FE Sword of Heaven and Earth Blind Ironman: The Shaky Special

[Saint Rubenio]

20 hours ago, Ruminant said:

oh god this hack has a desert map doesn't it? I wish I could remember

I don't believe so, actually. Unless I'm massively misremembering, there is no such thing in this game.

20 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Bit confusing when he's supposed to be, you know, dead...

The game does this a few times early on. The hacker didn't seem to account for players being good enough to get ahead of the game.

20 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Good to see you too! I mostly just lost interest in FE for awhile, and when it came back I didn't think to come back to Serenes... I was never that much of a forumgoer, I guess.

Yeah, that's fair. Hope you enjoy your current stay!

20 hours ago, Ruminant said:

(note for Shaky: minor gameplay spoilers)

  Hide contents

I just noticed how insane it is that Nikita has 27 base HP as a level 3 Cavalier... consider me converted! I'm definitely using him now, until I inevitably get him killed through sheer lack of forethought. (I actually paused Chapter 5 to write this comment, and I've already had several near-misses that I only got out of by sheer luck or accidentally exploiting the AI to do something else... Technically one miss if you count Pascal, I was going slow enough that I probably could have safely recruited him had I not forgotten to move Risette on the turn she shows up.

 

Spoiler

Oof... Forgetting to move units when they appear. That brings me "good" memories...

About Nikita, yeah, I believe he's supposed to be the tanky cav. The Lowen, if you like. Really sad that he's tankier than the knights, though. The hack seems to have taken inspiration from Kaga there, too. Kaga hates his armors... To the point where he went out of his way to make Berwick Saga's armor knight into an joke unit that's intentionally awful. Of course, by doing so he accidentally turned the armor into one of the game's most iconic and fun characters, so joke's on him.

 

20 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Considering that it gives you three healers in the first four chapters, I'd be more surprised if it weren't! That seems like total overkill if you were expected to never lose any of them. (and to be honest it still kind of does, but I'm not complaining! I like healers)

SoHaE's cast is overkill in general. I mean, look at the sheer size of the army, as early as chapter 4! The games loves to throw units at the player. Which is fine by me, big casts add to replayability.

[Shaky Jones]

Replies:

Spoiler

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Will you create the anti-Rostov alliance?

That depends. Would you join it?

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Naaaaah he takes it in good humor. God's got thicker skin than that, he's fine with my shenanigans.

...Either that, or this is the reason why my luck is always so inconsistently bad. But nah, I doubt that's it.

God likes to do a bit of trolling

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

I know Rabi doesn't look like my kind of character, but he's a really fun unit, and that's what counts the most in a game without supports.

I can't think of a dark mage I've had fun with. The first time I used Canas, sure, but that got old quickly, especially when it dawned on me that he's in FE7.

Niime's a funny one, but that's not training a unit at all. Really, I'm just not into the class itself. The only exception is Salem. He's cool. But maybe Rabi will be nice. I will have to turn his animations off though. They've always bored me.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

I regret nothing! Nothing! Hahahahahahahahahaha...!

You damn Garon man. 

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

It has orbs instead. Orbs like heal and mend. Eh?

At that point, just use actual magic from your hands of prayers or something.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh no, I wasn't saying that. I just thought it was pretty obvious you'd love this guy at first glance. The natural order of things, so to speak.

It pains me that casuals probably won't use these types of units because they're not noticeably "cool" looking, and elitists won't use them because archer bad. 

 

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

...Oh.

Interesting, comrade.

Wait, hold on now, bucko. I didn't say I loved it or agreed with the idea! It just had a decent plot and characters! I needed this for an extra credit essay! Sure, I had a choice of several books to choose from, but this sounded the least boring. I am not cringe!

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

You can try. Or he will become your new Yubello

...great

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

It's an incredibly complicated matter, yes. I suppose it's not exactly right of me to say that I'm an atheist, because this is far closer to my feelings on the matter than an arrogant belief that I know better than anyone and can say for sure that there is no God. That's the whole point. I can't say anything for sure. I'm just some guy.

Some guy who thinks they're correct on everything. A simple man with a God complex. He was banished and locked away in a cave within the mountains. 3 days pass, and the man was nowhere to be found in this mountain. He returned to Serenes an angrier, bitter man. He burns down the forest. A dying man asks why has he committed such a cruel act upon the innocent. He responds "Nobody played Berwick Saga."

I don't know where I was going with this.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Good. All the hotties are in hell.

I'm telling ya man. People in hell are greeted by Kaga and his massive grin.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

You misunderstand, yes. The Kutolah are good guys that are in danger.

The "dangers of" just sounds like it's referring to something being dangerous though, to me at least. I'm doubting my own knowledge on English now. 

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Friendly reminder that Berwick Saga fixes FoW.

One of these days I should challenge myself to go one post without mentioning BWS. But that day is not today.

Now. Do it now. I beg of you, begin your quest of leaving Kaga's vision at piece.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Ahahahahah... Ah, I love this line. Random-ass loli bringing in the big profanity guns. Wonky translations are the best. They almost save this girl from being terrible. At least she's got a nice hat.

Random ass piece of shi-

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

I love that the game brings this up, by the way. A surprisingly dark thing to passingly mention like that.

Reminds me of the Legion, who-

Nevermind. You hate Fallout New Vegas.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

The one and only man on Earth capable of vanquishing The Seth.

Chapter 6 is probably the only chapter I get scared of losing units in. Chapter 11 comes close.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

A talk with Yuin would've fixed that, but then, you had no way to know. Ah well, at least you can just buy one here.

Yuin? What? When the does the game even imply they know each other!?

Game bad. Missed out on lore. Let's play is irrelevant. I'm shutting it down.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

ow so? I do believe in some goddesses. Y'know, the kind that would step on me

And somehow, Genny fits into this. Alright.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Sieks is just so epic. Look at him just standing there while this man turns into a natural aberration before his eyes. Uncaring, coldhearted. Dull.

I can't believe how quickly Sieks has become the chad of the run.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Very good analysis. I wish I could put my thoughts on FE maps into words so well.

One day, we should debate on FE maps to get you to articulate your words better. I still feel like I could be better at that, but it's mainly IRL where I'm AWFUL at putting my thoughts out. It's why I just pull out my trusty .44 Mag. Gets them stuttering every time. I feel so much less embarrassed.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Ayyyy that's awesome! Hope you can keep these two throughout the game, I really do.

Oh. 100% Even if their growths suck. I had no plans to ever drop Lot and Wade, even when they would begin to fall off at points. It just means I need to try harder.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Eh, I'll forgive you if you just don't recruit him. Wink wink nudge nudge.

Gee thanks

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Bahahahaha... Oh man, strength is one of his weakest growths, too... This is a man that wants to be here all game.

But would I want that? It'd save turns and he's my best rescue man, but he's the OP jeigan. Eh, I'll probably determine that depending on how many units I want to train once they give me limited deployment slots, but I'd still like to hear whether you'd like to see him insta benched or used til endgame.

On 4/23/2022 at 4:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Okay look, I know you're siek of the puns, but I just have a feeling that level Sieks is going to be a perfect level...

You have sieks days.

On 4/24/2022 at 2:13 AM, Ruminant said:

I have arisen from the abyss to confirm that there were people who thought that Rostov was better than Grape, and that I was one of them. can't speak for anyone else who may have held that opinion, but in my case it was just a hefty dose of personal experience bias + a preexisting preference for the "strong" cavalier over the "fast" one. and in any case I also thought Tsagan wasn't overpowered, so it's probably safe to discard all of my circa-2018 Sword of Heaven and Earth opinions. (except Sergei being great, because he is great! Emmy and the other female Hero too. [I kinda blanked on this being a blind LP, but Ruben has already alluded to the existence of those units, so can I presume that it's OK to mention them as well as long as I don't go into specifics?])

Strength is much cooler than speed after all. I just don't like it too much on cavs. Since cavs are on the frontlines, they tend to want to double the most. Besides, how many cavs start with 9 speed? Crazy. Toby will be the funny slow man I have extreme bias towards.

As I mentioned before, Tsagan is mainly OP because of defense. I tend to compare many Jeigans to FE6 Marcus or FE11/Fe1 Jeigan. Tsagan falls much more in line with FE7 Marcus, which is pretty overpowered. He's no Seth or Titania, but I much prefer Jeigans who can't completely obliterate the early game. 

On 4/24/2022 at 2:13 AM, Ruminant said:

wow, I really need to replay this game. I don't think I ever ended up finishing it, I have a particularly bad habit of nearly finishing a game and then abandoning it for no apparent reason when it comes to Fire Emblem. in this case it works out though because at the time I played it the fan translation hadn't released, so I had no idea what was going on in the story; guess I finally get to find out! (heck, may as well make it an ironman too; I'm not sure I've ever made a serious attempt at one [i.e. one that I didn't give up on after like 4 chapters lol], and SoHaE's obviously FE6-inspired unit design seems like it would lend itself well to the playstyle)

anyway, hope this wasn't too out of the blue! I've read the first few updates (not the latest one though, yet) and I'm enjoying the LP so far!

I'm sure glad it's FE6 inspired. It makes the gameplay feel great, especially since I actually have good hit rates here, which doesn't matter because I'm missing anyways.

Yeah, the translation does seem to be recent, but the hack itself is old. Maybe the translation will cause a very minor resurgence. Best case scenario for me, it gets enough traction for a fan to make their own custom hard mode patch, similar to The Last Promise (although that one was technically never finished).

Thanks for the kind comment. 

On 4/24/2022 at 3:42 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

I just like Nikita, honestly. He has a fun face and nobody likes him. Perfect for me.

Of these two, I'll admit I always had a preference for Grape, based entirely on his face. He looks so good.

Didn't you tell me Grape was boring for being the OP cav? You sure made it sound like I should've dropped him.

On 4/24/2022 at 3:42 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

I second these. Sergei's a fun mage in a game full of really mediocre ones. I've gotten great results out of Leo in the past, but he's kinda boring. Eliza, the prepromoted sage, is the other fun mage of the game. Her growths are uncharacteristically insane for this game. She has a Lilina-tier magic growth! Quite the interesting unit, her. As for Emmy and the other female hero... It's just nice to see a game with female heroes as the norm rather than the exception.

Name, names, names.

So you're saying there's 2 fun mages and you still want me using Rabi? I don't want a magic army! 

On 4/24/2022 at 3:42 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

I mean, "units exist in this game" isn't much of a spoiler, now, is it?

Just don't spoil the more plot-critical ones and it'll be fine, I think, unless Shaky says otherwise

You know what? Maybe I didn't know I'd get more. I thought that after chapter 5, I'd have my full army when I leave Sacae or something. How dare you spoil that there's a prepromoted sage? I demand an apology exclusively from you.

On 4/24/2022 at 3:42 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

That's how I felt when I saw the translation, myself. As I've said a few times before, it's wonky, but it gets the job done. It's enough of a miracle that it exists at all, better not look a gift horse in the mouth! You can tell the Kaga influence in a few places. I'd wager the creator was a fan.

Fire Emblem Elibe, but Kaga inspired? No wonder I keep missing No wonder it feels so much better.

On 4/24/2022 at 3:42 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Sure! SoHaE is a great ironman game.

You literally told me that you had no idea if it was earlier. It only took 4 chapters and now you're already on that side. Okay.

On 4/24/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ruminant said:

Yeah, my guess is this is a mistranslation; maybe for something like "Knowing the Kutolah tribe is in danger", perhaps? so what's supposed to be a simple "rushing to help your allies" summary ends up being needlessly confusing and implies your allies are suddenly a threat. (I'm really grateful that this game has a fan translation at all, especially when it's a fangame itself! It does seem to be pretty rough in places, though.)

Wouldn't be the first mistake. Oh well. Most mistranslations aren't anything that hinder the experience unless you're one who's obsessed with grammar or something. This was the only line that actually got me confused, but I don't think this is going to happen every chapter. Better this than playing in JP only.

On 4/24/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ruminant said:

In fairness Sword of Heaven and Earth seems to adhere pretty strictly to the formula of official FE games (particularly the Elibe ones given the setting + being an FE7 romhack), but... yeah, no, that's not a good excuse for continuing to include this terrible mechanic! (Actually as far as widely-disliked mechanics go I don't mind [GBA] fog that much... at least it's not desert. oh god this hack has a desert map doesn't it? I wish I could remember.

The dregree of "Why Would You Do This To Me" FoW maps have varies a lot within the series. In many cases, I feel that they're just minor annoyances, so long as you bring torches, and the maps themselves are simple enough. In other cases, I hate them for being too frequent or being too punishing when your torch man isn't all over the place every turn, since some FE games love to throw super effective weapons you aren't ready for since you CAN'T SEE THEM. Then there's FE12, which is awful that catagory for only seeing 2 spaces above, and there are no torches. Thracia has pitch black maps, but I don't mind too many of them because the torches in the game always felt like they showed 60% of the map when you used one. So far, I think this was an excellent FoW map, so that's a good sign.

On 4/24/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ruminant said:

I'll admit to finding Liane kind of entertaining, but "good-hearted" certainly isn't how I would describe her... Maybe another mistranslation? (Okay, probably not. More likely a product of assuming that being a child automatically = pure and innocent when children can be horrible jerks too. [Some would argue that's their default mode of existence, but I digress...])

If they're a child, send them out in the wild.

On 4/24/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ruminant said:

what do you mean this is clearly a normal Wrys Otto level up, what do you think the defense cap is for?

Of course. 30 defense healer. How could I not see that coming?

On 4/24/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ruminant said:

Yeah Pascal really is not worth the trouble of recruiting when he's just Navarre, especially when you already got a better sword unit in the last chapter! (Okay that could also describe Navarre himself, but at least you can put Navarre on a horse in the remake; Pascal here has no such opportunity.)

Yeah, this really does feel like Ogma to Navarre, although Emmy being a merc who joins with a Shanna look-alike (no, I do not want to search up her name) makes me tink of Diek, who admittedly reminded me of Ogma. Pretty sure a lot of these things in the games are either references or inspirations from the older games, probably to make the game feel more as if it was an actual title in the elibe series, which I can respect.

On 4/24/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ruminant said:

Interestingly this dialogue also plays if you killed Pascal, like I did when playing this chapter. Bit confusing when he's supposed to be, you know, dead... (I'm guessing that the trigger is "seize without recruiting Pascal" without regard to whether you killed him or not, that would make the most sense, and it also kind of backs up your last sentence here about the chapter only being intended to be experienced in a very specific way.)

So this really is the game's weakest bit so far. Silly recruitment. Nonsensical writing. Chapter 4 just seems like a bit of a mess, even if the map itself was really well made. Although Ruben did say this is mostly just filler, so I guess it could've been much worse.

On 4/24/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ruminant said:

I'd be more afraid of having to fight him on a boat map myself; Theseus' ship and all.

But it'd make for a great gimmick map!

On 4/24/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ruminant said:

Good to see you too! I mostly just lost interest in FE for awhile, and when it came back I didn't think to come back to Serenes... I was never that much of a forumgoer, I guess.

I wonder if I'll lose interest in FE at some point. Really, I was completely ignorant of this site until one day I knew this had forums, and now I can't stop coming here. I'm blaming Ruben for this. 

Well, I hope you enjoy coming back to the hell that is Fire Emblem and its forums.

On 4/24/2022 at 10:05 AM, Ruminant said:

Considering that it gives you three healers in the first four chapters, I'd be more surprised if it weren't! That seems like total overkill if you were expected to never lose any of them. (and to be honest it still kind of does, but I'm not complaining! I like healers)

One day, a Fire Emblem game is just going to give players a single thief and a healer and go "Just reset if they die". Well, at least if Fire Emblem ever drops reclassing I suppose. Play the DS games and you technically have an infinite amount of healers. Xetsu healer can carry you through trying times.

Chapter 4x: Assault

Spoiler

Ah, enemy transporters. Alright. What about them?

She what!?

Ah hell yeah! This game is based!

I'm getting such Thracia vibes here, and I love that. Don't worry. This isn't Saya just randomly being violent. She does have doubts, and fears that doing such an act would possibly make them not too much different from bandits themselves. Arel assures her that this is for the best, because all is fair in S support and war. Who doesn't love committing war crimes! 

Turn 1: We Do a Bit of War Crimes

Chapter 4x presents a zig zag map where you need to chase down and f**king murder innocent carriers who are transporting rations and a few other goods for Bern troops. The ones on the last screenshot carry a red gem and a speedwing, but they're quite far ahead, and have a decent 5 move. That's why there's a snag there for you to break. Naturally, this is a rush map that encourages fast play. It's also the first map that gives you the deployment screen. If you think that I was going to undeploy Sieks just because this map is for high move units, you are a clown. A foolish, stinky clown.

All it takes are proper rescue-dropping strats, and Sieks will always be on the frontlines. This is why the rescue mechanic was added into the series. 

It might've been a bit dumb of me to put Sieks up against a fighter at 2 range, given how awful my accuracy will be. Fritz would've been a better choi-

Oh Jesus Christ. What I meant to say was that Fritz would've wanted the chip xp more, you're the ace card for everything! Now could you please turn back around?

Turn 2: It's Mostly Just Running

Mercs are probably the only class that can ever use iron blades well. 

After rescue dropping Gim to the front, Sieks tests out Gim's reaction time by throwing his javelin at him. he dodges, but the transporter is wounded. I was pretty happy.

You spineless cretin. 

They used the elixir they were meant to drop to heal themselves. 

Turn 3: Torture

I hope Cucumber made your death slow and painful. I used VATS to target his arms. He was crippled and bleeding, but he couldn't reach out for the elixir again. After both arms were pierced, all he could do was stare as Cranberry raised his lance in the air, staring down with a souls expression. BernBoy#42 died as he lived. Helpless, and cringe.

Now that's what you love to see.

I'm going to guess this game uses triple effective damage. Nice. Give me one chapter where I'm ambushed by cavaliers, and Sieks will be eating good tonight.

I enjoy the layout of the chapter for the most part, being a simple gaiden map with a straightforward objective, but there isn't a lot going on in the first few turns. It's really just rescue drop strats, as you probably don't want to wait on your foot units. I would've appreciated a few more enemies here, or perhaps a man with a horseslayer to get you to hesitate with rushing in with cavs. 

Turn 4: Snig Snag

Personally, I would've moved the armor one space to the left. Then again, some people don't want to risk death at every corner. To that I say live a little, and how can you live without the adrenaline given from looming death?

Check this out.

Ah.....nevermind. That wasn't actually my plan.

I was gonna have Gim drop Sieks to the front of the log, but I messed up by just trading Sieks's lance for his jav to have 2 range, but that ended Gim's turn, so I just had to drop him with Yeke. Yeke retreats a bit afterwards to be in Otto's healing range next turn.

Why would you even attack him at all? You had so many other options?

Turn 5: Objective Change: Defend

Well crap. They're trying to overwhelm me by attacking from all sides now. You might not notice too much, but once again, the enemy position is pretty solid, mainly in the sense that you can't just freely attack an enemy without being in range of someone else's range, usually two of them. With a bit of rescuing or maybe chokepointing, you could totally deal with them this turn, but most of my army is near the snag, so I'm going to wait a turn.

Wow, what an ***hole. This is one of the first transporters trying to use my own shortcut to get ahead of everyone else! Now I need to waste Tsagan's turn on him. Definitely a mistake on my part, and I'll probably lose a turn from this.  Eh, nothing I can do about it now. 

I use the slim lance to ensure that I don't miss. Besides, he'll be in range of the cav and fighter, and I'd rather have more hit on them too. 

I know the enemy suddenly ran down when I opened the snag, but I really want to believe the devs intentionally placed the fighter and cav to reach whoever attacks the transporter from the west, leaving the spot under him as the safe spot to kill him if you can 1RKO.  

Ya love to see it. Sieks doubling. Make a pun about his speed Ruben.

The man also got a crit on the same enemy phase. You can't stop this man! Sure, they're alive, but sieks is really nerfing himself by using a weak weapon. He wants to give himself a challenge to add spice to his mundane life he's grown tired of.

Turn 6: The Most Interesting Turn

Even on this chapter, the enemy attack layout is really well done given how the movement of these enemies tend to align really well with the other stationary enemies. I'm displaying the mage enemy right now, and as I mentioned last turn, I'm being surrounded. Depending on how aggressive you wish to be, this can actually be quite hard. I take it moderately safe, waiting one more turn for the northern enemies to approach. Until then, I focus on the enemies near the snag.

You're really going to do this? Okay then.

Fritz ended the dying cav's misery from Sieks's lack of wrath. 

Well, I guess defense is nice.

Bell pepper with a steel sword does wonders. 

Tomato...you're killing me here. You're better than this. Where's my good level up this turn?

Oh. I forgot that nomads can go through water. As if Tsagan wasn't OP enough. What is my man doing? Can horses swim? I seriously doubt they could while a guy is on top of them. If they can, I gotta try it out. If not, I still want to try it out.

There it is. I knew you wouldn't let me down Gim! What did I say? This archetype is just my unit!

Emmy can handle these guys.

Can't go wrong with strength.

After healing one of my units down south (mighta been Gim but I don't recall), Yeke rescues him and heads north. He and Sieks form a wall to prevent any enemies from trying to overwhelm us. The one unit who can't even reach all the way south. 

It's the thought that counts.

Who?

Turn 7: Spencer

Oh. Howdy Spencer. So this chapter does have a boss. But why bring fliers? I guess to fly through the mountains, but you're in Sacae territory. This is like bringing a Fallout fan into China.

Saya would do great with a body ring, but again. Would I really want to give a stat booster to the lord? Surely there's a better alternative. Maybe there'll be a devil lance for Sieks.

Alright, you guys are heading too far off for my liking. I gave them about two turns to surrender to the Lorcas, but they mistook that for letting them go. 

There's only so many ways I can say that the funny eyed cav man 1RKO's an enemy. He is objectively better than Rostov. Is Rostov really going to be the Mekkah's Forde for me?

Steel axe fighters are the best enemy to fight. They hit hard, but let you cope with training your fast sword unit by using them to say dodge strats work. They have low defense, so most units can deal decent damage. And their AS is atrocious, so everyone can double them for easy kills. 

As much as I wanted to fight the armor dude, Gim needed to heal, as if he tried to trap the armor, he'd get hit by both them, and the pegs, who probably would've killed him. I was a tad lazy to do the math, but there's no reason to when I can always just use the Mani Katti next turn.

Turn 8: This Really Does Feel Like a Thracia Chapter

Since Tsagan is the one killing most Bern transporters, we can rat him out should we get scolded for this war crime. You'd think Sacaens would consider this to be dishonorable or something.

Well, the defense points are certainly removing the threat of armor knights against Saya. This game would be S tier with a hard mode patch...no one here knows how to patch someone else's romhack? Please? I'm still on the 2nd stage of grief here.

Do you know how odd it feels to go from playing 3 Houses, where pegs have 40+ AS, to GBAFE, where they have f**king zero? 

Hmm, so Tsagan just got a speedwing. Do I give it to Fritz? It'd probably help. But...Sieks. Then again, he needs to reach sieks speed.

Turn 9: Sorry Spencer

So the reason I was so willing to throw Tsagan to the boss's area of enemies was because the enemies here do not get 1RKO'd by him, finally. Now they're just xp bags.

Saya critically game ends a merc, probably bringing nostalgia to people who grew up with Blazing Blade. Now they're trapped in the misguided belief that it's a good game.

Sieks deals with the last non-boss armor unit, and...I'm a tad dissapointed. That's 2 levels with no strength, speed, or defense.

No worries, no worries at all. I mean, skill? He needed that. Luck. Really needed that! Thanks man. 

Before that though, I attacked the boss with Tsagan's iron bow.  I could've used a lance reaver for more damage, but I don't want to risk a crit kill. 

Turn 10: Really?

There we go! For a second, I wondered why they attacked Tsagan again, but I suppose the boss doesn't move. A shame these games don't show stationary enemies. I know modern hacks do that, but this isn't that.

Here comes the balanced part of him. 

master of none, Ruben says....

He'll master every stat, my friend.

I only recently remembered that the objective is the route the enemy. Was kinda hoping it'd be to defeat the boss, but whatever. I can take out the enemies now.

I f**king missed. You kidding me!? I don't know why I even cared so much at this moment in time, but I was pissed that I essentially lost a turn count from an unlikely miss. It's not even a threat to my survival, it's just annoying. Now I need to use turn 11 JUST on this one merc. Really, I was aiming for a turn 9 clear, just like last time, and I did feel like I could've done better even for a blind run, given how I was a bit too relaxed when the enemies to the north were chasing me, and Emmy could've chipped the merc ealier. Except I did try to do that, and she missed too! Screw this merc. You practically wasted 2 turns, and maybe I messed up once or twice, but I'm blaming you.

Turn 11: I have no screenshots to share. It's just shooting the merc. The End

And now they're all going to starve. That's cruel. 

I like you Arel.

This was a good map. Great first gaiden chapter. Decent rewards. Good at getting you to consider taking risks. I sorta wished the bit with the snag was a tad riskier, since honestly, it just makes the map easier, when most enemies to the east just run north, making the east side a tad isolated. That and add just a few more enemies near the start of the map. Other than that, I had fun. While I didn't show too much, I did strategize quite a bit with how to give myself the edge with unit placement to catch up with the enemy, and how to consistently attack the enemy before the transporters can leave while healing myself and such. Maybe next time, I'll actually be funny. But I hear it's actually a plot relevant chapter. Wonder if I'll butcher it.

 

[Vestrikslana]

Spoiler

On 4/25/2022 at 9:55 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

I don't believe so, actually. Unless I'm massively misremembering, there is no such thing in this game.

Phew. At least the hacker had the good sense to ditch such an utterly irredeemable mechanic as that one.

On 4/25/2022 at 9:55 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

The game does this a few times early on. The hacker didn't seem to account for players being good enough to get ahead of the game.

Yeah, I noticed that in a few other chapters I've played. It make sense as an effort-saving measure (making a hack is hard and it's fair to want to cut corners where you can), but it's still a tad disappointing.

On 4/25/2022 at 9:55 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, that's fair. Hope you enjoy your current stay!

Thank you!

On 4/25/2022 at 9:55 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

About Nikita, yeah, I believe he's supposed to be the tanky cav. The Lowen, if you like. Really sad that he's tankier than the knights, though.

Yeah, low HP on armors never made sense to me. I guess it's to make sure that they can't take *too* many hits before being healed, but you could also accomplish that by lowering their Defense just slightly; that compounds when you're taking lots of hits on enemy phase. (And Nikita being the tanky cav would certainly seem to be the case; his growths for me have definitely veered in that direction, but to the expense of his Speed, which I'm not a fan of...)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Strength is much cooler than speed after all. I just don't like it too much on cavs. Since cavs are on the frontlines, they tend to want to double the most.

My line of thought was that slower cavs (unless they're really slow) will generally end up being fast enough to double anyway, and doubling magnifies the impact of Strength (plus high-Strength units often have higher HP and Defense as well, and those are both important on the front lines). That said, that's in the long term; while one doubles and the other doesn't, the one who does is obviously better, and that's certainly the case for Grape here. It's sort of a bases vs. growths thing, even though in theory you'd expect them to be equal.

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Besides, how many cavs start with 9 speed? Crazy. Toby will be the funny slow man I have extreme bias towards.

9 is certainly a lot for the first chapter! The only christmas cav I can think of who can match that is Alec, and that's in Genealogy where base stats are generally higher.

Also, yes on Toby bias! I gave mine the Speedwing you get in this chapter because I thought it would be funny, and then he just kept leveling Speed so now he's actually pretty fast (I think his Strength and Speed are equal?)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

As I mentioned before, Tsagan is mainly OP because of defense. I tend to compare many Jeigans to FE6 Marcus or FE11/Fe1 Jeigan. Tsagan falls much more in line with FE7 Marcus, which is pretty overpowered. He's no Seth or Titania, but I much prefer Jeigans who can't completely obliterate the early game. 

11 Defense is extremely high obviously for the first real chapter, but also for a unit in a class whose playable representatives have all been on the fragile side, especially when there doesn't seem to be a good reason why he should deviate from the template there. The only thing stopping him from soloing maps with no strategy like Seth or Titania do is his lack of 1-2 range, and even then you still *could*, it would just take a lot longer and be even less fun.

(I believe all of this has already been said, but they're all good points so why not reiterate them?)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Best case scenario for me, it gets enough traction for a fan to make their own custom hard mode patch, similar to The Last Promise (although that one was technically never finished).

i will make the hard mode patch. well at least i would if i could commit to a project like that and weren't confident i would ruin all the well-designed maps

jokes aside I (or anyone else who would hypothetically undertake such a project) would probably want permission from the original hack maker before doing so and I don't know how to reach them nor do I speak Japanese (a machine translator would suffice for the latter, but still)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Yeah, this really does feel like Ogma to Navarre, although Emmy being a merc who joins with a Shanna look-alike (no, I do not want to search up her name) makes me tink of Diek, who admittedly reminded me of Ogma. Pretty sure a lot of these things in the games are either references or inspirations from the older games, probably to make the game feel more as if it was an actual title in the elibe series, which I can respect.

There are a lot of parallels between FE1 and FE6, to the point where I kind of think of the latter as a spiritual remake of the former, so yeah, the resemblance between Dieck and Ogma is very much there. Emmy herself doesn't particularly feel like she takes after either of them to me, which might just be because she's not a big muscly man like those two. (Or a man at all, purported manliness aside.)

And yeah, totally agreed on there being a lot of intentional callbacks in this game! It's one thing to reuse concepts out of sheer creative laziness, but quite another to do so deliberately to create an authentic experience.

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

So this really is the game's weakest bit so far. Silly recruitment. Nonsensical writing. Chapter 4 just seems like a bit of a mess, even if the map itself was really well made. Although Ruben did say this is mostly just filler, so I guess it could've been much worse.

It's a bit much to expect for a single person to be both good at writing and at making a Fire Emblem game, and I'll definitely take the latter over the former in this case. If I wanted to read Fire Emblem fanfiction (which I do, at times!) I'd just do that instead of playing a hack. (Not that this nullifies any complaints about the writing, especially since if you're working with an existing canon the standard is imo a bit higher than if you're creating your own setting like most hacks do; more that it's fair to prioritize gameplay over story in a fangame.)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

But it'd make for a great gimmick map!

boat map where pieces of the boat regularly disappear and get replaced, leaving your units stranded while they're gone. actually isn't that just the Forblaze map from FE6? never mind I don't want that anymore

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Well, I hope you enjoy coming back to the hell that is Fire Emblem and its forums.

Thank you as well!

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

One day, a Fire Emblem game is just going to give players a single thief and a healer and go "Just reset if they die". Well, at least if Fire Emblem ever drops reclassing I suppose. Play the DS games and you technically have an infinite amount of healers. Xetsu healer can carry you through trying times.

I hope not! (It seems to be a ways off, though; reclassing would appear to be here to stay anyhow, especially after Three Houses where anyone can access almost any class.)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Chapter 4x: Assault

This is a fun chapter! Almost makes you forget you're about to be a war criminal. Soon enough they'll be calling for Saya to be put on trial at the Hague. (But it's okay because Bern are the worse war criminals, right?)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Ah hell yeah! This game is based!

I'm getting such Thracia vibes here, and I love that. Don't worry. This isn't Saya just randomly being violent. She does have doubts, and fears that doing such an act would possibly make them not too much different from bandits themselves. Arel assures her that this is for the best, because all is fair in S support and war. Who doesn't love committing war crimes! 

This kind of comes out of nowhere (I'd vaguely remembered playing a map in a hack where you attack convoys, but I wasn't sure it was this one and didn't remember the context), but I do kind of like it nonetheless. Finally, an FE where you get to play as the villain! (or just Thracia like you said, I remember August being pragmatic in a rather brutal way from the little I've played of it and if Arel is supposed to take after him like was discussed this totally makes sense. not sure Saya should go along with it so easily though, even if she does raise objections)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Mercs are probably the only class that can ever use iron blades well. 

Maybe not Emmy specifically since she has only 9 Con (even though it worked out in this case), but Dieck and Gerik definitely. Maybe Raven too since the enemies in that game are trash anyway...

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

I'm going to guess this game uses triple effective damage. Nice. Give me one chapter where I'm ambushed by cavaliers, and Sieks will be eating good tonight.

It would seem to! I was worried it wouldn't, given the age of the hack (iirc The Last Promise doesn't for instance), until I remembered that this is a JP hack and 2x effectiveness in FE7 was a localization change. As if that game's localization weren't awful enough... (I mean it probably wouldn't be a good game regardless, but the localization has serious issues that I'm guessing only don't get a lot of attention because of its age and it being the first FE to be localized.)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Why would you even attack him at all? You had so many other options?

Did the rest of the guys you had in range have 1-2 weapons equipped? GBA AI seems to prioritize attacking foes who can't counter, even if they would do more damage otherwise.

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Oh. I forgot that nomads can go through water. As if Tsagan wasn't OP enough. What is my man doing? Can horses swim? I seriously doubt they could while a guy is on top of them. If they can, I gotta try it out. If not, I still want to try it out.

I didn't know this until this map either! Goes to show how much I used promoted nomads in the official Elibe games, but Tsagan is just that great.

(no comment on how this is actually being accomplished, you guess is as good as mine)

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Do you know how odd it feels to go from playing 3 Houses, where pegs have 40+ AS, to GBAFE, where they have f**king zero? 

They're not all this slow, promise!

On 4/25/2022 at 2:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

And now they're all going to starve. That's cruel. 

I like you Arel.

I like Arel too. Good thing this is fiction and nobody's actions actually have any consequences!

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by Ruminant

[AnonymousSpeed]

Spoiler

  

On 4/23/2022 at 6:18 PM, Shaky Jones said:

I...I don't know. What DO they do?

Join the FEUniverse discord and find out, I guess.

On 4/23/2022 at 6:18 PM, Shaky Jones said:

We can get a rom hack maker-er and use our combined genius-ness to make the perfect rom hack. Whether you want to pay them or get Anon to torture them is up to you guys.

Speed variable man, I can't NOT see you as a sadist from your bloodlust shown in that Awakening slaughterhouse post. What the hell is even happening? Jesus Christ!

Once you do, learn buildfiles. Then you can help Ruben and I make the perfect ROMhack. It will have nomads and fighters that get speed on promotion. And hookers. The Navarre will be a female armor knight.

Now look here. I...am an artist. Sometimes this requires using Dr. Thunder as embalming fluid. I will not deny that I am also a sinner, but I lust for nothing but the mental stimulation which only such cerebrum can provide.

On 4/23/2022 at 6:18 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Some results are what?

She is a "manly" girl.

On 4/23/2022 at 6:18 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Honestly, I'm still in the middle of figuring myself out with this. Maybe I genuinely need to find God.

This is a big post and I'm a big dope, but yes, you do. I'm not sure I find the Cthulu idea all that compelling, because it seems to make just as many assumptions about the nature of God, which makes it seem reactionary rather than reasoned. Just don't become a spiritualist though, those guys are basically walking demon motels.

On 4/23/2022 at 6:18 PM, Shaky Jones said:

If this was a game, I could just claim to be neutral and get the blatantly good ending, but that is not the case here.

Indeed, the real world does not reward lukewarm nonsense. We must pick sides, or we are cowards. "Because you are lukewarm, I will spew you from my mouth!"

Anyway, @Shaky Jones and @Saint Rubenio. Y'all are both non-Catholics in Catholic environments. What are your thoughts on the Catholic attitude towards the virgin Mary?

On 4/23/2022 at 6:18 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Why do fan games still include things nobody likes? Just let me have a game without them.

There is a community hack being made in the FEU discord. I submitted a fog of war map.

On 4/23/2022 at 6:18 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Congrats Tsagan. You're still broken. RIP to Bodrov.

A note about Tsagan's power- this game was definitely made in the "Jeigans steal EXP" era of Fire Emblem analysis, and while I don't know how similar or different the Japanese metagame was, the general power of pre-promotes indicates that the developer thought they needed a buff compared to the official games.

On 4/23/2022 at 6:18 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Lord Theseus. What a name. Maybe he's the final boss and the 2nd phase will be called Lord Antitheseus.

Then his final form, Syntheseus!

On 4/23/2022 at 7:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

I can't say anything for sure. I'm just some guy.

You're an agnostic.

On 4/23/2022 at 7:18 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Good. All the hotties are in hell.

 

On 4/24/2022 at 5:13 AM, Ruminant said:

I have arisen from the abyss to confirm that there were people who thought that Rostov was better than Grape, and that I was one of them.

Man, the FE meta truly has evolved even more than the global political landscape.

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

God likes to do a bit of trolling

You should check out the story of the Biblical Micaiah. Or the Tower of Babel story, which I actually quite like as a cautionary tale against globalism.

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Pretty sure a lot of these things in the games are either references or inspirations from the older games, probably to make the game feel more as if it was an actual title in the elibe series, which I can respect.

It definitely has that sort of feel to it, like it's imitating the classic patterns. I honestly think it makes it feel more fresh than if it went off the wall with new ideas- the twists and differences from the originals makes for something a lot more fascinating than something without any such archetypes. And, of course, don't break what ain't fixed.

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Sieks deals with the last non-boss armor unit, and...I'm a tad dissapointed. That's 2 levels with no strength, speed, or defense.

No worries, no worries at all. I mean, skill? He needed that. Luck. Really needed that! Thanks man.

Can't tank if you get crit to death. You don't want to end up unable to hit anything, like General Matthis.

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

There we go! For a second, I wondered why they attacked Tsagan again, but I suppose the boss doesn't move. A shame these games don't show stationary enemies. I know modern hacks do that, but this isn't that.

We can put it in the perfect romhack using buildfiles.

