screenshot lp The wrath of the gods is not as bad as my tactical flops - Awful strategist plays Sun God's Wrath, Ironman mode!

[Saint Rubenio]

Much like with the past LP, I considered starting in April 1st, so I could troll everyone by starting something in the day you don't start things for real. Maybe pretend I'm going to LP Blazing Sword or something like that.

But then I realized I'm really bored and want to spend the next few months writing shallow essays over way too many screenshots once again. Plus, I've a free week, I need something to do with myself.

So now--

Oi! What is this? Give me more intro bits so I can do my opening shenanigans! I've been doing it since the second LP! What a load of baloney!

...Ah, well. In any case! Hello, everyone! It is I, Saint Rubenio, the person who writes subpar humor to accompany his bad gameplay! I have once again returned to send my units to their deaths, one after the other. This time around, I am leaving behind KagaSaga, returning to its inferior sister franchise... Or am I? "Ruben, I don't remember any FE with a title screen like that!", I hear you say. Or not, because even if you don't know what this is, you can probably guess.

Indeed, for the first time in my LPing career(?), I am going to play an unofficial title! Sun God's Wrath, created by one @Blademaster! - my favorite fanmade FE out there. Without further ado, bring in the questions!

Ruben, why are you playing this and not X?

X is probably not as good as this.

Seriously, I love this game. I wasn't expecting it to be as amazing as it turned out to be. At its core, this is just GBAFE, but with a few minor tweaks and additions here and there, such as:

- Thracia's capture system.

...What, you need more? I mean, I didn't. As soon as I read that this hack had capture, I was sold. But if you want more, there sure is more!

- Thracia-style scrolls that increase your growth rates and negate crits.

- Fatigue, because Blademaster loves Thracia and wants you to know it.

- PCC, for the same reasons as before.

- Movement and constitution growths for everyone.

- Three tiers of promotion, combined with TearRing Saga styled promotions. Sort of.

- The best usage of the skill system I've seen in any hack. Beats a few official FEs, too.

- An overhauled magic system where every type has its place. Mostly.

- A really unique cast where just about every unit feels distinct and memorable. A few examples include: Earlygame archer that's somehow the best unit in the game (that is not a joke), tanky mage built around crits for damage, 15% move growth knight, magic-based archer, a literal witch with a flying broom...

- Rewards and penalties depending on your turn count, to encourage fast'ish play without outright forcing it.

- Bodybuilders.

- And probably something or other that I'm forgetting right now. Seriously, this hack has so many mechanics, it's incredible.

Still unconvinced? I suppose all I can do now is show you. You know, not "now", now is not yet the first proper update, but... well, you know what I mean!

Ruben, what is this game's story? Any good?

The creator himself admits that it's just kinda there. And, honestly, I don't think I would call it "good." However... maybe it's just me having bad taste, but I find it really fun to watch. The first five chapters or so are kinda whatever, but then the story goes completely off the rails. Seriously, this game's story is so insane and has so many twists and turns, it might have you feeling whiplash by the end of it.

Plus, it's really funny at times. It doesn't take itself too seriously. I mean, the game is a direct sequel to the poster boy of what hacks looked like before The Last Promise. It's a game that even Blademaster himself advises against playing. Making a sequel to that is an utterly terrible idea, but somehow, in a really weird way, it works.

I love it. I wouldn't call it a super serious, deep war drama or anything like that, but sometimes you don't really need that.

Ruben, what about the fanfic? That still a thing?

For those of you who are new here, in my past LPs I've been writing a sort of weird sidestory with OCs of mine who travel around and have dumb adventures. Nothing too amazing, just a nod to veteran readers and a little something I do for fun. If you don't like them, feel free to skip all the segments. I'll try not to meddle with the main story in any significant way.

Can I spoil things, Ruben?

No. If you absolutely must, in spoiler tags and with a big warning on top, please. Applies to both gameplay and story spoilers. Let's be mindful.

Ruben, I demand that you use X unit!

Go ahead and ask! I cannot promise to keep them alive, but I'll do my best. Which isn't much, as those who have been around for my past LPs can confirm. Honestly, it might be better to ask me to bench your favorites...

How often can I expect an update?

Same as usual: An update every few days. Schedule might vary as we go, I'm not the most consistent of LPers.

Ruben, before you forget - the rules.

Yes, yes, of course. In my first LP, I broke every single rule. In my second LP, I straight up forgot to set any and had to make them up as I went. In my third LP, I set a few exceptions to cover my back, and I ended up being unable to use them due to circumstances. In my fourth LP... actually? I think everything went smoothly in my fourth LP. Let's keep that up, shall we?

- This is an Ironman run. That means anybody who dies remains dead.

- On the matter of game-overs, this is a soft Ironman. If any of the lords die, I'll just reset. There are other game over units, however. What I shall do if those die is up to you - check the poll above.

- As always, I will not warpskip. I'll probably use warp for other purposes, but warpskipping is boring to both perform and watch, so I'll not do it.

- If the need arises for adjustments or new rules, we'll talk about it when the time comes. I know, awfully vague rule. I probably won't use this, anyway.

 

DISCLAIMERS (Read this or I'll hate you forever)

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. I'll try not to go too far with this, in any case.

- 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 years. See what I meant with "bad humor"?

- I hate all the popular FEs. Try not to hate me too much when I inevitably diss them.

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

 

That's about all I can think to say here! All I can ask now is that you vote on the poll, and stay tuned for the first update, which will, as always, come out in a couple of days. Wish me luck, and may my units be spared from the wrath of the gods! And my bad tactics. Mostly my bad tactics.

[Punished Dayni]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Much like with the past LP, I considered starting in April 1st, so I could troll everyone by starting something in the day you don't start things for real. Maybe pretend I'm going to LP Blazing Sword or something like that.

Not gonna lie, I'd have recommended that too.

So, it's time to see if it's the domain of fanhacks that will see you take everyone past the point of no reesturn, all the way back to their holmes, runan around the world or if things go a-roy and the way forward's marthed with the graves of the fallen.

[Spara]

Oh boy, another LP! Can't wait to see how Ruben in the fanfic section gets brutally murdered.

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Ruben, why are you playing this and not X?

X is probably not as good as this.

Seriously, I love this game. I wasn't expecting it to be as amazing as it turned out to be. At its core, this is just GBAFE, but with a few minor tweaks and additions here and there, such as:

- Thracia's capture system.

...What, you need more? I mean, I didn't. As soon as I read that this hack had capture, I was sold. But if you want more, there sure is more!

- Thracia-style scrolls that increase your growth rates and negate crits.

- Fatigue, because Blademaster loves Thracia and wants you to know it.

- PCC, for the same reasons as before.

- Movement and constitution growths for everyone.

But what if X is Thracia Ruben? Why aren't you playing Thracia with all of its Thracia mechanics Ruben? WHERE IS THE THRACIA LP Ruben?

...sorry just joshing with ya. As a Thracia fan a GBA game hacked into Thracia 2 Electric Boogaloo sounds interesting enough to LP

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

tanky mage built around crits for damage,

Nice to see Odin from Fire Emblem Fates (if you are actually using his cringe powers instead of Nostanking) is making an appearance in this hack

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ruben, I demand that you use X unit!

And may X be the Odin from Fates (AKA Owain from Awakening) character you spoke of...

 

[Pengaius]

Hey. 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

X is probably not as good as this.

How dare you I'll kill you, I'll have you know that X has an IGN rating of 8.6. 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

For those of you who are new here, in my past LPs I've been writing a sort of weird sidestory with OCs of mine who travel around and have dumb adventures. Nothing too amazing, just a nod to veteran readers and a little something I do for fun. If you don't like them, feel free to skip all the segments. I'll try not to meddle with the main story in any significant way.

Yes. YES!

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

No. If you absolutely must, in spoiler tags and with a big warning on top, please. Applies to both gameplay and story spoilers. Let's be mindful.

I wonder who this is for...

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm not the most consistent of LPers.

Well, you're more consistent than I am, seriously I have the next Conquest update just sitting in imgbox, but I've been too lazy to assemble it. 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

- This is an Ironman run. That means anybody who dies remains dead.

Hehehehehehehehe. Made you look Rubie, now you have to give Valery a bigger part again. 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

- Injokes that new readers may not understand.

Heh heh, that's me!

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wish me luck, and may my units be spared from the wrath of the gods! And my bad tactics. Mostly my bad tactics.

I wish you no luck, but Karma. The ups and downs are what make your prancing around onstage truly delectable, my dear Ruben. 

[ranger016]

I played sun god's wrath back when it was in early beta, will be fun to see how much it has changed since then.

[Blademaster!]

Good luck! Try not to end the iron man in the first few chapters.

[The Roger The Paladin]

Don't know how often I'll be around with present offline events.
That said... seeing as I'm in before the first chapter... (for the first time in the history of Saint Rubenio's career)
I present this LP's inaugural song... "Stop this Let's Play, I want to get off"... where the LP itself reveals it can sing a parody of the Troy McClure Planet of the Apes musical from the Simpsons.

Spoiler

Look it's a Saint Rubenio Let's Play
Stop your posting it's not ready today.
It can talk.
It can talk. It can talk. It can talk. It can talk. It can talk.
I can sing.

Help us Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.
Oh Rubenio
Rubenio, Rubenio.

Why do you make LP?
For fun in spare time.
Well why do they read it?
For fun in their time.

Rubenio, Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.
Oh Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.

Can my favourite units survive this war?
Of course they can.
Well they haven't before.

This Let's Play has everything.
Oh, I love self-deprecating humor.

I hate all your strategies,
From your plan A to your plan Z.
You'll never make anyone follow me.
Oh my Gosh I was wrong.
There were readers all along.
I guess you finally made somebody...
Yes I finally made somebody...
You finally made somebody follow me!
I love you Rubenio.
 

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by The Roger The Paladin

[Punished Dayni]

8 minutes ago, The Roger The Paladin said:

Don't know how often I'll be around with present offline events.
That said... seeing as I'm in before the first chapter... (for the first time in the history of Saint Rubenio's career)
I present this LP's inaugural song... "Stop this Let's Play, I want to get off"... where the LP itself reveals it can sing a parody of the Troy McClure Planet of the Apes musical from the Simpsons.

  Reveal hidden contents

Look it's a Saint Rubenio Let's Play
Stop your posting it's not ready today.
It can talk.
It can talk. It can talk. It can talk. It can talk. It can talk.
I can sing.

Help us Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.
Oh Rubenio
Rubenio, Rubenio.

Why do you make LP?
For fun in spare time.
Well why do they read it?
For fun in their time.

Rubenio, Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.
Oh Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.

Can my favourite units survive this war?
Of course they can.
Well they haven't before.

This Let's Play has everything.
Oh, I love self-deprecating humor.

I hate all your strategies,
From your plan A to your plan Z.
You'll never make anyone follow me.
Oh my Gosh I was wrong.
There were readers all along.
I guess you finally made somebody...
Yes I finally made somebody...
You finally made somebody follow me!
I love you Rubenio.
 

 

Who are the colours beside Green and White? I think Purple's the LP, but after that, not sure at all.

[The Roger The Paladin]

1 hour ago, Dayni said:

Who are the colours beside Green and White? I think Purple's the LP, but after that, not sure at all.

Honestly, I didn't put any thought into that. Besides Ruben being Green and the LP being Purple, it didn't seem important. I just felt the red and yellow were needed seeing as those roles related back to Homer and Bart's dialogue in the original... which I felt I couldn't skip. So pick any two readers, and it'll probably still work. Maybe.

[Saint Rubenio]

Part 1 - Proper start.

Replies:

Spoiler

On 3/26/2021 at 10:30 PM, Dayni said:

Not gonna lie, I'd have recommended that too.

Yeah, but unfortunately, half my easter break would've been gone if I waited for April Fools. Oh, well. Too bad.

Plus, let's be honest now - would anyone have been fooled by me starting a Blazing Sword LP in April 1st? C'mon.

So, it's time to see if it's the domain of fanhacks that will see you take everyone past the point of no reesturn, all the way back to their holmes, runan around the world or if things go a-roy and the way forward's marthed with the graves of the fallen.

Perfect. This is exactly what I wanted the first reply to look like.

 

On 3/27/2021 at 12:28 AM, Spara said:

Oh boy, another LP!

Yes!

Can't wait to see how Ruben in the fanfic section gets brutally murdered.

Well, Morgan's still there. I'd say his chances are higher... But what do I know.

 

On 3/27/2021 at 2:08 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

But what if X is Thracia Ruben? Why aren't you playing Thracia with all of its Thracia mechanics Ruben? WHERE IS THE THRACIA LP Ruben?

I like Sun God's Wrath's lategame. I don't like Thracia's lategame. Blasphemy, I know.

Honestly though, Thracia was one of the games I considered. But I figured I'd introduce this more unknown game to people before playing the funny Kaga traps game.

...sorry just joshing with ya. As a Thracia fan a GBA game hacked into Thracia 2 Electric Boogaloo sounds interesting enough to LP

SGW is more than just Thracia 2, actually. It doesn't seem that way because, just as I had expected, I completely forgot a few mechanics at the OP. Because this game has too many mechanics, and that's a wonderful thing. Tag along, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Nice to see Odin from Fire Emblem Fates (if you are actually using his cringe powers instead of Nostanking) is making an appearance in this hack

Uh... No. Odin does not compare to the absolute monster of a man we'll meet today.

And may X be the Odin from Fates (AKA Owain from Awakening) character you spoke of...

Hah! Believe you me, you could all have expressly told me NOT to use him and I still would've used him. The man's my favorite unit in the game!

 

On 3/27/2021 at 2:21 AM, Pengaius said:

Hey. 

Son of a-- How dare you vote for the harshest option in the poll!? Off to a bad start with you, Butterman! When will you learn!?

How dare you I'll kill you, I'll have you know that X has an IGN rating of 8.6. 

Well, X is still not as good as this game. And quit stealing my catchphrases!

Yes. YES!

I wonder who this is for...

Anybody it may concern. Didn't direct it at anyone in particular.

Well, you're more consistent than I am, seriously I have the next Conquest update just sitting in imgbox, but I've been too lazy to assemble it. 

Damn you, Butterman! Get to it!

Fun fact: I hadn't even noticed the blank text until I tried to reply to this line. I was wondering why my text wasn't showing up...

Hehehehehehehehe. Made you look Rubie, now you have to give Valery a bigger part again. 

How dare you try to predict what I'll do with the fanfic, I'll kill you!

Heh heh, that's me!

Yes, you are a joke indeed.

I wish you no luck, but Karma. The ups and downs are what make your prancing around onstage truly delectable, my dear Ruben. 

Grrrr... Just you watch! This'll be the one where nobody will d-- Pffffffhahahaha, okay, no, I can't do it. You'll win sooner or later. I'm not good enough...

 

On 3/27/2021 at 3:28 AM, ranger016 said:

I played sun god's wrath back when it was in early beta, will be fun to see how much it has changed since then.

A metric fuck-ton, in scientific terms. I wasn't around then, but from what I've gathered I'm pretty sure it doesn't even look like the same game anymore.

 

10 hours ago, Blademaster! said:

Oh, it's you! Love your game, man. Hope you don't hate me too much when I start yelling obscenities at it. It is quite likely that it'll be my fault, anyways.

Good luck!

Thanks!

Try not to end the iron man in the first few chapters.

It's a soft Ironman, I intend to show off the entire game. But I'll definitely try not to game over myself too quickly! Resetting chapters is no fun.

 

15 minutes ago, The Roger The Paladin said:

Don't know how often I'll be around with present offline events.

It's all right. I just hope you'll be able to catch the updates and enjoy them. I'd call that a success.

That said... seeing as I'm in before the first chapter... (for the first time in the history of Saint Rubenio's career)
I present this LP's inaugural song... "Stop this Let's Play, I want to get off"... where the LP itself reveals it can sing a parody of the Troy McClure Planet of the Apes musical from the Simpsons.

  Hide contents

Look it's a Saint Rubenio Let's Play
Stop your posting it's not ready today.
It can talk.
It can talk. It can talk. It can talk. It can talk. It can talk.
I can sing.

Help us Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.
Oh Rubenio
Rubenio, Rubenio.

Why do you make LP?
For fun in spare time.
Well why do they read it?
For fun in their time.

Rubenio, Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.
Oh Rubenio.
Rubenio, Rubenio.

Can my favourite units survive this war?
Of course they can.
Well they haven't before.

This Let's Play has everything.
Oh, I love self-deprecating humor.

I hate all your strategies,
From your plan A to your plan Z.
You'll never make anyone follow me.
Oh my Gosh I was wrong.
There were readers all along.
I guess you finally made somebody...
Yes I finally made somebody...
You finally made somebody follow me!
I love you Rubenio.
 

Ahahahahahah... What a kind song you just wrote. Thanks, man. Appreciate it as always.

I... I just hope I don't do so badly that my LP gains conscience and starts dissing me... That's what Butterman is for, after all!

 

Update:

Spoiler

Hello, and welcome to the thing. We could go to extras so I could take soundless screenshots of the sound room, or check the support viewer and spoil the entire playable cast. Predictably enough, I'll be doing neither of those things. Let's start a new game.

I have decided to do normal mode, because this being an Ironman and all, and with my track record, I don't think difficult is the mode I want to--

Pffft. Fuck that. Let this be whatever is has to be, just as always.

This is the reason for the update's name. Get it, Propater, Properstart, Propater, Properstart? Ah, forget it. Propater is the organization that our main character is a part of. We'll meet her soon enough. That's right, her. That's a first in my LPing career, isn't it?

The game starts with a backstory dump. I don't think this name is ever used again. Pretty sure Blademaster just put it there to avoid a Fatesland situation.

Five gods once ruled this land, governing different aspects of existence. But wars between the gods and their followers broke apart the land. The results of these wars are largely lost to history, with the exception of one.

You know what's wonderful about this LP? For the first time, I don't have to transcribe stuff by hand! I can just go into FEBuilder and extract the text from there! I mean, I still have to remove a bunch of code snippets and put the portraits in their place, but still. Way, way more convenient than typing out Kaga's bibles. Honestly, the main reason I didn't LP Vestaria is that I'd have to transcribe the banquet scene. I shudder just thinking about it...

Also, for those of you who are new here, this is how you can tell it's me speaking and not the game: I put a lot of effort into this self-portrait, and I'm gonna use it, goddamnit! Even if it is going to stand out really bad, because it's bigger and in a different style from every other portrait.

The humans of Merv fought against the dragons of Ryu and the humans of Pyronia, home to the people who worshiped the God of Energy, Pyron. Pyron caused this war, but it ended with his sealing in Ryu, resulting in a major shift in the biosphere. Dragons lost the ability to transform, and merely became stronger humans. To survive, some interbred with the humans of Merv and formed a new country, the Elemental Republic. A long period of peace and prosperity followed, but it would not last.

We haven't even gotten into the plot of the first game yet, by the way. This is backstory of the backstory, so to speak.

Centuries later, Pyron's remaining human worshippers in the countries of Cyra and Pyronia, with aid from groups in Merv and the Elemental Republic, sought to unseal him, but were defeated by rebels from each country. After their defeat, some followers of Pyron from Ryu tried as well but ultimately failed, bringing an end to the Corrupt Theocracy of Pyronia. This conflict is now known as the World War. At the war's end, peace returned, or so the world thought...

This is the plot of Corrupt Theocracy. It skips over the fact that Pyronia was called "Holy", Cyra was called "Mage" and Ryu was called "Dragon," because young Blademaster didn't know how to name things. Also, a guy said "monkey sperm" as he died. See what I meant when I spoke about CT in the OP? Don't worry, however. This game is nothing like that. Quite the opposite, in fact.

For some reason, I couldn't find this bit of text in FEBuilder's text editor. Weird. It uses Three Houses music (Fodlan Winds, to be precise), which clearly means this scene is cursed and out to annoy me. Oh, well... I suppose I can type out this one thing.

In the World War's aftermath, the Elemental Republic absorbed the country of Pyronia to become the Republic of Amatera. With a new pope and king... ten years after the previous World War ended, a new world war started. Spreading plague and altering the geography of the land, the mysteriously revived Pyron, new king of Amatera, caused death across the land. The country of Merv is yet again one of the primary theaters in this new battle.

Yes!

Wait, you're not Astrea at all! Who are you!?

At the start of every chapter, there'll be a scene with Anna and Jake. They'll break the 4th wall and just straight up explain things. Sure, I don't mind. I don't think I'll be showing these in their entirety, as they're all things I can explain myself. Such as the fact that this hack is a sequel to another hack.

Yeah, even the game recommends that you just don't play CT and instead read a LP of it. A LP which shits on the hack all the way through. I... wouldn't really recommend it, honestly. Check it out if you want, but if it's solely for the sake of keeping up with this LP, don't bother. I'll explain the connections to CT myself. That LP is old, and you can tell because Moniker was obsessed with using only unpromoted units, promoting at level 20 and having one of every class. Positively infuriating, I tell you. Also CT isn't very good.

Hah! You can say that again.

C A P T U R E

Not capture, but sure, I'll take it too.

In a recent version of the game, a guide was added where you can check the chapter requirements during the chapter without having to reset and watch the Anna and Jake scene again. This will be important when the game introduces one of its mechanics that I pointed out in the OP.

For now, however, it's simple as that. Seize the throne, game over if anyone dies. Right now the middle-ground option is winning at the poll, but I mean, it'd be rather embarrassing if I lost someone in the prologue, wouldn't it?

And with that, we're thrust into action.

These are all generics. I mean, does anyone even remember those two from FE7?

This fort can't stand up to experienced mercenaries like them!

Why did God King Pyron think it was a good idea to send the Red Army here?!

I love how casual everyone is about the fact that a literal god is the leader of Amatera. Shouldn't they be a bit more concerned about this case of simultaneous insubordination and blasphemy?

And General Ronald refuses to accept help from any of our allies here in Merv. I pray Sub-General Nibot's skill is enough to save us today.

The boss of this chapter is one of the two direct subordinates of the leader of the Red Army, one of Amatera's two armies. Indeed, we're killing a major'ish figure of the war in the very first map. Let this set the tone for this entire hack. Seriously, the story's pace is insane.

Well, right now, it isn't up to Sub-General Nibot. Propater approaches.

Yeah, you three are royally screwed. Alongside your fourth partner that hasn't spoken.

And there we have her! Our main character, Astrea. Astrea is pretty cool. She also never has the spotlight stolen away from her by a male protagonist. There are a couple of lords that will join down the line, but Astrea remains firmly as the main character from start to finish. Which... Honestly, is rather embarrassing for our beloved series. Seriously, this gal runs circles around Celica and Micaiah in that regard. Maybe not Edelgard, but Edelgard works better as an antagonist, in my opinion.

From here on out, we'll follow my orders, take out Nibot, and conquer this fort.

This is Relina, Astrea's sister and Obligatory Playable Soldier of the hack. Also, what is wrong with Astrea's eyes?

I'm confident that the strategies you've been studying will lead us to victory!

Ulysses, resident cavalier. He has an... interesting relationship with Astrea's mother.

I'm curious to see her daughter's method of command. Maybe try not to be as harsh?

That's Evan. Apparently, the team's staffbot. That... could not be further from the truth. I can't wait to talk about his performance as a unit...

Although I'm not proud of it, I'm still a mage of Cyra. Let me show those of Amatera what a real magic user is like.

This is Lex. One thing I haven't mentioned is that a lot of the portraits in this game were taken from free-to-use repositories at FEUniverse. Apparently, this was a GBAfication of FE4's Lester. Hence why he's called Lex. That's the joke. Personally, I think he looks nothing like Lester or Lex, so it's not too distracting.

The archer unit is the strongest. Just leave the heavy lifting to me!

This would be a really funny joke in any other game. But if you recall what I said in the OP... heheh. Just you wait and see.

This is Condor. Not to be confused with Derrick. Condor is fancier, but lacks Derrick's demi-god status.

In a way, I'm you but better.

In a way, indeed... Maybe not the one you'd expect, however.

Should we turn this into a competition then, my friend?

That's all the playable characters. We've got one more to introduce, however. Ben here will handle our equipment. In the plot, that is. There isn't a transporter unit, Astrea has the convoy on her at all times.

So feel free to go as wild as you want and capture all the weapons you can!

Thanks, Ben. Just stay close to me so that you don't get hurt.

Yes! It's go time at last!

It's been a while since I last had to make my own maps like this. Unfortunately, this is GBA, so the ingame map is just a bunch of indecipherable squares and dots.

Anyway, pretty simple first map. Bunch of reasonably underwhelming enemies. Mages aren't something you tend to see in first maps, but they're not too bad. The map seems to commit the cardinal sin of making you go all the way around, but it's not too bad, and there's a reason for it. The most interesting thing about the map is the treasure room. No enemies have the means to enter and loot it, and none of our units are thieves. Hmmm...

Time to go through some screens! There's five we'll need to check out for every character. Sounds like a lot, I know. First, the statscreen. Simple enough.

Pressing select conveniently shows us the growths. Notice the move and con growths. Yeah. That's gonna be fun.

Inventory and class description. Instead of a vague bit of text that nobody cares about, Blademaster was kind enough to cut to the chase and just let you know which tier and type the class is. As a lord class, fencer is of the EX tier. Magic indicates that Astrea can use magical swords. They exist in this game, but not every sword user can wield them.

Weapon ranks, character bio, PCC and fatigue. Unlike in Thracia 776, fatigue in this game isn't dependent on the character's HP, but rather a set stat called durability. Your fatigue goes over that, and you have to sit one out. You can see Astrea's durability there. Might as well not even exist for her, she never gets tired, much like Leif.

This is interesting. Some tidbits about the character. The reason SGW is the worst hack in existence is that it uses American measurements. Utterly disgusting! Eugh! Eugh, I say! For those of you who are sensible not from the States, Astrea is 1.67 meters tall. Average female height, I believe. You'll have to do your own conversions if you are that curious. I won't bother.

 

Enough talk of screens. Let's talk about what's in the screens! Astrea is really interesting. She has a humble beginning, being swordlocked with an E rank and middling stats. However, Astrea has the potential to turn into a veritable beast, provided her growths cooperate a bit. Her promotion is really, really good. But even before then, all we really need is to get her some better magical swords than the light brand. With her good magic, she can do a number on many enemies with them.

Emphasizing this magical focus of hers, both of Astrea's starting swords are magical. We'll want to get her an iron sword sooner than later. Hoarding is important!

As for her skillset, Astrea begins with the following skill:

- Acrobat. No movement penalties from terrain. This doesn't mean she's a flier on foot. She cannot cross stuff like peaks or walls. However, anything she can cross, such as forests, rivers and forts will cost only one movement. This is a really good skill, and it'll come in handy more than a couple of times.

She learns the following skills:

- At level 5, Vantage. This isn't Berwick Saga, so Vantage isn't that amazing, but... eh. It's fine.

- At level 10, Nihil. Some enemies will have some nasty skills, so this can come in handy... If I even remember it exists.

These aren't the only skills she'll learn, however. As well as personal skills, each classline has their own skills. They're learned at levels 15 and 20, respectively. If you promote prior to learning them, these levels are increased by 5. This is meant to encourage late promotions, but honestly, it's not worth it most of the time. An exception to this mechanic are the lords, they gain their class skills at levels 15 and 20 no matter what. There's an ingame guide that shows these, but I figure this is enough information for the time being. We'll see those as we go. Next!

