henrymidfields

Pokemon Shield, with GameFreak developing the game. To be honest, I think it's going to be a Fire Emblem Heroes x Pokemon Masters crossover, with FE characters being Pokemon Trainers. Definitely lighter and softer than the main FE game, but darker and edgier than Pokemon.

Totally agree with your points on Yukiko, Kanji, and Naoto:

As the title says, what are your memories or highlights you had with your favorite games, or ones you had better enjoyment with? Maybe it's a title that (re-)introduced you to the franchise, or maybe you enjoyed one or several particularly hilarious/poignant/awesome moment(s). Or maybe it's something that wasn't even good, but had scenes that were so bad it was hilarious. Just for the record, I will allow spoilers in your posts. Here are my take on it:

I did notice this most with TMSFE, actually. It would have been way better if there was an underlying reason why Itsuki was dense as he was. Though, now that I think about it, maybe he's one of those people who just didn't have a life outside of being forced to study and get into a good university by his strict parents and all? (which isn't uncommon in Japan, considering P4 and 5 showed with Shu and Makoto respectively) I think it's more about the power of friendship manifesting as some kind of magical-power that's the problem. On the other hand, I love Persona 3-4 and its depiction of friendship and trust, because it shows how people come to trust each other, how they work together, and how things can be achieved when people bring out the best in each other. And it also shows a gradual progression of nurturing trust too.

@Jotari: Actually, now that I think about it. I'm wondering if TWISTD is less like a standing army proper and more like a asymmetrical force. I know that, true to their name, they mainly do their activities not in the open, but more in the shadows, hence the name. I'm starting to think their modus operandi is more like Northern Vietnamese Communists, Al-Quaeda and Taliban, mixed with the CIA or Soviet Spies (was it the KGB?) and the political arm of ISIS - they're generally weaker fighting out in the open, but better with sabotage, guerilla warfare, misinformation and stuff that doesn't require pure strength in numbers or firepower. I remember sometime ago either you or another member we discussed with about how bizarre and out of left field Chapter 16's Javelins of Light was. Maybe if this was mass poisoning (sabotage with rations), assasination attempts at the generals etc, or some other sabotage that looked more mundane but still disrupting, it would at least give better consistency in their modus operandi. And in Silver Snow and Verdant Wind, maybe they should only rediscover the Javelins in the final 1-3 chapters and decided to use them straight away. My impression is that CF is one of the cases where TWISTD isn't as powerful, if anything. The agarthan monsters are absent from CF's Chapter 12 and onwards as opposed to other routes. While we can only really guess, I think it's at least canon-adjacent to say Edie there at least tries to limit TWISTD's activities and relies more on the Strike Force for key battles. @Ottservia: As for the crest suffering, well, there's already a lot of evidence from other characters of the misery of the crests. Mercedes and Sylvain are two that have been used as political tools because of their crests, Dorothea also became orphaned indirectly because of the crest system, Lysithea is another, and will glossed over, Alois is also negatively affected by his lack of Crests too. Then there's Byleth's controversy too. Particularly in Sylvain's case, the lack of post-battle discussion did bring up some of my yellow flags about whether Rhea truly had the society's best interests, or at least truly knew how to address why things were happening as they were. (This also goes with real-life as well; we'd want to know why people become radicalised and at least in Australia, I've seen this question pop up at least in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (think PBS or BBC) every now and then.) If I hear how the church mentions the crests are a blessing from the godess, yet see suffering in the form of institutional classicism as per mentioned, I would have questions myself. Hence why Rhea ends up having to resign one way or another (unless if you S-support her in SS).

While I'll have to follow up tomorrow, there are generally real reasons why you can't easily get rid of undesirable factions without blowback on your end. CGP Grey does an explanation of that which breaks down how power politics work My impression is that for whatever reason, the Agarthans at least had the political power to influence the government - I think they had the approval of the nobles - and while Edie would like to get rid of them, she is unable to because of the basic principles of political power as explained in the above video. It would also explain part of why postwar Germany had ex-Nazi members working in the government, and it'll also explain the same thing with postwar Japan rehiring former members of the prewar fascist government too. And as far as I am aware, I see nothing fundementally different with Edie's scenario.

