o8bkgartn o

It means we've got ourselves a cripple! Dropping an injured enemy to 1 HP is pretty much guaranteed to cripple them.

7u0lzhgr o

...blistering barnacles, not again... why must good fortune elude me so!?

Smrsgxdo o8qwvtufm oI80zg5vt o

We're attacked. Our army remains intact, but Dean's not doing so good...

Odub6fnu o

Izerna moves as far away as she can. I think only the spearman can reach her now.

L1ocjtpa o

Doggone it...

33oljw3x o5xszanrr o

Dean retreats with Izerna. I'll have to hurry, that vulnerary was the only good heal they had. 20 HP, compared to Izerna's pitiful 8.

Bkqygnfe o

Sigh... there goes the vulnerary. At least that won't be enough to cure his injury. Injuries are cured by healing to full health, or if some time passes. Before that happens, let's try bringing him down again, and perhaps this time...

Efmu8stn o

But first, the world's worst screenshot. He died, I just failed miserably to capture it.

Er85nron oNkugzoh4 o

Another one down. Leon's great.

Rx5owcsu o

And he Canto's up.

Yij61rnk o

This awful screenshot is meant to convey that the guy with the gold coin escaped. A shame, but I'd much rather lose that than Dean or Izerna's life.

5spx9y48 oArlo5sxd o

It looks like he's smacking the archer rather than stabbing him! He follows Leon north after this.

Gjhoe0ok o

Right, back to Benner. Reese, wear him-- No! WHAT?! ANOTHER CRIT!?

P3qvqmjf o

What the hell is happening!? Why is he critting everyone? And just after I was done talking about how he's a bad fighter at the start! Did he hear me and take it personally? I'm sorry, Reese - really, I am!

0dicg72x o

I mean, it's not important. He dropped his shield, and we don't really need his axe. But I still wanted to capture, just for the heck of it, damnit!

Ix1xjldq o

Speaking of the shield, this is my failed attempt at screenshotting the pop-up notifying that Reese got it. Amazing.

Jxlwmpt3 o

Off he goes, with the rest of his army. Ward will be heading through the bridge on his own.

Vosza79t o

...Or not, because we've got reinforcements! These are Elbert, second-in-command to Ward, and Christine.

Zlagxehg oOh, is that a message?

29fttzr9 oYes, it's from General Ward. "We have come across a group of Narvian deserters nearby. Please ride out to aid us in defending the village to the east."

06ri8vqm o

9qk5ifz8 o This image perfectly encapsulates both of their characters. Take a good look.

Zlagxehg oHa ha ha, I'm only teasing. Yes, let's head out. Although, if the General is leading, the battle will probably be over before we even make it there. I can't imagine him leaving behind any stragglers just for us.

29fttzr9 o......

Lgjkwhcy o What do you mean, the General? Reese is the one who's demolishing everybody with crits! Leen meen Reese macheen, they call him! They also call him "capture ruiner"!

Ognww5lo oWsmvfq1i o

Elbert is pretty cool. He's a step above Adel and Leon, with better stats and the ability to use swords. He's also way tankier than either of them. His promotion is 10 unit level, 20 sword, 20 spear, 20 shield, which is a lot easier than 30 spear, let me tell you that much.

His skillset is a bit less impressive than the ones we've been seeing so far (not counting Izerna, of course), but it's still good.

- Arrowbane does exactly what it says. If an arrow would hit Elbert, the dice is thrown again, and there's a 67% chance that he'll dodge.

- Provoke can only be used instead of moving. If he uses it on an enemy, that enemy will make a beeline for Elbert and attack him. They can't attack anyone else or do anything else until they've satisfied their fury against Elbert. Useful in a lot of situations.

All in all, strong unit. Better as a fighter than the rest we have so far, but he does have a slightly more limited skillset.

Njocglnl oG0ayewte o

Christine can wield bows, but she only has a crossbow to begin with. Crossbows ignore the user's strength and only have range 1 for the most part, but they tend to have high might and accuracy to compensate. They're very good weapons, despite what it might seem at first glance. She carries four vulneraries in her bag, which is much appreciated.

Anyway, she has shaky strength and poor durability, but crossbows are awesome, so her start isn't quite as awful as Sherlock's. She's very accurate and deadlier than Sherlock, too. Her promotion is 20 bow, 20 crossbow, 15 unit level, which should be painless enough to get. She also has a bunch of new skills:

- Aim can only be used if she hasn't moved yet. I think I've said enough times how important accuracy is in this game.

- Swap Horse does what is written there. Best used in conjuction with...

- Horse-Lover. Christine is the only unit capable of healing horses. Sadly, it says "chapter", but BWS chapters aren't the same as FE chapters. You see, this isn't actually chapter 1; it's the main mission of chapter 1. Most chapters have three maps, one main mission and two side missions. Christine can only heal horses at the end of chapters, not missions. Still, it'll be a good skill to utilize when we have a special horse in need of healing.

By the way, each chapter is supposed to be a month in-universe. Sound familiar?

- Remember how durability works in this game? How it takes a set number of uses for the weapon's durability level to degrade? Well, Armsthrift makes it so that any given use has a 1/3 chance to not count toward that total. A good passive to have.

Really cool unit, overall. Aim is just amazing. A worthy successor to her dad, she is.

Xmyst6xo oLryjgqt7 o

Speaking of Ward, he obliterates a guy and parks his horse in a forest. He'll be waiting for the two slowpokes to catch up.

Mgd7gher oSof4igsw o

He'll also embarrass himself by missing both of his swings. Thanks, knight sword. You were real useful.

R3cybqps o

I want that spearman dead now, so let's give this skill a shot.

Eukn3xkm oOgwrbtlv o

Nicely done. He dropped his weapon, the harpoon - a spear that doesn't have the charge bonus, but has an increased chance to injure. Can be useful. Now let's see if I can get that elusive pop-up...

6sbbty4f oTi1d8syu o

I failed again, but at least this is a good chance to direct your attention toward the upper right corner again. See how the enemy only has two moves for each of ours now? Since their numbers are dwindling, they're losing their edge on us. Nifty. But I won't rest until it's all blue!

