Dual Dragons

In regards to Deke's level up, I was referring more to he got a two-stat level up than what he actually got. In hindsight, Spd and Def increases are good for a two stat level-up. I can try using him some more and seeing the results. I really do like Mercenaries but if Deke keeps getting two-stat level ups, I won't be sure how good he can be in the end. I won't be very concerned with turn count since I'm not doing ranking and not like you guys will have to suffer through the turns like I will, haha. As we're having the Princess of Bern accompany us, we must make off for Castle Araphen to the north of Pherae to meet with the rest of the Lycian League. [spoiler=Chapter 3 - *I set up Lugh*s bomb*] What sort of news can it be? "These three" are the Wyvern Generals. I don't know the woman but I remember the Narcian guy from the Awakening DLC map. Judging from the little snippet he had there, I'm not going to like this guy. Are we the latecomers? What sort of sorrow--- HECTOR! THIS IS SERIOUS BLOOD IN MY NINTENDO GAMES NOOOOO HECTOR I wonder if Hector also deteriorated in prowess over the course of time. Eliwood because he's sick, and Merlinus because he's balding. But Hector seems none of these things. I say this because I think Hector should have easily been able to take on those Wyvern punks. But of course, any FE game doesn't take into account your endgame stats for any FE that is a sequel or prequel to a game. Zephiel, knowing when to rub it into to people. God what an jerk. Sounds like perfectly valid reasons of why you shouldn't attack another country. But by all means, Zephiel, prove me wrong. Cold. Zephiel's got some daddy issues to sort out. His dad was a jerk too. You underestimate Hector's prowess. Two Wyvern Generals, sure, maybe a bit much. But a Soldier? Come on. Well-founded, if I may say. If this Idun girl is anything like Nergal. Ow! Shot down! Does Zephiel have a--gasp--heart for Brunja's words? C-C-Character development! Who is this scrub? Chad. Chad. In story-writing, that's like the name you give to a character who's a colossal dick. I think this guy is the antithesis of that. Yeah! A great armored Lord would be awesome in our party! Shut up, you scrub. I'm the tactician here. My word is law. I bet "I can show you around the castle" means "I'm a thief." Thieves are good. I will now call you by your name. Oh right. Lilina is sitting on the throne until her dad comes back. If I want to use her any time in the future, I guess I have to get Hector back too. Because if he dies, Lilina will not be able to leave... I think. Map start. I should take a look at Chad while I'm at it. Typical Thief stats, I suppose. He does have Lightning affinity so if he has good Supports, I think he can be good for that. Alright, Chad, you might be a permanent member of the team. Now the enemies this time are: Soldiers, Knights, and Archers. Predominantly a feeding ground for the likes of Lot and Wade, though Shanna and Allen can harvest some EXP too. Red-roofed houses usually mean goodies; however, these are on opposite sides of the map. I'll need to plan accordingly because, again, this map is another Seize map. These Seize maps are starting to annoy me. Two chests for plundering. There's no enemy Thief but I wouldn't be surprised if one were to pop up. The Knight guarding the room has a stealable Vulnerary. If I wanted to, I could have Chad take it but I probably would waste a turn since the Knight can't be damaged by him. There are no droppable or stealable keys of any kind so looks like Chad will need to take the chests and unlock the way to the throne at the top. Ideally I should do a Rescue chain so I can limit the turns I spend here. Most of the EXP is in the castle so I'm deciding who should go to the houses. I'm thinking Lance will go north and Marcus can go east. Lance has Vulneraries and Marcus will be closest to the castle for less catching-up. Lance heads towards the north and makes sure to stay out of range of the Archer inside of the castle. Allen charges his way to the east Soldier. He gets hit for 5 damage but the Soldier is dead. Wolt is useful here to weaken the other Soldier. Soldier misses him. Chad puts the Soldier out of his misery. Being the same Class Power as the Soldier means Chad will get the full benefit of 45 EXP. Marcus follows my order of heading to the east house. Wade goes with Marcus to take out the Soldiers. Roy makes full use of his movement towards the castle. Pretty much everyone else does too. I almost forget to screenshot the ending results of this turn: Enemies move. First battle on enemy phase is a Soldier against Allen. He also hits. Allen disappointingly misses him so he can't kill the Soldier. Archer goes for Chad. He misses but... Chad's dodging sound effect makes me think it's a Pegasus Knight flying. I'm confused. Apparently something is happening at the northern house. Those clothes on the kid. Is that a mage? Oh, that's Lugh! I've heard about you! You will go straight to my team. I like mages. Wait. I need Chad to visit this house? Dang it. Raigh? The other guy I was told to get? Yeah. When's he coming? Oh Lugh. Don't worry, Chad's coming for ya! Turn 2, Wade and a Soldier two squares east of him not pictured: According to that house cutscene, it seems I need Chad up there. Chad's working overtime this map. It's a good thing I was sending Lance up there because I'll have Lance do a Rescue-carry back into the castle. Lance encounters the Javelin Soldier. Lance dodges on counter. Chad's backtailing so we can get Lugh. Marcus is still trekking to the house. Bors finally contributes for the first time weakening the Archer. Wolt softens the Soldier for Roy. I figure Lot will get a level up from the Archer so I have him take that kill. Lot misses. It's risky but I have Shanna take the kill with her Javelin. That is successful. Roy uses the most of his movement and knocks out the Soldier with his new Iron Sword. He's 2 EXP away from a level up. Elen heals Allen in case he gains a level up in HP. Allen goes at the Soldier he failed to finish off earlier. He kills. A level up. Allen pls I kind of want him to get Skill now because if his inopportune misses are any indication, he might need some. This is not my way of saying, "Just give me one-stat level ups of Skill," by the way, game. Wade guards Elen. Deke sprints to Shanna's side. Before Merlinus moves, I'm taking this screenshot (missing is Lance): Merlinus moves to Lot's side and trades the Vulnerary to Lot. I also find out what Merchant does. Neat little thing considering I had Merlinus buy the Vulnerary before, but I think Lot will need the Vulnerary. Soldier wants to end Roy. He makes a dent in Roy's health but Roy hits him twice. Roy's level up: Oh Roy. Beautiful. A four-stat level up. But that Def is still at base. Soldier apparently thinks Wade is better to fight than Allen. He is able to plunge his spear into Wade but Wade shows off his brute strength and apparent doubling by outright slaughtering him. Lance is attacked by the other Soldier. He's able to sink his lance into Lance and Lance also slaughters him. He's 6 EXP from leveling. Turn 3 enemy placement, scrolled up: Lance has enough movement to get to the Archer but not enough Atk. Still he'll kill the Archer in another round so I have him equip the Iron Sword for accuracy. Lance nets himself another level up. That Speed! But no Strength! Chad's running up. Marcus visits the house. I get myself a Mend staff. Marcus is rushing back to the others now. Shanna makes short work of the Soldier by crit-killing him. I make sure Roy stays out of range of the Javelin Soldier. He should be able to take on another Iron Lance Soldier. Lot has now breached the castle. Allen moves to Roy's south. Elen heals Allen. Wade moves north. Wolt moves to two paces east of Roy. Deke moves to Shanna's south. Merlinus moves to Wade's south. I try to get the most units to show here. Lance and Chad are not pictured. Bors is last and can only move one pace north. Now I get exposed to what's in that room. Apparently the main baddies. This person can summon dragons just like that? We're goners. Instead of ending my game right here, he opts to do it himself. What a dumbass. Final stage of game? Zephiel is leaving Lycia in Narcian's hands. Gotta give credit to Zephiel. He's not going to discriminate. You tell me, Narcian. She can SUMMON DRAGONS. I can see plenty of things to see in her. Okay, Narcian. It's on your head if Slater fucks up. Where have I heard this before? Narcian is a horrible ecchi and I will gladly kill him when I get the chance. No need. He will be converted into delicious EXP for my team. Reinforcements! Cavalier and Fighter ones at that. Is that an ambush spawn I smell? Lance gets shot at by the Archer. Soldier wants a piece of Roy. Soldier misses but I boo because Roy leaves the Soldier at 1 HP. Turn 4 enemy place. A Soldier is hiding under the mini-map: First order of business is getting rid of the house-guarding Archer. Lance slays. Chad is getting closer to that house. Hang in there, Chad! Marcus has to get back with everyone. Wolt enters a skirmish with the Javelin Soldier. Wolt hits twice while the Soldier misses. Lot moves to the south Soldier's west and attacks. Lot succeeds in killing. Also, this is his first level up. Keep up the Speed increases, Lot, and we may have to negotiate your permanent status in the team. I give Roy the Soldier kill since it happens to be the spot that Elen can use her max movement and heal. Wade moves to Wolt's west. Allen moves to Roy's west. Shanna flies to Roy's other side. Deke moves to Elen's south. Bors moves as far as he can. In the top-left, Chad's to the left and Lance to the right. Merlinus too moves as far as he can, which will be at Bors' west. Soldier misses Roy. Roy hits once before he crit-kills the enemy. Turn 5's enemy placement. Really the left Soldier and the Cavs moved. Now we can recruit Lugh! I have Chad enter the house and... Now I wonder if Lugh wouldn't come out if I didn't have Chad enter the house. Oh well. "Borrowed the fire tome." Intelligent Systems, first Mage Thief, make it happen. I will approve the magic, magic sword, and sword class. I'll make you the strongest mage Elibe has ever seen. Where IS Raigh, by the way? So Lugh's stats: I can't remember but I think he's better than Erk at base. That's a plus. And I know this is one of Nino's twin children. It's good to see the kid. The magic intensifies since I will be using Lugh. Also Fire affinity, one of the best affinities in GBAFE. This kid's looking golden. If I want Chad to be plundering chests now that the throne room is opened up, I guess I'll pick him up with Lance... though that would be leaving Lugh in the dust. Eh. I guess Lugh will take the boss kill. Oh. The boss. 1 Lck. That's hilarious. No Res so Lugh can take potshots at the guy. He holds a Steel Lance and a Javelin. If Lugh didn't have any Def, Lugh would be dead by one Javelin. If Lugh could get one Speed increase, he could double Slater. I'm not going to anticipate this. Lugh hugs the castle walls towards