Me too. It was nice to see how people would react to what was happening throughout the game. Come to think about it, there are two things that I really enjoyed with Three Houses: Koei Techmo calling on IS's bullshit addiction with male lord worship was just simply way overdue. Even though there were some rough edges around, I'm really glad Edelgard's story was the way it was, and I'm also glad that CYL voters voted for her. Hopefully this would be a wakeup call for IS to stop treating female lords as just some afterthought and start giving them the proper treatment in their own right. Yes, I don't have a massive problem with Edie waging war, at least not from a story-writing view. People did that for the majority of history for far more selfish reasons (*1), even the Catholic Church joined in on the fun (*2), and there's good evidence that sometimes fundemental change only happens with big upheavals on society. (*3) Besides, even if all of that wasn't the case, she's fictional. People need to calm down and just accept that it's just a story. I enjoyed having to walk around the monastery to find out info about Fodlan. It feels more like I'm being an archaeologist or a historian. *1 - Britain's Opium War against China, and the subsequent colonization of Hong Kong, which is now (or at least until last year) ironically cherished as the last bastion of democracy in China. *2 - As a general entry knowledge video, see The Pope Fights and The Pope Fights 2 from Overly Sarcastic. I'm sure there are other videos you can look up for further research about the politickings and warmongering Popes of the Catholic Church too. *3 - Modernization of Japan from the Boshin War; Revolutions of 1848 and gradual democratization of Europe from then on thanks to the Napoleonic Wars; and how economic inequality in general can only be erased from any traumatic event. I don't think Three Houses (or at least Crimson Flower) is as easy as people says - at least with Normal Mode. There are a lot of factors at play with the damage and hit calculations, and there is also the absurdly powerful weapons enemies (former classmates) use against you. Come to think about it, I think I ended up not resetting as much with Fates Conquest than I divine-pulsed with Crimson Flower.

I know this is probably not a good simulator example, but have anyone played as the Japanese for Hearts of Iron? How easy or difficult was making nukes as the Japanese there?

There's also the other point that Japan had her own nuclear program during the War. And theoretically it could, since an area within present-day North Korea has uranium deposits. And even today, it still can, due to the economic and technological capacity. The thing that is stopping Japan from developing the bomb would be the how much of a PR suicide this will be. Even today, it still is the best way to be voted out of office, and it probably also a good way to make bigger enemies out of China and Russia, and it might even be a way to make enemies out of USA and Japan's other allies.

Another tinderbox from a Japanese. This one goes both ways: What the Left would hate: I'm for amending Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution to allow some form of military action (or at least remove ambiguity with self-defense)... What the Right would probably hate: ...but I'm against the current amendment from the Liberal Democrats. Given our poor track record in World War 2 (ironically we were better with following the Conventions pre-1930s) and our chauvinistic tendencies, the new article should add and emphasize Japan's obligations to abide to the international Laws and Customs of War, and it should also explicitly state that war should be an option of last resort, and diplomatic efforts should be prioritised where possible. I also distrust the pro-amendment factions due to their undervaluing of Article 9 in the past, because it really brought up our standards of living by allowing us to focus on economic development, and kept us out of most major conflicts as far as I've known. (Which is ironic considering our military spending in absolute terms is actually within the Top 10.)