Fd9xadrn o

C'mon, we're on a roll. That guy is all alone, and Leon has a 94% chance to hit him. Let's go!

Ggymblhj o

You son of a bitch.

Xgg1voyr o

YOU SON OF A BITCH, DIE!

Fucking hell, Leon almost died. Let this be a lesson to you: Ruben can't learn lessons. Why didn't I stop to think, damnit...! 94% is too low, too low! Gaaaah...!

Xsivmizk o

Well, it was worth it in the end. He got his first skill level. 21 to go!

Xqnr6889 o

I finally caught one of these, too! Just barely. Coins aren't vendor trash, by the way. They're automatically converted to spending cash when they're gotten.

3xhukxnr oUuxfeyvs o

Afterwards, Sherlock and the handaxe guy both fail...

Fy6tuqts oE4vcjolf oK2o1x2uc o

And there's nothing left but to move forward. Or backward, in Izerna's case.

Ruirkqbk o

Ah, here it is. The first mid-map save! Every five turns we get one of these. It's an awesome feature, not quite as gamebreaking as the built-in rewind we get these days in FE, but not quite as frustrating as having to redo an entire map because of a late crit. I must say, though, I think I slightly prefer DSFE's save tiles. You actually had to think before you used those.

V3ny87of o

There we go. Excuse the glitch. Aethin says he couldn't fix it without breaking more important things. Frankly, considering this is one of the biggest issues with the translation, I think we can call it a success.

Osg4rwke o

Since Izerna's safe, Dean gets to fall back.

Qedfwaur o

Why would you do that? Whatever made you think that this was a good idea? His two misses last time?

Orr8d1va o

Well, he didn't miss this time.

Mbys51eq oD9dqmo2w o

Here's the other guy with a gold coin. Hasn't moved yet. Strange.

Cofxcwwj oBtt8a8mf o

The team's made it to the shallow part of the river! While he crosses, Leon gets some much-needed healing from Izerna.

Upmtlex4 o

Sherlock does his thing.

Llh7aseu o

You! He's on the move, at last!

Copnyils o

After him! Don't let him escape as well!

A6zydx4g o

Adel moves forward. With any luck, he'll surprise all those axemen with his vantageous position.

Dnyc4yei o

It's Elbert's first fight!

E2jnhqnl oJ4unrxkm o

It's... very Berwick Saga, I'll give it that.

Thnrbulr o1kri8llk o

Some guy went after Ward. He got hit, but since he's got his sword equipped, he proceeds to his extra round of combat. He also nearly launched himself off his horse and into the enemy.

Allewlpx oZ44scirm o

And now it's time to get that coin!

...I just realized how ridiculous this situation is. I've sent my strongest unit to relentlessly chase some random mook who isn't even hurting anybody, simply because he has a coin in his pocket.

Xxlbybum o

Next turn will be it.

Jdfijjpr o

Wa... why wouldn't you attack Adel? Serious question. I've no idea why this guy did not attack. They would be glad to attack Ward, but little Adel's too frightening. What the heck...

Vj1ystmi oRbzhqnlg o

At any rate, Izerna's finally done healing Leon. About time.

Zt89pray o

Elbert whacks half a guy's health bar in a single blow. Told you he was a step above the rest!

41s2pi3f o

Can I trust you to shoot past his shield, Christine?

Bselfrff oEsilhrne o

We'll see...

Btmmllwu o

Awesome! Great job, girl.

Xj0lbemo o

I think this was yet another failed attempt to capture an item drop. A spear, in this case. Aren't I just a great LPer?

Ar1ccoke o

Anyway, back to the forest with you.

Ynujxvny o

With so few enemies left, we're getting a lot more moves. Leon, begin the assault on those three enemies! Dean may finish that one off.

0k023zcz oB4lra0lc o

On second thought, I think he'll attack this one instead. I'm tired of this pest.

Vnkbbai4 oSojzkqh2 o

All right, Reese, you're up-- oh, for the love of...

Kmisvxss o

Maybe one of these swords?

Sb7pj9sb o

Hah! Good thing he's an expert. Otherwise he'd be stuck with these numbers. He'd be even worse than Roy!

8yagtmlq o

Anyway, he got another crit. ANOTHER one. What in the world is going on? Is it truly going to take a whole update to see Reese's normal animations?

Qglvt2py o

Might as well use this. No point in saving it for later. We wait much longer, and there won't be a "later" to use this on!

9neepqoj oCcp2owvy o
 
1a3gtzdj oJ5e42nfy o

C'mon, you almost had him!

Yxijpnxo oUhet396c o

Look, arrows are actually fired correctly in this game! Sherlock's clearly a better archer than Holmes. That idiot fired his arrows backwards! Disregard the fact that every archer in TRS fired their arrows the same way. It's Holmes's fault. It's always Holmes's fault. Boy I sure am glad that, in the context of Berwick Saga, he's been dead for hundreds of years, as of April, Verian calendar 616.

...and yet I won't let even his decomposed corpse get away without bullying him some more. What a monster I am...

7mdfe0mz o

Bow skill! Great!

Ha0gg8xa o

...not so great. You might not've noticed, but Sherlock's a higher level than his peers. It doesn't show because his starting equipment is horrendous.

Alk3kzhk o

The map's looking a lot cleaner now.

N16wcgkg oAs0vqvjq o

On the other side, Christine's ran up to the axeman to shoot him in the face, and then runs back...

Zde7pq7c o

...just far enough that Elbert's his only target. Tactics!

Zuu6qjla o

My tactics have failed. In every way, because Christine missed. How can this be!?

02niyvyz oZf9njrbq o

Oh my God, what is this!? Sixth crit today?! How can I be so lucky!? This isn't good, the RNGoddess must be setting me up for a fall...

Wgt4rlzq o

Leon's quite close to a level. Perhaps we'll get one today, after all.

Qo6bvmxa o

Let's check out Throw.

Zjmpslbw oPv19gz4e o

Boom!