the entrance. Lance rescues Chad and also hugs the walls. Since I need Lugh to catch up, I'm thinking of having Marcus do just that. I send Marcus over to the west side. Lot attempts to throw his boomerang axes at the Soldier. Soldier falls in defeat. Allen throws his Javelins at the Knight. Allen succeeds in hitting once. Even with the Rapier, Roy won't be able to kill the Knight. I have him partner up with Allen and whisper into Allen's ear to equip the Iron Lance. Wade moves up and Elen is able to situate herself between him and Roy so she can heal Wade. Deke moves up. Actually, I notice that one of the Cavaliers up there has a Javelin. Shanna moves to Allen's south and whispers, "No! Use the Javelin!" and she equips the Javelin herself. Wolt and Bors move up before Merlinus finally does. This is the ending turn set-up: Marcus is off-screen. He's 9 spaces south of Lance. More Cavaliers! Just what I wanted! Knight is trying to stop Roy. He successfully hits with a 58. Roy can only do a pitiful total of 4 damage. Iron Sword Cavalier can only attack Allen. Allen gets hit but roars, "I WILL MAKE JAVELINS THE BEST THING EVER," and crit-kills. Javelin Cavalier sees that his buddy got slaughtered and is willing to avenge him by going for Allen. He hits but Allen got exhausted and misses. Incoming Cavaliers ahead. Turn 6 enemy placement. Now with more Cavaliers. Lugh is running south but he stops in Marcus' sight range. Marcus is like, "Who is that new kid? Oh, poor child is getting all tuckered out. I'll pick him up." He rescues Lugh and they ride together towards the castle. Lance is still carrying Chad south. I notice that Shanna is looking less bloody this chapter. I have Allen weaken the right Cavalier with an Iron Sword. Soldier misses but Allen's hits connect twice. Shanna swings around to the Cavalier's east and swoops in for a kill after parrying an attack. Elen heals Allen. Roy moves as far as he can. Lot misses his first attack and gets countered by the Knight but in the end is able to kill said Knight. Deke moves to Elen's south. Wade moves to Lot's north. Wolt moves to Deke's west. Bors is to Wolt's southwest. In the southwest, Lance and Chad are left and Marcus and Lugh are right. Merlinus has yet to move but he's the other off-screen unit. I have Merlinus move between Bors and Wolt. Incoming Cavs coming from above. Turn 7. Marcus and Lance move as far as they can into the castle. Allen goes in lance a-twirling at the Javelin Cavalier. They both missed their attacks. Fffffff Allen please. Roy attacks first at the Iron Sword Cavalier. I'm thinking of doing a Rescue-Drop to Ellen or she might just have to take blows to the face. Roy makes up for Allen's incompetence by criting the Cavalier. Cavalier hits him back by now Roy is able to slay him. Roy's now 6 EXP from leveling. Elen heals Roy. She's 2 EXP away from level up. Shanna rescues Elen from the north and stays put. Deke takes Elen and drops her south. Now only the Javelin Cavalier can attack Elen... ...except not because Wade blocks the Javelin Cavalier's only access to Elen. Lot moves to Roy's west. Bors moves as far as he can. I have Wolt stop short of his full movement in the case I need a unit to back up. Wade's the north-most unit. In the southwest is Marcus and Lugh right and Lance and Chad left. Merlinus moves to Bors' north to end my turn. Soldier finally moves to attack Roy. He hits with a 56. Because Soldiers are horrible, Roy is able to kill him in two hits. This nets Roy a level up: Roy no Why you got to avoid Defense Roy please Fighter goes for Roy. His boomerang Hand Axe does not connect. Javelin Cavalier also goes for Roy. That hits. Roy's down to 6 HP now. Turn 8 Marcus and Lance are now in sight of the group. Allen has another go at the Cavalier. Allen kills him but not before taking damage. I want to draw out that other Fighter during enemy phase so I'm using Deke to take care of the Hand Axe Fighter. Deke disappoints me because he does not dodge a 19 hit attack. Elen heals Roy. This is another level up for Elen. The dreaded +Skill, +Luck level up. On a unit that can't use these things right now. Ffffff The Knight down there has no Speed. Even Lot with a Steel Axe can double him. I do just that. Roy gets in range of the Fighter. I ready a rescue chain for Lugh. I accidentally moved my last unit but I am able to take my screenshot before the enemy moves: Marcus should end up to the west of Bors. I'll have Bors take Lugh then Shanna take Lugh, drop him off where Roy is, and then move her back a space. Knight moves first. He sinks his lance into Lot but Lot shrugs it off and turns the Knight into scrap metal. Fighter takes my bait of Roy. He misses and Roy is unable to kill the Fighter. Turn 9, now with close to victory theme I realize, "OH YEAH. There is a 'Give' command!" Marcus hands Lugh off to Bors. Elen heals Lot. Bors moves as far as he can before he drops Lugh off. Roy wusses out and steps a pace north. This is so Shanna can swoop in for another kill... though she misses first and the Fighter hits her with a 46. But Shanna gets a level up My god, Shanna. Yes. All the Strength. Lance and Chad move up. I should set up another Rescue-chain for them. No other blue units will move this turn. This time, Marcus will pass off to Wolt and Wolt will drop Chad down south. No enemy moves. Thankfully Slater doesn't because Shanna could have died. Turn 10. I miscalculated the movement and Wolt can't be given Chad. However! I can pass Chad off to Marcus and then Marcus can pass him off to Wolt. It all works out in the end. Lance gives Chad to Marcus and uses the rest of his movement forward. Marcus hands him off to Wolt and he plants himself to Roy's west. I'm uncertain if the Knight blocking the passage to the chests can be drawn out so I have Lot move in range and equip the Hand Axe. Wolt drops Chad next to Lot. I do some calculations and, if they're correct, Lugh will just be short of getting a level up from the boss. I then make plans for him to at least get chip EXP from the knight below. Lugh moves south. Roy moves to Shanna's east so Elen can heal Shanna. I'm going to be restricting Elen's healing as I don't know when I can get buyable Heals. Allen places himself to Elen's north. Wade moves two paces east. Everyone's positions after all this: Okay. Knight doesn't move. For stealing EXP, I have Chad take the Knight's Vulnerary. Lugh can kill the Knight just fine. This 37 EXP is the start of Lugh's magical career. Lot goes north since I'm thinking I'll have him soften Slater and he'll get his level up that way. Last non-special screenshot before I spend a couple turns getting Lugh set up and Chad taking chests. The east chest is 3000G. I do a Rescue-chain so Lugh can start attacking Slater next turn. Slater's quotes. Nothing too special but thought I would take screenshots. I have Elen do a heal on Lot because he's having difficulties hitting Slater with a Hand Axe. I'm hoping that he will hit with his Iron Axe. Two Steel Lances would kill Lot but Slater is currently equipped with a Javelin so I should be safe. Turns out the heal wasn't necessary because Lot dodged the Javelin. You can never be sure, though, what with my luck of getting hit by a 19 and such. The north chest is a Halberd. Maybe if I knew that beforehand it would have been handy, but I'm determined to have Lugh get this kill. Wade moves in closer in case I want to pass off the Hammer to Lot. Slater misses even with his Steel Lance but Lot hits him once. He gets a level up by chip EXP. Hard to say if I should be glad for this. Lot didn't get Strength last time but he could do to have more Skill. So if Lot has the Hammer, the hit is 31 but the damage will be 20. No doubling potential. His avoid would be 6, which should make Slater's hit 45. This is if everything is correct. I might as well take the chance since this would bring Slater down to 2 HP, enough for Lugh to kill. It's a little convoluted here but bear with me. It's getting crowded in there so I have Wade trade the Hammer to Merlinus. Elen moves a pace west. Merlinus hands the Hammer to Shanna. Shanna hands the Hammer to Lot and moves out of range of Slater. This is how it ended up. But now I miscalculated again. It's actually 22 damage to Slater and Slater's hit to Lot is 39. I got Lot's hit to Slater right, though. So I'm waiting a turn so Slater will heal and hopefully Lot will hit. Even if Slater fully heals, it's enough damage for Lugh to kill. Lot hits. Sweet, sweet EXP is Lugh's now. Get on up there, Lugh. Hahaha~ yes! Wait. I think you're dead though...? Oh well. Come on, Lugh! Don't tell me this effort was in vain! Go, Lugh, go! ... Do you guys hear that? That is the sound of my tears through all your speakers. ... ... Just go on, Roy. Get on the throne. Oh, right. Hector. Oh no, Hector! Please! I need a good unit in this army! Oh no, they have dragons. Okay, now it makes sense that Hector lost. They had dragons. So did you, Hector. You know. The fire dragon. With Eliwood and Lyn. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. Lyn doesn't exist in this game. Yeah. And for some reason, us humans disturbed that peace for total control. I wonder if this game will explain why we did that. So I guess Bern is important because of being the dragons' domain and we must go to Ostia for answers. Sounds fair. But wait. I want Lilina. Ah, yes. Armands, right? But wait. Doesn't Armands damn a person to a warrior's death? And you want Roy to take this weapon? Hector, what are you doing?! So we're grabbing Lilina for more magic? Great! After what happened to Lugh... no wait. I won't bring that up. It'll make the tears flow again. No Hector! ;-; My good unit! ;~; Noooooooo Hector has fallen. He got the warrior's death that was promised in FE7. I wasn't expecting Hector's death to come this early but I could see how it could be seen as emotional, especially if one knew that this was going to happen in FE7 and played through Hector's story. But now we must make our way to Ostia and find the answers to how Bern was able to summon dragons. Class Lv HP S/M Skl Spd Lck Def Res Roy Lord 6.30 23 7 8 9 8 5 3 Marcus Paladin 1.08 32 9 14 11 10 9 8 Allen Cavalier 4.74 24 9 5 7 4 7 0 Lance Cavalier 4.28 23 5 7 10 3 6 0 Wolt Archer 2.65 19 5 4 5 2 4 0 Bors Knight 1.11 20 7 4 3 4 11 0 Merlinus Transporter 1.00 15 0 3 3 10 3 0 Elen Cleric 4.42 16 2 7 8 10 0 7 Deke Mercenary 6.23 26 9 12 11 5 7 1 Wade Fighter 2.55 28 8 3 5 4 3 0 Lot Fighter 5.17 31 9 6 8 2 4 1 Shanna Peg Knight 4.15 18 6 7 15 8 6 6 Chad Thief 1.56 16 3 3 10 4 2 0 Lugh Mage 2.27 16 4 5 6 6 3 5 By the way, I had to cut out some images that I originally had in here because of the limit. I don't want to have to compromise too much since it's supposed to be a blind let's play and I figure it's necessary that everyone needs to hear and see my reactions to cutscenes, events, and the like, but I also like to provide screenshots of what I'm doing in the gameplay. So I may need to make double-posts for a single chapter. Unless anyone can suggest a method of not having to cut out too many images.

