The Last Promise - LET'S PLAY

[cloudropis]

Hello folks, and welcome to this LP of The Last Promise! This is cloudropis who is hosting, and I hope I'll keep you entertained throughout this adventure!



What is The Last Promise?

I think you all know what it is, it's Burning Gravity/ Blazer's FE7 based romhack, first known as Tactics Universe and set as a prequel to FE7's events, is now a fully fledged game with its own background and setting. I dare to say, it's the most famous romhack in the english Fire Emblem community.

Why LPing this game?

Because, first of all, I think it's actually better than the GBA Fire Emblems. it's adequately difficult without FE6's LOL ENJOY 30 AVOID THRONES AND SLEEP STAFF USERS stuff, the story has its ups and downs but is definitely better than FE7's awful one, and it's just an all around more engaging experience than FE8 thanks, again, to its difficulty and a better post-game.
Second, I haven't actually beat yet since I gruesomely made my way until chap 20 before realizing that I was training too many units and I had no chance to survive past Chap 24's notorious spike in difficulty. Now I have better knowledge of the game and the latest patches introduce supports which will make the experience nicer, and the thought of writing a LP for other person will certainly keep me from dozing off and playing other stuff, even if my recently bought Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is watching me funny.

Do you know that user DH_Ninja is already doing a Let's Play?

Yes and I actually follow it, but Fire Emblem (whoops, I meant The Last Promise) is very good for multiple playthrough because RNG and different pick of characters – strategies, so it won't feel like a rip-off. Not only that, my style of Lping will be... Quite different.

I'll sometimes ask you people to decide the course of action of the game, but don't except “pick my characters” stuff in every chapter. With that said, SPOILERS AHEAD, since I'll transcribe every piece of text relevant to the story as in a full fledged LP, so that even folks who haven't played the game or don't want to or just want to enjoy the story again can get the full experience. Talking about screenshots, I'm going ahead with imgur but I've never done a LP – Playthrough of sort, so feel free to tell me if there is a better way to preserve the pictures.
Please excuse, and feel free to correct, me for any error in grammar and syntax because I'm italian, so English isn't my first language. That said, let's go!

Chapter List

Intro

Prologue

Prologue-2

Prologue

However, the dragons feared the progression of humans in both technology and quantity. So began the war that would result in the death of dragons and humans alike...

But ultimately, dragons overcame the humans, and mankind was forced to make a decision.

I guess being able of breathing fire might have been a factor. Oh, yeah, sentences in italic are my thoughts and will be sporadically added during cutscenes and dialogues. Like real LPs on Youtube where the LPer makes sex jokes during heartfelt moments, am I nice or what.

Seven leaders of the war, known as valiant warriors from all across Blaine, decided that at the very least, the existence of humanity must be preserved, no matter the cost.

“All that is living and all that is animate is made up of the energy known to man as ether”. Knowing this, the hero Magus used his ability to control the flow of ether around him to save many lives.



to warp away to a new continent, far away from the Dragons, where the chosen humans who lived could start anew.
And so, in order to save the lives of a few, the lives of many more were sacrificed.



But the people endured, and their paths separated.



His nation, named Blaine in honor of the old land, would one day tame the beast known as the Wyvern and fly them across the continent to see the new lands below from the sky high above.



He would call this enormous stretch of land “the New Magus”, which was later renamed Magnus.



This beatiful land would be named by Chelia herself to be “the Country in the Snow, Alicia”.



He called the plains they settled on “Atheya”.



He built from the east to the west, and treated the people he entrusted with his cities with love and care.

I know map events are hard as hell to include apparently, but a geographical infodump of a land you've never seen on a black screen at the very start is probably the worst thing you can do to keep people engaged. Fortunately, my span of attention is longer than 1 minute, so I go on.