Next up is Astrea's sister, Relina. Relina's stats are very average, as expected of a soldier. Her bases are decent, her growths are decent, and that's about it.

For now. See, Relina grows into a kind of unit that you might not expect at first glance. Her starting skill is:

- Adept. If it procs, she attacks twice. Easy.

However, she learns the following skills:

- At level 5, Spur Speed. Any units standing next to her will have their speed increased by 4.

- At level 10, Rally Speed. On command, she will buff the speed of units within 3 tiles of her. Only by 2 in this case, but it stacks with Spur Speed.

This turns Relina from a really mediocre combat unit into a superb support unit. Since this is not Berwick Saga, speed is the best stat. You can imagine how useful Relina can be... after she gains those skills. Combat-wise, she's nothing special.

I should point out that luin is not a personal lance. She's the only one who can use it right now, but there'll be others. It's a magical lance that deals effective damage against muscular enemies (brigands, fighters and the like). Not much use for it here, but we'll find some in the future.

Ulysses is cavalier/10. Honestly, he's the most unremarkable unit currently in the team. He's very slow, but his defense and strength are okay. This does not make him the tank of the team, however. That's someone else.

His skills are as follows:

- Savage Blow: All enemies within 3 tiles will lose 20% of their HP after Ulysses attacks someone. Including the unit he attacks. By far Ulysses's strongest tool.

- Canto: You know what this is. All riders have this, so I won't point it out from here on out. It also makes you immune to being captured. Enemies will never try to capture us, so it doesn't matter for Ulysses, but it does matter for enemy riders.

In the future, he will gain the following skills:

- Reposition: Pulls a unit behind him. Useful.

- Boar Tactics: I cannot remember what this does. Very professional LPer, right here.

He also has a personal axe.

It weighs him down to 0 speed, and even if it didn't he simply can't double with it. However, it has the brave effect and a shitton of hit. This is basically a capturing tool. Pretty good axe. It wasn't there the last time I played this game, it's a relatively recent addition. It'll probably carry him as long as he remains on the team.

So yeah. That's Ulysses. He does cavalier things until I bench him because he's boring and slow. Next.

Condor is our first knight. This does not mean he's our tank. That's someone else. Condor himself does have pretty good knightly stats. Sturdy, strong, rather slow and no resistance. His movement growth is super good, however. 5%? Hah! Sign me the fuck up! You see, most modern hacks just give knights 5 movement and call it a day. SGW goes for a more interesting approach. Whether it's better or worse, I leave up to you, but it is undeniably more interesting than just "yeah they all have infantry movement now". You see, on top of having higher movement growths than everyone else (Condor's 5% being the smallest of all the knights), each of the armors has a movement skill. In Condor's case...

- Indoor March: If unit is indoors (this means indoor terrain, not the map itself. This will be relevant in a few chapters down the line), they gain 2 movement. When indoors, Condor goes from being the sluggiest member of the team to surpassing everyone but Ulysses. Condor is really good indoors, and can sit on the bench for outdoor maps to rest. Pretty nice system. We'll find a knight later on that has the opposite skill. I'll probably try to use him as well. Heck, I'd like to use all the armors! All of them!

As for Condor's future skills:

- At level 5, Rally Skill. Same as Rally Speed, but with skill. Considerably less useful than Rally Speed, but it's got some uses.

- At level 10, Bowfaire. If Condor is using bows, he'll receive +4 might. Post-promotion he'll gain more weapon types, so this'll be relevant then.

On top of all this, Condor has a personal bow.

It's basically just a regular bow, except it's amazing. We'll get some good use out of this beauty.

All in all, tanky archer is pretty nice. But he's not the only one... Bring in the man, the legend, the myth!

You might be tempted to believe that this guy is horrible. I mean, c'mon. Archer with even worse speed than the knight? That's just not right, and bows in this game are only 2 range. Lex only has one skill to start off:

- Counter: If someone attacks him at melee range, he'll return the damage. Good skill on an archer, but you still wouldn't want him frontlining.

Seeing this, surely I must've been joking when I said he's the best unit in the game, right? It's just Ruben being Ruben, right? Well... No.

See those skills?

- At level 5, Galeforce: If Lex kills a unit, he'll get to move and act again. No questions asked. Yeah.

- At level 14, Double Lion: All of Lex's attacks will be brave. All of them. Yeah.

Once he gains Galeforce, Lex goes from slightly-better-than-average earlygame archer to killing two enemies per turn. And once he gains Double Lion, he becomes a destroyer of worlds, two enemies at a time. The archer classline gets Sure Shot, which unlike in base FE8, increases the damage as well as guaranteeing that the blow will land, making Lex even more ridiculous. And his promotions are amazing, too. Upon reaching tier 3, he'll gain a horse!

I cannot overestate how amazing this man is. Even the pros agree that he's the best unit in the game. By far one of the most fun units in SGW, and even though he is good, I'd be doing you all a disservice if I didn't at least attempt to show him off. Let's just hope he lives long enough...

It's almost over. Only one more unit and we can move on to the action.

Ah, Evan. What can I say about Evan? Evan is the team's healer. He is also the team's magical nuke. He is also the team's tank. No, I'm serious. He fills all three of these niches. For you see, it is time to explain the magic overhaul: Almost every mage in the game can use all three magic types, or at least two of them. Each type has been given its own specialty: Anima magic tends to be effective against one class type or another. Light magic is extremely accurate, which is handy, since mages in this game can have legitimate accuracy issues. As for dark, it is the defensive magic type - almost every dark tome increases the wielder's defenses, by a minimum of 2.

Evan starts with a higher anima rank than dark, but you want him to focus on darkness. Not only does the arcanist classline gain a skill that grants them bonuses when using dark tomes, but with a 60% defense growth, this man will quickly surpass Condor and become the tankiest member of the team, and he will stay that way for a long, long time. Plus, with a PCC of 3, an innate 15% crit bonus and great raw might and critrate, you can expect anything he doubles to die a horrible death. His speed isn't stellar, so it can be difficult for him to double going forward, but if you can get him there, hoho boy.

His starting skill just gives him +15 crit (because fuck FE conventions, Evan is a swordmaster now), so let's go over his level skills:

- At level 5, Critical Force. This changes his critical coefficient to skill / 1.5, instead of skill / 2. Even more crit for the critmaster? Sure, why the hell not!

- At level 10, Ready Stance. This will increase Evan's speed when he's under attack. I think by 3? Not entirely sure.

With these skills in mind, Evan becomes the best EP unit in the game. He'll tank everything and murder just as much. Player phase, he can nuke anyone you want him to, or he can heal, because on top of all his other utility, the bastard's also a good staffbot.

Seriously, I love this guy. His only flaws are his subpar durability and his lack of a horse. Beyond that, he's just so versatile. He fills three niches alone without even needing so much as a promotion, and it's great fun to watch him go. Definitely will be using him.

Razor is his personal tome. Its might is shit, but well, 50 crit. Honestly, this tome falls off harder than Evan himself does. I never get much use out of it after the earlygame.

Oh, by the way. You might've noticed that his age is listed as 82. Also, one of his dislikes is a character from FE7. Those are not typos. Keep it in mind, it'll all be explained in a while.

Okay, and we're done! Finally! This is what our foes look like. Very earlygame'ish, but that strength, hoowee.

Let's begin-- Oho! What is this? Mercy? But Evan didn't have Mercy! Quite the opposite!

Well, you see, in this hack, everyone has Mercy. Everyone. This makes both capturing and Jeiganing that much more convenient. I love this, personally. How many times have I found myself praying that someone wouldn't get a 4% crit when softening up an enemy? Not in this game!

This is Evan's sprite. Evan's gone through a few different forms over the history of this hack. At first, he used Owen's old sprite from Staff of Ages, which suited him better, but it was a really bland animation. Then he got a sprite that was a lot more badass in terms of animations, but it looked nothing like Evan. This sprite is kind of in the middle, and personally, I like it best.

He lands a regular hit, and then performs a completely superfluous crit on the double.

Yep, Mercy sure seems to work! I think I'll capture that guy for his sword, so I can hand it to Astrea.

...Nice. Fuckin' A. First gaffe of the LP: The only one who can capture the guy cannot reach him. Urrrrghh...

Fine, then. Let's feed Lex a kill. We want him to level up fast so he can begin to tear everything apart.

Cool sprites. I mean, they're very vanilla, but not exactly. See if you can spot the differences in Lex's sprite from the vanilla archer!

Doggone it, argh! Fuck! I hope he goes after Condor...

In the meantime, Ulysses softens up a dude with his hatchet, and everyone else takes some damage. Nifty.

It's Astrea's first kill. Astrea's unpromoted sprite is Eirika. I can't complain, I like Eirika's animations.

To wrap up the turn, I immediately act like a complete moron and risk Relina's life for no reason. If she'd missed one of these blows and got hit in return, she would've been at risk of dying during enemy phase. Fuck my life, why do I do these things... I know, I know, low chance of that happening, but we know how these things are.

Thankfully, even I am not this unlucky.

Only the nearly dead knight with WTD can reach her. Way to go. Evan will be under attack by a bowman, but I mean, it's a bowman. Since when have bows ever stood any chance against magic?

Nooooooooooooooooooo, not Ulysses! You had one job, knight! You could've survived this whole ordeal, if you'd just attacked the defenseless bow armor...!

Oh, good. Ulysses missed. Excellent. Well done, man.

Okay, and now Evan-- Holy shit!

What the hell!? What is this nonsense!? Why is he so bad against this knight?! I was just done hyping you up, Evan!

Well... If you look closely, you'll notice bows have been added to the weapon triangle. None of Fates's nonsense, either: To compensate for their bowness, bows have a plain advantage against every single magic type. And this advantage is huge, too. Blademaster tampered with the weapon triangle in general (I can post the numbers next update if you ask nicely), but the advantages bows get over magic in particular are pretty hefty. On top of that, generic bow armors focus on resistance instead of defense. A bit deceptive, but the bottom line is, you don't want to face these guys with magic.

Lesson learned. And now, it's time for new allies!

This game's recruitment theme is from Persona 5. Except GBAfied and without lyrics, obviously. I am not a weeb, so I will forever know it as the recruitment theme from SGW.

God, I hate words such as weeb. Let's just get going...

And to think it was our efforts as part of Propater's Spy Division that got us here. Well, while the rest of the First Division handles the battle outside, it's up to us to assist in the battle inside this fort.

You got that right! Katherin, we're both descendants of great warriors.

It is at this point that the "hello, I am character, and as you know, these are my character traits" writing flaw becomes really apparent. It's going to be like this for a few chapters until the story flicks the switch and becomes completely bonkers. Bear with it till then.

Mopping the floor with these fools in the Red Army should be easy. Now, let's go all out! And maybe steal some secret weapons and info on the way.

Heh, I guess since Ben and Ciri are here, you're in a mood to show off?

I could say the same about you and your sister! They may all be with Father now, but they'll show up soon enough.

Promises of new units? Well, that isn't of any relevance right now. A merc and a myrm! Not too bad! Except...

Yeah. Mikey's not here to stay. The game will throw temporary units at us very often in these early chapters. For the most part, they'll act as Jeigans, until the closest thing to a proper Jeigan joins.

You will never recruit a permanent unit at level 20 or 30. When they leave, they leave all their items with you. Use them wisely!

The game is also kind enough to let you know that skills that involve multiple hits won't waste weapon uses. This is pretty nice, I always hate when that happens.

I'll go over those two in a sec. First, however, we've got to give the boss some characterization before he dies.

Even with my position in the army known to them, why would they attack here?! General Ronald and the other forces of Amatera don't fight around here. If Propater captures this fort, what do they hope to gain from...

I like the little bops that his portrait does as he realizes why he's screwed. Neat little detail.

Sub-General? What does Propater know?

This fort is terribly located for the main front here in Merv, but it has one use. It's a perfect supply depot if you were to attack Pope Mandrake's lab near here! Only General Ronald and I know about its location. That's why my forces are out here despite my rank in the army.

Those are some awfully high stakes for the friggin' prologue fight. Isn't this usually when we beat up some random brigands and nothing of consequence happens?

And Ronald's too stupid to figure this out.

Also, Nibot has very little respect for his direct superior. Ronald is the leader of the Red Army, but he's... actually established to be a complete moron. We won't see him for a long time, though.

Albert is the other Sub-General. He's the real brains behind the entire operation. We'll meet him soon enough. Notice how we're not wasting any time, however. It's the prologue and already we're namedropping a bazilion characters. Get used to it. It's part of what makes this game's story utterly insane.

Sub-General, I don't think that will be possible at this time. Propater has us completely surrounded, and we're struggling with the forces inside the fort as well!

...Pyron, help us all.

How tragic. Don't worry, I'll ensure that your death is not in vain. It will contribute to Lex's road to godhood!

Okay, we're back in action. The time has come, folks. It's time for the first capture of the run! The wording there's a bit wonky, but we all know what capturing is.

Wahaha! That iron sword is as good as ours!

Good screenshot. Well, all you need to know is that Condor fares a lot better against this guy than Evan.

How much better? Why, enough to one-shot!

Ka-pow! Feel the wrath of Lex but better! ...For now.

Healing time.

Lex will head through the western corridor and handle this mage on his own. Condor will take on a fellow archer armor while the rest of us stay back.

And with that, the main team's action for the turn is done. Time to check out the B team.

Katherin is... Meh? I've heard that she's really good, but in my experience she's just a really mediocre swordie without all of Astrea's strengths and far worse promotions. Her description does not say she can use magic swords, but she actually can. It was added in a later update, so Blademaster probably just forgot to update that. Still, with a 5% magic growth, she sucks at that. Her PCC is 5, which is great, but if she does no damage it will do her no favors.

Skill-wise, she starts with:

- Astra. You know the drill, if it procs, enemy takes 5 blows. Pretty good, but it's a proc skill that doesn't increase her damage, so, meh.

Later on, she'll learn:

- At level 5, Duelist's blow. +30 avoid when initiating battle. She'll take no hits from anyone, but again, doesn't help her damage output.

- At level 10, Lancecrusher. A whopping +10 attack and +20 hit, crit and avoid against lance users. This does actually help her, but unless she uses a lancereaver the bonuses will be undermined by the weapon triangle. With a lancereaver she'll eat right through lance users, though.

In summary, Katherin is myrmidon/10. She'll have all the speed and all the avoid, but if her 40% strength growth doesn't help her she'll soon be unable to do much damage to anything. Might give her a chance, but she's not my favorite unit in the game.

As for her weapons, neither of them are exclusive to her. The blutgang is the luin equivalent of swords, and the wo dao is the classic crit sword, except instead of just plain myrmidons, only members of Alester's bloodline can use it. This includes Katherin, but we'll get a few more down the line.

As for Mikey... why did I even bother to screenshot his growths? He can't grow! Anyway, Mikey is pretty useful. He's slow, but he'll leave a mean dent on anything he attacks, which means easier experience for the real units. More interestingly, he has a lockpick and the skill required to use it. Even though he's a mercenary. This sets the tone for the rest of the hack - there are no thieves here. Instead, we'll meet a variety of people who will have the skills to rob and plunder, but are otherwise of entirely unrelated classes. Keep an eye out for those. You might find them in some unexpected folks.

By the way, Mikey is apparently a huge meme in the SGW community. He was originally a proper playable, then he took the axe, and then he was added back as a guest for the prologue. I arrived too late to embrace the memes, but I suppose he is rather epic, at that. I mean, look at that haircut!

Let's see what this man is capable of. Very good! If you're wondering about the hitrate, notice that skill with an axe icon? That's Axebreaker. Similar deal as Lancecrusher, only a plain 50% avoid and hit increase when against axes. Yeah, this hack goes all in with the numbers on their skills. This makes them actually matter, unlike other hacks that go "yeah 20 is as far as I'm gonna go, that's too much already" and then you just forget skills exist.

Ahh, I missed you, cursed GBA screenshots. Looking forward to the first flashbang!

And now, I get to feed kills to Katherin.

Aaaaaaaaaand goddamnit, the plan's already screwed.

Never mind. The AI is very stupid. Hah!

This guy dies, as expected...

Ahhh, not so fun when it happens to you, is it!?

Finish him! That wasn't a double, Lex is too slow for that. I had him do it when our turn began.

Ulysses grabs the sword from his captive, then lets him go. He promptly vanishes.

Have some healing as a reward for your efforts.

Mikey does his thing once again, but now that the enemy isn't wielding the weapon type he's good against, he's faring significantly worse.

Actually, he would've died if he had missed... Katherin wouldn't have been nearly powerful enough to save him. Oh, well, let's not dwell on such thoughts. Another kill for her! If you haven't realized yet, her sprite is a remodeled version of unpromoted Lyn.

I forgot to screenshot the state of the map at the end of our turn. Well, no matter. Basically, this generic female soldier was the last enemy left near Katherin.

She could barely hurt her opponent, but then she divided into three and dealt marginally more damage. Neat.

Crap, reinforcements...

Well, no matter. That's a kill for Condor. Not only that...

First level of the LP! These are always the most exciting moments of any LP. So let's have it! Strength, speed, defense, resistance, movement...

...Ergh... C'mon. Really?

Condor, how will you maintain supremacy over Lex with gains like these? I want to keep you on the team, man! You're a bow armor, that's just hilarious!

Anyway, time for some dialogue.

Why does Ben look so tired in all of these shots? Midblink shots are the best thing about LPing GBAFE, I swear.

Wouldn't miss it for the world, Astrea! Glad to see you've kept Ben safe.

Heya, bro! Ready to show these Red Army bastards what we've been training for?

You're not even playable, Ben. The only thing you're going to be showing "these Red Army bastards" is how we pocket their stuff.

You got that right, Ben. The soldiers here are no challenge for me. But you can't fight well just yet and I don't want you getting hurt. Here, take this. Use it if you get hurt this battle!

Thanks, Mikey. Don't go dying out there either!

Free vulnerary. Not for Ben, for Astrea.

Talking is a free action in this game. Therefore, we get to talk again! No, Astrea doesn't have two talks with Mikey. The "hey we can talk!" icon not disappearing is a glitch, it will go away after Astrea waits.

I could say the same to you! Your mother, Yin, and Yang are on their way. We should be able to finish up here before they show up.

Indeed. Hmm? It seems that you may have rushed here, Katherin? You could use a more basic sword than that.

Says the person that only packed magical swords.

I wouldn't want you wasting your family heirloom.

An Iron Sword? Thank you, Astrea, I will use it well.

Now they both have regular swords. May the hoarding begin!

To wrap up the turn, let's allow Ulysses to eat a lancer for breakfast.

Also, Lex advances. With any luck, that mage overthere will make the mistake to contest with him.

Foolish little girl! Learn the error of your ways!

Same to you.

Don't worry, Lex will be safe, those cavaliers all have melee weapons.

It's time. One level down. Three to go for Galeforce.

Hwahahahaha... I must say, really uncharacteristic Lex level. But that's a-okay with me! Keep it up, pal!

Up north, Ulysses scores another capture.

Iron lance isn't that amazing, but I'll take it. If I had any sense I would've captured one of the bow armors to get Condor a more accurate bow that isn't rare, but eh.

Hello, newcomer. Have a heal.

You, have a sword.

Here they come...

More reinforcements. Magical ones, in this case. Lex fodder.

I want these cavaliers out of the way, and seeing as they're incapturable, what say you we check out Evan's personal tome?

70 crit in the prologue. 210 upon doubling. This should be illegal. But I am so glad it is not.

Eh. Res on Evan isn't bad, but can we quit getting 2 stat levels, please? Or if you absolutely must, at least make one of them movement! Heck, you could get a level that is empty save for movement and I'll still call it the best level of the LP!

Condor Jeigans a dude for Astrea, who crits him to extra death.

Then Ulysses does the same for Katherin.

Yep. You are making quite the solid argument for yourself. This is what I want on my team. A myrmidon that cannot hurt anything, cannot grow and is outdone by the force-deployed lord in every aspect. Thanks, Kath.

Get a goddamned grip, or you're out. Clear enough for ya?

Okay.

Condor does his thing for Relina. I would like to get everyone a level before the end of the map, see who shows promise and who doesn't. You know, based on a single level up. Because that is how FE pros work.

Speaking of levels, Ulysses managed to scrape up enough experience from attacking to get there.

Very Ulysses.

Astrea finishes what her fellow blond started.

You will soon cease to exist, but healing experience for Evan is forever, so here you go.

Making progress.

Ah, an enemy Evan!

Bwahahahahah... Show them how the real deal does things!

Boom!

Oh, by the way, I should mention - fire magic is effective against mounted units. Also, the different types of anima magic have a triangle of their own, but I can never remember which way it goes. These mages are bad, so they can't do much to Ulysses, but this is something to look out for in the future.

Ahahah! Yes! Yes! Lambs for the slaughter!

Can we get two levels for Lex in the prologue? I am hoping we can get two levels for Lex in the prologue. Then we only have to give him two more, and then... Ahahah...!

Aw. Just short of a one-shot.

Fine, then. He may take a blow.

Thunder is effective against draconic foes, I believe. That includes wyverns, I'm pretty sure. Lots of uncertainty here, but I know one thing for sure: Why this guy decided to pack such a tome to confront an army that has neither is beyond me.

This is it, Astrea. Prove your worth to the viewers!

Yes! Excellent! A bit disappointed about the lack of magic, but this is still quite good!

Ah! Lex is in range of an archer... If you're wondering, this is another handy QoL feature that modern hacks have. If you press select, you'll see the entire enemy range. No way to mark tiles or highlight one enemy's range, unfortunately, but still.

She made a grave mistake.

It sent her to her grave!

By the way, can I just say I like how there's female generics all over the place? Nothing too important, but it's a neat detail. Spices things up and stuff. This isn't the only hack to do that, but more should.

More healing.

I think this is as good a time as any to point out two facts: Our fatigue isn't increasing, and neither is Evan's staff rank. Much like in Thracia, our units won't start to get tired for a few chapters, until we gain enough units to replace the ones resting. As for the staff rank... This is another mechanic that I've neglected to explain until now: In SGW, staff rank is static. It only increases by promoting. Evan will be stuck at E rank until we feed him a master crest. Personally, I like this system. Certainly better than FE7 and 8's "uh oh, better not heal with this bishop until I can grind him all the way to S light from D!" I still cannot believe they somehow regressed from FE6, in that regard...

Anyway, I could do this, but I won't. That man is packing an elfire. Elfire is one of the better regular anima tomes. I want it.

She has turned into the scythe of death! I'll have to dust off the old spoopy meme... But not yet. It is far too early.

What kind of a name is Mahtipati, anyway...?

We're getting there. Only Nibot and an archer are left. Ulysses is 100% gonna get doubled here, but it's all right, he can take it.

Oho, wind bow? That's interesting. I want it. Give it to me.

Relina is buff enough to capture a tiny archer boy, so I get to level her up while we're at it. She comes last, but I hope not least...!

Oh wait. She's at 97 EXP. Fine, then. She can take on Nibot. Whatever the case - Do your thing, Mikey! This is the reason you exist!

Thank you kindly. You may go, question mark person.

We're almost to the boss. Let's check out what he's packing.

He's an earlygame boss, all right. He has Insight, which grants him 20 hit, Renewal, which grants him increased passive healing, and Axefaire, which grants him +4 might with axes (in other words, just plain +4 might). A decently challenging boss, compared to other prologue mooks I've seen in my time, but he's still a pushover.

Take a look at the fourth skill, however. The one that's like, dark gray, a bit of bright gray in the center and a red X? That's Watchful. It means you cannot be captured. Most bosses in the game have it. Unfortunately, we cannot spare this beautiful, beautiful man.

Notice that he's not a base armor. Armor knights promote into colonels, which then promote to generals. Colonels use the fancy knight animations that you see in every modern hack, whereas knights maintain their vanilla sprite. Neat.

While we prepare to take on the Nibot, let's do some plundering. Fiendcleaver? Not too bad! This is a magical axe that is effective against monsters. Not useful now, but it will surely be in time.

Oh yeah, there are monsters in this game. And they aren't the complete joke that they're in vanilla FE8. You'll see.

Evan's been healing so much that he's managed to get a second level! C'mon...

Hahahahah! Ahahahahah! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! UNLIMITED POWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I mean, the strength is useless, but still. Look at that shit!

Now that she can move again, Relina takes the bow off of this man's hands and lets him be on his way.

As for chest nº 2... Ah, there we go! First scroll!

It's nothing special, being the first, but still. I'll never say no to nullifying crits!

Okay, the time has come. Nibot, your end is at hand!

Much like in Fates, this game's boss themes tend to be divided into factions. I don't think I'll link music as consistently as in Berwick (if you're really curious you can download the game, the sound room is fully unlocked from the start), but hey, while we're here, this is the theme that tends to be used by the Red Army bossmen. Only slightly crustier, of course, because GBA.

Come! I am one of the two Sub-Generals for a reason!

Relina puts up a decent fight, but she is outmatched. No matter, however - all I wanted her to do was land an attack.

Bleeeeeeeeeeh... So far, Lex, Evan and Astrea are the only ones to have made good use of their levels. Which, honestly? Par for the course, as far as I'm concerned.

Bail her out, Ulysses!

Astrea is up next. The sole reason for that is that I like their battle convo.

You won't escape alive! As commander of this troop, I promise you that!

You aren't one of the upper echelons of Propater!? Are their cannon fodder truly besting me?!

Hwahahahahahah... I like how the guy's not as upset about the fact that he's going to die as the fact that he's dying to rookies.

And hey. How dare you. We have Evan and Lex. The other divisions don't have Evan and Lex.

Condor won't take this kill, but he will contribute.

Wha.. What? Already? Already with this shit!?

Well, as it were. I think we can still do it...

Indeed, we can! Lex, he's all yours.

Lucky 3%? Not quite. This game implements a little cosmetic effect - bosses will always be killed by crits, even if the unit's critrate is 0. Just a nifty little thing.

Watch out for the gore! If you didn't read the disclaimers, it's your own fault!

Nothing much to get us started. I'll probably start splashing more blood as my units die and my anger grows. But for now, I'll let the guy fall with a simple arrow in the gullet.

Not as epic as the first one, but it still means only two more levels for Galeforce. Then the true SGW will begin.

14 turns. Awesome sauce.

Seize! I'll get through the text until the save point, and then we'll call it an update. Deal? Of course, it's a deal. I'm sure if you could reply, you would say as much.

The person speaking is Astrea's mother, Alice. You can tell she's a tough hard-ass from a glance. Behind her is Yin, Mikey's father and veteran from Corrupt Theocracy. You can't see it very well from this angle, but he has a ton of chest hair. That's the most remarkable thing about him, really.

Mother, thank you for your praise! I have played many board games on war with others in Propater before, but the real thing truly is much different.

Indeed, unlike chess, the "real thing" is anime.

Heh, and you didn't do so bad yourself, my son.

Thanks, Dad! It was an honor to join the First Division for this mission.

This is Yang, Yin's brother (get it, Yin and Yang? Corrupt Theocracy names!). He likes to fight, he hates clothing and that's about it.

We managed to rout and capture all the Red Army troops here.

