Saint Rubenio

Yeah, of course, but still. In the All Stars + World with the Newgrounds Luigi sprite (you know the one), they went the extra mile of making sprites for Luigi doing the castle destruction gags, but they still had the text say "Mario"! What gives, Miyamoto? You got two sons!

I appreciate this. It doesn't call it "Mario's party" like Mario World did. That was always so funny. Mario selflessly gives Luigi all his lives and proceeds to trip over a Koopa and die, and the narration after each castle still claims Mario did anything when it was all Loogi. Truly, the future is now. No, I'm talking mainline series here. SRPGs.

Oh boy. I hope this, the thrilling conclusion, does not have yet another fucking Loptyr recolor with the exact same fucking combat dialogue ...Honestly, I'm amping up the angery for dramatic effect here. This isn't my least favorite map in the game (that'd have to be Silesse, probably) but I find it so funny (derogatory) that the final chapter of the game pulled this. I guess you can make a point of it showing just how deep Manfroy's influence runs when every other castle has a recolor sitting on it but... C'mon, at least give them different quotes than just three consecutive "Lord Julius... Please forgive me..." It happened to me. I am not disappointed. I'll say, rather cathartic to watch after my run where he couldn't even be defeated. Alas, such a tragedy, the life of... no wait, I already made this joke... Uhh... Uh... Monty Python! 'Tis but a scratch! I just like how this literally is just proto-Jahn. ...Except Jahn was a comparatively smaller part of the game. This is the equivalent of the entire Bern arc being Jahn delivering nuggets of exposition to Roy for every castle he seizes. Lewyn is an asshole. Did you not get enough proof of that? He inherited his looks, exactly, but he didn't inherit any of his holy blood. Dude drew the short biological straw, huh... This one isn't even a fucking good recolor. Why is his robe's brightest color blue, but the shadow colors are red? Ah yeah, there he is. Palmark 2. Instead of being a confidante of Sigurd we never saw that saved some children, he's a confidante of Arvis we never saw that saved some children. He is also Spanish! I wouldn't if the onscreen Ishtar didn't gleefully get into murder competitions with her boyfriend, Satan! Once again, brain moment. Seriously why are there so many recolors in the final chapter? If the game had come out 20 years later we would've gotten Travant discourse.

On a completely unrelated note that has nothign to do with what I was talking about before, I have finally got around to trying out Mario Wonder. Yeah, it's as fun as it seemed to be. Honestly, good. I needed a bit of bright lackadaisy after all these months of writing evil people doing evil things. Ah, well. You know. Fire Emblem 18.

Wow there's even a certain game that runs like a dream. No stutters, no issues, nothing at all, it just chugs along. Fucking Yuzu deserves to rot where it is.

Dang, the other Switch emulator has improved so much in the past year. Where Engage stuttered like mad last year in that emu, the stuttering is now minimal. Heck, from the five-minute test I ran, it seems to run better than Fates did on Citra now! Not bad. Yuzu who, again?

I mean, it takes all of five minutes to get a glimpse of Luca. I will say, the intro is really good and definitely makes an impression. If the translation wasn't what it is and the game required a braincell to be played I probably would have gotten more into it, because there's a very good story in there. At least FE4 benefitted from having a fanslation made in the 2010s instead of a godawful official translation made in 199X like Suikoden. Project Naga actually feels like the person who wrote it knows how to write.

Better that way, I won't lie. I played it like, 8 months ago? Something like that? ...my conclusion was that these games indeed do need remakes.

Ehh, I'm not sure if I'd call it huge, to be honest. Most runs I tend to get it and then I proceed to use it like, once? ...In fact, I often have Owen use it instead lmao Anyway, even if you want the orb that badly, she promotes very easily. She has a couple chapters of head-start, plus 5-main, then you can just deploy her in a few sidequests and she gets there without much trouble at all. I've done it a few times.

This is going to be really funny when we get to the ending. Anyway, I do like how they just sort of go "oh by the way these countries you knew from before are also free now." I can't really fault them for this, though - having return chapters to these places would just feel excessive. Best to just handwave away. Dere it is. Brain moment. And yeah, people usually pin it on Manfroy but Julius just goes with it because we need the villains to become dumb so we can actually win. You know how else we could've won? By not having the random-ass kidnapping happen, so this problem doesn't exist. Oh boy. I sure hope this, the thrilling conclusion, won't be one of the dullest chapters in the game. I won't lie - when I saw the sleep army, I just gave up on the game and threw Ares at the problem until it stopped existing. By this point I was running on fumes. Oh boy. I sure hope this, the thrilling conclusion, won't consist of a guy on top of castles, over and over. We got trouble? I do like how this guy is just confused. This is probably the most interesting part of the chapter. Brian is a legitimate menace. This man is scarier than fucking Julius and Manfroy are - in fact, in my run, with Ares and the other good units in the frontlines, I had nobody that could defend Chalphy from him. So I had to use my benchies to buy time until I could seize the earth under him and make him disappear. It cost Roddelbahn or whatever's life. No big deal. Hannibalspeed indeed. And this isn't even my craziest thing! I've got just the video for Thracia. ...By the way, since we're coming closer to Thracia... Er, I have a feeling I might've already said it, but I'll say it again just in case: I extend to you Hicks. Please do try to use my guy, Hicks. That is all for this game. He's just a silly little guy. Doing silly little guy things.

