Omegaprism

For Noel, great. Keep in mind I'm not opposed to the relationship, I just think it could make an interesting story. For the spies, also great. I just got a laugh out of it, that's all. :) For the shops, it's nothing too complicated. The weapon merchant and blacksmith are the same NPC, and I was just going to have the item store be a generic. Now Naoya can mind it by default, offering all kinds of unique limited-time deals for rare stuff, like special soulstones, stat boosters, specialized weapons (Desert Rose is a good example here, also Deepstriker Axe, Beast Lance, that kind of thing), etc. It would be a separate tab from the normal item shop, but in the same screen (press left or right on the D-pad to switch between them). If Naoya dies, Noel can be a backup, but the variety isn't as awesome because now there's only an apprentice mad scientist. If Noel dies and Naoya lives, Naoya will still mind the store, but the available items will also be affected. And now, the next chapter: Seiryu path: An Echo in the Void If you follow Frey, she will bid farewell to the others as they go about their business for the day, and as soon as Veronica's scouting party is in the distant horizon, promptly sneaks out of the makeshift encampment to track down the source of the earlier roaring sound. Just as she thinks she has eluded detection, she hears a pair of voices. "It appears lady Veronica was right," a male voice says. "She just couldn't resist." "Don't sound so judgemental," a female voice replies. "If you were the last of your kind you would be just as eager to find a friend." "Ah, but I have you, don't I? And who could ask for more?" "Oh stop. This is no time to flirt." The wolves, Fenga and Dalla, step out of the shadows and kneel before Frey. "My queen," they say in unison. Frey expresses some displeasure about being followed, but the wolves take turns pointing out the various terrible things that could happen to a lone young woman in a strange land, starting with small things, like tearing her nice dress, and slowly getting worse and worse, until she interrupts them with a terse, "Okay, I get it," and they both smile. Their conversation is interrupted by Kin (if he was recruited), who bumps into them while looking for berries and nuts. The little fairy dragon decides to tag along, and if they don't let him he'll snitch. With a sigh of resignation the trio becomes a quartet. Just as Dalla asks Frey how she plans to track the beast, suddenly both she and Kin snap their gazes in the same direction. "Do you hear that?" she asks. The wolves shake their heads, and without further discussion the group begins trekking through the wilderness, guided by a strange signal that only the Seiryu seem to be following. Eventually they find a valley with a river running down its center, feeding into and running off of a lake. At the edge of the lake is a small house. From their hiding place at the valley's entrance, Fenga and Dalla can smell a strong scent in the air. Several shadows glide across the valley floor. Upon looking up, the Vilcoorians can see a number of wyvern riders patrolling the skies above. Frey comments on how vulgar the wyverns look with harnesses and tiny humans on their backs. A larger-than-average wyvern appears over the mountains and sails down to the house by the lake. It has a body in its clutches, which it places on the ground before landing. The rider, dressed in dark red armor, dismounts and knocks on the front door of the house, and a middle-aged man with long blond hair and an equally long beard steps outside. Frey's back suddenly straightens as she murmurs, "One of them is a Seiryu." Kin, wide-eyed, nods vigorously in agreement. Fenga gives Frey a skeptical look. "Your highness, are you sure? Your family is supposed to be the last of the Seiryu houses, and besides, no one else could have come through the Cosmic Gate after us." "What about me?" asks Kin, still staring down at the house by the lake. Everyone ignores him, much to his chagrin. "There can be no doubt," Frey says. "Before the cataclysm, whenever my family or emissaries from the other houses were nearby, I could always feel their presence. As my people were killed I could feel each of them die, until all that was left was a great emptiness that could never be filled." "What am I, a dead fish?" interjects Kin, annoyed. "Hush," snaps Fenga. "Now there is something echoing in that void, like a single voice shouting across a frozen lake," Frey continues. "Well," says Dalla as he props his sheathed sword on his shoulder, "I suppose we should go say hello then." Fenga's smile is both reassuring and predatory at the same time. They approach the house, all in human form, and as they do, the wolves pick up snippets of the conversation the bearded man and the wyvern rider are having, like, "...killed every last one," and, "...blade was gone." The bearded man says, "...still use its humours," and, "...stone?" "Be careful, your highness," mutters Fenga. "This place has the stench of death and fell magic." The armored rider is the first to notice their approach. He quickly mounts his wyvern and takes wing, landing in front of the group to intimidate them. "Who goes there?" He demands with a raspy voice. "You are trespassing on the land of the king's advisor and court magician!" The wolves are quick to place themselves between Frey and the wyvern rider. "You are brandishing a weapon at Her Highness Queen Frey, last scion of the Seiryu tribe, the Lady of the Mountain, and the Savior of Vilcoor," Dalla declares. "Now step aside and lower your head, or be made to." The bloody body on the ground begins to stir, and tries to prop himself up. "V-Vilcoor?" he murmurs, coughing. "...Seiryu?" The bearded man pushes the half-dead man back to the ground with a kick. "Quiet, beast," he says. "The dead should not bother the living." He waves the armored rider off and approaches with hands clasped behind his back. "How interesting," he says. "I am the high magister Thorgen, chief advisor to King Ilarand. I have traveled across much of this world, and I cannot claim to have ever heard of a place called Vilcoor." "It is not likely that you would have," replies Frey. "Our lands are much diminished from what they once were." "I see," Thorgen replies. "And what business have you with me, young queen?" "We have reason to believe one of our citizens has been separated and found their way to this valley. We were unaware of its status as your property." "One of your citizens?" Thorden looks back at the bloodied, faintly struggling man on the ground. "Are you claiming kinship with that... thing?" "It will be easier to determine that once we have had a closer look," Frey says. A smile creases Thorden's face. "Yes, a closer look is just what is needed," he muses. "Weir!" The large wyvern descends upon the small group of Vilcoorians, narrowly missing Frey with its claws. The group draw their weapons. "What is the meaning of this?!" Frey demands. "If your claims in kinship are indeed true, then like this man you are a shapeshifter," says Thorden. "I have much use for a shapeshifter, both alive and dead. This creature is on his last legs, thanks to my men, so I had given up on having him as a servant. But now, after all these years, there are four more. What luck!" "Does this mean I don't have to worry about capturing all of them?" Weir asks from atop his mount. "Do as you will with the servants," Thorden replies. "The queen's capture is of the utmost import." He then warps away. The map is a long, winding path through a mountain range. A whole bunch of wyvern riders ring the edges, with caves atop several mountains acting as reinforcement spawn points for more. Several cavaliers also block the mountain path, either forcing Frey's party to cross the mountains themselves or face mounted enemies armed with a mixture of swords and lances. Sprinkled among the enemy are a paladin, a great knight, and a wyvern lord, all armed with steel weapons, and a pair of troubadours, equipped with Physic staves. Weir, the boss, is a wyvern lord with a spear, a dragoon lance, and a killer axe (the axe will drop). The enemy density is pretty high for only having 3 or 4 playable units, so to balance it out there are several forts at intervals along the path. This map is also an excellent showcase of Fenga and Dalla's shared innate skill, Back to Back (use the Defend command to grant adjacent allies 2 less damage taken and +5 doubling resistance). Unfortunately, Weir has carried the half-dead Vilcoorian all the way to the other side of the map. Frey only has 15 rounds to mount a successful rescue, otherwise he bleeds to death. Frey has a unique prefight dialogue with Weir where he says, "So you're a queen, eh? If you crawl in the mud like a worm and beg for mercy, I'll spare your life. Ha ha ha!" "That's funny," she replies. "I was prepared to make you the same offer." Upon his defeat, Weir will normally say, "Gah... ugh... monsters! They're monsters!" before dying. If Frey kills him he instead says, "Wah! No! I'm so sorry! F-forgive me, your highness!" Frey will say, "An insect need not beg forgiveness as it is crushed," and then he dies. Approaching the half-dead man (a stationary green unit) and talking to him ends the mission. Thorden reappears and says, "You killed Weir? I have to say, I'm impressed. It lends some credence to the story that your dying friend there ruthlessly murdered so many of my men by himself." Frey's eyes flash with anger. "You!" She transforms and lets out a roar. "I will paint these mountains with your blood!" "My queen, we must get this man to the healers!" Fenga says. "Another time, then," Thorgen says, warping away once more. Frey roars once more, loud enough to shake the ground under everyone's feet. Everyone flinches involuntarily, and Kin murmurs, "Is this the legendary rage of the Seiryu?" After she quiets down, still in dragon form, she snaps, "Don't just stand there! Bring him here." She gingerly takes the broken body from Dalla and tells the wolves and Kin to be careful returning, avoiding detection where possible. Then she and launches herself into the sky, flying as fast as her wings will carry her. When she reaches the encampment, the others have already returned from their respective missions and are beginning to wonder aloud where their queen is. As she lands, Veronica gives her a shocked look before bellowing, "Hail Queen Frey!" Everyone present immediately turns and kneels. Upon seeing the mess in her arms, a team of healers rushes over to set about their work. Critch can be heard saying, "Look at all the blood!" with more excitement than worry. Naoya also chimes in, hopefully, "Maybe it's already too late!" As Frey goes back to human form, a look of exasperation on her face, Woden says, "Don't worry, my liege. They're odd, but they do good work. If he can be saved, it'll be those two that do it. Dalla's a tough one. Poor Fenga must be worried sick, though." "Dalla's fine," Frey replies absently. Ruganel does a double take. "Wait, that wasn't Fenga was it?! I thought she had long hair!" Frey rolls her eyes. "Both Fenga AND Dalla are fine," she declares. "At least they were when we parted company." Veronica gapes. "My lady, you left them to fly here unguarded?! What were you thinking?" Frey motions to the frightfully still form being carried into the healer's tents, and displays her blood-covered dress. "Time was a factor, Veronica. They are both quite capable, and should find their way home without much trouble." After another moment to stare after the half-dead man who must, MUST be a Seiryu tribesman, Frey takes a seat at the bonfire and motions for her inner circle to join her. "Now, let's hear your reports." Phew! Book 2 has been quite an undertaking, and it's only half done! I will probably go back to broad story strokes after this just to move the story along. Until next time!

