RPGuy96

Mareeta: Heal me, Nanna, and then I can beat Raydrick with my terrible stats but awesome prf sword! Nanna: *misses heal* Mareeta & Nanna: Damn you Kaga! Raydrick: Haha, now I can capture you offscreen, which is how I spend the majority of the game! And also Kaga you! Mareeta & Nanna: Damn you Kaga!!!

A lot of Saias talk already here, but this seems like another time for him to show up! Arvis tries to legitimize his bastard and place him over Julius after whatever happened with Julius vs Deidre and Julia. But now that Julius has awakened to his power, he (and Manfroy) aren't having it. Arvis goes from proud Emperor to the broken old man we see in Chapter 10 after losing everyone dear to him, Deidre is dead, Julia is missing, Saias is allowed to live but banished from Grannvalle, Julius becomes Emperor in all but name, and the Lopt sect start their child hunts.

Magic archer seems to be a weird Kaga thing. There's Ronan in Thracia, who only uses the stat for res, and Sheela in Vestaria Saga, who finally gets access to magic bows. I really enjoyed Holyn x Bridget when I did it. I imagine the argument against it is that Patty doesn't really deserve such a useful weapon as the Brave Sword, but in games like Genealogy where you get to deploy everyone I like to try to make everyone competent. It's clearly less efficient than funneling the best weapons towards the cavalry, though.

I'm going through FE3 with "bad" units right now - my best guy is Radd, who is genuinely pretty good, followed by Roshea - and while you generally can't skip dialogue, there is an exception. If you restart a chapter, you're allowed to skip the chapter opening dialogue (though units still move around the map if they did that while talking). Since you can also skip the overworld intro text, it's not quite as limited as it might be. I'm reasonably confident that rings don't stack. Given the upcoming focus on Ishtar as a secondary villain, and all of House Freege in Thracia, it's kind of weird that Ishtore never gets to do anything of note. He's...fine. Ares is very hotheaded, like his father - fortunately his ordering of grudges seems a bit off, as you will discover when he talks to Seliph. Let me interest you in a game called Berwick Saga, made by one Shouzou Kaga...

Genuinely curious how that guy's name is supposed to be pronounced. I googled it and it just shows the FE character, which is always a somewhat reliable sign of a name that's just gibberish they made up. Presumably this is supposed to be Kutuzov (Кутузов in Russian), who was a real life Russian general in the Napoleonic Wars, and a reasonably important character in Tolstoy's War and Peace. It's maybe a bit of a stretch - and 130 years before most of Kaga's historical references - but guess who shows up in the arena:

When Manfroy does his "as you know" chat with Sandima in Ch1, he berates Sandima for not finding Cigyun's daughter yet. I think the idea was to throw Verdane (and Grannvale) into disarray by provoking the attack, and then search extensively for Deidre in the chaos. It's a lucky break for him that Sigurd does the work getting her out of the forest, but there was a plan to find her. (Even if the plan was just to yell at Sandima until he miraculously produced her.) Manfroy also says that Arvis is "worthless" without his half-sister. I don't think that's literally true - controlling Grannvalle the way the cult controls Verdane, Augustria, and at least part of Isaach would be helpful - but it does reiterate that the goal of this war and the Isaach war is to get Arvis and Deidre together in order to resurrect Loptyr. The full convo:

I 100% forgot that you can get the Brave Axe in (the first chapter of!) Gen 2, I guess that's how much of an impression the axe bros made on me. I do think Lex isn't super special without the Brave Axe - since he can't double without it, he can't really OHKO things, so he's more like Alec and Noishe, albeit with better def and much faster leveling. I've never skipped the Brave Axe event, though, so maybe I'm underrating him.