Well, not "all" of them, but a good few.

Doesn't seem like any of them knew the importance of this fort.

Also wrong. At least two of them did.

Launching our future assault on the pope's lab here in Merv will be easier now. In the meantime, Yang, I have your next orders.

Uhhh... They have those in the Red Army?

They typically operate in the area around here. Make them think we captured this fort to house freed slaves. Here are some funds we found inside the fort. Use them well.

Alice leaves, and the ones that remain talk about how Pyron is evil and we must stop him.

We will put a stop to Pyron's invasions and give the world back the peace it won.

To fix this world for the better will be quite the task.

But for now, we must fight to free it from those who would try to correct that.

 Rather wonky wording, but yeah, basically we're just saying "we're gonna save the world!"

 

What's that? You don't think the game has introduced enough characters yet? Well, here's a few more. I hope you're keeping notes of all of them.

Yes, yes, Mikey. It's good to see your charming self as well.

As a squire of Propater, did you really think I wouldn't survive?

With me in charge of the strategies? I would not be surprised if I somehow got the off-screen convoy NPC killed.

I've been training with you and Beige for a reason! One day, your father, uncle, Beige, you and I will be the Merv Five. Just you wait and see!

More! More people! As you can tell by her color scheme, this is Katherin's sister, Nia.

I don't want the fact that I saved both your lives to go to waste.

Ah, Nia, I was wondering where you were.

Can't have too many from the Spy Division in one place, right?

Hehe, don't worry, Nia! I'll never forget what you did for me!

It's thanks to you that I'm able to be a doctor for Propater.

Uhhh, future staffbot? You know, proper staffbot, not Evan, the man who fills half the niches in the army by himself.

I save lives now precisely because you saved my own. It's a debt I will never forget as well!

You have nothing to worry about with these two. So long as I'm alive, the two of them won't see a scratch on them.

Well, the good news is, you cannot die. The game won't let me keep you, so you're safe from my tactics!

Heh, well this is why we fight, right, Sister? ...Or maybe I overstate my own goals.

? What do you mean?

Propater is a big group. Not everyone fights for the same purpose. As much as we'd like to pretend otherwise, it'd be good to keep that in mind.

Ergh... Rather ominous note to end this on, wouldn't you say?

Ah-- No time to dwell on that. We've got a bit of gold! How nice.

And with that, I think we can call this a wrap. We got through a chapter. More to go. Next time, we will go and beat up slavers. Why do we always end up dealing with slavers...? Oh, well, at least we get to kill them here. We will also get a unit in a rather interesting classline, and more temps. Look forward to all of that, farewell, goodbye, and I'll see you next time! Bye~!

 

Death count: --

 

Reset count: 0

 

Current perfect streak: 1 map

Best perfect streak: 1 map

 

 

[Spara]

Spoiler

51 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, but unfortunately, half my easter break would've been gone if I waited for April Fools. Oh, well. Too bad.

Imagine getting an easter break. Haha, haha, haaaaa.......

52 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Honestly, the main reason I didn't LP Vestaria is that I'd have to transcribe the banquet scene. I shudder just thinking about it...

You could use Textractor, and just copy/paste the text, I believe. Though I dunno how well that'd work with Steam, haven't tested it just yet.

Also, Chapter 20 in an ironman setting, even soft, sounds incredibly painful. 

56 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He has an... interesting relationship with Astrea's mother.

I think we all know where this is going. I haven't played SGW, but I have a feeling.

57 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In a way, I'm you but better.

In a way, indeed... Maybe not the one you'd expect, however.

This is the one screenshot I've seen of SGW before this, and, uh...

Oh boy.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Pressing select conveniently shows us the growths. Notice the move and con growths. Yeah. That's gonna be fun.

3% MOVE GROWTH!?

OKAY, SHE'S BEST GIRL.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

His movement growth is super good, however. 5%? Hah! Sign me the fuck up!

Billford 2.0?

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Each type has been given its own specialty: Anima magic tends to be effective against one class type or another. Light magic is extremely accurate, which is handy, since mages in this game can have legitimate accuracy issues. As for dark, it is the defensive magic type - almost every dark tome increases the wielder's defenses, by a minimum of 2.

I always like it when hacks do this. Making Anima feel more distinguished is always a bonus in my eyes. 

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What's that? You don't think the game has introduced enough characters yet? Well, here's a few more. I hope you're keeping notes of all of them.

Kaga: Here's 90 minutes of dialogue. Have fun reading it!

Blademaster: How about like 20 characters in the prologue?

 

[Punished Dayni]

Spoiler

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Plus, let's be honest now - would anyone have been fooled by me starting a Blazing Sword LP in April 1st? C'mon.

 I mean, you could have by pretending you were keeping the lords low level on purpose.

3 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This is the reason for the update's name. Get it, Propater, Properstart, Propater, Properstart? Ah, forget it. Propater is the organization that our main character is a part of. We'll meet her soon enough. That's right, her. That's a first in my LPing career, isn't it?

I think that's actually Latin, for father I'd guess on my shoddy knowledge.

3 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Honestly, the main reason I didn't LP Vestaria is that I'd have to transcribe the banquet scene. I shudder just thinking about it...

Might as well get a job as a scribe then?

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Also, for those of you who are new here, this is how you can tell it's me speaking and not the game: I put a lot of effort into this self-portrait, and I'm gonna use it, goddamnit! Even if it is going to stand out really bad, because it's bigger and in a different style from every other portrait.

Not going back to the GBA portrait?

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In the World War's aftermath, the Elemental Republic absorbed the country of Pyronia to become the Republic of Amatera. With a new pope and king... ten years after the previous World War ended, a new world war started. Spreading plague and altering the geography of the land, the mysteriously revived Pyron, new king of Amatera, caused death across the land. The country of Merv is yet again one of the primary theaters in this new battle.

So Pyron's taken over a nation and is altering the world at his whim.

Really bad at keeping the seal in place, Tellius at least made it over 750 years. And this guy's definitely evil!

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That LP is old, and you can tell because Moniker was obsessed with using only unpromoted units, promoting at level 20 and having one of every class. Positively infuriating, I tell you.

Grumbles in elitism.

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Why did God King Pyron think it was a good idea to send the Red Army here?!

I love how casual everyone is about the fact that a literal god is the leader of Amatera. Shouldn't they be a bit more concerned about this case of simultaneous insubordination and blasphemy?

This read army's loyalty is clearly in question, send to gulag.

Yeah, the god was free in their lifetime, I guess they expected him to return and are returning to their normal?

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And General Ronald refuses to accept help from any of our allies here in Merv. I pray Sub-General Nibot's skill is enough to save us today.

The boss of this chapter is one of the two direct subordinates of the leader of the Red Army, one of Amatera's two armies. Indeed, we're killing a major'ish figure of the war in the very first map. Let this set the tone for this entire hack. Seriously, the story's pace is insane.

Never mind this guy's apparent worship of a mortal!

And yeah, the game certainly doesn't play slowly, slowly on that front.

12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This is Lex. One thing I haven't mentioned is that a lot of the portraits in this game were taken from free-to-use repositories at FEUniverse. Apparently, this was a GBAfication of FE4's Lester. Hence why he's called Lex. That's the joke. Personally, I think he looks nothing like Lester or Lex, so it's not too distracting.

The archer unit is the strongest. Just leave the heavy lifting to me!

I mean, his face in Heroes is longer but otherwise.........

16 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Inventory and class description. Instead of a vague bit of text that nobody cares about, Blademaster was kind enough to cut to the chase and just let you know which tier and type the class is. As a lord class, fencer is of the EX tier. Magic indicates that Astrea can use magical swords. They exist in this game, but not every sword user can wield them.

So she never promotes?

Thanks Astrth.

Also, hmm, magic swords being a specific type wasn't something I'd considered myself. I probably wouldn't go down that route either, but it is a differentiation.

18 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Emphasizing this magical focus of hers, both of Astrea's starting swords are magical. We'll want to get her an iron sword sooner than later. Hoarding is important!

Moneyman looks on proudly I assume.

18 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

- Acrobat. No movement penalties from terrain. This doesn't mean she's a flier on foot. She cannot cross stuff like peaks or walls. However, anything she can cross, such as forests, rivers and forts will cost only one movement. This is a really good skill, and it'll come in handy more than a couple of times.

She learns the following skills:

- At level 5, Vantage. This isn't Berwick Saga, so Vantage isn't that amazing, but... eh. It's fine.

- At level 10, Nihil. Some enemies will have some nasty skills, so this can come in handy... If I even remember it exists.

These aren't the only skills she'll learn, however. As well as personal skills, each classline has their own skills. They're learned at levels 15 and 20, respectively. If you promote prior to learning them, these levels are increased by 5. This is meant to encourage late promotions, but honestly, it's not worth it most of the time. An exception to this mechanic are the lords, they gain their class skills at levels 15 and 20 no matter what.

Pretty alright set, with acrobat at least the convoy won't get too slowed down.

19 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Next up is Astrea's sister, Relina. Relina's stats are very average, as expected of a soldier. Her bases are decent, her growths are decent, and that's about it.

For now. See, Relina grows into a kind of unit that you might not expect at first glance. Her starting skill is:

- Adept. If it procs, she attacks twice. Easy.

However, she learns the following skills:

- At level 5, Spur Speed. Any units standing next to her will have their speed increased by 4.

- At level 10, Rally Speed. On command, she will buff the speed of units within 3 tiles of her. Only by 2 in this case, but it stacks with Spur Speed.

Relina makes allies Lightning McQueen.

20 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ulysses is cavalier/10. Honestly, he's the most unremarkable unit currently in the team. He's very slow, but his defense and strength are okay. This does not make him the tank of the team, however. That's someone else.

His skills are as follows:

- Savage Blow: All enemies within 3 tiles will lose 20% of their HP after Ulysses attacks someone. Including the unit he attacks. By far Ulysses's strongest tool.

- Canto: You know what this is. All riders have this, so I won't point it out from here on out. It also makes you immune to being captured. Enemies will never try to capture us, so it doesn't matter for Ulysses, but it does matter for enemy riders.

In the future, he will gain the following skills:

- Reposition: Pulls a unit behind him. Useful.

- Boar Tactics: I cannot remember what this does. Very professional LPer, right here.

He also has a personal axe.

It weighs him down to 0 speed, and even if it didn't he simply can't double with it. However, it has the brave effect and a shitton of hit. This is basically a capturing tool. Pretty good axe. It wasn't there the last time I played this game, it's a relatively recent addition. It'll probably carry him as long as he remains on the team.

Seems to have alright stats for defence in all fairness.

So he gets to smack all the nearby foes, reposition allies and a personal for capturing. Neat.

And dangit on Boar Tactics. If it doesn't turn him into a boar I'll be disappointed.

21 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Condor is our first knight. This does not mean he's our tank. That's someone else. Condor himself does have pretty good knightly stats. Sturdy, strong, rather slow and no resistance. His movement growth is super good, however. 5%? Hah! Sign me the fuck up! You see, most modern hacks just give knights 5 movement and call it a day. SGW goes for a more interesting approach. Whether it's better or worse, I leave up to you, but it is undeniably more interesting than just "yeah they all have infantry movement now". You see, on top of having higher movement growths than everyone else (Condor's 5% being the smallest of all the knights), each of the armors has a movement skill. In Condor's case...

- Indoor March: If unit is indoors (this means indoor terrain, not the map itself. This will be relevant in a few chapters down the line), they gain 2 movement. When indoors, Condor goes from being the sluggiest member of the team to surpassing everyone but Ulysses. Condor is really good indoors, and can sit on the bench for outdoor maps to rest. Pretty nice system. We'll find a knight later on that has the opposite skill. I'll probably try to use him as well. Heck, I'd like to use all the armors! All of them!

As for Condor's future skills:

- At level 5, Rally Skill. Same as Rally Speed, but with skill. Considerably less useful than Rally Speed, but it's got some uses.

- At level 10, Bowfaire. If Condor is using bows, he'll receive +4 might. Post-promotion he'll gain more weapon types, so this'll be relevant then.

It's basically just a regular bow, except it's amazing. We'll get some good use out of this beauty.

So he can straight up zoom around indoor maps and gets great bow offence. I dont know why you're knocking him so much.

Also, FALCON BOW!

21 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You might be tempted to believe that this guy is horrible. I mean, c'mon. Archer with even worse speed than the knight? That's just not right, and bows in this game are only 2 range. Lex only has one skill to start off:

- Counter: If someone attacks him at melee range, he'll return the damage. Good skill on an archer, but you still wouldn't want him frontlining.

Seeing this, surely I must've been joking when I said he's the best unit in the game, right? It's just Ruben being Ruben, right? Well... No.

See those skills?

- At level 5, Galeforce: If Lex kills a unit, he'll get to move and act again. No questions asked. Yeah.

- At level 14, Double Lion: All of Lex's attacks will be brave. All of them. Yeah.

Once he gains Galeforce, Lex goes from slightly-better-than-average earlygame archer to killing two enemies per turn. And once he gains Double Lion, he becomes a destroyer of worlds, two enemies at a time. The archer classline gets Sure Shot, which unlike in base FE8, increases the damage as well as guaranteeing that the blow will land, making Lex even more ridiculous. And his promotions are amazing, too. Upon reaching tier 3, he'll gain a horse!

I mean, Galeforce/10 and being able to brave with any weapon. Shame his Spd doesn't have much to work with and he takes hits like a chump. Though why give him the same Str growth as Condor with their niches and Condor being faster?

And there's a tier 3? Where they decided he should have a horse (Imagine him with a dancer). Are you sure balance exists?

22 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's almost over. Only one more unit and we can move on to the action.

Ah, Evan. What can I say about Evan? Evan is the team's healer. He is also the team's magical nuke. He is also the team's tank. No, I'm serious. He fills all three of these niches. For you see, it is time to explain the magic overhaul: Almost every mage in the game can use all three magic types, or at least two of them. Each type has been given its own specialty: Anima magic tends to be effective against one class type or another. Light magic is extremely accurate, which is handy, since mages in this game can have legitimate accuracy issues. As for dark, it is the defensive magic type - almost every dark tome increases the wielder's defenses, by a minimum of 2.

Evan starts with a higher anima rank than dark, but you want him to focus on darkness. Not only does the arcanist classline gain a skill that grants them bonuses when using dark tomes, but with a 60% defense growth, this man will quickly surpass Condor and become the tankiest member of the team, and he will stay that way for a long, long time. Plus, with a PCC of 3, an innate 15% crit bonus and great raw might and critrate, you can expect anything he doubles to die a horrible death. His speed isn't stellar, so it can be difficult for him to double going forward, but if you can get him there, hoho boy.

His starting skill just gives him +15 crit (because fuck FE conventions, Evan is a swordmaster now), so let's go over his level skills:

- At level 5, Critical Force. This changes his critical coefficient to skill / 1.5, instead of skill / 2. Even more crit for the critmaster? Sure, why the hell not!

- At level 10, Ready Stance. This will increase Evan's speed when he's under attack. I think by 3? Not entirely sure.

With these skills in mind, Evan becomes the best EP unit in the game. He'll tank everything and murder just as much. Player phase, he can nuke anyone you want him to, or he can heal, because on top of all his other utility, the bastard's also a good staffbot.

Seriously, I love this guy. His only flaws are his subpar durability and his lack of a horse. Beyond that, he's just so versatile. He fills three niches alone without even needing so much as a promotion, and it's great fun to watch him go. Definitely will be using him.

Razor is his personal tome. Its might is shit, but well, 50 crit. Honestly, this tome falls off harder than Evan himself does. I never get much use out of it after the earlygame.

Dark buffs Def. Hmm. Do all mages get all types?

Evan meanwhile wants to be taking enemies on EP due to his crit focused build and of course can heal. Sheesh.

Also he gets a super crit fly wrecking tome? I see your recommendation for Dark has competition.

28 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Let's begin-- Oho! What is this? Mercy? But Evan didn't have Mercy! Quite the opposite!

Well, you see, in this hack, everyone has Mercy. Everyone. This makes both capturing and Jeiganing that much more convenient. I love this, personally. How many times have I found myself praying that someone wouldn't get a 4% crit when softening up an enemy? Not in this game!

Mercy's for the weak.

And for everything else apparently.

32 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What the hell!? What is this nonsense!? Why is he so bad against this knight?! I was just done hyping you up, Evan!

Well... If you look closely, you'll notice bows have been added to the weapon triangle. None of Fates's nonsense, either: To compensate for their bowness, bows have a plain advantage against every single magic type. And this advantage is huge, too. Blademaster tampered with the weapon triangle in general (I can post the numbers next update if you ask nicely), but the advantages bows get over magic in particular are pretty hefty. On top of that, generic bow armors focus on resistance instead of defense. A bit deceptive, but the bottom line is, you don't want to face these guys with magic.

So, bow armours tell Reinhardt to fuck off.

Also that triangle reversal's pretty wild.

33 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The game is also kind enough to let you know that skills that involve multiple hits won't waste weapon uses. This is pretty nice, I always hate when that happens.

I don't, but it's still nice.

35 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I like the little bops that his portrait does as he realizes why he's screwed. Neat little detail.

Sub-General? What does Propater know?

This fort is terribly located for the main front here in Merv, but it has one use. It's a perfect supply depot if you were to attack Pope Mandrake's lab near here! Only General Ronald and I know about its location. That's why my forces are out here despite my rank in the army.

That's some escalation in conflict already.

You're really telling me it'll be non-stop?

37 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wahaha! That iron sword is as good as ours!

Carrying enemies confirmed.

Imagine if they could then be thrown into foes to stagger them.

40 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Katherin is... Meh? I've heard that she's really good, but in my experience she's just a really mediocre swordie without all of Astrea's strengths and far worse promotions. Her description does not say she can use magic swords, but she actually can. It was added in a later update, so Blademaster probably just forgot to update that. Still, with a 5% magic growth, she sucks at that. Her PCC is 5, which is great, but if she does no damage it will do her no favors.

Skill-wise, she starts with:

- Astra. You know the drill, if it procs, enemy takes 5 blows. Pretty good, but it's a proc skill that doesn't increase her damage, so, meh.

Later on, she'll learn:

- At level 5, Duelist's blow. +30 avoid when initiating battle. She'll take no hits from anyone, but again, doesn't help her damage output.

- At level 10, Lancecrusher. A whopping +10 attack and +20 hit, crit and avoid against lance users. This does actually help her, but unless she uses a lancereaver the bonuses will be undermined by the weapon triangle. With a lancereaver she'll eat right through lance users, though.

In summary, Katherin is myrmidon/10. She'll have all the speed and all the avoid, but if her 40% strength growth doesn't help her she'll soon be unable to do much damage to anything. Might give her a chance, but she's not my favorite unit in the game.

As for her weapons, neither of them are exclusive to her. The blutgang is the luin equivalent of swords, and the wo dao is the classic crit sword, except instead of just plain myrmidons, only members of Alester's bloodline can use it. This includes Katherin, but we'll get a few more down the line.

Myrm/10 indeed. Meanwhile Wo Dao is now a bloodline sword, wew.

And to be fair, Lancecrusher means she's about treating them line they're using swords. Still neat.

41 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

As for Mikey... why did I even bother to screenshot his growths? He can't grow! Anyway, Mikey is pretty useful. He's slow, but he'll leave a mean dent on anything he attacks, which means easier experience for the real units. More interestingly, he has a lockpick and the skill required to use it. Even though he's a mercenary. This sets the tone for the rest of the hack - there are no thieves here. Instead, we'll meet a variety of people who will have the skills to rob and plunder, but are otherwise of entirely unrelated classes. Keep an eye out for those. You might find them in some unexpected folks.

By the way, Mikey is apparently a huge meme in the SGW community. He was originally a proper playable, then he took the axe, and then he was added back as a guest for the prologue. I arrived too late to embrace the memes, but I suppose he is rather epic, at that. I mean, look at that haircut!

So theives are just all over the place in this game. Any chance you can get his things before he leaves?

41 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, this hack goes all in with the numbers on their skills. This makes them actually matter, unlike other hacks that go "yeah 20 is as far as I'm gonna go, that's too much already" and then you just forget skills exist.

I mean, it's not like the 20 boost was non-existant, but yeah 50 makes a big impact that's for sure.

44 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

First level of the LP! These are always the most exciting moments of any LP. So let's have it! Strength, speed, defense, resistance, movement...

...Ergh... C'mon. Really?

2/5 is still a passing grade.

45 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I wouldn't want you wasting your family heirloom.

An Iron Sword? Thank you, Astrea, I will use it well.

Now they both have regular swords. May the hoarding begin!

Wait, Astrea could have been using that!

49 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yes! Excellent! A bit disappointed about the lack of magic, but this is still quite good!

No Mag/Spd, but can't complain otherwise.

53 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I think this is as good a time as any to point out two facts: Our fatigue isn't increasing, and neither is Evan's staff rank. Much like in Thracia, our units won't start to get tired for a few chapters, until we gain enough units to replace the ones resting. As for the staff rank... This is another mechanic that I've neglected to explain until now: In SGW, staff rank is static. It only increases by promoting. Evan will be stuck at E rank until we feed him a master crest. Personally, I like this system. Certainly better than FE7 and 8's "uh oh, better not heal with this bishop until I can grind him all the way to S light from D!" I still cannot believe they somehow regressed from FE6, in that regard...

....At least in 8 Latona exists. 7 is just so dumb in that.

The compromise isn't my preference, I suspect he'll not be getting much access himself?

56 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He's an earlygame boss, all right. He has Insight, which grants him 20 hit, Renewal, which grants him increased passive healing, and Axefaire, which grants him +4 might with axes (in other words, just plain +4 might). A decently challenging boss, compared to other prologue mooks I've seen in my time, but he's still a pushover.

Take a look at the fourth skill, however. The one that's like, dark gray, a bit of bright gray in the center and a red X? That's Watchful. It means you cannot be captured. Most bosses in the game have it. Unfortunately, we cannot spare this beautiful, beautiful man.

Imagine capturing this guy.

What would it even be worth?

57 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hahahahah! Ahahahahah! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! UNLIMITED POWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I mean, the strength is useless, but still. Look at that shit!

You're definitely using this guy aren't you?

58 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Bleeeeeeeeeeh... So far, Lex, Evan and Astrea are the only ones to have made good use of their levels. Which, honestly? Par for the course, as far as I'm concerned.

At least it's Str.

59 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You won't escape alive! As commander of this troop, I promise you that!

You aren't one of the upper echelons of Propater!? Are their cannon fodder truly besting me?!

I feel like you're denigrating us when we outplayed you.

Alternatively:

Did I seriously call the people in front of me cannon fodder?

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Nothing much to get us started. I'll probably start splashing more blood as my units die and my anger grows. But for now, I'll let the guy fall with a simple arrow in the gullet.

What a pain in the neck- this guy, probably.

Map one done.

Not much to say really.

[Punished Dayni]

6 hours ago, The Roger The Paladin said:

Honestly, I didn't put any thought into that. Besides Ruben being Green and the LP being Purple, it didn't seem important. I just felt the red and yellow were needed seeing as those roles related back to Homer and Bart's dialogue in the original... which I felt I couldn't skip. So pick any two readers, and it'll probably still work. Maybe.

We are the chorus, mods are Red/Orange?

(Apologies for the double post)

[Eltosian Kadath]

 

Spoiler

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wait, you're not Astrea at all! Who are you!?

At the start of every chapter, there'll be a scene with Anna and Jake. They'll break the 4th wall and just straight up explain things. Sure, I don't mind. I don't think I'll be showing these in their entirety, as they're all things I can explain myself. Such as the fact that this hack is a sequel to another hack.

Its nice to Jake return to Anna's side.

 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

Chapter is failed if any units dies....ugh, I dislike when hacks try to force that style of play onto you. Hopefully it gets more Ironman friendly after the prologue...

 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

These are all generics. I mean, does anyone even remember those two from FE7?

I don't remember the name of the one on the left off the top of my head, but I think he is the Paladin midboss of Dragon's Gate...unless that is Maxime the Paladin midboss of Battle Before Dawn (whom is quite infamous for being bugged into higher stats than he should, which can even break stat caps with the stat variance...). The one on the right is Wire, the very first boss in HHM, and an Armored Knight that pretends to be an assassin.

 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And there we have her! Our main character, Astrea. Astrea is pretty cool. She also never has the spotlight stolen away from her by a male protagonist. There are a couple of lords that will join down the line, but Astrea remains firmly as the main character from start to finish. Which... Honestly, is rather embarrassing for our beloved series. Seriously, this gal runs circles around Celica and Micaiah in that regard. Maybe not Edelgard, but Edelgard works better as an antagonist, in my opinion.

I love how you don't even pretend Eirika is in the running for this female protagonist comparison.

 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

Now that is a very blonde cast (barring young Seteth over there...). It looks like we have a Blonde Inigo, Blonde Serra (ugh... does every hack need a Serra recolor), Lord Nanna, and young Seteth.

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This is Relina, Astrea's sister and Obligatory Playable Soldier of the hack. Also, what is wrong with Astrea's eyes?

She is cringing at the as you know dialogue going on here. Alternatively she is cringing at having a blond Serra sister...

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This is Lex. One thing I haven't mentioned is that a lot of the portraits in this game were taken from free-to-use repositories at FEUniverse. Apparently, this was a GBAfication of FE4's Lester. Hence why he's called Lex. That's the joke. Personally, I think he looks nothing like Lester or Lex, so it's not too distracting.

Yeah both Lex and Lester have way more immaculate hair than this guy. Plus the shoulder-pad armor seems a little out of place (I guess some of his promoted art has something similar, but a majority of his art has him in a coat...)

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

The archer unit is the strongest. Just leave the heavy lifting to me!

This would be a really funny joke in any other game. But if you recall what I said in the OP... heheh. Just you wait and see.

Oh please

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

THIS is the really funny joke.

I guess I should make my reductively silly name for these guys...I think I will go with Playboy Hector on the far left, and Ninja Wannabe on the right...

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's all the playable characters. We've got one more to introduce, however. Ben here will handle our equipment. In the plot, that is. There isn't a transporter unit, Astrea has the convoy on her at all times.

So feel free to go as wild as you want and capture all the weapons you can!

Thanks, Ben. Just stay close to me so that you don't get hurt.

I am kinda disappointed that he isn't a transporter unit...

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The most interesting thing about the map is the treasure room. No enemies have the means to enter and loot it, and none of our units are thieves. Hmmm...

That is some obvious telegraphing of a thief recruit showing up...

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

- At level 5, Vantage. This isn't Berwick Saga, so Vantage isn't that amazing, but... eh. It's fine.

Is it Thracia vantage, or the boringer half health vantage?

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

- Canto: You know what this is. All riders have this, so I won't point it out from here on out. It also makes you immune to being captured. Enemies will never try to capture us, so it doesn't matter for Ulysses, but it does matter for enemy riders.

The better Genealogy/Tellius Canto where you move after attacks, or the boringer GBA canto?

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

- Counter: If someone attacks him at melee range, he'll return the damage. Good skill on an archer, but you still wouldn't want him frontlining.

Seeing this, surely I must've been joking when I said he's the best unit in the game, right? It's just Ruben being Ruben, right? Well... No.

See those skills?