Still going at full steam, eh? That's encouraging. Today I'm going to put my nose to the grindstone and try and get the Frey mission done so I can finally move onto the rest of Book 2. Hilariously, since it's the summer break I have more time to do it at work than at home. I'm also on the fence about just making all four missions playable in one run, and selectable old-school Mega Man style. Anyone care to weigh in on this idea? Also, some thoughts on above characters: It can't hurt to also say whether a character prefers transforming or using weapons, as that will add another facet to their style and personality. I am hesitant to include real world foreign language gags, since they tend to alienate people who aren't part of a specific subset of players. Also, what if the game were to be translated to Japanese? What language would Ruby speak then? Gwen: When I read her description I let out a little laugh, saying, "I didn't know there was a criminal underworld in my fantasy wagon-train!" Connor: I like the idea that the literal end of the world drove him to a perpetual drunken stupor. Maybe he can have a base conversation or some supports that talk about that, or how, now that Frey and her crew have given him a second lease on life, he might consider changing his ways. Since in my head I was imagining an average number of 3-5 supports per character, depending on who he supports could influence what he does with his life. Character growth! Atsuro: Owls are supposed to be roughly parallel to ninja, so this works out fine. If you want him to have extra Move, though, his innate skill will have to be Celerity (+2 Move). Noel: Alright, but you should probably lay off the feline Byakko for a while. I've been tallying them up and it's starting to look like Blazing Sword with all these cavs. She sounds like a much better fit as a falcon, or a raven. Also, how and when did a tiger become the minion of a frilled lizard? Humorous imagery aside, the Genbu were traditionally treated like lepers before the great expedition, so this is a story in and of itself. Base conversations: Cheating heart is great. Naoya's research should probably be folded into the caravan management mechanic that is one of DitD's new features. Naoya could fill the role that the item shop lady did in Radiant Dawn with the special deals, with an added wrinkle. The more combat he sees, the more stuff unlocks. If he dies, bye-bye special shop. Soulstone ideas: More on that later. I like the flavor on the Phoenix/Tiger/Tortoise soul lines, but restricting the S-rank ones to single characters (some of which have trademark weapons already) is probably unnecessary. More chances for the player to use their favorite units are good. Toxic Soul probably doesn't need to inflict its user with poison. A strength penalty (-4 STR, -2 SKL) will be fine. The rest I'm still thinking over. Back to the salt mines!

Bayonetta 3 is at the top of my wishlist. Bayo 1 and 2 were sublime, and there are a few severe threads left dangling for a possible sequel. Since the NX is supposedly a handheld that plugs into your TV, a new Fire Emblem. Also, rerelease the Tellius games as a 2-pack. That's right FE gets 2 slots on my top 5 wishlist. Don't hate. Monolithsoft is working on something else right now (which I will probably buy and/or love), but I really want a sequel to Xenoblade X. That game is massive, but there is room for so much more in a narrative and gameplay sense. For example, why are there no playable Wrothians? Or Skells made by any company other than Sakuraba Industries? Finally, and this is deep into imagination-land, I wish Nintendo would just hire someone to make a real Metroid sequel. Not a prequel, not a remake, not an interquel trilogy, not a character-assassinating interquel, and not a spin-off that doesn't feature our dear Ms. Aran. A real sequel. That hopefully ignores everything Other M had to say. It can be 2D, or it can be 3D. Just do SOMETHING. Two days ago was the 30th anniversary of the original game's release, and Nintendo have been acting like they've never even heard of Metroid.