They both suck - Lex is good because of the Brave Axe (and to a lesser extent Paragon and minor Neir), but he died with it, presumably. I don't care which one you get, just make sure that... ...you get Nosferatu (or Resire if it's still called that) for Julia, instead of Aura. Nosferatu Julia is great in the next chapter in particular, Aura Julia is like Lilina if she had 0 base speed. You have to conquer the correct castle (Isaach, I think) first - it doesn't actually matter which one of the Rogers you recruit, but it's a little more straightforward if you're attacking Isaach. Maybe I should read the whole thing first. Nostaking is good (including in the arena, which is really helpful for getting Julia promoted), and comes in handy next chapter, too. Neither Roger will do anything noteworthy.

Yeah, I remember Ethlyn being dumber, too. It's Quan who comes off worse here, for taking his horsies into the desert, a classic Fire Emblem mistake. And for not realizing that Travant can use effective weaponry against his single-class squad. Ethlyn probably shouldn't have entered the desert (or at least she could have let Altenna cry it out at home), but it seems likely that Travant wouldn't let her get away anyway.

Chapters 2 and 4 annoy me for basically the same reason - the branching path means you have to track back all the way (or Warp/Return, but you have to go all the way back to Evans in 2, right?). Chapter 4 also has the cool scripted battle you're about to see, though obviously we are less attached to Mahnya than friends and relatives from the southeast that you might be seeing soon. Chapter 5 is...very good narratively.

Balmung is intended to be Shannan exclusive, but you can glitch it into the sword twins hands via am unintended method by using Valkyrie to revive Shannan or something. Not something I've ever done myself, I've never even managed to get Valkyrie in the second gen because I suck at shipping. Specifically, you can't pawn the legendary weapons for cash. (I wonder if this is because the pawnbroker wouldn't accept it or the unit refuses to follow instructions to pawn it.) It is not otherwise locked to Shannan, but there's no way to get it to the sword twins except for the glitch Jotari mentioned which I have also never done, despite pairing Ayra and Chulainn on my first playthrough.

Wyvern Riders in this game like to pretend they're in FE7 rather than FE6. I agree with the timing, and I like that setup. I like the Claude / Tailtyu and Brigid setups, but the pirates are a weird last enemy to fight. I suppose part of the plan here was to have the pirates threaten you when your strong units are down in Silvail, but if you know it's coming then just Ayra or Chulainn or even Arden up in Madino can protect Brigid. For the end of this chapter, it's narratively helpful if your army is in the north rather than by Silvail, but the game will happily ignore that if it needs to anyway. I like making Patty a competent combat unit, I'm excited to see how this goes. Amazing

No Staves! Quite a challenge you have picked out there. I've only played Thracia twice, but the first time I think I did Reinhardt's chapter legit (or at least "legit" - I think I waited for Saias and his leadership stars to leave before doing anything). The final chapter, though, is a huge pain without warp, just because you can't redeploy your team to where you want them. Are you playing with the QoL deployment repositioning patch? That would make it slightly less awful.

Yay! From what I can tell, on Finn's rejoining chapter, there's some annoying mages with 34 physical bulk that he can perfectly oneshot with the Silver Lance at 22 strength. Hm, I don't think I've ever tried a magic sword on Seliph, I generally find his dad's high kill Silver Sword to be sufficient. Could be worth trying, you could also consider passing one down to Leif, who would appreciate it against some armor knights on his join chapter. Nanna having one means she could do the job, but it's helpful to get Leif as much exp as you can. Altena doesn't really need a Silver Lance, but then nobody else does either. Probably an early kid - Seliph, Diarmiud, Lester? I don't know that any of them need it, considering you have such good weapons planned for them, but it's nice to have sooner rather than alter.

I find chapter 2 kind of annoying because it acts like a big Y and heavily incentivizes you to just use Sigurd for everything, which I find boring. I like chapter 3, though, and there's generally a lot happening in different parts of the map so you might too. I forgot that Linoan has Naga blood. Tahra is not really connected with Grannvale in any way, but it does make some sense that some holy blood would spread as nobles intermarried (certainly it does in highly eugenicist gen 2 children). Given Tahra's place on the FE4 map, I'm willing to give Manfroy a pass on knowing about Tahran politics, though. Not even a castle! Well, Sigurd is noble and good, and the King is also noble and good, and the noble and good thing is to (eventually) make peace with Augustria, so what could possibly go wrong? I do enjoy the game critiquing its own mechanics as well - Kaga was getting ready to develop map objectives other than seize!

