Delfino
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Posts posted by Delfino
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I'm not usually very critical about video game stories... I primarily play for the gameplay and tend to just take the story as it is. However, there are so many plotholes, contrived plot devices and moments that made me think "Why the hell would they do that?!" in Fates' story that it's hard not to be offended.
Something about the game that's really come to bug me is the fact that it feels like 90% of the support conversations were written to be comic relief. It's like they're telling you not to take the characters that seriously... in a game that turns around and takes its plot very seriously, throwing in heavy-handed drama scenes. A game in which we're supposed to be stressing about our characters dying. It's fine to have comic relief characters, I adore all the shenanigans from Arthur, Odin, and Niles, but it just seems ridiculous to be constantly fishing for lulz in a game like this. We're in a war, and half my army consists of clowns that keep spouting cheesy one-liners.
It also often feels like the people who wrote the plot and the people who wrote the support conversations were two entirely different groups who were given descriptions of what the characters were like and didn't have any communication with each other whatsoever. Xander's case is probably the biggest offense here, but there's also Corrin, who's supposed to be this pure-hearted, accepting person who believes in people... but she'll be cold to Keaton and Odin for being oddballs.
I can play Fates for days on end since the gameplay is so good, but there are a lot of things involving the writing that bug me for sure.
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Now I just have to decide between Dark Mage and Diviner. From what I know, Dark Mage is (probably) the better option because of better growths, but Diviner gives Basara and thus Quixotic, which might help a little with hit rates... Any suggestions on that front?
Thanks, all three of you, so far!
Have a happy new year!
I'd go either Dark Mage -> Sorcerer or Diviner -> Onmyoji. Quixotic is nice for hit rates, but you won't get it until level 15 after promoting. It's all up to you, though.
Personally, I'd probably go Diviner -> Onmyoji, mostly because of what Avalanche said. Bowbreaker would be great to have, but you won't get it until level 15, and by then you'd get Tomefaire with Onmyoji to do even more damage. Diviner also gives Future Sight. Although you'll likely replace it later for something better, with Kana's high luck, it'll probably come in handy a few times and, with Nobility, can give her a crudton of exp.
Happy New Year to you too!
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Elise has garbage strength and defense and bleh skill and HP, but her other stats, magic, speed, luck, and resistance, are either really high or pretty good, so your Kana is going to be very magic oriented.
Your boon/bane only affects Kana's stat mods (max stat caps). It will NOT affect her stat growths. +Mag -Luck as others have said is probably good.
Make sure your "talent" is a magic class like Dark Mage or Diviner so you can reclass Kana into it. You could keep Kana as a Nohr Princess, but she probably won't be able to do much with swords, the dragon form would be a bit of a waste of her high speed, and she will likely want to stick with ranged combat.
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Elise: Wyvern rider elise is the dumbest idea ive heard. Youre wasting jakob/corrin's heart seal to get a flying unit that cant do much combat until she either eventually hits C axes or its chapter 14 and u finally buy the bolt axe. Leo joins at the same time bolt axe elise would be a thing and i didnt need to invest a heart seal to make him KO everything...and he has better durability anyway than malig elise.
Odin vs mozu: odin has one advantage i overlooked: he can chip with no heart seal investment. If mozu gets the heart seal, she does do better than odin though. But she wont, not with how limited they are early on...i think odin might move over her.
Don't knock it until you try it! I've had a level 5 Malig Elise, with a pair up and tonic, capable of one-shotting the Spear Masters in chapter 20 Lunatic while also having enough bulk to live two hits from them without tonics.
That being said, though, yeah. I never denied that the Wyvern Rider stage is awful and it is truly a huge pain in the ass getting her where she needs to be to be useful. It's more along the lines of something I wanted to point out as an interesting use for her.
However, I don't fully agree that "this character needs a heart seal, but they're not gonna get it because someone else is going to be using it" should even be a thing affecting their tier placement (especially since I don't think heart seals are even that difficult to get), but I may just be ignorant as to how FE tiers typically work.
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FWIW Camilla rocks socks with the Bolt Axe since she actually has a Magic stat to work with, which is pretty neat. She can use it in a reasonable timeframe, which is nice.