The Soviets planned to do that with Hokkaido. I've checked one source cited in Wikipedia, and the extra time the Soviets would gain from such a blockade probably wouldn't have helped all that much. Yes, the proposed invasion was planned too late, and yes because the Americans opposed it, but also the Soviets proved less than capable at their first amphibious assault on one of the Kuril Islands, losing a good deal of (see page 158 of this journal) what little immediate naval capability they had (page 156-57 of the aforementioned journal). Half of Hokkaido was what they thought as a realistic expectation (page 157) - Honshu was completely off the table for them (page 155). And to some extent, the Americans were aware of that because of the negotiations between Truman and Stalin. There are other weaknesses at play, including how to procure the resources and the forces needed when most of them were busy occupying Eastern Europe and Germany, the potential chokepoint in the form of a Japanese pre-emptive strike on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Manchuria, not to mention how the main part of Russia was in such bad shape after Operation Barbarossa. The only way they could realistically take half of Japan would be if the US invited them. So yeah, I still will have to say the bombs had a fair amount to to do with Japan. Especially when I also consider the Purple Hearts medallions that were made for the cancelled Operation Downfall are still being issued to this day!

Now that I think about it, it would be good if a Binding Blade Echoes have this level of strategic complexity. Because of how Fates Conquest makes it clear that high stats aren't necessarily be-all and end-all, it makes a lot of units more viable (which has bigger and more widespread stat disparity compared to the enemy) while making the likes of Rutger and Miledy actually requiring some planning to use them effectively. It also might allow a case of Roy actually being a Utility-Tactician Lord too.

I agree with all of the above, particularly how Enemy Skills and debuffs de-emphasises the "typical mindless approach". I will also say that Dual Strike makes the game very friendly to babying Ests. In most other games, you had to go out of your way for an Est to attack an enemy. At best, accuracy issues against higher-levelled enemies are a thing even outside of Binding Blade, and a miss means they only get one measly EXP. At worst, if the enemy can counterattack, then the Est also have a likely chance to get killed in return. Thankfully, with my Mozu in Conquest, I could have her be a dual strike partner with her higher-levelled ally being the main attacker, she gains a decent amount of experience (not sure if she misses). It also helps that her accuracy is boosted from the Dual Strike anyway, and she can reasonably provide the support fire outside of the enemy's range. Then there's also the fact that whatever EXP she gains is further boosted thanks to Fates Conquest adding EXP bonus multipliers for low-levelled units like how experience is scaled depending on level differences like in Pokemon BW or SM. Because of all of this, even though Mozu started at Lv 1 in her Paralogue, as opposed to most of my other units being Lv 6-7, she was only 1-2 levels lower to the rest of my party units by the time I finished that particular chapter. Once I reclassed her to be a Sniper, she ended up being Simo Hayaa with 40-50% critical rate, and a near-guarranteed 100% accuracy when most of my units in Conquest fluctuated everywhere. Vs Kaden in the Kitsune chapter was particularly bad - everyone had 70% accuracy at best...except for her, the only unit to have 100%.

Writing the Awakening kids in and writing their mischiefs depicted in the intermission between Chapter 24 and 25 were a lot of fun! Otherwise, I had a blast at writing Selena as an stereotypical Aussie Digger tsundere.

Endgame: Kyujo Incident – Takumi’s Revenge: The Battle ...Now for the ending!!!! Stats: Final Results ...

Meh. That's more just different heads from different regiments talking to each other. Hardly ridiculous compared to a tiny-ass size of what I can barely describe as a full size regiment somehow coming on top like Blazing Blade. I didn't even notice this until someone nitpicked it for me. Some things are bound to change, and I'd be happy to fucking get over it.

I meant more like not doing that particular route at all considering the chapters are not only mostly the same as Verdant Wind, but even has a chaptet missing. I don't know about you, but I generally take breaks every now and then. By the time I finish a game (or reach the final boss in the main story of a Pokemon game), I generally spend 80+ hours. Playing something nine days straight would not only be just pure torture for me, it wouldn't give me enough time to finish a game either. Even with me currently playing Pokemon Shield, I can only last four hours at most, and to be honest, it's for the best. I ended up taking an entire year to finish CF, although that was because I'm an adult with actual commitments, so it was more like one session per week, and mixing it up with other games.