Personally, the only maps where I've ever wished Owen could stay for longer are 9-main and the one you mention - and even those can be done fast enough, I'm just not the best player haha. Anyway, point is, that's 2 maps out of 41. Every other map, either the action is basically over by turn 20 unless you're going extremely slow, or it's an escape map and his gimmick is a legitimate upside. Even if you don't have him escape on turn 20, he can't be captured or killed by enemies after he turns, and he just comes back after the map is over. I've used this more than a few times to my advantage. And then there's all his other strengths, like being able to use all magic types in a pinch if you need him to, high-power healing with no investment, low recruitment cost, easy recruitment conditions (the thing you mentioned about him turning on you in chapter 12-1 if he's not recruited is not true), being invulnerable to crippling, his giant assortment of great utility orbs only he can use for almost the entire game... B- still sounds a mite low, I won't lie. That places him right next to the likes of Marcel, Daoud and Adel in your list. Dude is a really versatile unit that can offer tons of support and even some utility combat for a very low price. It's, uh... just a bit of weirdness to expedite his recruitment cutscene. That's basically it lol, just Kaga being Kaga.

This isn't an unpopular take. It probably is better how they do it in modern FE. Instead of jarring battle themes interrupting the map songs, there are "intense" versions of the map themes that the game seamlessly switches to when a battle starts. In the last two FEs boss themes even continue playing after a boss is first fought until they die, which is better than hearing the first two notes of the boss theme over and over.

IntSys? Take notes. Well, that. That took a turn. ...huh. Lundgren has such a funny face. Palmark's been working three jobs for 20 years to earn the money. I'll actually be interested in seeing this, because in my run... Uh, well... I like these Lopt cultists just hanging out in the arena. Damn, Manfroy really did get his paws on every corner of the continent. Even the arena is within his grasp! Kaga was really proud of his theme and was afraid you'd miss it. So here he put... this scene that is impossible to get unless you read a guide. Lewyn, she has been kidnapped by evil cultists and, following all logic and reason, is currently lying in a shallow grave. And now for the grand finale. I have thoughts about it. I will wait to share them until the time is right. It's really funny because then Kaga does it again in Thracia 776. It's like he thinks being a nobleman is some sort of inherent trait that naturally sets a person apart from everyone around them, even if they grow up in identical circumstances. Can I just drop a take hot as vallflame? I don't particularly like this theme. I don't know, it feels a mite too... chipper? For the occasion? I feel like this kinda would've fit Travant better. Arvis should've had a more somber theme. Plot twist: Hannibal's husband lives in his beard. That's why he's never seen. Yeah, not like Garon, who's just an evil child-murdering king with exactly two cronies that he has do everything.

Guess we'll see. Sometimes they come out right. Bloodstained was pretty good. It'll see some success just on the basis of being Suikoden 1&2's remake. People love buying the thing they played in their childhood again, regardless of the merits of the remake itself. ...Not that I'm against remakes on principle. Sometimes they're a nice upgrade, and in this case I'd argue it's almost necessary, because... Well, you may recall from when I tried them out, but Suikoden 1&2 do not have a translation that meets modern standards at all. It's complete garbage and totally distracting unless you're playing it as a child who doesn't know better. Considering these are JRPGs, and JRPGs with particularly awful combat while at that, the story is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and having a translation that is not shit will significantly benefit them for anyone who isn't already nostalgic for them. That's really all they need to do - improving the combat and difficulty would be cool but I'm not holding my breath on that one. I'm not the target audience of JRPGs.

I mean, this is basically Suikoden 6. Or 7? Whichever one would've come next. The only thing Eiyuden lacked was the name, because I'm pretty sure all the major folks behind Suikoden were in this project. Conversely, Konami basically only has the brand name left, which is why they're only doing a remake of the thing they legally own. Anyway, yeah, it does seem like they might've been playing things a tad safe, just do "Suikoden again" for the new generation. I should look into how the famous hard mode functions. What I liked about that old fangame, Exit Fate, is that it was challenging enough that I had to think, even in random encounters. They weren't like, hard, but I at least had to think a little bit, and the animations were very fast while being nice to look at, so the result was battles that went by in a breeze but were a smidge less boring than your average JRPG random encounter. Not to mention you could just bribe them without going into battle, it was all just very fast, very smooth to play.