12 minutes ago, Ruminant said:

Yeah, low HP on armors never made sense to me. I guess it's to make sure that they can't take *too* many hits before being healed, but you could also accomplish that by lowering their Defense just slightly

To be entirely honest, armors have been so bad they probably need both the HP and the defense.

12 minutes ago, Ruminant said:

jokes aside I (or anyone else who would hypothetically undertake such a project) would probably want permission from the original hack maker before doing so and I don't know how to reach them nor do I speak Japanese (a machine translator would suffice for the latter, but still)

But...why would you need permission?

12 minutes ago, Ruminant said:

I mean it probably wouldn't be a good game regardless

Oh wait you said wouldn't. Yeah, no. FE7 bad, I agree.

I was late for an unimportant date.

Edited April 25, 2022 by AnonymousSpeed

[Saint Rubenio]

Spoiler

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

That depends. Would you join it?

Uhhhh

Eh. I don't particularly hate the man, to be honest. He exists. But I'll join, sure, why not.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

The only exception is Salem. He's cool.

Yeah, Salem good.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

It pains me that casuals probably won't use these types of units because they're not noticeably "cool" looking, and elitists won't use them because archer bad. 

Yeah, they exist in that awkward middle ground where they appeal to nobody. Poor Erika and Fritz.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Wait, hold on now, bucko. I didn't say I loved it or agreed with the idea! It just had a decent plot and characters! I needed this for an extra credit essay! Sure, I had a choice of several books to choose from, but this sounded the least boring. I am not cringe!

I read it for the articles.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Some guy who thinks they're correct on everything. A simple man with a God complex. He was banished and locked away in a cave within the mountains. 3 days pass, and the man was nowhere to be found in this mountain. He returned to Serenes an angrier, bitter man. He burns down the forest. A dying man asks why has he committed such a cruel act upon the innocent. He responds "Nobody played Berwick Saga."

I don't know where I was going with this.

Neither do I, but do keep going.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

I'm telling ya man. People in hell are greeted by Kaga and his massive grin.

I would not even be surprised. Kaga is evil enough to be the Lord of Darkness.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Now. Do it now. I beg of you, begin your quest of leaving Kaga's vision at piece.

Fine. I'll try.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

And somehow, Genny fits into this. Alright.

No, that's not the kind of appreciation I have for Genny. Genny's just neat.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

I still feel like I could be better at that, but it's mainly IRL where I'm AWFUL at putting my thoughts out. It's why I just pull out my trusty .44 Mag. Gets them stuttering every time. I feel so much less embarrassed.

Yes, I already knew you were American.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Didn't you tell me Grape was boring for being the OP cav? You sure made it sound like I should've dropped him.

They're not OP, exactly, but they're the ones everyone uses. Unlike Nikita, whom nobody uses.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

I demand an apology exclusively from you.

Sorry.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

No wonder I keep missing No wonder it feels so much better.

The dichotomy of man.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

You literally told me that you had no idea if it was earlier.

Did I? All I said is that I haven't done an ironman myself. The sheer amount of units points to it being a good ironman game. I may've misspoken, I don't remember.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Who doesn't love committing war crimes! 

That sure isn't me! War crimes are fun!

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Chapter 4x presents a zig zag map where you need to chase down and f**king murder innocent carriers who are transporting rations and a few other goods for Bern troops.

Let's just say Saya is employing Corrin's legendary "non-lethal killing" technique.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Naturally, this is a rush map that encourages fast play. It's also the first map that gives you the deployment screen. If you think that I was going to undeploy Sieks just because this map is for high move units, you are a clown. A foolish, stinky clown.

I expected no less from you.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Oh Jesus Christ. What I meant to say was that Fritz would've wanted the chip xp more, you're the ace card for everything! Now could you please turn back around?

He's not even looking at you, but the sheer force of his front-facing body is enough to intimidate any man.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

After rescue dropping Gim to the front, Sieks tests out Gim's reaction time by throwing his javelin at him. he dodges, but the transporter is wounded. I was pretty happy.

I always like these little stories you make up for the most mundane of actions.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

They used the elixir they were meant to drop to heal themselves. 

Ehh, not to worry. This is GBAFE. Don't forget that, in GBAFE specifically, items regenerate themselves upon dropping, for some undiscernible reason.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

I enjoy the layout of the chapter for the most part, being a simple gaiden map with a straightforward objective, but there isn't a lot going on in the first few turns. It's really just rescue drop strats, as you probably don't want to wait on your foot units. I would've appreciated a few more enemies here, or perhaps a man with a horseslayer to get you to hesitate with rushing in with cavs.

Yes, would've been nice.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Wow, what an ***hole. This is one of the first transporters trying to use my own shortcut to get ahead of everyone else!

You might've noticed the other transporter turning around and charging the enemy in order to try and head for the shortcut.

Good job.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Ya love to see it. Sieks doubling. Make a pun about his speed Ruben.

I'd rather make a pun about his crit.

See it there?

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

He wants to give himself a challenge to add spice to his mundane life he's grown tired of.

* Dull.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

You're really going to do this? Okay then.

Yes!

Single digit strength at the endgame, goooo!

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Fritz ended the dying cav's misery from Sieks's lack of wrath. 

If this isn't the most GBA archer level of all...

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

There it is. I knew you wouldn't let me down Gim! What did I say? This archetype is just my unit!

Hwahahahahah... Not bad, not bad at all, green fighter.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Turn 7: Spencer

Spencer.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Since Tsagan is the one killing most Bern transporters, we can rat him out should we get scolded for this war crime. You'd think Sacaens would consider this to be dishonorable or something.

It's not dishonorable if it's filthy foreigners.

- The Law of Sacae, probably.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

But...Sieks. Then again, he needs to reach sieks speed.

If you give him a speedwing now, he'll pass Sieks speed, and then we'll never get to celebrate the meme.

I say keep it in the convoy until he gets there, then give it to him as a reward.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Sieks deals with the last non-boss armor unit, and...I'm a tad dissapointed. That's 2 levels with no strength, speed, or defense.

He thinks good levels are dull.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Here comes the balanced part of him. 

master of none, Ruben says....

He'll master every stat, my friend.

Clearly I was mistaken. He's never been that great for me, but I suppose I just didn't have enough faith in him.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

I only recently remembered that the objective is the route the enemy. Was kinda hoping it'd be to defeat the boss, but whatever. I can take out the enemies now.

I f**king missed. You kidding me!? I don't know why I even cared so much at this moment in time

Eh, being upset by the RNG is never unreasonable.

On 4/25/2022 at 8:24 PM, Shaky Jones said:

And now they're all going to starve. That's cruel. 

I like you Arel.

Arel is nice. About as nice as his forehead is big.

 

On 4/26/2022 at 12:29 AM, Ruminant said:

Phew. At least the hacker had the good sense to ditch such an utterly irredeemable mechanic as that one.

Yeah... I've seen a couple of desert maps I've enjoyed (in hacks, mostly, though Berwick Saga fixes sand, like it fixes fog*), and I'm a bit of an FE6!Arcadia advocate, I think that map is rather beautifully constructed. But most of the time, yes, desert is just crap.

* Sorry Shaky. Next time. But hey, Ruminant hasn't heard me shilling Berwick endlessly yet, so surely I get a pass?

On 4/26/2022 at 12:29 AM, Ruminant said:

Yeah, low HP on armors never made sense to me. I guess it's to make sure that they can't take *too* many hits before being healed, but you could also accomplish that by lowering their Defense just slightly; that compounds when you're taking lots of hits on enemy phase.

They tend not to extend the same courtesy to other units, too, so the measure ends up being unfair to armors, a class that is already riddled with a great many issues in other areas.

On 4/26/2022 at 12:40 AM, AnonymousSpeed said:

Anyway, @Shaky Jones and @Saint Rubenio. Y'all are both non-Catholics in Catholic environments. What are your thoughts on the Catholic attitude towards the virgin Mary?

Ummmm.

Am I supposed to know what you're talking about here? What do the Catholics do to the virgin that Protestants don't?

On 4/26/2022 at 12:40 AM, AnonymousSpeed said:

You're an agnostic.

Agnostic, eh? Yeah. I suppose that would be more accurate.

[AnonymousSpeed]

31 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ummmm.

Am I supposed to know what you're talking about here? What do the Catholics do to the virgin that Protestants don't?

My question has nothing to do with the Protestants. I want to know what y'all think about the topic.

[Saint Rubenio]

3 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

My question has nothing to do with the Protestants. I want to know what y'all think about the topic.

I don't understand the question, then. What exactly do you mean by "the Catholic attitude towards the virgin Mary"? What do they do?

[AnonymousSpeed]

44 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I don't understand the question, then. What exactly do you mean by "the Catholic attitude towards the virgin Mary"? What do they do?

Exactly. What do they do? There aren't many Catholics were I live, so I'd like to hear what an external but highly-exposed observer has noticed.

[Shaky Jones]

I'd rather not get into specifics, but things are not going too well at home for me, and I'll be more busy than usual for a while, so things might get slowed down. I won't stop though. I need to see Gim cap all stats. 

For anyone reading the LP mostly through the chapters and not the replies, I will say that this post's replies in particular has a few moments where I analyze the game based on where I'm at so far if you're interested. I hid comments that were too serious and completely unrelated to the game.

One last note. I'm finishing this post at 2 AM. I am very tired and do not want to carefully re-read my post. I'll try to edit it later if it lets me by then should there be a mistake or something. It's probably fine though. No one's here for quality anyways. 

Replies:

Spoiler

3 hours ago, Ruminant said:

My line of thought was that slower cavs (unless they're really slow) will generally end up being fast enough to double anyway, and doubling magnifies the impact of Strength (plus high-Strength units often have higher HP and Defense as well, and those are both important on the front lines). That said, that's in the long term; while one doubles and the other doesn't, the one who does is obviously better, and that's certainly the case for Grape here. It's sort of a bases vs. growths thing, even though in theory you'd expect them to be equal.

This really depends on the game. But since these enemies are closer to fe7 enemies, or perhaps fe6 normal mode enemies, I suppose Rostov doubling probably isn't hard to achieve. That being said, Grape doubling right on the spot allows his early availability to grant him a major boon in comparison to Rostov's, as the level of frailness the enemies have make Rostov's strength somewhat pointless. Grape can 1RKO many enemies just fine from the ability to double alone, while it would take Rostov a bit of time to reach that speed. Grape would scale up at a much faster rate, letting him reach higher levels much earlier in the game. 

3 hours ago, Ruminant said:

9 is certainly a lot for the first chapter! The only christmas cav I can think of who can match that is Alec, and that's in Genealogy where base stats are generally higher.

Also, yes on Toby bias! I gave mine the Speedwing you get in this chapter because I thought it would be funny, and then he just kept leveling Speed so now he's actually pretty fast (I think his Strength and Speed are equal?)

Really? I hope your Toby breaks expectations an becomes a speed demon. I on the other hand, am hoping to take the full approach of "zero speed", and just never give him wings, hoping that he'll be that one guy who's in endgame with single digit speed. Sieks is already faster.

3 hours ago, Ruminant said:

There are a lot of parallels between FE1 and FE6, to the point where I kind of think of the latter as a spiritual remake of the former, so yeah, the resemblance between Dieck and Ogma is very much there. Emmy herself doesn't particularly feel like she takes after either of them to me, which might just be because she's not a big muscly man like those two. (Or a man at all, purported manliness aside.)

And yeah, totally agreed on there being a lot of intentional callbacks in this game! It's one thing to reuse concepts out of sheer creative laziness, but quite another to do so deliberately to create an authentic experience.

But the game said that she's manly!

It's not so much that Emmy herself reminds me of Diek, but more that the joining team reminds me of fe6 chapter 2 in general. If Toby and Gim were with them, it'd be near identical. And you had the not Julian Lena moment in chapter 2. At that given moment, I did get a bit annoyed, because it felt a bit on the nose, but I do think the game has been doing a decent job really feeling like an actual FE title. Other FE romhacks I've played tend to feel really different from them. 

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

11 Defense is extremely high obviously for the first real chapter, but also for a unit in a class whose playable representatives have all been on the fragile side, especially when there doesn't seem to be a good reason why he should deviate from the template there. The only thing stopping him from soloing maps with no strategy like Seth or Titania do is his lack of 1-2 range, and even then you still *could*, it would just take a lot longer and be even less fun.

(I believe all of this has already been said, but they're all good points so why not reiterate them?)

The lack of 1-2 range certainly does nerf them. I'd be really sad if the optimal way to play was to just buy javs or something for Tsagan for the entire first half of the game. As Anon brings up later in his replies, this could be the result of jeigans being considered a negative to keep around, given how unwelcomed low growths were to Fe players at the time, back then where people might actually tell you that FE8 Seth was bad. I can somewhat imagine the dev possibly thinking they needed to be stronger, although now the game just has a busted unit who throws balance out the window, whereas the rest of the units seem mostly balanced so far. The easy solution really would be to nerf defense, and maybe strength a little. From a storytelling perspective, I can see why they want to have the jeigan be a strong character who paves the enemy waves for Saya. It could display the power of skilled Sacean techniques that Saya longs to master, giving her more of a reason to have pride in her homeland and a drive to become stronger and ensure that the enemy regrets ever brining chaos to their territory. Tsagan being old would imply he's had a lot of experience. He's a wise old man who knows everything there is to the blade and bow. I feel that it's more impactful for him to be strong than Fe11 jeigan or either Marcus, who are mostly just noble knights. However, the defense part is ridiculous. These people are known for being fragile. His bones would probably snap if you slapped in on the back. I'd argue that it'd be better for his character if he had 7 defense. He's perfect for taking out an obstacle, but even he can only do so much to protect Saya at his current state. Saceans were never one to take on hoards of enemies alone after all. They use the environment (aka fe6 crazy map design) to their advantage, and strike at once, in large groups to overwhelm the enemy. Maybe I'm overlooking into the stats of a jeigan unit, but I like to think that many FE games, particularly older ones, gave units stats with a thematic purpose in mind, and there's big potential with Tsagan.

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

I hope not! (It seems to be a ways off, though; reclassing would appear to be here to stay anyhow, especially after Three Houses where anyone can access almost any class.)

I would make some joke jabbing at Intelligent Systems or something, but I love reclassing, so I can't really say I'd be upset or anything. I guess I could argue that 3H takes it too far, but I'd rather not get into a debate on why DSFE's free reclassing is better than 3H's testing system that incorporates the school system into the gameplay. Besides, Ruben can make that argument for me.

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

This kind of comes out of nowhere (I'd vaguely remembered playing a map in a hack where you attack convoys, but I wasn't sure it was this one and didn't remember the context), but I do kind of like it nonetheless. Finally, an FE where you get to play as the villain! (or just Thracia like you said, I remember August being pragmatic in a rather brutal way from the little I know about it and if Arel is supposed to take after him like was discussed this totally makes sense. not sure Saya should go along with it so easily though, even if she does raise objections)

August is easily my favorite tactician in the series, and for good reasons too. It's not just because "character does dark thing which is epic". It fits into the scenario perfectly imo. Now, Sacae currently doesn't seem to be in a state nearly as depressing as Thracia's, but it's certainly still a problem, and I'm still unaware of what's really happening. Things are probably going to get worse in a bit. While August might seem negative to a few, especially the other tactician in Thracia, who serves as the honorable "good guy" assistant, he takes a more realist approach, taking whatever strategy that would appear to be sound or most beneficial to their army or cause. Leif naturally learns the pros and cons from both sides, and slowly becomes a better character as the plot progresses. While Saya currently doesn't seem to have anyone else, Arel has already taken a similar approach, and Saya seems to be taking caution in how much of said advice is worth following completely. While she mostly does follow along with his plans, they are again, not evil or unreasonable. They're questionable to an extent, but for the benefit of Sacae in such a difficult time. Sacae is after all, just a fraction of Bern's power, and the Lorca tribe is a dying one currently under turmoil, while the Djute tribe is allying with Bern, only causing further disruption from within, not even mentioning the stress Saya is going through from the kidnapping of her mother done for seemingly political bargaining. While I do feel that this could've been presented and written a little better (it doesn't hold up as well as Thracia's setting and scenario imo, but the connections and significance is still present and well done, and there's always the possibility that the wonky translation could be causing the slight disconnect I occasionally feel), the similarities help the game's story tremendously. It helps convey the desperation of the situation. 

Also, commiting war crimes is really satisfying

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

It would seem to! I was worried it wouldn't, given the age of the hack (iirc The Last Promise doesn't for instance), until I remembered that this is a JP hack and 2x effectiveness in FE7 was a localization change. As if that game's localization weren't awful enough... (I mean it probably wouldn't be a good game regardless, but the localization has serious issues that I'm guessing only don't get a lot of attention because of its age and it being the first FE to be localized.)

I didn't even think about the FE7 localization being the difference for TLP and SoHaE differences in that regard! That does make sense. A shame about TLP. I like that hack, but the FE7 (eng) engine/system does cause issues with how underwhelming double effective damage can be. I suppose the emblem weapons would've been too OP otherwise, but it still harms bows and horseslayers. 

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Did the rest of the guys you had in range have 1-2 weapons equipped? GBA AI seems to prioritize attacking foes who can't counter, even if they would do more damage otherwise.

Ah, so they're wimps. 

Yeah, most could counterattack. I can understand not wanting to take counter damage, but they literally deal no damage to Tsagan. It's still better to hit my weaker units!

I prefer DSFE AI, where they always prefer maximum damage output. Sure, it makes them a bit easy to predict and manipulate compared to conquest AI, but I like the emphasize on high damage being a consistent factor in the games, especially when enemies hit so hard in those games. I also just hate enemies running away or wasting time protecting themselves, even if that's the more human thing to do.

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

They're not all this slow, promise!

Inb4 Toby doubles a flier

4 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Once you do, learn buildfiles. Then you can help Ruben and I make the perfect ROMhack. It will have nomads and fighters that get speed on promotion. And hookers. The Navarre will be a female armor knight.

Now look here. I...am an artist. Sometimes this requires using Dr. Thunder as embalming fluid. I will not deny that I am also a sinner, but I lust for nothing but the mental stimulation which only such cerebrum can provide.

Okay then. What promotion do your hookers get, and what are their promo bonuses?

I've heard weirder stimulations. 

Spoiler

4 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

This is a big post and I'm a big dope, but yes, you do. I'm not sure I find the Cthulu idea all that compelling, because it seems to make just as many assumptions about the nature of God, which makes it seem reactionary rather than reasoned. Just don't become a spiritualist though, those guys are basically walking demon motels.

Yeah, I probably could be thinking more about religion and even myself, but I often prefer not focusing on that. It probably doesn't help that I'm one f those people who really like Cthulu, and basically anything by HP Lovecraft and the idea of the incomprehensible. Not that I'd compare God to anything like that. It's more of the idea that I don't really make the connection of God being unimaginable as a negative or insult, but I do feel bad in a way, as I'm almost certain it is one, especially when tales and bible verses depict humans as the main creation made after their image. 

Oi. Don't take me for THAT. Even if I end up being a Ruben at the end of the day, I'd like to think I'm not...well people do think I'm disturbing, but not unapproachable! Okay, some DO think that, but I don't even try to be weird. It's just a result of me being too isolated at childhood, so I do not know how to properly interact. I would feel a little embarrassed saying that, but we're all Fire Emblem fans. We're already in the same boat of degeneracy.

4 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Indeed, the real world does not reward lukewarm nonsense. We must pick sides, or we are cowards. "Because you are lukewarm, I will spew you from my mouth!"

Anyway, @Shaky Jones and @Saint Rubenio. Y'all are both non-Catholics in Catholic environments. What are your thoughts on the Catholic attitude towards the virgin Mary?

Okay, so it seems neither me nor Ruben understand the question. Sorry man. 

 

4 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

There is a community hack being made in the FEU discord. I submitted a fog of war map

Of course you did.

4 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

A note about Tsagan's power- this game was definitely made in the "Jeigans steal EXP" era of Fire Emblem analysis, and while I don't know how similar or different the Japanese metagame was, the general power of pre-promotes indicates that the developer thought they needed a buff compared to the official games.

So we need to find them, and correct them on their mistakes, right? Then they'll help with our perfect FE romhack.

Spoiler

4 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

You should check out the story of the Biblical Micaiah. Or the Tower of Babel story, which I actually quite like as a cautionary tale against globalism.

I've read the Tower of Babel story, but no the Micaiah one. I'll consider checking it out. I'd rather not get into talking about the stories though, or else this Lp will become a religious debate.

 

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

It definitely has that sort of feel to it, like it's imitating the classic patterns. I honestly think it makes it feel more fresh than if it went off the wall with new ideas- the twists and differences from the originals makes for something a lot more fascinating than something without any such archetypes. And, of course, don't break what ain't fixed.

Only Last Promise is allowed to be innovative. 

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Can't tank if you get crit to death. You don't want to end up unable to hit anything, like General Matthis.

General Matthis with his 10 skill still had more hit than most Binding Blade units.

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

We can put it in the perfect romhack using buildfiles.

And then Intelligent Systems sends a hitman after us due to our game decreasing the sales on their latest release, Fire Emblem: Edelgard's Origins

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

But...why would you need permission?

So the dev doesn't send a hitman after them too.

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I was late for an unimportant date.

I would ask with who, but I'm not risking you saying "your mom".

 

I know Ruben left comments, but it's not loading on my page yet, and I'm afraid to refresh and lose progress, so I'll respond to it on the next post, along with whatever his new comment will be about why I criticized chapter 5 too harshly.

Chapter 5: Defense of Bulgar

Spoiler

Those Bern boys better all be promoted, because I will rage if they all fell to lvl 5 enemies.

There was a bit of a chat here, so I'll sum it up here. They exchange their "I'm glad you're not dead" greetings, and Saya informs Dayan of Lyn being taken somewhere south. He's presumably upset by this, but right now, he's primarily focused on saving the civilians of Bulgar, and he needs YOUR help!

All 1 people.

As long as it's nothing like Thracia's 14x, we'll be fine.

So Dayan got crit'd in battle and is now crippled, meaning that the enemy could capture him in this state. As such, he has to fall back and leave it to us.

As always, the wounded hero is obligated to claim they still have fight in them, so the protagonist can tell them they need immediate rest and seem compassionate.

Dayan won't just leave us entirely on our own here though. He brought a few more Ilia mercs.

...Is this who I think it is?

I love how that sentence makes it sound like he's some mighty champion hoping to finally see some real power from someone. 

I just can't take that name seriously. I'm sorry man.

So one thing I'm a bit unclear on. Were the Kutolah fighting them here, or somewhere nearby and have retreated, leading to the Bern soldiers arriving here with the spare troops. I really don't want to think these enemies were what nearly killed Dayan. 

Well that implies they already broke it down previously. Well the new guy doesn't seem concerned about it.

Dude, just kill the enemy yourself! It'll take like 5 minutes. This always leads to the villains losing! I mean, look at Herman's stats.

What the actual f**k am I looking at? Even for normal mode standards, this is sad. No general should have under 30 HP and single digit strength. He's an optional boss too. As if I'm possibly going to say "this is too much". Loki, you dumb***. 

Sorry. Moments like these, while probably a separate gameplay issue, really annoys me, given how I usually try reading stories through the game over the text it provides. I think there should always be some level of connection between it, even on a difficulty perspective, or the actual story/text will lose weight and significance imo. I'm sure you could criticize most of this on actual FE games, although I do think The Last Promise actually did a good job on that for the most part.

I'm just going to be honest. This is probably my least favorite map so far. Not for BS design, difficulty, or anything like that. It's just a boring defend map that isn't well made. It's just 2 sides of the map where enemies try to ambush you for 12 turns. There will be surprises happening later on, but nothing that makes me find the chapter to be interesting compared to the previous ones. The top half of the map is mostly worthless until the last few turns, and the bottom half is just an open field with a ton of enemies. I'm assuming Conquest wasn't out yet, so I won't compare this to chapter 10 of that game, but this just feels like a boring version of FE5's chapter 14 imo. That chapter had you defend a town from enemies attacking you from several sides, but there was a lot more layer to that one. I wish I could describe this better, but I think this chapter is extremely bland, even if this is part of the early game. 

A boy training to be an Ilia Knight. He's from a poor and cold village.

Lance Rank: D     Sword Rank: D

Finally. Treck pre-time skip. For a level 3 cavalier, those aren't bad stats. Pretty decent HP. His speed isn't great, but I wasn't really expecting it anyways. 11 con is actually quite handy, as it means he does not get weighed down by javelins. For anyone who wants to say I'm being unfair to Rostov, I urge you to not forget your normal pills again. Rostov has 9 con. Nikita, he may as well have 17 speed. Also, Nikita looks great. If anything, his similar stats means Rostov is even more worthless. Just feed your kills to Grape, then use Nikita when the time comes. Everyone knows that the only the class worth bringing more than 2 of are arches. 

A heavy knight apprentice of Ilia. A complex boy with a flamboyant physique.

Lance Rank: D

The speedy knight. A classic. Reminds me of armor Petra. Don't actually try that. You'll destroy the game. Seriously, she still had the speed to double with darting blow, and the defense to tank several hits, it was bizarre, but made the rest of my army worthless to have in the frontlines. Why am i brining this up, despite having no relation to SoHaE? To piss off super elitists who cringe at the idea of using armors in 3 Houses.

Anyways, I don't know what to say of Rick. The description says they're flamboyant, so I'll assume they're not actually another 14 year old in battle. The low strength is a bit sad to see, bit the defense stat is still good. Only 1 less than Sieks, and he's 3 levels lower. I'll consider using him. It might depend on his first few levels. I really don't want to drop Sieks though. He's the man. 

Turn 1: The Best Defense is a Good Speed Stat

Given how Yeke's religious ideals go against strength growths, I plan to rely on Fritz to do that for me, but I still want him doubling. Doing the math, many enemies have roughly 4-5 speed in this chapter. Cavs have 6 speed, but those with steel weapons are weighed down. The speedwing will help him double. This goes for Gim too, but he's doing just fine on his own. I do have regrets over not giving to Nikita though. He actually would've been the perfect candidate. However, I didn't look at his stats until after I gave Fritz the wings. Sure there's Sieks, but...I dunno. I don't want to hoard the speedwing until he reaches sieks speed. And now there's Rick to consider. I just threw it ti Fritz and didn't think too much about it. Sue Ruben.

 

I can't open the door. Damn. I wanted to speed things up though. Had the center team set up for it. Ah well. Choke-pointing 2 walls it is.

Well if I can't do that, I may as well enter the house. Gotta evacuate everyone and all that. Don't know why though. I can just kill the enemy. Really, I'm hurt that they don't trust me enough.

Okay. This made me laugh.

It was just a mend staff btw.

Team G readies themselves for the waves of soldiers and a wyvern rider (which you can't see here, but they reach Gim). Gim and Sieks lay in the front lines with a jav to counter all enemies. Emmy is rescue-dropped, and Rostov has already served 1 of his 2 purposes in life.

So earlier, Ruben reminded me that Arel is actually more like FE7 Merlinus, who is automatically deployed without the need to waste a slot on him> he simply plays like FE6 Merlinus. The annoying part of this is that you cannot touch his inventory in the prep menu. Since he's usually the guy I have buying sutff, that means I often end up being unable to actually equip the stuff I wanted until the map starts and then I get Arel to reach the appropriate unit.Arel had quite a few hand axes, but my invenotry had none, which peeved me off a bit. Not a big deal though. Better than just not having a convoy in the map at all. Speaking of which, does Arel also have that invincibility thing where he comes back every chapter? Just curious.

This side is mostly the same as the left one. One soldier with a lance, and a wyvern rider that can reach your turn 1 team, sharing a similar red zone. Grape's defense isn't even bad anymore, so he has no problem being a frontline unit. The Anti-Rostov Alliance will be a thing for sure.

While Grape could've held a jav to counter the soldier, he can double with an iron lance. The wyverns are probably the only threatening enemy type in the game so far. They have a competent defense stat, HP above 20, and neither their speed or strength sucks. Give these guys a steel lance, and I could actually lose a unit. Please kill my units. This LP will be pretty boring if nothing goes wrong. I might have to improvise with some other last minute challenge idea, like letting Indefinite Agility f**king murder one of my units per chapter.

What.

Turn 2: I Shouldn't Have Taken This Many Screenshots

Oh. Green units. I suppose this is them evacuating in real time. That's almost interesting. 

These guys start coming out of their houses as the first couple of turns pass. Just ignore them. They'll probably be fine. If not, then that's just nature taking its course.

Okay sure. Don't double despite the speedwing. Well, it kills.

¿Qué?

Well the strength boost is just enough for Grape to 1RKO Mr Bern. Depending on his strength growth, this is more proof that Rostov is walking garbage. Sure, you can argue that the speedwing would help him, but Grape doesn't even need a stat booster to double. You could have Nikita do it. Grape can deal good chip damage at base if you want him doing that as his role, and with his great speed, he probably could afford to use a steel sword to double most enemies and 1RKO them without more strength. Enemies have low HP. 

Rabi does a thing and Toby rightfully takes the credit.

I will give credit to the first few turns. For being really simple map design with a hoard of enemies in one area (giving me bad Genealogy vibes), at least the layout of their enemy ranges are still not crappy. It's not as well made as the previous chapters, given how many enemies were placed to be positioned to "appear" threating in a partially spread out line to seem as if they marched as a brigade all the way here. Still, they spread out enough and split to not completely overwhelm you with enemies. It's just enough to get you to consider how you attempt to block them from arriving. I just wish there was more to defending that 2 corners of the map that's a thin hallway. Eh, at least I don't hate the map.

Yeke's speed lets him barely kill with a super effective weapon. 

Gim's probably tanky enough to take on everyone. Pretty sure Gim can't 1RKO the cavs, so he won't get bodied. Besides, if he gets overwhelmed, he can just proc dual guard with Sieks.

Alright, let's see if he can do s**t. 

Spoilers: I don't find out until a future chapter.

Originally, Risette planned to leave with Pascal, but she simply couldn't leave after meeting Gim. The way he bravely defends this town on the frontlines, and how he cares for his friend, Toby. It reminded her of how compassionate axe units can be in this cruel world. 

That's it. That's the whole romance story. It's still better than Sigurd x Deirdrei.

None of the enemies have a javalin other than the armor knight in the bottom left corner. I probably would've given one to the 2 soldiers near the cavs, but perhaps I'm not the best source of advice. I think Conquest's chapter 17 is a great chapter.

Euphoria

Ohh, Gim's doubling sword cavs now. And he landed both questionable hit rates! Ya love to see it.

Turn 3: The Last Important Turn

Steel lances are actually a mistranslation. They're meant to be called sh*t lances. In Japan, older copies of the first 5 FE games referred to them by this title. How do I know this? If you translate the text from Japanese to Polish, you get Genealogy of the Holy War.

Being mostly shielded by cavs, Toby can risk being out of the villages' walls. Well, probably anyways. Truth is, the cav to the right has 1 HP left. I took a while this turn trying to find out how to kill him given my unit's positioning, but nothing really helped. Fritz doesn't have a 1 range bow, and I didn't want to just have Tsagan block the space and have Toby retreat. It's out of character!

 

Now, Rostov fufills his 2nd purpose in life.

Rostov is now worthless.

Ruben, tell me a good suggestion for this, and I'll try to think of a reason you're wrong. This helps more than me actually trying to find a suitable candidate.

If you designed a lance specifically for murdering horses today, you'd be cancelled. And then those people mysteriously vanish presumably out of embarrassment for realizing you can't cancel the government anymore.

Yeke...

 

Thank God SOME Sacaens get strength. 

They call me Hammer Man #6. That's right. I bought a hammer back in chapter 4x! I didn't tell anyone that so none of you could rat me out to the enemy. They'll never see this coming!

I don't know how much longer I can do this. I'm sorry Emmy. You're a great unit and all, but I just can't train you comfortably since the explicit incident.

Well, with nothing else to do, Arel goes shopping. He buys 2 iron lances and 2 javs. These are mainly for Nikita and Rick.

This dude doubling merc. It's over.

Turn 4: Is That Really It?

As you can hopefully see, I've routed a majority of the enemy. Starting turn 3 (or 4, I forgot, my bad), enemies seem to spawn from the left and right by either pairs of 2 or just 1 on each corner. The first three turns will likely be your busiest, but things slow down much more from there on out. More will spawn later on, but for a little while, you'll be chilling. This is the best time to go all out and kill the boss early on. They drop a blue gem, and the stage doesn't end when they die, so you don't have to worry about missing out on xp. If you were hoping to LTC this map, then this info sucks. 

Ehh, I'm not too happy with this kid. I guess a base speed of 8 is nice, but I sort of want more out of a unit. Is there any other mages I'll get that are...you know, based?

Okay, so Toby almost died, so I had to do a bit of mending. The fighter missed last enemy phase, and I don't remember if it would've killed. I'm going to assume it wouldn't have, so I can pretend I'm a pro at Fire Emblem to use as a repellent for social interaction.

Nikita borrowed an iron sword to have a competent hit rate, giving me memories of playing Binding Blade, where I'd still miss afterwards.

Rabi is in the way now, so Fritz can't do anything, and Tsagan heads west to remove the distant armor, using a vulnerary for no real reason.

Seeing how tense the fighter was, Emmy used the armorslayer to pierce through the armored shell he bottled his emotions in. 

Your stats are about 1 higher than Dieck's. Congrats. 

I can't stop. Armor unit kills are too satisfying. It's a demand. An addiction. A fe-

If Gim ever dies, I'm shutting everything down. All of it. I'll destroy SerenesForest. 

뭐

Turn 5: The Daughter of the Mayor of Burgal

A daughter of the mayor of Bulgar. She has a strong sense of justice and a cheerful heart.

Staff Rank: D

Well, there's our horse healer. Can't go wrong with those. They have that xp because I forgot to take a screenshot until at the very end. 2 magic is stinky doo doo, but 7 magic is appreciated. To compare, Risette has 3 magic, but 6 speed. Otto has 2 magic, and 5 speed. Fromy's magic is pretty mediocre in this case. I don't see why FE loves to hand out such low magic healers, at least the GBA ones. Both Elen and Serra had 1 magic. Clarine had 2. Dude, you make them look really bad at their own job. Any mage that learns heal at promotion just has double their magic, but I suppose the ranks carry through. Still, have some more magic! Did they think heal staffs that heal 10 HP needed to be heavily nerfed? I don't really think it does. If it's that bad, then give them more magic and have them heal magic+5. That was just a small rant. I really don't care all that much. A healer is a healer. That's good enough for me. For God's sake, I used Bishop Roshea and ended with 6 magic on endgame, spending most of his unpromoted phase with 1 the entire time. I don't need a magic stat. The real question I have is, does Ruben give me permission to use this unit? I wouldn't be surprised if he hates mounted healers, or daughters of mayors.

Fromy's best friend. A girl with a lot of sensibility and love for the meadow.

Bow Rank: D

Another archer? Are you kidding me!? Now I have even more units I'm heavily invested in! Erica's no Fritz, but she seems decent. Her stats are actually really similar to Fritz now that he has the speedwing. Did you really need to start with 9 speed? You're making him look bad. I JUST gave him the wings. Now he seems bad for needing it. 

As far as unit analysis goes, this is Rebecca 2: Now She Actually Deals Damage!

As a bow unit, you should use her. I will, of course. 

Well, that's all of them. The last one still needs to run away, but we're basically done here. I must ask, what's the point? The green units are so far above in the map, and they leave pretty qucikly. Even if I didn't block the entrances, I don't think they would've reached the villagers. I forgot they even existed until this bonehead brought them up.

Toby. You're my guy, but show me that your muscles ain't just for attracting mates. Give me strength. Defense is good. I appreciate that. No speed is hilarious. You are a comedy genius. But I really want you to hit hard.

I doubt the boss moves, but I was careful anyways. This is a good thing, right? Usually when I play things safe out of paranoia, people just yell at me for it, telling me to put the gun down.

You might have noticed the 2 armors that have been standing right out the door for the past 5 turns. They're trying to unlock the door to the town, but this area uses the Oblivion lockpick minigame system over the international Skyrim/Fallout 3 one, giving them a run for their lockpick stat. I had Saya slash one of them down, then used Yeke and I think Rick to drop her away from danger. She's dying now, but what's life without profuse bleeding to give you that dreadful feeling that wakes up your senses?

Turn 6: Well That Was Underwhelming

Oh no. He opened the door. Now all 4 enemies can get in after 3 turns of running with no interruption. 

This is an example of a good smiley face unit.

After some healing, Saya gives the armor knight a taste of his own super effective damage desires. I like that these guys had horseslayers. You couldn't just thrown in Tsagan or a trained Grape to deal with them, and squishier units like Saya or Emmy could easily die trying to get to the center so early. Gim might've been able to do it, but I was bust focusing more on southern enemies over ones near the boss himself. I wonder if the door would stay closed if I was faster. Personally, I would've added just a tad more horselayers from some armor knights to get you being careful about making your chokepoints or reaching to the boss. It'd promote you rushing in with hammer users more. Or I guess a trained Rabi with the angelic robe? I still don't see the appeal.

Okay, Rostov. You get ONE kill. It saves me time so I don't need to deal with you and wait a turn to fight the boss.

I'm honestly surprised you didn't miss. You usually do!

It's Gim-ing time.

I am going to use this so much in the future, especially on you Ruben.

Master of all trades. This includes res. What can this guy not do?

Dayan, you incompetent f**k.