But for those who did not believe in the constraints of government, they followed the old and wise Jazen. He moved even further west onto an archipelago where people were meant to live isolated and quiet lives.
However, Jazen soon passed away, and this mineral-rich land became on of the conflict between



Sympathetic and unwilling to sacrifice her people, Yulia stayed behind to care for those who were not chosen to move on to Solum.



sudden change of music



















An armored knight teleports directly into the frame once the green dudes are neutralized.





God, seeing Duke Paul's sprite the first time really made me doubt about the quality of the custom portraits. It's probably my imagination, but I really cannot not see his eyes as.. Watery. Like if the eyeballs were gushing out like a fish.

: Tch...
: Don't look so sour, Duke. After all, I'll be sparing the citizens of Aegis. You should be thanking me for my graciousness.



: There is nothing gracious about what you've done...
: Hahahaha... A sore loser, aren't you? I would be too, if my castle were conquered as quickly as yours. The other territories of Valencia have already surrendered to me... And the people who might have actually helped you didn't live long enough to get that chance, did they? Seems like nothing will go your way, will it, Duke Paul?



: You warped your armies here.
: I did not. This kid next to me did. He is the most talented mage on all of Solum. He is my trump card, and my most prized possession.
: Him? But that's... absurd...
: Believe what you will.



: Just stay there and wait... wait for me to restore peace back to Solum.



: How can you even spout the word “peace” after all the people you've killed?



: … Even if I told you, it wouldn't make a difference. You're too concerned with the well-being of your people to understand my actions.

Edited November 14, 2013 by cloudropis

[cloudropis]

Hi Batta the Beast who is now Sigurd's father.

: This is the place! This village is hidden, but there's nowhere to run.

: After chasing him around for so long, I couldn't stand him just slipping by us. The troubles we go through to ensure Magnus's lasting dominance... Alright, men! You have the order!

Blond, good-looking guy with kick-ass face father? I smell Main Character here (it better not be Tidus).

: What? What could they want...? Shon, could you see how many there are?

: There are only a few, and they don't look very strong...

: Well, it looks like we're going to have to leave.

: What? Right now? It's hot outside! It will ruin my skin!

Geez, it seems you really ARE a blondie like Tidus.

: These soldiers can only be after me, Shon.

Or maybe they really are just regular bandits who will pillage and rape everything they can as soon as you leave.

: O-okay... I'm coming too!

: Fair enough, Shon. You've trained enough to fight their grunts, but stay back and leave the leader to me. Or maybe I'll be able to pull a Jecht on you and leave unscathed while you'll gloriously sacrifice yourself for the greater good.

: If you don't want me to repeat these same sayings over and over again, then show me I don't need to, okay?

: Understood, Father.

: Hmph. Alright then... Why don't we greet our guests?

: Things can get rough, so take it seriously and watch your back. If you feel threatened, move behind me.

: I'm not a kid anymore, Father. I can handle myself. It just, sunburns really tickle me off.

: Well, this is your first real fight. Even if you're not a kid, you're not an adult.

: Father... Alright.

: And now, our battle against these dastard Magnians!

: Boys, I hear the guy we're facing can't even fight normally. Something about an accident where he suffered some injury... Whatever the case, he's no match for us! So, sorry if I told you guys that at the last possible second making you endure horrible nightmares at the thought that the next day could very well be your last one before dying by hand of a veteran soldier... He's easy, seriously. Move out and finish this quickly, boys! And kill any accomplices, no questions asked!

And FINALLY we get to the gameplay! Not complaining about the intro's length itself aside for the initial infodump, but it took me 2 HOURS to get at this point between screenshots and writing the text by hand! I don't care if I'll have to scavenge every single bit with Feditor to get the script, this was just to gruesome for my hands and eyes. And I really want to play :(

Whatever, let's see our two man army.

First, the man itself, Siegfried. I don't know how much has Blazer taken inspiration from Sigurd, but Sieg reminds me of him an awful lot. Pre-promote, check, nordic name, check, awesome growths, check, a S rank in swords, check. He'll act as the Lord for now, but he is going to get shitty EXP because he's essentially a crutch character and a experience hog. In the previous patches he could still grow a little bit because he'd get EXP for attacking WITHOUT killing just like any other unpromotee, so around 10 EXP. Let's actually try that.