Genbu path: Thirsty Work If you follow Woden, almost immediately a tiny little turtle and frog approach him, asking if there is any water to spare. All of the children are thirsty, and the Genbu children are starting to dry out. With a smile he leads them to the quartermaster, who says almost none of their water survived the journey through the vortex. Something must be done quickly. Thankfully, Critch the salamander has already found an underground river while definitely not looking for old skeletons in a nearby cave. The water has a smell and taste that, while not necessarily poisonous, are mildly unpleasant. It should do for the moment, though. Once some runners have been assigned, the children's thirst is quickly dealt with. Later, one of the runners returns, out of breath and desperate. Some sort of monster has come out of the water and attacked! What's worse, its appearance softened the ground, making it swampy and difficult to navigate. Several people are already injured, and can't escape. Woden takes a rescue team with him, which includes Kaido, Keisuke, Naoya, Critch, Hans the turtle, Vilk the snake, and Dor and Traige the toads. The enemy is a giant melting creature that looks to be made out of translucent goo. A single baleful red light can be seen where its face might be. Its body is rising out of a pond in the center of the map, surrounded by several shallow water tiles, surrounded by marshland, and then in the outermost layers surrounded by grass. When Woden's party arrives he asks where the cave is. Naoya says, "The amorphous entity seems to be capable of some manner of matter manipulation, and subsequently used said capability to achieve multiple goals simultaneously." "You mean the monster is sitting where the cave mouth was," replies Woden. Naoya rolls his eyes. "...Yes, yes it is." The goal of the map is to rescue as many injured people as possible (there are six of them) by using the rescue command (back from the GBA games) and moving into the highlighted area. Ending a unit's movement in the highlighted area will unlock a, 'lead to safety' menu command, which triggers the injured civilian to say a grateful line of dialogue before leaving the map. The goo monster summons smaller versions of itself all over the map at the end of each enemy phase. They alternate between having higher Def and higher Res. They all have a lot of HP, and regain 10% of their max at the beginning of each player phase. Also, the main body will use one of two area attacks or a regular attack each round. The area attacks cover a two-space radius around it or a five-space cross in a random spot, like a catapult in Radiant Dawn or the various turrets in Fates. It also has a unique skill called Undulate, where on every odd round it becomes immune to manmade weapons, and on every even round it changes its immunity to the Vilcoorians' transformed attacks. If the main body is defeated and there are any smaller copies alive on the map, they all immediately collapse into puddles. The first slayer of the monster will get a skill scroll for Resolve. Two rounds later the goo monster will reform at full HP. Subsequent goo monster killings will not yield any dropped loot. Some of the copies will have gold and items in their inventories, including a Seraph Robe and a Goddess Icon, that they will also drop upon defeat. Finally, after round 5, the water level will rise, turning the shallow water tiles to deep water, the marshy tiles to shallow water, and the grass to marshland. After the situation is contained the injured civilians thank the Genbu for their bravery and compassion. Among them is one slightly older racist Byakko who says he might have been wrong about the Deep tribe after all. The player then gets up to three rewards, depending on how many civilians they rescued (2 earns an elixir, 4 earns a Vengeance scroll, and 6 earns a Ripple Stone (grants a transformed attack 1-2 range). At the end of the day, when Woden meets with the others, he will report that there was some trouble finding water, but he took care of it.

Oh yeah, i did name it that, didn't I? That was not my best moment. Oh well. I'll commit, but I should've at least called it a Dire Wolf's Soul. It is not an exception to the rule. You wanna slap it on a heron, you go for it. Naoya sounds much better already. The stone ideas are alright, but you probably could have had the Gambler's Soul just do what you wanted Kaine's personal to do. That way he could either transform right away, or wait it out and use his lance for a round or two and get more boosts. Just an opinion, though. Also, what weapon rank is required for each one? I admit I haven't been very good about writing those down myself. The Caster Soul sounds like an E-rank and the Critical Stone maybe D. Gambler's Soul might be a big'un, so what about a C-rank?

Alright, Ruby, Kaido and Kaine sound good. I'm ambivalent towards Naoya, mostly because a character like that is often used as an excuse to talk down to the audience. A cold and clinical mage isn't inherently bad, but if you throw them into the deep end of the autism pool it just makes me groan. My least favorite characters in all of fire emblem are Miriel and her clone/son, Laurent, and this is their sole defining personality trait. That said, my suggestion is to tone down the, "No concept of social norms," aspect to a degree where he can dumb down his own words when prompted, and turn up the passion for dissecting things. Have the layman's terms versions of his findings be a little too explicit (but try not to gross out the player). When he sees a room full of discomfited expressions he could say, "...Why are you all making those faces?" There is also a salamander named Critch whose shtick is that she loves the macabre, especially injuries and corpses. Perhaps she and Naoya could know each other, or be the same character. I don't know. One more thing: Maybe I didn't actually type this before, but there aren't really personal skills like in Fates. The skill system is much more like the Tellius games, and the skills are supposed to be mostly modular. I noticed the last few characters have had kinda super-specific skills, or skills that do what an older skill does already. It's okay to just have a character start with something like Vantage, or Lucky 7. Also, take into account that soulstones can have effects other than raw stat changes. Take for example the Heroic Soul. All it does is give a brave effect (attacks twice on player phase) at the cost of lower crit evade (-10). You could easily turn Kaine's skill into something like a Gambler's Soul, or a Dilettante's Soul. Food for thought.

You are correct, I live in Japan. I usually wait until I'm settled in at work to start cruisin' through forums, though. :P In answer to your earlier questions: 1. A couple of stones are character-specific (Frey's and Woden's) but for the most part anybody that can shapeshift can use any stone. However, similar to how in some games you get class-locked weapons (like longbows and a couple of swords in Awakening) there are a few that only work for certain tribes. These are exceptions rather than the rule. So if you really think Tristan the bear needs to use the Burning Soul that one of the mage characters comes with, knock yourself out. They are linked to the strike weapon rank, though, so you can't slap a legendary soulstone on someone who hasn't been transforming the whole game. 2. Thank you. I aim to please. 3. As long as the characters involved in said humor are portrayed as people and not a single trope (I'm looking at you, Miriel), humor is fine. Wanna have a scene where a wacky mage accidentally floods a tent with hot noodles? Great! Just don't make a character named Spaghettini, who spews forth an endless train of pasta trivia in every single support. As an example of how to do it well, you said Klaus has had a longtime crush on Slade, and that they might support into a real couple. Unless Klaus is channeling Cordelia (Egads, I hope not) he's probably got other supports and moments that aren't, "I like Slade! Do you like Slade? He's great!" On the other hand, there could be some real sweet awkwardness in their C or B supports where neither one is sure what the other one thinks, and hijinks can ensue. 4. Vilcoorians can breed between races and tribes, with each child sharing their race with one parent or the other (with some dominant and recessive genes determining the likelihood of which parent they will take after) and inheriting traits from both. The historical trend has been that each tribe mostly kept to themselves, since they thrive in different environments, but once in a while a wolf will fall in love with a falcon, or whatever, and kablamzo! A bouncing baby is born. Odds are usually in favor of the child sharing the mother's race. Whether they breed true with Dascillians (or others) is a big question mark.