Turn 7: Herman's Backup Plan

Here's the 2nd half of the reinforcements I've been hinting at. If you haven't been routing the enemy at this point, there's a chance that this would be the part where you become surrounded from all sides. I see what they were going for, but it doesn't feel executed every well imo. Really, they should've made it so the east and west gates were a part of the stage that you could interact with. Maybe even put in a ballistae you could use to help fight off from inside the town. Try fighting them off from all sides. Wait too long on one end, they'll open the door on each correspond gate. It'd be a tough game to balance out. The game allows you 14 deployments out of 17. I say just let it make you use all 17 for this map. Make use of having 3 healers this early on. One for each side. You could reduce the number of enemies a little bit from the south to not get completely overwhelmed, but a chapter hyped up this much from the dialogue does warrant being difficult to beat. It should feel like you just managed to survive the impossible. Another option is that half of the souther side doesn't really move and stays near the boss to protect them, making for a greater challenge should you try to beat them. The enemies surrounding him will be stronger, but by killing the boss early on, you end the reinforcements, and the remainder of the stage will become easier, and you obtain a blue gem. These are some of my personal suggestions anyways. If you think they suck, or you have other methods of improvement, feel free to mention it. I really just wanted to share my full thoughts after finding out there was a east and west gate under utilized. It would've helped how barren this chapter feels.

Back to Yeke, he once again lands a criticial when I'm trying to set up a kill. I'm not sure how often I brought that up, but this is the 6th time this has happened so far this run.

Turn 8: Don't Let a Single One Escape

Life is meaningless.

Here's the first set of new reinforcements. They give you quite a lot time to save the villages. At least I can get Erica to do something.

She missed.

Turn 9: They're Flanking Us

The hardest part of the end is figuring out just how much I should spread out my team. Really, there's not enough time to rush back up. Really, there's no one left to defend. The town's already evacuated. I'm just trying to rack up my kill count to brag to Dayan about.

You know what? He's 2 speed points higher than Rebecca 2, so he's still marginally better. I don't know if these two are shipped or anything, but I'd like to see them match in total stats at the very least.

The problem with being so strong is that you can no longer feel excitement from battle. This is why Lychee holds a numb expression.

Turn 10: Oh No, Game Bad

I had Toby and Yuin head back north just to set up kills for Toby.

Heyyy! We eating good tonight boys!

Heyyy! We crucifying good tonight boys!

Somehow, Herman returned.

Turn 11: Herman's Last Stand

Herman uses the last of his breath to summon several wyvern riders to charge at the last stretch.

But what he didn't know what that I was prepared for this exact moment.

I was informed. By a traitor.

That's right. It was the developer of the hack themselves! I asked them why they made Tsagan so disgustingly busted. They replied "Gamefaqs, my boy. Their holy wisdom, we were bestowed by knowledge of the Gods. It is up to me to pass these teachings down from generation to generation. You are a misguided child. This is my way of enlightening the masses." I couldn't believe it. I told them that I was in chapter 5, and that I was enjoying their game, but it was missing something. They knew of my antics. They threw in the wyvern spawns just for me, so my archers could have a field day. They told me in advanced just to let me ensure my kills. I was very grateful that they would go through such lengths just for me. I asked them why, but all they did was point at the screen.

Those sons of b*****s! They turned Tsagan into Titania! Or so I thought. They said that he was always like this. That units like her are the only jeigans worth using, as they have just the slightest odds of not falling of. They told me to use Tsagan all the way through, until endgame. What good is a unit if you don't plan on 20/20'ing them, they told me. I'm hardly in a position to say no. That'd be mean. I still can, but I'm not sure I should. They even threw in the free Saya strength level up!

Dragon Fruit continues to route the eastern enemies and gets a Matthis level up.

Turn 12: I Just Want This Post To Be Done With

Well that's not a great start.

Given how strong a hammer is, it naturally lets in 1RKO most enemies now. I should've bought more. I love hammers.

I don't even remember the Sol Katti being effective against wyverns. Does it do that? I guess it was against the Fire Dragon, I think. I don't know, it still tends to do 0 damage.

As it turns out, Erica can't do sh*t against the brigands, so she ran down and only now gets her first kill. Really, giving the bandits just enough speed to not get doubled is a bit of an insult. Being given such a weak bow isn't helping her either. It does make for a great Rebecca reference though.

Damn! Not again! Don't let the Sieks die out!

He sacrificed his good level so everyone else could get amazing ones. I was so surprised laying this chapter and seeing everyone get perfect growths. A shame my favorite lad had to suffer for it, but it only makes me respect him more.

God bless you Sieks. o7

 

Hey, even if this is cringe, what the hell am I supposed to say? There's too many damn good levels. I'm too flabbergasted to start gushing or something.

Damn again. I was so close to routing the enemy. I was just too ignorant of the west side. I threw my bad units there, thinking they'd be fine, but they use hand axes, so I couldn't really counter them. A mistake on my end. Good thing I technically didn't lose any turns. I got way more than enough level ups to complain about lost xp.

Oh thank goodness! That brigand was going to kill us all!

Go f**k yourself.

You guys...is that all we are to you?

It was insane, on God, fr. 

She really does speak like a teen. An Ostian teen that is. Get your act together Saya.

After this, he tells us that we should leave and resume our quest to locate the lost Lyn.

Fight who? We killed them all! 

And the search for the Sacred Lyns continue.

Okay, I get it. Lyn is an essential companion. Bethesda won't allow me to continue the plot without her.

I don't trust their green units to keep them alive past turn 2.

Oh that's terrible. If only I cared about Tsas. I mean, what's wrong with me? They showed me an entire 1 cutscene with her where Saya and her spoke for 30 seconds about training to be good leaders. How could I NOT feel that there was a deep connection I should feel saddened to see possibly be broken?

Honestly, this was not a surprise to hear. Come on. Of course they're going to do something like this. Either that or kill her off defending you or something. Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe when the time comes, somehow, she'll help us and become playable. However, I still think it's easy to predict that they'd try making an enemy out of her to an extent like now. And of course it's a blood pact. How convenient. 

This feels forced imo. Sorry if I'm being a massive d**k rn. Perhaps there'll be an absolutely amazing explanation later, but just revealing it this early so suddenly did not make this chapter feel any more interesting story wise,

But we do get an Earth Seal, so that cheered me up. I am so happy they changed the way it looks. The actual earth seal just looks odd. This is essentially a master seal, and I'm all for it.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Spoiler

 2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I do think the game has been doing a decent job really feeling like an actual FE title. Other FE romhacks I've played tend to feel really different from them. 

Yeah, that's one of the game's perks. It feels like it could be another GBAFE. Whether that's better or worse is up to one's preferences, but it's certainly a thing.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

August is easily my favorite tactician in the series, and for good reasons too. It's not just because "character does dark thing which is epic". It fits into the scenario perfectly imo. Now, Sacae currently doesn't seem to be in a state nearly as depressing as Thracia's, but it's certainly still a problem, and I'm still unaware of what's really happening. Things are probably going to get worse in a bit. While August might seem negative to a few, especially the other tactician in Thracia, who serves as the honorable "good guy" assistant, he takes a more realist approach, taking whatever strategy that would appear to be sound or most beneficial to their army or cause. Leif naturally learns the pros and cons from both sides, and slowly becomes a better character as the plot progresses.

Yeah, August is a great character. And don't forget, just because August is a pragmatist doesn't mean he's heartless. No better example than Leif's reckless order to retake Ulster. When Dorias states that he will lead a vanguard, August realizes what he's trying to do, but instead of just letting him, he attempts to stop him and lead the vanguard himself instead. Despite their numerous clashes, August didn't want to let the man just commit suicide like this.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I don't really make the connection of God being unimaginable as a negative or insult

I certainly did not mean it this way myself. I just think it's a possibility. One that I find to be more possible than the classic portrayal of God, but that's just me.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Only Last Promise is allowed to be innovative. 

It's a bit sad that "light mage dancer lord that gains staves and renewal on promotion" is still one of the most imaginative and bold unit designs I've seen in a FE to this day.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I know Ruben left comments, but it's not loading on my page yet, and I'm afraid to refresh and lose progress, so I'll respond to it on the next post,

How dare you ignore me.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

along with whatever his new comment will be about why I criticized chapter 5 too harshly.

No, not really. It is undeniable that chapter 5 is not the game's greatest map.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

So Dayan got crit'd in battle and is now crippled, meaning that the enemy could capture him in this state.

...Is that... Is that an intentional Berwick reference, or was it an accident? Dude! I was actually going to make this the post where I didn't mention Berwick! I was going to comment that Anakin would fit in well in Berwick and exercised some restraint! But how can I do that when you straight up describe a Berwick mechanic so overtly? If it was a coincidence, then it's one hell of a coincidence. What I'm saying is, it is clearly fate that you must play Berwick.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I love how that sentence makes it sound like he's some mighty champion hoping to finally see some real power from someone. 

Yeah no, he's just some guy. Some guy called Nikita.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

So one thing I'm a bit unclear on. Were the Kutolah fighting them here, or somewhere nearby and have retreated, leading to the Bern soldiers arriving here with the spare troops. I really don't want to think these enemies were what nearly killed Dayan. 

Uhh...

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

What the actual f**k am I looking at? Even for normal mode standards, this is sad. No general should have under 30 HP and single digit strength. He's an optional boss too. As if I'm possibly going to say "this is too much". Loki, you dumb***. 

Sorry. Moments like these, while probably a separate gameplay issue, really annoys me, given how I usually try reading stories through the game over the text it provides. I think there should always be some level of connection between it, even on a difficulty perspective, or the actual story/text will lose weight and significance imo.

I'm just going to be honest. This is probably my least favorite map so far.

No, I get it. I will fully admit this chapter isn't great. Way, way too easy. You just leave the town and mow down the enemy. Bad defense map. The civilians aren't even in any real danger, and the only time they would be, Erika and Fromy appear right there to serve as a distraction if worse comes to worst.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I'm sure you could criticize most of this on actual FE games, although I do think The Last Promise actually did a good job on that for the most part.

TLP is just great.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A boy training to be an Ilia Knight. He's from a poor and cold village.

Lance Rank: D     Sword Rank: D

Finally. Treck pre-time skip. For a level 3 cavalier, those aren't bad stats. Pretty decent HP. His speed isn't great, but I wasn't really expecting it anyways. 11 con is actually quite handy, as it means he does not get weighed down by javelins. For anyone who wants to say I'm being unfair to Rostov, I urge you to not forget your normal pills again. Rostov has 9 con. Nikita, he may as well have 17 speed. Also, Nikita looks great. If anything, his similar stats means Rostov is even more worthless. Just feed your kills to Grape, then use Nikita when the time comes. Everyone knows that the only the class worth bringing more than 2 of are arches. 

Nikita starts a bit similar to Rostov, but his niche is more being the Lowen type of cavalier. Big defense, serviceable stats otherwise.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Anyways, I don't know what to say of Rick. The description says they're flamboyant, so I'll assume they're not actually another 14 year old in battle. The low strength is a bit sad to see, bit the defense stat is still good. Only 1 less than Sieks, and he's 3 levels lower. I'll consider using him. It might depend on his first few levels. I really don't want to drop Sieks though. He's the man. 

You know what I'm going to say.

Use B O T H.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Given how Yeke's religious ideals go against strength growths, I plan to rely on Fritz to do that for me, but I still want him doubling. Doing the math, many enemies have roughly 4-5 speed in this chapter. Cavs have 6 speed, but those with steel weapons are weighed down. The speedwing will help him double. This goes for Gim too, but he's doing just fine on his own. I do have regrets over not giving to Nikita though. He actually would've been the perfect candidate. However, I didn't look at his stats until after I gave Fritz the wings. Sure there's Sieks, but...I dunno. I don't want to hoard the speedwing until he reaches sieks speed. And now there's Rick to consider. I just threw it ti Fritz and didn't think too much about it. Sue Ruben.

Ahh, who cares. Sieks thinks drugs are dull, anyway.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay. This made me laugh.

You're laughing. He was prepare for this and you're laughing.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Speaking of which, does Arel also have that invincibility thing where he comes back every chapter? Just curious.

Yes.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Please kill my units. This LP will be pretty boring if nothing goes wrong.

It'll ramp up in difficulty, but as always, it's going to take a while.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I might have to improvise with some other last minute challenge idea, like letting Indefinite Agility f**king murder one of my units per chapter.

No, you must let me murder one of your units per chapter instead.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

What.

You wouldn't think a guy so permanently tired would be this godly at fighting.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

¿Qué?

AHAHAHAHAHA

Well, it's official. Fate wants you to be the first person in the history of mankind to use Fritz.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Alright, let's see if he can do s**t. 

Spoilers: I don't find out until a future chapter.

Oof.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Originally, Risette planned to leave with Pascal, but she simply couldn't leave after meeting Gim. The way he bravely defends this town on the frontlines, and how he cares for his friend, Toby. It reminded her of how compassionate axe units can be in this cruel world. 

Awwww. Gim just makes everything better.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

That's it. That's the whole romance story. It's still better than Sigurd x Deirdrei.

To be fair, the romance between pee and poo when you flush the toilet is better than that.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Euphoria

As I said above.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Steel lances are actually a mistranslation. They're meant to be called sh*t lances. In Japan, older copies of the first 5 FE games referred to them by this title. How do I know this? If you translate the text from Japanese to Polish, you get Genealogy of the Holy War.

Hahahahaha... Oh, Shaky, always with the Genealogy hate. Don't you know that it is the greatest story known to man, perhaps better even than the other greatest story known to man, Path of Radiance?

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Ruben, tell me a good suggestion for this, and I'll try to think of a reason you're wrong.

Sieks. Fix his horrible base HP. Let him fulfill his destiny.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Yeke...

Yeah, you're SO getting benched for the nomad next map.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Thank God SOME Sacaens get strength. 

She has more strength than Yeke.

That's just... so sad... Look, look at this! This is my Yeke from the run where I used him!

What is happening here, man?

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

They call me Hammer Man #6. That's right. I bought a hammer back in chapter 4x! I didn't tell anyone that so none of you could rat me out to the enemy. They'll never see this coming!

What a strategist.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I don't know how much longer I can do this. I'm sorry Emmy. You're a great unit and all, but I just can't train you comfortably since the explicit incident.

The wha...?

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Ehh, I'm not too happy with this kid.

You've literally only fed him one level.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I guess a base speed of 8 is nice, but I sort of want more out of a unit. Is there any other mages I'll get that are...you know, based?

Ah well. There's Sergei. Otto could be funny when he promotes. There's a monk, but he's really nothing too remarkable. Oh, there's another shaman, she comes later on and she's basically Rabi in steroids. Perhaps you'll want to check her out.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Your stats are about 1 higher than Dieck's. Congrats. 

She's still a female mercenary. That alone makes her radder than Dieck.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

If Gim ever dies, I'm shutting everything down. All of it. I'll destroy SerenesForest. 

My Gims all have worse stats at level 10. What the heck. You really do have a passive that automatically buffs all fighters in your hands.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Turn 5: The Daughter of the Mayor of Burgal

A daughter of the mayor of Bulgar

Ah, we're doing the Revolver Ocelot joke again?

Fromy is complete shit, which is a good thing. A game that actually bothers to balance the troubadour relative to the on foot healers? Nice!

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Fromy's best friend. A girl with a lot of sensibility and love for the meadow.

Bow Rank: D

Another archer? Are you kidding me!? Now I have even more units I'm heavily invested in! Erica's no Fritz, but she seems decent. Her stats are actually really similar to Fritz now that he has the speedwing. Did you really need to start with 9 speed? You're making him look bad. I JUST gave him the wings. Now he seems bad for needing it. 

As far as unit analysis goes, this is Rebecca 2: Now She Actually Deals Damage!

As a bow unit, you should use her. I will, of course. 

Use them both, c'mon. You're you. You simply must.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Toby. You're my guy, but show me that your muscles ain't just for attracting mates. Give me strength. Defense is good. I appreciate that. No speed is hilarious. You are a comedy genius. But I really want you to hit hard.

The fact that Gim is stronger than him is honestly really sad. At this rate, Toby's only going to be good for the memes. Which, don't get me wrong, it's a worthy niche to cover! I really want to see how far he can take that 3 speed.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You might have noticed the 2 armors that have been standing right out the door for the past 5 turns. They're trying to unlock the door to the town, but this area uses the Oblivion lockpick minigame system over the international Skyrim/Fallout 3 one, giving them a run for their lockpick stat. I had Saya slash one of them down, then used Yeke and I think Rick to drop her away from danger. She's dying now, but what's life without profuse bleeding to give you that dreadful feeling that wakes up your senses?

Oh no. He opened the door. Now all 4 enemies can get in after 3 turns of running with no interruption. 

I really love how the door takes so insanely long to open that by the time it does, there's a high chance that both of those clowns are already dead. Then the gate just magically comes down by itself.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This is an example of a good smiley face unit.

You can't win against the manly girl.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I am going to use this so much in the future, especially on you Ruben.

Oh don't worry, I love this line too. I'd be really happy if you use it against me.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Master of all trades. This includes res. What can this guy not do?

Be bad.

That's a thing he can't do, you cannot deny it!

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You know what? He's 2 speed points higher than Rebecca 2, so he's still marginally better. I don't know if these two are shipped or anything, but I'd like to see them match in total stats at the very least.

I don't believe they can even support lol. Or at least I don't remember it. Do check when you can, the "support" option at the prepscreen works.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Heyyy! We eating good tonight boys!

Heyyy! We crucifying good tonight boys!

Well, I think that's that, then. Nikita is taking Rostov's deployment slot.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Somehow, Herman returned.

I have nothing witty to say. You just got a big chuckle out of me with that.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

That's right. It was the developer of the hack themselves! I asked them why they made Tsagan so disgustingly busted. They replied "Gamefaqs, my boy. Their holy wisdom, we were bestowed by knowledge of the Gods. It is up to me to pass these teachings down from generation to generation. You are a misguided child. This is my way of enlightening the masses." I couldn't believe it. I told them that I was in chapter 5, and that I was enjoying their game, but it was missing something. They knew of my antics. They threw in the wyvern spawns just for me, so my archers could have a field day. They told me in advanced just to let me ensure my kills. I was very grateful that they would go through such lengths just for me. I asked them why, but all they did was point at the screen.

Do tell how you came in contact with the game's developer. I want to tell them I like Tsagan's face.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Those sons of b*****s! They turned Tsagan into Titania! Or so I thought. They said that he was always like this. That units like her are the only jeigans worth using, as they have just the slightest odds of not falling of. They told me to use Tsagan all the way through, until endgame. What good is a unit if you don't plan on 20/20'ing them, they told me. I'm hardly in a position to say no. That'd be mean. I still can, but I'm not sure I should. They even threw in the free Saya strength level up!

No, but seriously, where's that 70% chance to miss the strength growth?

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Well that's not a great start.

Auuuuugh... Yeah, not great.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Damn! Not again! Don't let the Sieks die out!

He sacrificed his good level so everyone else could get amazing ones. I was so surprised laying this chapter and seeing everyone get perfect growths. A shame my favorite lad had to suffer for it, but it only makes me respect him more.

It kinda hurts to see, but don't you dare bench him. Life without Sieks would just be too dull to be worth living.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

God bless you Sieks. o7

Even Yeke has benefitted from Sieks's sacrifice. He is a real hero.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh thank goodness! That brigand was going to kill us all!

Go f**k yourself.

Hey, maybe that brigand was Nerring, the final boss of FE, in disguise. Dodged a real bullet there, matey!

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You guys...is that all we are to you?

The real friends we made along the way was you guys.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh that's terrible. If only I cared about Tsas. I mean, what's wrong with me? They showed me an entire 1 cutscene with her where Saya and her spoke for 30 seconds about training to be good leaders. How could I NOT feel that there was a deep connection I should feel saddened to see possibly be broken?

Honestly, this was not a surprise to hear. Come on. Of course they're going to do something like this. Either that or kill her off defending you or something. Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe when the time comes, somehow, she'll help us and become playable. However, I still think it's easy to predict that they'd try making an enemy out of her to an extent like now. And of course it's a blood pact. How convenient. 

This feels forced imo. Sorry if I'm being a massive d**k rn. Perhaps there'll be an absolutely amazing explanation later, but just revealing it this early so suddenly did not make this chapter feel any more interesting story wise,

I do like where they take the story with Tsas, it's a bit different than you'd expect. But yes, this is a bit too sudden.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

But we do get an Earth Seal, so that cheered me up. I am so happy they changed the way it looks. The actual earth seal just looks odd. This is essentially a master seal, and I'm all for it.

Yes, this game throws the GBAFE promotion system out of the window. Which is a good thing. I never liked it much.

 

[Vestrikslana]

Spoiler

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

I'd rather not get into specifics, but things are not going too well at home for me, and I'll be more busy than usual for a while, so things might get slowed down.

That's totally fair. I hope whatever's going on right now, it gets better for you soon.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Really? I hope your Toby breaks expectations an becomes a speed demon. I on the other hand, am hoping to take the full approach of "zero speed", and just never give him wings, hoping that he'll be that one guy who's in endgame with single digit speed. Sieks is already faster.

I haven't booted up my save in a couple days but I think he actually has more Speed than Strength at this point... He might be a little Strength-screwed, but if that's the cost I have to accept for him to actually double things, I won't complain!

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

It's not so much that Emmy herself reminds me of Diek, but more that the joining team reminds me of fe6 chapter 2 in general. If Toby and Gim were with them, it'd be near identical. And you had the not Julian Lena moment in chapter 2. At that given moment, I did get a bit annoyed, because it felt a bit on the nose, but I do think the game has been doing a decent job really feeling like an actual FE title. Other FE romhacks I've played tend to feel really different from them. 

Yeah, fair... And then there's Pascal and Risette in Chapter 4 which (now that I'm thinking about it) is a pretty clear parallel to Rutger and Clarine in FE6's Chapter 4, even up to it punishing you for advancing too far up the map and generally being unfair for a blind player (albeit in different ways).

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

The lack of 1-2 range certainly does nerf them. I'd be really sad if the optimal way to play was to just buy javs or something for Tsagan for the entire first half of the game. As Anon brings up later in his replies, this could be the result of jeigans being considered a negative to keep around, given how unwelcomed low growths were to Fe players at the time, back then where people might actually tell you that FE8 Seth was bad. I can somewhat imagine the dev possibly thinking they needed to be stronger, although now the game just has a busted unit who throws balance out the window, whereas the rest of the units seem mostly balanced so far. The easy solution really would be to nerf defense, and maybe strength a little. From a storytelling perspective, I can see why they want to have the jeigan be a strong character who paves the enemy waves for Saya. It could display the power of skilled Sacean techniques that Saya longs to master, giving her more of a reason to have pride in her homeland and a drive to become stronger and ensure that the enemy regrets ever brining chaos to their territory. Tsagan being old would imply he's had a lot of experience. He's a wise old man who knows everything there is to the blade and bow. I feel that it's more impactful for him to be strong than Fe11 jeigan or either Marcus, who are mostly just noble knights. However, the defense part is ridiculous. These people are known for being fragile. His bones would probably snap if you slapped in on the back. I'd argue that it'd be better for his character if he had 7 defense. He's perfect for taking out an obstacle, but even he can only do so much to protect Saya at his current state. Saceans were never one to take on hoards of enemies alone after all. They use the environment (aka fe6 crazy map design) to their advantage, and strike at once, in large groups to overwhelm the enemy. Maybe I'm overlooking into the stats of a jeigan unit, but I like to think that many FE games, particularly older ones, gave units stats with a thematic purpose in mind, and there's big potential with Tsagan.

Very insightful points on the narrative role of Tsagan's stats. Totally agreed that the best way of balancing him would be to lower his defense; he'd still be an extremely strong player phase and utility unit (as he should be given his status as a veteran warrior), but as is he also takes far too many hits in a way that just feels wrong, even on casual inspection. (Standard characteristics of the Nomad classes besides, I think this is because FE encourages an aversion to placing units in positions where they can't counter, and Tsagan's lack of 1-2 combined with its commonness on enemies means that he often won't be able to counter entire groups of enemies.) Lowering his Strength would have its pros and cons; on one hand it would mean that he transitions into setting up kills for your other units sooner, but on the other hand it hurts his usefulness as a player phase delete button, and if you really need him to weaken enemies at the very beginning you can already just have him rescue someone so he doesn't double. (That's how I typically use Jeigans in the GBA games, excluding FE6 HM Marcus who's a bro and weakens enemies to the point of near-death anyway.) Basically, lowering his Defense is unilaterally better design in this case, but lowering his Strength depends more on what your design priorities for him are.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

I didn't even think about the FE7 localization being the difference for TLP and SoHaE differences in that regard! That does make sense. A shame about TLP. I like that hack, but the FE7 (eng) engine/system does cause issues with how underwhelming double effective damage can be. I suppose the emblem weapons would've been too OP otherwise, but it still harms bows and horseslayers. 

The Emblem weapons could just have their might ticked down a bit to keep their power level about the same, so there's literally no upside to 2x effectiveness in TLP. I like TLP too, but the limitations of GBA hacking at the time do shine very clear in places.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Also, commiting war crimes is really satisfying

agreed. who doesn't like killing non-combatants for the exp and droppables?

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

I would make some joke jabbing at Intelligent Systems or something, but I love reclassing, so I can't really say I'd be upset or anything. I guess I could argue that 3H takes it too far, but I'd rather not get into a debate on why DSFE's free reclassing is better than 3H's testing system that incorporates the school system into the gameplay. Besides, Ruben can make that argument for me.

Nah, I totally agree with you there. I love DSFE reclassing for how it lets your units adapt on-the-fly to any situation (there are lots of arrows on this map? make your Dracoknight a Paladin instead!). Plus it enables some combinations that you might not expect (reclassing Etzel in FE12 to a Swordmaster [or Hero if you don't have mixed class sets unlocked] is unironically the optimal way to use him), and of course there's the unrivaled potential for memes (Warrior Yubello in Ruben's sig is a great example)

I personally like Fates reclassing a bit more since it has a few more limits but the potential for oddball picks is very much still there (I also just think Fates's mechanics are the best in the series, even if the map design isn't always up to snuff), but DSFE reclassing is amazing in its own way. Agreed that Three Houses has one of the worse implementations (and I didn't even mind the school that much! I just think it diminishes unit uniqueness too much, when weapon ranks don't matter and there's no cap on how many units can be a certain class), and Awakening is a whole other can of worms with how it resets your level each time you reclass...

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

I prefer DSFE AI, where they always prefer maximum damage output. Sure, it makes them a bit easy to predict and manipulate compared to conquest AI, but I like the emphasize on high damage being a consistent factor in the games, especially when enemies hit so hard in those games. I also just hate enemies running away or wasting time protecting themselves, even if that's the more human thing to do.

I hadn't really thought about comparing the different games' AI much, but yeah, I can totally see why you'd prefer that. It helps that hitrates in DSFE are pretty high overall, so they're less likely to whiff a hit if they attack a low-defense, high-avoid unit than they would be in GBA. (maybe that's part of what you meant by "consistent", but I wasn't sure)

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

What the actual f**k am I looking at? Even for normal mode standards, this is sad. No general should have under 30 HP and single digit strength. He's an optional boss too. As if I'm possibly going to say "this is too much". Loki, you dumb***. 

I'm pretty sure that 0% growths Sieks would be better in every single stat except HP after you promoted him, which is just incredibly sad considering how awful Sieks is at base. I guess if he moved he'd be a slight threat with his Silver Lance, but as is you can just chip him down with your mages consequence-free. (Or Hammer OHKO him like you did, but...)

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Sorry. Moments like these, while probably a separate gameplay issue, really annoys me, given how I usually try reading stories through the game over the text it provides. I think there should always be some level of connection between it, even on a difficulty perspective, or the actual story/text will lose weight and significance imo. I'm sure you could criticize most of this on actual FE games, although I do think The Last Promise actually did a good job on that for the most part.

Nah, that's totally valid. Gameplay/story integration can make things incredibly unbalanced if you overapply it, but done right it can make for some very unique gameplay, and of course its main advantage is that makes the experience more immersive. And this isn't even just a gameplay/story thing, there's no pure gameplay reason why this guy should be so weak either considering he's optional and not on an avoid tile or anything. At the very least jack up his HP and Strength and either give him 1-2 range or make him move, then he might not be so trivial.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

I'm just going to be honest. This is probably my least favorite map so far. Not for BS design, difficulty, or anything like that. It's just a boring defend map that isn't well made. It's just 2 sides of the map where enemies try to ambush you for 12 turns. There will be surprises happening later on, but nothing that makes me find the chapter to be interesting compared to the previous ones. The top half of the map is mostly worthless until the last few turns, and the bottom half is just an open field with a ton of enemies. I'm assuming Conquest wasn't out yet, so I won't compare this to chapter 10 of that game, but this just feels like a boring version of FE5's chapter 14 imo. That chapter had you defend a town from enemies attacking you from several sides, but there was a lot more layer to that one. I wish I could describe this better, but I think this chapter is extremely bland, even if this is part of the early game. 

I thought the first few turns were kind of fun trying to rout the enemies as quickly as possible, but once you accomplish that you're basically just spawncamping the reinforcements until the wyvern riders (the only kinda threatening ones) show up. It's in any case true that there isn't much defending going on, it's very easy to advance up the map quickly since the enemies don't pose enough of a threat to really punish you for doing so.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

A heavy knight apprentice of Ilia. A complex boy with a flamboyant physique.

Lance Rank: D

Anyways, I don't know what to say of Rick. The description says they're flamboyant, so I'll assume they're not actually another 14 year old in battle. The low strength is a bit sad to see, bit the defense stat is still good. Only 1 less than Sieks, and he's 3 levels lower. I'll consider using him. It might depend on his first few levels. I really don't want to drop Sieks though. He's the man. 

I always thought Rick would be more interesting if he had really shit Con for an Armor (like 8-9) but actually good Speed (~10ish at base), so he doubles with lighter weapons but not heavier, kind of like a Pegasus Knight. (Am I the only one who likes that as a balancing factor on Pegs? I know a lot of people complain about Con in GBA being sexist, which I can see for unisex classes like Myrmidons and especially FE7-8 Mages [in FE6 tome weight was negligible so it wasn't as big a problem there], but in the case of Pegasi it's really just a consequence of them being female-only in these games. The female Aid formula is a different story, but...)

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Okay, "Burgal" is a very strange mistranslation. I know there's the Japanese r/l thing, but this name was already localized as Bulgar as early as FE7. They even get it right elsewhere, like at the beginning of the chapter! (Much like a lot of names in Sacae it's also a historical reference, which confirms that Bulgar is the correct spelling; the Bulgars were an originally nomadic people of the Eurasian steppe who later became settled and eventually gave their name to modern Bulgaria)

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Did they think heal staffs that heal 10 HP needed to be heavily nerfed? I don't really think it does. If it's that bad, then give them more magic and have them heal magic+5.

Or do it like the DS and 3DS games, where half your Magic is added to healing instead. Granted in DSFE specifically the healers still had bad base magic, but that's something everyone has to deal with in those games, not just the healers.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Another archer? Are you kidding me!? Now I have even more units I'm heavily invested in! Erica's no Fritz, but she seems decent. Her stats are actually really similar to Fritz now that he has the speedwing. Did you really need to start with 9 speed? You're making him look bad. I JUST gave him the wings. Now he seems bad for needing it. 

As far as unit analysis goes, this is Rebecca 2: Now She Actually Deals Damage!

As a bow unit, you should use her. I will, of course. 

Jokes aside, I feel like Erica is actually pretty solid in a vacuum (especially by GBA archer standards), it's just that she's totally obsoleted by the two Nomads including your Jeigan that you got in the first chapter. I guess if your Yeke isn't cooperating she could be a decent replacement? Of course all this is irrelevant when you're making it your mission to use anyone who can hold a bow, but...

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

After some healing, Saya gives the armor knight a taste of his own super effective damage desires. I like that these guys had horseslayers. You couldn't just thrown in Tsagan or a trained Grape to deal with them, and squishier units like Saya or Emmy could easily die trying to get to the center so early.

While playing this chapter myself I totally blanked on these guys having horseslayers, and one of them moved to attack one of my horse units. (Don't remember who, but it may even have been Tsagan?) Fortunately they missed, sparing me the embarrassment of losing someone on an overall pretty easy chapter.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Those sons of b*****s! They turned Tsagan into Titania! Or so I thought. They said that he was always like this. That units like her are the only jeigans worth using, as they have just the slightest odds of not falling of. They told me to use Tsagan all the way through, until endgame. What good is a unit if you don't plan on 20/20'ing them, they told me. I'm hardly in a position to say no. That'd be mean. I still can, but I'm not sure I should. They even threw in the free Saya strength level up!

Jokes aside, I'm pretty sure this is the exact mentality that Tsagan was designed with. Even if he's not Strength-blessed he still contributes late-game thanks to his high Speed, weapon ranks, and movement; he just goes from "by far your best unit for every situation unless you need flight" to "middle of the road", which I suppose is technically falling off but not what you'd picture when you hear the term.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:50 AM, Shaky Jones said:

But we do get an Earth Seal, so that cheered me up. I am so happy they changed the way it looks. The actual earth seal just looks odd. This is essentially a master seal, and I'm all for it.

Yeah, I'm with Ruben, I really hate how promotion works in vanilla GBA FE and I'm very pleased that they changed it here despite being otherwise pretty vanilla mechanically. That's something that TLP didn't do, although I guess it would have been pretty broken if you could use the Siegfried Mode Elysian Whip on anyone... (Not that giving it to Inanna isn't already broken, but imagine early-promoting Kevin and getting him back as a General at the start of Anakin Mode)

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Ruminant

[AnonymousSpeed]

Spoiler

  

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay then. What promotion do your hookers get, and what are their promo bonuses?

They're in other classes. Hooker is not an actual class, for none of the weapons are hooks.

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I've read the Tower of Babel story, but no the Micaiah one. I'll consider checking it out. I'd rather not get into talking about the stories though, or else this Lp will become a religious debate.

The thread becoming this:

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I would ask with who, but I'm not risking you saying "your mom".

Nonsense, I would never bone your skele-mom.

Y'know. 'Cause she's Catholic.

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I just can't take that name seriously. I'm sorry man.

Is this Marvel related?

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

If Gim ever dies, I'm shutting everything down. All of it. I'll destroy SerenesForest.

On deliberation, I'm okay with that.

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Originally, Risette planned to leave with Pascal, but she simply couldn't leave after meeting Gim. The way he bravely defends this town on the frontlines, and how he cares for his friend, Toby. It reminded her of how compassionate axe units can be in this cruel world. 

That's it. That's the whole romance story. It's still better than Sigurd x Deirdrei.

At least there's a reason one partner likes the other.

I now ship it. It will be done in the "SF Writes SoHaE Supports" project.

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Yeah, I probably could be thinking more about religion and even myself, but I often prefer not focusing on that. It probably doesn't help that I'm one f those people who really like Cthulu, and basically anything by HP Lovecraft and the idea of the incomprehensible.

Lovecraft is an interesting fellow. He really turned me on to the evils of the unspeakable Southern Italians.

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I don't really make the connection of God being unimaginable as a negative or insult, but I do feel bad in a way, as I'm almost certain it is one, especially when tales and bible verses depict humans as the main creation made after their image.

"Incomprehensible" is a fairly Orthodox take on the trinity, for what it's worth.

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I would feel a little embarrassed saying that, but we're all Fire Emblem fans. We're already in the same boat of degeneracy.

Yep. On this forum, it's losers all the way down.

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay, so it seems neither me nor Ruben understand the question. Sorry man. 

Barnacles.

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's a bit sad that "light mage dancer lord that gains staves and renewal on promotion" is still one of the most imaginative and bold unit designs I've seen in a FE to this day.

Alright Ruben, I've got an idea. Armor Knight, with Rally Movement. What do you think?

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I don't believe they can even support lol. Or at least I don't remember it. Do check when you can, the "support" option at the prepscreen works.

Or don't, because it will spoil you on what kinds of units you haven't recruited yet.

 

[Shaky Jones]

Replies:

Spoiler

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Eh. I don't particularly hate the man, to be honest. He exists. But I'll join, sure, why not.

Him existing is a problem. Look at this this way. He's the boring early game cav everyone uses. Grape has a funny name and a great portrait. Rostov is just boring.

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Neither do I, but do keep going

What, do you want me getting to the part where the casuals crucify you?

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

No, that's not the kind of appreciation I have for Genny. Genny's just neat

Okay?

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

They're not OP, exactly, but they're the ones everyone uses. Unlike Nikita, whom nobody uses.

Wrong. Grape is OP.

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Did I? All I said is that I haven't done an ironman myself. The sheer amount of units points to it being a good ironman game. I may've misspoken, I don't remember.

It'll be a good ironman when I actually lose someone. 

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Let's just say Saya is employing Corrin's legendary "non-lethal killing" technique.

Hell no! She's killing them, and I want to believe that. Does the dev have a username? I'm used to saying Based Blazer. I don't know what to say here.

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Ehh, not to worry. This is GBAFE. Don't forget that, in GBAFE specifically, items regenerate themselves upon dropping, for some undiscernible reason.

Ex-f**king-scuse me?

Why didn't anyone ever tell me that? Well, good for me then.

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

I'd rather make a pun about his crit.

See it there?

I actually hate you.

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

It's not dishonorable if it's filthy foreigners.

- The Law of Sacae, probably.

Wow! Fan creates Hoshidan Man's Burden before Fates came out!?

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Clearly I was mistaken. He's never been that great for me, but I suppose I just didn't have enough faith in him.

This sounds familiar.

On 4/27/2022 at 11:35 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

* Sorry Shaky. Next time. But hey, Ruminant hasn't heard me shilling Berwick endlessly yet, so surely I get a pass?

Next time? I wonder if he pulled it off...

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, that's one of the game's perks. It feels like it could be another GBAFE. Whether that's better or worse is up to one's preferences, but it's certainly a thing.

Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of GBAFE overall, but I do find some charm in a fan game managing a decent feel to the main games like that.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, August is a great character. And don't forget, just because August is a pragmatist doesn't mean he's heartless. No better example than Leif's reckless order to retake Ulster. When Dorias states that he will lead a vanguard, August realizes what he's trying to do, but instead of just letting him, he attempts to stop him and lead the vanguard himself instead. Despite their numerous clashes, August didn't want to let the man just commit suicide like this.

I'm telling you, Thracia had the best setting and story in the series! You can disagree if you want, but I firmly believe it does a better job with the plot and character progression than Genealogy, which is hailed as the king of FE storytelling. 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's a bit sad that "light mage dancer lord that gains staves and renewal on promotion" is still one of the most imaginative and bold unit designs I've seen in a FE to this day.

Dude, you're making me want to dissect TLP for hours now. Why doesn't Serenes have a separate thread just for it? It clearly deserve it.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

How dare you ignore me.

This is payback for the time you spent about 6 days to respond to my chapter 8 post of New Mystery. I was a sad lad. How could my good pal ignore a banger post on such a good chapter? 

Also because you don't like Radiant Dawn.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Is that... Is that an intentional Berwick reference, or was it an accident? Dude! I was actually going to make this the post where I didn't mention Berwick! I was going to comment that Anakin would fit in well in Berwick and exercised some restraint! But how can I do that when you straight up describe a Berwick mechanic so overtly? If it was a coincidence, then it's one hell of a coincidence. What I'm saying is, it is clearly fate that you must play Berwick

Ruben...you couldn't resist a single reference? You had one job. I wanted you to be above pointing and screeching to a haha cripple mechanic. I guess you truly are a lost cause.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

No, I get it. I will fully admit this chapter isn't great. Way, way too easy. You just leave the town and mow down the enemy. Bad defense map. The civilians aren't even in any real danger, and the only time they would be, Erika and Fromy appear right there to serve as a distraction if worse comes to worst.

It was pretty disappointing here since I was having great hopes from the previous maps. They were well done, so this one felt like they dropped the ball, almost purposely so just to throw in a gimmick-like map in the game.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You know what I'm going to say.

Use B O T H.

Maybe I should've specified in the title that Shaky Special essentially translates to funny units that no one else uses. I guess to the public, that's a low tier run, but I don't want to imply that they're bad. Everyone else is simply misguided, and cringe.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

No, you must let me murder one of your units per chapter instead.

Oh sure thing. Pay me 10 dollars per unit.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

AHAHAHAHAHA

Well, it's official. Fate wants you to be the first person in the history of mankind to use Fritz.

First? No. Don't tell me that this guy is a noboby to everyone else. He looks cool to me. Not a badass kind of cool, but a "I'd want to be his friend and key my teacher's car with him" cool. 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

To be fair, the romance between pee and poo when you flush the toilet is better than that.

You see why I talk to you so much? You actually say things I want to hear. Thank you.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hahahahaha... Oh, Shaky, always with the Genealogy hate. Don't you know that it is the greatest story known to man, perhaps better even than the other greatest story known to man, Path of Radiance?

Ruben, you can't say the story's not great. It tackles racism in a way. That automatically makes it impossible to criticize. Luckily for me, I judge furries harshly, so I love Shinon. 2nd best part of the game. The best part is Brom. 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Sieks. Fix his horrible base HP. Let him fulfill his destiny.

He's taking 2 damage at most. He's never going to go under 10 HP, unless I go to Khaden. Literally anyone uses it better. Grape could be a pure frontline unit. Nikita could too. Rick has 19 base HP, so he'd be more qualified in the armor category. Technically, it'd probably benefit Emmy the most, since she's strong, but not so tanky, but I don't really think I want to use it on her.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

She has more strength than Yeke.

That's just... so sad... Look, look at this! This is my Yeke from the run where I used him!

What is happening here, man?

I want to use Yeke, but I also don't! This is difficult. I was sort of hoping to pull a Binding Blade and just use every damn archer in the game for a bow run to add in the mix, but Yeke is making that hard to commit to. I mean, it'd be more of a reason to see how a completely deployed Tsagan would perform. All bows, the Sacae fashion.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The wha...?

I already showed you! The google results warning. It wasn't that many posts ago.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You've literally only fed him one level.

Yeah. And?

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ah well. There's Sergei. Otto could be funny when he promotes. There's a monk, but he's really nothing too remarkable. Oh, there's another shaman, she comes later on and she's basically Rabi in steroids. Perhaps you'll want to check her out.

Unlike you, I'm not into little boys, so I probably will use the next mage unit, unless they're also really young, in which I will be disgusted by just how many child mages there are. Otto promotion will take a while, given that I'm actually paying attention to turn counts here, so I'm not going to abuse heal level ups, and GBA healers gain xp very slowly. We'll see what happens.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

She's still a female mercenary. That alone makes her radder than Dieck.

Of course the Echidna fan says this. 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

My Gims all have worse stats at level 10. What the heck. You really do have a passive that automatically buffs all fighters in your hands.

For real. I love the fighter class.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ah, we're doing the Revolver Ocelot joke again?

Fromy is complete shit, which is a good thing. A game that actually bothers to balance the troubadour relative to the on foot healers? Nice

Her stats are nearly identical to the other healers though. That would make them all sh*t. But I'm guessing you won't vomit from cringe if I deploy the daughter of the mayor of Burgal for high move healing and rescue-ing?

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I really love how the door takes so insanely long to open that by the time it does, there's a high chance that both of those clowns are already dead. Then the gate just magically comes down by itself.

Are you kidding me?  It just opens anyways? Now that's just crappy story-to-gameplay integration. It can't just try forcing in the threat of being ambushed like that to make you feel that Dayan actually had a good reason to almost die.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Be bad.

That's a thing he can't do, you cannot deny it!

He'll become bad once he caps his stats. After all, then he becomes an xp thief for not letting someone else gain the potential to grow.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Well, I think that's that, then. Nikita is taking Rostov's deployment slot.

He's taking all of Rostov's possessions. His house too.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

No, but seriously, where's that 70% chance to miss the strength growth?

It was given to Sieks apparently.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Auuuuugh... Yeah, not great.

Just like Yubello.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hey, maybe that brigand was Nerring, the final boss of FE, in disguise. Dodged a real bullet there, matey!

Dude, I just found out. It was Shanty Pete himself.

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

That's totally fair. I hope whatever's going on right now, it gets better for you soon.

Thanks for the wishes, although I should at least clarify hat this is an issue that's going to last months. Hopefully, it'll get easier to get by with.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

Very insightful points on the narrative role of Tsagan's stats. Totally agreed that the best way of balancing him would be to lower his defense; he'd still be an extremely strong player phase and utility unit (as he should be given his status as a veteran warrior), but as is he also takes far too many hits in a way that just feels wrong, even on casual inspection. (Standard characteristics of the Nomad classes besides, I think this is because FE encourages an aversion to placing units in positions where they can't counter, and Tsagan's lack of 1-2 combined with its commonness on enemies means that he often won't be able to counter entire groups of enemies.) Lowering his Strength would have its pros and cons; on one hand it would mean that he transitions into setting up kills for your other units sooner, but on the other hand it hurts his usefulness as a player phase delete button, and if you really need him to weaken enemies at the very beginning you can already just have him rescue someone so he doesn't double. (That's how I typically use Jeigans in the GBA games, excluding FE6 HM Marcus who's a bro and weakens enemies to the point of near-death anyway.) Basically, lowering his Defense is unilaterally better design in this case, but lowering his Strength depends more on what your design priorities for him are.

I agree about how lowering strength could be a bad thing. I probably would just lower defense, res, and maybe a bit of HP. He should be a player phase machine imo, with a minor ability to destroy on enemy phase with his sword, but not to a large extent. It's hard for him to weaken enemies when they're so frail in HP already. Grape already deals a large chunk of their health when doubling, and I don't think he should have identical strength.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

The Emblem weapons could just have their might ticked down a bit to keep their power level about the same, so there's literally no upside to 2x effectiveness in TLP. I like TLP too, but the limitations of GBA hacking at the time do shine very clear in places.

TLP is great, but man has it aged. The glitches I see can be a bit distracting at times, and double effective damage is a little sad to see.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

My comment about this being fiction so the consequences don't matter was a bit flippant, but to some extent it really does describe how I feel here. Even if August might be a fairly despicable person irl, fiction lets you explore the merits of different ideologies in a "safe", consequence-light environment. Plus I don't want to say there's a power fantasy because (from my admittedly limited perspective) a major conceit of a game like Thracia is that you are pretty powerless for a very long time, but I think a lot of people admire the qualities that let someone make "hard",  morally-dubious utilitarian decisions, even when the consequences of those decisions would be too heavy for them to accept irl.

This is a great way to put it. Just because something a character does is arguably morally wrong, doesn't mean it's a bad thing to have in the game. Not every character with the protagonist should be the blatant honorable good guy. The questionable decisions aide in illuminating the struggling setting of Thracia, displaying how desperate Leif's army is, requiring something that many may believe they should be above, but what choice do they have? People don't just enjoy August for being "based", but for actually bringing in depth to the story, being one of the most interesting takes on a tactician in the series.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

agreed. who doesn't like killing non-combatants for the exp and droppables?

Okay, brutal murdering is pretty satisfying, so there is some joy in straight up evil things in characters.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

Nah, I totally agree with you there. I love DSFE reclassing for how it lets your units adapt on-the-fly to any situation (there are lots of arrows on this map? make your Dracoknight a Paladin instead!). Plus it enables some combinations that you might not expect (reclassing Etzel in FE12 to a Swordmaster [or Hero if you don't have mixed class sets unlocked] is unironically the optimal way to use him), and of course there's the unrivaled potential for memes (Warrior Yubello in Ruben's sig is a great example)

For personal reasons, I am obligated to say that Ruben's Yubello in the sig is a lie. Yubello is bad.

Glad to hear about more DSFE reclassing appreciation. I love how reclassing lets you prepare for maps differently depending on your team and stats. And of course, memes are the greatest. Brings so much replayablity and different ways/builds for any unit to make them work. 

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

I personally like Fates reclassing a bit more since it has a few more limits but the potential for oddball picks is very much still there (I also just think Fates's mechanics are the best in the series, even if the map design isn't always up to snuff), but DSFE reclassing is amazing in its own way. Agreed that Three Houses has one of the worse implementations (and I didn't even mind the school that much! I just think it diminishes unit uniqueness too much, when weapon ranks don't matter and there's no cap on how many units can be a certain class), and Awakening is a whole other can of worms with how it resets your level each time you reclass...

I tend to switch between loving DSFE and Fates the most for reclassing. I love how balanced it was, while meme runs still can be done, often through he combination of heart seals, partner seals, and friendship seals, allowing for certain combinations of classes that can be combined for skills that make a character become a beast in combat, but will still be balanced out by Conquest's ingenious design. Even Birthright is pretty fun for me when I use reclassing nonsense, and the extra money helps me do the money dlc less when I want to reclass like crazy (sometimes in conquest, I'll do that dlc so much to buy like, 80+ total seals to have every unit be reclassed more than once, which already shows my appreciation for DSFE's unlimited reclassing amount). Rev has the most amount of units to have mix together for reclassing stuff, but I personally just can't have much fun from the map designs, surprisingly limited money, awful balance for some units, and map designs. Yes, I brought that up twice. It's not the worst experience. I don't HATE Rev. I probably like it more than a lot of FE fans, but that's largely due to Fates mechanics just being so amazing. 3H is the reverse of DSFE in the way that DSFE punishes you for reclassing constantly with your weapon rank, given how weapon ranks inn DSFE are pretty important and reclassing often puts you back at zero, so units aren't COMPLETELY identical. Some units reclassed can be a better hunter than Castor, but you have to start with E rank bows.  In 3H, reaching several high weapon ranks with everything is a requirement for promoting, making everyone reach similar ranks when classing into something they want. Everyone generally starts at E, and works to A in roughly 2 categories or so. Everyone starts off the same, but once classed into something, they're the same thing. Class base stats will make many units be similar at lvl 20 wyvern. Their base stats aren't quite as important anymore, while DSFE base stats would be the main thing determining what they should reclass into. Individual stats tend to matter a lot in those games. Back to 3H, many start as lvl 1 nobels or commoners, both having 4 move and just being able to use any weapon. Again, you use everything in 3H, and in DSFE, you reclass and use a different weapon as a result, or maybe you did so specifically for a new weapon type, unless you went from something like pirate to fighter. This isn't even me going into how I personally find it really tedious to require so much teaching to reach certain ranks. Getting several good ranks for classes doesn't feel fun. It's just slow. It also makes the combat less important when training ranks. You're better off just eating all the time and learning at the study sessions, or even just being the adjutant for a tank in battle and gain ranks that way without actually fighting. Of course, because they added the teaching system, they made ranks extremely slow once you get to B+. 

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

I'm pretty sure that 0% growths Sieks would be better in every single stat except HP after you promoted him, which is just incredibly sad considering how awful Sieks is at base. I guess if he moved he'd be a slight threat with his Silver Lance, but as is you can just chip him down with your mages consequence-free. (Or Hammer OHKO him like you did, but...)

I probably would've given him 40 HP and maybe 13 strength. I understand not wanting to give him too much defense so you can do a bit more damage without requiring effective damage, but he shouldn't be THAT easy to take out, especially as an optional boss. With a spear, he'd have 25 might. I don't mind him not moving too much. Perhaps they could take the approach that he's a bit of a coward who wasn't prepared to fight given how many reinforcements he's brought. Not a complete coward per se. He's still a trusted general who should be at least strong enough to merrit being trusted by Loki to handle the mission, but perhaps lazy and suddenly scared when he realizes he could actually die here now that Saya's squad has approached him. Rather than running to the enemy, he might call for more reinforcements, mostly focusing on defending himself while they continue to arrive. I'd give him just +1 defense, and I might just not increase speed? I'm not sure. Maybe just +1. Not enough to double Toby, but enough to be tough to double for units like Nikita and Rostov. Of course, if I could make this game, I'd have a hard mode option, and I'd have to ponder those stats too, where I'd trust the player to be more resourceful. Perhaps NM general boss would have 12 str, 5 spd, 12 def, while HM general boss would have 16 str, 8 spd, and 16 def. His defense makes you rely far more on slayer weapons, such as the armorslayer on a unit like Emmy or even Tsagan for an easy double,as well as a partially trained Saya to risk rushing to the bottom of the map to double with her Mani Katti. Again, they're an optional boss, so if they're too strong, you're not softlocked.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

Nah, that's totally valid. Gameplay/story integration can make things incredibly unbalanced if you overapply it, but done right it can make for some very unique gameplay, and of course its main advantage is that makes the experience more immersive. And this isn't even just a gameplay/story thing, there's no pure gameplay reason why this guy should be so weak either considering he's optional and not on an avoid tile or anything. At the very least jack up his HP and Strength and either give him 1-2 range or make him move, then he might not be so trivial.

Maybe they wanted him to be a possible kill for Yuin or something.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

I thought the first few turns were kind of fun trying to rout the enemies as quickly as possible, but once you accomplish that you're basically just spawncamping the reinforcements until the wyvern riders (the only kinda threatening ones) show up. It's in any case true that there isn't much defending going on, it's very easy to advance up the map quickly since the enemies don't pose enough of a threat to really punish you for doing so.

I know I saw some video that was a quick compilation of defense maps in FE romhacks being so badly made. I don't think this game was in it, but it's funny since the point was to mention how many hackers shouldn't try adding it into their hack if they don't actually know how to make a decent one, no offense to the map designer of this game. I think many of the early game maps are great. This one just flopped, so I'm guessing the defending maps aren't their thing.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

I always thought Rick would be more interesting if he had really shit Con for an Armor (like 8-9) but actually good Speed (~10ish at base), so he doubles with lighter weapons but not heavier, kind of like a Pegasus Knight. (Am I the only one who likes that as a balancing factor on Pegs? I know a lot of people complain about Con in GBA being sexist, which I can see for unisex classes like Myrmidons and especially FE7-8 Mages [in FE6 tome weight was negligible so it wasn't as big a problem there], but in the case of Pegasi it's really just a consequence of them being female-only in these games. The female Aid formula is a different story, but...)

Personally, I don't like con at all. I love that FE12 got rid of weight, and that Fates has the speed reduction be an exact loss for all units. I find it dumb that Vanessa can't double without the slim lance, since their already bad strength makes them pretty un fun to use when they don't double. That's their whole thing. Doubling. I don't like having con be a separate stat I have to take into consideration, unless it's Thracia. I suppose this does make me sorta on the side that GBA con is sexist, given how I get pissed off when someone like Isadora will get weighed sown where Marcus won't, and so many units will become worse from con, which I can't control. 

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

Okay, "Burgal" is a very strange mistranslation. I know there's the Japanese r/l thing, but this name was already localized as Bulgar as early as FE7. They even get it right elsewhere, like at the beginning of the chapter! (Much like a lot of names in Sacae it's also a historical reference, which confirms that Bulgar is the correct spelling; the Bulgars were an originally nomadic people of the Eurasian steppe who later became settled and eventually gave their name to modern Bulgaria)

Bulgar. Whoops I should probably start calling it that. Burgal is odd. Sounds too much like burgle. 

Wow, IRL Fire Emblem lore. Thanks.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

Jokes aside, I feel like Erica is actually pretty solid in a vacuum (especially by GBA archer standards), it's just that she's totally obsoleted by the two Nomads including your Jeigan that you got in the first chapter. I guess if your Yeke isn't cooperating she could be a decent replacement? Of course all this is irrelevant when you're making it your mission to use anyone who can hold a bow, but...

Well Erica in this chapter was...not the best.

On 4/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, Ruminant said:

Yeah, I'm with Ruben, I really hate how promotion works in vanilla GBA FE and I'm very pleased that they changed it here despite being otherwise pretty vanilla mechanically. That's something that TLP didn't do, although I guess it would have been pretty broken if you could use the Siegfried Mode Elysian Whip on anyone... (Not that giving it to Inanna isn't already broken, but imagine early-promoting Kevin and getting him back as a General at the start of Anakin Mode)

It'd certainly be fun to mess with, but probably too much to let be given so easily. Speaking of Anakin, I sometimes wish it just went completely with FE7's engine by making a Kelik mode. Add slight changes, a bit of extra challenge, maybe some more lore for him while having Anakin's side focus on him as to leave room for giving scenes for all of the protagonists.

On 4/29/2022 at 6:15 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

Nonsense, I would never bone your skele-mom.

Y'know. 'Cause she's Catholic.

Sh*t

On 4/29/2022 at 6:15 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

Is this Marvel related?

Sorta? I don't watch Marvel, but I sure heard of the name. Really, I just think it's a silly name,

On 4/29/2022 at 6:15 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

At least there's a reason one partner likes the other.

I now ship it. It will be done in the "SF Writes SoHaE Supports" project.

Let's do it. We'll revive the game, give it supports, make our own hard mode patch, kidnap the dev.

On 4/29/2022 at 6:15 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

Alright Ruben, I've got an idea. Armor Knight, with Rally Movement. What do you think?

He could give movement to anyone.....but not himself.

On 4/29/2022 at 6:15 PM, AnonymousSpeed said:

Or don't, because it will spoil you on what kinds of units you haven't recruited yet.

I'm going in completely blind. I still haven't looked up growths either. I only occasionally ask Ruben questions on discord if I think I need to know something or risk losing out on a unit or something, like with Pascal, but all I got was frustration. "Just have your flier ready for the healer", how was I supposed to know that!?

Chapter 6: Reunion

Am I going to meet Tsas or something?

Spoiler

Narrowly repelling

Eat sh*t game. Don't put words in my gameplay.

The what?

Oh thank goodness. Don't shiver my bones like that. Just imagine an escort chapter with FoW. FE would never do that.....

Pffft, look at this duuude!

I love this man.

STOP MENTIONING THAT!!!

Apparently, everyone is incompetent but me. What did I even expect from green units?

Aw crap. Tsagan overheard me. My words are canonically Saya's now.

Supported, not waifu'd. Ther's a difference you sick fu

Didn't have to say "still" twice, but I appreciate you acknowledging Saya's youth as a reason for her reckless-ness given how stressful having your mother whose the leader of your tribe being kidnapped is. As of right now, she is rather distressed and frequently spaces out between conversations. Right now, she wishes to let the villagers we rescued earlier rest for now, as they have been travelling for a very long time with no rest. Of course, we all know a battle is going to prevent that.

I should learn to be more composed here. Then people might take my advice of using Cord seriously. 

And of course, there are brigands around the path we're taking to escort the villagers to safety in. The leader is mentioning how the Djutes will be arriving here at some point and will roleplay as Anakin Skywalker. In other words, the game is pointlessly reminding me that they are evil. They're the bad guys who I suppose I shouldn't feel any sympathy for when I brutally murder them to see numbers go up for my units.

Okay. This map is probably full of ambushes. Makes sense. The actual map is rather empty. How spooky for me, being the blind player and all.

So if I fail to do that, the whole run just ends? That's disappointing. They could've been bait for the boss.

Turn 1: GBAFE Is Rescue-Drop: The Game

A Kutalah warrior. A loyal and reliable BIG MAN.

Bow Rank: C

Did you really just call him "big man"? Oh my God, this game is something else. I wonder who the translator was? This is the epitome of beauty. Oliver would be proud. Shoulda save my speedwing for him. 8 strength and 9 defense is decent. The con's crazy too, so no bow will weigh him down to my knowledge. Objectively speaking, I'm sure people will say the lack of speed really hurts him, but given his high move and con, he can always be your rescue man while being able to deal decent chip damage for others at a moment's notice. Yeke probably is your better choice for damage input, as the ability to double will make quite a difference when enemies in this game are usually lacking in HP and defense, but Yaraf can afford more counterattacks. It won't be until he promotes where he can really counter reliably on enemy phase with his defense, but he's not getting 1-2 range. In other words, I'd say he's about a B tier for boring people, and an S tier for the rest of us. The S stands for stunning.

Of course I'm having Sieks be the first one to initiate combat with the enemy. Did you really think this turn would end any other way?

Normally, I'd use the first turn to show the map and talk about whether it's kek or cringe, but there's not a lot to show yet. The real challenge doesn't appear for a while.

(As it turns out, I don't comment on the map at all. Maybe next time.)

Turn 2: We Chilling

This is going to be Erica's chapter. Watch me cap her right here.

Whoops. Didn't mean to put Sieks in range of a mage. Ah it's Sieks. He'll be fine. 

The rest of the enemies this turn weren't worth reporting. They just surrendered, thinking that I'd spare them. It just spared me a few screenshots. Not gonna show a one sided fight.

Turn 3: Every F**king Time

Erica proves to be stronger than Erika.

While I'd rather not feed kills to Emmy much, she's the only one who isn't getting crit'd by this b*****d. Who decided that giving lightning tomes was a good idea? Literally the scariest enemies in chapter 6 of FE6 ironmans.

As always, Tsagan rushes to where the village is as to not let a potential reward be destroyed. Will there ever be a time where I'm actually required to rush just to barely make it in time?

God f**king damn it.

Anima Rank: D

A little mage with a talent for magic who's traveling to find his place in the world.

Why is every goddamn mage a child here!? "Well children can't really be front line soldiers so magic makes sense." Don't make them units at all! Were Rabi and Pink Delthea not enough for quirky child soldier killing machine? Just give me something normal for once! You see how small the screenshot is in comparison to the rest. It represents how little of a sh*t I give for him.

Unit analysis wise, I guess 6 con is nice for a mage. 7 speed isn't awful either. It's lower than Rabi's 8, and I'm presuming dark tomes are better because of nosferatu, unless that's not in this hack or something. I'm not looking up growths, so maybe he's a big growth unit, but he's nothing spectacular. Probably better than Liane, as he has 2 more speed and an extra defense while only being one level higher. If you're going to feed kills to an early game mage to use their availability, Rabi is probably your best bet. But really, you're probably just using Liane because you can't get enough of training little girls. Ruben will say it's for the hat, but you apparently like some loli with an apple or something in Triangle Strategy, so I doubt your judgment. In all seriousness, Leo just seems okay, just like Leo. I sure as hell don't want to use them though.

Nikita, I think, baits one of the archer, which causes the boss's brigade to begin its own civil war on who to prioritize. Saya and her guardians, or the mighty Tsagan. Really, the monks are stupid, because Tsagan is one of my only units who takes no damage from them. Great AI, fellas.

Turn 4: NPC? More Like, Society, Amirite?

Many FE fans like to imagine themselves as units in a certain class with specific stats based off their IRL skills and preferences. This is what we all actually have. The 20 con comes from the fact that you've yet to give up on fast food.

Spoiler

It's okay. my stats aren't any higher. I just have a skill that makes you constantly hear the rattling of bones after I die.

Finally, the citizens we're escorting arrive. Earlier, they were resting from being exhausted after Saya's long trip. She presumably forgot to consider their stamina as regular citizens who do not fight given how distracted she has been lately with the disappearance of Lyn and the news of Tsas being a potential enemy. I'm guessing the 20 con is so I can't recue them to the finish line quickly. That must suck for LTC players. What's wrong with letting up play a little fast if we want? I guess it'd "destroy" the point of the what happens later, but really it should be a reward for clever rescue strats, and you'd be missing out on xp anyways as its own punishment. 

The mani katti is certainly helping Saya not fall off from the fact that I keep forgetting to give her any kills. 

The set up for this turn took a bit of thunking, since the boss is actually a threat this time around if not using a lance (they have swordsslayer), and the archers + the monk can add up to deal major damage to one of my units. I didn't want to retreat though. Fuyu Persimmon is placed on a fort with a javelin. The boss's hit rate is awful against him, and Otto is placed on a tile that should attract one of the archers (while he healed Gim), so they don't all go for Cara Cara, should the boss actually land the hit. 

Poser

Damn your 2 crit. Now everyone is going to say "never punished".

You serious? How much more comedically evil could you look as a nomad? 

Tsas tells the angry nomad man that he's cringe, but he insists that Saya must die here and now. Of course, the will of the chiefs would forbid pointless slaughter of civilians, I think. Point is, they're going to remain stationary over at the mountains.

Turn 5: This Is Where The Fun Begins

Burged. That is the worst boss name I've heard in a while. At least Ruud and Bone are funny bad. Burged sounds like a adjective. How can you even act cocky with those stats? They're not awful, but you sure ain't gonna sweep my army like that. You're just an obstacle.

Now this is where the money's at. A 21 speed boss with a silver sword. Judging by the fact that the nomads around her are lvl 15 with fe6 hard mode tier stats (12 strength, 15 spd), this is the optional boss that I can't remember if FE frequently does or not. I gotta game end her. 

But first, we get this boss out of the way.

Damn. I coulda given that kill to Sieks.

Rest In Piece Brigand Boss.

Okay. Does anyone know if there was ANY point in the FE fanbase's history in which poison weapons were actually considered scary? You might've noticed earlier from Gim and Nikita being poisoned that a couple of enemies are using venin weapons. Is this supposed to be an improvement? I eat poison daily. It's called spew of trivia and celebrity b***sh*t.

Needing Tsagan to come back in order to help me with Tsas, I have him rush up. I leave him one space below though so he can get this guy out of the way. None of these enemies are a concern to me anymore. I have a target.

Turn 6: Unpredictable

Damn. They didn't go after me. Welp.

They call me Bartre.

Turn 7: It's Too Quiet

Emmy, stop that. You're upstaging Saya. How would you feel if I took up a job as a mercenary, started smiling to gain everyone's attention, and then shot your kneecaps?

Well sh*t. Actual reinforcements. It seems the optional boss and their guards are stationary, while these ones are the main threat that are meant to run down the mountains to attack the villagers. That's rather convenient. It'd be more convenient if the game actually showed that so I didn't waste turns slowly inching my way up there. I could've done better strats that way. I didn't really find out completely until about turn 9 or so, but I did start playing much more aggressively when I see how they just didn't want to approach me. If I lose units from reckless plays, that's content.

It's why I went for this moments before the reinforcements arrive. Ackee's got this. Besides, dodge strats NEVER let FE fans downs.

Turn 8: Act First, Think When It's Too Late

What frail djutes. It's not even a steel axe. Gim's my mage killer now.

2 more stats have now reached double digits. Gim isn't too far off from just beating Tsagan, aside from move. Gim does have 1-2 range at least. Once he gets a bit more speed, he can probably 1RKO most enemies on enemy phase with it.

Burged got gorshed by Nikita, the man that nobody uses, according to Ruben. The Djutes will run home crying from embarrassment.

Nikita definitely needs a skill book. I'd like for the javelin to have more hit here. Also, that res point earns you every talisman in the game.

This was the last time I test whether they move at all. The boss is straight up dead. Are they going to avenge him or something?

As for the eastern side of enemies, the other side was much more slow in approaching them, as Tsas's bodyguards are really strong. Arel served as bait should they actually moved. Luckily, the trees prevent most of them from getting anywhere near Saya, except for one of them, who she'd live against. None of them did move though. In my defense, I was much less careful around her, as Tsas actually states that they do not attack unless attacked first. I couldn't assume the same for Burged.

Turn 9: Half of My Team is in Danger For Once

This speed level is essential for reliably game ending Tsas. 

One of my cavs weakened them. I'm guessing it was Nikita, as Durian tends to kill everything he touches. It's been days since I've played this chapter. I don't remember. Regardless, Yaraf hasn't been doing too much aside from rescue dropping, so I wanted to give him a kill.

Okay, plan B. Give everything to Erica.

I mean. It's strength. What's your speed growth?

Otto had to heal her because she missed the first hit. I bring this up to mention that I am rather disappointed by her archery skills, but very appreciative of the bald man.

For a while, I forgout that there was another village to the west. I arrive with Yeke and am promised the mighty bear slayer.

which is a f**king steel blade. 

Unfortunately, this could piss off players for the wrong reason. You might just see it as a bad weapon that they named after something that sounds interesting, but this actually WAS a bear slayer. The issue was when Awakening was released, they demanded that bears cannot be a part of their fan game, as it was integral to the characters of Chrom and Robin for tolerating bear meat, meaning they canonically hunt bear. No other person could be allowed to have the hunting of bear be a part of family tradition, as it lessens the impact of finding out the bear portions of Awakening, which is hardly brought up in previous titles. 

While the nomads don't seem to be anything to worry about anymore, the myrmidon was annoying. He likes to spawn on a tree tile, and while he can't really do much to Tsagan, or most lance users, he can chip Gim and he'll never get countered, making me waste my vulneraries. The real threat were the dark mages, who have almost killed Arel, mage boy, and even Pomelo at one point.

Okay. Nevermind. Gim still kills myrms.

Turn 10: Last Normal Turn

The forest tile gave them enough defense for the regular hammer to not OHKO, so I switched to hammers. You cannot escape the bonk, regardless of class.

It was at this point that I chose to go all out on aggression.

I use a ridersbane to kill one of Tsas's horsemen. If there's one man who stood a chance against them, it's me. I'm amazing.

Suddenly, the game tries to punish me for leaving the south area unguarded. What the game didn't know is that I ignored Emmy so it didn't know that I knew that she was there to guard them.

Turn 11: It's Gaming Time

With one nomad gone, Saya could rush in and have a one on one fight with Tsas. Tsagan told her to stop, but she had to confront her. To help out, Tsagan shot at Tsas to weaken her for Saya, but it really just made her hostile. Honestly, this was all his fault. We attacked first. They have every right to kill us.

You love to see it. Tsas has 21 speed, but is weighed down by 2 from the silver sword. Her not having a bow makes it so you could technically just bow her to death, but you guys know me. I don't bully my enemies to death, I bully my enemies as they are dying and publicly humiliate them by posting their defeat on Serenes. 

Saya flexes her sword skills from her years of training by strafing left and right, confusing Tsas. Before she could ask what the hell she's doing, Saya says words in Japanese, and struck her down.

Disturbed by her childish obsession with desiring an anime battle, she tells her soldiers to retreat. She herself leaves too, but the horse soon died of a heart attack, and she had to get a new one.

This felt great. I played really aggressively, and arguably stupidly, but I did it. I defeated the strong optional boss.

Kill yourself.

Erica brings me serotonin from an OHKO.

Spoiler

I wanted to bring up my previous strategy. I hardly took the amount of screenshots I should've for such a complicated bit. 2 of the nomads around Tsas had a steel bow. You could attack them without a counter, and Tsas couldn't hurt you as she was locked to 1 range. However, the killer the final nomad to the east of Tsas had a killer bow. After Mulberry killed one of them last turn, Toby had to rescue him to not risk that killer bow user, but Toby was now in range of one of the steel bow men. He barely survived by 1 HP. At this point, I was pretty confident that they didn't move. I sorta had a plan for if they did move once you hit them, but I'd rather not explain it, as it takes a while, and it was mostly sacrifice strats anyways. Saya had no real reason to attack Tsas this turn, since going for the others and attacking her on enemy phase would be much easier. I really had no patience though. The big red button that was actually small and black was right there to push. If Saya missed, then I would've rescued with Sieks and risk a critical kill from nomad #3, who I should've titled much earlier in the post. This LP is really scuffed, which is your fault for not knowing. It's included in The Shaky Special. Do I look like I know what I'm doing? Looking back at it, my strats here sucked, were rushed, and I did a horrible job showing the appropriate screenshots for this scenario, and now I am obligated to vent about it while reducing the original rant by 2/3s. I will not promise that this won't happen again. It will. The main thing I plan on doing is showing more in battle screenshots, since those are more appealing, and most GBA screenshot LP's show them. You can't be likeable if you're ugly.

At last, I can say I've routed Burged's men. Jesus Christ, what a horrible name. Burged? I can't get over it. That is such a stupid named.

Turn 12: Nikita Had 3 Luck?

Nikita and Yeke set up a kill for Yaraf, and now I really regret not giving Nikita the speedwing.

You'll get more kills next time Yaraf. I swear on Ruben's location.

I know Saya needs the kill more, but like, imagine Tsagan getting strength again. Wouldn't that be funny?

One day, I need to have a Jeigan unit from mainline game kill a final boss. Not Seth or Titania. That's too easy. Dagdar's also easy with scrolls.

Turn 13: No Emmy?

F**k.

So they spawned a bandit to the east of the map too. Emmy couldn't arrive on time. I hope there wasn't a crazy good reward for saving them all. I would joke about it being an orion's bolt like in FE8, but this game uses master seals, and I actually really value orion's bolt in other FE games. Anon might remember that I literally used every earth seal in FE6 on bow units. Honestly, you should've made them more Orion's bolts.

Now all the Arslan are dead, labeling me as their prime enemy even more so than before. We're probably worse than Kutolah in their eyes now. Why did she even fight them? Saya doesn't want to hurt them, but I made her do it. Did I ruin the story? What have I done?

I expect the game to break the fourth wall to reveal that I am the bad guy, and then my IP address will be revealed.

This was the reason I didn't post for 2 days. 

I also started a semi casual FE11 h5 ironman run, which might be eating a bit of my time. It's not an LP, but rest assured. I am using Cord. And Darros. Right now, I'm considering using archer Merric or cav Merric. Probably cav. This is how I relax.

Turn 14: The Map's Basically Over

If only I was one turn earlier.

No! Not speed!

The enemies were much less worrisome once I started blocking most of the spots where they come from. Sure I lost out on xp, but I was tired at this point.

Oh my God, am I going to have to make up a necromancy plotline...again?

Turn 15: The End?

The map stated 15/15, so I assumed this was the last turn, but not all the villagers have escaped yet, and the objective says 16. I assumed this just meant the moment the enemy phase ends and the next turn starts, it ends.

Turn 16: The End

I was wrong. It didn't make a difference, but I felt stupid for not getting the turn thing. Didn't really need than right now, so this game is abelist. If you say I'm overreacting, you are also abelist.

I don't remember if he had a death quote when I beat him, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't "I must retreat!". 

Arel couldn't give less of a sh*t about Saya's episode. 

omg, it's Sue....i'm so excited. 

The pessimism in me can't help but see this as a thrown in cameo. Perhaps it's integral that it's Sue here, but I am unfortunately cringing. That is just how I am. I blame cinema, and sleep deprivation. Why couldn't it have at least been Guy?

Again? You shouldn't have. 

No really, I'm the scum of the Earth who waits until lvl 20 to promote.

Dayan, you won't believe it. I killed one of the Djute leaders of the local area, but he just came back to life! He just licked the blood off his hands and dipped. Also, I instigated war with the Arslan tribe, so don't bother looking into ways to destroying the blood pact.

You know what? I needed that. Not Saya. Me. I wish I had a Dayan.

 Damn, what an ally to have. I love this image. All of these sprites are great. The main issue is Saya's headband, which is a tad too rad imo. It's a bit distracting. 

He informs us of where Lyn was last seen. So now we have a new destina- aaand Arel's asleep again.

Did I ask?

Everyone in the room begins to question why would Bern kidnap Lyn and take her anywhere other than the capitol of Bern. Arel momentarily wakes up to inform us that every FE game has that one evil cult that's behind everything.

I can.

What innocent people. Nobody got near them other than brigands. I just ran up and attacked you guys before you could do anything. I should be apologizing, but I won't because winners write history.

This short reunion is essentially boiled down to Tsas apologizing for fighting us despite their previous friendship, but she cannot do anything to prevent this, as the chieftains of the Arslans and the Djute have already come to an agreement, and should anyone go against their decision, they will be timed out. If this war keeps up, they are destined to meet each other on the battlefield again. Never heard that one before

It's 12:30 A.M. I gotta stop doing these at night.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Spoiler

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Him existing is a problem. Look at this this way. He's the boring early game cav everyone uses. Grape has a funny name and a great portrait. Rostov is just boring.

Too true. #CancelRostov

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Does the dev have a username? I'm used to saying Based Blazer. I don't know what to say here.

38% was his username. Based 38% doesn't have quite the same ring, but you can come up with an alternative if you like.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Ex-f**king-scuse me?