Elise, though good with a Bolt Axe, is:
1- a bit Frail for lunatic to be stuck with it...trade abuse to unequip it from her after she uses it or keeping her out of harms way is pretty relevant
2- Getting her from E-C rank takes a while, and on Lunatic, you're begging for her Staff use early on. Climbing her out of E-Axes is hard work, because you want to change her over asap, but then she's stuck doing almost nothing with a Bronze Axe, when things are relatively tight to begin with in terms of team needs. Jakob, if reclassed, leaves Elise as your only staffer for a long time (until Adventurer!Niles, or another SecondSeal burn). A Staffer is so important in Lunatic
Yeah, I hear you, hence my comment that getting Elise from E to C rank with axes on Lunatic is the worst thing ever. but it's absolutely doable. I managed on Lunatic with Effie as my sole healer until I got Leo, who took the Strategist role. I haven't had much of a problem with her frailty, but either way, it's been even less of a problem compared to being a Strategist.
The only point I meant to make is that Bolt Axe Malig Knight Elise has served me much better than Strategist Elise. I completely agree with you, otherwise, though, haha. Getting her there isn't optimal by any means and can blow up the synergy of the rest of your team. That's where it feels like tier lists can get complicated, in my opinion, as one unit's overall effectiveness can be dampened or heightened depending on the rest of your team...
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Case and point for why I really like Fates. That's nuts. I didn't even think about abusing the Bolt Axe for her damage...
Absolutely, same here. Never would have thought about it if I hadn't done a Heart Class playthrough.
Bold: Actually, Ophelia's paralogue has a Calamity Gate.
Thanks, I was wondering after posting if I'd overlooked this.
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About the tier list itself...
I'm kinda torn on Leo. His bases are pretty good, but you're stuck with them for several chapters since he doesn't gain hardly any exp until chapter 17 or so... but leveling him there is almost impossible since that place is incredibly anti-mage. By the time you hit chapter 18, enemy stats have caught up to him since he hasn't leveled (maybe once) and even his bulk is just meh anymore. He benefits a lot from Calamity Gate, but I don't think you can get one of those in Conquest save for visit/battle points.
I can see how he can be pretty awesome, though. Changing him to a strategist has been pretty helpful for me since it reduces his strength and defense in favor of magic and res, making him a bit more specialized. He can also heal to stay a bit relevant without taking kills and the speed bonus helps. If you get the Horse Spirit from Ophelia's paralogue, it allows him to double a lot of things without other investment (like a pair up or tonics).
Ironically, I've actually found Elise to be much more useful in the long run having been trained up as a Wyvern Rider -> Malig Knight than Troubadour -> Strategist. I've done this twice now, and she's been much more helpful. The class helps her gain some much needed bulk without murdering her other stats. Plus, too many things in Conquest have lances or shuriken. The bolt axe is really powerful and it helps significantly that you are one, not hitting an advanced class in which your only offensive option is E-rank tomes, and two, not ending up stuck with a weapon triangle disadvantage against most enemies that slaughters your hit rate to 60-70%.
Too bad training up Elise from E to C rank in axes on Lunatic is the worst thing ever, lol.
I don't know if I'd put Selena as high as she is... I've never been able to make much use out of her. Becoming a Sky Knight knocks her strength down quite a bit and I've found that her growths don't patch it back up enough. I agree with what Elieson said on page 1.
About Odin: "He will always be mediocre at best even if you do train him." Heh, my Odin was god-tier, but I will acknowledge that getting 5-7 points in 13 out of 28 levels is not very typical for him.
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It's not an oversight per se, as F!Robin might lock you out of a child if you don't marry Chrom, Donnel, or anyone after Henry. I would leave Ryoma unpaired, as the benefits of recruiting Shiro aren't worth the risk at all.
I'm not sure where your logic is going there... if I remember correctly, Awakening had two extra non-Robin-only male characters compared to females. Unless you absent-mindedly marry Sumia's options off (since she's the only female who's really picky, apparently), or have F!Robin marry a first gen male and get two others killed off, then you're fine. Robin can marry anyone and all the other ladies still have options left.
Fates gave us an equal amount of male and female characters. Take one female out of the equation, and one of the guys is going to have to be single. I'd say it's an oversight.
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I kind of agree with Brand_Of_The_Exalt. Of course extra points can matter, but if you literally have to grind your parents to pretty much endgame level to get them, then what's the point? Just grab the kid and grind them instead.
I see SalShich10N's point about Corrin's boon/bane affecting Kana, though. Increasing the base stats via help from the boon without having to do the extra leveling is worth it.