Not penalized but you are limited on using them. It's the same deal with the promotion items and usage of the expensive weapons (like the endgame weapons). It's pretty much why prepromotes have an additional benefit of saving you a promotion item in ranked runs. If I still had to unlock HHM, I guess I would use it to do ranked runs, speedrun practice, or taking more detailed notes. It was a long time ago on my original cartridge.

Look at that MC being all swagger and badass

Thanks for the comments, everyone! It's nice to get some feedback for my first LP. :) I guess the general consensus is magic is great, consider certain units like Rutger and Lilina, and ranged weaponry is horrendously inaccurate. I guess I'll see this firsthand while playing. Intelligent Systems never learns about balancing, haha. Now it's time for Roy to get those mercenaries we've been promised. Apparently double-quotes will not work with spoilers so I'm using asterisks. [spoiler=Chapter 2 - *Hard-to-Kill Mercenaries*] Statements like these are never a good sign. Called it. I must say: the chapter intro jingle or whatever you call it is starting to grow on me. Ah, yes, Guinivere. I wonder how she looks now. !! Can that be?! It is! Wow. They're already showing the Wyvern Knight this early. Please tell me I get her this soon. Please please please. Obviously he was doing his job well too. God the Knights suck in this game so far. I like this Milady person already. Oh. He plans to sell her. I guess I can retract my earlier statement. He has done a fine job of guarding her for his plot. This is Zephiel you're talking about. The man has razed Sacae. You're selling his sister. I hope you have a plan for when he finds out. I find this next part funny. This lady is running from the south and she rushes past Bors' side, goes around him, and nearly crashes into Roy. I would kind of understand if Roy was in Bors' place and she was going from the south screen and goes straight north. But what sense does going around a person into another make? Anyways, judging from this map sprite, a cleric. In the same vein as Serra, I see. That must mean there is a chance a Priscilla is in this game. If there is, Priscilla comes first. I disagree. There's EXP to be gained. You're not the tactician of this army. You just get to carry my stuff. Packmules don't get to talk, Merlinus. Learn your place. It's not a Fire Emblem game without some kind of girl being locked up or trapped somewhere. A very appropriate response. Especially if read like it's just a minor thing. That's right, Roy. Don't listen to Merlinus. I'm the true tactician here. Starting the map now. I won't be getting our mercenaries it seems but I do get Merlinus and this new person. ...oh god, that 1 Mag is gloriously horrendous. A level 2 Cleric with 1 Mag. Oh. Oh. That's horrendous. I REALLY hope there is a Priscilla in this game. Otherwise, I guess 8 Speed on a Level 2 unit is not bad. Not like a unpromoted staffbot needs it... so that's kind of useless. And then there's Merlinus. I do appreciate that he comes very early here but that 3 Speed and Defense. He really hasn't aged well. I'm surveying the map and I notice that this map is predominantly lance- and axe-users. My own axe-user would have been ideal here. But I have no such axe-user. So it looks like Lance, Allen, and maybe Bors will be able to see combat with their lances. The enemy make-up: Only one of these Soldiers has a Def stat. Surprisingly, one among them has Res. In this particular generation of the map, 2 Spd is the highest Spd these Soldiers have. These guys will easily get wrecked. Out of the Fighters, this one had the highest stat in each category. I am wary since only Lance got Spd last map. Aside from Marcus, he's the only one able to double these 5 Spd Fighters. Also make that the 4 Spd Fighters. I'm thinking I got unlucky with Roy not getting a single Spd increase last map. This guy just proves why Mercenaries are great. The best Archer between the two. This one has 2 more HP and 1 more Skl, Spd, and Lck. The boss has some decent HP and high Str and Def. He has a Javelin just to piss me off. For my first move, I send Merlinus towards the houses so I can view their info. Marcus visits the village. YEAH. IF ONLY MY DAD DIDN'T BAR ME FROM GETTING LILINA, THIS WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN AN ISSUE. Not like it's feasible to get Elen promoted and using magic at this point either. Hey, you're awesome! I like free Armorslayers. Marcus uses the rest of his movement to ride towards the Armory. The Armorslayer has 11 Weight and Allen and Lance both have 9 Con. Either can double the boss with it. I look closer at the Fighters and Soldiers at the south. I notice their apparent carrying of Hand Axes, particularly these two: Your ilk will perish in due time. But then I remember that people have been telling me that the hit rates of lances and axes are terrible in this game. I'm checking this. Oh... wow. 70 wouldn't be bad for a higher-ranked lance. But this. It's not like Intelligent Systems hasn't had a history of making swords good just on the basis of accuracy but this is the sixth game. Well, then again, balance still hasn't caught up to Intelligent Systems. Still inexcusable. The really sad thing I find now: Base Speed Wolt doubles the Soldiers and can kill them. If even Wolt can kill you in one round, I think you need to hang up your helmets, Soldiers. I don't want Wolt to get a kill so I'm begrudgingly using Bors to weaken the Soldier. First time using Bors and what happens. Take a wild guess. You are the worst. This is also the first time I'm hearing the "No Damage!" sound and it's a hilarious sound. It makes sense for armor to make that sound but if it's used for the non-armored units, I'll be laughing my ass off. Roy can't kill the Soldier so I have Allen do the job. He gets 3 damage from 57 hit but he does slaughter the Soldier no problem. Lance can't kill the other Soldier with his Iron Sword. I have him go by Allen's side to attack the Soldier with the Javelin for no counters. He's able to kill the Soldier. I finally notice that the Objective is not shown just looking at the map so I check the Status real quick. Another Seize, I see. I should use all of Roy's movement but the Soldier out of reach probably will go for Lance or Allen and will likely die so I just have Roy plant himself next to Bors. Wolt runs to Allen's west. Elen heals Allen for staffabuse fun. The healing theme is pretty soft and I kind of imagine it as a good theme as you look at the stars. I'm one of those people that listen to instrumentals because I like to imagine scenes. I'm weird like that. Soldier goes for Lance for that massive 5 damage. He actually hits with a 54. Lance misses him once but strikes true the second. I neglect that one of the Hand Axe Fighters can take advantage of the fort and goes for Lance. He apparently can hit with a 48 for 7 damage but now Lance can't hit because of his 34 hit. Are those the mercenaries I was promised before? They are! I see they are just the units I want for a map like this. Perfect. By the way, Shanna flies past Roy while inspecting the scene. And then she kind of pops out from Roy. And doesn't stay on that side of the map like I wish she would. You tease me. I got new blood. If there's anything FE7 and FE9/10 have taught me is that Mercenaries are great. That base 12 Skl and 10 Spd on a Level 5 Mercenary. So good. I will likely use this man. The first thing I notice is that her mouth is open in her mugshot. Honestly don't remember if any other mugshot had a character with their mouth constantly open... but I can see why you wouldn't anymore. It looks silly. And like any GBAFE game, Peg Knights with their pitifully low Con. Except now they're stuck on terrible accuracy lances. 12 Spd's good, though, on a Level 1 Peg Knight. Not too far away from capping. I hope this isn't a sign that her Spd growth is bad. Fighters. If there's anything FE7 has taught me is that any Fighter not Geitz is slow. Out of the two, seems like Lot is my type. But that's also saying without knowing their growth rates. Turn 2, for better illustration. I want Roy to use all his movement so my goal is to get rid of the fort Fighter and plant Roy right on that fort. I have Wolt shoot at the Fighter. He hits and Fighter misses. Thankfully, Lance has enough Atk to kill this Fighter with his Iron Sword. Lance successfully slays him with no damage on counter. Roy's free to take the fort. Attacking priority goes to the Fighter carrying the Hand Axe. He cuts the Fighter down to half HP and Fighter misses. Allen makes sure to kill the Soldier from the side. Allens' second level up. For a three stat level-up, not too shabby. Still can't double the 4 Spd Fighters but it's a start. Elen tends to Lance's wounds. He's one point shy from full HP. Merlinus visits the house. Old man, WTA can't save axes. An Iron Lance will only be better than an Iron Sword by 5 hit. I think you mean, "Just keep using swords," if what I just said is any indication. Merlinus uses the rest of his movement making the trek towards the other houses and possible Vendor. As for Marcus: I'm at a loss of what to do now that I know lances aren't that great in this game. It's also very telling that there is a lack of axes in this man's shop. I'm thinking that Merlinus will not be able to catch up to the rest of the group before the map ends so there's no sense to have Marcus send anything I need this map to Merlinus. And I don't know if money is scarce in this game. I buy one Iron Sword for Roy, an Iron Lance for Lance, a Javelin for Allen to pick up later, and another Iron Sword to send to Merlinus. Marcus' Iron Sword will probably be going onto Roy or Deke eventually but I'll keep it on him for now in the case I need to weaken an enemy. Marcus makes the rest of his movement towards the group. Again, for better illustration. I want Shanna to get this kill so I have Lot move to the fort's southwest. Wade gets Lot's Hand Axe but I miscalculated the Spd difference of the Soldier and Wade since I didn't realize the Soldier is actually weighed down by his Iron Lance. Man, these Soldiers REALLY are bad. I still want Shanna to get some EXP so I don't have Wade do anything now. There was no twirling lance animation! I almost missed this screenshot! I expect great things from her. Deke makes his base at the north fort and I have him equip the Iron Sword. Bors won't move this turn. The ending results of turn 2. So on enemy phase, I'm not sure why a Fighter is moving north when I didn't attack him earlier. Other enemies are coming down. Deke makes short work of any Fighter coming his way. Roy holds his own at the other fort. A Soldier does something unexpected. He throws his Javelin at Shanna when there's a perfectly unable-to-counter Deke right there. He misses and gets his proper death by Shanna's two Javelins. Hand Axe Fighter misses Roy. Turn 3 I do some movement calculations for Roy. In six-seven turns, if he doesn't take the boss kill, I should