I did one fanfic draft that retained and reimagined Ash after Gen 3. It got lost when Bulbagarden did an overhaul with the Blog system, but here how my retrospective wish-list went: OS (RBY and GS) - Act 1 and 2 Ash: As the main trainer Misty/Brock: As his mentors/buddies AG (RSE) - Act 3 Ash becomes the mentor to Brendan, and he's grown up 2-3 years. He's also the trainer Lance sent, and Steven summoned to investigate Teams Aqua and Magma. Brendan is the even dumber counterpart to OS!Ash. May is the same as vanilla. FRLG - Act 4 Ash comes second in his retry for the Kanto League. Brendan goes for his Battle Frontier trials. The two team up with Misty, Brock, and Sabrina to battle TR in the Silph Tower takeover. DPPt - Act 5 Brendan mentors Lucas, who is a smart yet timid trainer. Dawn is the same as vanilla. Lance and Ash meets the trio from time to time in investigating Team Galactic. HGSS - Act 6 Lance, Ash, Misty, and Brock's battle against Team Rocket. Giovanni tries to take Mewtwo again, but fails, and is put to prison. Team Rocket is dissolved. Ash wins the Johto League, but loses against the first Elite Four boss. Meanwhile, Drayden visits Kanto, and asks Lance if he could send Ash to Unova. BW1+2 - Act 7 Ash once again, gets sent to Unova to investigate Team Plasma. He does his job and training alongside Hilda and Hilbert, and he also mentors Iris and Cilan. Hildabert reminices their first adventure and their previous encounter with Team Plasma. Iris and Cilan are the two trainers to participate in the Leagues as instructed by their respective gyms. Ash meets up with past gym leaders for the World Tournament, and also meets Diantha and Serena. He then trains for, and wins the four Elite matches. XY - Act 8 Diantha asks Lance to send Ash into Kalos. Ash and Serena (as childhood friends) travels around Kalos together, both to train, and to investigate Team Flare. They also mentor Trevor, Tierno, and Shauna from time to time. After they take down Team Flare, Serena wins the Kalos League, then proceeds to win the Elite Four. It is revealed that Brendan wins the championship match against Steven. Lance and Diantha invites the two to their joint-region championship battle as the finale to mark the 25th Anniversary. Ash and Serena wins the championships and becomes the new champion of their respective regions. SM - Act 9 Ash appears from time to time as a guest lecturer in Alola. Hilbert appears as an FBI special agent leader to investigate Lusamine. It's also revealed that Misty is invited to the Elite Four selection match after Agatha passed away, and Koga retires, and Lucas wins the Shinnoh League. SwSh - Act 10 Chloe and Goh are the two trainers to take on the League competition. Ash, Serena, Brendan, Cynthia, and Hilda returns for the Champions' League and battles each other.

I've noticed this being an problem that I've increasingly noticed here and elsewhere amongst a number of fans. Admittedly, the game is a lot longer per run than anything that comes before, but I also have to ask those same people: Have you thought about taking a break after each route? I mean, I just finished played CF, and while I've thoroughly enjoyed that, it ended up taking over 120 hours just to finish that route. So what am I doing next? Well I'm playing Pokemon Shield, just to break up the perceived monotony and mental excercise, then move over to VW. After that? Probably Final Fantasy 12, then AM. Just take a break, if it's that much of a torture. Also, I asked a number of people over at reddit, and the majority there just recommended skipping Silver Snow altogether. Admittedly you'll miss an S-support with Rhea, but Silver Snow has the same War Phase chapters as Verdant Wind, except one chapter missing and one changed somewhat. I'm a fan of Three Houses, but now I have the answers, even I think Silver Snow would just be a waste of time. I would just do Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, and just call it quits.