Kline and Marks: Solid. Infiltrate seems a little excessive. What if he simply had Pass? It's not unheard of for a Vilcoorian to say, "gods," but there is a base conversation where a human talks about religion (ubiquitous on Dascillia and the next world, Diroch) where, as another sign of just how different Vilcoor was, a heron monk talks about how Vilcoorians in general stopped believing in gods when all the most religious and faithful among them were sacrificed to the 'gods' that came and destroyed their world, even the ones who worshipped those demons. The only thing people had any faith in was that if any divine force was watching over them, it would have intervened in some way. This is still being worked on though, and is planned for Book 3. Byakko do indeed have tails like Kaden, Selkie, Keaton and Velouria. The Seiryu look the most human, save for odd eye and skin pigmentations (example: Frey has purple eyes). Also, like Tellius, they have strange symbols on their foreheads. The player can slightly customize some details of Frey's appearance, including her mark. Time for more story! If you follow Ruganel, he leads a party of beasts into the forest in search of the humans who attacked the temple. Fenga and Dalla stay behind to help guard the camp, but Leon, Dorgo, Barash, and Haseo are all eager for some excitement. Nein and Tristan go along to make sure everyone stays alive. The search is tense and frustrating, as the sounds and smells of the forest are all unfamiliar to the Byakko hunting party, and the trees are so thick that no one can safely move at full speed, save for the foxes and wolves, who are surprisingly quick to adapt to the forested area. The humans have just as much trouble navigating the forest, however, and a pitched battle full of small engagements in the mist and trees takes place. This is a fog of war map, and lowered visibility also means lower accuracy for everyone. Several humans fall to the fangs and claws of the Byakko hunting party, sometimes one at a time, sometimes by twos and threes. Among the spoils are some vulneraries, some iron weapons (steel on hard mode), and a skill scroll for Mind's Eye (If the user is unable to counterattack during the enemy phase, +30 avoid). The paladin who led the earlier attack is nowhere to be found, until they hear the sounds of battle coming from a nearby mountainous region (second map). The scene that greets Ruganel and his band when they catch up is one of fresh carnage. Human corpses are everywhere. The smell of blood is so strong they can practically taste it. Several soldiers and a few cavaliers are still alive, and seem to be running back towards the Vilcoorian hunting party. They fight as though maddened by fear, and are relatively easy pickings. At the mouth of a cave is the paladin, fighting a red dragon. In one round of combat the paladin strikes the dragon with the dragonslayer sword, and is slain on the counterattack. The dragon, blood-drunk and mad with pain, will attack anything that moves within one turn of movement. Its scales are so hot that they appear to be steaming, so at the start of each turn every unit adjacent to the dragon suffers -2 STR and MAG (non-cumulative, disappears after one round). Killing it will net a dragonslayer sword and a Dracoshield (yay +2 defense). The post-battle dialog shows Ruganel returning to the temple and recounting the day's events. Frey laments the death of the dragon, but understands that it probably wasn't like a Vilcoorian Seiryu anyway. If you follow Veronica, all of the Suzaku set out on an earial scouting mission and spot a fishing village in the distance, by a river. They land in the outskirts and Veronica steps forward as their representative, flanked by the falcon sisters Delia and Lydia. Most of the villagers quickly disappear into their huts, and a few children point and say, "Wow!" before being shooed indoors. Ignoring Veronica's request for a parlay, the gate is hastily closed. Shouts of, "Stop the monsters!" are heard. Archers and mages take up fortified positions. This battle has several houses that can be visited for useful stuff, including 10000 gold, a Canto scroll, a master seal, a Rescue spell, and a concoction (heals 20hp). Except for the concoction, which is located near the Vilcoorians' starting location, all of the houses are in the range of one of a pair of ballistae. Also, except for one house, the occupants of every hut are varying degrees of hostile and terrified, offering their goods in exchange for their lives. The village's wall is almost completely useless against a bunch of fliers. This map features primarily mages and archers as enemies, with one or two armor knights guarding the village chief's hut, and after 5 rounds a bunch of axe-wielding bandits appear and start making a beeline for the houses that haven't been visited. Sitting on the seize spot is the village elder, a sage with a C-rank tome (hard mode gives him the Air Superiority skill, plucked right out of FE14, and a Gale tome, effective against fliers. Neither one is dropped upon his defeat). Victory results in Veronica, with the village at her mercy, trying once again to talk to the village elder. He is surprised that she can even speak, and after some negotiation, agrees to trade with the otherworldly visitors. As Veronica lets out a relieved sigh, an Owl (Devon, if he is alive) asks to speak with her outside. He shows her a dead bird with a tiny scroll case on its leg. "I caught one of the villagers sending this thing out through a back window," he says. "I think it's a messenger bird. They were probably trying to send for help." He casts a piercing glare at the villagers nervously milling about, pretending not to stare. "Also, look at the food they have supplied us with. No rodents or canines will go near it. All of the small birds are avoiding it as well. As my mother used to say, 'they bow deeply only to dip their talons in poison.' Don't trust them." A brief debate breaks out where some of the more angry Vilcoorians suggest that Veronica answer their backstabbing with a show of strength. Klaus, Celia, Delia and Lydia are appalled at the idea. Slayne shrugs and says dispassionately that it wouldn't be the first village he's burned down, and even volunteers to stay behind and take care of it if Veronica can't. As he and Jin start talking about the best way to spread the fire, Veronica, who has been quiet this whole time, commands everyone to be quiet. She storms back into the village elder's house, brandishing the dead messenger pigeon, and demands to know why, when an offer of open friendship and peace was made, that the humans would give them poisoned food. When he can only vacillate in horror she grabs him by the front of his robes and hurls him outside, into the village square, yelling, "Answer me!" The old man scrambles to prostrate himself before the angry Hawk as she steps outside, begging for mercy and forgiveness. He enthusiastically renounces his loyalty to King Ilarand and claims that he was only sending for help so that the monsters wouldn't use the villagers as sacrifices. They can take anything they want, but please just spare the people. Veronica's next actions are dependent on whether Frey died to open the Cosmic Gate. If Frey is alive, Veronica will simply spare the old man and drop a pouch of gold in front of his prostrate head, saying, "For the supplies." She then directs the other Suzaku to take water directly from the nearby river and handpick some bags of grain, chickens, goats, and a cow, and also to be civil about it. As the group transforms and takes wing, she turns back and says, "Our queen is merciful, so I offer you this second chance on her behalf. There will not be a third." If Frey gave her life to the gate, the hawk swordmaster draws her blade, eliciting gasps and murmurs from the gathered crowd. "You call us monsters," she says. "All because we have these." She spreads her wings wide, looking imperiously down at the old man. "My best friend once told me that when choosing who will live and who will die, a good leader must be willing to place their own name on both lists." She thrusts her sword into the ground before his prostrate form. "Tell me, are you willing to die for your people?" She then orders her retinue to gather the supplies as above, but does not tell them to be nice about it. They are not. The village elder doesn't say a word or move an inch for the whole ordeal, save for his trembling. Once everything is gathered, Veronica pulls her weapon out of the ground and says, "Pray that we do not meet again." In either case, when the Suzaku scouting party returns Veronica will report to the others that the people of this world are difficult to understand. The other two paths are still in progress, but it's time for bed. Until next time!