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The problem with Kana is that he/she is poorly designed unit-wise. Like his/her Personal skill and growths that doesn't match at all. I mean, if he was supposed to be a Dragonstone user, why are his Mag, Def and Res so low ? There isn't a single father/mother that could make that work. Odin and Leo are the only bulky mages in the game, but their Mag and either Def or Res are not that good too. And Nohr's Prince(ss) growths don't help either: if you want a tanky Kana, then you have to chose Hoshido Noble, and then his Mag and Res are garbage. And if you want to attack correctly with Dragonstones, you need to go for Nohr Noble, but then his/her Speed is too high for a tank (and will be wasted anyway) and his/her Def is garbage.
I think the main problem with the Kana's is that the game designers wanted their stats to be flexible enough for you to be able to do anything with them class-wise while avoiding making them overpowered. Their stats aren't particularly biased in anything so that the player can get away with making their kid into whatever they want. However, because the designers didn't want them to have any glaring weaknesses, their stats end up being so mediocre everywhere that it's hard to get your Kana to be particularly good at anything (except when they're maxed out, but that's beside the point).
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Yeah, the Kana's are pretty disappointing, if you ask me. One of the lamest personal skills, inferior growths compared to Corrin, and meh base stats that aren't really special anywhere, from what I remember. They're interesting in that you can reclass them to just about anything and get away with it, but I feel like they don't really excel at anything and will probably just be outclassed by their Corrin-parent as the dragon class or other children in most other classes. They kind of remind me of Odin, in a way... only his personal is actually useful...
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I'm sure it's not as difficult to fail a chapter on Casual as it would initially seem. I mean you can still be playing on Casual while on Hard or Lunatic difficulty. It's actually pretty easy to get your Corrin defeated during chapter 5, and then the battle is literally unwinnable from there since Kaze is the only one who stands a shred of a chance against the standard enemies while the boss is literally impossible to kill with anyone but Corrin (or a very lucky Ryoma, lol).
That's kind of a unique situation, though. As far as total party wipes on a regular map, I can see Conquest chapters 17, 23, 25, and the endgame as being fairly easy to get wiped out on on say, Lunatic, or even Hard.
Kotaro's insane avoid on chapter 17 is terrible. If you get unlucky and miss him enough, he could potentially wipe out every unit you have that actually has a chance at hitting him.
Chapter 23 practically demands that you have a strong tank. If they get wiped out, good luck getting past the Oboro room, and you could get screwed via Takumi RNG.
Chapter 25 is ninja hell and it's easy to get screwed there.
And endgame I hear is brutal on Lunatic. Haven't gotten that far yet on that difficulty, but hey.
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I understand your frustration. It sucks when you stumble upon a support of a character you really like that sours them for you. It also really sucks when a character you like has a really bad support with Corrin, since Corrin is supposed to be your character in a way. For instance, I adore Odin, but I dislike his support line with Female Corrin and especially don't like their S-support (though it's because of Corrin and not him), so I hesitate to marry him.
Hana has a tendency to jump the gun and overreact. I dislike a lot of supports where she does this, though I like her elsewhere. Her support with Saizo is funny, I like her support with Ryoma, and she's a cute character on the battlefield. But her supports can get repetitive as they almost always involve her training. I wish they embraced the more optimistic side of her character instead of having her freak out about everything.
As a unit, I can't make use of her at all. She's such a glass cannon and you kind of have to rely on the enemy missing a lot, which doesn't really happen with this game. If the enemy has a 30% chance or higher to hit me, I pretty much count it as a hit because it almost always happens! Just yesterday, my Jakob was attacked 6 times, 3 attacks around 30% hit rate, the other 3 around 50%. He got hit by every attack. I don't trust dodge tanks in this game at all, and Hana is so fragile she pretty much has to be one. She is very strong, though.
As for Oboro, she's a very well liked character because she sounds tropey on paper (hates Nohrians, has a crush on Takumi), but absolutely isn't as both of these things are well-integrated into her character and don't consume her or her supports. She's a more grounded, realistic character because of that, and she's very likeable all around. As a unit, she's pretty solid if you ask me. She starts with pretty good stats in a good class that isn't very common in the game.
Niles is an interesting character, and one of my favorites. You'll probably like him or hate him since he can come across as a bit of a scumbag at times given his tendency to be crude and torment people he thinks deserve it. His battle lines are hilarious, though, and the voice acting for him is perfect, so it's funny just listening to him talk. As a unit, he's borderline necessary in the standard Conquest run since he's one of the very few bow users in the game, can crush mages, has a WTA against Ninjas which are very common in Conquest, has easy access to Shurikenbreaker, and can use both regular and magic bows. He's always been an essential part of my team, even if his stat growths aren't stellar.