Rd8nwna4 o

And so, after some chipping, courtesy of Sherlock...

Yyejxbcw o

...unexpected text time!

2ejkbkxe o
 
Poacd0jt oMvgazcsw o
 
Vkvfxkkt o

Ddhhu3vu oYes, I am...

Meoilxpy oThe Father is worried about you. I will have one of my knights escort you back to the abbey.

9qk5ifz8 o C'mon, as if that's ever worked for anyone. Can you recall even a single instance of the lord successfully chasing a potential recruit away? I can't--

Lgjkwhcy o ...Right, Roy chasing Lilina away in chapter 1 so she'd join in chapter 8 and be a bad unit. I'd almost forgotten that...

Ddhhu3vu oThe Father...? Has something happened?

Meoilxpy oI'll let him explain the situation, as I must attend to the battle. Do excuse me, Sister.

Ddhhu3vu oWait, sir! If you're here to help the town, then let me accompany you! I can help heal your soldiers and any wounded villagers.

Meoilxpy oI appreciate the offer, but you really should return to your abbey.

Ddhhu3vu oIf I am to live in accordance with the teachings of Veria, I can't simply run away from this! Or are you telling me to give up my faith?

Meoilxpy oI'm telling you to be reasonable. Is self-protection not also one of your precepts, Sister?

Ddhhu3vu oWe must always be willing to sacrifice ourselves in service of our fellow man. Do you not feel the same, sir, as a knight?

9qk5ifz8 oThis is so melodramatic.

N9eifel0 o

9qk5ifz8 oFinally... for a moment there I was afraid. Reese's more talented with words than most lords I've seen.

Meoilxpy oYou may accompany us, but please stay close to one of my soldiers at all times.

Ddhhu3vu oThank you, good sir. And I'm sorry for speaking so sternly to you... May I have your name?

Meoilxpy oI'm Reese, heir to the March of Sinon.

Ddhhu3vu oSinon... Well met, then, Lord Reese.

9qk5ifz8 oI like Reese. I suppose he suffers from "NoT HAvInG a PeRSNaLiTee LieK dA BeStEst LoRD EVAh, CLauDe vOn REeGAn!!11!"* , but I enjoy how composed and calm he appears. Even among the more serious lords, he feels a notch more mature. Still, we'll get to see him flustered, don't you worry.

* (I did warn you I'd say things like that! It's right there, in the disclaimer section! I will die to protect my freedom to diss everyone's favourite FE if I must!)

Ncunymki o

Oki-dokie, looking good. The handaxe idiot is the only enemy left, and then it's time for the boss fight.

Ojyeqnzg o

There we go. We're clear!

Fsx8bh8o oKzpwmt3m o

...almost.

P7v7g3jv oC8pdzlhu o

Now we're clear.

Xggdupl8 o

Guess what, I missed the pop-up. If Reese hadn't gotten a thousand crits, the title to this update would probably have been "Ruben's grandpa reflexes".

Bhx7x42v o

Since my tactics failed earlier, Elbert begins plan B.

Mgs6xgvg o

Zlagxehg oYou're a poopnose!

7ajnehbu oWHY, YOU SON OF A MOTHERFUCKING-- I'LL TEAR YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF AND FEED IT TO THE FUCKING WOLVES, FUCK FUCKITY FUCK FUUUUUCK!!!

29fttzr9 oElbert, please...

Zlagxehg oWhat?

Vb1cqbig o

7 turns till those two assholes come back for Laszlo and Katya. Plenty of time, I'd say.

Mjk8ohba o

Plenty of time to finally see Reese's normal animation. It only took almost the entire update!

62ypcd2u oJjhgklnk o

These sprites are so awesome, I swear. Without a doubt the prettiest FE-esque game I've seen. GBA, eat your heart out.

G4dbfreg oQ8bbhweg o

We now outnumber the enemy two-to-one, so we get two moves. Of course, there isn't much to do but have the army catch up to their leader.

Ood6unb4 oT36t6qwp o

Goddamnit...

Vq3ikenm o

Nevermindmnit! This is awesome and totally worth getting smacked for.

Jubrbueb oGh8wmc9e o

Getting there.

Qhp6d0g4 oZn9rf1yi o

I cannot stress enough how amazing Aim is. And wait till we get to the next unit that has Aim.

Nmutcjuw oW1wgdwtw o

And with that, Elbert gets his first kill. Hopefully, of many. He was one of my greatest units in my first run.

Uikvyitw o

Back to the forest. Not that there's much reason to go there, I mean, there's a single enemy in sight.

Hvoc6vkd oBirukrvb o

Reese gets shot at, and that's another turn gone by.

Y9py9lcv oHbcft81n o

Time for the final assault to begin. Mop those stragglers up!

Fyeqc7k5 o

See, Reese? This is why you should've calmed down. Now you're all tired and can't dodge worth a shit!

Qad6vjpb o

Why did I ever doubt you?

X600brlo o

That's, uh... an interesting axe you're wielding?

Ipzpp3qo oTceiapbe o

Oh, hey. I didn't know this existed.

6eievbhv o

Ywiezwox o

Very short, but it's fine. Look, an exact kill for Sherlock! I'd do it, but if he misses and then gets hit, he'll be left in Ritchens's range.

Qtzxl8di oAhydf1rw o

I mean, he'd make it. Ritchens isn't exactly the greatest boss ever. In fact, I'd argue he's weaker than Benner. Still, best be safe than sorry. I don't want to lose anyone in the first friggin' map.

Dcgrfg2y oBcsth7lv o

Instead, Adel lunges forward and takes the kill, while Leon destroys a nearby spearman.

Lrkardfy o

Then Sherlock makes a fool of himself, as usual.

Jinsoazl oNnct6n6i o

It's kind of sad how much more useful Christine appears at base. That crossbow makes all the difference.

Zrhmnkpo o

Turn 10 is another save. Another upside of these saves is that I get to experiment without having to use savestates. Since we're already here, let's wait till turn 15 and see what happens if we're the slowest army this side of Lazberia.