There is a baby-related break from errands, so I can answer a few questions. 1. Not in an organized sense, no. The monsters that came and wrecked the place claim to be gods, and there is a touch of ancestral worship, but by typical standards Vilcoorians are like athiests. They do believe in things like magic and monsters, but as far as gods, they take a page out of Han Solo's book in Star Wars IV: A New Hope. 2. Frey starts with tome called Terra that also works as a personal soulstone (+5 STR, +5 MAG). Late in the game it gets an upgrade. Veronica starts with a silver sword, but other than being available way earlier than any other silver weapons it isn't special. Woden has a prf soulstone called Steady Soul that grants +8 DEF, +4 LUCK, +1 MOVE, and allows him to move unhindered by desert, mountain, and forest tiles. Ruganel starts with a plain old steel axe, but if you get him to an A support with anyone a base conversation will appear in which he is given his late father's soulstone, called the Fierce Soul (+3 STR, +3 SKL, +3 DEF). 3. Vilcoorians tend to vary a bit in appearance, but I would say they look more Tellius-y than like Kaden/Keaton. Suzaku have feathers in place of hair, Byakko tend to keep their animal ears even in humanoid form, and Genbu could never pass for human. The most human-looking Genbu are probably turtles, and that's just because their faces have vaguely human-looking features untransformed. 4. The whole world of Vilcoor? I hadn't thought about it. About one and a half Earths? It's breaking into pieces by the start of the game, so I was just focusing on one large landmass for Book 1. Weapon ideas: Yes, there are monsters (or are humans the real monsters?! ) with requisite effective weapons. The triple threat sounds a little too bonkers for my taste. I was also thinking of having a tome that targeted def. Didn't you have another bloodedge suggestion earlier that healed the user based on damage dealt? Okay, time's almost up. Next post is more story!

EDIT: It's actually 9:45, but whatever, close enough. It looks like we posted at almost the same time. I'll have a look at your post in a bit. For now, errands! Ah, okay, that's what Nein's skill does. If Master Thief just allows movement afterward that makes it a lamer canto. If you can do everything but move, you could combine it with a canto scroll and the world would be your oyster! Cue maniacal laughter! Kind Soul is great. I'm making a policy decision that all auras have a range of at least 2, though. Skills are costly to equip, and should carry with that cost a certain power. As for Keisuke and Tristan, I'm already adding them to the roster. Don't pirates already have freakishly low skill, though? Let's bump up Keisuke's skill. He can still be slow, though. Tristan will probably get along great with the wolves who are essentially a married couple. How about naming his skill Papa Bear, and having affect both him and the supported allies? We'll come back to the rabbits and bats later. For now, as promised, some story! Book 2 goes to a world very much like classic Fire Emblem settings. Villages dot the landscape. There are forests and rivers. It is a stark contrast with the alien harshness of Vilcoor. This world is called Dascillia (ダシリア). The Vilcoorians emerge from the Cosmic Gate and walk out of a crumbling temple very similar to the one in their world, minus a few hundred years of decay. The temple is surrounded by forest in all directions. Several Byakko characters talk about how different everything smells. If Kin has been unlocked he will tell Frey that he can hardly think from all the sounds of wildlife around them. Suddenly the Cosmic Gate makes an unearthly sound like the howls of a thousand lost souls and explodes. It is not a big explosion, but it is enough to knock everyone off their feet, and the accompanying flash of light leaves everyone temporarily blinded. When the world fades back into view, the gate has been blown to pieces. Massive hunks of the great ring lie strewn across the ruins of the temple. Before there is time to recover, out of the surrounding trees appear several strange looking creatures. Some of them are riding atop Vilcoorian slaves who have been so thoroughly subjugated there is no spark of intelligence in their eyes! This perverse injustice must be avenged! And now they are charging towards the confused refugees with their foreign weapons! Veronica and Woden are hesitant to jump into combat, but the battle is joined before cooler heads can prevail. This is their first encounter with regular, boring old humans, some of which are mounted on regular, boring old horses. The Vilcoorians must defend their civilians and the injured for 8 rounds, using the ruins and wreckage of the gateway as cover. The battle is very tense, as all of your units start the first round at half health. After enough of his soldiers are slain or the end of round 5 the enemy commander, a level 1 paladin, appears. He comes equipped with a dragonslayer sword, much to the chagrin of any Seiryu in the party who try to charge for the boss. Also of note, the units the player is able to deploy are random, save for the commanders and Kin (if he was recruited in Book 1). At first only eight units can be fielded, then two more random units will join after round 2, then two more after round 4. At the end of the battle a thundering roar can be heard in the distance. The enemy commander says, "It's near!" and orders a hasty retreat into the woods. The Vilcoorians are spared. But why? What was that sound? Frey suspects it could be a dragon. Here is another moment of choice for the player. Each of the inner circle has a different plan of action. Ruganel wants to pursue the human attackers. Veronica wants to scout the surrounding area for supplies and a safer place to make camp. Woden wants to stay in the temple ruins and take careful stock of what was damaged and who was killed, and prepare for a possible parlay with the natives. Frey doesn't say it out loud, but the thought of finding another dragon is incredibly tempting. The player can only choose one group to follow. Each path will start on a different map.

Is Nein dealing 2 more damage to the lower-leveled units, or taking 2 more damage from them? Either way, it seems like a raw deal. I would give him something like Hardened Veteran: If the enemy unit has weapon advantage, user takes 2 less damage. Leon's default skill sounds fine, but I would increase the aura range to 3. You really want Slade to be a crit machine, huh? Are the Killer Edge, the high SKL and LUCK growths and the class bonus not enough? Klaus' seems... decent, but I wonder if it's a good idea to put a healer in a position for the skill to take effect in the first place. Just sayin'. I thought Aptitude was +20%. No need to sandbag it. What if Master Thief allowed Haseo to steal and do something else afterward (item, trade, attack, steal again, NO MOVEMENT)? Its use becomes much less situational while still only being good for a thief. I would change Jin's skill name to Harsh Glare or something shorter than Intimidating Gaze, but other than that it works fine. As for other Vilcoorian races, many of those you asked about probably were around, but when the world was broken it had many casualties. I thought about all kinds of others, but I want this to have the spirit of a "Series Shapeshifter Greatest Hits," and only added new ones to fill in some sizeable gaps in unit variety. I will grant you that a few do actually fit in, namely: Rabbits - Taguel, as reviled a class as they are in Awakening, is a species I had forgotten about, and do deserve to join their demihuman brethren. There are, however, no great Vilcoorian rabbits still alive. However, we're not staying in Vilcoor, so a mid-late game recruit could easily fit. Probably just the one, though. Bats - I think this might actually be a better fit for the Byakko Tribe, and an interesting one at that. It would be a misfit, not having the feathers or graceful features of the Suzaku, and not being scaly or at home in the water like the Genbu. They could be looked at as outcasts by the Byakko because they are more likely to climb and fly than run, and for their preference for bugs and fruit over meat. Poor bats. The question is, what role would they fill in an army that isn't already covered by the others? Crocs and Gators - I have plans for these two. There are at least two more worlds whose lifeforms I haven't yet revealed. All in good time... Special mentions: Since the Vilcoorians are descended from many different wild races, wouldn't ape-based descendants just be... humans? Also, I know that technically crows and ravens are different. For the purposes of this game, however, I was just going to lump them together. I'm doing my best here, man, but I have a wife and son to look after when I'm at home and the weekends have become "family time." It also doesn't help that whenever my son sees my laptop open he MUST bang on the keys, "Like dada!" Also, Book 2 is getting away from me in length, so it looks like I'm not going to be able to post it all at once. I'm going to split it into a few different posts for pacing purposes. I took a couple of days off this week so I could essentially hide in my office space and write (and sweat). It's almost midnight now, so my next post will be in the morning.