Why didn't anyone ever tell me that? Well, good for me then.

You never noticed? I did back when I was a Blazing Sword noob! I remember being puzzled by the fact that items didn't regenerate in DSFE. Then I played every other FE and realized it was just a GBA oddity.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I actually hate you.

Love ya too, mate.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Wow! Fan creates Hoshidan Man's Burden before Fates came out!?

Bahahahah... Oohh, poor Fates. Even the Bifrost may not be enough to cure this burn.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Next time? I wonder if he pulled it off...

You tempted me.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I'm telling you, Thracia had the best setting and story in the series! You can disagree if you want, but I firmly believe it does a better job with the plot and character progression than Genealogy, which is hailed as the king of FE storytelling. 

I don't disagree, no. Thracia is not without its flaws, main one being the absolutely terrible villain line-up (though in Raydrik's case he's not terrible as much as he is woefully underused), but it has the most developed lord in the series (not exactly saying that much, considering none of the others get any development, and when they do it's extremely rushed and forced, but hey), a really unique and interesting setting and some interesting convos courtesy of the best advisors in the series.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Dude, you're making me want to dissect TLP for hours now. Why doesn't Serenes have a separate thread just for it? It clearly deserve it.

I could dissect Anakin alone for hours. Okay, maybe not, but seriously, I love that guy. It's not often that the main character in a videogame is also my favorite, but Anakin manages it with ease. In both story and gameplay. I've seen him described once as pulling off the naive flaw better than IntSys's official Corrin, and that's very true. And very sad, too.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This is payback for the time you spent about 6 days to respond to my chapter 8 post of New Mystery. I was a sad lad. How could my good pal ignore a banger post on such a good chapter? 

I forgot. Sometimes I wake up in the morning, I see the notification, but then it gets lost among other notifications and I miss--

Quote

Also because you don't like Radiant Dawn.

Oh, fuck you. I will die on this hill.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Ruben...you couldn't resist a single reference? You had one job. I wanted you to be above pointing and screeching to a haha cripple mechanic. I guess you truly are a lost cause.

...Then you did do it on purpose just so you could have an excuse to get angry at me? Son of a-- Well then, this will be the one, in that case. Let's see where you get your excuses now.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh sure thing. Pay me 10 dollars per unit.

I can't believe Shaky Jones has become a FEtuber.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

First? No. Don't tell me that this guy is a noboby to everyone else. He looks cool to me. Not a badass kind of cool, but a "I'd want to be his friend and key my teacher's car with him" cool. 

I mean, he's a Wil... recolor? No, the colors are the same, it's the design that's slightly different... Reshape? Yeah, that works. He's a Wil reshape that suffers from being the shitty earlygame archer in a game that showers nomads with love. This isn't an official FE, I doubt enough people have played this game for Fritz to have ever seen endgame. Or at least, there's a significant chance that he hasn't. Even I haven't used him. I tried once, but he grew so poorly I had to drop him.

This is your chance, Shaky. Your chance to make history.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You see why I talk to you so much? You actually say things I want to hear. Thank you.

Ah, echo chambers. Such fun.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Ruben, you can't say the story's not great. It tackles racism in a way. That automatically makes it impossible to criticize.

"It tackles racism in a way" got such a huge chuckle out of me.

Thanks for that.

Quote

Luckily for me, I judge furries harshly, so I love Shinon.

I cannot believe Shaky would kinkshame. #CancelShaky

Quote

2nd best part of the game. The best part is Brom. 

This, I can agree with. Even if I'm more of a Tauroneo guy, I cannot deny that Brom is quite the lad.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

He's taking 2 damage at most. He's never going to go under 10 HP, unless I go to Khaden. Literally anyone uses it better. Grape could be a pure frontline unit. Nikita could too. Rick has 19 base HP, so he'd be more qualified in the armor category. Technically, it'd probably benefit Emmy the most, since she's strong, but not so tanky, but I don't really think I want to use it on her.

...Okay, fine. Throw it on Emmy, make her manlier.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I already showed you! The google results warning. It wasn't that many posts ago.

Ah, sorry.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Unlike you, I'm not into little boys

How dare you say such a thing to me.

Quote

so I probably will use the next mage unit, unless they're also really young, in which I will be disgusted by just how many child mages there are.

Oh no, believe me, you'll love the next mage.

Quote

Otto promotion will take a while, given that I'm actually paying attention to turn counts here, so I'm not going to abuse heal level ups, and GBA healers gain xp very slowly. We'll see what happens.

Hopefully he'll make it. Otto is great.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Of course the Echidna fan says this. 

Look, I've a weakness. What's so wrong with that? I'm only human.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Her stats are nearly identical to the other healers though. That would make them all sh*t.

Her durability is even worse than the rest, she gets one-shot with frequency. Her growths are also far worse. That tiny power of 2 is never going much of anywhere on a 35% growth, and she's never going to stop being one-shot on a 45% HP growth and a 5% defense growth.

That's not to say she's awful, I mean, she's a mounted healer, but she's kinda like Cecilia where combat just isn't what she's made for and, barring luck, she never will be made for.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

He's taking all of Rostov's possessions. His house too.

Rostov has a house? I would've assumed he just crashes on Grape's couch.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Just like Yubello.

You're getting such a kick out of my preferred war crime getting bad levels, aren't you.

Well, give it time. He's not the only one I like in this game.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

For personal reasons, I am obligated to say that Ruben's Yubello in the sig is a lie. Yubello is bad.

This is wrong, and you can vouch for it.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

FE would never do that.....

Haha, just like FE would never make an escape map with mountains in the middle that prevent the knight from getting to the escape point.

Hahaha, they're totally not the same map.

Hahahaha, I'm not bitter

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Pffft, look at this duuude!

I love this man.

I did tell you, you were going to love this guy.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Supported, not waifu'd.

FE fans in shambles.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A Kutalah warrior. A loyal and reliable BIG MAN.

Bow Rank: C

Did you really just call him "big man"? Oh my God, this game is something else. I wonder who the translator was? This is the epitome of beauty. Oliver would be proud. Shoulda save my speedwing for him. 8 strength and 9 defense is decent. The con's crazy too, so no bow will weigh him down to my knowledge. Objectively speaking, I'm sure people will say the lack of speed really hurts him, but given his high move and con, he can always be your rescue man while being able to deal decent chip damage for others at a moment's notice. Yeke probably is your better choice for damage input, as the ability to double will make quite a difference when enemies in this game are usually lacking in HP and defense, but Yaraf can afford more counterattacks. It won't be until he promotes where he can really counter reliably on enemy phase with his defense, but he's not getting 1-2 range. In other words, I'd say he's about a B tier for boring people, and an S tier for the rest of us. The S stands for stunning.

Yep. They do call him a big man. Told ya you'd love 'em.

The translator's name is Nasaelo. He can be found on FEUniverse.

Anyway, about Yaraf. Yaraf, as I've mentioned before, I believe, is all about strength and defense. He dishes out a mean hit, can take one in return, but expect him to be a rather slow fella. Naturally, this all makes him just your kind of guy, and Yeke weeps in despair of the inevitability of his replacing.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This is going to be Erica's chapter. Watch me cap her right here.

Dew it.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Erica proves to be stronger than Erika.

You know, it's not something I've ever stopped to think much, but... where did they get the extra i in Eirika, anyway?

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

God f**king damn it.

I completely forgot this kid comes before Sergei.

That speaks volumes, doesn't it. And heck, I've used this kid before. Gave me good results, too, his speed is through the roof. But he's just... so forgettable. Stealing Asbel's color palette doesn't help his case at all, either.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Why is every goddamn mage a child here!? "Well children can't really be front line soldiers so magic makes sense." Don't make them units at all! Were Rabi and Pink Delthea not enough for quirky child soldier killing machine? Just give me something normal for once! You see how small the screenshot is in comparison to the rest. It represents how little of a sh*t I give for him.

Courage. Next mage will be your mage. I guarantee it. I know sometimes I do a little trolling, but I 100% mean it this time.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Ruben will say it's for the hat, but you apparently like some loli with an apple or something in Triangle Strategy, so I doubt your judgment.

Oh, shut it.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Many FE fans like to imagine themselves as units in a certain class with specific stats based off their IRL skills and preferences. This is what we all actually have. The 20 con comes from the fact that you've yet to give up on fast food.

But I don't even like fast food.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Poser

What a cheep cheep.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You serious? How much more comedically evil could you look as a nomad? 

I always love these kinds of dudes. You can tell they never stood a chance at a life of anything but evil. It's also why, just once, I want one of these hilariously evil-looking dudes to turn out to be a selfless paragon of kindness. Just for the irony of it.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Alas, today is not that day.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Burged. That is the worst boss name I've heard in a while. At least Ruud and Bone are funny bad. Burged sounds like a adjective

You think so too, huh? I think he just eats a lot of burgers, to the point where he became burged.

In other words, he's American.

Fun fact: The above "but I don't even like fast food" comment was originally an "American fat" joke. But I decided two such jokes in one post would be too much, so I redacted it.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Damn. I coulda given that kill to Sieks.

She wants to be the new Sieks lol.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay. Does anyone know if there was ANY point in the FE fanbase's history in which poison weapons were actually considered scary?

I'm fairly certain there's been at least one fangame that made poison something, but I can't remember anything specific right now. Perhaps that's just the fangame I wish there was, not the one that existed.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You can tell Emmy is manly because she wants to be the alpha male of the pack.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

2 more stats have now reached double digits. Gim isn't too far off from just beating Tsagan, aside from move. Gim does have 1-2 range at least. Once he gets a bit more speed, he can probably 1RKO most enemies on enemy phase with it.

What a unit.

Don't lose him.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Nikita definitely needs a skill book. I'd like for the javelin to have more hit here. Also, that res point earns you every talisman in the game.

The fact that he's getting dangerously close to beating Sieks as a tank, though.

Stupid horrible FE balance...

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This speed level is essential for reliably game ending Tsas. 

Oh my God, she now has as much strength as that one endgame Saya I had...

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I mean. It's strength. What's your speed growth?

60%.

35% strength, by the way, so be glad for this.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

For a while, I forgout that there was another village to the west. I arrive with Yeke and am promised the mighty bear slayer.

which is a f**king steel blade. 

Hahahahahaha...

You didn't show it, but I absolutely love that the game acknowledges that this sword is shit. The old man actually begs you not to throw it on the convoy. It's priceless.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Unfortunately, this could piss off players for the wrong reason. You might just see it as a bad weapon that they named after something that sounds interesting, but this actually WAS a bear slayer. The issue was when Awakening was released, they demanded that bears cannot be a part of their fan game, as it was integral to the characters of Chrom and Robin for tolerating bear meat, meaning they canonically hunt bear. No other person could be allowed to have the hunting of bear be a part of family tradition, as it lessens the impact of finding out the bear portions of Awakening, which is hardly brought up in previous titles. 

Oof.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I use a ridersbane to kill one of Tsas's horsemen. If there's one man who stood a chance against them, it's me. I'm amazing.

Yes, end those filthy horsemen.

Anyway, Grape good.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Suddenly, the game tries to punish me for leaving the south area unguarded. What the game didn't know is that I ignored Emmy so it didn't know that I knew that she was there to guard them.

In other words, you lucked out.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Saya flexes her sword skills from her years of training by strafing left and right, confusing Tsas. Before she could ask what the hell she's doing, Saya says words in Japanese, and struck her down.

Disturbed by her childish obsession with desiring an anime battle, she tells her soldiers to retreat. She herself leaves too, but the horse soon died of a heart attack, and she had to get a new one.

This felt great. I played really aggressively, and arguably stupidly, but I did it. I defeated the strong optional boss.

Good job, man. Even I have never tried to do this.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Kill yourself.

Aaaaand she gets a better level out of a random brigand.

Of course.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This LP is really scuffed, which is your fault for not knowing. It's included in The Shaky Special. Do I look like I know what I'm doing?

Who really does? We all just throw things at the RNG and see what comes through. Such is life: A series of RNG rolls.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Nikita and Yeke set up a kill for Yaraf, and now I really regret not giving Nikita the speedwing.

Niiice. My boy Nikita, coming through.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

One day, I need to have a Jeigan unit from mainline game kill a final boss. Not Seth or Titania. That's too easy.

Been there, done that. Did I ever show you this one? Well, regardless.

Only hard difficulty, unfortunately, but I'm still so happy about it.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

F**k.

So they spawned a bandit to the east of the map too.

Oof.

I believe the reward was... Either an energy ring or another master seal. I don't remember exactly right now. Either way, this is a very oof-worthy moment.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This was the reason I didn't post for 2 days. 

Nooooo Erika why.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

No! Not speed!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TOBY WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

IT WAS SO PERFECT

THE MEMES..... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHGHHRHRRRRHHH!!!

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh my God, am I going to have to make up a necromancy plotline...again?

If I ever LP this game, I'm totally editing these clowns into zombies for these little moments.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I don't remember if he had a death quote when I beat him, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't "I must retreat!". 

He will remember this like the one fat guy from FE12.

As in, he won't. Because he's already dead. Literally!

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

omg, it's Sue....i'm so excited. 

The pessimism in me can't help but see this as a thrown in cameo. Perhaps it's integral that it's Sue here, but I am unfortunately cringing. That is just how I am. I blame cinema, and sleep deprivation. Why couldn't it have at least been Guy?

They're letting the civilians go with Sue to the safety of Lycia.

Sue's introduction in Binding Blade was that she was intercepted by the Djute on her way to Lycia and every civilian under her care was murdered.

So yes, it is rather integral, actually. We dun goofed.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Again? You shouldn't have. 

Oh, you still get it even if a civvie dies. Neat.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

 Damn, what an ally to have. I love this image. All of these sprites are great.

He's so handsome. Look at those eyebrows of his. Those... flesh-colored, mushy eyebrows. Actually, I think it's just flesh. The man suffers from a terrible condition.

Quote

The main issue is Saya's headband, which is a tad too rad imo. It's a bit distracting. 

Huh, now that I look at it... yeah, true.

 

On 4/30/2022 at 3:15 AM, AnonymousSpeed said:

Alright Ruben, I've got an idea. Armor Knight, with Rally Movement. What do you think?

That's not too bad. Still, it needs more added to it in order to reach Anakin's level of hilarious versatility.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Saint Rubenio

[AnonymousSpeed]

Spoiler

  

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Sorta? I don't watch Marvel, but I sure heard of the name. Really, I just think it's a silly name,

Good lad. It is a silly name, but it is an actual mythological reference.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Let's do it. We'll revive the game, give it supports, make our own hard mode patch, kidnap the dev.

I've got 30 feet of rope, an Australian passport, and ten gallons of chloroform.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

He could give movement to anyone.....but not himself.

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's not too bad. Still, it needs more added to it in order to reach Anakin's level of hilarious versatility.

Well, he could join at level 10 with a free promotion item in his inventory, so you can auto-promote him to Great Knight and maximize his use as a rallybot. I imagine he'd need something to incentivize using him as a front-line general to balance that out, though.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Supported, not waifu'd. Ther's a difference you sick fu

She's the same age as Roy, which is also the same age as Lyn was at the start of FE7. It has not protected either of them.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

The leader is mentioning how the Djutes will be arriving here at some point and will roleplay as Anakin Skywalker. In other words, the game is pointlessly reminding me that they are evil. They're the bad guys who I suppose I shouldn't feel any sympathy for when I brutally murder them to see numbers go up for my units.

As we embark to create perfect romhacks, we should create a GBAFE version of the Sacaean founding myth, in which Djute, legendary founder-chieftan of the Djute tribe, is the only guy in the plains with any common sense.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A Kutalah warrior. A loyal and reliable BIG MAN.

Bow Rank: C

Did you really just call him "big man"? Oh my God, this game is something else...given his high move and con, he can always be your rescue man...I'd say he's about a B tier for boring people, and an S tier for the rest of us. The S stands for stunning.

Stunning and Brave Bow.

NB: High con actually reduces the aid of mounted units.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

But really, you're probably just using Liane because you can't get enough of training little girls. Ruben will say it's for the hat, but you apparently like some loli with an apple or something in Triangle Strategy, so I doubt your judgment.

Ew. Right. I forgot that this is the same fandom which spends money for PNGs of Nowi.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Many FE fans like to imagine themselves as units in a certain class with specific stats based off their IRL skills and preferences. This is what we all actually have. The 20 con comes from the fact that you've yet to give up on fast food.

Canonically fatter than Yaraf.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You serious? How much more comedically evil could you look as a nomad? 

I don't know, I think he looks kinda cool.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay. Does anyone know if there was ANY point in the FE fanbase's history in which poison weapons were actually considered scary? You might've noticed earlier from Gim and Nikita being poisoned that a couple of enemies are using venin weapons. Is this supposed to be an improvement? I eat poison daily. It's called spew of trivia and celebrity b***sh*t.

I am aware of no such time.

Making the mother of all skeletons here, Jones! Can't fret over every bone!

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

No other person could be allowed to have the hunting of bear be a part of family tradition, as it lessens the impact of finding out the bear portions of Awakening, which is hardly brought up in previous titles. 

I wouldn't be surprised to hear the owners of a property decide to actively make it worse to preserve something stupid in their artistic vision.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I was wrong. It didn't make a difference, but I felt stupid for not getting the turn thing. Didn't really need than right now, so this game is abelist. If you say I'm overreacting, you are also abelist.

Okay. I'm abelist.

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

What innocent people. Nobody got near them other than brigands. I just ran up and attacked you guys before you could do anything. I should be apologizing, but I won't because winners write history.

Can you please point to some historical instances of the winners writing the history? Y'know, real times where the perception of an event is colored primarily by the "winning" side of a literal or cultural conflict, to the desecration of the truth of a matter.

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh, fuck you. I will die on this hill.

Radiant Dawn is, like, okay though.

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Rostov has a house? I would've assumed he just crashes on Grape's couch.

I imagined it would be the other way around.

15 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Luckily for me, I judge furries harshly, so I love Shinon.

Shinon good. He shoot bow and doesn't afraid of subhumans.

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You think so too, huh? I think he just eats a lot of burgers, to the point where he became burged.

It's pronounced "bur-ged".

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Only hard difficulty, unfortunately, but I'm still so happy about it.

God. Medeus sucks. One of the worst enemies of all time.

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh, you still get it even if a civvie dies. Neat.

They die anyway, per Sue's joining chapter in FE6.

 

[Vestrikslana]

Spoiler

11 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

It's hard for him to weaken enemies when they're so frail in HP already. Grape already deals a large chunk of their health when doubling, and I don't think he should have identical strength.

Yeah, by no means should his strength be that low. If you wanted him to play like FE6 HM Marcus you'd instead want to beef up the enemies, like that mode does. (And probably still lower his Strength, but not to the point that your other fast units only need a few levels to eclipse him.)

11 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

For personal reasons, I am obligated to say that Ruben's Yubello in the sig is a lie. Yubello is bad.

Yeah, I don't know the full story there but I assume that he got lots of statboosters and/or really lucky. I more meant the concept of Warrior Yubello rather than any specific instantation of Warrior Yubello (as crazy as it sounds, I actually had the same idea independently... well, I still haven't gotten around to replaying New Mystery so I haven't had the opportunity to put it into practice yet, but I was theorycrafting how I would make my second-playthrough team more interesting and that was one of the things I came up with)

12 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

3H is the reverse of DSFE in the way that DSFE punishes you for reclassing constantly with your weapon rank, given how weapon ranks inn DSFE are pretty important and reclassing often puts you back at zero, so units aren't COMPLETELY identical. Some units reclassed can be a better hunter than Castor, but you have to start with E rank bows. In 3H, reaching several high weapon ranks with everything is a requirement for promoting, making everyone reach similar ranks when classing into something they want. Everyone generally starts at E, and works to A in roughly 2 categories or so. Everyone starts off the same, but once classed into something, they're the same thing. Class base stats will make many units be similar at lvl 20 wyvern. Their base stats aren't quite as important anymore, while DSFE base stats would be the main thing determining what they should reclass into. Individual stats tend to matter a lot in those games. Back to 3H, many start as lvl 1 nobels or commoners, both having 4 move and just being able to use any weapon. Again, you use everything in 3H, and in DSFE, you reclass and use a different weapon as a result, or maybe you did so specifically for a new weapon type, unless you went from something like pirate to fighter. This isn't even me going into how I personally find it really tedious to require so much teaching to reach certain ranks. Getting several good ranks for classes doesn't feel fun. It's just slow. It also makes the combat less important when training ranks. You're better off just eating all the time and learning at the study sessions, or even just being the adjutant for a tank in battle and gain ranks that way without actually fighting. Of course, because they added the teaching system, they made ranks extremely slow once you get to B+. 

I don't mind stats being raised to class bases (although I prefer traditional promotion bonuses); in my mind they're more an insurance against stat screwage than anything. (I still remember when I played Golden Deer and promoted Ignatz to Sniper he gained a full 7 points of Strength and suddenly became viable just off that.) The rest of this I pretty much agree with; the fact that anyone can use any weapon in any class practically kills both character and class uniqueness, and while they technically have weapon preferences the differences are so negligible that they can be easily patched over. Despite not having personal skills or spell lists or anything else that 3H gives its units to theoretically differentiate them, DSFE units still wind up feeling so much more unique just off their personal stats and weapon ranks.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I probably would've given him 40 HP and maybe 13 strength. I understand not wanting to give him too much defense so you can do a bit more damage without requiring effective damage, but he shouldn't be THAT easy to take out, especially as an optional boss. With a spear, he'd have 25 might. I don't mind him not moving too much. Perhaps they could take the approach that he's a bit of a coward who wasn't prepared to fight given how many reinforcements he's brought. Not a complete coward per se. He's still a trusted general who should be at least strong enough to merrit being trusted by Loki to handle the mission, but perhaps lazy and suddenly scared when he realizes he could actually die here now that Saya's squad has approached him. Rather than running to the enemy, he might call for more reinforcements, mostly focusing on defending himself while they continue to arrive. I'd give him just +1 defense, and I might just not increase speed? I'm not sure. Maybe just +1. Not enough to double Toby, but enough to be tough to double for units like Nikita and Rostov. Of course, if I could make this game, I'd have a hard mode option, and I'd have to ponder those stats too, where I'd trust the player to be more resourceful. Perhaps NM general boss would have 12 str, 5 spd, 12 def, while HM general boss would have 16 str, 8 spd, and 16 def. His defense makes you rely far more on slayer weapons, such as the armorslayer on a unit like Emmy or even Tsagan for an easy double,as well as a partially trained Saya to risk rushing to the bottom of the map to double with her Mani Katti. Again, they're an optional boss, so if they're too strong, you're not softlocked.

I don't have that much to add, but I think you're on the right track here. (One thing worth note is that Spears have innate crit, so your unluckier units will have a chance to die against him even if they could normally withstand a hit. Granted, that's justifiable as a deliberate design choice, but it's worth considering whether you really intended that or not.)

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Personally, I don't like con at all. I love that FE12 got rid of weight, and that Fates has the speed reduction be an exact loss for all units. I find it dumb that Vanessa can't double without the slim lance, since their already bad strength makes them pretty un fun to use when they don't double. That's their whole thing. Doubling. I don't like having con be a separate stat I have to take into consideration, unless it's Thracia. I suppose this does make me sorta on the side that GBA con is sexist, given how I get pissed off when someone like Isadora will get weighed sown where Marcus won't, and so many units will become worse from con, which I can't control. 

I would say that I prefer weight as a static penalty, but I also prefer having it at all to not having it, if that makes sense? (Except in Tellius, where it becomes a total non-factor halfway through the game in PoR and even earlier in RD... those are games where it would have been better off not existing, imo.) I mostly like how it makes different tiers of weapon useful in different situations, rather than strict upgrades on one another. If you're doubling everything with Iron, what's the point of the Slim Lance? (I do see your point about GBA Con arbitrarily penalizing certain units, and admittedly it can't be said that low Con on Pegs is effective at nerfing fliers in general when Wyverns don't have nearly the same issues and are better statistically...)

14 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A Kutalah warrior. A loyal and reliable BIG MAN.

Bow Rank: C

Did you really just call him "big man"? Oh my God, this game is something else. I wonder who the translator was? This is the epitome of beauty. Oliver would be proud. Shoulda save my speedwing for him. 8 strength and 9 defense is decent. The con's crazy too, so no bow will weigh him down to my knowledge. Objectively speaking, I'm sure people will say the lack of speed really hurts him, but given his high move and con, he can always be your rescue man while being able to deal decent chip damage for others at a moment's notice. Yeke probably is your better choice for damage input, as the ability to double will make quite a difference when enemies in this game are usually lacking in HP and defense, but Yaraf can afford more counterattacks. It won't be until he promotes where he can really counter reliably on enemy phase with his defense, but he's not getting 1-2 range. In other words, I'd say he's about a B tier for boring people, and an S tier for the rest of us. The S stands for stunning.

This is what I meant when I said there isn't a good reason why Tsagan should stray from the Nomad stat template by being bulky. See, Yaraf does have a good reason to be a bulky nomad, and that's because it's hilarious!

Personally I found the Skill to be more of an obstacle to using him than the Speed; if he could reliably land a single blow that would be one thing, but he can't even manage that. 4 Skill doesn't go nearly as far when you can't exploit the weapon triangle, and it already didn't go all that far. (Also, nitpick, but the mounted aid formula makes him less effective at rescuing than other mounts, not more; he can't rescue your unpromoted fighters or armors, while Nikita with only 2 less con can.)

15 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Amusingly, Leo is only the first recruitable in this game to share the name of a Nohrian royal from Fates. (It's definitely a coincidence considering that Fates Leo was called Leon in the Japanese version and I'm pretty sure this game predates Fates anyway, but it's funny nonetheless.)

He also comes with an Aircalibur tome that he's a full two weapon ranks away from being able to use. I'm guessing the dev wanted to reference Merric or Asbel with their personal wind tomes, but also wanted Aircalibur to be a regular tome that anyone with a high enough rank could use, so instead we got this.

Those are the most interesting things about Leo. I guess he's fast and doesn't get weighed down by everything like Rabi and Liane do? There's not much to him, really.

15 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay. Does anyone know if there was ANY point in the FE fanbase's history in which poison weapons were actually considered scary? You might've noticed earlier from Gim and Nikita being poisoned that a couple of enemies are using venin weapons. Is this supposed to be an improvement?

Personally I'm halfway convinced that the poison weapons in these games were always intended to be downgrades. There's no way they could be that awful by accident, right?

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

which is a f**king steel blade. 

Unfortunately, this could piss off players for the wrong reason. You might just see it as a bad weapon that they named after something that sounds interesting, but this actually WAS a bear slayer. The issue was when Awakening was released, they demanded that bears cannot be a part of their fan game, as it was integral to the characters of Chrom and Robin for tolerating bear meat, meaning they canonically hunt bear. No other person could be allowed to have the hunting of bear be a part of family tradition, as it lessens the impact of finding out the bear portions of Awakening, which is hardly brought up in previous titles. 

Plot twist: its bear-slaying capabilities are still coded into the game, you just never get to see it in actual gameplay because the Bear class is unused.

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Disturbed by her childish obsession with desiring an anime battle, she tells her soldiers to retreat. She herself leaves too, but the horse soon died of a heart attack, and she had to get a new one.

This felt great. I played really aggressively, and arguably stupidly, but I did it. I defeated the strong optional boss.

Oh, well done! It didn't even occur to me that you could defeat Tsas on this map, her Speed intimidated me too much and I wasn't sure if she or any of her guys would move if you attacked them.

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Now all the Arslan are dead, labeling me as their prime enemy even more so than before. We're probably worse than Kutolah in their eyes now. Why did she even fight them? Saya doesn't want to hurt them, but I made her do it. Did I ruin the story? What have I done?

Nah, didn't you read what Tsas said earlier? They all just retreated, never mind that you clearly stabbed them. Maybe you just stabbed their horses and the riders made it out okay?

16 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This was the reason I didn't post for 2 days. 

Oof. It really hurts to see, especially after I praised her in my last post...

14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He's so handsome. Look at those eyebrows of his. Those... flesh-colored, mushy eyebrows. Actually, I think it's just flesh. The man suffers from a terrible condition.

I think those are just really thick eyelids? I couldn't tell you for sure, but that's my best guess.

 

[Shaky Jones]

Replies:

Spoiler

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

38% was his username. Based 38% doesn't have quite the same ring, but you can come up with an alternative if you like.

38 billion dollar game.

38% better than Int Sys FE.

48.

These aren't nicknames really. Just facts. I may or may not get back to you on that

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I don't disagree, no. Thracia is not without its flaws, main one being the absolutely terrible villain line-up (though in Raydrik's case he's not terrible as much as he is woefully underused), but it has the most developed lord in the series (not exactly saying that much, considering none of the others get any development, and when they do it's extremely rushed and forced, but hey), a really unique and interesting setting and some interesting convos courtesy of the best advisors in the series.

I wish they did more with Raydrick, but instead they use him to be someone who's afraid of Veld, which is meant to show how threatening he is, but no FE5 player takes him seriously. Raydrick has such an amazing boss theme too. A shame his stats are so awful. I sort of know why, but I'm used to FE3 Haridn having 20 to every stat and not being too crazy, so Raydrick was quite the disappointment. Yes, I did kill him with Mareeta. Next time I might go for Shanam.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I could dissect Anakin alone for hours. Okay, maybe not, but seriously, I love that guy. It's not often that the main character in a videogame is also my favorite, but Anakin manages it with ease. In both story and gameplay. I've seen him described once as pulling off the naive flaw better than IntSys's official Corrin, and that's very true. And very sad, too.

Oh for sure. He doesn't have the best writing by any means, but he's certainly a much more interesting take on a lord character than with many other ones in the main series. 

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I forgot. Sometimes I wake up in the morning, I see the notification, but then it gets lost among other notifications and I miss--

Quote

Also because you don't like Radiant Dawn.

Oh, fuck you. I will die on this hill.

No. You will die on your mountain, as the sun rises and the sky presents a radiant dawn.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I cannot believe Shaky would kinkshame. #CancelShaky

They call me Judge Jones. 

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Okay, fine. Throw it on Emmy, make her manlier.

I'm totally gonna horde this until the last minute, aren't I?

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh no, believe me, you'll love the next mage.

You're a piece of shi-

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Look, I've a weakness. What's so wrong with that? I'm only Spaniard.

True.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Her durability is even worse than the rest, she gets one-shot with frequency. Her growths are also far worse. That tiny power of 2 is never going much of anywhere on a 35% growth, and she's never going to stop being one-shot on a 45% HP growth and a 5% defense growth.

That's not to say she's awful, I mean, she's a mounted healer, but she's kinda like Cecilia where combat just isn't what she's made for and, barring luck, she never will be made for.

Who needs defense growths. Sage Norne does fine on Hard 5 with a 0% def growth. And 2 magic? That's like, double the magic of Serra and Elen. Beast unit right here.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You're getting such a kick out of my preferred war crime getting bad levels, aren't you.

Well, give it time. He's not the only one I like in this game.

Is the other one also a child?

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Anyway, about Yaraf. Yaraf, as I've mentioned before, I believe, is all about strength and defense. He dishes out a mean hit, can take one in return, but expect him to be a rather slow fella. Naturally, this all makes him just your kind of guy, and Yeke weeps in despair of the inevitability of his replacing.

But will I? Agh, do I go for funny units or bow run? 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Courage. Next mage will be your mage. I guarantee it. I know sometimes I do a little trolling, but I 100% mean it this time.

100% can still miss in FE6.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

But I don't even like fast food.

Okay I get it. Ruben is not an American. Sorry we don't eat rocks in the mountains.

Good for you!

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Fun fact: The above "but I don't even like fast food" comment was originally an "American fat" joke. But I decided two such jokes in one post would be too much, so I redacted it.

Unacceptable. There is no backing down allowed. You're just a chicken, cheep cheep cheep.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The fact that he's getting dangerously close to beating Sieks as a tank, though.

Stupid horrible FE balance...

FE bad. Bad base game design. 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

60%.

35% strength, by the way, so be glad for this.

No! That means I failed 3 60% speed growths! Those help you know. She's rarely doubling at the moment.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You didn't show it, but I absolutely love that the game acknowledges that this sword is shit. The old man actually begs you not to throw it on the convoy. It's priceless.

Yeah, I think I recall it, but as if I was going to spend several screenshots on an ld man who gave me a damn steel blade. The only thing I should be revealing is his address.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In other words, you lucked out.

One green unit will disagree. Well, they would if they could.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Been there, done that. Did I ever show you this one? Well, regardless.

Only hard difficulty, unfortunately, but I'm still so happy about it.

One day, I'll do this on maniac. Not anytime soon, but one day. 

You showed this to me as a response to when I killed him with Tomas in the FE12 ironman I did last year. Good times.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TOBY WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

IT WAS SO PERFECT

THE MEMES..... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHGHHRHRRRRHHH!!!

Toby is just not getting strength. I appreciate the defense points at least.

Don't worry. He gets zero speed on promotion. There's still hope for single digit endgame speed.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If I ever LP this game, I'm totally editing these clowns into zombies for these little moments.

One day, I want to make a quality LP with edits. Probably not this one, but one of them.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

They're letting the civilians go with Sue to the safety of Lycia.

Sue's introduction in Binding Blade was that she was intercepted by the Djute on her way to Lycia and every civilian under her care was murdered.

So yes, it is rather integral, actually. We dun goofed.

Boo. I hate cameos. Stop giving it sensical reasons! In my defense, the Elibe games are the last ones I'd chose to read the cutscenes for. But fine, it's not cringe. I'm just unnecessarily mean. 

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

She's the same age as Roy, which is also the same age as Lyn was at the start of FE7. It has not protected either of them.

This is where your gallons of chloroform comes in.

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Ew. Right. I forgot that this is the same fandom which spends money for PNGs of Nowi.

Yeah, how could you do that Ruben?

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Okay. I'm abelist.

F**k.

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Radiant Dawn is, like, okay though.

It has Brom, but like, in a better game.

5 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

God. Medeus sucks. One of the worst enemies of all time.

So you're saying you DIDN'T stand up and applaud when Medeus was added in Heroes, praising IS for adding more unknown characters from the game noboby plays. 

3 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Yeah, I don't know the full story there but I assume that he got lots of statboosters and/or really lucky. I more meant the concept of Warrior Yubello rather than any specific instantation of Warrior Yubello (as crazy as it sounds, I actually had the same idea independently... well, I still haven't gotten around to replaying New Mystery so I haven't had the opportunity to put it into practice yet, but I was theorycrafting how I would make my second-playthrough team more interesting and that was one of the things I came up with)

It's sort of an inside joke. A joke based on an FE12 LP I did, where I used Yubello as he was drafted by Ruben (PMU), and I kept calling him bad for not getting strength. He has a disturbingly high defense growth and great speed, but it's funny to say that one of Ruben's favorite units to mess with sucks to mess with him. Yubello's a great choice for meme classes, mostly as a fighter, given just how bad his strength growth is. If you want to go by cipher's canon, you'd go from fighter to hero, since that's his class in the card game, instead of sage. 

3 hours ago, Ruminant said:

I don't mind stats being raised to class bases (although I prefer traditional promotion bonuses); in my mind they're more an insurance against stat screwage than anything. (I still remember when I played Golden Deer and promoted Ignatz to Sniper he gained a full 7 points of Strength and suddenly became viable just off that.) The rest of this I pretty much agree with; the fact that anyone can use any weapon in any class practically kills both character and class uniqueness, and while they technically have weapon preferences the differences are so negligible that they can be easily patched over. Despite not having personal skills or spell lists or anything else that 3H gives its units to theoretically differentiate them, DSFE units still wind up feeling so much more unique just off their personal stats and weapon ranks.

I'm not particularly against class bases per se, but it's nothing compared to gaining stat bonuses based on the class, and some classes, like dracoknights, have really high bases, so a lot of my runs have the growths of the early game feel pointless, since most of my units will just have the same stats, adding into the feeling that no one is unique. Sure, DSFE also has that issue to an extent, but I feel that it's worth the sacrifice from how fun reclassing is in that game.

3 hours ago, Ruminant said:

I don't have that much to add, but I think you're on the right track here. (One thing worth note is that Spears have innate crit, so your unluckier units will have a chance to die against him even if they could normally withstand a hit. Granted, that's justifiable as a deliberate design choice, but it's worth considering whether you really intended that or not.)

Crap. Well, I'd personally remove crits from it. I don't really like crits at all unless it's coming from a killer weapon. As I mentioned earlier, I don't like the small crit on thunder. It's mainly fine in thracia, where scrolls negate them. I wouldn't want RNG to determine you losing a unit. It's what I don't like about fighting the Death Knight in 3H.

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

I would say that I prefer weight as a static penalty, but I also prefer having it at all to not having it, if that makes sense? (Except in Tellius, where it becomes a total non-factor halfway through the game in PoR and even earlier in RD... those are games where it would have been better off not existing, imo.) I mostly like how it makes different tiers of weapon useful in different situations, rather than strict upgrades on one another. If you're doubling everything with Iron, what's the point of the Slim Lance? (I do see your point about GBA Con arbitrarily penalizing certain units, and admittedly it can't be said that low Con on Pegs is effective at nerfing fliers in general when Wyverns don't have nearly the same issues and are better statistically...)

Many FE games do fine without them. I still don't use slim lances where they exist. It just makes me bench units who require them to be good. 

PoR can be ridiculous sometimes with weight. The armorslayer has 17 weight. Why are you punishing the weapon THIS much? It shouldn't make you not double armors. As if double effective damage wasn't bad enough. Mia has 3 AS with it. I get making it a tad heavier to make it not viable to use against faster classes, but 17 is ridiculous. I prefer static penalty/no weight. Strength is okay in Shadow Dragon. Not a fan of PoR weighted weapons, and the con system sort of annoys me. These are just my thoughts though, and I don't hate them by any means. I'm just not a fan.