28kucnr4 o
 
Bnaurfyn o

7ajnehbu oWe're back to collect! You done yet, whelps?

Qw7oq4ks oI told you before, we don't have any more to give you! You've already taken it all!

7ajnehbu oNo, you've still got something worth a lot of money here...

7ajnehbu oI know some friends who'll pay a pretty penny for this lovely lady!

Tso0ph1t oOt3yaeki o
 
Mhhkl7h8 o0m6g7drf o
 
Dmxhte4k o
 
Rwfaogxj oFmgpo1sc o
 
 
 
 
 
Cbwk73be o

Uedfz3v4 o...they're not messing around, that's for certain...

Ahzkxb7o oJ6n6vloy o

Ihy0cprf o

Jesus that was horrifying. Good thing this is not what will actually happen.

8ki1950r oUc6q20qw o

If you make it in time, the scene plays out the same, up to this point.

L3nyjula o

Only this time, it's not the second generic asshole that enters the house.

Gtiyzqsu o

It's YOUR WORST FUCKING NIGHTMARE, PAL! THAT MAGNIFICENT BEARD WILL BE THE LAST THING YOU EVER SEE!!

Matigyof o11tv8n2k o

Hah, you don't stand a chance!

Abey02vr o

...wha... how!? How do I manage to get these flashbang screenshots in every game I play!? There's a single frame of white! A single frame!

Jc7kv7ev o

Well, at any rate, he's dead. Anyone could've done it, this victory is scripted, but I felt like using Ward for maximum hilarity.

Lowmhsn1 o

Fwxntf2r oThank you so very much for stopping those men.

Qw7oq4ks oThose rotten deserters are all the same... I'm just a poor logger, you see, so I can't offer much as a reward to you kind people...

Kzw1syt3 o

Qw7oq4ks oPlease, take it with my thanks!

3vbz4gds o

How nice of him to put our log in a cute blue bag. This is a material, and we've no use for it right now, but next update we'll see what it is for.

Rv8g0yfs o

For now, it's time to begin working on the boss. Same boss music.

Ojib6sie o
 
Wekejelp oJgitkedc o

Pretty unimpressive damage, I must say.

Figqbhrn o8snv0ykp o

At least we're pretty safe just chipping away at him like this. Bosses got the short end of the stick in this game. Due to the way battle works here, stationary bosses like this can't put up much of a fight unless they're given the right skills. This guy doesn't have them. Luckily, stationary bosses are less common than in FE, and those that do exist tend to have other aces up their sleeves to protect themselves. I suppose they just figured they'd cut the player some slack in the first chapter.

Hsdho7vj o

Since Ritchens already waited (he had no choice, he was the only enemy left), I'll have Christine wait next to him, so she may use Aim next turn.

U3mdfolj o

But before that, Sherlock needs to feel like he's doing something.

T1wlozco oCaviifs5 o

Oh, please... can you stop blocking everything?

Stqxtxuz o

Heh, well we did get something out of it, at least.

Acy0tixp o

...all right, that's it. I'm tired of you already.

Vbj8gpvf oKdzkanzw o

Unleash the Ward!

Anh1ote3 o

And now, crit!

0lh2bpwm o

Of course, now he doesn't feel like getting any.

Ao1ezcn0 oS0t3orne o

While Izerna heals Reese, just in case, Elbert puts another mean dent on Ritchens's flesh.

Qehx280a o

Poor Sherlock, man. The only thing saving him from my bullying is that I used him in my second run and he more than proved his mettle there.

Q6bmbdsh oXvf3nrht o

Turn 12! He'll fall here, without a doubt. Elbert can't kill him, but Ritchens will definitely go after him in his turn, and then he'll die. If he hurts Elbert, well, everybody else is right there.

Sr0k20t9 o

...what...

Excuse me, I think my glasses are dirty. Let me just... clean 'em up a bit... ah, there...

O4agdasd o

WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT!?! What possessed you to believe that this was even remotely close to being a good idea!? Elbert deals less damage, has less HP and defense than Ward, and isn't a prepromote like him! Are you telling me he went after Ward because he has 1% less chance to hit him!? That's ridiculous! Preposterous! Ludicrous! ...dumb!

Kqpcej6w o

My boss kill! Ward, NO!

G6tjb2mq o4zggmnff o

Act like I won? I'm not acting like I won! That wasn't what I intended at all!

Bpigavng o

That is hardly a consolation. Again, he needs nothing more to last the entire game.

Ubdhrmxk o

And of course, no experience. It's not as bad a loss as you might think, bosses in this game don't give increased experience. But still. My boss kill! It wasn't even Ward's fault, he wasn't trying to be an exp thief. Ritchens literally fuckin' suicided his experience on Ward, just so I couldn't have it! He was a bloody genius!

Oaexaaxf o

Sigh... let's get out of here. One more text time, and it's over. Hang in there, all.

T0tcmj9e o

Brilliant. Bloody fantastic. Blistering barnacles, I'm really feeling tempted to go back and change the update title to "Ruben's grandpa reflexes"...! Or "fuck"!

Ok225uu3 o

That's better.

0msattus o

Meoilxpy oThe Father should be able to take care of the rest, then. Come, let's hurry onward.

3cxl4xfi oAs you command, milord.

Meoilxpy oAs for you, Sister Izerna, I am relieved that we were able to reach you safely in time.

Ddhhu3vu oI'm terribly sorry to have inconvenienced you so... You and all the Sinon Knights have done a great deed this day.

Meoilxpy oYou flatter me, Sister. Now then, I trust you'll let us escort you as far as Navaron?

Ddhhu3vu oThat would be very kind of you. I am anxious to rejoin the Father and the rest of my order...

Meoilxpy oI'll see to it that you do. We'll be stationed in Navaron for some time, I imagine, so we may be seeing more of you in the future.

Ddhhu3vu oI see... I pray that is the case.

Wrp6is9r o
 
Zomvzxy1 o

And with that, it's a wrap! Next time, a text update, because I know you've missed those since the last LP ended. Until then, farewell, everyone!