be able to Seize by then. That's the case either if I have him kill a Fighter or not. Marcus is rushing towards the group so he can deliver the Armory goods. Merlinus visits the next house. There was nothing to comment about forts. He had one movement left so he can visit the next house and have full movement on the next turn. Roy takes out the north Fighter. Lance kills the Fighter in two rounds from the north. Another level up. I'm thinking of dropping Lance at some point. He's kind of useful for his Speed right now but no Strength increase is killing him. Allen charges ahead of everyone. Elen heals Lance from his east. Bors is able to occupy the fort. Wolt has to be between Roy and Bors to be with the rest of everyone. Now the other side. Archer is coming down. I don't remember if flyers have x2 or x3 weakness to bows. I do a quick check and she will receive 16 damage. Yeah. x3. I say, "BACK UP, WOMAN" I have Wade give Lot back his Hand Axe from Lot's west. Lot equips said Hand Axe and moves onto the east fort. We have now effectively choked this point. I have Lot go ahead and attack the Soldier. He kills with success. Shanna moves onto the mountains out of range from the enemies. The ending turn set up Fighter comes for Deke. I don't understand why when there's Lot right there. Was the AI not as good in FE6 than in FE7 or FE8? Fighter misses but Deke says, "I've had enough of this shit." I am pleased. Soldier is smarter but misses Deke with his Javelin. Archer also goes for Deke. Also misses. Apparently the enemy doesn't like Deke. Mercenaries are hard to take down, after all. I guess that's somewhat fair. Turn 4 Shanna will be able to survive the northeast Fighter and Javelin-wielding Soldier attacks. I do want her to get a kill this turn so I'll see what I can do. I think Shanna and Deke will get the most EXP if they take the Archer and Soldier kills, respectively. I have Wade soften the Archer from the south. That damage was just enough for Shanna to kill with the Slim Lance. Shanna is 7 EXP away from her first level up. Here's to wishing for a good one! Deke goes to slaughter the Soldier. He gets hit in the process for 5 damage. Elen has just enough movement to heal Allen in front of him before he must ride off for great justice. Roy presses towards the castle. Allen spots the mercenaries as he heads east. Lance says hi to Roy. Wolt also says hi. Bors moves so Marcus can now occupy the fort. Lastly, Merlinus visits the house. Yeah. Unlike EASY FOREIGNERS who got the x2 effective bonus, right? Anyways, I have Merlinus end his turn on the Vendor. Lot with his Hand Axe hides into the nearby forest so now my turn looks like this (minus off-screen Marcus): Aaaaand, Enemy Phase predictably has Fighter go after Shanna. And he hits. Shanna does pitiful 8 damage total. However! Daaaaang it. Just typical. Also, her mouth is closed. Interesting. Soldier also wants a tussle with Shanna. He misses. Turn 5, scrolled up to see enemy placement. Merlinus at the Vendor comes first: I'm sorry but what I get a healer this chapter and no Heals? Crap. I just get one Vulnerary since I hardly use them when I have a healer. It's not like this game is that hard on Normal mode... right? The rest of Merlinus' movement has him maybe catch up to everyone. Marcus stands in front of Roy and says, "Your journey is hard and arduous. Here, take this." Roy gets an Iron Sword. Lance can't move past the forts this turn. I have him take the Armorslayer and Iron Lance from Marcus and situate him outside of the forts. I'm willing to give Lot the Soldier kill. I'll judge from his level up if he can be salvaged. He gets hit by a 29 but he does kill the Soldier. I want to draw out the Archer if he moves. I move Deke north. Allen weakens the Fighter. Shanna kills the Fighter from the east after both she and the Fighter miss. Roy moves to outside the fort walls. Wolt runs along. Elen has to move without healing. Bors, being a shitty Knight, can't use his full movement because Marcus is in the way. Wade is last. This is Turn 5's ending positions: Suicidal Fighter wants his body to get Deke's sword rammed into it until he dies. Probably the first of many 99 EXPs starts here. The badass Mercenary hunts for Lot. I could have been ended here. Lot misses, by the way. Turn 6 (scrolled up): Archer didn't come down and this Mercenary definitely needs to go. Marcus can shave a turn if I don't want Roy to get the boss kill, but that's also if people can kill the boss before Roy has the opportunity to Seize. The combined efforts of Allen and Shanna can take down the Mercenary. First is Allen. Allen no! We got ourselves a badass over here! My contingency plan was to try having Lot throw his Hand Axe. If I want Shanna to get another kill, Lance and Shanna don't have enough manpower to kill this badass. Surprisingly, he does his job much better than Allen. You better step up your game, Allen, before I replace you with Lot. I'm just kidding. You're doing good so far, Allen <3 I have Lance weaken the Mercenary further in the case Shanna misses one of her two attacks. Shanna kills the Mercenary. Phew! That took the efforts of three units. Roy's getting tuckered out. Marcus rescues him and will drop him off closer to the castle next turn. Elen follows along Marcus' tracks. Wolt moves next to Elen. He who was once one with the group is now left behind. That would be Bors. Since it seems that the Archer doesn't move, I won't kill him this turn, given that--based on my calculations--Shanna should get another level up if I give her that kill. Deke moves outside of the range of the Archer. I'm hoping to get chip EXP from Ruud. Ending turn positions (off-screen is Bors): ARCHER MOVES And goes for Deke. He misses. I could have sworn I was in range of the Archer before. Maybe he moves when nearing boss? Bizarre. This dodge EXP is just what I need for Deke's first level up No Deke ;-; Is this what everyone warned me about? No please don't do this to me. Turn 7: With this particular Archer, a fully healed Shanna will still die. Either Allen or Lance will take up the spot where Shanna can directly attack so it looks like I'm using Wade to weaken it. This is successful. Shanna swoops in for the kill and gets her other level up Strength is always appreciated. First order of business after that is healing Lot. And the unfortunate thing I realized: The Armorslayer can really only go onto Roy, Deke, or Marcus. Why do you do this to me, Allen and Lance. Passing off the Javelin to Allen will negate Allen's doubling against Ruud, and Allen will die in two rounds. In hindsight, I should have healed Allen. My logic was Elen's full movement gets priority over who I should heal. I was sorely mistaken. I have Lance pass off the Javelin to Allen and then move next to Deke. I hope to get some chip EXP for Allen since he seems to be proving himself competent among the two Cavs. Okay. Very unlikely chip EXP but chip EXP opportunity is what I'm aiming for. Allen waits in range of the boss. Deke snatches the Armorslayer from Lance's north because Deke is standing right where Roy will be dropped. Marcus drops Roy north. If we can get rid of the boss next turn, this map is in the bag. Bors tries to catch up, as does Wolt. Lot moves to north-most available space he can get. And so the turn ends as thus (not pictured: slow Bors): I don't know why you thought that anyways. You were trying to sell Zephiel's sister. If that man found out--which I think he would--you would have been a mixture of molten steel and boiling blood. But here, I'll just end you for my own gain. Ruud misses but Allen hits for that chip EXP I wanted. Hopefully the last real turn. I see that Elen is close to getting a level up if I have her heal people but that would require turns beyond what is necessary, and I'm not even certain if she would be a good unit. Still, I think I'll have her staffabuse for good measure. Because of the x3 effectiveness in effect, the difference between the Armorslayer and the Rapier is 9 damage, though this trades in 10 less hit for the power. Either Deke or Roy would benefit from this boss kill since the boss is level 5. Roy has barely seen combat this chapter but he's also the Lord... but then that glass ceiling. I'm thinking it's Roy again because Roy is close to a level. Elen heals up Lot. Lot attacks Ruud from a distance. They miss their attacks. Lance moves out of the way. Deke gives Roy the Armorslayer. Roy stands in front of the boss with the Armorslayer. Ruud can kill him in two rounds. I move Allen away so Ruud won't give attacking priority to an injured Allen. Bors moves for laughs. This new arrangement: Ruud attacks Roy. Also no special boss quote. He hits Roy and Roy misses. Drat! Looks like I'm going to have to do a Rescue-Drop to heal Roy. Elen heals Roy and is then whisked away by Shanna before being dropped by Allen. New set-up: Ruud still hits Roy but now Roy strikes back. I may be able to kill him in this upcoming turn if Roy doesn't miss. I'm having Lot attack Ruud for the chip EXP. Maybe even a crit if lucky. No such luck on the crit but Lot hits once and Ruud misses. Allen uses the cover from the forest to attack Ruud. Both miss. Elen heals Roy. Roy strikes at Ruud with his trusty Rapier. He slays Ruud! Should have anticipated this, I guess? If not by my hands, perhaps by Zephiel's? Roy gets his new level up. Okay, Roy. I swear you are not a mage-killer. You need to stop this tomfoolery. So now that we have time to rest, I see that we have a talk with Deke. I have been thinking something was off about Deke and I think it's that he seems a lot more shaded compared to Roy and co. That to me is interesting. You more than made up for that with your performance. But your level up, on the other hand... What about Shanna? I spend the rest of the turns using Elen's staff to get her her first level up. Please be more magic. Okay, just keep getting magic and you'll be fine in my book. With everyone healed and having had Deke take back the Armorslayer, Roy claims the castle. Ah, Guinivere. How's it going? Whiplash music. I guess to be expected since she's mad Zephiel's sister and all. Merlinus, please, no. Just where did you get this personality between FE7 and now? Then again, you seem wiser than you did in FE7. I'll cut you some slack now. Man has a point. They still have some hope that peace can be made. I guess that's respectable... but Zephiel is quite mad, last I checked. Here's to trying, I guess. We have Guinivere in tow in hopes to make peace between Bern and the Lycian League. Our statistical progress thus far: Class Lv HP S/M Skl Spd Lck Def Res Roy Lord 4.70 21 6 7 8 8 5 3 Marcus Paladin 1.08 32 9 14 11 10 9 8 Allen Cavalier 3.39 23 8 5 7 3 7 0 Lance Cavalier 3.30 22 5 7 9 3 6 0 Wolt Archer 2.32 19 5 4 5 2 4 0 Bors Knight 1.01 20 7 4 3 4 11 0 Merlinus Transporter 1.00 15 0 3 3 10 3 0 Elen Cleric 3.32 16 2 6 8 9 0 7 Deke Mercenary 6.00 26 9 12 11 5 7 1 Wade Fighter 2.20 28 8 3 5 4 3 0 Lot Fighter 3.75 29 7 6 7 2 4 1 Shanna Peg Knight 3.00 17 5 7 14 7 6 6