It's still like that luckily! Let's reset for now, and talk about his son. BTW, this map's theme is a really nice custom theme, it's original content. 2nd track in the Sound Room I believe. And the Player's Phase Battle theme is from Valkyrie Chronicles. This is just the beginning of Blazer's absolutely great choice of music throughout the game.

Shon starts a little weak and is more proficient with Swords than lances. His growths, which are very similar to the classic Green Cavalier, aren't that great and gets screwed by the RNG a lot from what I heard. He's a plot main character and he will obtain nice toys to play with eventually.

He has a Prf weapon with a name worthy of early SNES translations which is basically a lesser Rapier: stronger, crittier and more precise than an Iron Sword, effective against armor but not against other horses.

Now it's time to repel these bastards, father and son trained for years waiting for this moment.. Now, they'll both trust their life to each other, fighting an epic battle against the invader where we'll see humans' true feelings come alive in the battlefield, dancing like swords.

It's a pity that Sieg actually tries to leave his son behind while screaming that he left the oven on.

Fortunately his cowardice rewards him with an Iron Sword, a set of Vulneraries and 1000 gold that Shon was saving for a new motorbike.

Seriously though, we need to SOLO the map with Shon for... Reasons. Let's just start this. We hide in a forest's shadow to protect Shon's soft skin, in every sense.

BTW, the enemy phase battle theme is from the Ys series.

The battle ends in our favor. Not much else to do other than end our turn again.

The generic Soldier uses a Generic Spear, of course. Same stats as an iron lance.

Another round and we get our first level!

… Which could have been better. An extra point of speed would have meant doubling these bandits.

Now only the boss remains.

Fairly low stats, piss easy with our PS unless you suddenly forget how vulneraries work (they have 5 uses now BTW. I would have preferred stronger healing).

Please...

We crit with style with Tales of Symphonia's special boss battle theme playing in the background.

This is gonna be one of those Shons, isn't it?

We get our first set of elixir, which gives me a Pavlov like effect of extreme salivation and sexual pleasure just from watching it going to my inventory. You'll see why.

: I need to get a move on it immediately if I want to stay safe. I hope you understand, Shon. I'm leaving this village. You're going to need to stay hidden for the time being. You aren't joining me now.

: Son... I'm doing this to protect you. You may be strong, but I won't take any risks if I don't have to. I have business to take care of and things to do.

: But father, I... Don't you trust me? I'm stronger now! Look, the sun has barely scratched me today! We don't even need to bring the aloe!

And that's where we wanted to get at!

: I will not allow you to come! You know how to defend yourself in case trouble comes. Granted, I'd rather you don't get into any fights with anyone, so stay in the village as much as possible.

Sieg is giving out sensible advice, but I think it's too late now. Pretty boy has tasted blood, and he craves it now.

: You should train with him. He's a good sparring partner.

: I've already gotten my things. After all, my initial plan was to leave you behind to fend off the enemy alone while I ride to the sunset, but the plane was half-successful. Farewell, Shon.

: … Corben...

And that's it for today folks, the Prologue is complete!

… Or rather not. Going full solo with Shon gives us two rewards: one is the start of a long series of sub-events which will ultimately pay off in the final part of the game, the second is unlocking this game's first gaiden Chapter.

Again, feel free to correct me about language mistakes and to give me some technical advice itself. I've now noticed that another popular choice to save screenshots is a program called Gyazo or something , is that good and should I switch to it before incurring into imgur's infamous regular digestion of old pictures?

I'm leaving and not returning until tomorrow, late-evening, please comment and let me know that you're interested! And be prepared for a hopefully less text-dense experience (welp, I'm mostly saying that to myself)!