Death count: --

Capture count: 0

Reset count: 0

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wait, you'd take Three Houses over Berwick Saga? Do not speak to me, filthy prebeian!

Sorry for being 6 months behind the curve.

I only started with it in January.

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Beginning to get-- are you kidding me?! Three Houses is the most hideous game on the Switch! The anime cutscenes are... decent... very average animation when compared to actual anime, but decent... but the game itself? Jaggies are everywhere, textures look 10 years older than they are, visual glitches are all over the place, everything clips through everything, the same five animations are shared across the entire cast, conversation backgrounds are stretched out JPEGs, the game fades to black every single time anything remotely interesting is about to happen during dialogue, particles are overused, depending on the screen size the text is so small that it cannot be read, the artstyle is bad and ugly because I said so...

It's without a doubt the ugliest AAA game! Heck, plenty of indies are better-looking! You have to bring up budget shovelware for Three Houses to even stand a chance! And they had to put a 30 FPS cap to handle those crappy graphics - a FPS cap that does not work, because the game still manages to suffer from frequent slowdowns despite the cap!

Leaving aside my own personal dislikes for the game, it's objectively a technical disaster. It's not "beginning to get there" just because it has a few salvageable cutscenes. Three Houses looks 15 years older than it is, and that's just sad.

...aaaaaaaaaaaand there we go, rant nº 1. More to come. It's the price to pay for bringing up Three Houses in my presence. Seriously, I cannot contain myself. Somebody please help me...

I'm not pretending this game isn't rough as fuck. Come on, I was there thinking it'd be a lot worse. It also helps that I only started running into slowdown (outside of the game loading the whole monastery and me wanting to run off, seemingly into everything) with one or two fights in Part 2 of VW. I won't pretend that this doesn't need more work.

It's also not like i'm giving a shit about that considering 1: I'm mostly playing it handheld, so it wouldn't be optimal anyway. 2: The art style's not terrible (except for the S rank pics, what's with the artist's preference for no noses?), though I do miss Hidari and eagerly await an Ippei-led character design 3: I am more than able to get over the sheer number of launch PS3 graphics because it runs better than you give credit for and it doesn't really need to be going over 60 for gameplay reasons so this doesn't matter much. 4: Really? Ugliest? Do we really want to start down that rabbit hole?

I'd also say the cutscenes aren't that great either, I want Studio Anima back.

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Considering they went under after Berwick... probably couldn't have even if they wanted to.

I wonder who has the rights now.

See if they'd be interested in a rerelease. The only things they'd really have to do is make sure it runs consistently.

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm happy for you. Seriously! Half the reason I hate Three Houses as much as I do is that I'd love to love it as much as everyone else, but I can't. If only I could stomach a single run of Three Houses, let alone four! I want to like Hanneman's game, I really do. Hanneman's, like, one of my top "old wizard men" in the series. Somehow.

I mean, I get you. Hanneman's cool, but the game's a bit of a dick and only the students are unable to get 0 stat level ups.

It sucked to see Hanneman get one. He's a magic monster though.

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I wish I got the reference. Another LP, another thread's worth of Ruben not getting any references because he lives under a rock.

Really? Age of Empires?

I've played the original (The priests chanted in AoE2, aka the one I'd have the most experience with) for crying out loud! Anyways, the priests chat at the enemy, the enemy joins them.

11 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

My thread has been hijacked by Lee puns, shitposts and digs at my elitist nature. And it's only the OP.

That's what happens when some Basque lad manages to get dozens of others to follow his every word I suppose.

17 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

9qk5ifz8 oHence the thread name. Four LPs and I still haven't used a single title that doesn't insult me. I must say, I'm not as proud of this rhyme as I was of the previous one.

Hmmmm....

The league shall break from orders I make?

18 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Ylfoy53y o

9qk5ifz8 oAh, yes, Volcens. He's one of my favourite characters from this game. A quite amazing person, all around. Look forward to meeting him. He's just great.

Is this in the Voldemort sense?

19 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Txzubig9 o Yes! Our TearRing Saga Series: Berwick Saga: Lazberia Chronicle: Chapter 174!

I wonder what the other chapters might have been.

It's a shame really this game never got the chance to be noticed. 

21 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Lgjkwhcy o We better hope the Empire doesn't have a strong navy, though... Narvia is a stone throw's distance from Raze itself, with only a stretch of water separating the two.

It really does seem like a terrible idea now that you put it like that.

A few easily sailed assassins and shit goes down.

21 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

9qk5ifz8 oMuch like Eugen in TRS, Ward is a pretty awesome character whose introduction makes him out to be a generic Malledus kind. He does take a little longer than Eugen to get going, though - but trust me, there's a good character behind that beard. In fact, I would argue that he's the game's second protagonist, both as a unit and in the storyline. You'll see.

Now Ward's a real hero.

Eugen was all talk, we'll get to see this man in action. So, so much action.

23 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Ofibfran o

Map theme. This is no "winds across the plains", this is actually pretty badass. And they're only going to get better from here!

It's really not like Winds across the plains is that bad at all. 

Then again, I'm probably the one soul who's not on the whole "BS? More like BS!" train these days.

26 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Reese having 0 range doesn't mean he can't attack: 0 range is melee range in this game. A unit attacking at 0 range needs to initiate the attack from the tile adjacent to their target, but when fighting, they will move to the target's tile. What this means is that, in the fight, both units will be affected by the terrain the target's standing on. Range 1 is classic FE melee: also initiated from the adjacent tile, but the units are affected by the terrain they're each standing on. Ranged throwables like handaxes and pilums, as well as most crossbows and some magic types, use this range. Range 2 and above works the same as in FE. It's most commonly found in magic and bows.

As for counters, range 0 units can only counter range 0 attacks (unless the unit has more than 10 AS. Then they can counter range 1 too. Weird). Range 1 can counter range 1. Range 2 and above can counter ranges 1 and above.