Never done a Let's Play of any kind before so here's to hoping for the best? I've been thinking over and over about how I haven't finished a FE game that wasn't localized overseas. I did try to do a ranked run of FE4 but I lost interest after I was having stressful semesters in college, among other things. A friend of mine had tried to get me to play Binding Blade (or what we called "Sword of Seals") before. I think I couldn't get it to work properly and didn't have the time either. That was years ago. Only recently have I discovered that Gringe and others have put up a near-completed (as I put it since it's still v0.99d) English-translated patch for Binding Blade after other translations, as far as I've heard, were not as good.* Classic cases of literal translation and yada yada. So with that in mind, I thought to myself, "Why don't I try a Let's Play to give me incentive to keep playing a game?" After all, my workload has lessened for the time being and even if only one person reads along, I want to try to have fun and be entertaining. But hold! You saw that [blind-ish?] in the title. Gameplay-wise, I am pretty blind to this game. Story-wise, I have heard a few things so I can't say "completely blind," but I haven't heard enough to piece together the story fluidly. I know things like Roy's super-late promotion time and Hector and Eliwood dying but, otherwise, I'm pretty much dumb about Binding Blade. I haven't even looked up the growth rates or recruitment pages. The [blind-ish?] thing is pretty important because I know there is a special ending for getting all the legendary weapons but I don't know how to do it. If there's anyone watching, would you want me to attempt it or just play through like a new player if there's no other requisite other than getting all weapons? Either way, I think I would have fun but the appeal of blind playthroughs, I think, is that the player doesn't know what to do and is likely to mess up. Also unlikely to make "biased" choices from results of playing a game too many times. I'm not playing this with any other patches than Gringe's translation patch. *I could try reading pure Japanese but that would take forever. My Kanji-reading skills are still very subpar and my slang (as video games tend to use) isn't polished enough. I trip over Pokemon because they are inconsistent between characters (I mean boku in hiragana, katakana, and kanji in the same game? That was new to me). I'd rather not attempt it until my skills are more polished. EDIT: Please read this post for details about the normal/best ending! I would like to start with a simple chapter for now and see what anyone thinks. Hope my humor doesn't come off as offensive to anyone. I just like to jab at games even I like so I'm not bored, especially in FE's beginnings where they're pretty much the same each game. [spoiler=Chapter 1 - "Bors and Wolt had one job"] THE FONT IS CHANGED. IT'S NOT BY NINTENDO Apparently the relations between gods and men back then were very red and uninviting. I think this will be a very nice, quiet game. THE Fire Emblem. Truly this is the only Fire Emblem ever. Nope. There was no shield called Fire Emblem or medallion called Fire Emblem. Intelligent Systems, stop retconning what the Fire Emblem is, you cads. Blah blah "sword of light" blah blah "pierce darkness" blah--- GAH WHAT IS THAT D8 Oh hey the start of the game. Tutorial? Pshhhhh. I'm pro at this game. I don't need no TUTORIAL, psh. But maybe I'll just check it out for good measure. Roy, my boy. You'll be a famous tactician the world has ever seen. You'll even be paired up with Marth as another famous tactician the world has ever seen. So how about that game of yours coming overseas--- At this screenshot too I like the music here. Very nice beginning theme. The hardest of matches begins. I recognize the theme here from FE7. Good lord. What happened between FE6 and FE7? It's nowhere near as energetic or crisp. I wouldn't say "bad" but it will take some getting used to. Okay. I'm bored. Leaving now. And so the hardest of matches begins. Why are we such bastards all the time? If you're anything like FE7, I will recruit my favorite class from you guys. Let's be good friends, 'k? I like nomads. Please give me a good nomad. Does it ever last in a FE game? Sounds like a nice guy. Eliwood! You're looking--oh... Just drink an Elixir, my friend. I'm sure you'll be fine. That beard is immense. And I thought you said in your Eliwood support something against beards. 0/10 lying Hector Bandits! Thus, the time for feeding Roy is nigh. OH GOOD LORD JUST WHAT WHAT IS THAT THAT'S EVEN SCARIER THAN WHAT I SAW BEFORE I just... How do your teeth... Is this game trying to make it justifiable for me to kill these people because their portraits are ugly? That's cruel, game. Oh, Merlinus. You're still here... and balding. It's kind of funny since I played FE7 first and this is the prequel. I bet people loved seeing these characters look younger in the sequel. I feel kind of sad looking at the prequel. Curse you, FE7. Isn't Lilina a mage? Why did you let her go first? Or, for that matter, why was Bors, her guard, not with her? Okay, no, Roy. That's not your fault. It's Bors' fault. Bors, do your fucking job. You had ONE JOB and you fucked it up already. Hello, cheapest Awakening SpotPass character. I don't think it's fair that you got treated that way so I think I'll try you out here. Marcus... Wow. If you're anything like FE7, I will be benching you after a few chapters. Disclaimer: this is not a LTC run. And start! So now let's look at people's stats: Base Roy is base. And I'm sorry to say but you will be hitting that glass ceiling pretty soon my friend, I'm afraid. But no worries. I don't hate you. I'm pretty sure you had better bases in FE7. But that makes sense considering your age. Still benching you eventually. Good ol' Red and Green Cav archetype... but considering Sain was the strong one and Kent the average, I wonder who's better here? They did change the archetype a couple times. Tricky Intelligent Systems. I don't usually play with Cavs/Pals either but I'm willing to try them here So here's probably going to be a criticism towards me. I hate Knights/Generals except FE11!Wolf or Sedgar. I pretty much bench them every single FE game I play. Bors and every other Knight/General will likely be the case. Any defense mission I fail will likely be because I'm not using a Knight/General. But I have succeeded every FE game so far with limited use of them, dammit. ...Oh god. Wolt, bro. Your bases. I want to try you but why you gotta be like thaaaat So let's look at the enemy line-up. Shit Shit And shit Fantastic! It's time for me to FEED. Just noting inventories and it's a good thing both Allen and Lance get Iron Swords. Can never go wrong in bandit-invested early chapters. First thing I note after that: Bors cannot reach any enemy on this phase. Bors, you had ONE JOB. I can't even use you to weigh down Marcus because he can't Rescue and Attack in the same turn. What am I to do you with you, Bors? Since Lance and Allen have the same Defense but Lance has higher Speed, I place Lance to choke the northern point. Wolt hides his pitiful stats behind Lance so he might get some kills or something. Allen and Roy go to guard the south side and get some needed EXP being growth characters and all. Marcus goes to watch over Wolt and evaluates his life choices considering he had to guard both Wolt's mother and Wolt in the very first chapters of both games. Bors does his newly assigned job of making sure he stays out of the way so Roy and Allen can grow. I'm coming for ya! First of Roy's battles of this journey. He does a crit-kill. Beautiful. Keep up the good pace. Meanwhile, Lance does exactly what I want him to do and weakens the enemies to near death. A different Fighter comes down to attack Roy. He misses but Roy hits him. A Fighter and Archer head towards my group. This turn, I decide Allen deserves to get a piece of the action and net himself a kill. Lance rushes at the Fighter but he's clumsy and can't dodge a 41. Roy's short of being able to