I think it would be nice to introduce Lex (and his Brave Axe) here somehow. Perhaps Creidne's mom nursed Lex after the BBQ, though he eventually succumbed to his wounds. In the meantime, he gave his, um, not quite sister-in-law his Brave Axe and begged her to help redeem his (and her daughter's) family. Creidne tells her sob story and offers whichever of her half-siblings the Brave Axe as a memento of Lex and they have a change of heart and go against their corrupt father. Alternatively, Dalvin could have this story instead and get a Hero class with axe access upon promotion in order to use his uncle's memento, and we could all just murder Johan and Johalva. I think it's probably consistent for Ares to inherit the intelligence of his father.

Speaking of putting two and two together, shouldn't Manfroy realize that "that woman's daughter" is also Kurth's daughter and he's wrong about the "single scion" thing? Or is he not privy to the court gossip Sigurd just got about Cigyun and Kurth? I suppose it's possible he thinks Victor is Deidre's father. In any case, it's still worth it to him to recreate major Loptyr blood, but now I'm curious if he just doesn't know that his desired match could also (and obviously does) produce a major Naga heir.

Alas. Well, at least get Finn promoted (should be easy with the Arena to go, Paragon Band, and Brave Lance) and give him the Silver Lance - I don't think anyone else wants it, especially if Erin steals Finn's Brave Lance. It'll help out slightly early in Gen 2. (Erin > Erinys > Fury as far as names go, the game is very Gaelic, never mind fellow Greeks Lachesis and Ares...) Yes, Arvis mostly looks like a pawn (and we can revisit that thought later). I agree with Ruben that things going over Sigurd's head is entirely consistent with his character, but even then you would think he'd be more interested in his wife's family. I'm not sure if the right headcanon is that Deidre is hiding it from him and he's just oblivious to the other hints, or he's too in love with her and conquering random castles to care. It would be nice if some information to that effect motivated Quan and Ethlin in Chapter 5, but they don't really need the extra reason, they've already ditched their homeland to help Sigurd once. They just didn't have to cross a desert to show up in the Prologue. Indeed!

This is very far from optimal, as the first mate will tell you, but I do like Finn keeping it for Thracia reasons. He doesn't have to dismount in this game! Okay, I forgot about this. Sigurd should be able to figure out the Evil Guy's Evil Plan, even if Deirdre doesn't want to talk about her mother's situation before she moved to the Spirit Forest. Deirdre should also have figured this out, if she's privy to this conversation OR her mom told her about her past life. Note that the narrative is still telling the player (and Sigurd) that Reptor and Langbalt are the Grannvale villains, not Arvis - but by this point an attentive player and an attentive Sigurd should be able to at least guess some things about the Cult and Arvis and Deirdre. So close to promo! He doesn't get anything useful from promoting, but I always love a Fire Emblem promotion. I did Sylvia x Lewyn once, and passed down the Paragon Band and Holsety to Corple so he could get 90 XP a pop for Physic-ing and promote quickly (relatively speaking) in order to use his dad's tome. It was...exactly as annoying and ultimately useless as you'd expect.

Hm. Femina, Amid, Linda, Aesello, Hawk, and Sharlow all have a reason to be in Thracia around the year 776. Karin -> Femina nobody would notice, I like Asbel but Amid or Hawk could replace him (or Homer), and Aesello could replace Ronan. There's not really another mage for Linda to replace - Olwen is similar-ish as they're both in the Friege army but she actually has something of a story (and Dire Thunder!). Sharlow could be another late staffer like Schrof. Of course, you wouldn't have to replace characters but Thracia's cast is already pretty big. Beat me to it. I've never used Homer, so I have no attachment to him, so switch him out for Hawk. It makes more sense for Hawk to be hanging around Ced rather than being in Tahra, but, like everyone else who's played Thracia, I have used and like Asbel so it would be a shame to lose him, and it probably wouldn't work to give you Asbel and Hawk at the same time.