- At level 5, Galeforce: If Lex kills a unit, he'll get to move and act again. No questions asked. Yeah.

- At level 14, Double Lion: All of Lex's attacks will be brave. All of them. Yeah.

Once he gains Galeforce, Lex goes from slightly-better-than-average earlygame archer to killing two enemies per turn. And once he gains Double Lion, he becomes a destroyer of worlds, two enemies at a time. The archer classline gets Sure Shot, which unlike in base FE8, increases the damage as well as guaranteeing that the blow will land, making Lex even more ridiculous. And his promotions are amazing, too. Upon reaching tier 3, he'll gain a horse!

Jeeze those are some overkill skills. No wonder you praised him so...

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Oh, by the way. You might've noticed that his age is listed as 82. Also, one of his dislikes is a character from FE7. Those are not typos. Keep it in mind, it'll all be explained in a while.

Much as I want to joke about this guy being Odin, he is very clearly young Seteth. 82 is young in dragon, and hating one of the Legendary Heroes of FE7 Dragon Genocide makes perfect sense for a Draon boy...

 

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Nooooooooooooooooooo, not Ulysses! You had one job, knight! You could've survived this whole ordeal, if you'd just attacked the defenseless bow armor...!

Oh, good. Ulysses missed. Excellent. Well done, man.

I guess that confirms they go for higher damage, and not safety.

 

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

It is at this point that the "hello, I am character, and as you know, these are my character traits" writing flaw becomes really apparent. It's going to be like this for a few chapters until the story flicks the switch and becomes completely bonkers. Bear with it till then.

You can see it even earlier, but it is a fan made hack game. Probably didn't have a dedicated writer adept at making some naturalistic writing like the official games have.

 

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

So we have an amalgamation of an older Fir and Leila, or Firla as I will call her on the left, and the guy on the right really needs to stop cutting his hair with a lawn mower, as it looks like an immaculately manicured lawn, which is not a good look for hair...

 

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I could say the same to you! Your mother, Yin, and Yang are on their way. We should be able to finish up here before they show up.

Yin and Yang...boy those are some cringe names....

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Eh. Res on Evan isn't bad, but can we quit getting 2 stat levels, please?

Hey that would be a great level...in Berwick Saga...

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This is another mechanic that I've neglected to explain until now: In SGW, staff rank is static. It only increases by promoting. Evan will be stuck at E rank until we feed him a master crest. Personally, I like this system. Certainly better than FE7 and 8's "uh oh, better not heal with this bishop until I can grind him all the way to S light from D!" I still cannot believe they somehow regressed from FE6, in that regard...

Nice to see its taking some mechanics from Genealogy of the Holy War as well.

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Take a look at the fourth skill, however. The one that's like, dark gray, a bit of bright gray in the center and a red X? That's Watchful. It means you cannot be captured. Most bosses in the game have it. Unfortunately, we cannot spare this beautiful, beautiful man.

If this skill comes up on all the named characters, I will be officially Booing and Hissing at it, and adding the official worse than Thracia stamp to the game.

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

 

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What's that? You don't think the game has introduced enough characters yet? Well, here's a few more. I hope you're keeping notes of all of them.

There are just so many... not sure how well I can keep up with my goofy reductive names (and not sure if I will waste much time on the temps, like Lawn Hair over there...)

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

I've been training with you and Beige for a reason! One day, your father, uncle, Beige, you and I will be the Merv Five. Just you wait and see!

Think this is sequal bait, or a hints at a time jump...

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

More! More people! As you can tell by her color scheme, this is Katherin's sister, Nia.

Firla's sister fittingly looks like a younger Fir who styled her hair like FE7 Karel, thus I dub her Firel.

 

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ah-- No time to dwell on that. We've got a bit of gold! How nice.

Bah what a casual game, just giving the player gold😛

 

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

And with that, I think we can call this a wrap. We got through a chapter. More to go. Next time, we will go and beat up slavers. Why do we always end up dealing with slavers...? Oh, well, at least we get to kill them here. We will also get a unit in a rather interesting classline, and more temps. Look forward to all of that, farewell, goodbye, and I'll see you next time! Bye~!

Just remember, when dealing with slavers, just don't drink any of the Milk...

 

 

[ranger016]

Spoiler

  

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

A metric fuck-ton, in scientific terms. I wasn't around then, but from what I've gathered I'm pretty sure it doesn't even look like the same game anymore.

Yeah, after reading through the features, pretty sure most of these were later additions aside from skills. I don't even remember the 1st map being indoors, although that could be just me misremembering things.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

This is the plot of Corrupt Theocracy. It skips over the fact that Pyronia was called "Holy", Cyra was called "Mage" and Ryu was called "Dragon," because young Blademaster didn't know how to name things. Also, a guy said "monkey sperm" as he died. See what I meant when I spoke about CT in the OP? Don't worry, however. This game is nothing like that. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I actually enjoyed CT a lot when I played it, probably because I wasn't as good with english back then so, didn't really realize the story was that bad. And in terms of gameplay alone, it was good enough aside from some lategame units disappearing thanks to the huge cast.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

And there we have her! Our main character, Astrea. Astrea is pretty cool. She also never has the spotlight stolen away from her by a male protagonist. There are a couple of lords that will join down the line, but Astrea remains firmly as the main character from start to finish. Which... Honestly, is rather embarrassing for our beloved series. Seriously, this gal runs circles around Celica and Micaiah in that regard. Maybe not Edelgard, but Edelgard works better as an antagonist, in my opinion.

Always nice to see a competent female lead, she was the only one I could vaguely remember from my run. As an unit, a magic sword specialist sounds pretty cool, will look forward to how good she becomes.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Next up is Astrea's sister, Relina. Relina's stats are very average, as expected of a soldier. Her bases are decent, her growths are decent, and that's about it.

She feels like the most underwhelming among the starting cast. Sure, she still might be useful for the speed skills but seems pretty unnecessary unless everyone turns out speed screwed or the if enemies are really strong in this hack.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Ulysses is cavalier/10. Honestly, he's the most unremarkable unit currently in the team. He's very slow, but his defense and strength are okay. This does not make him the tank of the team, however. That's someone else.

He seems like the regular strength focused cavalier, I have a soft spot for axe cavaliers, so he gets a bit more point for that. From the docs, boar tactics seems to give +15 Hit and +10 Crit in rout, defend and boss kill maps which sounds pretty strong.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Condor is our first knight. This does not mean he's our tank. That's someone else. Condor himself does have pretty good knightly stats. Sturdy, strong, rather slow and no resistance. His movement growth is super good, however. 5%? Hah! Sign me the fuck up! You see, most modern hacks just give knights 5 movement and call it a day. SGW goes for a more interesting approach. Whether it's better or worse, I leave up to you, but it is undeniably more interesting than just "yeah they all have infantry movement now". You see, on top of having higher movement growths than everyone else (Condor's 5% being the smallest of all the knights), each of the armors has a movement skill. In Condor's case...

I think this is the first time I saw a playable bow armor, which sounds a pretty clever way to compensate a bow user's normal weaknesses. Can't say which one I like more between him and Lex so far, I probably would use both when I play it. Indoor march sounds pretty good way to compensate a knight's low move as well without straight up giving them infantry movement.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Once he gains Galeforce, Lex goes from slightly-better-than-average earlygame archer to killing two enemies per turn. And once he gains Double Lion, he becomes a destroyer of worlds, two enemies at a time. The archer classline gets Sure Shot, which unlike in base FE8, increases the damage as well as guaranteeing that the blow will land, making Lex even more ridiculous. And his promotions are amazing, too. Upon reaching tier 3, he'll gain a horse!

That sounds pretty op at a glance, hope you can keep him alive long enough for him to get going. Archers are probably one of my most favorite classes in FE, just behind dark mages so, it is always good to see a strong earlygame archer.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Ah, Evan. What can I say about Evan? Evan is the team's healer. He is also the team's magical nuke. He is also the team's tank. No, I'm serious. He fills all three of these niches. For you see, it is time to explain the magic overhaul: Almost every mage in the game can use all three magic types, or at least two of them. Each type has been given its own specialty: Anima magic tends to be effective against one class type or another. Light magic is extremely accurate, which is handy, since mages in this game can have legitimate accuracy issues. As for dark, it is the defensive magic type - almost every dark tome increases the wielder's defenses, by a minimum of 2.

A dark mage who have access to the whole magic triangle and staves...he is already my favorite unit without even looking up his stats or skillset. Crit focused mage already sounds fun to play with, let alone someone this versatile and he is still only a tier 1 unit.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh, by the way. You might've noticed that his age is listed as 82. Also, one of his dislikes is a character from FE7. Those are not typos. Keep it in mind, it'll all be explained in a while.

I mean I know who Bramimond is in this universe but even then I was surprised, will look forward to his backstory.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Well... If you look closely, you'll notice bows have been added to the weapon triangle. None of Fates's nonsense, either: To compensate for their bowness, bows have a plain advantage against every single magic type. And this advantage is huge, too. Blademaster tampered with the weapon triangle in general (I can post the numbers next update if you ask nicely), but the advantages bows get over magic in particular are pretty hefty. On top of that, generic bow armors focus on resistance instead of defense. A bit deceptive, but the bottom line is, you don't want to face these guys with magic.

That's a huge powerup for bows, and seems it covers for Condor's one weakness. Remind me why is he not the more op unit here.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Katherin is... Meh? I've heard that she's really good, but in my experience she's just a really mediocre swordie without all of Astrea's strengths and far worse promotions. Her description does not say she can use magic swords, but she actually can. It was added in a later update, so Blademaster probably just forgot to update that. Still, with a 5% magic growth, she sucks at that. Her PCC is 5, which is great, but if she does no damage it will do her no favors.

I am with you, she seems pretty underwhelming compared to most of our guys so far. Although, she probably can be pretty strong as a lance killer. Also, sorry if this is a obvious one but I don't think you explained what PCC is supposed to be.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

As for Mikey... why did I even bother to screenshot his growths? He can't grow! Anyway, Mikey is pretty useful. He's slow, but he'll leave a mean dent on anything he attacks, which means easier experience for the real units. More interestingly, he has a lockpick and the skill required to use it. Even though he's a mercenary. This sets the tone for the rest of the hack - there are no thieves here. Instead, we'll meet a variety of people who will have the skills to rob and plunder, but are otherwise of entirely unrelated classes. Keep an eye out for those. You might find them in some unexpected folks.

Not much to say about him, I would like if he still gets a bit more screentime rather than being a one time only generic.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

I think this is as good a time as any to point out two facts: Our fatigue isn't increasing, and neither is Evan's staff rank. Much like in Thracia, our units won't start to get tired for a few chapters, until we gain enough units to replace the ones resting. As for the staff rank... This is another mechanic that I've neglected to explain until now: In SGW, staff rank is static. It only increases by promoting. Evan will be stuck at E rank until we feed him a master crest. Personally, I like this system. Certainly better than FE7 and 8's "uh oh, better not heal with this bishop until I can grind him all the way to S light from D!" I still cannot believe they somehow regressed from FE6, in that regard...

Fixed staff rank sounds a good way to balance and differentiate normal mages from dedicated healers, which was one thing I disliked about GBA FE.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

He's an earlygame boss, all right. He has Insight, which grants him 20 hit, Renewal, which grants him increased passive healing, and Axefaire, which grants him +4 might with axes (in other words, just plain +4 might). A decently challenging boss, compared to other prologue mooks I've seen in my time, but he's still a pushover.

Take a look at the fourth skill, however. The one that's like, dark gray, a bit of bright gray in the center and a red X? That's Watchful. It means you cannot be captured. Most bosses in the game have it. Unfortunately, we cannot spare this beautiful, beautiful man.

Notice that he's not a base armor. Armor knights promote into colonels, which then promote to generals. Colonels use the fancy knight animations that you see in every modern hack, whereas knights maintain their vanilla sprite. Neat.

A promoted boss right from the beginning, I like it. Watchful on bosses was expected in a game which allows capturing, however didn't expect horses having them as well, do flyers get them too?

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Lucky 3%? Not quite. This game implements a little cosmetic effect - bosses will always be killed by crits, even if the unit's critrate is 0. Just a nifty little thing.

That sounds a cool way to finish a fight.

On 3/28/2021 at 7:36 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

This is Yang, Yin's brother (get it, Yin and Yang? Corrupt Theocracy names!). He likes to fight, he hates clothing and that's about it.

Nice to see some familiar names, not sure about face, don't really remember how they looked like in CT.

All in all, it was a nice first map, and made me start playing it already. I already played the 1st map today and would have liked to play this one alongside your LP like every other time too but I probably won't get time thanks to IRL things starting to get busy. Still, will follow these in the weekends hopefully.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Part 2 - Gale Force's Wrath.

Reply:

Spoiler

On 3/28/2021 at 5:21 PM, Spara said:

  Hide contents

Imagine getting an easter break. Haha, haha, haaaaa.......

F

You could use Textractor, and just copy/paste the text, I believe. Though I dunno how well that'd work with Steam, haven't tested it just yet.

That's not a bad idea. Something to consider for the distant future.

Also, Chapter 20 in an ironman setting, even soft, sounds incredibly painful. 

Imagine losing Jean, Ash and Sheela. Hahahahahah... aaaauugh...

I think we all know where this is going. I haven't played SGW, but I have a feeling.

Heh...

I mean, you can just take a look at their portrait names...

This is the one screenshot I've seen of SGW before this, and, uh...

Oh boy.

Hahahahahah... Without context that's gotta be interesting, to say the least.

I so hope Condor grows well. I want to get their support. It's the best damn thing in this game.

3% MOVE GROWTH!?

OKAY, SHE'S BEST GIRL.

In my last run Astrea got 5 points of movement on her own. Plus the boots I put on her for further hilarity. I have no idea how that even happened, but by the end of the game she was dashing all over the map like it was nobody's business. If she can get even just one, I'll be happy.

Billford 2.0?

Condor? Yes.

But it's only going up from here. By the last knight, we'll be looking at bigger movement numbers than Leonie. Leonie.

I always like it when hacks do this. Making Anima feel more distinguished is always a bonus in my eyes. 

In base GBA it's like, "Anima is the good one, dark is the one with nosferatu, light is bad." Always nice when hacks make an attempt to change that. Light is still a bit worse than the others in this hack, but a couple of the mages really appreciate the hit boost. Plus, there's a light tome that's ridiculously good.

Kaga: Here's 90 minutes of dialogue. Have fun reading it!

Blademaster: How about like 20 characters in the prologue?

Shadow Dragon: Have 2 minutes of 2 characters talking. But it's so beautifully written, though!

 

 

On 3/28/2021 at 7:26 PM, Dayni said:

  Hide contents

 I mean, you could have by pretending you were keeping the lords low level on purpose.

Fire Emblem 7: Canas solo. That would've been more believable.

I think that's actually Latin, for father I'd guess on my shoddy knowledge.

Huh. Neat.

Might as well get a job as a scribe then?

Would be more productive than trying to transcribe the mountains of text in Vestaria.

Not going back to the GBA portrait?

Nah.

So Pyron's taken over a nation and is altering the world at his whim.

More or less.

Really bad at keeping the seal in place, Tellius at least made it over 750 years.

To be fair, people didn't really want Ashera back. Pyron had a whole nation of people who wanted him back, and no matter how many times they were kicked down, they rose back up!

And this guy's definitely evil!

We'll get to see his face in this update. Not much else, for now.

Grumbles in elitism.

Yes, indeed. How dare people play badly, unlike me, the tactical genius.

This read army's loyalty is clearly in question, send to gulag.

I mean, considering how utterly incompetent they seem to be, that would be for the benefit of Pyron.

Yeah, the god was free in their lifetime, I guess they expected him to return and are returning to their normal?

We'll see if the game answers this question at some point.

Never mind this guy's apparent worship of a mortal!

I think he meant "I pray" as in, a more general sense of hoping things would work out.

Still kind of a weird usage of the phrase when literally God is alive and your leader.

And yeah, the game certainly doesn't play slowly, slowly on that front.

And it will only get faster.

I mean, his face in Heroes is longer but otherwise.........

Didn't Lex join Heroes like, yesterday more or less? Blademaster did it first.

So she never promotes?

EX tier classes tend not to promote, but Astrea definitely does. Just not with an item.

Thanks Astrth.

Pffft!

Also, hmm, magic swords being a specific type wasn't something I'd considered myself. I probably wouldn't go down that route either, but it is a differentiation.

Certainly is, at that.

Moneyman looks on proudly I assume.

Money isn't as important in a game with capture, though...

Pretty alright set, with acrobat at least the convoy won't get too slowed down.

Astrea good.

Relina makes allies Lightning McQueen.

More or less, yes.

Seems to have alright stats for defence in all fairness.

He's an axe cav all right.

So he gets to smack all the nearby foes, reposition allies and a personal for capturing. Neat.

He's decent on all fronts. But boringly so.

And dangit on Boar Tactics. If it doesn't turn him into a boar I'll be disappointed.

Found a skill guide at the SGW discord. It increases the unit's hit and crit on rout, defend and kill boss maps. Also, the icon is Dimitri, if I recall correctly.

So he can straight up zoom around indoor maps and gets great bow offence. I dont know why you're knocking him so much.

I wasn't knocking him! When did I knock him?

Also, FALCON BOW!

Personally, it prefers the air.

I mean, Galeforce/10 and being able to brave with any weapon. Shame his Spd doesn't have much to work with and he takes hits like a chump. Though why give him the same Str growth as Condor with their niches and Condor being faster?

Because Lex is powerful enough.

And there's a tier 3?

Yeah, it's right there, at the OP. Didn't you read it?

Where they decided he should have a horse (Imagine him with a dancer). Are you sure balance exists?

Balance is interesting in SGW. To say the least.

Dark buffs Def. Hmm. Do all mages get all types?

Not all of them, but I'm pretty sure they all get at the very least two. Except for like, one guy, but he gets swords as well.

Evan meanwhile wants to be taking enemies on EP due to his crit focused build and of course can heal. Sheesh.

Also he gets a super crit fly wrecking tome? I see your recommendation for Dark has competition.

To be honest, in my experience you want Evan to be using dark all the time he's not nuking things with Razor. He's not bad with anima, by any means, but he's best suited for dark.

Mercy's for the weak.

And for everything else apparently.

Mercy's for Jeiganing for the weak.

So, bow armours tell Reinhardt to fuck off.

Yup.

Also that triangle reversal's pretty wild.

It gets wilder.

I don't, but it's still nice.

It's like, when you're having a myrm do chip damage to something, but then they proc and waste 5 uses of a weapon and don't even kill the enemy. So wasteful...

That's some escalation in conflict already.

You're really telling me it'll be non-stop?

There's exactly one filler chapter.

That chapter is not today.

Carrying enemies confirmed.

Imagine if they could then be thrown into foes to stagger them.

That'd be hilarious. Get to it, Blademaster.

Myrm/10 indeed. Meanwhile Wo Dao is now a bloodline sword, wew.

Subtle differences.

And to be fair, Lancecrusher means she's about treating them line they're using swords. Still neat.

Yeah, that is true. But she's gonna take a mighty blow all the same...

So theives are just all over the place in this game.

Exactly.

Any chance you can get his things before he leaves?

You must've missed the part where the game said he'd leave all his items with us.

I mean, it's not like the 20 boost was non-existant, but yeah 50 makes a big impact that's for sure.

Very big. Now imagine it on the enemies. That's gonna be fun.

2/5 is still a passing grade.

I suppose, when one of those is strength.

Wait, Astrea could have been using that!

Good ol' offscreen items.

No Mag/Spd, but can't complain otherwise.

Yeah, shame about that.

....At least in 8 Latona exists. 7 is just so dumb in that.

Oh yeah, that's right, there isn't even a S staff in 7. Not only that, in 8 bishops would rather use aura anyway, so they can afford to pick up staves as their S. 7, on the other hand...

The compromise isn't my preference, I suspect he'll not be getting much access himself?

Actually, his rank jumps to B upon promoting. Because Evan needed even more utility.

Imagine capturing this guy.

What would it even be worth?

1-2 ranged weapons are rare in this game. I'd take an extra one.

You're definitely using this guy aren't you?

On 3/28/2021 at 4:06 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Hah! Believe you me, you could all have expressly told me NOT to use him and I still would've used him. The man's my favorite unit in the game!

At least it's Str.

True enough.

I feel like you're denigrating us when we outplayed you.

Alternatively:

Did I seriously call the people in front of me cannon fodder?

Not the most graceful way to go out, no.

What a pain in the neck- this guy, probably.

Hah!

Map one done.

Not much to say really.

It was a map, all right.

 

9 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

 

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Its nice to Jake return to Anna's side.

Always nice to see the guy get screentime in some way or another. IntSys seems to have completely forgotten about him. Maybe because acknowledging that she's engaged would lower Anna's waifu value.

Chapter is failed if any units dies....ugh, I dislike when hacks try to force that style of play onto you. Hopefully it gets more Ironman friendly after the prologue...

Ah yes, my favorite fanmade hack: Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn.

Seriously though, this will only last up to chapter 5. Starting with chapter 6, the number of game over units will be heavily reduced. A few chapters later, it'll become only the lords for the most part.

I don't remember the name of the one on the left off the top of my head, but I think he is the Paladin midboss of Dragon's Gate...unless that is Maxime the Paladin midboss of Battle Before Dawn (whom is quite infamous for being bugged into higher stats than he should, which can even break stat caps with the stat variance...).

You were right the first time. Maxime is a recolor of him, but SGW uses the Cameron version.

The one on the right is Wire, the very first boss in HHM, and an Armored Knight that pretends to be an assassin.

I like his palette. That's about it, really.

Wire is also the guy from Corrupt Theocracy that calls you "monkey sperm" when he dies. Thankfully, he won't ever say such things in this game.

I love how you don't even pretend Eirika is in the running for this female protagonist comparison.

Pffft... To be entirely forthcoming with you, I like Eirika well enough, but I uh... completely forgot about her there. Yeah...

Shame, too, because compared to Miss "The Game Forces Me To Make All The Worst Choices So I Can Get Saved By This Dude Or That Dude" and Miss "I'm Cool But Then The Previous Game's Protagonist Hijacks The Game And I Get Possessed By God" she's slightly better off. Sure, she gets saved by Ephraim for no reason and she disappears if you go with him in the route split, but if you go with her she's kind of a main character the entire game...? Sure, there's the stupidity with Lyon at the volcano, but to be fair, Ephraim isn't much better off there. Asshole just charges forward and steps right into the trap.

Either way, they all kinda pale in comparison to Astrea, which is really sad, because this is a story that was winged by some guy for no other reason than FEs must have some text here and there, on top of being a sequel to "Monkey Sperm: The Game".

Now that is a very blonde cast (barring young Seteth over there...).

Not as blonde as the cast of The Last Promise. I swear, half of that game's people are blondes!

It looks like we have a Blonde Inigo, Blonde Serra (ugh... does every hack need a Serra recolor),

Ah yes, my favorite fanmade hack: Fire Emblem Three Houses.

...No wait, actually, the joke doesn't work here because Hilda isn't even a recolor of Serra. She's just Serra.

Lord Nanna, and young Seteth.

Ahahahahah... Why does everyone always call Evan "young Seteth"? He doesn't even look like Seteth that much!

She is cringing at the as you know dialogue going on here. Alternatively she is cringing at having a blond Serra sister...

Hah!

Yeah both Lex and Lester have way more immaculate hair than this guy. Plus the shoulder-pad armor seems a little out of place (I guess some of his promoted art has something similar, but a majority of his art has him in a coat...)

I like the portrait, personally.

Oh please

THIS is the really funny joke.

Bold of you to say that, when Derrick exists!

I guess I should make my reductively silly name for these guys...I think I will go with Playboy Hector on the far left, and Ninja Wannabe on the right...

Ergh... interesting names.

I am kinda disappointed that he isn't a transporter unit...

Would've been interesting. Oh, well.

That is some obvious telegraphing of a thief recruit showing up...

Well... not quite.

Is it Thracia vantage, or the boringer half health vantage?

Boringer, I'm afraid. Though, to be honest, I find all Vantage other than Berwick Saga's to be boring. In every other game you basically rely on crits, because otherwise Vantage does nothing. In Berwick Saga you end battles before they start. Thanks, Adel.

The better Genealogy/Tellius Canto where you move after attacks, or the boringer GBA canto?

Both, actually. Regular Canto is the boring one, but there's a Canto+ that is the cooler one. We'll get to see a unit with it today.

Jeeze those are some overkill skills. No wonder you praised him so...

For once, it wasn't just me being me.

Much as I want to joke about this guy being Odin, he is very clearly young Seteth. 82 is young in dragon, and hating one of the Legendary Heroes of FE7 Dragon Genocide makes perfect sense for a Draon boy...

Well, we'll see if you're right in the future...

I guess that confirms they go for higher damage, and not safety.

Typical GBA AI. Can't resist a good WTA.

You can see it even earlier, but it is a fan made hack game. Probably didn't have a dedicated writer adept at making some naturalistic writing like the official games have.

Yeah, the creator himself has admitted in the past that the story's just kinda there. Still, bear with it until chapter 5. It may not become "good", per se, but in my opinion it does get "fun" then.

Although it does have some cool moments before that. Not this update, but the next. So yeah.

So we have an amalgamation of an older Fir and Leila, or Firla as I will call her on the left, and the guy on the right really needs to stop cutting his hair with a lawn mower, as it looks like an immaculately manicured lawn, which is not a good look for hair...

Hahahahah... You dissin' my boi Green Guile? I'll have you know, his theme goes with everything!

Yin and Yang...boy those are some cringe names....

Corrupt Theocracy had two types of names: Extremely common ones like Barry, Elliot, Larry and Janet, or extremely dumb ones like Ether, Star, Gringo and Death. Yes, Death.

Hey that would be a great level...in Berwick Saga...

I'd love it on Enid, but here...

Nice to see its taking some mechanics from Genealogy of the Holy War as well.

It takes mechanics from everywhere!

If this skill comes up on all the named characters, I will be officially Booing and Hissing at it, and adding the official worse than Thracia stamp to the game.

There's an exception, but... Yeah. Whoops. Looks like SGW is officially stamped.

But at least its lategame isn't a slog of horrible maps that are basically begging to get warpskipped.

I love that pose he makes at 0:04. It's like he's thinking "oh c'mon, I don't have the time or the energy to deal with this woman right now."

Unrelated, but I love how it's very clear that "Darth" was just the guy's first name in the original movie, and it was then retconned to be the Sith title when... just about everything about his character was retconned. It's particularly noticeable in his fight with Obi Wan, where he keeps calling him "Darth." I mean, I'm not saying it's a terrible flaw or anything. You can retroactively explain it as "he was trying to pretend that it wasn't his former friend by reducing him to his title." But still. Just saying. You can tell.

There are just so many... not sure how well I can keep up with my goofy reductive names (and not sure if I will waste much time on the temps, like Lawn Hair over there...)

Lawn Hair is a wonderful name, to be fair.

And yeah, you might have to change your approach, because the game isn't about to let up.

Think this is sequal bait, or a hints at a time jump...

Or... something else. Who knows?

Firla's sister fittingly looks like a younger Fir who styled her hair like FE7 Karel, thus I dub her Firel.