kill the weakened Fighter so I go ahead and place him north. Even if the Fighter hits him next turn, he'll survive both attacks. Wolt slays the Fighter Lance weakened earlier so he can get his kill. Since I'm a curious person, I have Bors visit the house since he will use all his movement doing so. Why, yes it is, sir. Also, can I say your hair is very jagged. Please tell me where you get your hair gel. For Marcus, I figure I'll have him go towards the village since he should be able to reach it in the next turn. Enemy phase has that Fighter go for Roy. He didn't have much of a reaction time after his miss before Roy impaled him personally. The Brigand is coming and Archer shoots at Roy and hits. My turn again! But let me just say: Bors keeps failing me. The Brigand is too fast for anyone but Marcus to double, so it takes the combined efforts of Wolt, Allen, and Lance to take him down. The Brigand was able to hit Allen in the process. I remember that Archers in any GBAFE game are crap and is doubled by Roy. But still not enough to kill the Archer. Bors goes to satiate my curiosity at the next house. The context was of terrain and how the trees of a forest will cover me. Will it teach the enemies that they're dealing with me or the trees? Also, I'm not sure how well-covered Bors will be since Knights are big and probably can't hide behind or in trees so well. Marcus goes for the village. Uh... Wow. That background seems very clashy to me. Especially at the bit where the mountain just drops to a dark green and is right next to a bright red-roofed house. At least, that's what sticks out to me the most here. Thanks for the tribute! After all, "Money is important!" I get 5000G for my troubles. Enemy phase, Archer shoots at Roy some more. With how Roy's sword juts out in his pose, I think he's itching to stick it to the Archer. Because Lance was probably the most weakened of my units, the Fighters go after him and get their just punishment by Lance smacking both two times in the face. Turn 3. Since the objective is to Seize Gate, I decide Roy won't stick his sword into the Archer and will instead stick it into the Fighter most north so he's quickest to his goal. I take my chances at the northeastern Fighter going for Roy because even with 8 HP, Roy will survive that Fighter's attack. Roy's first level up! Let's see what he gets: ...could have been worse? He got Res. Good enough for now. Wolt says "sup Roy" as he kills the Fighter nearby. He's getting close to his first level up, where I might determine to use him more or not. Lance's been a good sport so far so I give him the Archer kill. Also, this is his first level up. ...could have been worse? He got Spd. Good enough for now. Bors is doing a good job of seeing to the houses. I say he should visit the last. You know, I'm out here risking my life everyday to protect the nation. I don't come home after a long day's work just to hear this stuff. He doesn't need to. He's got a horse. Don't tell me the horse died. This would be the worst FE game if that horse died. Apt to his description, Allen gets hot-headed and charges towards the castle. He will be doing great things for his country. Marcus is catching up now. This Enemy Phase's first blood is a Fighter who spots Allen and foolishly thinks he can slay a man on a horse. That northeastern Fighter mentioned earlier predictably goes for Roy. Roy stabs him for his incompetence. This is one reason I don't like Knights. Allen is jealous that even Wolt will be getting his level up sooner and so I concede and give him that Fighter kill. I pray to Naga that Roy won't kill the Fighter just so Wolt can get his level up. It was successful. Wolt joins Roy so he can get his kill and first level up. ... You had one job, Wolt. To impress me. I can't risk giving you another 100 EXP out of bias. If you end up getting another 100 EXP out of attacking rather than killing and you get a better level up, maybe you will be redeemed in my eyes. Bors huffs it towards the rest of the group. Lance sinks into the forest. Marcus catches his breath as he finally reaches everyone. Enemy finally realizes that they are doomed and don't come for me. Turn 6. Roy's looking bad so I have him move closer to the castle and heal himself since I plan for him to take the boss kill. More like "You bumbling idiot!" for I accidentally fumble with the controls and had Allen attack the boss. Thankfully, boss misses him while Allen hits him once but misses the second attack. Allen is at risk of dying because there's two Fighters and an Archer left. So I have Lance, who's still weakened, go up and out of the range of the Archer in hopes that the closest Fighter will go for Lance instead. Wolt's like, "Wait! I'll help out with my new HP and Str increase!" and runs towards the castle. Bors is running and panting. Marcus is like, "You fool!" to Allen's brashness and is running to try to save him. On counter, Damas misses Allen, but so does Allen before he hits on the second attack. Allen's brashness nets him a shiny level up To be fair, getting him 5 Skl and more Def sounds good around now. The distant Fighter is dumb and doesn't wait for his buddy to move so he can't attack this turn. The nearby Fighter sees Lance and thinks he's getting a hit. He's absolutely wrong. Lance uses his new Spd to easily give him two whacks. That Fighter that moved also blocked the Archer from getting at Allen. I'll give the boss a screenshot for his description. Succinct description. No issues. I don't want to give Wolt that Fighter kill so I have him try to redeem himself by shooting at Damas. I'm prioritizing more kills this turn so I have Lance attack the Fighter with full health so Roy has access to kill the weakened Fighter. Fighter misses and Lance hits him twice. Roy screams for blood and does an overkill to the Fighter from a crit. Close to victory theme plays! I'm still not used to the difference in familiar tunes, though I don't want this to mean I'm bashing it since I would like to appreciate older games. Allen makes a convincing argument that he survived the turn without dying and I say he can go ahead and get the Fighter kill. Bors isn't making it. Marcus heaves a sigh and Rescues Bors. The weight of Bors on Marcus' tiny horse means he will be slowed down. I have Marcus move in front of the boss. Marcus can't kill Damas and can't double. Damas misses Marcus but Marcus can sure hit him back. Damas is down to 8 HP now. Archer goes for Lance. He hits. I accidentally fumble with my controls again when I wanted to check the hit rate Lance with a Javelin had against Damas. Two 36s means Lance misses twice. I curse under my breath for my fumbling. I ask that Wolt attack Damas with a hit but not a crit. It's successful. Marcus sets his sights on the Archer and weakens him so Allen can get the Archer kill. I have Allen equip the Iron Lance to get WEXP and kill the Archer. Roy smirks because he has just enough Attack to kill Damas. I boo at the fact Damas doesn't have a special boss quote for Roy. However: Roy's ken is real. No more enemies! I still gotta wait a turn because Seize is stupid. We saved the day! No. Eliwood. ;-; Lilina is like, "I'm a mage and I'll help Roy!" and I say, "SURE THING." But Eliwood's gotta be a bugger and be all, "You will do no such thing, little lady. Sit your pretty ass on the throne until your father comes back." "Sure thing, Pops. Except I'm hitting that glass ceiling pretty soon." Oh no you don't, Lilina. He fucked up the one job he had. Sonuva-- You will do no such thing. In fact, you will protect the very bench with your life. Well, that was the end of chapter 1. Overall, a very typical FE beginning. One bad level up, two meh level ups, one okay-ish level up, and one good one. I can't say much on the plot since, well, it's just a typical FE beginning. Everyone's levels and stats so far: Class Lv HP S/M Skl Spd Lck Def Res Roy Lord 3.29 20 6 6 7 7 5 2 Marcus Paladin 1.08 32 9 14 11 10 9 8 Allen Cavalier 2.56 22 7 5 6 3 7 0 Lance Cavalier 2.22 21 5 7 9 2 6 0 Wolt Archer 2.22 19 5 4 5 2 4 0 Bors Knight 1.00 20 7 4 3 4 11 0