An attentive player can figure this out - the game does not hide it on his holy blood screen - but I don't think it's hinted at any further. And of course Manfroy's expositing happens well after you can check his holy blood. I think it's meant to be a surprise for most first-time players. Deirdre, on the other hand, very obviously has a blood problem, the game telegraphs this again and again even if you don't make it to that village and have it all but explicitly spelled out. I do think it's easy to miss out on who the intended husband is but it's not much of a leap to suppose that the Obligatory Evil Kaga Cult is going to do Obligatory Kaga Things to her. Despite the memes, because of how the maps work it is possible for infantry to contribute on the rest of the gen 1 maps without slowing yourself down turnwise. (You do still have to move them, and of course Chapter 2 is the most annoying for this since they have to walk all the way to Nodion without doing anything.) Midir *should* get your good bows (ie Killer Bow), but Jamke can shoot a couple guys if you want to give him something else.

I think a first-time player would generally leave the Brave Lance on Finn, and that feels more narratively correct. Kaga doesn't lock it to Finn like in Thracia so ping is free to do what he wants with it, but Quan gives it to Finn not to Erin or the Chalphy bros. Obviously you're right about it being an optimal Erin -> Fee weapon, and I do really like one-shotting annoying mages in Chs 4 and 5 with Erin. And someday I'm going to play with intense favoritism for the lackluster mounts you get - rather than either doing stuff with overpowered mounts or waiting for the infantry to catch up - and then the Christmas Cavs will get the Brave Lance after Finn departs. I didn't actually think about Nanna's inheritance but that is pretty cool. I never remember to use status staves (except for the part ping is writing up now where the game tries to teach you to use them), but they'd be better on her than the foot healers for sure. Diarmuid sure would suck though. Lex's def growth and Paragon are strong advantages, but most kids want Pursuit and there's one fixed kid in particular who always wants the Pursuit Band to get out of his terrible starting class. So it's tricky to promise it to one of Lex's kids to make up that shortcoming. He's a good husband, but Pursuit really is an issue so he's rarely the best husband (except maybe for Ayra).

I think your other options are worse than Beowulf. Finn loses his lances even though Diarmat doesn't get them; Alec gives worse growths; Midir can't pass down swords; all the other physical fathers give decent enough stats but no Pursuit. Azel's spoken for, Claude does nothing, and Levin would be wasted. I'm a little curious how Lex would work out - Diarmat would be really tanky, but would lack Pursuit and have bad speed anyway. But it's definitely worse than Beowulf and Lex makes a more interesting partner for other pairings anyway.

Patty's sub is fine, but Faval's sub is lame. It's not a big deal since it's a foot archer, but he's a fun foot archer whenever he actually gets an opportunity to shoot someone. I think Ruben wants to leave Finn unpaired so he doesn't give up his weapons to his kid, rather than caring about having Bridget unpaired. Faval is going to be the same no matter his father, while Patty is always going to be a little combat challenged. She wants Pursuit and ideally some other benefit if you want her to fight. Azel's fine since he gives Pursuit and magic swords are fun on a thief. I *think* I've done Azel x Lachesis before, and it was...fine? Diarmat wants Pursuit, so that's good, and magic swords for him are solid, but he's going to have okay combat in a gen where there's a lot of overpowered combat no matter what you do. Nanna appreciates a magic father but she's mostly a staffbot for your mounts anyway. Beowulf is indeed standard, since he passes down Pursuit and swords to Diarmat. Magic swords from Azel are probably more fun.

Holyn!Patty is a surprisingly good pairing for her if you want her to fight, since it gives her access to the Brave Sword. But, of course, there's other units that might have a better claim to it. Absolutely, Faval doesn't care who his father his.