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

He also comes with an Aircalibur tome that he's a full two weapon ranks away from being able to use. I'm guessing the dev wanted to reference Merric or Asbel with their personal wind tomes, but also wanted Aircalibur to be a regular tome that anyone with a high enough rank could use, so instead we got this.

Yeah, I noticed that on turn 10. I couldn't remember if it was on him or from an enemy. I decided to not bother. It's Leo. 

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Nah, didn't you read what Tsas said earlier? They all just retreated, never mind that you clearly stabbed them. Maybe you just stabbed their horses and the riders made it out okay?

Well, effective weapon to cavalry must mean it was made to slaughter horses, so clearly, Saya was targeting the horses. I don't know why her troops didn't leave like she said until after I killed them, but at least that's more xp.

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Oof. It really hurts to see, especially after I praised her in my last post...

Yeah, she's been quite the disappointment, which sucks given how much I'm trying to use her here. But surely, she'll get better. Or else she'll be benched and be safe from all harm while still taking credit in the ending. When you think about it, bad level ups are probably intentional on their part. It's like breaking your leg to avoid being drafted.

Chapter 7: Power And Glory

Spoiler

So I decided to change the size a bit. Normally, I stretch the GBA a bit and compress the screenshot to 400x265(ish). I'm still doing that for most of post, but during the cutscenes, I have the GBA reduced to its default of about 350x240, hopefully making the text a slight boost in quality. That, and I hopefully won't have to bother compressing every single image before posting them here. If I wanted to be really fast, I'd keep it that way the whole time, but I don't want my screen to be the size of an NFT enthusiast's brain the entire time I'm playing a chapter. Hopefully this helps me post them a but faster and looks a bit better for everyone else.

That's a cool territory name. What are the names of your addresses, everyone? Or maybe just the street location. Come on, it'll be enlightening.

Perhaps he groaned increasingly so.

= (

For real? I gotta watch out for them.

Oh look, it's the count.

Narcian asks that the Count gives Bern permission to use their soldiers to aide in the internal struggle alongside the oncoming enemies, totally having nothing to do with the fact that citizens are aiming to rebel against Bern from the chaos they caused. Narcian has always been known for his charisma.

 

That's a bit mean. I'm sure he's just stressed out from the situation. Or maybe he's like Pelleus and will sort of have a character arc. That can't be good for the count.

I don't see how this makes them evil. He's just being a patriotic American.

Jesus Christ, why is everyone sh*tting on the count so much? Is he British?

Arel doesn't believe that foreign affairs are worth our time, but Saya is hungry for more xp.

So the west side of the map is where you're supposed to go. There's quite a few enemies there. Sadly, there wasn't enough room for everyone, so I didn't deploy Grape for this chapter. I really wanted Erica and Fritz to get kills here. The east side a a village with more enemies, but it doesn't go anywhere past that.

Turn 1: What Do You Think I Did?

Of course I'm going to have Sieks be the man who fights them. You absolute buffoon. How did you not see that coming?

But I see that we have a another thief to deal with.

A girl protected by the lord of Edessa. Despite oppostion, she becomes a secret agent.

Sword Rank: D

3 strength. What a great Cath reference.

"Becomes a secret agent"? So it hasn't happened yet? This description made me chuckle quite a bit. I am most likely not going to train them. I have more than enough units to consider, especially once the other units of this chapter arrive. I am sad to miss out on such a clear mage killer though. Just look at her res. She was made to kill Nergal.

Sieks has gotten 3 bad level ups in a row, but he's still doing really well. Defense is quite the valuable stat in this game. And Nikita is already catching up. Do I start a Nikita club or something? It'd be rather embarrassing if he surpasses Sieks in defense, but funny.

Close, but no nicotine.

If I had brought Grape, I could've rescue dropped Erica, but he was fatigued.

Yes, Sieks dodged the fighter. Yes, I am an armor apologist.

Turn 2: I'm Not Actually Playing This Game With Music BTW

How dare you wield the hammer? You don't even know the history of it. 

3 damage vs a one round kill. I feel like an adult trying to find challenge in a Lego game.

Jesus mother f**kedless Christ.

Toby and Yaraf team up to set up a kill for Sandra. Really, it was my only choice. Didn't have her animations turned on though, so I couldn't really show it, but would it really have made a difference? You just saw Sieks dodge a 78 and hit a 51. You should be more than satisfied.

Damn it Fritz! Why are my archers getting unlucky now? This usually doesn't happen to me, unless it's with Leonardo, or Gordin, or Virion. 

An enemy finally thought to use a ridersbane, but Nikita knew the perfect counter to it. 

And then he threw the ridersbane at me, killing Nikita, instantly and ending the run. I was forced to redo the entire game to catch up to this moment. The AI's iq randomly spawned with with 2 less than before, so the battle went much more smoothly. 

I can see why Sieks is so dull. I'd be bored too if I was invincible.

This is the power of someone's endgame Saya.

I have been running out of bows lately, so I bought far more iron bows than I should have, and also some steel bows. I sure hope no one asks for 20k gold to be recruited.

Oh right. There's half a dozen cavs approaching. Forgot to mention that. Nothing Sieks can't handle.

Oh, it's Micaiah.

This is literally Micaiah.

Don't ask me, I don't know. Or should I?

Holy crap man. 

So this lady is hiding from Bern's forces and is hiding in this village. She insists to return to them, as staying here could place everyone in danger, but this man in particular laughs at the face of death, and could kill Narcian with his thumb. Also, the villages around this area wish to rebel already, which is where the conflict of this chapter arised even prior to our arrival. They were going to be killed regardless.

Turn 3: Did I Underestimate the Enemy?

The enemy underestimated manly girls.

I underestimated Nikita's might and defense.

One cav has a silver lance, presumably being a relative of one of the chapter 7 reinforcement cavs in FE6. 

The Mani Katti puts rapiers to shame. It helps that Saya is actually fast, unlike Eliwood and Roy, who I never get to doubling cavs. Even when they do, it somehow doesn't kill.

This is a very Saya level, but I'm still disappointed. Give me strength or defense. Or res, that works too. 

I wonder when she promotes. Do I get a heaven's seal, or is it story based? Unsure if I want an answer, since being completely blind could be part of the experience, but it would be annoying to be forced promoted while at lvl 13 or be stuck at lvl 20 for 7 chapters like in FE7.

Sieks can handle some carry debuffs. 

While that was happening, Yaraf attacks with a 71 hit chance using an iron bow. That is...kind of sh*t.

That is really sh*t.

This happened before the Emmy fight, but I don't feel like putting this in the beginning. It'd leave a bad impression, and you know I'm all about positivity. Also, I think Toby got the kill here.

Turn 4: No I Didn't

Since Sieks was still holding Saya, I swapped the ridersbane so Nikita could kill a horse in front of his horse.

Now that the enemy around the east has been routed, everyone begins to return to Saya while Toby searches for some good loot.

Master? You seem like you'd be the master here. You seem like a prepromoted sage with thoron or something.

Former husband, who stepped into the path of magic. More mature and intelligent than his past self.

Anima rank: D

Instead, he's just a lvl 5 mage, but he does use thunder, so I got the affinity right at least. What disturbs me is his 12 con. How the hell does a mage even have that? How many tomes even weigh that much? Bolting? Judging from his bases, he's the slow, tanky mage. In a way, it's really helpful to have a tanky mage, since you're obtaining a 1-2 range unit who deals magic damage, cutting through many enemies' defenses. It also helps that tomes are naturally more accurate than javelins, and you can buy stronger tomes later on in the game, while finding stronger versions of the javelin is often rare, heavy, and expensive. In other words, Sergei can make for a great enemy phase mage who can weaken many enemies. Should you be able to get him to double, you could use tomes like elfire to easily 1RKO your opponents. However, low speed is always a major bane, and he won't be quite as useful for obtaining kills on player phase for easy xp as it would be if you used someone like Leo or Rabi. One fact that you cannot deny however, is that he is the coolest looking mage in the game so far.

I will say, it's a bit disappointing to see that his recruitment speech is just "Bern bad. I'm tired of Bern, so let me join you". Sure, it's valid, but it's very simple and boring. It's like saying you're becoming a surgeon to save lives. Do it because you get access to so much technology and sharp knives.

Turn 5: Armors Are The Worst Guards For Bridges

These armor units don't move. The monks have a range covering the tile in front of them. Personally, I would've made their range 2 of front so if you kill the armor from 2 range, you'd still get hit by them, but it'd only be a minor difference.

Yeah, I got nothing to say here.

Skill and luck are actually beneficial for him. The 30 HP thing on a level 7 unit is an excessive bonus I appreciate very much.

Turn Sieks: At Last

Sieksellent.

Someone will find joy from this.

The fighter stands no chance against two sieksteen damage strikes. Really, wielding a steel axe is what killed you.

Tsagan finishes off a monk, so that Nikita doesn't get finished off by both of them on enemy phase, because unlike someone who doesn't read these LP's, I don't get lucky and didn't dodge the steel axe man.

Turn 7: Words, Words, Words

I like to think that Tsagan gallops his horse across the river by leaping over it. That's how I get across in Minecraft, until I realize that I just leaped into a 90 foot crevice and killed my horse. Happens about twice per server.

Nikita runs to a spot that would let him reach the western most village next turn, eating a crumpet to restore HP.

Fritz exchanges his short bow with an iron bow from Yaraf using Saya as a delivery child.

Horrible weapon aside, Tsagan, having broken the snag with his silver sword, counters one of the soldiers on enemy phase, and levels up again.

Son of a dead dad. Now you're even tankier. He's never falling off, is he?

Oh, it's Zeiss, the funny 20 strength man. I like this guy, mostly. He's shown up to report to Narcian. I feel much better than before, so I won't rant about a cameo this time. I was probably just mad. But it could've been worse. I could've criticized the game for not brining up real world travesties. Also, I don't like Sue all that much. Sue me.

I love this guy.

Oh my God, his name is Guns? Why couldn't he be recruitabe? What a beast.

I think you should've said "Go raid those rebellious villages. Make it look like a bandit attack", but it's just a minor suggestion. It's not as big of a deal as "I've always been prepare for this".

Yes, you are a brigand.

Turn 8: The Big Guns

This dude is a wyvern lord!? This is the best minor boss in any fan game.

Nikita instead goes to the mid western village in case those wyverns actually do move to the villages. It's probably not the case, but flying bandits are not something I'm going to risk taking it slowly on.

There is another village to the north east, so I kill this wyvern too. 

With most of the map shown by now, I'll give my 1 cent on the map design. It's okay. Honestly, the maps have been falling off a bit since chapter 5 imo. 6 and 7 weren't bad maps by any means. 6 was rather fun for providing an optional challenge, but it's pretty simple, and if you don't run up to where Burged's enemies are, it'd be a simple waiting game of  killing a couple of enemies on the same few spots while green units you can't carry slowly run to the finish line. The enemy layout wasn't nearly as complex as previous maps. For this map, I like the amount of villages that can encourage you to split your army, and the snag is appreciated. Aside from the 4 enemies to the left at the start of the map, the enemy layout wasn't too special. The rush of cavs could've been executed better, as it leaves the top of the map to a be a little empty once they're gone. The 2 archers guarding the right village aren't really the best way to block your path. It helps from having you run there with your flier, but I believe there should've been at least one more enemy there, such as another soldier. Many of these are minor complaints compared to chapter 5, and it's still a relatively decent map for being a part of the early game, but I personally didn't have too much fun playing it. Something just felt bland about it. I'm not sure how to put it. Even reading my own writing here, I don't really feel like I made much of a point. It's just not as fun as previous maps imo. Still alright though.

Anyways, my army inches closer to the wyvern's range, mostly being in range of the left wyvern with a javelin, using Fritz to bait him for an easy snipe.

There we go. These are the Dorothy levels I wanted to see. 

My God, that is a cool color scheme. Go Guns.

Turn 9: The Silver Haired Reclassed Unit

Now we can see what's in this town, although I'm pretty sure I already know.

Micaiah begs Nikita to take her with him, as he seems like someone who could also kill Narcian with his thumb.

A silver haired woman who uses a spear. Aspires to be a strong woman.

Lance Rank: D

As it turns out, Micaiah's name is actually Amelia. You will never see me call her by what the game referred to her as, since it is a mistranslation. It's almost sad to admit, but I almost want to train her purely from her class. But now I have her and Sergei to consider, as well as units currently on my bench. Her speed is alright, but her con will have her weighed down using anything above an iron weapon. I really can't focus here. Her appearance is throwing me off here. She's okay. Probably usable, but not great. Just like Micaiah. Play Radiant Dawn. It's better than Ruben thinks it is.

I rush in with most of of my, having Otto be in range of Guns, so he can inform him that guns are never the answer. Blades are much more personal and intimate.

Turn 10: Gunned Down

Right as Guns aimed for Otto's shining head, Sandra dashed behind him and stole his Earth seal, along with his Desert Eagle

immediately using said weapon to gun him down where he stood.

That is the worst acceptable level up you could've gotten. 

While she fired the entire chamber, many of of my units dealt chip damage to newly spawning enemies around the throne, mostly being cavs at the moment.

This is just New Mystery Malice, but good.

Saya's speed has reached a point where the weight of her Sol Kati isn't enough to prevent her from doubling. 

Tsagan uses up his last silver sword use while Gim ventures towards the last unraided vilalge.

The archers attempt to stop him, but all they did was make him stronger.

Turn 12: There Was No Turn 11 on May 4th

While I wait out the reinforcements, Gim taxes the nearby town.

Rabi fans must be in shambles right about now.

Turn 13: Am I Stupid?

I know she has a low strength growth, but these level ups suck. She looks so droppable right about now, but I'd rather not lose another bow unit.

You remember that one guy who showed up at the end of turn 7? Yeah, she appeared on the map around turn 11. This stopped me from seizing the throne, as he appeared right in front of the boss and refused to move. For a while, I didn't know what to do. He mentioned a girl named whose name started with E I believe (not Emmy), but no one in my team fit that description. I tried using everyone in my army, including the newly obtained Micaiah and Sandra, but no heroin. Sergei was quite far from the throne given how he was recruited back at the first village several turns in. If I had know he was required to recruit this guy, I would've had a cav rescue him to arrive here on turn 11 to save myself some turns. Instead, I had to wait for his arrival while just standing near the boss, occasionally killing reinforcements. Also, how the hell was I supposed to guess that Sergei would be the one? They have no correlations to my knowledge. I'm once again unsure if Guns and his ambushes are turn based or zone based. If it's turn based, you could easily clear the map before the recruitable brigand even arrives. Now I have an unlucky turn count, and will possibly wake up with one less kidney tomorrow.

I kid you not. This man just tosses him around the battlefield and belittles his fighting skills. I wish I recorded it all. I just thought it was an odd intro, but it keeps on going. 

Is this the start of a movie or something? Is Sergei going to be killed at some point for character development, or maybe he's the final boss.

He was basically making these noises the entire time. I don't think I wanted to show 8 screenshots of that. It's a bit uncomforting in text, but kinda funny.

Former farmer from a cold village in Ilia. Despite his appearance, he's indecisive and petty.

Axe rank: D

A playable brigand. That's always nice. Probably won't use you though. I can't go dropping Toby now, and my obsession with bows outweighs my appreciation for...big men. Not much to hiss stats. Somewhat slow, arguably a bit tanky for a brigand. I'd rather just use Sergei for the tanky unit. Can't let indecisive people in  my army. What if they're indecisive about which enemy to attack? Nice headband though. Not much else to comment on here. 

Something about trainee kills feels rather cathartic. Sure, she's classified as a soldier here, but the vibe of feeding kills to Amelia is quite nostalgic.

The spineless man dies to the manly girl. 

Finally. This stage took longer than I was hoping for, but it's partially on me for not bringing my fruits. Can this game stop summoning recruitable enemies late into the map right before I seize the throne? I'd like that.

It pained me that reading this made me audibly hear a particular person's presumed response to this. Ruben might know what I'm referring to.

Saya stop! The man's already dead! 

Arel attempts to interrogate the kid who states that she's not too far off from Saya's age, which I don't believe. You're probably 11. 

Yeah, the game might have told me before I was supposed to know. Your info is public online. That stuff kind of happens.

And so the 2 routes of Blinding Blade may or may not join as one, where everyone chooses to take the Ilia path, leaving us with the short end of the stick.

She does state right before this that she doesn't plan to inform them on everything concerning us, but Arel finds that to be S U S.

While they conduct their emergency meeting, we cut back to Lyn, so the bad guys will hopefully be more than Nergal 2.

Okay, bad start. I'm sure it's just a short nod to FE7.

God f**king damn it.

Let me guess. You're Ephidel, whose face got burnt from the fire dragons, and are haunting me because you're salty about being such a pointless villain. That'd be comical. 

Best case scenario: You're Denning. I would applaud.

No you weren't. It's almost always Hector who does it. Sometimes Athos. Maybe even Renault for those who are determined. For me, it's Will.

After Lyn's death wish, Edgelord informs her of Saya's nearby arrival, giving me far more FE7 Elidad vibes than I'm happy to notice. 

Get in line pal. There's hundreds of FE fans who have her trapped in a jar as we speak.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Spoiler

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh for sure. He doesn't have the best writing by any means, but he's certainly a much more interesting take on a lord character than with many other ones in the main series. 

He's unique. Gotta give him props for that.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

No. You will die on your mountain, as the sun rises and the sky presents a radiant dawn.

I will blow up the sun so there can never be another radiant dawn.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You're a piece of shi-

Hey, hey! I honestly completely forgot Leo existed. I really thought Sergei was next.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

True.

Why, you little--

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

And 2 magic? That's like, double the magic of Serra

It's actually the same magic as Serra. And don't bring Serra into this, please, you know I am biased in her favor.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Is the other one also a child?

No, actually. Quite the opposite.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay I get it. Ruben is not an American. Sorry we don't eat rocks in the mountains.

Yes, rocks. We eat rocks in the mountains. Such is the way of the mountaineer.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Unacceptable. There is no backing down allowed. You're just a chicken, cheep cheep cheep.

Shut up. Go shoot some hamburgers.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

One day, I'll do this on maniac. Not anytime soon, but one day. 

Do be sure to share it when you do! I'd love to see it.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Yubello's a great choice for meme classes, mostly as a fighter, given just how bad his strength growth is.

It's 40%. It's really not that terrible, and he compensates by having insane defense.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

That's a cool territory name. What are the names of your addresses, everyone? Or maybe just the street location. Come on, it'll be enlightening.

I can tell you with complete honesty that I live in a house.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

So I decided to change the size a bit. Normally, I stretch the GBA a bit and compress the screenshot to 400x265(ish). I'm still doing that for most of post, but during the cutscenes, I have the GBA reduced to its default of about 350x240, hopefully making the text a slight boost in quality. That, and I hopefully won't have to bother compressing every single image before posting them here. If I wanted to be really fast, I'd keep it that way the whole time, but I don't want my screen to be the size of an NFT enthusiast's brain the entire time I'm playing a chapter. Hopefully this helps me post them a but faster and looks a bit better for everyone else.

What emulator are you using? Both of the GBA emulators I've used in my time save screenshots in the base GBA resolution. Which means they're tiny, but hey, they preserve the pixels and all.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

= (

I'm sad you didn't show him going "THIS IS BORING"

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I don't see how this makes them evil. He's just being a patriotic American.

He even picked a man named Guns to be his subordinate. He's totally American.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

So the west side of the map is where you're supposed to go. There's quite a few enemies there. Sadly, there wasn't enough room for everyone, so I didn't deploy Grape for this chapter.

I mean, let's be honest - Grape can totally afford it.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A girl protected by the lord of Edessa. Despite oppostion, she becomes a secret agent.

Sword Rank: D

3 strength. What a great Cath reference.

"Becomes a secret agent"? So it hasn't happened yet? This description made me chuckle quite a bit. I am most likely not going to train them. I have more than enough units to consider, especially once the other units of this chapter arrive. I am sad to miss out on such a clear mage killer though. Just look at her res. She was made to kill Nergal.

Eh. You'll like the final thief better.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Sieks has gotten 3 bad level ups in a row, but he's still doing really well. Defense is quite the valuable stat in this game. And Nikita is already catching up. Do I start a Nikita club or something? It'd be rather embarrassing if he surpasses Sieks in defense, but funny.

Nikita is just loving that somebody is using him.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Close, but no nicotine.

I have to steal this one.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Turn 2: I'm Not Actually Playing This Game With Music BTW

Nooooo you don't wanna hear those FE6 tunes?

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Jesus mother f**kedless Christ.

I gotta steal that one too. This update's got some great lines.

Anyway, yes. That's Emmy for you.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Damn it Fritz! Why are my archers getting unlucky now? This usually doesn't happen to me, unless it's with Leonardo, or Gordin, or Virion. 

Funnily enough, I used Leonardo in my Radiant Dawn run. He was Nolan's support partner and was an invaluable part of my strategy to kill Deghinsea. Good times. Surrounded by awful times, like holy shit, I barely managed to force myself to play through half of the game...

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

An enemy finally thought to use a ridersbane, but Nikita knew the perfect counter to it. 

And then he threw the ridersbane at me, killing Nikita, instantly and ending the run. I was forced to redo the entire game to catch up to this moment. The AI's iq randomly spawned with with 2 less than before, so the battle went much more smoothly. 

Did Sieks get better levels this time?

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I can see why Sieks is so dull. I'd be bored too if I was invincible.

Sieks rightfully finds the entire world to be too dull for him to care.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh, it's Micaiah.

This is literally Micaiah.

Except she skewers things with a lance instead of being useless.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Holy crap man. 

I mean, he's right.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This is a very Saya level, but I'm still disappointed. Give me strength or defense. Or res, that works too. 

I wonder when she promotes. Do I get a heaven's seal, or is it story based? Unsure if I want an answer, since being completely blind could be part of the experience, but it would be annoying to be forced promoted while at lvl 13 or be stuck at lvl 20 for 7 chapters like in FE7.

I won't tell you, then. I will instead twirl my mustache with evil intent.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

That is really sh*t.

Nooooo beeg man! Make more of an effort!

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Master? You seem like you'd be the master here. You seem like a prepromoted sage with thoron or something.

Sergei is the one character I really wish had supports. Most other characters are simple and don't really need any more than their faces and little introductions. The two woodcutter friends, the tomboy mercenary girl, the kindly old priest, the kid that wants to become a powerful mage, the narcoleptic cavalier, the D U L L knight... It's all stuff that speaks for itself.

But Sergei hints at much more than any of them. Why is he a "former" husband? Is he divorced or a widower? Why is he specifically described as "more mature and intelligent" than he was before? What did he do in the past that was so immature and unintelligent? Also, from his very physical stats and the looks of him, this is obviously a Renault situation where he used to be a warrior of some kind before moving to a more spiritual line of work - but then, what was his former occupation? Why did he choose to stop using weapons and instead learn magic? Who was his master and where are they now?

There is a set up for a very interesting character here... But the lack of supports completely screws him over, so he's left at that. A big shame.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Former husband, who stepped into the path of magic. More mature and intelligent than his past self.

Anima rank: D

Instead, he's just a lvl 5 mage, but he does use thunder, so I got the affinity right at least. What disturbs me is his 12 con. How the hell does a mage even have that? How many tomes even weigh that much? Bolting? Judging from his bases, he's the slow, tanky mage. In a way, it's really helpful to have a tanky mage, since you're obtaining a 1-2 range unit who deals magic damage, cutting through many enemies' defenses. It also helps that tomes are naturally more accurate than javelins, and you can buy stronger tomes later on in the game, while finding stronger versions of the javelin is often rare, heavy, and expensive. In other words, Sergei can make for a great enemy phase mage who can weaken many enemies. Should you be able to get him to double, you could use tomes like elfire to easily 1RKO your opponents. However, low speed is always a major bane, and he won't be quite as useful for obtaining kills on player phase for easy xp as it would be if you used someone like Leo or Rabi. One fact that you cannot deny however, is that he is the coolest looking mage in the game so far.

I will say, it's a bit disappointing to see that his recruitment speech is just "Bern bad. I'm tired of Bern, so let me join you". Sure, it's valid, but it's very simple and boring. It's like saying you're becoming a surgeon to save lives. Do it because you get access to so much technology and sharp knives.

Still, at least you can say he's an interesting unit. Sergei is quite the physical mage. He can eat hits, he's weighed down by just about nothing and contrary to what you may think at first glance, his speed is not his weakness. It's not stellar, but 40% is very average in this hack.

His real weakness is his skill. His luck is surprisingly fine, but at a 20% skill growth, he may run into reliability problems down the line. Also, his resistance is complete shit, so he gets murdered by mages lol.

Still, very cool unit. Probably the most fun mage in the game, alongside the prepromoted sage. I would recommend you give him a shot.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Skill and luck are actually beneficial for him. The 30 HP thing on a level 7 unit is an excessive bonus I appreciate very much.

Look at that smirk. He knows he's awesome.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Sieksellent.

Long have we waited.

Only way this would've been any more perfect is if he had leveled skill too.

What's the origin of the meme, by the way?

...Ooooooooooooooohh it's 999! Took me a moment to realize. I really need to get around to play that game. It's been so many years since I read the one LP of it, I don't think I was even playing FE back then...

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

The fighter stands no chance against two sieksteen damage strikes.

Weren't you so angry at me before? Now you've fully embraced the puns. How the mighty have fallen. You've fallen at least sieks meters!

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Son of a dead dad. Now you're even tankier. He's never falling off, is he?

I mean, if he keeps getting levels like this one, his essential offensive stats will fall off, but... Somehow I doubt it. The man wants his beard to be endgame ready.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I love this guy.

Of course you do, you're American too.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This dude is a wyvern lord!? This is the best minor boss in any fan game.

Are you sure? Don't forget that The Last Promise features Zoro, who is from One Piece, which automatically makes him the best minor boss in any fangame for all four people old enough to have finished caught up with One Piece.

Anyway, yes. Guns is great.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

It's just not as fun as previous maps imo. Still alright though.

Fair assessment.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

There we go. These are the Dorothy levels I wanted to see. 

Hoho, nice! Good job, mate.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

My God, that is a cool color scheme. Go Guns.

#GunsForSmash

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A silver haired woman who uses a spear. Aspires to be a strong woman.

Lance Rank: D

As it turns out, Micaiah's name is actually Amelia. You will never see me call her by what the game referred to her as, since it is a mistranslation. It's almost sad to admit, but I almost want to train her purely from her class. But now I have her and Sergei to consider, as well as units currently on my bench. Her speed is alright, but her con will have her weighed down using anything above an iron weapon. I really can't focus here. Her appearance is throwing me off here. She's okay. Probably usable, but not great. Just like Micaiah.

Diana's sprite is a bizarre choice. She's not supposed to be a trainee, she's a regular soldier, just with Amelia's silly sprite. Honestly, the regular soldier sprite would've worked here. They don't look particularly male.

Anyway, I've used Diana before and she's yielded great results. Besides, who doesn't like a female soldier?

Quote

Play Radiant Dawn. It's better than Ruben thinks it is.

Play Berwick Saga instead.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

immediately using said weapon to gun him down where he stood.

R.I.P. Guns. His name was Guns. We loved Guns.

Quote

That is the worst acceptable level up you could've gotten. 

She's so much worse than Fritz, it hurts.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This is just New Mystery Malice, but good.

Ehhhh I would argue that's the second female hero.

But yes, Emmy epic.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

The archers attempt to stop him, but all they did was make him stronger.

Look at him. This is clearly a man that goes to the gym.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Rabi fans must be in shambles right about now.

Keep it for the second shaman. I mean, you gotta use the second shaman. You can't just play a FE and neglect a weapon type! What if the game gives you a legendary weapon in the final chapter and you can't use it?!?!!?!?!

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I know she has a low strength growth, but these level ups suck. She looks so droppable right about now, but I'd rather not lose another bow unit.

It's so unfortunate. I remember my epic Erica and it makes me wanna cry. What a shame... What a shame.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I kid you not. This man just tosses him around the battlefield and belittles his fighting skills. I wish I recorded it all

More evidence towards Sergei having been a fighter in his past. The man is a unit.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Is Sergei going to be killed at some point for character development

I mean, that's up to you.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Former farmer from a cold village in Ilia. Despite his appearance, he's indecisive and petty.

Axe rank: D

A playable brigand. That's always nice. Probably won't use you though. I can't go dropping Toby now, and my obsession with bows outweighs my appreciation for...big men. Not much to hiss stats. Somewhat slow, arguably a bit tanky for a brigand. I'd rather just use Sergei for the tanky unit. Can't let indecisive people in  my army. What if they're indecisive about which enemy to attack? Nice headband though. Not much else to comment on here. 

Eh. Never was that fond of this guy, anyway.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

The spineless man dies to the manly girl. 

How do you know he's spineless? Despite sharing a color scheme with him, he's not the count. No, this is just a Yogi bear recolor.

...Come to think about it, it would've been better if this was the count. This Conrad guy just comes out of nowhere and does absolutely nothing for the plot. Which makes him a better character than some other Conrads I can think of.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

It pained me that reading this made me audibly hear a particular person's presumed response to this. Ruben might know what I'm referring to.

Oh God, no.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

She does state right before this that she doesn't plan to inform them on everything concerning us, but Arel finds that to be S U S.

Arel is smart.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Gee, I wonder who this masked gentleman could be.

Quote

Let me guess. You're Ephidel, whose face got burnt from the fire dragons, and are haunting me because you're salty about being such a pointless villain. That'd be comical. 

Best case scenario: You're Denning. I would applaud.

...Yes. You figured it out. It's Denning.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

No you weren't. It's almost always Hector who does it. Sometimes Athos. Maybe even Renault for those who are determined. For me, it's Will.

Phantom of the Opera overthere knew getting revenge on Serra would be far too difficult, so he settled for the irrelevant lordling instead.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Get in line pal. There's hundreds of FE fans who have her trapped in a jar as we speak.

Jesus Christ on a bike, Shakespeare.

 

[Vestrikslana]

Spoiler

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

It's sort of an inside joke. A joke based on an FE12 LP I did, where I used Yubello as he was drafted by Ruben (PMU), and I kept calling him bad for not getting strength. He has a disturbingly high defense growth and great speed, but it's funny to say that one of Ruben's favorite units to mess with sucks to mess with him. Yubello's a great choice for meme classes, mostly as a fighter, given just how bad his strength growth is. If you want to go by cipher's canon, you'd go from fighter to hero, since that's his class in the card game, instead of sage. 

The bizarrely high Defense growths seem to be a trait of almost every mage in New Mystery, which I guess is to make up for their negative class growth? (Which they didn't really need to have in the first place, but...) Yubello's just so bad at being a mage that he's the only one who can reclass to leverage it without significant opportunity cost, unless you want to go the Levin Sword route (which is a very viable option, granted!) Of course, if you're using Yubello you probably don't care too much about opportunity cost to begin with.

(And I didn't know about him being a Hero in Cipher! That's really interesting. I wonder how many other characters are like that, where they have a completely different class from the one in their original game?)

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I'm not particularly against class bases per se, but it's nothing compared to gaining stat bonuses based on the class, and some classes, like dracoknights, have really high bases, so a lot of my runs have the growths of the early game feel pointless, since most of my units will just have the same stats, adding into the feeling that no one is unique. Sure, DSFE also has that issue to an extent, but I feel that it's worth the sacrifice from how fun reclassing is in that game.

Yeah admittedly when I called them an insurance against stat screwage I was mostly thinking of the Advanced classes, where the class bases are fairly low and practically the same across classes (Hero/Swordmaster/Assassin/Sniper are all outright identical, Wyvern Rider has just 1 point of Strength over them). Master tier is a bit of a different case, what with the frankly silly 20 Speed (+4 from class bonuses) on Wyvern Lord... Overall I'd agree that Three Houses could have done a better job at implementing it, regardless of its merits on principle.

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

Crap. Well, I'd personally remove crits from it. I don't really like crits at all unless it's coming from a killer weapon. As I mentioned earlier, I don't like the small crit on thunder. It's mainly fine in thracia, where scrolls negate them. I wouldn't want RNG to determine you losing a unit. It's what I don't like about fighting the Death Knight in 3H.

Can't disagree with you there. Low% crit bonuses aren't nearly enough to proc reliably in the hands of the player, but still enough to be very annoying in the hands of the enemy... I get that Thunder has it differentiate it from other magic, but something like different effectiveness types (as in Radiant Dawn, even if Thunder in particular is a bit underpowered there) would differentiate them even further and be a lot fairer on the player. And as for the Spear, it really just doesn't need to have it at all; it already has a niche, it's a powerful 1-2 range weapon.

41 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Many FE games do fine without them. I still don't use slim lances where they exist. It just makes me bench units who require them to be good. 

Yeah, that's fair. Maybe a better example would have been Steel vs. Iron, even though some FEs tip the balance a little too far in favor of Iron (Steel Swords in GBA are fine, Lances and Axes not so much)

44 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

PoR can be ridiculous sometimes with weight. The armorslayer has 17 weight. Why are you punishing the weapon THIS much? It shouldn't make you not double armors. As if double effective damage wasn't bad enough. Mia has 3 AS with it. I get making it a tad heavier to make it not viable to use against faster classes, but 17 is ridiculous.

Yeah, as I've probably already made clear I'm not averse to prohibitively heavy weapons in principle, but the Armorslayer in particular really needs to be able to double since it has too much going against it to pull off one-shots typically (lower Might on Swords, WTD against armors in most games) and imo effective weaponry should nearly always be a guaranteed kill against its designated targets (at least against generics). Of course, given this is PoR with its 2x effectiveness and annoyingly bulky enemies, you might not be able to one-round even when you can double... (At least, not when you're Mia.)

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I don't know why her troops didn't leave like she said until after I killed them, but at least that's more xp.

Probably just another case of the dev not expecting you to actually do this, which is actually kinda fair in this case since Tsas is a lot more intimidating than the other optional bosses up to this point. (Though as always it's nice when the game acknowledges when you pull off something unexpected, but that doesn't seem to be this game's strong suit.)

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

That's a cool territory name.

Couldn't say if it's relevant, but the Istria peninsula on the Adriatic sea is called Istra in Croatian and Slovenian (the peninsula itself is split between Croatia and Slovenia).

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A girl protected by the lord of Edessa. Despite oppostion, she becomes a secret agent.

Sword Rank: D

I admittedly don't usually pay too much attention to stealables, but it's nice that they give you another thief on a map with a stealable Earth Seal. Granted Guns is slow enough that base Yuin could do it too, but you might have gotten him killed by this point.

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Holy crap man. 

strong vibes of the "This village is horseshit!" bandit from Chapter 2 except that this guy is completely in the right

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I wonder when she promotes. Do I get a heaven's seal, or is it story based? Unsure if I want an answer, since being completely blind could be part of the experience, but it would be annoying to be forced promoted while at lvl 13 or be stuck at lvl 20 for 7 chapters like in FE7.

spoilered so you don't have to find out if you don't want

Spoiler

It's story based; she promotes at the end of Chapter 19. Unfortunately that means that your Saya will almost definitely ram the level cap before then, unless you use her sparingly from here on. Though at least your Saya seems to be worth ramming the level cap on?

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I can see why Sieks is so dull. I'd be bored too if I was invincible.

I mean, he is fighting a soldier. With a Ridersbane. Not much of an achievement there.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Former husband, who stepped into the path of magic. More mature and intelligent than his past self.

Anima rank: D

Instead, he's just a lvl 5 mage, but he does use thunder, so I got the affinity right at least. What disturbs me is his 12 con. How the hell does a mage even have that? How many tomes even weigh that much? Bolting? Judging from his bases, he's the slow, tanky mage. In a way, it's really helpful to have a tanky mage, since you're obtaining a 1-2 range unit who deals magic damage, cutting through many enemies' defenses. It also helps that tomes are naturally more accurate than javelins, and you can buy stronger tomes later on in the game, while finding stronger versions of the javelin is often rare, heavy, and expensive. In other words, Sergei can make for a great enemy phase mage who can weaken many enemies. Should you be able to get him to double, you could use tomes like elfire to easily 1RKO your opponents. However, low speed is always a major bane, and he won't be quite as useful for obtaining kills on player phase for easy xp as it would be if you used someone like Leo or Rabi. One fact that you cannot deny however, is that he is the coolest looking mage in the game so far.

Bolting is 20, so Sergei will still be weighed down by it by 8 - unfortunately he'll need to get a lot of Speed if you ever want him to double with it. He can use every other tome in the game without a speed reduction, though. at least the dev showed some restraint by not making him a shaman, he'd be an unstoppable Nostank with that statline

In hindsight I may have overhyped him in my prior allusion to him (in my first playthrough I got lucky enough with his Speed that he was doubling consistently, and obviously he's a lot worse if he can't manage that), but nonetheless Sergei is a really interesting unit with a great design, I appreciate him.

(Ruben already covered this and more, but I'm also quite curious as to why he's a "former" husband.)

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

It's like saying you're becoming a surgeon to save lives. Do it because you get access to so much technology and sharp knives.

okay, that's based

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Son of a dead dad. Now you're even tankier. He's never falling off, is he?

I swear, he's not actually supposed to be this tanky!! At least not in the long term, his base is obviously insane for his join time.

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh my God, his name is Guns? Why couldn't he be recruitabe? What a beast.

he's recruitable in the hard mode patch

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A silver haired woman who uses a spear. Aspires to be a strong woman.