You're looking at a very statistical view on both characters. You neglect things like support rate, weapon type, and overall setting of which you're deploying the two characters in. I personally like Pris because I hate being limited on Movement. There's also dondon's mentality.

Basically this. Also, MAJOR Catherine aesthetics. Which... eh. Catherine's aesthetics were okay for me. I may not mind the more action-oriented gameplay as long as it's implemented well. Gathering from the trailers that this game is about thieving and stealth, it would make sense to be action-oriented or at least have elements of it. And at least it still seems that they have the turn-based fighting in there too. But it only took them this many years to finally come out with a game on PS3. I originally wanted to get the PS3 when this game came out, but I foolishly forgot that Atlus released P4 far in PS2's life and might do it to P5. It's only by chance that I got the PS3 for other interests--many years after the PS3 came out.

If you really want the items and Stefan with your current set-up, might be best to start using BEXP for good level ups and promoting through Master Seals/BEXP. Getting the extra HP, Spd, and Def from promotion gains will be helpful here. I'm guessing you were attempting to have Nephenee be the Muarim-killer. Probably feed some EXP to Nephenee and Jill and force-promote if need be, even if stats aren't capped. Though Neph will need to be ferried if you want to do this under a short amount of time. (I use Soren so I don't have to ferry him but I understand his defenses are not desirable). You really do want to do this in as little turns as possible. Mordecai smiting Lethe vs. ferrying Lethe frees you a flier. For a temporary time, the enemies should be attacking Mordecai since he can't attack back--but you would still run a risk with Mordecai shifting sooner. Don't remember the stats of enemies but I don't think a base Mordecai or Lethe should be powerful enough to take out enemies in one or two rounds.

Yeah. That is a thing. I remember sending Jill over to GM on my first and/or second playthrough. I may even did that on my first attempt of HM. Never again. lol

You'll need to memorize which Laguz will come to attack you and which will not. As for Lethe and Mordecai, be very careful. If they shift and start attacking, a Laguz will most likely die before you get Stefan. I would not suggest going for all treasures if you want to lessen the time on the map for you to mess up. Top priorities are: Boots, Stefan, (maybe) Physic, Statue Frag (if you want to sell for cash), White Gem for cash. At this point, I have Soren and Jill (nearly?) promoted. They'll be the ones traversing the desert to go after Muarim or distraction. Volke (and Sothe) will traverse to get the hidden treasures I want. I ended up with Soren being the Muarim-killer with Jill helping out. A few strategies I did: 1) stay out of range of enemies who will shift but not move 2) have high defense characters unequip and take hits from enemies. This is to force the Transformation gauge to go down and have them unshift earlier. 3) hit enemies until near death. Risky because a couple might try to suicide but they will flee to an ally to trade for Vulneraries and stop attacking until fully healed. 4) for the really weak enemies, I boxed them in with units so they couldn't go for any of my lower defense units (I was doing this for a RD Support Library completion run so this may not be applicable for you) I didn't do this when I went for no Laguz kills but it might help to have both Mordecai and Lethe fielded and have Mordecai keep Smiting Lethe closer to Stefan's spot. The only issue is Lethe will Transform first and will get into combat with no way to make her stop.

x2 bows vs. x3 high-Might crossbows will do that to you. Also, while PoR had laughable archer/sniper enemies, RD raised the bar and said, "Now you will fear them." It's a good thing the Dracoknights can go scot-free of bow weakness in RD. I use Rolf because I hate Shinon's character but it's still a pain to train an archer/sniper anyways. The problem with them always is a lack of consistent Enemy Phase. Training Rolf, especially in RD HM, is just bad. Even I'm tempted to just use Shinon since I have to train him less and he starts with decent/good bases. I don't see a reason to sell bands, per se. Sure, bands don't give that much of a growth boost but the game will still hands you loads of cash that selling off bands is not needed. I'd rather sell the Master Seals when I know no more characters can make it to level 20 promoted with any capped stats. Now I feel like playing PoR again to be even more efficient with transfers.