Firla and Firel. Sure, sounds good.

Bah what a casual game, just giving the player gold😛

Stop this! Not everything has to be Thracia! Berwick Saga gives you gold too! Tons of gold!

Of course, you need it. For furniture! I wish every game had furniture...

Just remember, when dealing with slavers, just don't drink any of the Milk...

Grrrraaaaahhh...! Don't remind me of that!

 

 

2 hours ago, ranger016 said:

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Yeah, after reading through the features, pretty sure most of these were later additions aside from skills. I don't even remember the 1st map being indoors, although that could be just me misremembering things.

From what I gathered, the game was shaping up to be a somewhat standard FE hack, but then right as he was nearing the final update, Blademaster decided to implement a whole bunch of different mechanics to make the game more unique. It took a lot of effort, but it was a great decision, in my opinion.

I actually enjoyed CT a lot when I played it, probably because I wasn't as good with english back then so, didn't really realize the story was that bad. And in terms of gameplay alone, it was good enough aside from some lategame units disappearing thanks to the huge cast.

Well, that's not quite what I've seen, but hey, to each their own.

Always nice to see a competent female lead, she was the only one I could vaguely remember from my run. As an unit, a magic sword specialist sounds pretty cool, will look forward to how good she becomes.

In my last run she was a goddess. I can only hope she turns out similarly.

She feels like the most underwhelming among the starting cast. Sure, she still might be useful for the speed skills but seems pretty unnecessary unless everyone turns out speed screwed or the if enemies are really strong in this hack.

Enemies are indeed powerful. We might need the speed buffs down the line.

He seems like the regular strength focused cavalier, I have a soft spot for axe cavaliers, so he gets a bit more point for that. From the docs, boar tactics seems to give +15 Hit and +10 Crit in rout, defend and boss kill maps which sounds pretty strong.

Ulysses is strong, yes. But in a boring way.

I think this is the first time I saw a playable bow armor, which sounds a pretty clever way to compensate a bow user's normal weaknesses. Can't say which one I like more between him and Lex so far, I probably would use both when I play it. Indoor march sounds pretty good way to compensate a knight's low move as well without straight up giving them infantry movement.

My recommendation is that you use both and make them support. Their chain is amazing.

That sounds pretty op at a glance, hope you can keep him alive long enough for him to get going. Archers are probably one of my most favorite classes in FE, just behind dark mages so, it is always good to see a strong earlygame archer.

Archers and dark mages, huh? You're in for a treat with this game.

A dark mage who have access to the whole magic triangle and staves...he is already my favorite unit without even looking up his stats or skillset.

That was my reaction as well, haha.

Crit focused mage already sounds fun to play with, let alone someone this versatile and he is still only a tier 1 unit.

Funnily enough, I'd argue Evan is low priority for promotions because of how amazing he is at tier 1. The only things he gets out of promoting are staff rank, movement and a bit of stats. Plus, his level 20 skill is among the best, so you might want to hold off until then to promote him. Obviously you want to promote him sooner or later, but other units need it more.

I mean I know who Bramimond is in this universe but even then I was surprised, will look forward to his backstory.

Please do.

That's a huge powerup for bows, and seems it covers for Condor's one weakness. Remind me why is he not the more op unit here.

No enemy phase, lacks Lex's ridiculousness and outdoors he's stuck with armor movement.

I am with you, she seems pretty underwhelming compared to most of our guys so far. Although, she probably can be pretty strong as a lance killer. Also, sorry if this is a obvious one but I don't think you explained what PCC is supposed to be.

Ah, apologies. It is a Thracia mechanic. Basically, when doubling, the unit's critrate is multiplied by their PCC (hence the name, Pursuit Critical Coefficient). If Evan has a 20% chance to crit, it will become 60% when he doubles. Of course, units can have a PCC of 1 and even 0 - Lex straight up cannot crit on double attacks.

Not much to say about him, I would like if he still gets a bit more screentime rather than being a one time only generic.

Perhaps he will.

Fixed staff rank sounds a good way to balance and differentiate normal mages from dedicated healers, which was one thing I disliked about GBA FE.

Yeah, Evan has E, which is only good for healing. Other staffbots we'll get have better staff ranks than him.

A promoted boss right from the beginning, I like it. Watchful on bosses was expected in a game which allows capturing, however didn't expect horses having them as well, do flyers get them too?

Fliers have Canto, so yes. This once again follows similar rules to Thracia. Your con needs to be higher than the enemy's to capture, and they need to be infantry without Watchful. Even with these restrictions, however, the mechanic has a huge impact on the game.

That sounds a cool way to finish a fight.

It really is.

Nice to see some familiar names, not sure about face, don't really remember how they looked like in CT.

Lloyd and Linus. Just, straight up.

All in all, it was a nice first map, and made me start playing it already.

Ayyy! I've succeeded in inspiring someone already!

I already played the 1st map today and would have liked to play this one alongside your LP like every other time too but I probably won't get time thanks to IRL things starting to get busy. Still, will follow these in the weekends hopefully.

Well, there's no rush, is there? Follow along and drop in to comment whenever you can!

 

 

Updates:

Spoiler

Last time, we beat up an ugly guy and secured a fort to go raid the Pope's lab. This will make sense in due time. In today's update, we will dismantle a meth operation. Or something. I'm not entirely sure, to be honest, the title isn't clear at all.

Unleashing a full exposition dump on people would be too much. Blademaster decided to instead sprinkle these exposition scenes all throughout the earlygame. Today, we'll get our formal introduction to the higher-ups of Amatera... some of them, anyway.

The Holy Republic Of Pyron, Amatera. Originally thought to be a peaceful country, this changed twenty years ago. The previous ruler of the Republic, Zypher,

There he is. The man(?) himself. If you're thinking his armor looks familiar, that's because it is, indeed, a red version of Zephiel's armor. In fact, Zypher himself used Zephiel's unedited portrait in Corrupt Theocracy and played a similar role to him on top of having a samey name. This was quite the common occurrence in that game. Some of those people were just aged up in SGW, which will look really funky when we meet them, but others are unrecognizable. How much? Well, Yin and Yang were Lloyd and Linus in CT. Yeah. Can you even tell which one was which?

With Pyron at their helm, they waged war on the other nations of the world.

Amatera's military structure is composed of eight powerful generals.

E-Eight!? Jesus fucking Christ... Yeah, remember how we had like 15 characters introduced in the prologue? That was just the beginning. Thankfully, the game will cut us some slack today and only introduce...

I managed to catch him mid-blink, that's why he looks weird.

But in Merv, the resistance organization

Ah, and there is our leader. Dapper moustache he's brandishing. Ronald and his shitty chin growth don't stand a chance!

It's time for these two morons.

They let us know that supports in this game are well designed, as opposed to vanilla GBA's horrible system. I temporarily revert to posting screenshots for all the dialogue so I can put off extracting their portraits.

That looks to be new recruits.

Ahh, it's you two!

If the work our tracking and spy teams did paid off, they should be. I'm proud that Dexithea and Katherin joined us from that group. It's a shame Mikey and Nia had to leave with the Second Division.

Katherin already joined us, but she's still technically part of Mikey's group, so they had to establish the reason she's staying with us. Which is... Basically just 'cause, seeing how her sister's still on the other team. Dexithea is a new person that we will soon meet.

This unit of the Red Army dealt in human trafficking for the pope's work, correct?

The Pope dabbles in slave trading? That's not very holy of him... Then again, God stands among us. He just has to go up to him and ask "oi Pyron, you fine if I do some human traficking?" Maybe God's just kind of a dick...

Correct. There are also rumors they worked with the Hell Hounds as well.

That's... That's an interesting name.

Don't remind me. I'd rather not be associated with that dog freak.

And they just keep getting more and more interesting. "Dog freak?" Unfortunately, we won't meet this Kuroth today, but... maybe next time.

Condor, Evan and Relina are just chilling overthere.

They're trashtalking Ronald, in case you missed the fact that he's an idiot when his own Sub-General said it.

makes all of his strategies. That's why slavers like these show up in his army.

It's also why they rely on other mercenary groups for so much. If not for them, Propater would control even more land.

Well, there isn't much that Amatera can do to improve the Red Army now. They're in a bit of disarray due to a rebellion and Bramimond's final plan.

Bramimond, huh... One such name was in Evan's list of dislikes. Don't worry if you forgot, the game is about to remind us.

"Those who wish to defeat Pyron, come to Cyra! Together, we will use my ultimate spell to stop him once and for all!" With just those words, the great hero managed to inspire so many, huh?

I'll never understand your problem with your grandfather. He's one of the three great heroes from the war against Pyron,

This being the war before the World War, which was Corrupt Theocracy. You know, the one that took place centuries ago. Suddenly Evan being 82 doesn't seem so outlandish by comparison. Also, yes, Bramimond in CT was just Bramimond from FE7. He's... different, in this game. You'll see in due time.

a living legend!

I have no doubt in that man's plan,

Remember, I left Cyra for a reason.

Evan is basically like if Gotoh had a grandchild who got so fed up with his shit that he left to explore the world and trashtalk him every chance he got. As Gotoh's biggest hater, I can relate.

Looks like we don't have time for more idle chatter. The Red Army is here.

I like how the game kept the enemies just off-screen so they wouldn't have to bother with fancy events to make them appear. They were just chilling there, watching us engage in idle chatter.

Our bossman of the day is an ugly green-haired dude, speaking to... Oh-- Pffffft! Is that a combination of the generic soldier and the ratface brigand? That is the most glorious thing I've seen all day...!

What are they doing so far from the northern front?!

Sir, about the offering we need to collect for Kuroth this time...

I'm familiar with the build of men he's looking for. I haven't worked with him for these past few years for nothing. But that is just another added worry for me right now. Propater, Kuroth... Dammit, just hold on until Chunji and the others show up.

And his name is Og? Og?! I think we've found SGW's best waifu.

Yes, Commander Gustav!

There's our main character. I like this chapter's starting formation. It really seems like we were just chilling when they arrived.

...Wait... hold on a moment. Is that...? No way, surely it cannot be...!

A female brigand!?

Don't worry Cap, I've seen firsthand how skilled you are. Your strategies will lead us to victory for sure!

And with me here to snipe our foes, we'll drive these guys back easy!

The Red Army has all kinds of troops in their units. We should proceed with caution.

I'll keep that in mind. Ben, I take it you have the stuff that Mikey left us?

Of course, Astrea!

Ben isn't lying. Mikey's gear is indeed in the convoy. By the way, I forgot to mention it, but this game's convoy has 150 spaces instead of just 100. Much appreciated.

But there are some strong soldiers here. Can we really beat them?

We have no need to worry about them with Yin and Yang here!

This is your hint for the chapter's main highlight. I'll show it in a sec.

Let's rout them, Cap!

Here's the guide I mentioned before. Game over conditions, chapter goals, and a short story recap. Small typo there, but it's nothing important. There's a bit more above the game over condition, but it's not relevant right now.

So, this map! I really like this map. It's very tightly designed. Survival for only 5 turns doesn't sound like much, but you'll need to manage your moves carefully if you want to get all the stuff.

This chapter serves as your introduction to troop commanders. These guys tend to have leadership stars and be stronger than their peers. How much?

Well-- AAAARGH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

Holy shit, this game does not mess around! This bastard will one-shot the entire army. No questions asked. Evan might survive, but we don't want him to face this behemoth at a weapon triangle disadvantage. So what do we do?

Why, we employ our guests of the day! Yin is, as you can see, a tier 3 unit that is extremely powerful. He could dodgetank the entire map, but there's only one of him. He has a billion skills that I won't go over.

I like how his dislikes are just blank. He's a simple man like that. Yang cannot dodge like Yin, and funnily enough he's less sturdy too, but he has a bow, a horse and bigger damage. He also has a billion skills I won't go over.

In any case, the first priority of these two should be to erase that bow knight as soon as possible. It would be a disaster if he headed for our units.

Female brigand. In case you needed any more proof that this hack is the best FE in the history of FE. Female brigand.

Wraith and Sandy were in CT, Wraith being Rath and Sandy being a bad splice of Lyn and Karla. Also, Dexithea doesn't hate nomads, she hates Nomad, the faction. Indeed, it's a faction. Another faction, on top of Amatera, Propater, the Hell Hounds, the Amateran rebels and Cyra. And this isn't even all of them yet!

Leaving all of that aside, Dexithia is... actually not that good. I've seen her called the weakest axe user in the game, and that's probably true, but I mean, female brigand. How can I not use a girl who is so buff that her type is literally just "muscle"? Please. Dexithea focuses on raw stats above all else. Her strength and speed will quickly shoot right through the roof, but her other stats might drag her back.

As for her skills, she starts with:

- Bowbreaker: Remember Mikey's Axebreaker? Same deal. Bows cannot hit her.

Level skills:

- At level 5, Wind Disciple. +20 Hit, +10 avoid and crit when HP is not at max. We'll be hoping for HP levels on this gal.

- At level 10, Spur Strength. +4 strength to adjacent allies. Not as useful as Spur Speed, but it's up there.

In a few words, Dexithea will be a glass cannon and not much else. Limited utility, but compared to her competition, that doesn't really cut it. Still, female brigand. How could I not at least give her a shot? Hah!

Sure, this doesn't look that amazing, but allow me to tell you a secret: She's in capture mode. Yeah. Imagine that mage if she took him on at full power.

No female brigand shrieks, I'm afraid. Too much to ask of a 1% crit, sadly.

Ohohohohohoho... Pretty sure this is only possible thanks to the speed gain last map, but I could be wrong.

In any case...!

Regular Lex level, but it matters not. All we need to do now is feed him a boss. And I know exactly which will be the one.

Let's give the wo dao a shot. She's guaranteed to kill, but the question is, will she do it before eating a blow?

Clearly so.

The Mahtipati isn't only good for capturing.

To wrap things up on this side of the map, Astrea delivers some pain to this archer.

All right, everyone is out of danger. Let's go for the other side, then.

From this position, Condor can retaliate against the upper archers, while mostly staying out of trouble from the lower enemies. Evan will handle those.

Like so.

With not much to do, Relina pays the locals a visit.

Much like in past LPs, I don't feel like exporting 10 different generic faces and then have to go looking for them when they reappear (what do you mean, that's exactly what I did with Berwick Saga?). So here, this will be the generic villager for the entire game. A bit of a far cry from my generics from past LPs, but I'm sure you'll have no complaints.

I trained with the lance every day, but when the time came... All the pegasi had fled Merv because of the Mana Plague.

Remember the plague that was mentioned in passing during the opening of the game? It has a proper name now, and it's actually extremely important. And I mean, extremely. The thing will keep popping up the entire game.

Now you'll only find pegasi in Cyra and Ryu. They're the only places in the known world with a high enough mana concentration to support their habitation. But even with that passable amount of mana, they're too weak to fly like they used to. You can't ride them with a weapon. It's too much for them. Only mages ride them now. But even with that passable amount of mana, they're too weak to fly like they used to.

This applies to the gameplay. You will find no pegasus knights with physical weapons. They're all mages now. Which... honestly, I find to be really cool. Flying mages? Sign me the fuck up!

Here, take it. You'll probably get more use of it than me now.

Awesome! Range for Relina! Even if ranged melees got hit by the nerfhammer in this game. You'll see how soon enough...

Anyway. Time to deal with that bastard on a horse. Even Yin and Yang will suffer against him, due to the crit. So how will I do this?

Well... It's not 100% safe, but it's the best I can come up with. Yang has 12 luck. I'll keep Yin close by to further reduce the commander's crit by 10. He has 8% crit at base, plus 20% from Death Blow. That brings us to a reasonable 6. Surely I won't lose to such a low chance this soon, will I?

In retrospect, I could've left our scroll with Relina so she could hand it over to these two, but it's too late for that now.

The archer, desperate, fires an arrow at Katherin. That will not save you.

Heheheh... Evan is still not the best option against bows, but regular bowmen don't have the res focus that bow armors do. Thus...

It's bye-bye time for you!

Oof!

Oof as well, but not for our guy in this case.

Okay, Condor. Gimme a good level!

T... That is... Condor, c'mon! You've gotta keep up, I need you to support Lex so we can watch the greatest bit of dialogue in this whole goddamned game! If you're terrible, it'll feel like a waste!

Hah! As if he wasn't invincible enough!

Unfortunately, he couldn't double that one, and he didn't crit. Meh.

Words cannot express how much of a terrible idea that was.

'Aight, time of truth. Commanders and terrors (the equivalent of commanders for monsters) all use a GBAfied version of the Shadows of Valentia boss theme. Which itself is a modernized version of a theme that was already modernized a couple of times. Hah.

Yang takes a mighty blow, but in return...

Ahahahahahah! Flashbang warfare is back! Not a proper flashbang, though. You can still see the HUD and everything.

A gem is ours. Plus, now we can visit villages without dying horribly.

Yang's HP ensures he probably won't do much else, but he can still one-shot this fool and take him in for his bow.

Oh, what's this? You see, Yang has Canto+. Canto+ is obtained by a few tier 3 mounts, and it's basically Genealogy canto. You just move after you act, no questions asked. Most notably, Lex used to get this when promoting to tier 3, which was just ridiculous. He could dash forward, kill someone, trigger Galeforce, kill someone else and then retreat to safety. Gaining only regular Canto when promoting is, as far as I know, the only nerf Lex ever received, and hey, to be fair, it is a quite significant one.

Anyway, here is the nerf that ranged weapons got in this hack. Some games lower their might, others their hit. This game makes them rare, but on top of that, it makes them unable to double. Nobody is going to be eating armies on their lonesome with these things.

...Well, to her credit, Relina can proc Adept. But that's not reliable.

Evan procs his 30% not-crit chance to gain an extra point of anima weapon rank. Thanks.

Okay, back to Astrea's squad. First, Dexithea relieves her captive of his tome and lets him go.

Dexithea will deal with these two cavalier reinforcements during EP. She can do it by herself.

Down south, Astrea whacks the archer guy.

Looks like the area is secure. Ulysses will go and visit some red houses.

Katherin will use Ben Astrea's vulnerary to patch herself up in preparation for what is to come.

Every hack worth its salt buffs vulneraries. It's just a fact of life. Nobody likes GBA vulneraries, they suck.

Yin picks up this bow and frees its wielder. He and Yang will haul ass south toward the bosses. Our permanent units are a bit out of their league against them, I'm afraid.

And it's enemy phase time! As expected, these two morons try their luck against Female Brigand.

It does not end well.

Oh boy, more reinforcements. One of them's a boss!

So Propater is here. I warned Gustav that his... extracurricular activities would have this effect. Idiot, this is why it was a mistake to work with Kuroth.

Nobody in this army has any respect for their leaders. At least I think Chunji is Gustav's subordinate. Oh well, I can't say I blame him. It appears that the better a person and soldier you are, the lower your rank is in this shitshow of an army...

For now, let's join the battle!

Chunji's tiny. 1.55 meters tall? Poor guy. Gustav towers over him. I bet Chunji could still kick his ass, though, Gustav's kind of a runt. Also, he's Gustav's "top commander"? Does that mean he's Gustav's right hand man, or Gustav's superior? I'm not sure anymore.

In any case, Chunji's just a mediocre wyvern that we'll forget about as soon as he dies. He will, however, serve a very important purpose. Perhaps you can guess what it is. Heh heh heh...

Katherin will lure him closer. She will have to fight one of his wyvern buddies, but the other one is far away enough that he can be lured the other way.

As you can see, reinforcements come from all sides in this map. Dexithea patches herself up in preparation for her newest foe: A single soldier.

Since Katherin stole her vulnerary, Astrea steals Lex's to heal herself. The debauchery in our team knows no bounds.

The other side has more sophisticated means of healing.

It was at this point when I tried to check out how many turns we had left and realized that I had neglected to turn these displays back on from when I took the big map screenshots. Oh well, better late than never.

Only one thing left to do this turn.

Oh it's you!

As a result, people just stick to trading more tangible material to get by. These gems are kinda worthless now. But what can you expect after the Mana Plague killed so many? Our town doesn't really need money since we all grow our own supplies. I found this gem while gardening. Maybe you'll find more use for it than me?

Gorgeous villager lady from Fates is correct. Gems in this game got hit hard by inflation or whatever fancy economic term you'd like to use. Blue gems are only worth 1000 gold. Capturing is important!

Canto closer to the village for now, and that's the turn done.

won't live for very long. I, Chunji, a commander in the Red Army, will see to that!

And now he's the commander? Weren't you a captain? Also, why does everyone feel the need to announce their name and rank to their foes?

Ah, who cares. All that matters is that he's nice and ready... Ready for his destiny!

This went about as well as you'd expect. No double, sadly, but...

Hohoho... It begins!

Yeouch!

Bigger yeouch! If you can't tell, that fool's dead as fuck. I managed to take the worst possible screenshot of flux.

Hahahahaha...! Ahahahahah! Bwahahahah! More power! More! Moooooreeeeee...!

Another guy attempts to attack Katherin. He fails.

Okay, it's-- Oh dear, promoted reinforcements!

They're not that great, thankfully. Not yet, anyway.

Female halbedier on this side.

Yeah, Ulysses is gonna be just fine. Visit time!

...Yeah, I don't think I need to say anything, do I? Can you guess what music is playing here?

I came here, in all my beauty, because I heard Gustav the slave trader would be here. I thought he might have one of the rare worren with him, but here he is fighting... all of you it would seem? ...Hmm... probably not the best idea to upset you all, then? A beautiful idea on my part.

...Hmm? You don't know what a worren is? They're one of the monster races that Pyron created.

You know, after listening to my beautiful elocution, I've taken a liking to you.

So have I. I'm not sure if I'm hoping you're a one-off joke or a running gag, though... Ahh, who am I kidding-- I wish you'd join me.

I'd like you to have this scroll. Make good use of it, friend. Scrolls like that one boost growth rates and negate critical hits. I'm sure we'll meet again!

And he gives us a scroll! This is the best village ever.

It's kind of a bad scroll, but hey. Might as well let Ulysses keep it for now. I will probably hand it to Condor next map.

That's enough of that. Dexithea, finish this gal.

And now... Hahah, ahahah-- Oh, c'mon!

Down with you!

Yes! Yes! I have unlocked the ultimate power...!

Yeah, yeah, die faster so we can get to the level.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCKKK...!

Gotta feed him one more, then...

Thankfully, this fellow appeared the turn after Chunji and friends. He has a lance, so perhaps if I leave Katherin where she is, he'll go after her...?

Well, in any case, let's take a look at the boss and his retinue. It's about time.

Looks like it was only in the dialogue that their roles were reversed, and Gustav really is a captain after all. In any case, Gustav may be a runt, but he's actually way more competent in a fight than Chunji. Mostly thanks to his huge HP pool and this thing:

Yeah... He can be tough to get through, but that white gem is almost worth something, so we want it.

Hahahahahahah... Og is just an angel, isn't he? Wait, wait-- Whoa, he learns Double Lion at level 10? Interesting bit of information... And what's up with the friggin' capped magic at level 1?

This all screams "playable", but he also has Watchful, which is useless on playables because enemies don't capture, so... Meh. We'll see.

This woman, though. This woman needs to die before we fight Gustav. Just underneath the Sagittae description is a mend staff. We cannot let that happen. Plus, 34 magic damage at increased range is not something we want to take. She has this skill that partially protects her from crits, but with 2 defense it doesn't even matter.

Hah! See?

Kablooie! Down with you!

He can even Canto away from Gustav's range! Fantastic!

To finish, Condor and Relina team up on the halbedier.

My only worry now is that Yang is really low on hitpoints... He won't die, but he might draw the wyvern in the wrong direction. The odds are in his favor, he has WTA and superior stats, but enemies love low HP... C'mon, Katherin, we need him to go toward Lex! Strike your best seductive pose!

Yeah, yeah, get on with it...

Enough of this! Let me see if my plan has succeeded or failed!

Yes! Well done, Katherin! Now, don't kill him.

Good! She's even leveled up from Jeiganing! Make it a good one.

You're just begging me to send you to the bench, aren't you? Admittedly, it's a pretty solid strategy to avoid death by my tactics...

Look, I know, speed is the best stat, but this girl desperately needs damage.

It is as this point irrelevant. What is relevant is that we've done it.

We've achieved maximum hilarity.

Terrible, but this isn't what I wanted out of this level.

Hahahah... Oh, man!

We're already seeing its effects in action! Of course, he has nowhere to go now, but still. How beautiful is this? Archer with Galeforce! I hadn't played Awakening when I first played SGW (in fact, I still haven't - it's the only FE I've not even touched, NES FEs aside), so this was my introduction to this wonderful skill. This is gonna be so much fun...

We're on the last turn, so all we have to do is clean up. Starting with this guy.

Oddly defensive level, but I'll take it

Let's visit a text-only house, for the heck of it.

The weapon triangle works a bit differently this time around. Bows are always effective vs magic. Swords will get a nice hit and avoid boost against axes, but suffer a heavy drop in strength vs lances. Lances get a big strength boost vs swords but have a middle road penalty vs axes.

Thanks a lot for nothing, Dorias. Or, well, I suppose he's Dryas now. I'll never get over that, seriously. Every time I type the name Dry Ass I start chuckling like an idiot. Heroes, man... I don't care that you're official, I'll never disgrace that man with such a shitty name.

Magic works in a similar fashion with light being better than dark, dark being better than anima, and anima being better than light! But then, anima magic goes even deeper, with wind beating thunder, thunder fire, and fire wind!

Ahhh, so that's the order for the magic triangle. I can never remember it. Good thing I'll have this dialogue recorded to go back to if I ever need it!

That's enough of a break. Let's get back to murdering.

Really nice!

Okay, enough fooling around. Here's the plan: Since he has Nihil, Yin negates Wary Fighter. With his PCC of 3, he stands a good chance to murder Gustav in one round... But I won't let him. Here's the plan: Yin will Jeigan Gustav for Evan. Evan has 100% hit with Razor, so this is perfectly safe. The chances are low, but if Yin fails, Yang can finish Gustav off, and Evan can take out Og instead. Sounds good!

But if I retreat here now, he'll have my hide for sure!

"He"?

The leader, eh? I'll definitely capture him!

No, you won't. It is impossible, because horse.

Fancy animations! It's basically swordmaster, but with an extra step.

Oho!

Ohoho! Yes! Good job, Yin!

That could not have gone better.

Okay, that's enough now.

STOP! MY SILVER SWORD!

Okay. Let's go.

...But first, Condor can go after Og. Pffft... Oohh, poor guy.

I am so sad about this. But unfortunately, we cannot spare or recruit him.

I think Og would've been a stain on the ground if Yang wasn't using Mercy.

Good night, sweet prince...

Oh wait, he's retreating. Great! That means we'll see him again!

Noooooo, Condor! Stop it with this! Get good levels, I'm begging you!

Well, no matter. I am making this man work, because bow armor. There's a few means I could use, even beyond scrolls. We'll see if it comes to that...

Neat.

Okay, let's get the bossman.

If you get in my way, I have no problem cutting you down.

Ditto.

Another retreat? And again with this mysterious figure! Who are you talking about, man?

It doesn't matter. C'mon... More power...!

Ahahah, yes! I mean, no power, but speed blessed Evan is the stuff dreams are made of. Plus, defense. He's now almost as sturdy as Condor with a flux tome, only losing out by 3 points of HP.