My apologies. Haseo sounds great. If I had any talent as an artist I'd probably draw him with a masquerade mask on with a mouth open just enough to show his teeth in a wide grin. The recruitment for the birdboys (birdbromance?) sounds fine. Perhaps a basic healing songbook is in a chest next to the cage so they're both ready to go in short order. Leon sounds like Iron Bull from Dragon Age 3. That is not a bad thing. Since he sounds like he leans on the bestial side of things let's give him a Dire Wolf Stone (+3 STR, +5 SKL, crit evade +10, -3 doubling). Jin sounds good too. I could see him having a reverse/dual bow upon joining. His personal sounds like it might be better as a sniper-locked skill. Maybe he's a prepromote?

Alright, now we're building some steam. Aside from the obvious balance concerns of introducing a super-Est with ultra-growths at around 30% through the game, not too bad. Maybe rather than having growths that would make an ultra-eugenics-based Yarne cry, perhaps Celia could come with 3DS-style Aptitude (+10% to all growths? +20%? I forget). A character's default skill comes free of capacity cost, so even though you could technically trade it to somebody else, it would be so big that they couldn't afford to have any other skills equipped for most of the game. Celia's advantage would be that it costs nothing to leave it on her, and she can go ham with other skills. This would also buck the trend of having the Est-type be A) on the young side, B) a dumb country hick, and C) having attack animations that make them look incompetent in their default class. On another note, don't forget that things like parks probably haven't existed in Vilcoor for a long time. The world that our heroes come from is deep into a long, slow apocalypse. Having just said that it occurs to me that there might still be a few places where heron communities have continued to cultivate gardens and the like just for a sense of normalcy, so I guess it's a wash either way. I promise I'm writing the plot summary for Book 2. I was much lazier in my story notes for this one so there are more gaps to fill. With any luck I can get it up by tonight!

Naturally. While we're talking about archetypes, though, I should point out that I did kinda try a two-for-one deal with the character of Veronica (Navarre/Jagen), though I will admit she has more in common with Titania than Jagen (loyal second-in-command/advisor/bff/growths-that-are-not-ass). If we're looking for classic call-backs, why not have a healer-type (say, a heron) working for the bandits, and slade is there as the bodyguard for said healer? Recruiting one will in turn unlock the other. I can even imagine a meeting between Slade and Veronica, where a rivalry is born. Just as Bedimal Eliwan said, branching out from a typical trope will usually add layers to a character. For example, the Suzaku are (at least in my head) kinda fastidious and arrogant, so what is he like in relation to those qualities? What do the rest of the bandits think of him? Also, let's hear about this healer that our Hawk mercenary will literally thrown down his weapon for. How do they know each other? One of the easiest ways to make a character more compelling and interesting is to give them a relationship of some kind with other characters. I don't mean to blast you with questions here, I just want to help make the character fit a little better into the theoretical game. In contrast, I like the entry for Nein (Neen? Nine? Is it like the German word for 'no?') just fine as it is. Perhaps he works for Ruganel, and Frey's posse meets up with him in the first or second chapter, and he can have a reunion with Barash and Dorgo where they talk about how he looks different than they remember, and he replies that they have changed very little, still acting like a couple of young knuckleheads. It fits naturally and easily.

If these are indicative of their final designs, this just continues to confirm that Rowlet may in fact be the most bad-ass starter of all time.

Sounds righteous! Now, as for really rough character ideas, I have a few that, should you fancy the chance, I would like to hear your take on: Woden the Tortoise, lord of the Genbu, other than being smart enough to know right away that Frey's plan is just crazy enough to work, is basically a blank slate. Slayne the Condor is a bandit lieutenant, but not really a total dickbag like your average bandit. That's as far as I got with him/her (see? not even a gender!). Stick the Fox is a sneaky mage. That is both a description of his class and the entirety of his character that I have written down. Nero the White Dragon is, other than being a wise old dragon mage, not terribly defined. Also, I need at least one example of each type of unit, and clearly I have not worked on most of them. If there is a unit type that intrigues you, or an archetype that needs representation and I haven't given any examples yet, feel free to pitch a character. The unit list is on the first page of the topic, so have a look. I can edit the characters post with new additions as we cook them up. Now, while we are between Books 1 and 2, is a good time to talk about a few odds and ends. First and foremost, I forgot to say how long Book 1 is. Whoops! I imagine it to be roughly 10 chapters long. This is the Great Gathering of the Stereotypes, so almost every chapter features somebody you can recruit either mid-battle or in dialogue afterwards. Starting after Chapter 1, between every major battle are base conversations, accessible via a menu option on the map. The 'base' command is also how you do your shopping. Base conversations unlock all kinds of fun stuff, like items and weapons! Why base conversations instead of random character moments, you ask? Because Path of Radiance illustrated the benefit of having some actual effort put forth to write actual conversations, not mad libs with interchangeable character names, that's why. Remember when you had to recruit Largo and Calill via base conversations? Those were great! Speaking of recruiting characters, there is at least one main secret character that can be recruited in Book 1. His name is Kin, the Purple Dragon. He is entirely optional, but he is also your only dancer, and also the only unit to have total ranged weapon triangle mastery. Considering all you have to do is not skip all the base conversations, I suppose he's not that secret, but since his existence is not widely known in-universe, I thought it made sense. Next, the Vilcoorian caravan will be able to move from place to place on a world map that gets more and more destroyed as the story marches on. An occasional random encounter can appear on places you've already visited. By the final chapter the ground itself will be breaking up and floating haphazardly into the sky. The clouds above are swirling into a massive vortex that almost looks like a great otherworldly eye. It should really be a mess that keeps getting worse. Finally, whoever Frey gives the mysterious orb to will not be able to sacrifice themselves at the altar of the Cosmic Gate, so hopefully the player chose their favorite among the 3 candidates. Starting in Book 2, the orb will grant a bonus based on the class of unit who was sacrificed to open the portal. If it was a bunch of old folks, there is no bonus. If it was one of the regular units (i.e: not Frey, Veronica, Ruganel, or Woden), it will grant a nominal bonus to the unit's 2 best stats (i.e: a bear would grant +2 STR and +5 HP, as well as +10% growth in both) as long as it is equipped. If it was one of your commanding units, there will be a pair of stat bonuses and a skill attached (Ruganel has a skill called Battlecry, Veronica has Adept, Woden has Body Blow, and Frey has Nihil). The skills are detailed below. Battlecry: Separate command on the unit's menu. Use 'battlecry' to grant all allies within 2 spaces +1 Move and +2 damage for 1 turn. Adept: SKL% chance for an extra attack, just like in Tellius. Body Blow: If user has higher defense than an opponent, deal extra damage based on the difference. Nihil: Disable enemy's battle skills (Pavise, Luna, etc.) just like in Tellius. If Frey chooses to sacrifice herself the recipient of the orb will be your new lord. Their class won't change title, but they do become the player's new point of view character. The consequences of this choice will be explored next time, in Book 2: Unwelcome. See you then!