WpSkill isn't FE weapon ranks. It's actually the skill stat; it was split into multiple stats in this game, one for each weapon type. As you can see, Reese is skilled with swords and small shields. Unlike in most FE games, skill is extremely important here, because accuracy is a lot tougher to improve and hitting is much more important (you'll see why when we get into a fight). There's also another reason, but we'll get to that.

I mean, the ranges did slightly confuse but looking at it here it's fine. I still think the 0's not the most amazing thing ever but hey that's a different approach right there.

I'm not gonna lie, weapon skill kind of pisses me off here (Oh hey, Kaga did it again!) not only because for some reason being able to use a weapon isn't tied to it, but because as a result the only reason to have them all be different is for making hit esoteric and tying it to promotion.

27 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Now, his inventory. Reese's got a sword, a shield, and a bag containing two shortswords (why didn't you take a screenshot of that Ruben for fuck's sake...). Bags are like extended inventories. If you're carrying one, you'll get an additional 8 inventory slots. Extremely useful, since this game doesn't have a convoy.

I wish stuff like bags were more common.

Also, no convoy? Really? I didn't think that was the case.

27 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If you guessed that the rapier is Reese's personal weapon, you guessed wrong. The Perseid's his personal shield. That +7 defense? That's the defense he gets from the shield. Shields need to be equipped, and they slow you down, but there's a chance (dependent on your shield skill) that you'll block any oncoming hits with them, gaining increased defense (in this case, 7 more points). There's three types of shields (small, medium, large), the Perseid being a small one (though that +7 defense is really high for a small shield).

Well it near might as well be this early on. 😛

Also, I feel like Kaga not making two handed swords a thing is a missed opportunity thinking on it.

28 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Notice the blank circle next to the weapons' icons? That's the durability. Durability in this game is RNG-based, because Kaga is a very kind soul. It goes like this: weapons have a durability rank assigned to them, from S (unbreakable) to F (extremely brittle). After a set number of uses (determined by the durability rank), the weapon's durability goes down a level. Levels go blank (cannot break), green (1% chance to break on use), yellow (2%), orange (4%) and red (guaranteed to break the next time it's used). It's not as awful as you'd imagine, but let me tell you, having something break on green is the worst feeling ever.

Not everything works like this, though. Magic, most throwable weapons and ammunition (bows and crossbows require arrows in this game) have the standard numbered durability.

I mean, it's interesting, but I'm not going to pretend that this wasn't one of those ideas where it needs to be asked if you've gone too far.

And he didn't have to guts to do it with magic (Hell, some of the tomes are more like 3 Houses magic! (not 1 to 1 obviously, but we'll see it)), so I'm disappointed there too.

29 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

So you may be wondering, if the rapier has such a high rank requirement, how is it that Reese can wield it if he's only level 1?

The fact that that of all things is based off unit level both threw me for a loop and infuriates me because I just think it's a bit ridiculous that weapon useability is tied to unit level. It's like I just don't like the ideas around weapons in this game, despite them being fascinating.

36 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Another thing that makes the other stats less relevant is the bracket system. Every unit (except for one) is subject to it. What it does is ensure that a unit's stats cannot deviate too much from their averages. If a unit is RNG-screwed, the game will force them to gain enough points to catch up. If they're blessed, the game will make them slow down. Weapon skill isn't affected by this, though. The result of this is that you end up hoping for skill over anything else, because not only is skill so important, but you're also guaranteed to get everything else sooner or later.

So more centralised around the curve than SD's dynamic growths.

I kind of feel it and not at the same time. We'll see how screwed we'll get.

37 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

- Throw works with range 1 weapons, like the pilums Adel is carrying. It'll grant him improved accuracy, but most importantly, Adel will automatically equip back the weapon he was previously holding after the attack. This means you can go in, chuck a spear at someone, and then Vantage their ass when they come for revenge. Without Throw, you can throw stuff, but you'll be shackled with it until the next turn (and no, you can't do the trading trick, equipped stuff cannot be traded in this game).

Okay, so still more interesting than it ever was in FFT.

37 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

- Pitchfork allows him to use three weapons that are otherwise enemy-exclusive. I'm unsure as to why he has this skill.

Someone might as well?

39 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

- One-two allows him to use the attack command twice. You can weaken a guy with a strong bow, and then finish him off with an accurate one, for instance - or fire arrows at two guys in the same turn. Really good skill.

- Double-shot is a brave effect with a cooldown. And yes, it stacks with other brave effects. Another strong skill.

By the way, all of these skills, Throw, Deathmatch, One-Two, Double-Shot... they're not RNG-based. They are activated on command, and they have other downsides (for instance, Sherlock's skills have cooldown times to them). Vantage, Robust, Supporter and Commander are pasives. In fact, I think the only RNG-based skill we've seen so far is Adept. As you can see, chance skills exist in Berwick Saga, but they are far rarer than in FE, which is for the best, I believe.

Something I don't disagree with honestly.

The addition of these activatable skills are something I wish FE had gone into more, combat arts are certainly looking to be in the right direction but stuff like this would be nice as well. Hell you could make them more powerful as the game goes on by giving cooldown reductions later on so those skills are more useable later on.

40 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Adeq8zzp oZqrfofoq o

Jeigan. Except, no, he's not a Jeigan. In fact, he makes the likes of Seth look like babies. See that beard? That beard's endgame-ready. Not even joking, Ward is ready for the endgame right off the bat. "But Ruben, I thought you said this was a challenging game!", I hear you say. Why, yes. Due to the way combat works in this game, Ward is far from gamebreaking. He also shares Reese's availability problems. The fact that they managed to design such a juggernaut of a unit and yet keep him from trivializing the campaign is one of the most impressive things about this game, for me. Great game design, right there.

I mean, Seth's not really far off the endgame as is.

Also, I thought Ward was more available?

40 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

So let's have Ward lead the ch-- ah! Hexagons!

Yeah, this is the first of what I'd like to dub "Kaga's Anti-Sue Mechanics". Kaga was determined not to be sued to hell and back again, so he made a lot of changes to the gameplay. The hexagons are pretty interesting: they make it easier to get around, but everyone is open to more attacks at any given time. This means that protecting units is more difficult than in FE, and it's often better to use a skill like Guard, or erase the enemy before they can erase your squishies.