Edited November 13, 2013 by cloudropis

[Klokinator]

the story has its ups and downs but is definitely better than FE7's awful one,

but is definitely better than FE7's awful one,

FE7's awful one,

and in a single sentence, credibility was lost Edited November 13, 2013 by IM FAE OMG!!

[MRDRHAWK]

lmao, Klok with the OHKO

[CT075]

Chap 24's notorious spike in difficulty.

lel you guys and your supposed difficulty in FE

[cloudropis]

and in a single sentence, credibility was lost

It starts well, but it declines steadily from around Ch 14 until it gets to the point where it's just a mess of plot holes, not-convincing motivations for anyone, contrived narrative and subpar writing (it's more about the low average, there are really good scenes like those between Lyn and Hector, but it's plentiful of other scenes with very bad writing). Plus, opinions etc etc.

Comments about the LP? I see the results aren't half bad at all, unless imgur does something weird I think I'll continue to use it.

[Miacis]

Textually and content-wise, it's pretty good, but here are a few formatting tips from someone with 3 FE-format SSLPs under his belt.

Your format seems a bit too vertically extensive, as in there's too much vertical space between actual commentary lines:

For dialogues, I'd recommend using smaller head portraits, kinda like this so the dialogs are much easier to read. Try to also reduce the number of screen interruptions in the middle of text dialogs. Typically, you should stick to the screens that indicate the beginning of a new dialogue scene, a change of character/positionning , or if you want to emphasize a certain line.

For profiles and any other sort of linked screens, like battle results <-> EXP, you might want to put them on the same line to, once again, spare mouse wheels and be more legible. Overall, information is good, but concision is important too. It's understandable that some people would disapprove of leaving out some lines of conversation but I doubt any reader is keeping track of whether Shon is getting 13 or 16 EXP, so you need to find a balance there.

Not sure what you meant about the script, but FEditor and automatic text replacement tools are your friends. Tinker around a bit so you can find a rather simple way to dump, clean and format the script. Once you've got your own method figured out, you'll have it much more easy and avoid doing a quick LP burnout.

As for hosting, I'm not sure if IMGur causes problems. If you want to invest a bit of time in text LPs, I would recommend to make an account on the SomethingAwful forums (home of SSLPs and LPs in general) so you can freely use the fantastic LPix. With an account, you can have infinite storage space, infinite bandwidth, and a rather simple folder system to mass dump pictures into. (Limitations being JPEG, PNG, GIF, Maximum file size: 2048 kB.) It is also compatible with RightLoad, which basically allows you to automatically mass-upload hundreds of pictures from your Windows explorer, and outputs the textual list of all links once they are uploaded, complete with IMG/URL tags. Even for non-LP stuff it's pretty great. Gyazo is more something to quickly show pictures in IRCs and chatrooms, it has little bandwidth.

You do need to pay $5 to make an SA account for LPix, but considering it's for life, its a pretty good investment even if you're new in the SSLP business.

Other small things: a map of the chapter when the chapter actually starts to play is always nice. And in the Opening post, the links to the posts with the updates.

Voila, hope that helped, and good luck for the next updates!

Edited November 13, 2013 by Miacis

[Klokinator]

If you want my actual opinion, it's not a LP, it's just a transcription of the entire game's dialogue mixed with some funny(???) comments. Therefore, I don't particularly care for it.

Edit: Listen to Miacis. He actually does the best LP's in the community. Bar none.

Edited November 13, 2013 by IM FAE OMG!!

[Pixelman]

the story has its ups and downs but is definitely better than FE7's awful one, and it's just an all around more engaging experience than FE8 thanks, again, to its difficulty and a better post-game.

Haha... silly goose.

To tell you the truth, FE7's isn't awful like you say: It's pretty well written. I mean, yeah, it's not the best, but it's good writing. Bet you five bucks you can make a better story...