Nope, no 2nd Gen. Descendants are for sequels, prequels, post-massacre time-skips, and time-travel. Dreams in the Dark would have (hopefully) none of that.

1. Skills are learned mostly through scrolls. Class-locked skills (like, say, avoid+) are learned through leveling, though. I was also planning on unlocking a bunch of skill scrolls through support conversations. 2. For total units I was thinking something in the ballpark of 60. For deployment slots the early chapters would typically range from 6-8, with a steady increase to 10-12 for most of midgame, and in the final chapters being generous and having a deploy limit of 16. All of these numbers include your lord character. 3. I've mostly been painting in broad strokes here, so most of my character ideas are vague and basic, but give me a day or so and I'll post several rough ideas. 4. With almost 60 units to account for, I don't know how if giving every single one of them a unique skill is a feasible idea, considering how completely useless a good deal of the personals in Fates are. I did imagine that almost everyone would start with at least one skill, but they could teach each other via supports. I'm not against the idea, I just don't feel like thinking up 60 personal skills and trying to make each and every single one at least mildly interesting and useful.

1. Weapon durability is more like FE4 than anything else. Most manmade weapons will have limited uses, but can be repaired by a blacksmith. Transformations have no durability issues. Also, forging will work differently, but more on that later. 2. Skills are Tellius style. Everyone has a skill capacity. Promoted (or special) units have a bigger cap, and better skills take more to equip. There are also special items that can permanently increase your skill capacity, but they are rare and in limited supply, just like every other stat booster. Also, most classes have a class skill that cannot be removed, but also doesn't eat into their capacity. 3. Weapon triangle is Fates-style. Transformations work on a separate triangle: Beasts>Birds>Scalies. Dragons remain separate, because they are special snowflakes. Also, the Genbu tribe is a type that replaces Armor types for the purposes of weaknesses. There will be specialized weapons that deal effective damage to the different unit types, like beast lances, armordeep/dragonslayer swords, all bows against Suzaku, etc. 4. Promotion is handled with master seals and leveling past 20, also Tellius-style. There are also a couple of items that give a unit a special promotion, similar to how the Dread Scroll and Wedding Bouquet in Awakening worked.

I'm glad you are enjoying it! Hopefully the rest of the story won't disappoint. Sorry for the wait between posts. The computers at the school where I work got an annual OS update and hard drive cleaning, so I had to spend some time moving work files onto the server, and then I had to find a backup of the file with all my notes on it. I've got more on the way, so please be patient.

Valkyrie Maribelle with Sol. Because why not? Also, swordmaster Lon'qu with armsthrift. I know everyone likes assassins better, but I remain ride-or-die for swordmasters!

Dude! You are a LEGEND for all this hard work! Since moving to Hokkaido I found old copies of Tear Ring and Berwick (only one of each, so it must have been destiny) at a nearby used games store, and I've been praying for someone to do a real-ass translation for them! I already have pcsx2! Woohoo!