I further revised my next mock-LP/fanfic (Three Houses) I will do for Serenes. I decided to incorporate a modified VW Route with a lot of Photoshopping the footages to show the battle against the post-CF TWISTD instead of Adrestia proper. (And VW Chapter 17 will feature loyalist Faerghus remnants instead of Dimi's goons.) See the first spoiler tab of my original post. On a different note, I might also do an AM x SS version where the ending isn't as happy: Further update: I've completed the gameplay for my current LP!

Just quickly thought up of a quick silly one-page story for Sylvain! So what if Sylvain had a Valentine's Day disaster in Garreg Mach instead of Ren Amamiya in not-so-real-life Tokyo? Let's find out. Courtesy to awesome2464 who created Fodlan Frames, which I used in this story. Sunday Day 15 Pegasus Moon 1180 - Weather: Sunny So I started the day sleeping in and waking up well into mid-morning. Man, that date with the cute chick from yesterday was sure fun. I also managed to elude all of the other girls, at least for now... I thought I should just lay down low, stagger my dinner times, or even just have my meals here, and just laze around for the day. After all, I still feel somewhat hung over from all that refreshing drinks we had at the great hall. Or so I thought... Just then, there was a knock on the door. I tossed around the bed, trying to shut out the noise with my hands covering my ears, still groggy from yesterday. I held out for a minute or two, hoping that whoever was knocking on my door would give up. "Hey, Sylvain! Open the door!", a familiar voice shouted. But I wasn't going to give up so easily. I continued to lay down still for another two minutes, only to see the knocks getting harder. After another 30 seconds, to my shock, there was a blunt thud on the door, indicating someone was kicking it from their end. "Sylvain! For the love of everything good and holy, open the door now!" Clearly, the other person had no intention of giving up. "Who is it?" I grumbled back, more annoyed than dazed. "Dimitri. And you're in big trouble." I now realised that this was no joke. Dimi is sort of the person who you just can't mess with. And he doesn't do any favours either. I remember one time Dimi busted down Fel's door, and tightly grabbed Fel in his left arm and dragged him to Professor Seteth's office when Fel was laying down low for getting too excited in sparring, injuring a number of students in the process. I also remembered, there were a number of invitations for yesterday slipped underneath my door, and I still hadn't responded to any of the other ones. Coming over to the door, I noticed there were further letters slipped underneath between last night and this morning. I opened the door, and there he was, glaring at me. "Oh, morning, Dimi", I greeted nonchalantly. He glared at me. "Stop wasting my time, Sylvain. We need to talk. Right here, right now. What in Sothis's name did you do last night?!" "Oh, just had some fun with a girl. I mean, it's Valentine's Day after all, right?" I tried to keep it cool. "Don't play games with your house leader. They're looking for you as we speak. Consisting of three of our female students and a female professor. And they're infuriated." Suddenly, a female voice rang out along the hallway. "Excuse me!" Dimi's expression suddenly turned morose as he stared at the hallway's entrance. "...And outside the dormitory...is that?" I froze for a good two seconds there. This was it. There's no turning back. The girls all rushed right in, pushing me right into a corner. "So you already have a favorite!? I came to say hello yesterday...but when I looked in the window, you were with someone else...You dick!" Dorothea had her fiery glare whenever she faced off an enemy. And now that her glare was on me, the burn felt hotter. "...I saw the light on in here last night. Did you think you'd just try and trick this romantically impaired professor of yours?" Professor Byleth did the frosty gaze she always did when we misbehaved. Only that, I don't remember her gaze being this chilly the previous times she got me into detention... "I was worried about you, so I came to check on you yesterday...You could just said you were busy...if you had to lie about what you were doing..." I had to admit... I felt actually awful for Mercie now. EDIT: (15/PM/1890) And now when I look back through my diary, that was the last time I cheated on her. To this day, I still feel awful about it, and I am relieved that she gave me a second chance. "You're such a problem child...I left early yesterday to see how you were...and I saw you with someone else. What the fuck...?" Ingoe was growling and seething under her breath...as usual. And the accusations continued. "And here I came all this way for you..." Dorothea was sure great at guilt-tripping. "Take it, please." Wow. So to the point, Professor. "Take my chocolate, please before I crush it." I found Mercie's smile to be way more terrifying instead of the other three's frown. Maybe it has something to do with Annette's training axe that Mercie must had borrowed from and had besides her. "Hey, bozo! You can eat this, right? It's chocolate." Yeah, no shit, Miss Detective. Just then, Dimi yelled to me. "Hey, Sylvain! Say something to the girls!" Dammit, I thought. What am I supposed to say? "Please believe me."? "I was with Dimi."?? "I do want the chocolates."??? In the end, it didn't make any difference... "You're the scum of the earth!" I swear to the Goddess, Dorothea could cast Ragnarok just from her firery glare. "Are you making a fool of me!?" I also swear to the Goddess, our Professor could cast Fimbulvetr just from her frosty gaze. "Enough of this irresponsible behaviour!" When even Mercie gets angry, you know you really fucked up something. "Stop messing around, you fucking moron!" Yeah, again, no fucking shit, Ingoe. I thought I still had a chance to diffuse this situation. But Dimi was having none of it. "Professor, can I leave this entirely up to you? I've got things to attend." The Professor nodded as Dimi took his leave, leaving me to my own devices. She then turns back to me and the girls. "Girls? I shall grant you full permission to clobber this bastard! If anyone lodges a complaint against you, please explain to them that you were acting under my instructions. I will take full responsibility." Ouch. You really don't fuck around, do you, Professor. "As for you, Sylvain, we shall teach you to respect women and take fidelity seriously. One way or the other. If this is the only way you'll learn...so be it." And my fate was sealed. I disremember most of what happened after this, vaguely recalling seeing Dorothea armed with Meteor, Mercedes with Annette's axe, Ingrid with her lance, and the Professor with the Sword of the Creator before I somehow passed out. I somehow ended up in the infirmary a few hours later I woke up, and in Seteth's office for the rest of that day.