That's Critical Force. I am fairly certain that it is now completely impossible for him to land a double without critting.

Money!

The map does not end with Gustav's defeat, so Dexithea gets to enemy phase the last remaining enemies. She's almost at a level. Remind me to give her the skill scroll before giving her a kill next chapter.

And with Yin, Yang, and Propater here... We can't stay here! We have to retreat!

Should I give chase after them, Astrea?

That won't be necessary. Yin managed to capture some prisoners. We'll take them back to base and have someone interrogate them there. And our only goal here was to give a little show anyway.

As opposed to saving people from slavery. We're the heroes! Though I suppose destroying the Pope's lab will ensure there's no need for the slaves, so we're still indirectly saving them?

Right. Anyway, we're meeting with the Second Division back at camp. We did good work here today. Let's go back and get some rest.

Ah, to be young and in love, eh?

Oh, dear! Astrea has a boyfriend? I can only hope it doesn't turn out to be written like Kaga's romances...

You'd never dream of saying that to my mother.

Well, your mom is much stricter than you, Yin, or Yang are. She likes to beat that into me quite often.

This wasn't even an accidental blink shot. She closes her eyes as she says this. Amazing. This has to be the weirdest daughter-dad dynamic: The one where dad also calls mom "mommy." Although Alice goes a bit further, as we might find out later on.

But it's those aspects that make her such a great leader nonetheless.

"Leader", eh? Hah! Yeah, let's go with that.

Maybe one day you'll be like her too, but hopefully more friendly.

I'd like to think I won't change that much from how I am now. But with each battle, I worry that I'll be less like my mother, and start to become more like my father instead.

That's a feeling that's completely understandable, Astrea. What that bastard did is unforgivable.

Okay, so just like that, we find out that Astrea is an orphan, that the leader of Propater murdered her father, that her father was a traitor and that he was also kind of a bastard, seeing how she hates the very idea of turning out like him. All of this in like, two lines, right after the game was fooling around with Ulysses and his mistress. Nice.

But as long as you stay steady on the path you're on now, I think you'll turn out just fine.

...Thanks, Ulysses. As long as I don't wind up like him, I'd be proud of how I've led my troops. For now, we should rest.

 

Okay, well, that's it for today. Pretty nifty map, comfortable enough, tightly designed. Next time, we'll find out who it was that Gustav was so afraid of. We'll also get the one and only filler chapter in the entire game. Indeed, it's a bit later than usual, but it is finally Bandit Chapter™ time! Look forward to that, and I'll see y'all next time! Fare thee well!

 

Death count: --

 

Reset count: 0

 

Current perfect streak: 2 maps

Best perfect streak: 2 maps

 

BONUS: Much like Yin, Yang has a battle convo with Gustav. Gustav's reaction is similar, but Yang's response is... uh, much different.

! Y-you're Yang of the Merv Five?! But if I retreat here now, he'll have my hide for sure!

If you keep mumbling and shaking, I won't be able to get a clean hit. But if it being more painful is your thing... Who am I to stop you?

Yeah... As well, if Gustav is still on the field when turn 5 ends, he'll be the one to sound the retreat instead of Og.

Damn you, Propater... We can't stay here! We have to retreat!

 

 

[Punished Dayni]

Spoiler

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

To be fair, people didn't really want Ashera back. Pyron had a whole nation of people who wanted him back, and no matter how many times they were kicked down, they rose back up!

 I mean, more than a few would, judging by the fanatics in the Senate.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Found a skill guide at the SGW discord. It increases the unit's hit and crit on rout, defend and kill boss maps. Also, the icon is Dimitri, if I recall correctly.

Nice.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You must've missed the part where the game said he'd leave all his items with us.

....Yes.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh yeah, that's right, there isn't even a S staff in 7. Not only that, in 8 bishops would rather use aura anyway, so they can afford to pick up staves as their S. 7, on the other hand...

Pain is seeing Pent get S staves.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The Holy Republic Of Pyron, Amatera. Originally thought to be a peaceful country, this changed twenty years ago. The previous ruler of the Republic, Zypher,

PFFFFFT

WHAT IS THAT? It's like it's a symbol for a brand of anti-virus! I don't want to worship so much as uninstall it and get something halfway decent instead.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

There he is. The man(?) himself. If you're thinking his armor looks familiar, that's because it is, indeed, a red version of Zephiel's armor. In fact, Zypher himself used Zephiel's unedited portrait in Corrupt Theocracy and played a similar role to him on top of having a samey name. This was quite the common occurrence in that game. Some of those people were just aged up in SGW, which will look really funky when we meet them, but others are unrecognizable. How much? Well, Yin and Yang were Lloyd and Linus in CT. Yeah. Can you even tell which one was which?

So you're saying the Zephiel knockoff was let be in the position to do this?

Man this world is not safe, let's go to Vestaria.

Yang's the Lloyd, Yin's the Linus?

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I managed to catch him mid-blink, that's why he looks weird.

Man his right eye's seen better days.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

But in Merv, the resistance organization

Ah, and there is our leader. Dapper moustache he's brandishing. Ronald and his shitty chin growth don't stand a chance!

Mr Garrison at Pyron:

"You go to hell! You go to hell and you die!"

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This unit of the Red Army dealt in human trafficking for the pope's work, correct?

The Pope dabbles in slave trading? That's not very holy of him... Then again, God stands among us. He just has to go up to him and ask "oi Pyron, you fine if I do some human traficking?" Maybe God's just kind of a dick...

@TheInfernalPyronandon: Hey kids, God here to tell you slavery's a-ok!

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's also why they rely on other mercenary groups for so much. If not for them, Propater would control even more land.

Well, there isn't much that Amatera can do to improve the Red Army now. They're in a bit of disarray due to a rebellion and Bramimond's final plan.

So the Red Army is a mess already. Really proving it's worth there.

Also, hold on, Brammimond? What's he doing here?

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

"Those who wish to defeat Pyron, come to Cyra! Together, we will use my ultimate spell to stop him once and for all!" With just those words, the great hero managed to inspire so many, huh?

I'll never understand your problem with your grandfather. He's one of the three great heroes from the war against Pyron, a living legend!

This being the war before the World War, which was Corrupt Theocracy. You know, the one that took place centuries ago. Suddenly Evan being 82 doesn't seem so outlandish by comparison. Also, yes, Bramimond in CT was just Bramimond from FE7. He's... different, in this game. You'll see in due time.

What was this spell I wonder?

And his being 82's because......

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Evan is basically like if Gotoh had a grandchild who got so fed up with his shit that he left to explore the world and trashtalk him every chance he got. As Gotoh's biggest hater, I can relate.

Child with an ancester who's severely disconnected from the human realm? Fed up with their sthick to the point they hang around mere mortals? Weirdly sounds like a certain half-demon vampire to me:

I know you just wanna give your little boy the world,

But G-daddy I'm not just your little boy,

I got my own life

I got my own plans

I hope you understand

And like the way that I am

But I don't want your respect, I don't wanna be here,

And I don't want to rule the Cyrasphere.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And his name is Og? Og?! I think we've found SGW's best waifu.

Yes, Commander Gustav!

The OG Rubenio waifu found?

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Well-- AAAARGH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

SO MUCH SCREAMING

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wraith and Sandy were in CT, Wraith being Rath and Sandy being a bad splice of Lyn and Karla. Also, Dexithea doesn't hate nomads, she hates Nomad, the faction. Indeed, it's a faction. Another faction, on top of Amatera, Propater, the Hell Hounds, the Amateran rebels and Cyra. And this isn't even all of them yet!

Leaving all of that aside, Dexithia is... actually not that good. I've seen her called the weakest axe user in the game, and that's probably true, but I mean, female brigand. How can I not use a girl who is so buff that her type is literally just "muscle"? Please. Dexithea focuses on raw stats above all else. Her strength and speed will quickly shoot right through the roof, but her other stats might drag her back.

As for her skills, she starts with:

- Bowbreaker: Remember Mikey's Axebreaker? Same deal. Bows cannot hit her.

Level skills:

- At level 5, Wind Disciple. +20 Hit, +10 avoid and crit when HP is not at max. We'll be hoping for HP levels on this gal.

- At level 10, Spur Strength. +4 strength to adjacent allies. Not as useful as Spur Speed, but it's up there.

In a few words, Dexithea will be a glass cannon and not much else. Limited utility, but compared to her competition, that doesn't really cut it. Still, female brigand. How could I not at least give her a shot? Hah!

So she's a Gonzales, but female and with Wind Disciple and sticking fingers up at bows?

I DEMAND YOU CEASE THIS ATTACK

To the front with her!

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Chunji's tiny. 1.55 meters tall? Poor guy. Gustav towers over him. I bet Chunji could still kick his ass, though, Gustav's kind of a runt. Also, he's Gustav's "top commander"? Does that mean he's Gustav's right hand man, or Gustav's superior? I'm not sure anymore.

He's still subordinate to Gustav here, guess he'll die.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Anyway, here is the nerf that ranged weapons got in this hack. Some games lower their might, others their hit. This game makes them rare, but on top of that, it makes them unable to double. Nobody is going to be eating armies on their lonesome with these things.

So like Fates but without the Spd reduction.

If they're strong enough they might. They can still crit too, though I doubt there's a build that wild here.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Gorgeous villager lady from Fates is correct. Gems in this game got hit hard by inflation or whatever fancy economic term you'd like to use. Blue gems are only worth 1000 gold. Capturing is important!

Money is even more important after all!

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This went about as well as you'd expect. No double, sadly, but...

Hohoho... It begins!

WRAH!

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hahahahaha...! Ahahahahah! Bwahahahah! More power! More! Moooooreeeeee...!

.... This mad man is going to be breaking the game.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Yeah, I don't think I need to say anything, do I? Can you guess what music is playing here?

I came here, in all my beauty, because I heard Gustav the slave trader would be here. I thought he might have one of the rare worren with him, but here he is fighting... all of you it would seem? ...Hmm... probably not the best idea to upset you all, then? A beautiful idea on my part.

So Oliver found a portal to the hackrealms, unlike Ike's supposed finding of outrealms?

He's certainly as clever.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You know, after listening to my beautiful elocution, I've taken a liking to you.

So have I. I'm not sure if I'm hoping you're a one-off joke or a running gag, though... Ahh, who am I kidding-- I wish you'd join me.

Alright, you brought this on yourself:

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's kind of a bad scroll, but hey. Might as well let Ulysses keep it for now. I will probably hand it to Condor next map.

I mean, it does stuff other than Skl and is still a scroll.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hahahahahahah... Og is just an angel, isn't he? Wait, wait-- Whoa, he learns Double Lion at level 10? Interesting bit of information... And what's up with the friggin' capped magic at level 1?

This all screams "playable", but he also has Watchful, which is useless on playables because enemies don't capture, so... Meh. We'll see.

Og, the recruitable?

Let's get Ownward Og!

He's going to be a nuisance until then isn't he?

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Looks like it was only in the dialogue that their roles were reversed, and Gustav really is a captain after all. In any case, Gustav may be a runt, but he's actually way more competent in a fight than Chunji. Mostly thanks to his huge HP pool and this thing:

Yeah... He can be tough to get through, but that white gem is almost worth something, so we want it.

Still taller than Chunji.

Also, all this trouble to get a bit of money.

For the want of money, eh?

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...But first, Condor can go after Og. Pffft... Oohh, poor guy.

RIP Og.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You're just begging me to send you to the bench, aren't you? Admittedly, it's a pretty solid strategy to avoid death by my tactics...

Look, I know, speed is the best stat, but this girl desperately needs damage.

Catherine is disappointed in this swordswoman.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Thanks a lot for nothing, Dorias. Or, well, I suppose he's Dryas now. I'll never get over that, seriously. Every time I type the name Dry Ass I start chuckling like an idiot. Heroes, man... I don't care that you're official, I'll never disgrace that man with such a shitty name.

You'll be unsurprised to hear that there's no guarantee that it won't change.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Really nice!

Looking to be a good unit.

That's one step closer to matching his namesake, now to see him be cleverer than most.

And in the meantime he can still axe questions away.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ahahah, yes! I mean, no power, but speed blessed Evan is the stuff dreams are made of. Plus, defense. He's now almost as sturdy as Condor with a flux tome, only losing out by 3 points of HP.

Absolute wall Evan, enemies won't evan be able to do anything at this rate.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The map does not end with Gustav's defeat, so Dexithea gets to enemy phase the last remaining enemies. She's almost at a level. Remind me to give her the skill scroll before giving her a kill next chapter.

This is your reminder to get Dexithea a scroll.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This wasn't even an accidental blink shot. She closes her eyes as she says this. Amazing. This has to be the weirdest daughter-dad dynamic: The one where dad also calls mom "mommy." Although Alice goes a bit further, as we might find out later on.

I'm a little confused here.

He's not her father right?

And I'm seeing that grin, do I have to get the stick again?

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Okay, so just like that, we find out that Astrea is an orphan, that the leader of Propater murdered her father, that her father was a traitor and that he was also kind of a bastard, seeing how she hates the very idea of turning out like him. All of this in like, two lines, right after the game was fooling around with Ulysses and his mistress. Nice.

Efficiency in exposition won't be this common will it?

Booted up TRS again, still feeling peeved I couldn't find a dialoge list by route split and that the emulator gets stuck on inputs, this is a consistent problem and it's true regardless of keyboard or controller. And it's only TRS by the looks of it.

I also forgot about the Vestaria sale again. Blech.

[Pengaius]

On 3/28/2021 at 3:06 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

  On 3/27/2021 at 1:21 AM, Pengaius said:

Son of a-- How dare you vote for the harshest option in the poll!? Off to a bad start with you, Butterman! When will you learn!?

 Idk whenever you stop losing units I guess. 

Well, X is still not as good as this game. And quit stealing my catchphrases!
Blistering Barnacles! No need to be so rude. 

Damn you, Butterman! Get to it!

Maybe some other time. Maybe....

Fun fact: I hadn't even noticed the blank text until I tried to reply to this line. I was wondering why my text wasn't showing up...

I am so devious

How dare you try to predict what I'll do with the fanfic, I'll kill you!

I love you too Rubie-Wubey

Also, sorry to say but I don't really have anything to say on this game other than the large variety of names will give me ample opportunity to carry out my role. 

Also there's like a 90% chance you play CT as April Fools

[Eltosian Kadath]

Spoiler

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Stop this! Not everything has to be Thracia! Berwick Saga gives you gold too! Tons of gold!

Bah, Berwick has unreliable captures, and actual thing to spend your money on (like mercs and vanity furniture) , neither of which is the case in this hack (so far...).

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

There he is. The man(?) himself.

...that face looks so tacky...Tackiel I dub this abomination..

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

This unit of the Red Army dealt in human trafficking for the pope's work, correct?

If the pope needs slaves for his "work", I worry about what horrifying things he is doing...

 

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Yikes that is a hideous mug...Og is right....

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Don't worry Cap, I've seen firsthand how skilled you are. Your strategies will lead us to victory for sure!

She really looks like a draconic Sue to me, so DracoSue it is...

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Here's the guide I mentioned before. Game over conditions, chapter goals, and a short story recap. Small typo there, but it's nothing important. There's a bit more above the game over condition, but it's not relevant right now.

So, this map! I really like this map. It's very tightly designed. Survival for only 5 turns doesn't sound like much, but you'll need to manage your moves carefully if you want to get all the stuff.

Much as I dislike the no-death loss condition, with a survive objective it makes a bit more sense, as that objective type tends to be a bit toothless otherwise...

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

This chapter serves as your introduction to troop commanders. These guys tend to have leadership stars and be stronger than their peers. How much?

Leadership stars are such a good mechanic... Do any of your troops have/get some?

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Well-- AAAARGH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

Holy shit, this game does not mess around! This bastard will one-shot the entire army. No questions asked. Evan might survive, but we don't want him to face this behemoth at a weapon triangle disadvantage. So what do we do?

Yikes...wait why did they bother giving the no capture skill to a Canto unit? I thought that was a part of the Canto skills, or did I misunderstand that earlier explanation?

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

...sigh now that they are playable I guess I should give a name to these two shouldn't I... Well with chest hair like that lets go with Wolf-Man, and with scars like that how could I not go with Scar.

 

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

ewww smoking as a like...

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

I trained with the lance every day, but when the time came... All the pegasi had fled Merv because of the Mana Plague.

Wait, that is a GBA version of the classic Fates village girl that Soleil hits on...and of course that is going to be all of the generic faces now...

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

This applies to the gameplay. You will find no pegasus knights with physical weapons. They're all mages now. Which... honestly, I find to be really cool. Flying mages? Sign me the fuck up!

I kinda hope they have Wyverns to be the exclusively physical flyers as a contrast.

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In retrospect, I could've left our scroll with Relina so she could hand it over to these two, but it's too late for that now.

 

Hindsight is such a harsh thing in Ironmans...

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

T... That is... Condor, c'mon! You've gotta keep up, I need you to support Lex so we can watch the greatest bit of dialogue in this whole goddamned game! If you're terrible, it'll feel like a waste!

Just look at the edginess of that armor, and empty dark eye slots... these are the kinda level-ups he deserves.

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yang takes a mighty blow, but in return...

Ahahahahahah! Flashbang warfare is back! Not a proper flashbang, though. You can still see the HUD and everything.

Even a lucky crit in return, there is some luck in this run, but it certainly hasn't been in the level-ups...

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh, what's this? You see, Yang has Canto+. Canto+ is obtained by a few tier 3 mounts, and it's basically Genealogy canto. You just move after you act, no questions asked. Most notably, Lex used to get this when promoting to tier 3, which was just ridiculous. He could dash forward, kill someone, trigger Galeforce, kill someone else and then retreat to safety. Gaining only regular Canto when promoting is, as far as I know, the only nerf Lex ever received, and hey, to be fair, it is a quite significant one.

HE HAD CANTO+ BEFORE....man this hack works hard to make that archer great with bonkers skills...

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Anyway, here is the nerf that ranged weapons got in this hack. Some games lower their might, others their hit. This game makes them rare, but on top of that, it makes them unable to double. Nobody is going to be eating armies on their lonesome with these things.

Well that a key part of the nerf Fates gave it, which is generally a good sign...

 

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

...Yeah, I don't think I need to say anything, do I? Can you guess what music is playing here?

They even dragged Oliver into this hack...and of course he is buying slaves in this one too...

I feel this classic quote from Sephiram fits any appearance of the man

Spoiler

Sephiran: I confess that your presence has me bewildered. Could this be part of Yune’s plan? I simply never would have imagined you here. Your presence proves that Tellius is unravelling at the seams. Judgement cannot come soon enough.

 

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Hahahahahahah... Og is just an angel, isn't he? Wait, wait-- Whoa, he learns Double Lion at level 10? Interesting bit of information... And what's up with the friggin' capped magic at level 1?

This all screams "playable", but he also has Watchful, which is useless on playables because enemies don't capture, so... Meh. We'll see.

...Hmmm...I kinda hope this is going in the direction I think it is, with him being a recurring villain that will level-up with each appearance (maybe leveling more if he escapes a map instead of being dirven off by "killing" him), and gaining those skills as he goes.

 

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

This woman, though. This woman needs to die before we fight Gustav. Just underneath the Sagittae description is a mend staff. We cannot let that happen. Plus, 34 magic damage at increased range is not something we want to take. She has this skill that partially protects her from crits, but with 2 defense it doesn't even matter.

Even the nameless generic commanders have the no capture skill...ugh. I wonder if this was a quick and/or dirty fix to Leadership Star bonuses not going away if they are captured instead of killed...

 

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Thanks a lot for nothing, Dorias. Or, well, I suppose he's Dryas now. I'll never get over that, seriously. Every time I type the name Dry Ass I start chuckling like an idiot. Heroes, man... I don't care that you're official, I'll never disgrace that man with such a shitty name.

Bah, Heroes names are only official when the units are actually in the game, as they have changed the CYL voting names multiple times...

 

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Okay, enough fooling around. Here's the plan: Since he has Nihil, Yin negates Wary Fighter.

Huh, this version of Nihil works on Wary Fighter...that is interesting...does it stop other passive skills too...I wonder...does it prevent Canto+?

 

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

STOP! MY SILVER SWORD!

Wait, don't skills that grant extra attacks not expend weapon uses?

 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

This wasn't even an accidental blink shot. She closes her eyes as she says this. Amazing. This has to be the weirdest daughter-dad dynamic: The one where dad also calls mom "mommy." Although Alice goes a bit further, as we might find out later on.

...yeah this is such an uncomfortable thing to hear a daughter say about her mother...

 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

That's a feeling that's completely understandable, Astrea. What that bastard did is unforgivable.

 

I kinda hope this is setting up a future reveal where we find out why her father "betrayed" them (or is Garrison the REAL traitor?).

 

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Part 3 - Goddamnit, boss.

Pliers:

Spoiler

On 3/30/2021 at 12:28 AM, Dayni said:

  Hide contents

 I mean, more than a few would, judging by the fanatics in the Senate.

But the entire nation?

Nice

Very.

....Yes.

Oof...

Pain is seeing Pent get S staves.

Paint.

PFFFFFT

WHAT IS THAT? It's like it's a symbol for a brand of anti-virus! I don't want to worship so much as uninstall it and get something halfway decent instead.

Hahahahahahahaha... That's the greatest description. Turns out Pyron is Protegent.

So you're saying the Zephiel knockoff was let be in the position to do this?

Man this world is not safe, let's go to Vestaria.

Not again! I will NOT transcribe the banquet scene! You can stop trying!

Yang's the Lloyd, Yin's the Linus?

Hah! The other way around, actually. I think.

Man his right eye's seen better days.

He's definitely high on something.

Mr Garrison at Pyron:

"You go to hell! You go to hell and you die!"

Garrison really do be trying to send God to Hell.

@TheInfernalPyronandon: Hey kids, God here to tell you slavery's a-ok!

I don't like the cut of his jib.

I do. He's way hotter than you are.

That better be nothing more than a pun.

In your dreams.

So the Red Army is a mess already. Really proving it's worth there.

It proved its worth well enough when one of its higher-ups died in the prologue.

Also, hold on, Brammimond? What's he doing here?

One can only wonder...

What was this spell I wonder?

What will this spell be. We'll find out in due time.

And his being 82's because......

Patience, once again.

Child with an ancester who's severely disconnected from the human realm? Fed up with their sthick to the point they hang around mere mortals? Weirdly sounds like a certain half-demon vampire to me:

I know you just wanna give your little boy the world,

But G-daddy I'm not just your little boy,

I got my own life

I got my own plans

I hope you understand

And like the way that I am

But I don't want your respect, I don't wanna be here,

And I don't want to rule the Cyrasphere.

Hahahahaha... I don't get the reference, but I like it.

The OG Rubenio waifu found?

Oh please. Hahahahah! Fucking hell, what a pun.

SO MUCH SCREAMING

Okay that scream is just amazing. It sounds so weird, too. Like it has no beginning or end, it just... is.

So she's a Gonzales, but female and with Wind Disciple and sticking fingers up at bows?

Yes.

I DEMAND YOU CEASE THIS ATTACK

Hey, at some point I need to pretend to be objective, don't I?

To the front with her!

You needn't ask twice!

He's still subordinate to Gustav here, guess he'll die.

He's the only one so far, too. Even Og lived where he did not. #JusticeForChunji.

So like Fates but without the Spd reduction.

More or less, yes.

If they're strong enough they might. They can still crit too, though I doubt there's a build that wild here.

If Evan could use javelins... But Evan gets magic instead, which is just plain better.

Money is even more important after all!

Thanks, Moneyman, for your ever-relevant lessons!

WRAH!

She does learn Wrath, yes. It's the first skill of the brigand classline.

.... This mad man is going to be breaking the game.

Is he ever.

Unless I get him killed. Wouldn't be surprised, me being me.

So Oliver found a portal to the hackrealms, unlike Ike's supposed finding of outrealms?

He's certainly as clever.

Hahahahaha... Honestly, I think the hackrealms got the better man. Ike is boring.

Alright, you brought this on yourself:

C'mon, at this point you've sent me there so many times that I'm friends with all the guards.

I mean, it does stuff other than Skl and is still a scroll.

True enough. 5% speed is still speed.

Og, the recruitable?

Maybe.

Let's get Ownward Og!

Hahahahah...

He's going to be a nuisance until then isn't he?

Maybe.

Still taller than Chunji.

R.I.P.

Also, all this trouble to get a bit of money.

For the want of money, eh?

Money is good!

RIP Og.

May he rest in pieces until next we meet.

Catherine is disappointed in this swordswoman.

I am, too. Especially given her competition...

You'll be unsurprised to hear that there's no guarantee that it won't change.

Even if it does, you can rest assured that I'll use Dry Ass every time I want to diss the man.

Looking to be a good unit.

Or a benchwarmer.

That's one step closer to matching his namesake, now to see him be cleverer than most.

And in the meantime he can still axe questions away.

Hah!

Absolute wall Evan, enemies won't evan be able to do anything at this rate.

Yes. It begins. The puns...!

This is your reminder to get Dexithea a scroll.

Thanks. Little late, but I did remember to do it.

I'm a little confused here.

He's not her father right?

Nah. He's just her mother's current... partner is the nice way to put it.

And I'm seeing that grin, do I have to get the stick again?

Do I have to tell you where you can stick that stick?

Efficiency in exposition won't be this common will it?

Not really. But eh.

Booted up TRS again, still feeling peeved I couldn't find a dialoge list by route split and that the emulator gets stuck on inputs, this is a consistent problem and it's true regardless of keyboard or controller. And it's only TRS by the looks of it.

Yeah, unfortunately that's a TRS problem. Nothing to do about it, just activate fast-forward.

I also forgot about the Vestaria sale again. Blech.

Damn you! Get Vestaria Saga already! Aren't you the one who keeps hounding me about it!?

 

On 3/30/2021 at 2:00 AM, Pengaius said:

On 3/28/2021 at 4:06 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

  On 3/27/2021 at 1:21 AM, Pengaius said:

 Idk whenever you stop losing units I guess.

You are utterly despicable.

Blistering Barnacles! No need to be so rude. 

I should be saying that!

Maybe some other time. Maybe....

Sure, no rush. It's not like I enjoy your LP or anything, anyway.

I am so devious

Yes, and the sky is still blue.

I love you too Rubie-Wubey

Butterman...!

Also, sorry to say but I don't really have anything to say on this game other than the large variety of names will give me ample opportunity to carry out my role. 

What!? I hate you, Butterman! I had nothing to say about Pocketmonster: Invasion either, but I at least tried! This is no longer big brain Kaga game, Butterman! Even you should understand a GBAFE hack!

Also there's like a 90% chance you play CT as April Fools

Only I know what I'll do for April Fools.

 

On 3/30/2021 at 12:43 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

  Hide contents

Bah, Berwick has unreliable captures, and actual thing to spend your money on (like mercs and vanity furniture) , neither of which is the case in this hack (so far...).

Is that a... lightly dismissive tone I detect in your description of Berwick?

I'll have you know, around these parts words like that might get you hurt. Severely.

...that face looks so tacky...Tackiel I dub this abomination..

Tackiel! Ahahahahaha! Honestly, it fits him. Pyron isn't the most serious of villains.