Also:

First, the man itself, Siegfried. I don't know how much has Blazer taken inspiration from Sigurd, but Sieg reminds me of him an awful lot. Pre-promote, check, nordic name, check, awesome growths, check, a S rank in swords, check. He'll act as the Lord for now, but he is going to get shitty EXP because he's essentially a crutch character and a experience hog. In the previous patches he could still grow a little bit because he'd get EXP for attacking WITHOUT killing just like any other unpromotee, so around 10 EXP. Let's actually try that.

As far as I know, Arch (???) created Siegfried. Siegfried also is one of the best characters in the game, until thatcertainpartIwonttellanybodyabout...

Oh, and the battle theme is from Valkyrie Chronicles...

Anyways:

What IS so different about this LP? I mean, almost all Lps are the same, besides try-hard funny dialogue and different characters and strategies...

[cloudropis]

@Miacis

Thank for you suggestions, good to hear from a veteran. Don't worry, I didn't have the intention of screenshotting every single exp gain, it was just filler for the otherwise barren first chapter. Plus, I read pretty much every LP on lparchive (which, as you probably know, is the collection of every SA's forum completed LP) and they always screenshot the first bunch of exp gain just for show, I didn't even do that on purpose, you can call it "LP imprinting".

I'm aware of SA and lpix (wasn't it 10$? Good to know), but the fact is - I'm not really sure about entering the LPs' scene, and I wouldn't really like wasting 5 bucks this way, right now when I'm pretty broken with money. I'll probably do that in the future because I just love lurking LP threads, maybe this will be the right time. Definitely taking this into consideration. And I'll see how to make my way through the script.

Can you please tell me how to make that clear, good looking, single shot of the map? I think it's done by means of some tool, but I don't know which. I'll add those in the future.

@Fae

I really thought about doing a FE related Let's Play these last days for many reasons. Mainly, I want to improve my English by writing full fledged texts and I'm currently on a Fire Emblem fever. Plus, I always wanted to do these neat-looking SSLPs. I played FE7 and 8 too many times and I don't like FE6, so this was my best bet. It's just this, actually, I can understand that someone is sick of LPs, but since there is only one about TLP, I thought a second wouldn't have been bad. I'm not good enough for LTCs and such, and I think there are way too many FE7 and 8 LPs, plus I just prefer TLP as a game.

I'm doing this for fun, of course if someone likes it it's better, but unless I get overwhelming negative response I'll just continue, even if it's just a seashell in the beach of LPs. It's not like I'm forcing anyone to follow it, though any kind of (backed up) critic is accepted.

For istance, I think of myself as a humoros guy, but I'm not narcissist enough to refuse admitting that almost every time I read something I write I just cringe and spam the backspace button while I get mad at myself. I don't know which route to take with this thing. Recurring characters and a lot of personal dialogue in a theatre way of sort? Light running gags? Just lame puns (as in, this update)? It's not easy to write funny humor actually. I'll probably scratch all of this at some point and just write quick comments about some weird cutscene or something like that (again, as in this update), focusing more on an informative LP.

@Pixelman

Sorry, but I just can't accept FE7's story as good or "good writing" in any way. If you really want to know the reason, there was an old post somewhere made by... General Banzai? Who pretty much shares my opinions. I really don't want to talk about this, this is not a FE7 thread and, of course, I don't want to force my opinion on anyone nor do I want to fight with anyone, so I really see no point in going further this topic. But please, don't ever use the "you can't make something better" argument, it's just silly :P

LP related, well... you pretty much summed it up. Just to see any different strategy and laugh at other people's level ups. Plus, someone who needs a walkthrough can find it useful. Luckily FE games have good replay value so it's not a copy pasta or something. Fixed that Valkyrie mistake, I had the final boss theme (which is taken from an other VP game) open in an other tab, so I probably got confused.

Anyway, Prologue 2

Aw right, let's tackle the 2^nd part of the Prologue.

Corben...

Is everyone in the Village alright?

Hm? Yeah, everyone's fine. What's the deal? Why shouldn't they?