I mean, it's interesting in its own right.

I kind of want to see one of these be gridless. As in, your movement's more free as is combat range. It'd be a mad game that's for sure..

41 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

(Incidentally, here's the standard combat theme. It's pretty awesome, but it lasts the whole game, so it can get old)

Are you kidding?

This is a jam right here.This and the battle themes from SoV make the use of variant themes in the other modern FEs far from the best approach for sure.

42 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

By the way, endgame-ready man did not double. You know why? Because battles in this game also don't work like in FE! This is best explained with an example. So let's say I had attacked with Ward earlier. It would've gone like this:

Ward attacks -> If enemy took no damage, enemy counterattacks -> If Ward took no damage and his AS is higher than the enemy's, Ward doubles

As you can see, standard battles end when either of the combatants takes damage. Of course, there's a plethora of weapons and skills that change how this works. One such example is Ward's Knight Sword. You may've noticed that, when I showed off his statsheet, his attack had a + in front of it. That's because his sword is a + weapon (there's a term for it, but I cannot remember it). It adds one more round of combat to the fight, but only for the unit wielding the + weapon. In this case, the battle would've gone like this:

Ward attacks -> If enemy took no damage, enemy counterattacks -> If Ward took no damage and his AS is higher than the enemy's, Ward doubles -> Ward attacks again because of the + effect

This is rather complicated at first, I know, but before long it all clicks, and it's so satisfying. I honestly love how battle flow works in this game, especially when coupled with the lower defenses everyone has in this game. It adds such an emphasis on offense, and makes ranged units all the more useful, since they can escape all of these contrivances.

This is also why Vantage is so good: Adel can end battles before they even start, and essentially become an impervious wall (so long as his AS is higher than the enemy's). Reese's Adept, when it procs, allows him a second chance to avoid all damage if he misses his first swing. Deathmatch is also much more dangerous, because Deathmatch battles work much like FE ones: counters and doubles happen regardless of damage take. Deathmatch consists of five consecutive, "classic FE" battles, so deathmatches usually end with the death of either of the warriors - hence the name. And no, it does not stop if a weapon breaks.

Lastly, this is what makes speed so irrelevant in this game, and another big reason why skill is so important. Aside from increasing avoid, speed allows you to double - but, since you have to miss and avoid taking damage, doubling is actually an undesirable outcome. Meanwhile, higher skill equates to a higher chance of ending the battle before you can take damage.

Berwick Saga: The one game where speed is bad and skill is the best stat.

.....

I don't know what to think. It's by far the most interesting thing about Berwick in terms of differences, but I also wonder if it really will click for people who play it. It certainly forces different habits that's for sure. I'm not sure sure it makes speed bad though or even makes skill itself the best because hit's still inconsistent because of how things are done in this game. There are ways, but we'll get there in time. Also, as a pedantic thing, why does weapon's hit only get shown in tens on the weapon's information? It's so dumb and unnecessary and ends up being confusing.

Deathmatch is more like Accost for 5 times round.

45 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Xmshkuj6 oAnd here I've been trying not to kill random strangers, but I guess it just wasn't to be...

Lgjkwhcy o ...okay, he may not be edgy, but I do question his sanity...

I mean, he is kind of edgy.

Just a bit more Deadpool than Deathstroke.

46 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

- Desperation is activated on command. It has no cooldown and heavily increases Dean's hitrate, offsetting the lower hit of axes. However, much like Deathmatch, it makes combat work like standard FE combat: Dean will always eat a counter. Not only that, but the enemy's hitrate is set to 100 if Desperation is used, so Dean will always take damage, unless the enemy dies on the first hit. Not only that, but Dean's own defense is reduced to 0. This skill is best suited to finish off weakened enemies more reliably, and to defeat isolated enemies that you just really really need dead.

So different than in FE and I'd love to see this exist as well.

48 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Uxfkdzgn o

Not that it matters, as he got hit. Damn you, cliff!

Kliff isn't the reason he couldn't dodge, you know that.

49 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Kiy9moud o

I keep neglecting to talk about experience, so let's do it. Experience is quite scarce in this game. Chip damage, getting hurt... none of that gives any. There are only two ways to get experience: healing others with magic, and killing. Leveling up is, as a result, more difficult than in mainline FEs - which, in turn, is another part of what makes levels not that relevant.

.....

I mean it stops grinding in its tracks. Too much, fuck go back,

50 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

By the way, here's the theme for most of the bosses in main missions. It's... unique. I don't think I've heard anything quite like it. I enjoy it!

It's certainly different, but not much so.

Being real the only reason I think it's safe to not rank Berwick as best FE is because it's so not. Also because I still think modern FE has better soundtracks.

52 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Pgegvelc o

9qk5ifz8 o Wow, a name? And she's not the only one, her father's named Laszlo. No, they aren't recurring characters. This is actually the first example of one neat little habit of Berwick Saga: it loves to name its one-off NPCs. No generic "villager"s here. Most NPCs get their own names. I like it, helps make them seem more like people and less like walking quest givers.

I'm trying to think of the times it occurs in FE full stop, they're not coming to mind.

52 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

A7ryhrli o

I have a feeling Aethin did it.

Somehow, that just seems like the truth.

 

56 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

By the way, each chapter is supposed to be a month in-universe. Sound familiar?

Monastery music intensifies

I have no idea what you're talking about.

57 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

- Remember how durability works in this game? How it takes a set number of uses for the weapon's durability level to degrade? Well, Armsthrift makes it so that any given use has a 1/3 chance to not count toward that total. A good passive to have.

I remember how broken it could get in Awakening.

Ah, good times.

59 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ah, here it is. The first mid-map save! Every five turns we get one of these. It's an awesome feature, not quite as gamebreaking as the built-in rewind we get these days in FE, but not quite as frustrating as having to redo an entire map because of a late crit. I must say, though, I think I slightly prefer DSFE's save tiles. You actually had to think before you used those.