If the pope needs slaves for his "work", I worry about what horrifying things he is doing...

Just you wait until you see the man's face...

...Yikes that is a hideous mug...Og is right....

How dare you! That right there is the sexiest male alive in this continent!

She really looks like a draconic Sue to me, so DracoSue it is...

I will continue to refer to her as Female Brigand, thank you very much.

Much as I dislike the no-death loss condition, with a survive objective it makes a bit more sense, as that objective type tends to be a bit toothless otherwise...

That is true.

Leadership stars are such a good mechanic...

Especially in Radiant Dawn, where they only exist to ruin the difficulty of Ike's parts.

In all seriousness, Thracia leadership stars are one of those mechanics that are really good on paper, but in practice I tend to completely forget about them. Except when Saias is involved. That's when they really become noticeable.

Do any of your troops have/get some?

Astrea has one. Yin and Yang both had 2. One of this map's guests also has 2. Not this chapter, but the next we'll get another permanent unit with one.

Yikes...wait why did they bother giving the no capture skill to a Canto unit? I thought that was a part of the Canto skills, or did I misunderstand that earlier explanation?

No, no, you were right. I suppose Blademaster just made a minor whoopsie there.

...sigh now that they are playable I guess I should give a name to these two shouldn't I... Well with chest hair like that lets go with Wolf-Man, and with scars like that how could I not go with Scar.

Wolfman and Scar. Amazing.

ewww smoking as a like...

Maybe she just likes being smoking hot?

Yeah. Let's go with that. I will preserve the purity of Female Brigand. By, uh... By being a filthy pervert.

Wait, that is a GBA version of the classic Fates village girl that Soleil hits on...

She is rather lovely.

and of course that is going to be all of the generic faces now...

You got any better ideas? If you've got a hideous old man I can use...

I kinda hope they have Wyverns to be the exclusively physical flyers as a contrast.

Unfortunately that is only the case for the first two tiers. Tier 3 wyverns get a bit of magic. To be fair, however, they're far worse than peggies at it. Most of them, anyway.

Still, fairly certain enemy wyverns never use magic, ever.

Hindsight is such a harsh thing in Ironmans...

You can say that again.

Just look at the edginess of that armor, and empty dark eye slots... these are the kinda level-ups he deserves.

This is going to be so ironic in the future. If he lives, of course.

Even a lucky crit in return, there is some luck in this run, but it certainly hasn't been in the level-ups...

Well, hey. Spare me some luck, okay? I think I deserve not to lose miserably immediately.

HE HAD CANTO+ BEFORE....man this hack works hard to make that archer great with bonkers skills...

Even with the nerf he's still the best unit in the game.

Well that a key part of the nerf Fates gave it, which is generally a good sign...

Very.

They even dragged Oliver into this hack...and of course he is buying slaves in this one too...

I feel this classic quote from Sephiram fits any appearance of the man

  Hide contents

Sephiran: I confess that your presence has me bewildered. Could this be part of Yune’s plan? I simply never would have imagined you here. Your presence proves that Tellius is unravelling at the seams. Judgement cannot come soon enough.

I love all of Oliver's dialogue in Radiant Dawn. Everyone is just baffled by his presence. Heck, even with RD's skewed support dialogue, the guy still gets hilarious conversations with people.

...Hmmm...I kinda hope this is going in the direction I think it is, with him being a recurring villain that will level-up with each appearance (maybe leveling more if he escapes a map instead of being dirven off by "killing" him), and gaining those skills as he goes.

Perhaps. We shall see.

Even the nameless generic commanders have the no capture skill...ugh. I wonder if this was a quick and/or dirty fix to Leadership Star bonuses not going away if they are captured instead of killed...

I think it's more like, commanders tend to have superior gear, and the game would rather not hand that over to us this soon. Come to think about it, however, it's possible that your suggestion is correct as well. Once they're released, captured enemies disappear, but they're technically still alive when being held.

Bah, Heroes names are only official when the units are actually in the game, as they have changed the CYL voting names multiple times...

I know, but still. Dry Ass. Why did they have to do that?

Huh, this version of Nihil works on Wary Fighter...that is interesting...does it stop other passive skills too...I wonder...does it prevent Canto+?

I'm not sure, actually. It prevents most skills, but I do know there are some exceptions.

I know, not the most precise of explanations. We'll see, I suppose.

Wait, don't skills that grant extra attacks not expend weapon uses?

...Yeah. That's true. I completely forgot. Hah!

...yeah this is such an uncomfortable thing to hear a daughter say about her mother...

Hey, Astrea just knows better than to kinkshame her mother.

I kinda hope this is setting up a future reveal where we find out why her father "betrayed" them (or is Garrison the REAL traitor?).

Good guesses. I suppose it's not too much of a spoiler to say that, yes, this plot point will be explored in the future. Beyond that, though, you'll have to wait.

 

 

Updatt:

Spoiler

Last time, we beat up slavers. Today...

We find said slavers licking their wounds.

Yes, it looks like they and Propater have now departed. A small defeat like this is no problem for the Red Army, but I'm sure Kuroth isn't happy that we failed him...

We can't stay in Merv any longer. We'll need to make our way to the border and get protection. Best we get moving before that freak shows up.

They attempt to get moving, but...

Oh dear.

That's Kuroth. I'm not sure what's up with those lines next to his mouth. Is that supposed to be a thin mustache? Kuroth, my man, it does not suit you at all.

Kuroth?!

Gustav. I am quite hurt at your words just now. You think of me a freak? You fear me so much you would flee the country?

K-K-Kuroth, sir, he didn't mean any disrespect by wha-

You will speak when spoken to.

...

Yeah... You should stay out of sight, Og. That guy looks mean, but right now his attention is on your asshole of a boss. Let it stay there.

Master, shall I dispose of the spare?

Dispose? We are not disposing of anyone.

(X) Doubt.

...What is it you would like to discuss?

You expect me to answer you when you have not answered me yet?

I was in a fit of panic and spoke out of turn. I'm sorry if I have offended you, Kuroth.

I understand, my friend.

Oh. Well. Maybe this really will be just a friendly chat after all.

And now to answer your question. You've failed me again, haven't you Gustav?

That is correct.

Hahahahahahah... I love how honest he is about it. He knows there's no point in trying to weasel his way out.

Slaves are important to my work, Gustav. As I roam Merv and expand my territory, they till the land for me. Their work allows me to progress and your failure delays that.

I want to show you something, Gustav. Something you never learned.

 

O-Okay... So this is why everyone keeps calling him a "dog freak"...

So you've trained your pets to put their hands in yours. Is this really that important?

This is loyalty, Gustav. It is very hard to come by, and most will not give it to you willingly. To me, there is nothing more valuable than this. A dog that obeys his master. If I say paw, they give me their hand. If I say kill, they kill for me. It is not fear or greed that will drive them to do so.

You have been given too many chances and have failed too often. A good owner knows when to put their pet out of their misery.

Okay! This is starting to escalate!

This is all just a sick game to you, isn't it? You're nothing but a dog yourself, scared of your master, Pyron!

Dude! You complete and absolute moron, don't insult him! That almost ended your life five minutes ago, and you want to try it again!?

I obey Father out of love.

Oh, that's Pyron's son? I... I don't see it, I mean, where are the horns? Maybe that's what the lines next to his nose are...

That is a bond that goes beyond loyalty or trust. To insult the precious bond I share with my father... This will not be forgiven.

 

Oh yeah. Sure. I think Gustav stands a chance to win this.

The Hell Hound bosses tend to use this theme.

See, the title is relevant because Gustav is in the middle of suffering an mental crisis. I cannot imagine what else could've prompted him to attack Kuroth. I mean, c'mon man, you've got a horse. At least try to run away...

And now he's suffering a physical crisis for his hubris.

Bye bossman. You were... someone.

That guy looks like Caelach!

Please, don't kill me!

Kill you? Without having ever even trained you? Hmm... I think you fail to notice the potential that lies within you. Lynch, we have need of someone like this, yes?

Indeed. We have been looking to raise a child like you.

All right, so now they're... forcefully adopting Og? Well, I'm not about to question it.

Gustav was a failure, but I see much potential in you. I am always willing to give the abandoned a new shot at life.

Oh, believe me, boy. You never will. What's our next move, my love?

My brother is almost done with his mission. By the time it is finished, Propater will no longer be a threat to us.

Oh, c'mon. Don't be like that. What did we ever do to you?

Suddenly, a random field! This will be our introduction to the famous Merv Five. Yin and Yang are there as green units. Kuroth is also there with his Hawkeye berserker sprite. The others we haven't met.

Merv is the largest country in Chicomoztoc, and the home of pure humans. It is a country with no governing body and instead houses numerous tribes and an informal group of the five strongest fighters known as the Merv Five. This group normally would have massive influence over Merv's populace, however, since Pyron's invasion and the spread of a horrific plague, Merv had become a true lawless arena where only the strong can survive.

This will be the theme for today's chapter.

Hello, you two.

They tell us that we need to kill a boss, and then another boss to end the map.

Ahh, there's the next mechanic. This game rewards and penalizes you for going fast and slow, respectively. I like it, it's a nice anti-turtling mechanic that doesn't rely on spawning a shitton of invincible enemies like other hacks out there. Helps that this map's games are well-designed enough that even a slow player like myself can pull it off.

As I've said before, in prior versions you had to reset and go back to this scene to check the requirements again. But now there's a guide, so there's no need for that. Handy!

And with that, it's time to check on our heroes! Yin and Yang are gone, but we've got two different guys in exchange.

Pouty Bartre overthere is Beige, neither whose hair nor clothes are beige (is that sentence correct? Not entirely sure). Behind Astrea is Sol, her boyfriend.

Yes. With the food and weapons we've retrieved from here, we should be more than ready for the oncoming battle.

Good. It's important we have these supplies for next week.

At last. All our preparation these last few days has been for this. They say that the pope's son, Ozmu, is in charge of this lab. You have to wonder, what will be inside?

Nothing good will be in there, I can say that much. The stories I've heard from who we've rescued from there... They aren't pleasant. Especially for the true dragons of Ryu.

While some dragons can transform once again with Pyron back, others haven't been as lucky. And what Ozmu does to them to find out why... I wouldn't want to say around you, love.

Hah! Screw you, Sol, Astrea ain't no damisel.

Well, I'd rather not think about this while we're at home camp. We can still rest here for a few more days and relax with...?

Are those... bandits? Out here?

Must be a desperate group not well versed in this region's territory. Heh, the scars of the Mana Plague still show themselves, I see.

I caught the Mana Plague as a girl around here as well.

The game doesn't even pretend for a moment that the brigands are a relevant force. So instead, we're getting Astrea's backstory.

A disease that eats away at one's life force mana, that killed so many. People, plants, animals... nothing was spared once they got it.

Thanks, love. We can chat more later. For now, time to get to work everyone! We can use the church to fully heal and graves to help avoid our foes!

Spoiler alert: I never stepped on a grave tile. Not even once.

Let's show these bandits what happens to those dumb enough to attack Propater!

Meanwhile, those dumb enough to attack Propater...

I am fairly certain that this is the only boss in the entire game that's just a reused portrait from an official FE. Some generics are recycled portraits too, but none of them actually appear on the field of battle.

EDIT: Ruben from the future here! I just checked, and as it turns out, this is an edited portrait, actually. The head is the same, but his body is different. Neat.

But boss! Are you sure it's a good idea to attack here without Fang?

We both lead this team, my concerned ally. If I say we can do it, we're good to go! We took extra care to attack when none of the Sub-Commanders would be around.

? But boss, they say Sol, the Gold Knight, Sub-Commander of the Second Division is here.

Gold knight, eh? Do you think his armor is made out of gold?!

I need to use this. It feels like a perfect reaction image.

Our troops scatter around. Annoyingly enough, Condor stays back even though this map is outdoors.

Cartography time. This is apparently Astrea's home when she's not up and about. Longer map than the rest, but we'll have little reason to venture beyond the cliff line. Simple affair this time around - we've got a few villages to protect/visit, a whole bunch of enemies to kill/capture, and not much else.

They're all muscle types, too, so they'll fall like fleas to our muscle-effective weaponry. The boss will charge at us after a few turns. We'll want to kill him sooner than later, because...

The fast clear is under 8 turns. That means we must end the map on turn 7, if it isn't clear enough. Halberd will be quite nifty in the next map.

No permanent units have joined us today. Only more guests. Don't worry, this trend will stop next chapter, when we'll get a whole bunch of permanents to talk about. For now, however, let's talk about Boyfriend. Sol could solo the entire map, but with 6 defense he might need a bit of help to survive if the RNGoddess isn't feeling kind today. Plus, we want the experience.

He also carries one of the best swords in the game, the Fire Sword. It's even more awesome than in Thracia - not only does it increase your magic on top of having huge might, it also eats cavaliers for breakfast! Unfortunately, I don't think Astrea can use it yet, but as soon as she can... Heh, riders will cower in fear before her!

Beige is... honestly kinda shit. He can do a little bit of damage to enemies, but... frankly, I think I'm just going to send him to visit the eastern village, since it's far out of the way and he has big movement.

One more tidbit before we get to play: These bandits are in search of food and water. Why did I point this out? No reason, I just like this description. These aren't your typical gold-obsessed idiots, they're just desperate folks. Well, except for their leader, of course.

Time for some action! First order of business... Uhh, read more text.

Goddamnit, Jake! I don't want to extract your portrait, but if I just use the gorgeous Fates villager for both of you it'll be confusing... Ahh, I'll figure something out.

And Anna's here too!

Anna and I will occasionally show up during chapters to give some hints.

I'll usually give a hint about a future event.

And I'll explain the hint Anna gave at a previous meeting.

Cute gimmick.

This is the first time we've met, so I don't have much to say!

As for me, there's a certain soldier you'll face down the road tied to the church.

You will never lose out on anything if he lives or dies. It can be a bit tough to kill him at times and easier at others. For the first time you meet him, don't worry if he lives or dies. The reward is the same either way.

And that's all for this meeting!

That guy does make for a pretty interesting gimmick. You see, though it may not look like it after Gustav and Og's retreating last chapter, this game features a bunch of recurring bosses that can die at different points of the story. Very few Huberts in this game. They tend to not have the biggest roles, but their deaths will somewhat change the story going forward. This soldier that Anna spoke of is by far the most impactful in both story and gameplay, but there are others.

I was a bit torn, because on the one hand I'd like to show that guy's involvement in the story in full, but on the other hand, the reward for killing him early (first or second appearance) is the one that I want. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure his biggest scenes are early on, so we can kill him on his second appearance. Although killing him early is difficult, so on the off chance that I have the opportunity, I'd take the bragging rights. Ah, we'll see.

Anyway, as I said, Beige will go and get that village. It looks to be in no immediate danger, but brigands know how to swim. Meanwhile, Sol will head south with us.

Aaaaaand it's time to visit. Yet again. Sorry.

Oi! What're ya doing here? You're supposed to be handling the convoy!

It's quite effective against armored foes like some of those bandits. Show them what happens when you attack Propater's home!

Armorslayer got. See how long it'll take me to remember to use it on armored enemies.

Ulysses hands over the Ulir Scroll to Astrea. I'm going to try to give it to Condor as soon as possible.

I don't want Dexithea to get a level just yet. First she needs that skill scroll. Thus, Evan goes ahead and murders a person. 99% chance to crit on a double. Hell fucking yeah. Thanks, PCC!

He didn't need it.

That's enough action. Time for even more text.

The Mana Plague killed and injured so many... But there were some good things that came out of it. People get sick much less often now, and medicines are stronger than ever. Here, take this one and see for yourself!

Thanks.

Not looking bad. Evan at the front of everyone, as he should be.

He can still take damage from things. This should change soon enough. Unfortunately, he neither doubled nor critted either of these brigands.

Relina and Ulysses confront enemies at WTD. Relina's foe dies.

Time to advance. Condor, get us started!

Uhh, neat!

Lex finishes and triggers Best Skill.

Hwahahahahah... This is Lex, folks. This is Lex in a nutshel. Sure, he might need a bit of help for the time being, but this is still two enemies dead in one turn by his hand. It's like he has his own personal dancer at all times. How wonderful.

Evan retreats a bit to heal at the church. He can support Lex, but I don't think so. Not yet, anyway.

EDIT: Hey, Ruben from the future here! Once again! I've decided they will, in fact, support next chapter. Lex and Condor are going A, no questions asked, and Evan has someone else to go A with; but even so, having the best two units in the game support is not something to be taken so lightly.

Dexithea picks up the skill scroll. Now she's ready, and that deserter Ulysses softened up is still alive...

To wrap things up, Beige pays the remaining locals a visit.

Another familiar face. She's... apologizing for being unable to join us. What a flying shame. Oh well, another time, then.

Take this scroll I have. It was given to me by my parents.

I have no idea who that girl's parents are. There's a whole bunch of characters in this game who are sons and daughters of CT characters, but it doesn't come up as often for most of them.

That's going to Condor too. I want Condor to start growing well. Because bow armor Derrick. I want that on my team. I need that on my team.

Hah. What's wrong? No more villages across the lake to plunder? Sucks to be you!

Uuuurgh...! I expected this, of course. Ulysses would've pulverized this idiot. Astrea stood a better chance of leaving him alive for Dexithea.

Very nice! Defense blessed Astrea? Don't mind if I do!

That's... more enemies than I'd like.

Evan gets us started on one of the lancers.

Relina demolishes another one.

Dexithea caves in the skull of the one near Astrea.

Good, good! Putting that skill scroll to good use already!

I'm taking a bit of a risk here. Astrea could die very easily here. But I've got a plan.

First, pin this woman to the ground.

Second, Mahtipati this shirtless gentleman.

Third-- God fucking damnit! Lex cannot use the steel bow, and Condor cannot reach. Bad news.

Well, never mind. Let's begin the best support chain.

But of course. As allies in the same army, we meet quite often.

So it seems. Condor, you are the only one in this army I deem worthy. Worthy to be my own rival!

How can you be MY rival if I am you, but better?

I see. Yes, I see. Truly, for all truth in this world, I see.

I need to steal this line. It's just glorious. Lex is such a dork...

...

Your silence may frighten others, my armored friend, but know that I have the courage to take on your challenging presence any time!

Interesting reaction.

Nonsense! A masked knight is always something to be feared! The mere sight of one sends people off in terror!

...I'm going to go now.

? I've never seen him so dejected before.

How would you even know it? You can't see his face!

A thousand thundering blistering barnacles! Not enough to kill!

Fine. Sol can do it. Hello, golden Cloud.

He does a couple swings, but I didn't feel like recording a gif, so this is it.

That was a capture. Lex relieves him of his bow, but isn't fat enough to rescuedrop him.

To wrap up the turn, Beige visits one of the text houses on his way down.

But I hear that you can't capture monsters or foes with Canto. And while you can't capture dragons, you can capture manaketes!

Couple enemies can reach Ulysses, but I am fairly certain that he won't die.

...even if he's extremely slowed down by the Mahtipati... Hmm. Surely I won't lose this early on. Surely it cannot happen...

Ah, shit, the boss! Phew, that could've been bad...

Utterly pathetic. He would've doubled, but of course, Ulysses struck first. And second.

Very neat.

Hah! Idiot! You hurt yourself!

I don't know what I was worried about. Sure, she doubled, but I mean...

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH

I've got to admit, my heart stopped for a moment here. Fortunately, the asshole was too slow to double Lex.

Katherin finally has a chance to join the action. Not too bad, effective weaponry goes a long way.

Condor downs another foe.

Not willing to be left behind by his bitter rival, Lex follows suit. Of course, if someone's getting left behind, that's Condor, but I still believe in him. Plus, he has one distinct advantage over Lex: Lex will never gain melee weapons. Condor will. One way or another, I'm making him work.

...Or, y'know, he'll die. I'm... I'm seriously hoping it does not come to that.

Sheesh, this guy!

Armored brigands, huh... I haven't seen these since The Last Promise. There were... actually, only like three of them in that game. Pretty sure they were never seen again after chapter 3.

Unfortunately, he's too buff for his own good. Relina, at him!

Ded!

What a... peculiar level up. And where the hell are my movement gains? C'mon, guys, you've had enough chances!

Dexithea cannot reach anybody, so she helps Sol out with the captive.

Sol will head east.

Sol procced Sol. Hilarious.

Okay. We're mostly in the clear. Had a bit of a fright there, but otherwise, all is going smoothly.

...You...!

Eyy, Ulysses wounded the boss with his skill! Quite nice.

Beige gets to participate in the action. He softens up this Female Brigand for Astrea to kill.

Nothing left but deal with the boss.

The boss is really bad.

To begin, Lex shoots him.

He really, really likes gold, doesn't he?

Well.

Let's see if he gives out rich levels.

If this guy or Evan die I am going to cry my eyes out.

Speaking of. I could use flux to build up dark weapon level, but then he'd have a small chance of failure. And that would kill Lex. I won't accept it. Even a 1% is too high.

So instead we're killing him with the 81 crit tome.

Dedicated to his greed, even to the bitter end. Good riddance.

AA-AaaA... Ack...ckaaaaa...!

Apologies. I think my heart skipped 7 beats.

Speed blessed Evan. Let's fucking go.

Nothing to do now but wait for the second boss.

There he is!

Unlike his fellow bandit leader, Fang is more pragmatic. He's interested in continuing to live, rather than dying rich.

At last, our suffering will soon be over!

He has a retinue composed of regular brigands, as well as this. I'm not even going to wait for them. We only have a couple more turns to kill...

Hoo, boy. That's more like it. 15 speed will allow him to double most of the team, though he will lose the boost when he's knocked below max HP. He also has Insight, so he'll be super accurate in spite of his brigandness. All in all, relatively scary foe.

I think Ulysses will take him on. Evan would erase him, and Evan doesn't need two bosses worth of experience.

There we go. While that is happening...

Katherin pays a visit to another one of the locals.

The female mage line always uses wind anima magic. The arcanist line always uses fire anima magic. The male mage line always uses thunder anima magic. The cleric line always uses light magic. The shaman line always uses dark magic. But the witch line is the only exception. Witches only use fire anima magic. Seraphs only use dark magic. And Bellerophons only use light magic.

I hear they all use dark magic, but my knowledge is only limited to bigl.

Convenient detail, but unnecessary, given the fact that you can see a unit's inventory from the map. I imagine this is a remnant from before these QoL patches were implemented to the game. Still, I appreciate the consistency.

Anyway-- Holy fucking shit!

That guy is standing on a store. I want to visit the store. But this isn't an encounter I want to brave...

...I should not try this. I cannot try this. This has death written all over it. Even if it's a temp character, I don't wanna reset. Not this soon. Not like this. Not with those levels.

...But...

......

...Nnnrg....gghhhhAAAAHH FINE

C'mon, it's a 21% chance and he has to land both. Surely even I cannot get this unlucky?

C'MON! C'MON! COME THE FUCK ON! YOU'VE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME! FUCK OFF!

Jeeeeeessuuuuuss fucking... Oohhhh, why do I do these things to myself...

Nice, let's go. It's over now.

As custom crit animations tend to be like, Sol strikes at his opponent a whole bunch.

Then he floats for a second while his sword glows, and...

Kapow!

That's worth 1000.

Beige can check out the store. But first, he grabs the blue gem we got last chapter.

4000 gold. Not bad. Let's see how much we can afford.

Not much at all, as it turns out, but enough. Sagittae is a really good spell, and having an early tome of it for Evan will be quite the asset. Elwind is mostly just for future recruits. Could've grabbed an Elthunder too, but there was little need.

Okay, nothing more to do but wait for the boss to bring himself to us.

Yes, we've got some most delectable steel for you. Come closer.

Ow.

You know what? We've another turn left before the halberd timer runs out. Condor cannot reach, so let's pull Fang further north and feed the boss kill to him.

That works.

You lot are very late.

Before we go, let's visit some more houses.

Defeating such a commander can greatly weaken the morale of your foes. But of course, the same can happen to you if you aren't careful.

He isn't considered part of the Merv Five since many think it's unfair to put him on their level. After all, Yin and Yang joined Propater when he beat them both in battle. And that was done at the same time, mind you! But what makes him most famous is that he almost defeated Pyron 17 years ago. Even Pyron's general, Ronald, is supposedly afraid to fight him! But if only Garrison could do something about that Monster King... His strength caps at humans, sadly. Dragons are another matter.

That's... a ton of information from a random house.

Anyway, I pray you won't hate me too much for breaking the ironman like this, but I've rewinded so we can check out the last house. I mean, it's not like I'm getting any advantage out of them. I know all of this already.

they don't exist in Merv thankfully. I hear the Holy Republic has had a bunch of problems with bael. Even they can't fully control those things. Just what was Pyron thinking releasing them into the land?

Pyron's... Pyron's kind of a moron, to be honest.

Okay, let's soften up-- Oh, c'mon! You've gotta be kidding me. 21% chance not to crit, and he pulls it off? Evan!

Fine, Astrea will help too.

It is over.

Yup.

 

I mean, you could've just... y'know, asked. You're the ones who attacked first. Could've tried negotiating.

Well. It's better than all the ones he's been getting.

Now he can rally skill. Neato.

Especially our own home at that. Not even Pyron is that dumb.

There is little to no food or water in most of Merv. The Red Army uses up too much of it, and Kuroth has too much control over fresh water and hunting land.

As much as we'd like to help people like this, we barely have the resources ourselves. To feed an army is no easy task. Maybe I'll talk about this more with Ren.

The plight of the common man. Not easy to be a regular person living in a lawless land with people like us and the dog freak running around.

I'm off to meet her now.

Ah yes, we're meeting with Ren. I hear she accomplished quite the feat recently, but I don't believe it.

Donovan was the main character of Corrupt Theocracy. He was a prostitute. That was the full extent of his character.

Supposedly, the Second Division will be taking him and his wife in. And then Bella will join the First Division to even things out.

That means us! We'll meet this Bella next update.

Donovan disappeared twenty-five years ago to explore lands beyond this one and never returned. Until now, that is. Makes you wonder why he's back.

One of the great, if not the greatest, heroes of the World War... I wonder what he's like?

Mikey, Ben, my two good friends and training buddies!

C'mon, not training. Don't do me like FE12, Sun God's Wrath.

It's good to have the gang all together once again!

Is it ever! Come with us, Beige! I just spoke with Donovan! He said he'd join the three of us for our usual group training!

Well, won't that be a treat? Come, my friend. Let's go train like we always do!

Of course, Mikey! Training with you and Ben is always a good time.

Training! Yes, training! Training is awesome! You guys would be good friends with Kris. And that's not a compliment.

I'm fine, love. Do I look troubled to you?

I wouldn't say you look troubled, but you have something on your mind.

Well, being home reminds me of when we first met. You were about six then, and I was only seven. My parents left me here, but you always played with me. I still spoke with my father at times, but my mother was long dead. To me, you were like family. Even back then I loved you. When you got sick with the Mana Plague, and I got that charm from Father... I was so happy it worked.

Without it, I feel sickly and weak again like I did back then. But with it, I feel like I never grow tired. I mean, I can run 5 kilometers without getting tired at all!

Most impressive! I cannot run 5 meters without getting tired at all.