Absolutely agree with this too. It probably also helped Japan (and Europe as well once word got out on Fukuryu-maru, a number of close calls like the one accidental drop of one of the bombs on Spain, or Maralinga in Australia) being war-averse - which, considering what was going on pre-1945, is a good thing.

My biggest hot take? Well, if it's something that the rest of the Japanese would have problems with: The atomic bombings of either Hiroshima or Nagasaki at least was inevitable. As long as there are people who are going to drag the rest of Japanese society to the "fight until death" mentality, I'd be really surprised that will change. In fact, if the Kyujo Incident (Japanese: 宮城事件) attempted coup on the night before Japan's surrender is any indication, the two atomic bombs, the Soviet Invasion into Japanese-controlled Manchuria, and the Emperor Hirohito's decision might only have been barely enough for Japan's ministers and generals to see the writing on the wall. Do I think this can justify the US Government's decision? No. Does this negate any of the sufferings that people in Hiroshima or Nagasaki faced? No. Do I think that the above events are a lot greyer in ethics than how many fellow Japanese see it as? Yes, absolutely.

I might want to pick the DPPt remakes. DPPt and RSE are the only games I've missed, and while I have some cruicial intellectual/worldbuilding baggage against RSE/ORAS that make me refuse to touch that, I think can deal with DPPt+.

Meh, I'd take Three Houses supports over Fates or Awakening any day. There's some misses like Sylvain/Leonie, sure, and the pacing is admittedly a big issue, but more often than not, I find that there's something new I learn about each character's, or Fodlan's backstories. Can I say the same thing about Awakening or Fates? Not really. They're also easier to access compared to the GBA games, so that's a big plus for me. Speaking of which, if they're really bad, I can just press the + button and skip it. I'm also surprised you're not a fan of 3H's story considering how you like to talk about alternate history stuff. Me? I've just finished CF and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the basic political paradigm to Napoleon, or the Meiji Restoration - out with the old, in with the new.