Lance Rank: D

As it turns out, Micaiah's name is actually Amelia. You will never see me call her by what the game referred to her as, since it is a mistranslation. It's almost sad to admit, but I almost want to train her purely from her class. But now I have her and Sergei to consider, as well as units currently on my bench. Her speed is alright, but her con will have her weighed down using anything above an iron weapon. I really can't focus here. Her appearance is throwing me off here. She's okay. Probably usable, but not great. Just like Micaiah. Play Radiant Dawn. It's better than Ruben thinks it is.

Honestly it felt kind of underwhelming for Micaiah Diana to just be a Soldier given how much the story of this chapter was hyping her up. And with mediocre stats at that... I think this hack falls into the same pitfall a lot of older hacks do that the novelty of a playable Soldier is enough to make them worth using, they don't need to be actually good on top of that. That may have been true at the time, but there have been so many hacks with Soldiers since then that the novelty has worn a bit thin. (Soldiers don't even carry over their low relative class power from vanilla in this game like they do in e.g. TLP or Order of the Crimson Arm, so they don't have faster EXP gain as an advantage like in those games.)

(side note, I'm quite partial to RD myself and I find Micaiah really fun to use, Thani makes her a proper glass cannon and she becomes really versatile on promotion when she gets staves)

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This is just New Mystery Malice, but good.

Nah, you can't compare her to Malice. She doesn't have that cool eye-headwrap thing, for one. or purple hair

Better unit though obviously, though I think you've gotten rather lucky with her thus far.

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I know she has a low strength growth, but these level ups suck. She looks so droppable right about now, but I'd rather not lose another bow unit.

Her strength is barely even above-average at this point, to say nothing of the rest of her stats.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You remember that one guy who showed up at the end of turn 7? Yeah, she appeared on the map around turn 11. This stopped me from seizing the throne, as he appeared right in front of the boss and refused to move. For a while, I didn't know what to do. He mentioned a girl named whose name started with E I believe (not Emmy), but no one in my team fit that description. I tried using everyone in my army, including the newly obtained Micaiah and Sandra, but no heroin. Sergei was quite far from the throne given how he was recruited back at the first village several turns in. If I had know he was required to recruit this guy, I would've had a cav rescue him to arrive here on turn 11 to save myself some turns. Instead, I had to wait for his arrival while just standing near the boss, occasionally killing reinforcements. Also, how the hell was I supposed to guess that Sergei would be the one? They have no correlations to my knowledge.

The girl he mentions is Erina, the Pegasus Knight you got in Chapter 2 who's basically just Shanna. Fortunately I deployed her in this map, but if you didn't (afaik there's no hints that you should beforehand, unless there's something in the augury) you're a bit out of luck, since I definitely don't remember any hints that Sergei can do it too.

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Former farmer from a cold village in Ilia. Despite his appearance, he's indecisive and petty.

Axe rank: D

A playable brigand. That's always nice. Probably won't use you though. I can't go dropping Toby now, and my obsession with bows outweighs my appreciation for...big men. Not much to hiss stats. Somewhat slow, arguably a bit tanky for a brigand. I'd rather just use Sergei for the tanky unit. Can't let indecisive people in  my army. What if they're indecisive about which enemy to attack? Nice headband though. Not much else to comment on here. 

Lev is just "What if Barst was a brigand and also bad?" and I don't find it particularly compelling. He might be decent if there were hard mode bonuses in this game, but there aren't, so...

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Let me guess. You're Ephidel, whose face got burnt from the fire dragons, and are haunting me because you're salty about being such a pointless villain. That'd be comical. 

Best case scenario: You're Denning. I would applaud.

more spoilers, not that it's worth taking this particular plot point too seriously

Spoiler

Would you believe me if I said that this guy isn't Ephidel? Or Denning either, for that matter.

4 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

No you weren't. It's almost always Hector who does it. Sometimes Athos. Maybe even Renault for those who are determined. For me, it's Will.

Since when has a Lyn ever gotten enough Strength to be able to damage Nergal? I'd buy it if this was a bluff to stop them from going after her friends who actually did the deed, or something similarly self-sacrificing (not that I can remember if that would be particularly in-character for Lyn; it's been a very long time since I last paid attention to FE7's story)

 

[AnonymousSpeed]

Spoiler

  

20 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

100% can still miss in FE6.

For status staves only in practice, but yes.

20 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This is where your gallons of chloroform comes in.

We are going to kidnap all of the FE fans. It's a brilliant plan.

20 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

It has Brom, but like, in a better game.

It is 100% a better game than Path of Radiance, that's for sure.

20 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

So you're saying you DIDN'T stand up and applaud when Medeus was added in Heroes, praising IS for adding more unknown characters from the game noboby plays.

I did not. I redownloaded Heroes for a bit because Saul and Caellach had been added, but I pretty quickly got so fed up with it again that I yeeted my phone. Then I picked it up from the ground and uninstalled the game. They added Volke (one my all-time favorite characters) a week later, and I didn't budge. I will not cheer for anything in Heroes. If I'm going to see Ilios be cool, it will have to be in Echoes of Manster.

On 5/5/2022 at 2:17 AM, Shaky Jones said:

I don't see how this makes them evil. He's just being a patriotic American.

Now then, let me tell you about the CIA front organization called the National Endowment for Democracy-

On 5/5/2022 at 2:17 AM, Shaky Jones said:

This description made me chuckle quite a bit. I am most likely not going to train them. I have more than enough units to consider, especially once the other units of this chapter arrive.

Just note that there are items you'll need to train a thief to steal, and the last thief you get actually has lower base speed than the first two.

On 5/5/2022 at 2:17 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Jesus mother f**kedless Christ.

Beautiful phrase. To be remembered, truly.

Since my Emmy was also very powerful, I decided to check out her growth rates, and...they're not great. I mean, they're perfectly solid, very sufficient, average-to-good growth rates, but nothing so exceptional as her performance here would indicate.

On 5/5/2022 at 2:17 AM, Shaky Jones said:

She does state right before this that she doesn't plan to inform them on everything concerning us, but Arel finds that to be S U S.

The word "sus" appeared on Jeopardy, guys. My mom uses this word. We've officially memed a word into the standard lexicon. Generation Fortnite Daycare is going to fix the world, bros.

On 5/5/2022 at 2:17 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Get in line pal. There's hundreds of FE fans who have her trapped in a jar as we speak.

Did you know there are transparent PNGs of jars that you can get for free on the internet? You can make all kinds of wonderful edits with them.

On 5/5/2022 at 5:50 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

I will blow up the sun so there can never be another radiant dawn.

Then I'll use my ODOR BLOCKER BODY WASH to make another sun.

On 5/5/2022 at 5:50 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Shut up. Go shoot some hamburgers.

In the wise words of R. Lee Ermy, "ya gotta kill it before you eat it".

On 5/5/2022 at 5:50 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

But Sergei hints at much more than any of them. Why is he a "former" husband? Is he divorced or a widower? Why is he specifically described as "more mature and intelligent" than he was before? What did he do in the past that was so immature and unintelligent? Also, from his very physical stats and the looks of him, this is obviously a Renault situation where he used to be a warrior of some kind before moving to a more spiritual line of work - but then, what was his former occupation? Why did he choose to stop using weapons and instead learn magic? Who was his master and where are they now?

I assumed he was a widower and a former brigand of some type. Though I'd say it's less a "spiritual" line of work than an academic one.

On 5/5/2022 at 5:50 AM, Saint Rubenio said:

Diana's sprite is a bizarre choice. She's not supposed to be a trainee, she's a regular soldier, just with Amelia's silly sprite. Honestly, the regular soldier sprite would've worked here. They don't look particularly male.

While the sprite isn't particularly gendered, I think bringing back Amelia's sprite was pretty cool. I was happy to see it, at least, if only because it seemed to be both an elegant and hasty solution to needing a female soldier sprite.

On 5/5/2022 at 2:17 AM, Shaky Jones said:

Oh my God, his name is Guns? Why couldn't he be recruitabe? What a beast.

On 5/5/2022 at 7:39 AM, Ruminant said:

he's recruitable in the hard mode patch

Brilliant. We must implement this feature as well, though how to recruit him remains to be determined. What we do know is that he'll have HARD MODE BONUSES. Really gotta FLEX those GUNS. Gonna give him a good sword rank and busted growths, too.

On 5/5/2022 at 7:39 AM, Ruminant said:

(Soldiers don't even carry over their low relative class power from vanilla in this game like they do in e.g. TLP or Order of the Crimson Arm, so they don't have faster EXP gain as an advantage like in those games.)

(side note, I'm quite partial to RD myself and I find Micaiah really fun to use, Thani makes her a proper glass cannon and she becomes really versatile on promotion when she gets staves)

Shaky has personal experience with how good accelerated experience gain can be from my FE6 patch, don't'cha skelly-boy?

Yeah, Micaiah is okay, actually.

On 5/5/2022 at 7:39 AM, Ruminant said:

The girl he mentions is Erina, the Pegasus Knight you got in Chapter 2 who's basically just Shanna. Fortunately I deployed her in this map, but if you didn't (afaik there's no hints that you should beforehand, unless there's something in the augury) you're a bit out of luck, since I definitely don't remember any hints that Sergei can do it too.

It is rather nice that they give you that as a sort of back-up option though, especially since you don't even see Lev until after you start the map.

On 5/5/2022 at 7:39 AM, Ruminant said:

I'd buy it if this was a bluff to stop them from going after her friends who actually did the deed, or something similarly self-sacrificing (not that I can remember if that would be particularly in-character for Lyn; it's been a very long time since I last paid attention to FE7's story)

It'd be the first time she actually did something noble or interesting, so I'll add it to the head-canon.

 

[Shaky Jones]

Replies:

Spoiler

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hey, hey! I honestly completely forgot Leo existed. I really thought Sergei was next.

That says a lot about Leo.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Why, you little--

What's the matter?

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's 40%. It's really not that terrible, and he compensates by having insane defense.

It's more that any other class gives him Shadow Dragon growths.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I can tell you with complete honesty that I live in a house.

How can I trust you?

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What emulator are you using? Both of the GBA emulators I've used in my time save screenshots in the base GBA resolution. Which means they're tiny, but hey, they preserve the pixels and all.

I think it's visual boy. 

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm sad you didn't show him going "THIS IS BORING"

It was too BORING to show.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Nooooo you don't wanna hear those FE6 tunes?

Literally my least favorite soundtrack in the series, not counting the NES games. Sorry if Incomprehensible Velocity somehow loves it since it's his favorite FE game. 

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Funnily enough, I used Leonardo in my Radiant Dawn run. He was Nolan's support partner and was an invaluable part of my strategy to kill Deghinsea. Good times. Surrounded by awful times, like holy shit, I barely managed to force myself to play through half of the game...

Sounds like you're bad at Radiant Dawn'ing. Did you even use Brom and Meg? 

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Did Sieks get better levels this time?

Funny story. They started out different, but added up to the same stats at level 7. What are the odds?

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

There is a set up for a very interesting character here... But the lack of supports completely screws him over, so he's left at that. A big shame.

Come on Anon. We need that support fan project! 

It's bizarre just how little information is given from his actual joining dialogue, but the random text of his description and the recruitment of Lev implies so much history with him that just goes nowhere.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

His real weakness is his skill. His luck is surprisingly fine, but at a 20% skill growth, he may run into reliability problems down the line. Also, his resistance is complete shit, so he gets murdered by mages lol.

Still, very cool unit. Probably the most fun mage in the game, alongside the prepromoted sage. I would recommend you give him a shot.

20%.....great. Didn't have enough skill issues in the FE12 PMU.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Long have we waited.

Only way this would've been any more perfect is if he had leveled skill too.

What's the origin of the meme, by the way?

...Ooooooooooooooohh it's 999! Took me a moment to realize. I really need to get around to play that game. It's been so many years since I read the one LP of it, I don't think I was even playing FE back then...

No, this is an alternate box art for SoHaE, similar to how TLP actually had a fan made one. The mask clearly represents the weirdo we saw from the end of chapter 7's cutscene. 

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Weren't you so angry at me before? Now you've fully embraced the puns. How the mighty have fallen. You've fallen at least sieks meters!

It was a special occasion. Do not expect this to go on forever.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Are you sure? Don't forget that The Last Promise features Zoro, who is from One Piece, which automatically makes him the best minor boss in any fangame for all four people old enough to have finished caught up with One Piece.

Don't remind me, chucklehead. Funny thing is, the game glitched out for me, and I just didn't get it. I only saw it from watching my bro play the game, where he didn't get 7x, also from glitches. Honestly, I dodged a bullet there.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Anyway, I've used Diana before and she's yielded great results. Besides, who doesn't like a female soldier?

Beat that Blazer.

No but I really like Rex, and my bro had a great Ace.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Play Berwick Saga instead

Get out of here with the free advertisement. Go back to spreading your propaganda in TF2.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Keep it for the second shaman. I mean, you gotta use the second shaman. You can't just play a FE and neglect a weapon type! What if the game gives you a legendary weapon in the final chapter and you can't use it?!?!!?!?!

Ha-ha. Comedy gold.

There's probably a dozen legendary weapons I've yet to touch after several playthroughs of an FE game. I just don't like shamans. They bore me. Also, f**k Sophia.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's so unfortunate. I remember my epic Erica and it makes me wanna cry. What a shame... What a shame.

I think I've told you this on discord before, but I've said to another guy that I've been cursed with archers for years. I always get really good male archers, but female archers hate me. I can use Will for the lols and he'll be great, but Rebecca gives me awful growths. With the exception of the 3 archers I've named in the last post, I get great Wolts, Ronans, Rolfs, literally any DSFE hunter, Freaking Midayle. I guess Ignatz counts? Many of these are joke units to others, but ol Shaky Jones can make monsters out of anyone. Unless they're a girl apparently. With the exception of Dorothy (maybe this says something about her), they tend to be awful for me. Use Neimi for memes, nothing happens. Use Rebecca, she's trash. I use Tanya, she's less trash, but not nearly Ronan tier (but scrolls got her to cap regardless). Norne? She was good when reclassed out of an archer. Perhaps it was actually me that was the chosen one. Chosen to use s**t units for the memes, rather than for the waifus. Hell, maybe we can include "growth" units like Sophia and claim that I can't get good female units unless they're already good to begin with. I'm not upset by this. I've been naturally using low tier dudes, but it's funny that the moment I switch to a low tier girl, the other ones actually feel unironically good in comparison, even though many more will come to defend the female ones as if they're 5 times better. No, I'm not a Nino fan. Of course! Emmy's only good for me because of the manly part! 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

How do you know he's spineless? Despite sharing a color scheme with him, he's not the count. No, this is just a Yogi bear recolor.

...Come to think about it, it would've been better if this was the count. This Conrad guy just comes out of nowhere and does absolutely nothing for the plot. Which makes him a better character than some other Conrads I can think of.

Oh shoot. I genuinely thought he was. Now I look like a bad LP'er. Poor me. Oh well. 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

..Yes. You figured it out. It's Denning.

I'm a genius. He can use that one bow the final boss of FE The Four Kings uses. A 25 might bow with 1-5 range and like, 200 hit or something. It'd be perfect for him.

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

The bizarrely high Defense growths seem to be a trait of almost every mage in New Mystery, which I guess is to make up for their negative class growth? (Which they didn't really need to have in the first place, but...) Yubello's just so bad at being a mage that he's the only one who can reclass to leverage it without significant opportunity cost, unless you want to go the Levin Sword route (which is a very viable option, granted!) Of course, if you're using Yubello you probably don't care too much about opportunity cost to begin with.

Berserker/Warrior Yubello can easily break the game if you do get those defense points. The 2nd half of New mystery is very much designed against tanking and chokepointing with really strong enemies using effective weaponry in a game where defense growths are still bad compared to the buffs of other growths. Berserkers/Warriors don't have a weapon that that destroy them, so they're often your best best for tanking enemies, but many of that class have a horrible defense growth or base. This is where fighter Yubello stands out. For both me and Ruben, he had over 20 defense by chapter 15, allowing for him to be a great tank against the paladins to the right who all have bows, armorslayers, ridersbanes, swordslayers, and other silver weapons.

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Yeah, that's fair. Maybe a better example would have been Steel vs. Iron, even though some FEs tip the balance a little too far in favor of Iron (Steel Swords in GBA are fine, Lances and Axes not so much)

Steel lances and steel axes mainly help because the enemies start using them, and they suddenly become easy to double.

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Yeah, as I've probably already made clear I'm not averse to prohibitively heavy weapons in principle, but the Armorslayer in particular really needs to be able to double since it has too much going against it to pull off one-shots typically (lower Might on Swords, WTD against armors in most games) and imo effective weaponry should nearly always be a guaranteed kill against its designated targets (at least against generics). Of course, given this is PoR with its 2x effectiveness and annoyingly bulky enemies, you might not be able to one-round even when you can double... (At least, not when you're Mia.)

I was watching someone do FE9 maniac, and I think Mia did single digit damage with the armorslayer on her joining chapter. Great design guys.

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Couldn't say if it's relevant, but the Istria peninsula on the Adriatic sea is called Istra in Croatian and Slovenian (the peninsula itself is split between Croatia and Slovenia).

Is Istra known for having meek Counts, or having rebellions?

Well google images of Istra look stunning, so it's nice to know that it is a real place. 

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

I admittedly don't usually pay too much attention to stealables, but it's nice that they give you another thief on a map with a stealable Earth Seal. Granted Guns is slow enough that base Yuin could do it too, but you might have gotten him killed by this point.

Considering that Guns doesn't show up for a while, it is best to give you a thief for it, since it's unlikely that the player is training Yuin, and there's no chests or fog for him here.

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

I mean, he is fighting a soldier. With a Ridersbane. Not much of an achievement there.

How dare you downplay Sieks? He is practically a Demi God. The only other tanks are Tsagan and Nikita, who are horse users. 

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

he's recruitable in the hard mode patch

Oh God, now you get a prepromoted dracoknight with hard mode bonuses!? 

You recruit him by bringing him down to 1 HP, and then talk to him with Sergei. After that, you clear the chapter without killing him, and then when he asks you to kill him, you say yes, but Sergei stops you.

Alternatively, you just go in front of him with Saya and yell into the mic "Guns guns guns! I love guns!".

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Nah, you can't compare her to Malice. She doesn't have that cool eye-headwrap thing, for one. or purple hair

Yes, but Ruben likes Malice, so I need to mock her.

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Honestly it felt kind of underwhelming for Micaiah Diana to just be a Soldier given how much the story of this chapter was hyping her up. And with mediocre stats at that... I think this hack falls into the same pitfall a lot of older hacks do that the novelty of a playable Soldier is enough to make them worth using, they don't need to be actually good on top of that. That may have been true at the time, but there have been so many hacks with Soldiers since then that the novelty has worn a bit thin. (Soldiers don't even carry over their low relative class power from vanilla in this game like they do in e.g. TLP or Order of the Crimson Arm, so they don't have faster EXP gain as an advantage like in those games.)

It's like modern gamefreak. They don't need to try. People are going to use them anyways.

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

(side note, I'm quite partial to RD myself and I find Micaiah really fun to use, Thani makes her a proper glass cannon and she becomes really versatile on promotion when she gets staves)

I like using Micaiah too, RUBEN.

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

The girl he mentions is Erina, the Pegasus Knight you got in Chapter 2 who's basically just Shanna. Fortunately I deployed her in this map, but if you didn't (afaik there's no hints that you should beforehand, unless there's something in the augury) you're a bit out of luck, since I definitely don't remember any hints that Sergei can do it too.

I'm not a big fan of these enemy recruitments so far. It's been quite tedious as a blind player. It just throws things at you suddenly, and you need to guess what to do. 

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Since when has a Lyn ever gotten enough Strength to be able to damage Nergal? I'd buy it if this was a bluff to stop them from going after her friends who actually did the deed, or something similarly self-sacrificing (not that I can remember if that would be particularly in-character for Lyn; it's been a very long time since I last paid attention to FE7's story)

To be fair, that certainly seems to be what they're going for in this game, and I enjoy it enough as it is. Lyn has obviously matured a lot since FE7, and now being both the leader of a tribe in troubling times, as well as being a mother, she is willing to sacrifice her life to protect others. Whether this would've been in character then doesn't feel important, since it certainly feels in character now.

5 hours ago, Ruminant said:

more spoilers, not that it's worth taking this particular plot point too seriously

I won't read the spoiler tags at the moment, but I might come back to them should I really become curious about Saya's promotion, or maybe I just gave up on the story completely. Hopefully, it doesn't come to either of them. 

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Just note that there are items you'll need to train a thief to steal, and the last thief you get actually has lower base speed than the first two.

Well...

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Beautiful phrase. To be remembered, truly.

It's all downhill from here.

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Since my Emmy was also very powerful, I decided to check out her growth rates, and...they're not great. I mean, they're perfectly solid, very sufficient, average-to-good growth rates, but nothing so exceptional as her performance here would indicate.

It's the manliness. You need to factor that in.

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

The word "sus" appeared on Jeopardy, guys. My mom uses this word. We've officially memed a word into the standard lexicon. Generation Fortnite Daycare is going to fix the world, bros

Yes. You love to hear it.

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Did you know there are transparent PNGs of jars that you can get for free on the internet? You can make all kinds of wonderful edits with them.

I'm sure you're very experience with that.

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

While the sprite isn't particularly gendered, I think bringing back Amelia's sprite was pretty cool. I was happy to see it, at least, if only because it seemed to be both an elegant and hasty solution to needing a female soldier sprite.

It's so nostalgic for me. I can't criticize it.

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Brilliant. We must implement this feature as well, though how to recruit him remains to be determined. What we do know is that he'll have HARD MODE BONUSES. Really gotta FLEX those GUNS. Gonna give him a good sword rank and busted growths, too.

Hard mode bonuses will be fun to factor in when we create the best FE thing ever. IS will grovel before us. 

Imagine Pascal of all people being Rutger tier?

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Shaky has personal experience with how good accelerated experience gain can be from my FE6 patch, don't'cha skelly-boy?

.....yeah.

It's late at night for me but here's a short summary. Growth unit who normally can't promote gets fast levels. Now they CAN promote. Suddenly, they're a lvl 10 rogue who gets 20 xp per kill while Wade and Lot get 6 as lvl 1 warriors. It's like Rutger, but with paragon, and bows. 

These were their stats by chapter 15. I was even benching them occasionally. Keep in mind that I wasn't funneling kills for them. I was training a dozen other units who were pormoting somewhat early from how much I fed kills to them. Chad was getting 2 level ups per turn. It was crazy. Maybe you can experience it too if Anon chooses to never update the patch. Who doesn't like a lvl 20 Cath?

Oh yeah. They had 30 crit too. Because the xp wasn't broken enough. Good job Anon. Very balanced.

Jk, it was a fun mini rebalance to play. Thanks for making it, funny paragon thieves aside.

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

It is rather nice that they give you that as a sort of back-up option though, especially since you don't even see Lev until after you start the map.

A shame I've given up completely on flliers. Only time I recently touched one was draco Jagen for a h5 sd ironman. It felt surreal. I might have to reclass him before I get a heart attack.

Chapter 8: Garden of War

Spoiler

This time, I went ahead and played through the whole chapter on a small screen. Make screenshots faster. And it helped a lot! Posting them here was a breeze. Unfortunately, this post still took a while to finish for reasons you'll probably find out soon enough. The images might not scale to be exact, but hopefully it's not distracting. It really helps when I don't spend forever cropping each one like before. Still trying to figure out if visualboy has screenshots it can take to help, but I don't see anything. Until then, hope this one doesn't hurt your eyes.

Holy hell. Look at that man. Another rare instance of a completely unique portrait, I think. I mean, this chapter deserves it. It's the famous Fort Clark.

At least Arel's right this time. I'm still salty about that Liane incident.

So normally, we were meant to receive aide by now

but this is Fire Emblem, so we ALWAYS have to do things ourselves. This isn't even the first time we didn't wait for them in this game. 

That is beautiful.

So we get a new mercenary, AND prisoner units? Great.

Oi. This is a myrm. Not a merc. There's a difference [BOSS NAME HERE].

The enemy layout seems a bit threatening this time around. The shamans will deal great damage given how most of the units I'm suing have practically no res at all. I should've brought a pure water, but I forgot. There's 3 chests in the corner, and there's obviously doors to open, so I need to waste a slot on a thief. I use Sandra because she has res. I really need more deployment slots here. I ended up benching both Tsagan and Gim momentarily to bring weaker units to train. Not Erica though. No room for her. I need to focus on Sergei so I have a mage. 

Man, I need more slots. What, am I supposed to drop Grape? He's great! His aide stat is also much higher than Nikita's or Yaraf's, which I need for funny strats involving Sieks.

So we have a monk and a myrm. If Boris was a merc, this would be very familiar.

How nice of him to help a priest.

Really? Well, tell me who it is!

Well it certainly wasn't this person. Boris just calls her annoying and leaves, but I don't care enough about this sort of banter to record it. This update has enough going for it already. Maybe next time.

That depends on how fast I am today.

Isn't Elimine in Heroes now or something? I wonder if their character is good. My lack of faith in Heroes says no, but I've been wrong before. Not from Ruben though. I'm always right against him.

Turn 1: You Know What Happens

They call me the definition of insanity.

After rescue dropping Emmy and moving everyone else, I expect the turn to end, but it doesn't. The two prisoners earlier seem to already start as blue units. Not sure why. I can't do anything in their current state.

Well, since of them is a dancer, I might as well gain dancing xp.

F**k, one of them is a dancer. That's another slot in my deployments. I can't not use a dancer. That would help Sieks so much.

A monk from the Elimine Church. Believes in peace and preaches the teachings of God.

Light Rank: D

God? Like, just straight up God? Not Elimine? Or have we been praying to her this whole time? 

This reminds me of how the translation of FE12 that I play, Lena and Etzel just use God instead of gods or divine dragon or whatever. It's...interesting? Anyways, this one seems like Rabi, but light, so I'm guessing they're worse. Also, you're nothing like Lucius. I can hardly imagine you as a woman. What's even the point?

A determined traveling dancer. Dancing is her greatest joy.

Dance Rank: W

Here she is. Maybe I should've used Leo. Oh well. I never use Leo. He'd probably beat his kid if he wasn't a magic dude. Then again, if you ship Xander and Charolette, Siegbert's probably also getting beaten. I should stop talking.

What can I say. She's a dancer. She be dancing. Look at that one strength. That's not too far from my promoted Eliwood. I am going to use her, for better or worse. Dancers are too useful to say no to, even for memes. 

Turn 2: Sh*t

Sandra was close to a level up last time. Maybe she'll be the Cath of the run. My last Cath specifically. Anon will get it.

What was I expecting?

Well, I'm not sure who to give the soldier kill to. They have an axereaver, so Toby wasn't really a cho-

What the f**k.

What the f**k.

I swear I'm not a cav racist, but how am I supposed to remember which cav is which from these? I guess I should be aiming the cursor at them more often. 

I threw a jav at them, then set up a mini wall accordingly.

Sergei's defense is appreciated.

Turn 3: Scary Enemy Phase

The X formation.  A classic FE position of enemies. Admittedly, seeing a fighter stand out instead of 2 armors, 2 shamans, and the archer is a little displeasing, but a fighter with a steel axe is scary with their might, even if some like to think that a sword unit will dodge it for sure. Nikita is in range of the archer, fighter, and a shaman, while Sieks is in range of the fighter and archer. I can't get any closer, as these units can easily kill me for once.

Eyyy.

You can't stop this man. He's more dangerous than a real nikita launcher. That's why they call him Nikita.

There was a 1% chance that I could've lost the run right here.

This short bow guy is really a piece of Genealogy. That small crit chance just gives him a silver of a chance to end a unit without your skill being involved. He could've killed Nikita if he went for him and landed a crit. Can games stop doing this?

Turn 4: I'll Just Bring It Up Now, Well On the Next Turn Anyways

They call him Fuckin Fritz.

This man has a ridersbane. For those who don't check enemy weapons, haha, get gorshed.

I love how most units take 40% of their HP from these guys, while Nikita can take 4 hits. The sudden difficulty spike has shown just how useful he really is. Either that, or maybe not using Gim and Tsagan made my team worse. I'm going to assume the former, because it makes me happier.

10 luck. What's her luck growth?

Hear me out. Sieks Lance. Personal Weapon. 

Turn 5: Why Is This Map Playing Within The Magnificent Nature?

Sergei has 5 speed. This soldier has never been through one session of leg day.

I still have faith in Big Guy.

Nikita does not need more kills, but I'm impatient.

You know what? Toby's lack of strength is great. He makes for a great kill set up.

Well he has sieks skill now. That's nice.

A silver lance? What an idiot. Wasting such a rare weapon in the early game. 

Turn 6: The Song Doesn't Fit In

Two long bow dudes show up. There's also a physic user with a door key, but I'll worry about that later for you. I'm still waiting for a thank you, but I get it. No really, I do.

Seriously, what is a vulnerary?

I really wanted Sieks to get this, but he missed. 

God was laughing at me this turn.

Or it might have just been my FBI agent.

Hammers are satisfying. 

For those who are curious, I've decided to start showing enemy stats per chapter with noticeable differences starting now.

They are frail and not so fast, but many units have low res, so their fluxes hurt about as much as stepping on your pet and being unable to apologize to it, then you step on it again to prove a point, immediately regretting it afterwards.

Archers in this chapter have competent stats, but are partially held back by holding weaker weapons like a short bow, because the dev really wanted that 5 crit to be something to deal with. 

Once we all make that hard mode patch, these guys are probably going to be b*****ds with like, 11 speed and 15 strength. Then again, Saya and Yeke will stand out more that way. Sergei would also be f**ked, as well as Lev. We'll think about it when we make someone one get there for us.

These guys are the biggest threat in the game so far. They wield steel blades, slowing them down, but not enough to where units other than Grape could double them, and they 2RKO most of my army with 22/23 might. This must be where Fort Clark earns its title. 

Turn 7: The Nature Song Gives Outdoor Vibes, Ya Know?

Sergei uses what he learned from his master to open console commands, allowing him to shoot a fireball through the wall to strike at the enemy.

You know what they say about magic.

Arel traded to Sieks, who traded with Emmy, who traded with Toby, who traded an elixer to Nikita. He is one of my only units who can tank the mercs. Actually, he is the only one. Tsagan and Gim could've survived, but Toby made a bet that he could rack up 5 kills without Gim around to constantly supervise him. Tsagan is holding Gim from rushing in to the fort out of fear that Toby charges into an army of mages again.

Real talk, that is such an ugly design choice for your fort. Not ugly in game. I'm saying like, if you had your own IRL fort, why would you randomly have an open space from your walls near the throne, only for it to be like, 6x3 meters or something. The architect just didn't know what to do with the small excess room, so they planted 2 trees for a small, uneven garden. But there's a staircase, so I guess there's a basement in there. What a terrible way to present it. Why not plant the trees around it, or perhaps just make three trees at the top for consistency? At least have doors surrounding the random gaping hole on the castle walls!

I wanted to be a bit more aggressive, but it all led to death. Couldn't use Saya to bait, because she'd die from 2 mercs (an unlucky crit could have a 2nd one attack and kill her). Nikita can't get any closer, because of the shaman. This particular group is actually scary. I suppose I should be grateful, since I was asking for a challenge. 

I forgot to equip a lance. Crap.

That guy had a crit chance. Crap.

Turn 8: Illia Mountains, Sacean Plains, A Fort?

Ya love to see it.

It's nice to finally have a magic user in my army, despite the fact that the game gave me 4 of them already. 

Yaraf shoots the merc in the shoulder, distracting him from Nikita's lance piercing his other shoulder.

As it turns out, this is really all I can do this turn. As much as I'd like to be aggressive and finally have a turn count I can proudly present to people who don't care, every strat I could think of kills me, or is too risky to rely on. Grape and Sergei could've attacked the mercs (Sergei thunders weakened merc, then Grape and Nikita team up on 2nd one), but one miss would kill me, and I wouldn't have any way out. Yaraf cannot remain there, as he is in range of the shaman who use their dark magic to prey on Yaraf's sin of gluttony. I was honestly hoping more of them would've approached me last turn, but their AI of only moving individually when provoked is screwing me over. Somehow, I'm both happy by the added challenge, but also annoyed by the game making me use turtle strats. 

I want to get in further, but nobody seems to survive just one merc and one shaman. If only I remembered to bring some of Elimine's bath water. I would've posted this sieks hour after the last one. It'd would've just been replies, but it'd still be quick.

Their heavy weapons helps me 1RKO them. 

Turn 9: Fort Clark Isn't Nature At All!

Why the 1 crit? Don't I have enough to deal with already? 

I reckon that 5 luck is bad. Is this really going to be what holds him back?

With Astram's squad dealt with, I can make my way to the chest room.

Yaraf is technically in range of two of them, but two units cannot step into the same tile to attack him. What do you think this? A series about teamwork? Working in pairs? Get outta here.

Big Guy gets Big Growths.

Okay, odd precaution. Honestly, I just wanted the chests. The extra units are a side bonus.

I guess there's still more to the stage. Was about to wonder if I was mostly done. At least I've dealt with the rest of the stage already, so I won't be getting pinned down anytime soon. That sounds more like Ruben's thing.

Turn 10: Point is The Song Isn't Fitting And It's Distracting

Start your day on a positive note. Start your turn on one too. It motivates me. 

Sandra, being the res tank she is, was the best unit for chip damage to help Toby out. She even dodged the attack. Life was good!

He missed. 

No no, he still a good unit. I'm not benching him. Of course not. This is just a minor setback. I'll make a comeback. You wanna know what they call me?

They call me George Washington.

While I don't find it important enough to mention, many of my units have been gaining weapon ranks. I believe that Grape ended the chapter with C to both ranks.

Nikita with a speedwing would trivialize the entire first half of this game, and maybe the other half too.

Since the fighters have hand axes, Otto gives Toby a chance at redemption, not that they went for him.

While I wish I showed the immediate reinforcements, I planned to wait a little, mostly because of laziness, but also because they were cavaliers who spawned at the very begining of the map with short spears and iron lances. They would take forever to arrive. Why show them when they won't be a threat for about 5 turns?

Fuck

I have unfortunately fallen for the classic pitfall of "My opponent will be respectful and not use sv cheats to attack through the wall". I even knew that they had short spears, but it honestly didn't cross my mind that having her attack the shaman in the spot that she did would lead to this. How embarrassing. Both for me and her.

Of course it was exact damage. Now I can't say that I've beaten the game with zero deaths, unless you count my failure to recruit Pascal as a version of death, but history will only write down the winners, including the losers of those winners. 

Happened right in front of her too. You just lost your one ticket to freedom. That's what pissed me off the most. I wanted a unit to die for space, but did it have to be the one unit who I solely brought for this chapter, and she died right before she could do the one thing she was destined to do? Perhaps you could say it's...comical.

Turn 11: Dammit! I Should've Used The Losing Song in Thracia! That Would've Fit So Well!

Okay, so maybe things are looking a bit grim, but I'll tell myself not to panic because none of you will do that for me. Thanks by the way.

The wall has 40 HP. Imagine if it had 100. That would've been annoying.

Hard mode walls let's go.

Eat your grapes and you'll kill like one.

You might've noticed my lack of calling him something else. I am too saddened by the tragedy to focus on jokes. Everything I am saying now is 100% truthful.

No, Sandra is not the tragedy. You'll find out in a bit.

But what I'll tell you now is that I need some damn door keys. I was going to kill this guy with Nikita and use Sandra to open the door to the dance floor, but I can't do that now. Obviously, the executioner has a door key of his own. I need that, but I can't STEAL anymore. So, I rescue Emmy out of there and hope that he does what he's been hired to do and will open the cell door.

Shoot! I forgot about the curate having that. Seriously, I was so relieved to see this. The enemy can use theirs, and this one can be used on the throne room! But that leaves the door with the chests inside...Don't tell me I don't get a single one of them...

We'll worry later, assuming my fear of losing everything actually concerns you. Sergei got magic, and skill. That must be rare.

Turn 12: 

For Gim's sake, you went after me!? I wasn't even in your range! What am I supposed to do now?

Ah, he actually thanked me the moment I killed the guy. That's sweet. But you're not a thief, so piss off.

Sure thing pal. Oh wait. No, I can't do that! I don't have a door key for your cell! I only have one! It needs to be on the throne room or I'm literally softlocked, you stupid little sh-

Wait a Kaga damn second.

I have an idea.

Fritz and Yaraf were positioned last turn in a way so that I could trade and have him canto quickly to the doors. The chest keys were spares from previous chapters. It's why I wasn't concerned about that part. 

These two will busy for a bit, but I have to be really careful about this.

Turn 13: I'm Actually Feeling Tense For Once.

Yaraf uses the one door key on the chest room, and Nikita quickly begins to pillage noble property. Look at what I could've missed. Holy poopies.

Grape goes in for the other chest, and I am now paranoid about future maps having berserk staves. 

I believe Grape used Arel's inventory to receive the other chest key I had. Or was it Nikita? Who cares?

The cavs are approaching. Sieks was ready. He had a ridersbane. Nothing can go wrong

Oh yeah, Sieks's defense is barely higher than Nikita's. He barely survived, and none of them died. 

Turn 14: Saving Private Sieks

Great. A weapon for the guy I'm immediately benching. Thanks.

The cavs here are a bit stronger than usual. Not by a lot, but enough to kill Fritz in 2 shots (one short spear, one iron), but he was determined to not lose another ally.

For a while, I kept thinking of how to get Saya to kill with Mani Kati, but she couldn't tank on enemy phase. Even if I had her and Sieks form a wall and switched her with a slim sword, her odds of death were too high. I considered making Sieks use a riderbane and going aggressive, but there was no chance of survival there. It took about about 6 minutes to even remember tat Emmy had a lancereaver, but it was crucial to stopping the cavs. That and Arel's elixer. I already planned for Sieks to use it (well, one plan anyways), but it seemed hard to bring Saya up to him without dying, but with the lancereaver, their hit against her is practically zero. Sure, you could say this is a luck strat, but the short spear guys have 70 total hit. I think this is pretty damn reliable.