I will always be grateful to my father for his help. One day, I hope you can meet with him, Astrea.

Huh. I had always wondered how you two met.

Well, it's an old story. I'm just glad you keep Sol safe, Ren.

But, I do wish we could trade. I thought you would've joined my team after we managed to find Donovan.

The three of us did always talk about working together in the same division. Working with you, Sol, and now the hero Donovan? Must be quite exciting!

The second division does not have Lex and Evan. Therefore, it is worse.

Don't forget the others! Especially Beige and now Mikey. Beige is too dedicated to his work. He really loves Propater. Mikey is always looking to improve to be like his father. Anyway, I'll leave you two alone now. Enjoy this peace while you can.

Astrea's midblink face is just awesome.

Hurrah! We got the axe! Now to use it well.

All right! Going well so far. Next time, we will begin moving on the Pope's lab. However, it may not be smooth sailing the entire way there... Join me next time as we continue watching Evan and Lex's excellent adventures. Wish me luck, and please, do fare well until next we meet! See you!

 

Death count: --

 

Reset count: 0

 

Current perfect streak: 3 maps

Best perfect streak: 3 maps

 

 

[Eltosian Kadath]

Spoiler

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Especially in Radiant Dawn, where they only exist to ruin the difficulty of Ike's parts.

Yeah Radiant Dawn really flubbed up its implementation of it (I mean you have allies with authority stars that do nothing when they are allies...)

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

A good owner knows when to put their pet out of their misery.

Okay! This is starting to escalate!

Uh-oh, that is some Old Yeller language if I even heard it...

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

See, the title is relevant because Gustav is in the middle of suffering an mental crisis. I cannot imagine what else could've prompted him to attack Kuroth. I mean, c'mon man, you've got a horse. At least try to run away...

And now he's suffering a physical crisis for his hubris.

Bye bossman. You were... someone.

Warning scenes from Old Yeller in link

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

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

All right, so now they're... forcefully adopting Og? Well, I'm not about to question it.

They just need to add...oh god, this joke is even worse when I thought about it for a second...

Spoiler

Original: They just need to add one letter to make him the pet they want him to be....

The Worse One...: They just need to add the D to get the pet they always wanted him to be...

 

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

Alright time for the names, Grump-faced Bartre for the far left, and Peachfuzz for the far right. Really Peachfuzz needs to either grow himself a real beard or shave it off, as its current half-assed state is making him far less dashing than he should be.

 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

While some dragons can transform once again with Pyron back, others haven't been as lucky. And what Ozmu does to them to find out why... I wouldn't want to say around you, love.

Really Peachfuzz, treating one of your military commanders like she is some delicate flower that can't handle some need to know information...

 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

We can use the church to fully heal and graves to help avoid our foes!

How like the classic terrain of Genealogy and Gaiden/Echoes respectively.

 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

No permanent units have joined us today. Only more guests. Don't worry, this trend will stop next chapter, when we'll get a whole bunch of permanents to talk about. For now, however, let's talk about Boyfriend. Sol could solo the entire map, but with 6 defense he might need a bit of help to survive if the RNGoddess isn't feeling kind today. Plus, we want the experience.

Really the GOLD KNIGHT isn't even a mounted or armored knight? He is a Swordfighter? sigh... Peachfuzz is nothing, if not a disappointment...

 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Beige is... honestly kinda shit. He can do a little bit of damage to enemies, but... frankly, I think I'm just going to send him to visit the eastern village, since it's far out of the way and he has big movement.

I mean I can see what looks like Wrath on that skill list, not sure exactly what the other skills on that list are, but it sounds like you might be underselling his abilities a little there...Also Grump-faced Bartre liking facial expressions is kinda funny....

 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

One more tidbit before we get to play: These bandits are in search of food and water. Why did I point this out? No reason, I just like this description. These aren't your typical gold-obsessed idiots, they're just desperate folks. Well, except for their leader, of course.

That little tidbit feels kinda Thracia....

 

14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

I'll usually give a hint about a future event.

And I'll explain the hint Anna gave at a previous meeting.

Cute gimmick.

I guess that would be one way to clue the player into things prior to deployment  on a map.

 

14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That guy does make for a pretty interesting gimmick. You see, though it may not look like it after Gustav and Og's retreating last chapter, this game features a bunch of recurring bosses that can die at different points of the story. Very few Huberts in this game. They tend to not have the biggest roles, but their deaths will somewhat change the story going forward. This soldier that Anna spoke of is by far the most impactful in both story and gameplay, but there are others.

That is a fairly cool gimmick....I think my guess about Og may have been right...

 

14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm taking a bit of a risk here. Astrea could die very easily here. But I've got a plan.

...why do I have a bad feeling about this...

 

14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

Yeah, its just edgy armor, not scary armor, get with it Playboy Hector.

 

14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Fine. Sol can do it. Hello, golden Cloud.

 

...Figures Peachfuzz would ripoff a massively overrated FF7 character for his battle sprite...

 

14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Katherin finally has a chance to join the action. Not too bad, effective weaponry goes a long way.

You were complaining about her damage earlier, but with the Fire Sword, her Blutgang, and the Armorslayer it sounds like she has a lot of effective weaponry to compensate for low strength...

 

14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What a... peculiar level up. And where the hell are my movement gains? C'mon, guys, you've had enough chances!

Your highest move gain on a unit so far is like 5%, which you would only expect about 1 move gain in every 20 level with that. Not seeing a movement level-up isn't that unlikely...

 

15 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...I should not try this. I cannot try this. This has death written all over it. Even if it's a temp character, I don't wanna reset. Not this soon. Not like this. Not with those levels.

...But...

If this is 2 RN that is a less than 1% chance of death, which is fairly safe, although if this is 1 RN I wouldn't risk it, as its just over 4% chance of death...

 

18 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

C'MON! C'MON! COME THE FUCK ON! YOU'VE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME! FUCK OFF!

 

Good thing Peachfuzz's disappointment streak didn't end with you having to reset.

 

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Anyway, I pray you won't hate me too much for breaking the ironman like this, but I've rewinded so we can check out the last house. I mean, it's not like I'm getting any advantage out of them. I know all of this already.

Meh, for pointless fluff like this, I doubt anyone would really complain.

 

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Donovan was the main character of Corrupt Theocracy. He was a prostitute. That was the full extent of his character.

...he had sex with people for money?

 

16 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Well, it's an old story. I'm just glad you keep Sol safe, Ren.

 

Lord Nanna really trust this new girl not to steal Peachfuzz from her huh. I don't know if new-girl is one of her besties, or perhaps Lord Nanna encouraged him to grow that facial embarrassment to repel other women...

 

 

[The Roger The Paladin]

 

Spoiler

On 3/27/2021 at 12:21 PM, Pengaius said:

Well, you're more consistent than I am, seriously I have the next Conquest update just sitting in imgbox, but I've been too lazy to assemble it. 

And you're both more consistent than me. I mean, I have my reasons. Some of which I cannot post about due to, you know, them being someone else's issue to talk about. Also because weights. I can now curl as much as Apeboy, which is saying something when he's a boxer.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

It's all right. I just hope you'll be able to catch the updates and enjoy them. I'd call that a success.

I'll try. I've been distracted with those matters I'm still not discussing openly. Because as said, I'm only helping the wrong party in that case, so it's not my story to tell.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Ahahahahahah... What a kind song you just wrote. Thanks, man. Appreciate it as always.

I... I just hope I don't do so badly that my LP gains conscience and starts dissing me... That's what Butterman is for, after all!

I don't know. I seem to remember characters being openly scared of your tactics since the original LP. Most recent of which being a certain Archer. If that's not the LP dissing you, I don't know what is.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

The humans of Merv fought against the dragons of Ryu and the humans of Pyronia, home to the people who worshiped the God of Energy, Pyron. Pyron caused this war, but it ended with his sealing in Ryu, resulting in a major shift in the biosphere. Dragons lost the ability to transform, and merely became stronger humans. To survive, some interbred w

Pyron... Sun God's Wrath... is @Blademaster! a Kid Icarus Uprising fan, or am I reading too much into a coincidental naming? Then again, for all I know, Ryu being the home of the Dragons is a reference to Ryu from Street Fighter. I mean, Shoryuken does mean "Rising Dragon Fist".

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

The boss of this chapter is one of the two direct subordinates of the leader of the Red Army, one of Amatera's two armies. Indeed, we're killing a major'ish figure of the war in the very first map. Let this set the tone for this entire hack. Seriously, the story's pace is insane.

I mean... that kind of happens. King Harold at the battle of Hastings comes to mind. Shot in the eye. An unceremonious end to a career.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Maybe not Edelgard, but Edelgard works better as an antagonist, in my opinion.

I mean, the literal root of the word Antagonist means "one who initiates change". Who does that describe better than Edelgard in that story? We had a status quo. Her actions shattered it. People forget an antagonist isn't necessarily evil by definition, but a opposition force to the protagonist (who isn't necessarily good).

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Boar Tactics: I cannot remember what this does. Very professional LPer, right here.

It gets him to have an argument with Felix about Dimitri.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

On top of all this, Condor has a personal bow.

It's basically just a regular bow, except it's amazing. We'll get some good use out of this beauty.

That feels like a pretty serious oxymoron. If it's amazing, it's not really a regular bow is it?

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

 

- At level 5, Galeforce: If Lex kills a unit, he'll get to move and act again. No questions asked. Yeah.

So basically he has the skill that makes any unit in Awakening broken... and a built in brave effect after he hits the levels required. How to make an archer broken. Take a bow... no the other type, Lex. You earned it.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Let's begin-- Oho! What is this? Mercy? But Evan didn't have Mercy! Quite the opposite!

Well, you see, in this hack, everyone has Mercy. Everyone. This makes both capturing and Jeiganing that much more convenient. I love this, personally. How many times have I found myself praying that someone wouldn't get a 4% crit when softening up an enemy? Not in this game!

Guess Duke Onkled finally got done scrubbing every floor on the island of Koridai.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

...Nice. Fuckin' A. First gaffe of the LP: The only one who can capture the guy cannot reach him. Urrrrghh...

That's got to be some kind of record.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

This game's recruitment theme is from Persona 5. Except GBAfied and without lyrics, obviously. I am not a weeb, so I will forever know it as the recruitment theme from SGW.

God, I hate words such as weeb. Let's just get going...

Personally, I would never have noticed if you hadn't told me. Given of the 5 characters from the original fighter pass, Joker is the one from a series I've never played. Besides, I haven't bothered with Sony's consoles since the PS2 and the PSP. Or... you know, apart from. I mean, the PS2 had backwards compatibility, so there was no need for the original.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Instead, we'll meet a variety of people who will have the skills to rob and plunder, but are otherwise of entirely unrelated classes. Keep an eye out for those. You might find them in some unexpected folks.

Are any of them horsemen per chance?

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Hwahahahahahah... I like how the guy's not as upset about the fact that he's going to die as the fact that he's dying to rookies.

And hey. How dare you. We have Evan and Lex. The other divisions don't have Evan and Lex.

I mean, wouldn't you be offended about being killed by the enemy's scrubs as their first mission? Imagine going from significant figure in the war, to an outright footnote. Like you were King Harold or something.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Indeed, unlike chess, the "real thing" is anime.

When you've never played anime chess.

On 3/29/2021 at 1:06 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

With me in charge of the strategies? I would not be surprised if I somehow got the off-screen convoy NPC killed.

So basically when you decapitated Merlinus even though you stopped using him, only for him to show up later because you needed to fill the slot?

On 3/29/2021 at 4:26 AM, Dayni said:

Also, FALCON BOW!

When do we start calling this guy "Captain Condor"? It's even got a ring to it. Low key already my favourite unit for the name alone.

On 3/29/2021 at 7:08 AM, Dayni said:

We are the chorus, mods are Red/Orange?

We can probably go with that. I don't have a better idea.

On 3/30/2021 at 5:04 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Always nice to see the guy get screentime in some way or another. IntSys seems to have completely forgotten about him. Maybe because acknowledging that she's engaged would lower Anna's waifu value.

I do vaguely recall him getting mentioned in one of Anna's supports in Warriors. Mind, by someone who assumed the Anna in the game was engaged like the one they knew. Can't remember who it was. Was it Caeda? Was it Lyn? I can't tell you at all, but I think it was one or the other. I recall the Anna being somewhat jealous of her "sister".

On 3/30/2021 at 5:04 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

 

...No wait, actually, the joke doesn't work here because Hilda isn't even a recolor of Serra. She's just Serra.

Maybe in appearance. I don't recall Serra trying to fake incompetence to get out of work. It'd go against her ego.

On 3/30/2021 at 5:04 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

 

Boringer, I'm afraid. Though, to be honest, I find all Vantage other than Berwick Saga's to be boring. In every other game you basically rely on crits, because otherwise Vantage does nothing. In Berwick Saga you end battles before they start. Thanks, Adel.

What if the enemy is already in range of being killed though? Situational. But better than nothing. As long as you don't miss.

On 3/30/2021 at 5:04 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Unrelated, but I love how it's very clear that "Darth" was just the guy's first name in the original movie, and it was then retconned to be the Sith title when... just about everything about his character was retconned. It's particularly noticeable in his fight with Obi Wan, where he keeps calling him "Darth." I mean, I'm not saying it's a terrible flaw or anything. You can retroactively explain it as "he was trying to pretend that it wasn't his former friend by reducing him to his title." But still. Just saying. You can tell.

Or how Leia being Luke's sister was... very obviously a retroactive decision without much thought for what came before? Because Star Wars suffered from being made up as it went, leading to increasing plot holes every movie?

On 3/30/2021 at 5:04 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

This applies to the gameplay. You will find no pegasus knights with physical weapons. They're all mages now. Which... honestly, I find to be really cool. Flying mages? Sign me the fuck up!

So... Dark Fliers? And whatever it is Camilla starts off as before turning into a Wyvern Lord at first opportunity for the focused class? Yeah I know, hybrid classes. But Dark Fliers learn Gale Force... so you know, they tend to be a favourite.

On 3/30/2021 at 5:04 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

T... That is... Condor, c'mon! You've gotta keep up, I need you to support Lex so we can watch the greatest bit of dialogue in this whole goddamned game! If you're terrible, it'll feel like a waste!

Plus, we really need him for those flying mages.

On 3/31/2021 at 10:31 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

See, the title is relevant because Gustav is in the middle of suffering an mental crisis. I cannot imagine what else could've prompted him to attack Kuroth. I mean, c'mon man, you've got a horse. At least try to run away...

I mean, I think they both are to be honest. Though, I think Kuroth's is a longer lasting one.


 

 

[Punished Dayni]

Spoiler

 DAMMIT I LOST MY POST WHILE I WAS WRITING IT UP BECAUSE THE BROWSER CRASHED

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

But the entire nation?

I do doubt they wanted an apocalypse, but Ashera among them would probably sound convincing to any devout.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Not again! I will NOT transcribe the banquet scene! You can stop trying!

At this point it's a running gag for me to say we go to Vestaria.

What, you want me to say Corrupt Theocracy?

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hah! The other way around, actually. I think.

Funny, I initially wrote it down the other way round, then changed my mind on looking at the sprites again.

Guess I should have taken your point on the sprites more seriously.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I don't like the cut of his jib.

I do. He's way hotter than you are.

That better be nothing more than a pun.

In your dreams.

I don't want to be agreeing with The Raze Craze here.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What will this spell be. We'll find out in due time.

Okay, so it's coming.

I'll still suspect it.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hahahahaha... I don't get the reference, but I like it.

Also from the show I got the scream from.

The character's got some daddy issues, as might be suggested in the lyrics (altered as they are)

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Okay that scream is just amazing. It sounds so weird, too. Like it has no beginning or end, it just... is.

I couldn't find the line where the character says So Much Screaming, so I went with a backup.

And yeah, I hope the VA gets more work.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

She does learn Wrath, yes. It's the first skill of the brigand classline.

WRATH!

Keeps on making the case for herself.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hahahahaha... Honestly, I think the hackrealms got the better man. Ike is boring.

Regardless of my opinion, it's more appropriate that mememan is in the hackrealms.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

C'mon, at this point you've sent me there so many times that I'm friends with all the guards.

I feel like I can count the amount of times on one hand.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Nah. He's just her mother's current... partner is the nice way to put it.

Jeez Ulysses, literally able to say you bang the protagonist's mum.

Why are the axe squad really making the best case so far?

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, unfortunately that's a TRS problem. Nothing to do about it, just activate fast-forward.

That won't fix the input issues sadly.

Besides I thought you wanted me to see the animations.

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's Kuroth. I'm not sure what's up with those lines next to his mouth. Is that supposed to be a thin mustache? Kuroth, my man, it does not suit you at all.

I'd say it's the line of his cheekbone.

His strongly defined cheekbones.

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Gustav. I am quite hurt at your words just now. You think of me a freak? You fear me so much you would flee the country?

Geez Gustav, way to judge a guy so harshly-

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I want to show you something, Gustav.

 

...Okay I understand Gustav.

There's loyalty and then there's treating people as pets.

Kuroth isn't exactly inspiring confidence here.

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This is loyalty, Gustav. It is very hard to come by, and most will not give it to you willingly. To me, there is nothing more valuable than this. A dog that obeys his master. If I say paw, they give me their hand. If I say kill, they kill for me. It is not fear or greed that will drive them to do so.

Shows what he thinks of those loyal to him.

The slaves are loyal too I guess he'd say?

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I obey Father out of love.

Oh, that's Pyron's son? I... I don't see it, I mean, where are the horns? Maybe that's what the lines next to his nose are...

That is a bond that goes beyond loyalty or trust. To insult the precious bond I share with my father... This will not be forgiven.

So wait, huh? Pyron being what he is complicates this.

Zephyr could be his father, but that makes no sense on the origins of Kuroth.

Pyron being his father in a religious sense could also make sense, because I don't think we've seen anything about demigods so far.

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Kill you? Without having ever even trained you? Hmm... I think you fail to notice the potential that lies within you. Lynch, we have need of someone like this, yes?

Indeed. We have been looking to raise a child like you.

You are my child now.

I see Og is going to be a dog passed around between different factions in this story.

10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh, believe me, boy. You never will. What's our next move, my love?

My brother is almost done with his mission. By the time it is finished, Propater will no longer be a threat to us.

So wait, are they a couple?

Because otherwise that's more of the weird loyalty going on.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Merv is the largest country in Chicomoztoc, and the home of pure humans. It is a country with no governing body and instead houses numerous tribes and an informal group of the five strongest fighters known as the Merv Five. This group normally would have massive influence over Merv's populace, however, since Pyron's invasion and the spread of a horrific plague, Merv had become a true lawless arena where only the strong can survive.

>Rules of Nature blares in Merv background

So are the other two working with Pyron?

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Nothing good will be in there, I can say that much. The stories I've heard from who we've rescued from there... They aren't pleasant. Especially for the true dragons of Ryu.

While some dragons can transform once again with Pyron back, others haven't been as lucky. And what Ozmu does to them to find out why... I wouldn't want to say around you, love.

So, we have Izuka shit going on.

I've alreayd stated he's Rest in Noise tier, so this guy's probably there already.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

A disease that eats away at one's life force mana, that killed so many. People, plants, animals... nothing was spared once they got it.

Thanks, love. We can chat more later. For now, time to get to work everyone! We can use the church to fully heal and graves to help avoid our foes!

What a segue.

Guess the bandit's cant matter so little they could spent the entire chapter on Bant-its.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I am fairly certain that this is the only boss in the entire game that's just a reused portrait from an official FE. Some generics are recycled portraits too, but none of them actually appear on the field of battle.

EDIT: Ruben from the future here! I just checked, and as it turns out, this is an edited portrait, actually. The head is the same, but his body is different. Neat.

I'd argue you might as well call him "Grozyni's transplanted head"

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I need to use this. It feels like a perfect reaction image.

Yeah, we probably should.

Might as well have it ready for Pyron.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

No permanent units have joined us today. Only more guests. Don't worry, this trend will stop next chapter, when we'll get a whole bunch of permanents to talk about. For now, however, let's talk about Boyfriend. Sol could solo the entire map, but with 6 defense he might need a bit of help to survive if the RNGoddess isn't feeling kind today. Plus, we want the experience.

He also carries one of the best swords in the game, the Fire Sword. It's even more awesome than in Thracia - not only does it increase your magic on top of having huge might, it also eats cavaliers for breakfast! Unfortunately, I don't think Astrea can use it yet, but as soon as she can... Heh, riders will cower in fear before her!

Please tell me he's recruitable.

He seems damm fine for it.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Beige is... honestly kinda shit. He can do a little bit of damage to enemies, but... frankly, I think I'm just going to send him to visit the eastern village, since it's far out of the way and he has big movement.

At least his name suits him.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That guy does make for a pretty interesting gimmick. You see, though it may not look like it after Gustav and Og's retreating last chapter, this game features a bunch of recurring bosses that can die at different points of the story. Very few Huberts in this game. They tend to not have the biggest roles, but their deaths will somewhat change the story going forward. This soldier that Anna spoke of is by far the most impactful in both story and gameplay, but there are others.

I was a bit torn, because on the one hand I'd like to show that guy's involvement in the story in full, but on the other hand, the reward for killing him early (first or second appearance) is the one that I want. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure his biggest scenes are early on, so we can kill him on his second appearance. Although killing him early is difficult, so on the off chance that I have the opportunity, I'd take the bragging rights. Ah, we'll see.

....Wait, who's the guy here?

And cool idea, just confused how much it'll appear and the impacts it'll have I suppose.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The Mana Plague killed and injured so many... But there were some good things that came out of it. People get sick much less often now, and medicines are stronger than ever. Here, take this one and see for yourself!

I mean, I don't get how that's supposed to work.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's going to Condor too. I want Condor to start growing well. Because bow armor Derrick. I want that on my team. I need that on my team.

+10% Str and Con already.

Nice, and better than Thracia when it gives you a Str boost that isn't 5% before Chapter 18.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Very nice! Defense blessed Astrea? Don't mind if I do!

I mean, Spd would be cool.

But getting Def and Str's nothing to turn up this early.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Good, good! Putting that skill scroll to good use already!

Y

👏

E

👏

S

👏

YES

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...I'm going to go now.

? I've never seen him so dejected before.

How would you even know it? You can't see his face!

I mean, it's probably easy to tell if he's walking like this.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Fine. Sol can do it. Hello, golden Cloud.

Can't you see he's the man,

Let me hear you applaud,

He is more than a man,

He's a shiny golden Cloud

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I've got to admit, my heart stopped for a moment here. Fortunately, the asshole was too slow to double Lex.

Lucky enough he's been Spd blessed for sure.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What a... peculiar level up. And where the hell are my movement gains? C'mon, guys, you've had enough chances!

It could be worse, she's getting defences.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Sol procced Sol. Hilarious.

So he's just using Fire materia right now.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...You...!

Dammit, I'm trying to bat for you!

You bang the protag's mum, I need you to not suck.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He really, really likes gold, doesn't he?

Gimme, gimme, gimme that gold after midnight

Won't somebody help me chase the creditors away

Gimme, gimme, gimme that gold after midnight

Take me through the dustiness to the shake of the pay

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If this guy or Evan die I am going to cry my eyes out.

BLESSED LEX

LEX FLEX

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Dedicated to his greed, even to the bitter end. Good riddance.

Blood is worth money though.

You dipshit.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The female mage line always uses wind anima magic. The arcanist line always uses fire anima magic. The male mage line always uses thunder anima magic. The cleric line always uses light magic. The shaman line always uses dark magic. But the witch line is the only exception. Witches only use fire anima magic. Seraphs only use dark magic. And Bellerophons only use light magic.

So this is enemy only, right?

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That guy is standing on a store. I want to visit the store. But this isn't an encounter I want to brave...

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

C'mon, it's a 21% chance and he has to land both. Surely even I cannot get this unlucky?

.......

You know full well you can't get that unlucky.

Besides, he's SE's golden boy. He won't fall so-

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

C'MON! C'MON! COME THE FUCK ON! YOU'VE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME! FUCK OFF!

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Jeeeeeessuuuuuss fucking... Oohhhh, why do I do these things to myself...

He teleports out of the way when a miss occurs.

WHY IS HE NOT RECRUITABLE?

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

As custom crit animations tend to be like, Sol strikes at his opponent a whole bunch.

Then he floats for a second while his sword glows, and...

Kapow!

He even got Omnislash.

Shiet, this guy won't ever join us will he?

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He isn't considered part of the Merv Five since many think it's unfair to put him on their level. After all, Yin and Yang joined Propater when he beat them both in battle. And that was done at the same time, mind you! But what makes him most famous is that he almost defeated Pyron 17 years ago. Even Pyron's general, Ronald, is supposedly afraid to fight him! But if only Garrison could do something about that Monster King... His strength caps at humans, sadly. Dragons are another matter.

How many not-humans are there really to outdo Mr. Garrison.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Okay, let's soften up-- Oh, c'mon! You've gotta be kidding me. 21% chance not to crit, and he pulls it off? Evan!

....Evan would have 1-shot if he's crit.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

I mean, you could've just... y'know, asked. You're the ones who attacked first. Could've tried negotiating.

Maybe the players could have asked.

Maybe there could have been peace.

Instead, violence reigns. Imagine if...

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Well. It's better than all the ones he's been getting.

Now he can rally skill. Neato.

It's defences.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Donovan was the main character of Corrupt Theocracy. He was a prostitute. That was the full extent of his character.

Did this actually matter to the plot?

At least it stands out from FE.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's good to have the gang all together once again!

Is it ever! Come with us, Beige! I just spoke with Donovan! He said he'd join the three of us for our usual group training!

Well, won't that be a treat? Come, my friend. Let's go train like we always do!

Of course, Mikey! Training with you and Ben is always a good time.

Training! Yes, training! Training is awesome! You guys would be good friends with Kris. And that's not a compliment.

Training, training, choo choo-

Oh wait, wrong thing.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Well, being home reminds me of when we first met. You were about six then, and I was only seven. My parents left me here, but you always played with me. I still spoke with my father at times, but my mother was long dead. To me, you were like family. Even back then I loved you. When you got sick with the Mana Plague, and I got that charm from Father... I was so happy it worked.

Without it, I feel sickly and weak again like I did back then. But with it, I feel like I never grow tired. I mean, I can run 5 kilometers without getting tired at all!

INTERESTING

So you're telling me she could have died, but this amulet's keeping her alive and kicking.

That's going to come back, no way it doesn't get damaged some time. Also his dad I presume.

46 minutes ago, The Roger The Paladin said:

When do we start calling this guy "Captain Condor"? It's even got a ring to it. Low key already my favourite unit for the name alone.

I feel like you're free to do that right now.

As I said at the top of the post, I lost my post and just didn't get round to it until now.

The april fools is that there is no post? Understandable.

[Saint Rubenio]

Part 5 - It's a trap!

Uoooooooo:

Spoiler

This year's April Fools is that there isn't an April Fools update.

Go home.

12 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

 

5 hours ago, The Roger The Paladin said:

 

41 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Ignore this, it's just to fool you three.

Aiiiiiiiiiiiiii:

Spoiler

What, you want more? Here, have a picture of Bald Bull from Punch Out looking extremely angry.

Satisfied? Good, now go and keep waiting for the actual update.