Oh, I'm glad. You see, Magnus stopped by earlier and..

What?! Magnus? Honestly?

Wait, so your dad left? ... Oh, he must be thinking about the village. He'd never want to endanger us.

That's probably the reason, but don't give Shon many hopes about that.

That's why he isolated himself in the first place...

...Corben...

You want to go, right?

I do. I think I can handle it, but father doesn't see that.

Still the innocent little kid, are you?

You're not much older than me though, Corben...

Oh? But I'm much more mature. Mature enough to go with Siegfried.

Dang. That's pretty harsh... And sudden.

You think so? Then why not me? I don't understand...

How about this then?

What? Corben, why are you...?

You've still never beaten me in a sparring match, have you? So if you can finally beat me, I'll admit you're ready to go. Siegfried must plan on stopping somewhere close to get information. If you hurry, you might be able to catch him.

Of course, you have to go through me first.

EXACTLY

All alone, by your weak self, with no idea where to go? I doubt it, Shon.

Corben's attitude is really weird. It's sort of passes as "the neighbours son who you don't really like but are forced to hang out with anyway but is not particularly mean and you can sort enjoy being with him", but it looks more like he's just spouting mean and nice things alternating between them. As Shon said, he can very well leave at any time without the need of “showing” anything because, well, he repelled a gang of bandits single-handedly. Is beating a lone Cavalier really that significant at this point? It doesn't really fit even in a “show me if you're worthy / how much you have grown scenario”.

I'm not that weak!

Shon must really be a nice guy, I think anyone would have turned his back on him already, or would have at least fought back.

Then stop being a coward and show me your strength!

Let's show him then.

Again, I wouldn't really call it friendship, but what's fine for you it's good for me.

He even dares to rig the match with a ranged weapon! Not cool.

Huh, I was wrong about the Piercing Swd, it really is effective against horses. Strange it isn't mentioned in the description, after all this is a romhack, someone can suppose that not every FE quirk is present in there (let me guess, I'm the only one dense enough to think it didn't work just like any other Rapier, am I?).

Behold, the worst choice of positioning in the map! He attacks us from the distance with a javelin shot, and he has now enhanced avoid.

It's not like we care.

OH COME ON, Corben you really are the worst. Not even giving us a free level up.

Ouch... You got me, Shon. I can't believe I lost...

Me neither... Are you alright?

(pic espression Well, sorry for me being nice after your PIERCING performance.

Come on Shon, let's hurry up.

O_O NOW he says TO HURRY UP.

Do you know which way your Dad went when he left?

South.

Then... He'll likely stop at Anura. Let's go.

W-wait!

What? Don't you want to help your Dad?

T-thanks.

I'm not even commenting at this point.

Don't mention it.

Obviously, this was much less offensive on my hands and eyes. The sooner I manage to get acquainted with the text editor, the better. Plain chapter, it's a Gaiden after all. Next time, actual stuff happens gameplay-wise, and the LP will hopefully get more interesting!

Hey, wanna go and see a PIERCE Brosnan movie on our way there? It's not like we're in a hurry.

Shut up.

[Miacis]

Oh, well good to know we have the same LPing references. For the map, I think one of the SA LPers did mention a tool to assemble FE maps, but gave no actual link to it. Personally, I just remove terrain info and such by highlighting a unit's movement, then take screenshots of every section tile and assemble everything in Paint.NET. The end result should look something like this. If you're a bit of a maniac perfectionist like me, you can also take additional screenshots of the same spots to hide the cursors and movement range, like so.

And it is indeed $10 to register, my bad.

Edit: Listen to Miacis. He actually does the best LP's in the community. Bar none.

Unless the SA guys don't count, I honestly believe Artix, Cake Attack and Blastinus do their stuff much better than I do. But I appreciate the compliment.

Oh, and the battle theme is from Valkyrie Chronicles...

Valkyrie Profile.

Edited November 14, 2013 by Miacis