I rented Adventure DX and I think finished it? I own GC Adventure 2 Battle and I do like that game despite its camera controls being fucked and the action button being finicky at times. Not too long ago I got all the Emblems for that game :D. I own Advance... 2 or 3? Maybe both? I can't remember if I finished those. I was on the fence to try Generations since I'm not a Sonic fan or anything but maybe I can go for it if it goes on a really good sale. Just recently made my first computer build. I wonder how much better it would look and play on PC than console. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pERNUuCRdJ8 You raise Ninja Gaiden, I raise Battletoads. It gets so bad that one person kept dying in one stage and they wanted to turn off the infinite lives so they could restart the game from the beginning as opposed to restarting over and over on that stage. I bet both games would make bad good drinking games.

No worries. Just keep working on breathing in and out and letting things go in better ways. I have one of the Sonic collection games on PS2. Cannot complete a single game. My friends and I tried the Genesis Sonic game since one of them likes that game. We Game Over'd. The only Sonic games I could complete were after Sonic's "proper" introduction to 3D, so the Sonic Adventure series. I bet Colors would be up my alley as well. Now Mario is a different beast because I play the more spin-off-y ones like Paper Mario and Mario Party but I apparently am pretty skilled in New Super Mario Bros. when it comes to helping out my friend getting the special coins. Maybe it is what you said about the speed thing. My tastes are very slow by comparison so that would make it seem old school Mario and Sonic are so hard for me. Haha.

I took your "fuck Paper Mario" towards the whole series except SPM. I don't think it's because you like it that people are starting to pour what they hated into Skyward Sword (which I haven't played so I'm saying this as a third-party comment on what happened). It was the comment you made that people only seemed to dislike it for the hand-holding and Fi as only one thing to dislike the game, when those comments were the only relevant points to make for the original topic's discussion. They wanted to then provide further why they hated it to you so it wasn't just the hand-holding and Fi statements. How a couple of them got incensed and expressed it in their posts, yeah, maybe was very charged but don't take it as an insult to yourself. You're not the game, right? I get it. It's very hard when the game you like others don't. I think it's just best to say "well that's more of the game for me to like" and move on. A weird analogy but it's like when a friend and I were discussing food and I mentioned some fruit and my friend said they don't like it. All they said after was, "Well, that's more for you to like, right?" You can't do much to change people's opinions about certain things so sometimes you got to change it to a positive for yourself. The whole point of this post is so you don't feel like you're getting attacked for your likes. Hope that came across.

While I think games are getting easier, I think it's just because I'm getting older and adapting to particular genres of games (SRPGs, JRPGs, puzzle games like Prof Layton). Or just I'm getting older and my controls are getting refined. I barely touched platformers but I can still do DuckTales Remastered, the main game of SNES Donkey Kong 1 and 2, and Sly Cooper. I bet as a kid, I would be crap at them. But I'm still shit at old school Mario and Sonic. I'm ashamed to admit that. As a kid, I barely put into thought of studying gameplay mechanics or taking risks for great rewards. So the rolling jump off cliffs for Donkey Kong or the chances for Sly to stand on the second closest pole instead of the first to shave off time, those would probably be unthought of to a younger me. So I guess my own example for complaining about easy games would be Awakening when it made Casual mode available for the first time to people outside of Japan. I hated it in the way that it felt like they were "accommodating" to "filthy casuals" and not keeping to the niche status they were. I had to bite my own tongue down hard in the realization that that "accommodation" and "loss of dignity" that I felt they were doing was to save Fire Emblem. Now it, like as shown in Interest's posted videos, was adapting to make itself be "more approachable." I mean, the perma-death was still there for me as a difficulty setting, which I was glad for, but this was my initial reaction. Now I kind of don't care as much... minus that I use Casual mode on Lunatic+ for the extra save slots. I still reset if a person goes down. You know, a game is not an extension of you as a person. If you really were "whatever" about it, why do you feel the need to say "fuck Paper Mario" as a retaliation? You don't see me seething at the fact you said that to one of my favorite games on the N64. I mean, come on.

Oh yeah. Light Brand. But yeah it does. It prevents Lloyd from criting if he's attacking from afar. Runesword and Wind Sword do this too indirectly.

I knew that but I still thought it was a strange localization spelling choice for the reason you stated. American English-speakers have complications with how to pronounce things as is without accent marks and extremely consistent pronunciation rules. The fact we have limited words with the cae- prefix, outside of Caesar, its derivatives, and medical terms like caecum doesn't help. We got a valid name of Sheena. It would have not been that hard to just translate as Sheeda like the NoJ spelling and not be seen as that weird to pronounce. But I wouldn't know how the NoA team worked with the NoJ team or not to determine names. Maybe even Ceeda would have been less weird but whatever. It happened. And this is Far from the Forest. I shouldn't be that serious. So I'll note this: I'm laughing that Ike is not getting any SSB loving from Marth or Roy.

Lloyd on throne in FE7's Cog of Destiny. Fighting a Swordmaster on a throne is never fun for multiple reasons: 1) His insane Speed + Throne's added Avoid bonus. 2) His doubling potential and his crit potential thanks to being a Swordmaster. 3) He has a Runesword which does prevent crits and does Magic damage from afar. Kind of means fighting up close is not preferred and only certain units should fight him from afar. 4) Hard mode: He has 20 Res. It's more than his 16 Def. He does get off his throne if you talk to him with Nino... of which he will proceed to go attack anyone he sets his eyes on. I could try that strategy if he doesn't attack Nino after the talk but my best bet to actually fight him is if I got a well-raised promoted Priscilla or Florina from a distance. This and doing this either for a ranked run, HHM, or HHM ranked makes me dread this chapter every time. It's like it almost punishes me for getting my lords to level 50+ for Geitz and the Arena access earlier. Or making Wallace lose his way.

Fine then. Marth gets all three of Caeda/Shiida/Shi-da's incarnations. My Japanese-reading skills mentally-translate シーダ as "Shiida" in Romaji, NoJ spelling be damned. Forgot NoE also spelled her name like that but it's same difference I don't get why us filthy Americans got to spell it like "Caeda" like what is that--

Voted: Soren/Daein Throne Why is this not a thing in the game I need this ship now

Pretty much what everyone has said. I do it at level 20 at max to not waste battle or bonus EXP or if the important stats are capped. I'll BEXP for stats and then promote through Master Seal/Crown preferably. Though I can never get Laura to level 20 and I don't feel the need to use Laura much. First Master Seal will be Jill. The other best candidates for me are Nolan and Aran to make Part 3 DB chapters easier.

I'm not gonna lie: the "every pairing is canon" does feel like a cop out. It would alleviate tensions for developers to do anything about the fan shipping but not so between some fans since they'll just disregard that thought anyways. I'm also of the opinion that people should do whatever pairing they want. Yeah, I have my preferred pairings, but I'm not going to discuss them with just anyone. Some more than others take it way too seriously. In regards towards Chrom and Sumia, I think this: any romantic implications can be canon; the actual relationship of "OMG SUMIA IS CHROM'S OFFICIAL WIFE" not so until there's an official source showing this (and I'm not aware if there is one). It's laid on Sumia more that she likes Chrom, but Chrom seems oblivious until supports roll in. Since the developers opted not to force Chrom and Sumia together like they did with Siglud and Dierdre, game-wise, I wouldn't say it is canon. You can make it canon in your particular file but I'm unaware for FE canon if Chrom x Sumia was canonized.

Many units will come with their own Skill or two but they won't learn any naturally. This is where Scrolls come in. The first skill Scroll you get is Miracle in chapter 7 in a chest. Most are in chests but a few can be found on enemies, in the desert, in an info convo, or in a village. If you raid all the chests you encounter, you'll pretty much get the essential skills you want (an Occult or two, Wrath, Resolve). Check the villages for ones like Vantage, Saviour, and Nihil. These are pretty much the extent of which I'll play with Scrolls since some are pretty underwhelming in PoR.

The other thing that hits her harder? No transfer bonus. At least Soren has that privilege. But that 7 base Speed, man. On average, she will still be slower than Ilyana and Soren's base Speed without transfer bonuses.

There's still some people like me that still prefer the physical copies of games. (I come from an age where physical copies and renting were still a big thing, I would say). I'm making a very gradual shift to getting digital if it's cheaper. Let's put it into perspective: both Digital Devil Sagas on PSN with the 10% off discount that expired on the 26th of this month equaled to about the same as having a physical copy of the first Digital Devil Saga, a PS2 game, brand new. That was about $15. There are some people willing to pay over $100 for FE10's physical or close to that amount. Some people get very desperate even for a reproduction copy. You just got to tell them that it's not worth it. By the way: I was kind of jokey with my post earlier. As I wrote it, I was laughing and shaking my head at how much he was charging. Mario Kart Fighter is probably a ROM of either a recent Mario Kart or an entirely different game. Have you see the people who review or do videos of bootleg games? It might be something like this (around 1:50, because I'm still figuring out this site's coding >___> ).