Okay, story time! Here's a brief mission statement of sorts, followed by a little bit of more in-depth brain vomit: The story plays out in a few separate "books." Book 1 is set on a dying world that has been ravaged by war and eldritch abominations, called Vilcoor (ヴィルクア). It represents what would happen if the bad guys won in a typical Fire Emblem plot. Supernatural storms rake lightning across the landscape. Monsters walk (or fly, or just shamble) freely, killing and devouring anything and anyone they come across. The people of this destroyed world have adapted to become beastlike themselves after many generations of exposure to the wild magic that permeates the air itself (think Laguz). There are four tribes still alive, each named after its first ruler: Suzaku (the wing tribe), Byakko (Beast tribe), Genbu (the Deep tribe), and Seiryu (the Dragon tribe). Our first protagonist is a young woman (by the standards of her people) of the Seiryu tribe. Her parents, the king and queen of these blasted lands, have recently fallen in a battle to destroy the source of the great evil and stop the apocalypse. With their mission a failure she is faced with an impossible task: Save her kingdom, or at the very least save her people. With her most trusted bodyguard (A swordswoman of the wing tribe) at her side she sets out to gather the scattered clans of survivors and make use of the very same portal that brought the ancient evil to her world, and find a new home. The catch, of course, is that to open this gateway, a sacrifice of sufficient life force is required. Solving this problem will be one of a few important choices the player must make over the course of the game. Once that mission is accomplished the player must choose a new Lord. There are chieftains of a few clans to choose from, each representing a different unit type: The swordfighter bodyguard from Book 1, a reckless lion man, and a tankalicious tortoise. Each of these characters has their own story beyond the dragon's gate in which their people arrive on a new, unfamiliar world and must adapt while fighting off the attacks of that world's natives. Each book will have a complete arc (around 10-15 chapters) and credits will roll. The main themes are sacrifice and choice. Once you have completed every book, another lord becomes available, and in their story, titled Extra Book: Finale, the cast is reunited. There will also be a new ending if you play through the whole game again after beating it, in which some dialogue is changed and a few major events offer new options for the choices you have to make. Book 1 starts out in a fairly typical manner. Our Heroine, Frey of the Seiryu, broods by herself. She stands atop a great mountain and observes the ruin that was once her world. Extreme and unpredictable weather has obliterated any arable land. Worse yet, the ground itself has begun breaking apart and slowly being sucked into the endless, swirling mass of clouds in the sky. How did this misfortune come to pass? Why, with all of her strength and knowledge, can she do nothing to stop it? She greets her trusty bodyguard and best friend, Veronica the Swordmaster of the Suzaku, as she approaches, and they share a few words before descending into the mountain’s caves to confer with the royal advisors. Matters are as dire as they feared. Their food stores are all but empty. Their wells have gone dry. They have retreated from their ruined cities and made homes in caves, or anywhere else that can weather the rampage of the elements. If something is not done they will all be dead in less than a year. Frey hatches a plan for an exodus beyond the outrealm gate, and declares that anyone who wants to live will follow her. She will need the wisest and bravest at her side if she is to expect success in her journey. The plan is initially scoffed at, but after conferring among themselves, the sages are unable to imagine a better idea. Thus, preparations for the great journey begin. Missives are sent across the land, or what remains of it, to the known enclaves of the last survivors of Vilcoor. Whenever and wherever possible, signs are posted announcing an official emigration mission. Everyone who is able is encouraged to pack up and join the expedition: Young, old, strong, and weak. (This will be an important factor in a gameplay mechanic involving management of your followers over the course of the game. Through various decisions as its leader you'll unlock or lose items, equipment, one or two extra options for an important plot-related decision down the line, even some recruitable characters later in the game. The last remnants of a kingdom are more than just its most able fighters, after all.) Along the way are several encounters that must be overcome. Brigands and opportunists that see the departing expedition as easy prey must be fended off, and more often than not, when Frey's emissaries arrive at an enclave with their ludicrous claims, the situation quickly escalates to armed conflict. Vilcoor's people are a fierce lot that don't trust easily, and are even less likely to just give in to the demands of a royal family that they have barely paid lip-service to in the past. Veronica's family lead a village of Suzaku who have always been on amenable terms with Frey's family in the past, and they gladly join up. However, at least one other community think they are safe enough in the skies, and can remain untouched by the worldwide devastation. Frey can insist that they won't escape death without her, or tell them to have a nice doom. Refusing to leave without them leads to a battle. Woden, the tortoise chieftain of the Deep tribe, knows that the oceans and rivers that his people have made their homes in are boiling, freezing, drying up, or becoming so poisonous that no living thing can survive in them any longer. Strong racial prejudice, however, causes several soldiers guarding the expedition to attack on sight, leading to a mess that must be mediated with care. The Byakko, prehaps the most populous of the remaining tribes, are varying degrees between neutral and hostile in their interactions. Many believe that their leader, the mighty Ruganel the golden lion, should be the king of Vilcoor, and Frey had in fact named him as a possible successor in the event of her demise. Some of the Beast tribe are all too eager to be the catalyst for what they consider to be an eventuality. Strangely enough, Ruganel himself is much more agreeable to the idea of an exodus. Whether it is because his father warned him of a coming apocalypse, or that he simply acknowledges Frey's power, is a topic of much discussion and argument over campfires and libations. There are other mixed groups of survivors huddled together against the growing darkness, bound by the necessity of strength in numbers rather than any racial ties: The nomadic band of merchants, a group of outlaws who live by a self-defined code that conveniently allows for theft in the name of protection and providing for each other, and other Vilcoorians who are just desperate for a chance to keep living by any means necessary. Frey and her retinue set out from their mountain castle at the beginning of spring. Throughout their trek across the lands, Frey and the others will often talk about what how the season used to be a time of renewal, when plants would seemingly bloom to life after the cold silence of winter. Frey expresses mild envy at the others because they had more time to enjoy the seasons before everything went downhill. It is revealed that, except for a few of the oldest sages in the caravan, no one else remembers a time before the cataclysm. Even though she looks between 18 to 23 years old, Frey is actually 378, and one of the oldest Vilcoorians alive. Veronica makes a jab at her for being kind of a brat and an old lady at the same time, and everyone in her retinue has a brief laugh before she gives them a sinister smile, saying, "You think that's funny, do you?" By the midsummer they an ancient shrine that houses a massive archway called the Cosmic Gateway. This is their destination, and the first great hurdle they must overcome. It is said to be cursed ground, where the spirits of the dead wander with resentment for the living. Several spirits of dead Vilcoorians guard the gate, and must be slain to gain access. The boss of the ghostly foes is an undead dragon that looks like the remains of two corpses partially merged. It can move and attack twice in one round and in combat it fights as if with a brave weapon. Upon defeat its body simply melts away, leaving behind an orb not unlike a giant pearl. It makes Frey physically ill to even touch it, so she opts to give it to one of her inner circle. The player then chooses either Veronica, Ruganel, or Woden to hold onto it. That task done, the group turns to the gate and finds an inscription that reads like instructions for the Cosmic Gateway, but written with such excessive poetic flourish and obtuse reverence that they can only make out one fact: The gate is powered by the life force of a sacrifice. Frey must then make a difficult decision: who has to die so that everyone else might live? Their are several volunteers. Anyone who has achieved a support level of at least C with Frey will immediately offer their life. The message gets out among the people of the caravan, and several elders come forward, saying that there should be enough life left in each of them that if they all sacrifice themselves, the gate should open for a brief period, though they don't know if their will be enough time for everyone to make it through. Finally, Frey can also choose to give her own life for the sake of her kingdom. Everyone in the army will object, especially Veronica, who was the first to offer her own life instead. Whoever the player chooses will step up to a podium that stands before the Cosmic Gate and place their hands on a pair of inset spheres that begin to glow. Their body will almost immediately slump over, lifeless, and the arch will crackle with power. Glowing runes appear in the air and a great vortex slowly swirls into being, like pulling the plug out of the air itself. With a great clap of thunder and a wave of force that shoves those gathered before it away, the gate opens. The Vilcoorians step through the chaotic vortex, and the screen fades to white, with only a message in the center: Book 1 End More next time!

Here's an opinion I basically never see: I'd be perfectly happy to not see another game starring Marth for a long time. He's had four games, and the last two were just remakes of 1 and 3, itself a semi-remake of 1. I have had quite enough of the original generic blue-haired prince. His almost complete lack of interesting personality traits is mainly a result of the era in which he originated, I know, but if (more likely when) he makes another appearance, taking up yet another spot that could have gone to Gaiden or either of the Judgral games, I hope there is some major writing done to update his character. It says something when I find Katie Tiedrich's parody of him more compelling and interesting than the real thing. I should point out that I am not discounting Ms. Tiedrich's considerable artistic and comedic talents. You should all go read Awkward Zombie if you haven't already. That comic is dope as hell.

If you want to think up some stuff, be my guest! My main request is that you try and keep them relatively balanced for a Fire Emblem game. That is, at its heart, what I was trying to imagine. Also, removing the stat debuffs from knives and shuriken is one good step towards balancing them, but I was thinking maybe instead that they also didn't naturally grant +2 speed across the board. that kind of stat boost with no drawback is normally reserved for sacred or legendary weapons. Couple that with the fact that (at least in Fates) the classes that are proficient with them are already naturally fast makes it a little overkill. It might also be worth it to specify that certain hidden weapons are 2-range only, and others are 1-range only, and a few of them can do 1-2 range, but with the same brutal drawbacks that other 1-2 range weapons are subject to (no doubling, no skills, etc.). If magic continues to be the main 1-2 range weapon, that is fine by me. In short: universal 1-2 range is really good by itself. Debuffing power is a little crazy, but by itself more interesting than game-breaking. +2 speed in an environment where doubling has been made harder in general is pretty powerful as well. But combining all three of these factors into a whole category of weapon? That is a first-class voucher for a ticket to nerf city in my book. But anyway, I think that's enough typeface about Fates' new weapons, even if I think they should be in my little theoretical game. I'm off to find that text file with all my story notes on it!