Kind of worrisome, hearing that and thinking back to my less than ideal experience with Suikoden. Classic Switch. I wonder how it runs on the Steam Deck!

Hah, true enough. ...Actually? Yeah, this'd be the perfect place to implement Saias. This is why Sharlow is amazing. There was also a perfect opportunity to introduce Palmark so he doesn't feel quite so out-of-left-field. He's a servant of Chalphy. It's implied he's been serving Chalphy for decades. So... why not have him show up in the very first cutscene? Just a quick appearance, where Sigurd tells him to stay and take care of things at home while he's gone because he trusts him the most to do it. 9 chapters later, he resurfaces and the observant player goes "hey I remember him, I know him!" instead of "lmao they just made a guy up for this." It is indeed Biran... In the Spanish version. He grew up to be an upstanding, kind-hearted leader that ruled fairly and justly over his people. He even adopted a young orphan and made her his heir! The effect is definitely good, but it could've been great if it had more time to sink in. Instead the game meanders with boring-ass bossmen for a bit too long.

Always a pleasure to see more people play and enjoy Berwick Saga. As for the list, it's fine. I'm of the opinion that everyone is usable in Berwick Saga, and only two units can really be described as "bad", at least by the usual standards of other FE and FE-adjacent games (there's certainly no Wendies or Bantus here). I think my biggest disagreement so far is that Owen is just... not here? Presumably he'll be in one of the lower tiers when the list is continued, placing him below Izerna. However, Owen has far higher base magic and light rank, far higher level combined with expert (he only needs a handful of levels to use fortify), starts with an array of great orbs that only he can use for most of the game, is one of the cheapest mercenaries and he can even shoot a fireball or two in an emergency. Not only that, his gimmick is a non-issue in most maps, and outright helpful in escape maps, which are decently common in this game. I'd argue he's the best healer in the game, and Izerna takes a long time to get to where he starts.

Once again, what makes Arvis less effective than he could've been is that this is his third ever scene in the game. He's not forgettable, not after the barbeque, but he kinda would've liked to have a bit more time so they didn't have to cram literally all of his gen 2 character traits (regretful, humbled, unconcerned with personal risk if it means atoning for his actions, latching on to his titles in a desperate attempt to retain what little power he's got left, afraid of Julius, afraid of even Manfroy) into the one cutscene. Villain thinks hero is going to do nothing. What else is new? I do really like the visual effect of Lopto blood. Interface horror is seriously underrated. It gets you where you're not expecting it. Fortunately, next chapter is the final chapter in the game, and there's no way they'd drop a whole brigade of generics in succession. That must've been SUPER long ago, considering we never even saw him when Sigurd was the protagonist of the game lol I almost would've better if he was kinda weak as a boss. That is the thing that makes him good. Could've been great if he had more than three scenes in the game, but he's definitely good. Get Hawke while you're at it.

Er... I can't say I remember lol

He would've needed to talk to someone for that to happen. And we all know he became mute over the past 20 years. Next you'll tell me he has emotions. Real men aren't like that!! He's one of the best, I agree. Going out on a high note, because he's the final John Constipatius. ...instead, the final map showcases far, far, far worse portrait reuse. Oh, she cared about Blume and Ishtore at least a little bit? Huh. I didn't think she cared about anyone at all. Okay but this battle convo is amazing, though. We need more Hildas in this series. ...just, y'know, not how IntSys did it. This is really bad wording, Leif. lol lmao even Poor, poor Arden... Yes, but see, Deirdre is a woman, so she can't be the important one. She'd probably rather die going "fuck you" or something. They didn't, but Arden helped them to the end anyway, because Arden was a true hero. Oh that's lovely. Imagine, he just starts bonking people on the head with Hannibal's berserk staff while the man looks on with a tear on his eye like "that's my boy."

Yeah, you know, Aida should absolutely have been the boss of Miletos, actually. They literally did it with an "as you know," lol

Hang in there, Carrefour.

Do not be ashamed. I won't lie, it kinda feels like a filler place. They needed land between Thracia and Arvis for build-up so they just threw Miletos in there. It'd be neat if she was a Miletos royal and that's how she ended up being queen of the place lol And thinking about it, the only character that comes to mind that's black-haired but isn't from Isaach is Asaello. Even Carcino from Sacred Stones isn't this bad off. Even if it's really easy to forget Rennac is from there because he's far easier to associate to the Rausten gang.

I can see the appeal.