Without Sieks, her mother would be doomed. She focused more than ever, and has now surpassed Ruben's Saya, proving that I am a tactician who occasionally does things +1.

I know this turn seems really simple, and the overall strat was, but this took so long to figure out, given that I was actually panicking at this point over the idea of losing Sieks. Also, like I said, I completely forgot about the lancereaver. But we did it!

Turn 15: Two Challenges Left

By now, the rest of my army was heading towards the Velthomer Fan Club, aka the "Arvis Is the Best Character" fanboys who parade random locations to inform you of why you should agree to spawn the Anti Christ for clout.

To quote the best character of 3 Houses: "Get outta here!"

Well...10 strength works, I think.

Emmy finished off the man who killed Sandra to avenge her. Probably. All cavs look the same. I'm a Shinon fan, I'm unaffected by your claims of my racism.

Turn 16: Retreat

Sergei softens up the mages. That's all.

Turn 17: Attack Again

See that? That strength point was essential to my siekscess. 

Gee, that hit rate sucked. But let's not talk about if that missed. You're being too negative.

Ruben! Stop doing this! My God...this is Matthis all over again!

Fritz has enough luck to safely fight the thunder man. That has to be worth something.

What happened to the last mage was not Serenes friendly.

Turn 18: One More Challenge Left

Here we go. The final stretch. I helped destroy the wall for the theif, then blocked his way out. Just to play it safe, Grape literally removed all his weapons. He traded some away earlier, then dropped the rest that were low in use. He can't hurt the thief, but luckiy, I was right to assume that he doesn't go for people. Thieves prioritize opening chests and doors. This man will be key. 

Oh, eat sh*t man.

I think there was one turn of a difference where the thief opened the door and when he stole that, but I can't recall. I think I typed the turn wrong. Whoops.

Turn 19: This Got Boring Quickly

As I traded the other vulnerary to the dancer, I see that they can support. Now I can finally see how SoHaE handles these.

You- you lied to me. There was no support. Not even JP supports, or a series of ellipses.

Now that finally rescued the prisoners, I can recruit Boris. But I can't chill yet, as I need this thief to open the throne room. If he escapes, the run literally ends.

Turn 23: This Sucks Dude

Well I'm stupid. I was waiting for him to move, but all he did was wait on the chest. I was getting terrified that this chapter was donion rings, but then it hit me. I'm blocking the way.

At least I was using this time to heal everyone and trade items. Nikita is my new Tsagan.

Turn 24: This Post Is Getting Too Long

Just get this over with.

I don't care. I really don't care.

You see Grape's expression? That's me. This was how I was at this point. This image? Literally me. The good growths was the miracle of my survival and the crazy growths I've been getting, but I've lost it.

You are really making it hard to praise you.

Turn 25: Nothing Happened

Turn 26: One Thing Happened

Like that one image of superheores bowing down to the doctor who's on his way to charge someone 4000 dollars for telling them to not stretch their back since the patient reported that it hurts when they do that, Saya and her men form 2 squads to present the door to the thief and pay their respects to his efforts of saving the world.

Turn 27: The True Final Strencth

One last bit of reinforcements. I can't believe I had to do all that just to get here. 

Haha gottem

I am sorry. I cannot allow you to become a part of history. You'll soil the pride of Sacae.

This man wants to get everything but strength.

This felt kinda cool. Nice setup, Sergei has base res for the shaman. Sergei looks cool. I don't think I mentioned that yet. I like his battle sprite.

Turn 28: Level Land

You're better than this, I think.

Was wondering when he'd get speed. So far, magic has been the most consistent gain. He's like Lilina, but tanky, and cool.

He's gotten good levels before, so I'll give it a pass. I'm sure that skill will help him use steel bows anyways. My real concern is if I'm going to bench Erica or not. I do have Yaraf, but you can never have enough bow units. At least when there's master seals. If this game used orion's bolts, I'd be screwed.

This stage would be a nightmare on a hypothetical hard mode. It'd be like the chapter 7 of FE6, but on a slower pace, with less enemies, and Sieks. Actually, they're nothing alike.

Saya vs Milon. Who will win?

You'd think a guy with a unique portrait would be stronger. Maybe it was to compensate for his stats.

Ah man. I accidentally posted the same thing again. Oh well. Let's just leave it in. Why not? 

Please get one more strength, please. I need the double digit badly. I'll talk about Lyn being an underrated unit. Just give me strength. 

Turn 30: FINALLY

Good God, that took way longer than it should have. 30 turns. That's going to leave an awful mark on my total turn count. All because of one minor oopsie for Sandra. If she hadn't died, this would've ended in under 20. This is sad. Was this even content? Sure, I made mistakes. I could've had my team help with the cavs earlier. Sieks could've had an elixir from the beginning. But I'm blaming my lack of preparation on Sandra's permanent retreat throwing me off. If you disagree, you are once again abelist, except for Anon. He's just a secret Blazing Sword fan if he judges me.

Tsagan, you have no idea what you missed.

Arel gives no sh*ts about Sandra's death. 

I suppose we no longer have to deal with the whole spy thing. 

As we plan our steps to reach the location where Lyn is held at, and I cannot beleive what Arel says when he brings up Loki.

This is the worst rom hack ever created.

You know what? Ruben offered an explanation for the last slide, I'll just post it here.

Mountain Man: "I believe it's "shadow" because he works from the shadows leading a covert ops sort of battalion. Dragon General is just a different translation of Wyvern General. Of course, the translator apparently wasn't aware of the unfortunate coincidence that this name's translation resulted in."

I don't believe you. Not fully. I bet you that the translator purposefully chose to name him that to giggle about throwing in the name of a game within a fan game. What we're dealing with, is an Owain stan. 

Except that's what they want you to think! Everyone can make that joke, but he's actually a Kieran fan. He also has an obsession with naming his weapons. Now, only Owain explicitly names things after games, but it is possible that one could name something, or someone, after Shadow Dragon, as a coincidence, just as Ruben claims this could be. This is how he tricks us. Only a portion is a coincidence, not the whole picture. Why does any of this matter? Any bit of information helps us search for him. How many Kieran fans are there. 7? This narrows down are search by a lot.

Loki, the nasty one. Maybe the translator deserves praise after all.

Not the Shadow Dragon Unit?

Is that a challenge?

Oh boy. Another x chapter. This one's gonna be good. I just know it.

Not much lore here, aside from the worst thing I ever read. I was speechless for a full minute. It was great.

Okay. I didn't show Boris. I know. I'll do it next post. I swear. I deeply apologize to all of the Boris fans out there. 

 

[Saint Rubenio]

Spoiler

 1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

That says a lot about Leo.

Even though, again, I've used him already and he yielded great results. I still forgot he existed.

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

It's more that any other class gives him Shadow Dragon growths.

Look, I just find it absolutely amazing that he's genuinely better as a fighter than he is at his base class. His base class of mage. Who else can say that they swapped from magical to physical and ended up benefitting from it?

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

How can I trust you?

...Ach, you got me. I actually live in a mountain cave.

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

I think it's visual boy. 

Odd, it never did anything like this for me. Huh. Oh, well. Another mystery of life. Like the time VBA decided to stop saving in my laptop. Just, out of nowhere, every version of VBA that I tried just stopped being able to save. Had to switch to mGBA because of that.

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

Literally my least favorite soundtrack in the series, not counting the NES games. Sorry if Incomprehensible Velocity somehow loves it since it's his favorite FE game. 

And yet you like Radiant Cacophony smh

Nah, honestly, I get it. Personally, my least favorite would have to be... Uhh... Actually, not Radiant Dawn, if that's what you're thinking. It ranks low for reasons you know, but it has a few bangers.

I think it's Blazing Sword. I find most of the soundtrack to be rather annoying, and the few good songs it has have better versions in other FEs. Not a great showing, in my humble opinion.

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

Did you even use Brom and Meg? 

I am ashamed to admit I did not use Brom.

I did, however, use Meg. And Fiona. And Aran. I had to keep myself entertained somehow in part 4.

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

20%.....great. Didn't have enough skill issues in the FE12 PMU.

I mean, he does use anima magic. That's very accurate. Find him a support and he should be good to go in that regard.

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

No, this is an alternate box art for SoHaE, similar to how TLP actually had a fan made one. The mask clearly represents the weirdo we saw from the end of chapter 7's cutscene. 

Bahahahahah... Good, good. Great, even.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Don't remind me, chucklehead. Funny thing is, the game glitched out for me, and I just didn't get it. I only saw it from watching my bro play the game, where he didn't get 7x, also from glitches. Honestly, I dodged a bullet there.

He's playable in the postgame. Emperor Louis, all the senators other than Apollo for some undiscernible reason, Galagar, Lanmark and Holton... None of them are playable in the postgame, but Zoro is. Because TLP be TLP.

Anyway, the map itself is interesting. You only get to deploy two units plus Anakin. Even if it has Zoro, it's still a nice place to go for goodies. Besides, you get to beat Zoro up!

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

No but I really like Rex, and my bro had a great Ace.

Ace is a bit shaky, but Rex is great, I agree. Really, they're basically Kevins that trade the greatest availability in the game and good stats in exchange for a point of movement and speed.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I just don't like shamans. They bore me.

This hurts my dark magic loving self.

Ah well. I won't push you. But do give the second shaman a chance, at least? For me?

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I always get really good male archers, but female archers hate me.

I know you're going to be angry at me for this, but now I'd really like to see you play Berwick Saga. The game with the best archer in all of FE and KagaSaga, who happens to be a girl.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I like using Micaiah too, RUBEN.

I like Micaiah. It's Ike that's the problem.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Holy hell. Look at that man. Another rare instance of a completely unique portrait, I think. I mean, this chapter deserves it. It's the famous Fort Clark.

It's a pretty great portrait, for a random throwaway.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Man, I need more slots. What, am I supposed to drop Grape? He's great! His aide stat is also much higher than Nikita's or Yaraf's, which I need for funny strats involving Sieks.

Gim being greyed out makes me a bit sad.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Isn't Elimine in Heroes now or something? I wonder if their character is good. My lack of faith in Heroes says no, but I've been wrong before.

It has recently been revealed that FEHeroes writers get their documentation in the wikis. So no. FEHeroes is fanfic, and I am so happy that I can say that. I know you already know, but I just had to take the chance to say it again.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Not from Ruben though. I'm always right against him.

Yubello is good.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A monk from the Elimine Church. Believes in peace and preaches the teachings of God.

Light Rank: D

God? Like, just straight up God? Not Elimine? Or have we been praying to her this whole time? 

This reminds me of how the translation of FE12 that I play, Lena and Etzel just use God instead of gods or divine dragon or whatever. It's...interesting? Anyways, this one seems like Rabi, but light, so I'm guessing they're worse. Also, you're nothing like Lucius. I can hardly imagine you as a woman. What's even the point?

I used Simon once. He's... mundane. Very mundane. Otto at least has a funny face. This guy's just forgettable.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Here she is. Maybe I should've used Leo. Oh well. I never use Leo. He'd probably beat his kid if he wasn't a magic dude. Then again, if you ship Xander and Charolette, Siegbert's probably also getting beaten. I should stop talking.

Fuck Leo. Scum of the earth.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

What the f**k.

I love this guy.

I seriously love this guy so much.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Eyyy.

This guy, though. This guy's just plain amazing. His smirk gets smugger every day.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You can't stop this man. He's more dangerous than a real nikita launcher. That's why they call him Nikita.

No, no, it's the opposite. They named nikita launchers after him.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

There was a 1% chance that I could've lost the run right here.

This short bow guy is really a piece of Genealogy. That small crit chance just gives him a silver of a chance to end a unit without your skill being involved. He could've killed Nikita if he went for him and landed a crit. Can games stop doing this?

Crits are better in Berwick Saga

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

They call him Fuckin Fritz.

Not bad, Fuckin. Not bad at all, color me impressed.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

10 luck. What's her luck growth?

55%. Sounds about right.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Hear me out. Sieks Lance. Personal Weapon. 

6 might.

66 hit.

6 crit.

Strikes six times consecutively.

The Siekspear.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I still have faith in Big Guy.

If nothing else, we can keep him around for his bigness. It strikes fear in the hearts of enemies.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Well he has sieks skill now. That's nice.

Whoop!

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

God was laughing at me this turn.

Or it might have just been my FBI agent.

Why would you have an FBI agent?

...Oh right, you're a living skeleton. I imagine the government would be interested in figuring out what your deal is.

So they can use it in wars.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

These guys are the biggest threat in the game so far. They wield steel blades, slowing them down, but not enough to where units other than Grape could double them, and they 2RKO most of my army with 22/23 might. This must be where Fort Clark earns its title. 

Good effort, fatman. You command decently competent troops.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You know what they say about magic.

You can't have too much of it?

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Real talk, that is such an ugly design choice for your fort. Not ugly in game. I'm saying like, if you had your own IRL fort, why would you randomly have an open space from your walls near the throne, only for it to be like, 6x3 meters or something. The architect just didn't know what to do with the small excess room, so they planted 2 trees for a small, uneven garden. But there's a staircase, so I guess there's a basement in there. What a terrible way to present it. Why not plant the trees around it, or perhaps just make three trees at the top for consistency? At least have doors surrounding the random gaping hole on the castle walls!

Hey, Fort Clark is famous for being impregnable, not pretty.

...And it's proving not to be impregnable either, so... I don't know what it's supposed to have going for it.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I forgot to equip a lance. Crap.

That guy had a crit chance. Crap.

Nice.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

It's nice to finally have a magic user in my army, despite the fact that the game gave me 4 of them already. 

It's nice to have a magic user that isn't a child, yes.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Big Guy gets Big Growths.

You can't judge a unit from his first level.

Instead, judge them from their first good level.

Big man big good.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

At least I've dealt with the rest of the stage already, so I won't be getting pinned down anytime soon. That sounds more like Ruben's thing.

Shaky, why? What did I ever do to you?

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

He missed. 

No no, he still a good unit. I'm not benching him. Of course not. This is just a minor setback. I'll make a comeback. You wanna know what they call me?

They call me George Washington.

Honestly, I just want to see how long he can stay alive with his hilarious gains.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Fuck

I have unfortunately fallen for the classic pitfall of "My opponent will be respectful and not use sv cheats to attack through the wall". I even knew that they had short spears, but it honestly didn't cross my mind that having her attack the shaman in the spot that she did would lead to this. How embarrassing. Both for me and her.

Of course it was exact damage. Now I can't say that I've beaten the game with zero deaths, unless you count my failure to recruit Pascal as a version of death, but history will only write down the winners, including the losers of those winners. 

O O F

Well, death 1, then. I guess she really won't be the Cath of the run. You'll have to rely on Yuin until the good thief joins.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Happened right in front of her too. You just lost your one ticket to freedom.

Nah.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay, so maybe things are looking a bit grim, but I'll tell myself not to panic because none of you will do that for me. Thanks by the way.

Don't panic.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Hard mode walls let's go.

This sentence is so funny.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Eat your grapes and you'll kill like one.

You might've noticed my lack of calling him something else. I am too saddened by the tragedy to focus on jokes. Everything I am saying now is 100% truthful.

Hey, it's a different manner of Grape joke. Variety is the spice of life, after all!

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

No, Sandra is not the tragedy. You'll find out in a bit.

Oh God...

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Shoot! I forgot about the curate having that. Seriously, I was so relieved to see this. The enemy can use theirs, and this one can be used on the throne room! But that leaves the door with the chests inside...Don't tell me I don't get a single one of them...

I do believe the thief should head through the door. But we'll see, I mean, this is all pre-recorded.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

We'll worry later, assuming my fear of losing everything actually concerns you. Sergei got magic, and skill. That must be rare.

He's powering up! And worryingly, leaving his speed behind in the dust.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

For Gim's sake, you went after me!? I wasn't even in your range! What am I supposed to do now?

...Huh?

Wow, that's never happened to me before. Usually he always goes for the door.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Yaraf uses the one door key on the chest room, and Nikita quickly begins to pillage noble property. Look at what I could've missed. Holy poopies.

Woo, the staff I never use and the staff that won't be needed for like, 10 chapters.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh yeah, Sieks's defense is barely higher than Nikita's. He barely survived, and none of them died. 

Sieks, a real badass.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Great. A weapon for Otto when he promotes. Thanks.

fify

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Without Sieks, her mother would be doomed. She focused more than ever, and has now surpassed Ruben's Saya, proving that I am a tactician who occasionally does things +1.

Good work, Saya. Keep it up. Shaky's gonna need it.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

By now, the rest of my army was heading towards the Velthomer Fan Club, aka the "Arvis Is the Best Character" fanboys who parade random locations to inform you of why you should agree to spawn the Anti Christ for clout.

All I can say to that is Lyon >>>>> Arvis.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

To quote the best character of 3 Houses: "Get outta here!"

I don't recall Hanneman ever saying that.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Well...10 strength works, I think.

He's oddly speedy, I must say. Being slow is dull, I guess.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

See that? That strength point was essential to my siekscess. 

I love this guy. We all do. He's so lovable and huggable. And dull.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Ruben! Stop doing this! My God...this is Matthis all over again!

I must say, I wasn't even expecting this myself, but... Well, not complaining! Keep it up, fella. Keep it up.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Here we go. The final stretch. I helped destroy the wall for the theif, then blocked his way out. Just to play it safe, Grape literally removed all his weapons. He traded some away earlier, then dropped the rest that were low in use. He can't hurt the thief, but luckiy, I was right to assume that he doesn't go for people. Thieves prioritize opening chests and doors. This man will be key. 

Oh, eat sh*t man.

I think there was one turn of a difference where the thief opened the door and when he stole that, but I can't recall. I think I typed the turn wrong. Whoops.

I have no words. That was just plain genius.

Good work, Shakes.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You see Grape's expression? That's me. This was how I was at this point. This image? Literally me. The good growths was the miracle of my survival and the crazy growths I've been getting, but I've lost it.

Ironmanning can be exhausting. I get it.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You are really making it hard to praise you.

Bahahahahahahahahahaha

Jesus fucking Christ, this guy.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Turn 25: Nothing Happened

Turn 26: One Thing Happened

Nice.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This man wants to get everything but strength.

What a weird armor knight.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This felt kinda cool. Nice setup, Sergei has base res for the shaman. Sergei looks cool. I don't think I mentioned that yet. I like his battle sprite.

It's a really nice palette, I agree.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Was wondering when he'd get speed. So far, magic has been the most consistent gain. He's like Lilina, but tanky, and cool.

Very nice. Keep this up, former husband, and you may just become restored husband.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You'd think a guy with a unique portrait would be stronger. Maybe it was to compensate for his stats.

Ah man. I accidentally posted the same thing again. Oh well. Let's just leave it in. Why not? 

He deserves the double posting because he has a face.

Also, I could've sworn he was Myron, but I guess I remembered wrong.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Please get one more strength, please. I need the double digit badly. I'll talk about Lyn being an underrated unit. Just give me strength. 

For your sake, I hope she won't stay here for the rest of the game.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Good God, that took way longer than it should have. 30 turns. That's going to leave an awful mark on my total turn count.

Bah, who cares, as long as you don't lose units--

Oh, right.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Tsagan, you have no idea what you missed.

Behind that kindly smile and those narrow eyes, he's judging Saya's leadership abilities.

It won't be long now before he takes over.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You know what? Ruben offered an explanation for the last slide, I'll just post it here.

Mountain Man: "I believe it's "shadow" because he works from the shadows leading a covert ops sort of battalion. Dragon General is just a different translation of Wyvern General. Of course, the translator apparently wasn't aware of the unfortunate coincidence that this name's translation resulted in."

Nice, saves me the trouble of typing it here again.

Also, why am I known for occassionally finding myself in mountains now?

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I don't believe you. Not fully. I bet you that the translator purposefully chose to name him that to giggle about throwing in the name of a game within a fan game. What we're dealing with, is an Owain stan. 

Except that's what they want you to think! Everyone can make that joke, but he's actually a Kieran fan. He also has an obsession with naming his weapons. Now, only Owain explicitly names things after games, but it is possible that one could name something, or someone, after Shadow Dragon, as a coincidence, just as Ruben claims this could be. This is how he tricks us. Only a portion is a coincidence, not the whole picture. Why does any of this matter? Any bit of information helps us search for him. How many Kieran fans are there. 7? This narrows down are search by a lot.

Nice conspiracy theory.

But in actuality, they're Felicia stans. Didn't expect that, did ya?

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Loki, the nasty one. Maybe the translator deserves praise after all.

Loki, the Nasty Dragon General.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Not the Shadow Dragon Unit?

It doesn't have Matthis, so it can't be called that. And count your lucky stars it doesn't, you wouldn't even know what hit you.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh boy. Another x chapter. This one's gonna be good. I just know it.

Toby's downfall. For reasons you'll understand as soon as you start the chapter.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Not much lore here, aside from the worst thing I ever read. I was speechless for a full minute. It was great.

I wish I could say this was my reaction to Garon too, but no. My reaction to Garon was always breathless laughter.

2 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay. I didn't show Boris. I know. I'll do it next post. I swear. I deeply apologize to all of the Boris fans out there. 

I used Boris once. He's really tanky for a myrmidon. He was fun to use, I liked him.

 

9 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I assumed he was a widower and a former brigand of some type.

That does sound plausible.

9 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Though I'd say it's less a "spiritual" line of work than an academic one.

Yeah, that'd be a more precise word, thanks.

9 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

While the sprite isn't particularly gendered, I think bringing back Amelia's sprite was pretty cool. I was happy to see it, at least, if only because it seemed to be both an elegant and hasty solution to needing a female soldier sprite.

It just looks a bit too clumsy for Diana, who isn't characterized as being particularly incompetent to begin with like Amelia is. Still, it's okay.

[Vestrikslana]

Spoiler

13 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Since my Emmy was also very powerful, I decided to check out her growth rates, and...they're not great. I mean, they're perfectly solid, very sufficient, average-to-good growth rates, but nothing so exceptional as her performance here would indicate.

Yeah, Emmy's usefulness is mostly that she comes more competent than a lot of units in this game since she can double right away, and her growths serve to keep her at that level of competency. If you're lucky she can turn into an absolute monster, and if you're unlucky you can just replace her with the prepromote Hero (who, favoritism aside, is absolutely worth using regardless).

My first Emmy was a lot like my first Grape, in that she was really fast but not much else (with slightly better stats in exchange for less mobility). My second Emmy never ended up getting any speed, so I had to drop her because she stopped doubling...

13 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Shaky has personal experience with how good accelerated experience gain can be from my FE6 patch, don't'cha skelly-boy?

I've not played that patch so I can't comment there (though from Shaky's reply to this it seems like you made combat thieves actually good?), but aside from being a somewhat unique concrete advantage in itself, there's something so satisfying about seeing the experience meter tick up faster than it normally would. I think a lot of people (myself included!) like underleveled units for the same reason.

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I just don't like shamans. They bore me.

take that back

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Also, f**k Sophia.

Don't worry, the second Shaman's no Sophia. They do still need some kills fed to get going but, well, you'll see when we get there.

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I'm a genius. He can use that one bow the final boss of FE The Four Kings uses. A 25 might bow with 1-5 range and like, 200 hit or something. It'd be perfect for him.

Isn't that just the bow Takumi uses in Conquest Endgame?

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Berserker/Warrior Yubello can easily break the game if you do get those defense points. The 2nd half of New mystery is very much designed against tanking and chokepointing with really strong enemies using effective weaponry in a game where defense growths are still bad compared to the buffs of other growths. Berserkers/Warriors don't have a weapon that that destroy them, so they're often your best best for tanking enemies, but many of that class have a horrible defense growth or base. This is where fighter Yubello stands out. For both me and Ruben, he had over 20 defense by chapter 15, allowing for him to be a great tank against the paladins to the right who all have bows, armorslayers, ridersbanes, swordslayers, and other silver weapons.

Okay, that's actually really funny, I definitely have to try that when I replay the game. Forget Doga, this 12-year-old boy is going to choke the point instead!!

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I was watching someone do FE9 maniac, and I think Mia did single digit damage with the armorslayer on her joining chapter. Great design guys.

Yeah, I actually tried PoR Maniac myself within, like, the past week just to see if it was as bad as people say it is (spoiler: it is), and I had the exact same experience.

I ended up giving up after realizing that crit forges don't fix your offense if you're as godawful as Mia is in that mode. Sure, I could have given one to someone halfway competent and maybe actually be one-rounding stuff, but what's the point if I get punished this hard for trying to meme even slightly?

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Is Istra known for having meek Counts, or having rebellions?

Couldn't say. I only know of it from the same source as the rest of my knowledge on European geography, skimming Wikipedia articles on tangentially-related subjects.

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

How dare you downplay Sieks? He is practically a Demi God.

because I knew it would annoy you and that it would be funny

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

The only other tanks are Tsagan and Nikita, who are horse users. 

Fair, although Gim could have done the same had you had him on that side of the map. Maybe he's a little less tanky, but I can't imagine the odds of that guy even hitting him would have been very good if even Sieks is pulling a 45%.

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You recruit him by bringing him down to 1 HP, and then talk to him with Sergei. After that, you clear the chapter without killing him, and then when he asks you to kill him, you say yes, but Sergei stops you.

Brilliant idea for a recruitment. Kaga would be proud.

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Alternatively, you just go in front of him with Saya and yell into the mic "Guns guns guns! I love guns!".

...Or that. That could work too.

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Yes, but Ruben likes Malice, so I need to mock her.

well I also like Malice so

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

It's like modern gamefreak. They don't need to try.

Oof, too true... I mean I bought Legends Arceus so I guess I'm part of the problem, but that game's at least innovative even if it has its issues

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

People are going to use them anyways.

I'm definitely part of the problem here considering that I used Kurtis in OCA, a game where your lord also uses lances and is basically just better aside from the EXP thing and some bulk.

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Hard mode bonuses will be fun to factor in when we create the best FE thing ever. IS will grovel before us. 

I still find it hilarious that IS tried to prevent hard mode bonuses being a thing in Binding Blade but screwed it up so badly that the only enemy recruits who don't get them are Chapter 13 Perceval (you know, the map where no one ever recruits him?) and Raigh.

Good thing that they did though, it's a great mechanic. Poor Raigh though... Unlike his brother who at least has the honor of being the only mage you get in the earlygame (and thus someone I will always use), forever is he doomed to obscurity.

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Imagine Pascal of all people being Rutger tier?

Well, a lot of what Rutger has going for him are structural things (besides hard mode bonuses) that wouldn't apply as much in a game based on FE7, but I'll take a myrmidon that's actually good at combat any day. Unlike Mia. though iirc she's pretty good in RD? not a myrmidon though

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I get it's just a title for priests and whatnot, but Simon looks a bit young to be called "Father".

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

The two prisoners earlier seem to already start as blue units. Not sure why. I can't do anything in their current state.

As far as I can see it, the primary reason is so you can move Simon to body-block the door when the soldier shows up to kill them later. As an added bonus, you can get several turns' worth of dancing EXP on Camilla in the meanwhile.

(I agree that it's annoying to have to keep ending their turns when Simon can't do anything meaningful and Camilla can only dance for him; if nothing else they could have just turned blue when the soldier appears.)

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

A monk from the Elimine Church. Believes in peace and preaches the teachings of God.

Light Rank: D

God? Like, just straight up God? Not Elimine? Or have we been praying to her this whole time? 

I'm not exactly an Elibe lore expert, but I think the Elimine Church also worships a higher god alongside Elimine herself? It would make sense considering her title is 'Saint', at least.

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Also, you're nothing like Lucius. I can hardly imagine you as a woman. What's even the point?

He's also not a good unit, unlike Lucius.

9 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Hear me out. Sieks Lance. Personal Weapon. 

it's a reaver weapon so he can actually hit the earlygame bandits

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Archers in this chapter have competent stats, but are partially held back by holding weaker weapons like a short bow, because the dev really wanted that 5 crit to be something to deal with. 

Also, aren't Short Bows in FE6/7 specifically supposed to be used by enemy Nomads? These guys aren't Nomads.

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

These guys are the biggest threat in the game so far. They wield steel blades, slowing them down, but not enough to where units other than Grape could double them, and they 2RKO most of my army with 22/23 might. This must be where Fort Clark earns its title. 

Yeah, these guys are a pleasant surprise. Well, an unpleasant one technically, but it's nice to see the enemy quality ramp up a little.

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I swear I'm not a cav racist, but how am I supposed to remember which cav is which from these?

that's the fun part, you aren't

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

No, Sandra is not the tragedy. You'll find out in a bit.

After reading this I was expecting you to actually lose Sieks later. "A few moments of panic until realizing that there was another solution all along" wasn't nearly as bad, considering.

(Not to devalue losing Sandra; it really sucks to lose a unit to a single mistake, especially someone with unique utility like a thief. But that's ironmanning for you, I suppose.)

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Ruben! Stop doing this! My God...this is Matthis all over again!

won't lie, I'm a bit jealous that your Nikita is actually getting Speed

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You are really making it hard to praise you.

No Toby, what are you doing, you aren't supposed to be the Skill Fighter!!

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This man wants to get everything but strength.

This is better than Strength, honestly. Imagine how hilarious it would be if he actually ends up doubling?

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Was wondering when he'd get speed. So far, magic has been the most consistent gain. He's like Lilina, but tanky, and cool.

So not like Lilina at all, then?

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Please get one more strength, please. I need the double digit badly. I'll talk about Lyn being an underrated unit. Just give me strength. 

Eh, Saya inherited her mom's Strength base + growth, so 9 is average for this level. Saya's still a lot better, but that's mostly because her bulk is an improvement over wet paper and she has better personal weapons (Mani Katti has 3x effectiveness, Sol Katti comes early and isn't complete garbage)

At any rate she also has Lyn's promotion bonuses, so at this point she's at least guaranteed to get double digit Strength when she promotes. Of course, I hope you get a little luckier than that...

 

[AnonymousSpeed]

Spoiler

  

12 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Literally my least favorite soundtrack in the series, not counting the NES games. Sorry if Incomprehensible Velocity somehow loves it since it's his favorite FE game.

I like the Ilia theme...but to be totally honest, I don't actually like any of the OSTs in this series except for Gaiden's. Specifically the boopy Famicom version.

12 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

There's probably a dozen legendary weapons I've yet to touch after several playthroughs of an FE game. I just don't like shamans. They bore me. Also, f**k Sophia.

Don't use the second shaman either, she's a waifu with a stupid name.

12 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Freaking Midayle

Midir has a horse though, so he's actually good. Legitimately the best user of the Killer and Brave Bow in Gen1.

12 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Many of these are joke units to others, but ol Shaky Jones can make monsters out of anyone. Unless they're a girl apparently. With the exception of Dorothy (maybe this says something about her), they tend to be awful for me.

She is a manly girl.

12 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh God, now you get a prepromoted dracoknight with hard mode bonuses!? 

You recruit him by bringing him down to 1 HP, and then talk to him with Sergei. After that, you clear the chapter without killing him, and then when he asks you to kill him, you say yes, but Sergei stops you.

Alternatively, you just go in front of him with Saya and yell into the mic "Guns guns guns! I love guns!".

Beating the chapter without killing him is probably good enough. It takes advantage of the fact that he isn't on the throne by default, and should make things all tricky to do.

12 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I'm sure you're very experience with that.

Oh yes.

This is canon, by the way.

12 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Danny DeVito Penguin?!

12 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oi. This is a myrm. Not a merc.

Yeah, this game is a bit sparse on male heroes. I don't think you get any female myrmidons, either. I guess that's not a bad thing, depending on whether you care for class-gender balance as a separate thing from class balance and gender balance.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

God? Like, just straight up God? Not Elimine? Or have we been praying to her this whole time?

Yeah, so, the Elibean religion is a little weird. The Church of St. Elimine is named after it's founding figure, Saint Elimine, who brought teachings from some (presumably Christian-ish) "God". It's not exactly explained where Elimine is on the spectrum of "messenger (Moses) -> perfect messenger (Mohammed) -> literally God (Jesus)".

This is made even more unclear by the fact that I don't think FE7 mentions the Elibean God at all, merely St. Elimine, and even in FE6 characters pray to her for intercession. I understand that the intercession of saints is a Catholic thing and the Church of St. Elimine is clearly inspired by medieval Catholicism, but the focus makes it a bit confusing.

I can't help but wonder if this is the result of the English localization- Saul and Yoder talk about God a fair bit in FE6, but they might have thought it was too real of a religious concept for America.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I swear I'm not a cav racist, but how am I supposed to remember which cav is which from these?

I don't think that's racist. I think that's more an example of...classism.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You can't stop this man. He's more dangerous than a real nikita launcher. That's why they call him Nikita.

Nikita Cruise Ship.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Hear me out. Sieks Lance. Personal Weapon.

A slim lance with 1-2 range.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

You know what they say about magic.

All magic toasts toast.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Real talk, that is such an ugly design choice for your fort. Not ugly in game. I'm saying like, if you had your own IRL fort, why would you randomly have an open space from your walls near the throne, only for it to be like, 6x3 meters or something.

It's called a courtyard, and it's part of their generous benefits package.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Somehow, I'm both happy by the added challenge, but also annoyed by the game making me use turtle strats. 

The duality of man. How can we made the Hard Mode patch encourage faster play?

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Hard mode walls let's go.

But can you recruit the walls in the Hard Mode patch?

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Eat your grapes and you'll kill like one.

You might've noticed my lack of calling him something else. I am too saddened by the tragedy to focus on jokes. Everything I am saying now is 100% truthful.

 

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

But that leaves the door with the chests inside...Don't tell me I don't get a single one of them...

Open every last one of them.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

To quote the best character of 3 Houses: "Get outta here!"

The best Three Horses character is an exaggerated New York Italian.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

ike that one image of superheores bowing down to the doctor who's on his way to charge someone 4000 dollars for telling them to not stretch their back since the patient reported that it hurts when they do that, Saya and her men form 2 squads to present the door to the thief and pay their respects to his efforts of saving the world.

Marvel fans gonna Marvel.

I tell the doc, "I broke my leg in the same place twice", well he tells me "stop going to that place". Total waste of four grand.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This man wants to get everything but strength.

And defense.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Sure, I made mistakes. I could've had my team help with the cavs earlier. Sieks could've had an elixir from the beginning. But I'm blaming my lack of preparation on Sandra's permanent retreat throwing me off. If you disagree, you are once again abelist, except for Anon. He's just a secret Blazing Sword fan if he judges me.

It's more preparation than I usually do.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Fuck

"lol," said the Short Spear Cav. "Lmao."

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Ach, you got me. I actually live in a mountain cave.

How does he know he can trust you?

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It has recently been revealed that FEHeroes writers get their documentation in the wikis. So no. FEHeroes is fanfic, and I am so happy that I can say that. I know you already know, but I just had to take the chance to say it again.

Wait, what? The wiki? Is it the wikia wiki? Where is this revealed? I must know. I'm almost offended they somehow got someone less qualified than I am. Not surprised, mind you, but offended they decided to pay someone else instead of me.

I must vandalize the wikis now. Quick, give me a name for Ilios's sister.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Why would you have an FBI agent?

...Oh right, you're a living skeleton. I imagine the government would be interested in figuring out what your deal is.

So they can use it in wars.

Everyone in the US has an FBI guy.

They don't seem to mind sending in bodies with flesh still on them, so it probably still has to do with the comedic postings.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

All I can say to that is Lyon >>>>> Arvis.

Undoubtedly. Like, I played Genealogy and I still don't get what Arvis hoped to accomplish. Lyon is pretty easy to get and his actions are foolish, but ultimately sympathetic.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Also, I could've sworn he was Myron, but I guess I remembered wrong.

Maybe there was an update to the translation patch?

4 hours ago, Ruminant said:

Eh, Saya inherited her mom's Strength base + growth

Ew. Nasty.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

10 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

The best Three Horses character is an exaggerated New York Italian.

Mario from the original Mario movie?

10 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Wait, what? The wiki? Is it the wikia wiki? Where is this revealed? I must know. I'm almost offended they somehow got someone less qualified than I am. Not surprised, mind you, but offended they decided to pay someone else instead of me.

https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-america-contractors-full-time-complaints-report

Ctrl + f this: "Even successful mobile games like Fire Emblem Heroes suffer from this, with writers being expected to research characters via fan wikis due to an overall lack of documentation."

Admittedly, this might not affect the folks at IntSys proper, but rather just the localizers at Nintendo of America. But still, it's as good an excuse as any to say that Heroes sucks. Which is a truth.

Quote

I must vandalize the wikis now. Quick, give me a name for Ilios's sister.

Soili. It sounds horrible and it's literally just his name backwards. Perfect.

10 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Everyone in the US has an FBI guy.

Why don't you shoot the FBI guy too--

Quote

Undoubtedly. Like, I played Genealogy and I still don't get what Arvis hoped to accomplish. Lyon is pretty easy to get and his actions are foolish, but ultimately sympathetic.

Yeah, Arvis is... fine, definitely one of the better characters in Genealogy, mostly because not many people in that game have a character. He's still kind of dumb. Lyon's a lot better for what he is.

Frankly, I just don't get all the claims that Genealogy has such an incredible story in general. Genealogy is a story that has one absolutely brilliant moment, but everything else is too barebones, underdeveloped and sometimes even plain badly written for me to call the entire package "good" just based on the barbeque. I guess it's good by FE standards, but then, FE stories have always been derided for being... Well, stories in which Garon exists. But then, that one's one of my favorites precisely because it contains Garon, so what do I know.

Quote

Maybe there was an update to the translation patch?

Nah, nah, I merely remembered wrong.

Edited May 7, 2022 by Saint Rubenio