I'm debating if the save staff in some form should be added.

Oh and of course Turnwheel/Divine Pulse is too numerous (The turnwheel could have fixed this by keeping the cogs separated by route until endgame, but nooooooo), but I don't think it's as bad in the sense that it won't fix utterly shit strategy like I'd argue RD saves (or to a lesser extent DSFE saves) could.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:
8yagtmlq o

Anyway, he got another crit. ANOTHER one. What in the world is going on? Is it truly going to take a whole update to see Reese's normal animations?

Reese is pretty pissed.

I don't remember seeing that many crits in this game before. Considering your talk of Skill as best stat, that in its own way is strange.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

9qk5ifz8 oI like Reese. I suppose he suffers from "NoT HAvInG a PeRSNaLiTee LieK dA BeStEst LoRD EVAh, CLauDe vOn REeGAn!!11!"* , but I enjoy how composed and calm he appears. Even among the more serious lords, he feels a notch more mature. Still, we'll get to see him flustered, don't you worry.

* (I did warn you I'd say things like that! It's right there, in the disclaimer section! I will die to protect my freedom to diss everyone's favourite FE if I must!)

.......

Okay, we might actually have a problem here. I'm still playing the game, so despite finishing his route my opinion still hasn't finished, but really? Of all the character things to complain about it's the main lords? And the most fun one at that?

Oh come on. Being reserved and polite doesn't make Reese special. 😛

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Mgs6xgvg o

Zlagxehg oYou're a poopnose!

7ajnehbu oWHY, YOU SON OF A MOTHERFUCKING-- I'LL TEAR YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF AND FEED IT TO THE FUCKING WOLVES, FUCK FUCKITY FUCK FUUUUUCK!!!

I wish these skills were used better in FE.

I still remember Heather dying multiple times because Shade didn't work at all.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:
62ypcd2u oJjhgklnk o

These sprites are so awesome, I swear. Without a doubt the prettiest FE-esque game I've seen. GBA, eat your heart out.

Jeez, it's not even a contest in that case.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Uedfz3v4 o...they're not messing around, that's for certain...

I see there'll be some of these edits for sure.

Looking forward to this LP's Smoy.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:
And of course, no experience. It's not as bad a loss as you might think, bosses in this game don't give increased experience. But still. My boss kill! It wasn't even Ward's fault, he wasn't trying to be an exp thief. Ritchens literally fuckin' suicided his experience on Ward, just so I couldn't have it! He was a bloody genius!

Bravo Ritchens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh wow, didn't expect Benner to get roflstomped by Reese. Even Ward usually takes some time to take him down. Same the capture didn't work out. Of course since they are deserters, they wouldn't be useful for prisoner exchanges. But I think each boss has at least a quote if they are caught.

I suppose Deserters are really just Lance Bandits, if you think about it.
Joking aside, it's most certainly an appropriate way to kick of the story given that... serving in Navaron isn't exactly all sunshine, to say the least. Though I don't think they took full advantage of that. I wish they were written to leave a stronger impression. For the most part they really only come across as... well, Lance Bandits.

I don't think Izerna is really bad. Sure, she heals less then healers usually do, but characters also take less damage. It's kinda like the original Gaiden in that regard. Plus, there are stronger healing staffs. I'm not even sure her movement is that big of an issue. Considering the way the movement order works, keeping a squishy units walled off is a lot harder. So chances are, units want to come to her and not the other way around. If it's a mounted spear user, this also gives them a nice opportunity to build up attack power when rushing back into the fray.

Provoke is absolutely fantastic. It even works on enemies who can't immediately attack the user. In those cases it basically forces them to waste their turn entirely.
Man, if only Elbert had an easier time getting his Spear rank to 20. I got to say, I find a lot of those promotion requirements in the game pretty questionable.
But Adel definitely got it the worst. He's got plenty of useful skills for sure. But none of them which are particularly suited for killing things, which is the only way to actually gain experience from combat. Considering he's clearly designed to be a defensive unit, you'd think his promotion requirements would reflect that, but NOPE.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ok225uu3 o

Man, cutscenes are so gorgeous in this game. The spritework of course is beautiful all around. But having actual dedicated backdrops instead of just using the maps itself for that purpose adds so much. Gives them a nice opportunity to portray events in a way that's a lot more grounded in the world itself, if that makes sense. Very different from the abstract depiction of a battlefield which the actual maps are.
The 3DS games had of course designated areas for cutscenes too. But there wasn't much life to them. Quite the opposite, it made the world feel empty, as if the only people occupying it were the Avatar and his best buddies. Very different compared to here were you have dozens of soldiers and several townspeople just to breathe life into the scene.

Edited by BrightBow
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Pengaius said:

Oh boy! This game confuses my tiny brain, break an arm Ruben. 

Me too.

I can see that you're trying to WARD off my Lee puns, so I'll make Ward and Izerna puns. (Although the latter may be tough.)

If you can change Ward's equipment from the bag, does it make it a WARDrobe?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't say it's more complicated then Fire Emblem itself. It's just... well, different from the series were we all played like a dozen games of, which all had only minimal variations to the core rules. It's basically Lyn Mode all over again. So it takes a bit of time for everything to click.

Edited by BrightBow
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obviously a bit late to the party. (Could say I've been busy late-Lee). FortuitsLee, the puns weren't affected by my Leeve. Anyways, this is a quick check in now that I'm aware this exists (thanks to a certain lover of butter telling me this was going). I'll post more when I get a chance to catch up.. but for now I must take my... no I already used that one. Darn. Well be back later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, The Roger The Paladin said:

Obviously a bit late to the party. (Could say I've been busy late-Lee). FortuitsLee, the puns weren't affected by my Leeve. Anyways, this is a quick check in now that I'm aware this exists (thanks to a certain lover of butter telling me this was going). I'll post more when I get a chance to catch up.. but for now I must take my... no I already used that one. Darn. Well be back later.

Leening heavily into your stock of puns already?  Only a great Leeder could be so courageous. I would be leery about running out, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...