Regarding how "good" units are, though, even if someone says a unit is terrible on the battlefield, I think you should just use whomever you like. People say Subaki, Rinkah, Odin, and Arthur are pretty bad, but I used all four of them, and they were all extremely helpful.
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Team Leo is my favorite simply because I love all three of them. They don't have the most interesting dynamic, but I love Niles and Odin as a duo, and they are so freakin' hilarious on their own, plus it's funny imagining Leo (who's a great character in his own right) groaning in annoyance putting up with their shenanigans. With the other groups of royal retainers, there's typically one whom I'm not as fond of, or I just don't adore them as much as a whole.
I like Ryoma, and Saizo is my favorite Birthright character, but Kagero's voice acting killed her for me. As a whole, their relationships with each other are mostly professional and not all that fun.
I love Xander and Laslow and they have a great support with each other, but I despise Peri. She feels like some fangirl's crazy OC who was crammed into the game.
Hinoka's group would probably be my least favorite. They're humorous, but Setsuna and Azama seem pretty worthless as actual retainers. Setsuna is a boring, one-trick pony character and Azama, while oftentimes amusing, is kind of a dick... constantly. Hinoka is alright.
I like Camilla's whole group since Camilla and Beruka are both interesting, and I find Selena's interactions with other characters hilarious, but the retainers usually turn out poorly for me, so I guess I'm not as attached to them since I don't use them much.
Takumi's trio consists entirely of more grounded, realistic characters that aren't too tropey, and I really like all three of them. The only thing that sours the group for me is the Takumi worship going on with them, though at least it isn't overdone. They're probably my third favorite group.
Sakura has a cute trio, and I like all three of them. They're not the most enthralling bunch, but I enjoy Hana and Subaki's competitive streak with each other.
I like Elise a lot, and Arthur's my favorite character, but while I don't dislike Effie, she's not terribly interesting. The group as a whole is really fun, though. Imagining over-the-top Arthur trying to protect this cheery little girl and falling all over himself as Effie chokeslams some peon is hilarious to me. Definitely my second favorite group.
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Azura's support with Laslow is good since they can relate to one another as performers.
Her support with Jakob is also good, but more on his end than hers as his backstory is explored more.
Her support with Kaze is sweet, and she actually gets pretty emotional for once!
However, her conversation string with Arthur is hands down my favorite in the game. As others have said, it gives more depth and insight into both of their characters and is just really sweet. S-support made me tear up, but I'm kind of a sap for that kind of stuff, so...
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I've been doing a Conquest Lunatic/Classic playthrough that's pretty much this (Heart Seal everyone immediately, a few DLC classes are allowed, can use Friendship/Partner Seals when they apply, but no base classes allowed). It's tremendous fun, I really think more people should be giving these a try (though perhaps not on Lunatic, lol). You find new uses for units, like Great Knight Jakob becomes the new Frederick, and Wyvern Rider Elise seems terrible at first, yet becomes a monster later. I haven't done Birthright yet, but Samurai Saizo and Apothecary Azama seem like they'd be pretty good.
Anyway, good luck to you and have fun!
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My Corrin was pretty terribly RNG screwed at that point (hadn't gained a single point in HP, defense, OR resistance), but I made it through without the faceless even reaching Sakura. As others have said utilize the Kaze/Rinkah pair up. The strength boost allows Kaze to 1-round any of the common faceless that are on plain terrain. On turn one, hit the house with Kaze, position Corrin to hit the closest dragon vein next turn, position Rinkah so she's as far left as she can be while still being close enough for Kaze to pair with her. On turn two, you can use the dragon vein with Corrin and then slaughter the closest Faceless on the left with Kaze/Rinkah. From there, you should be able to make it to Sakura in time if you just book it.
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Have you done a run yet in which no one is allowed to be their default class? It's pretty funny, yet simultaneously horrifying running around with Troubadour Effie and Wyvern Rider Elise. Great fun, though.
The only problem is that it basically requires the gold grinding DLC and access to the internet so you can visit other My Castles to buy Heart Seals from.
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No Justice is by far my favorite song in the game(s). The calm version is beautiful, yet somewhat sorrowful. I think it perfectly fits chapter 12 in Conquest where Elise falls ill and you only have so many turns to save her. There's a seriousness to the song urging you not to mess around, for she'll die if you waste too much time, but also a calmness that reminds you to keep your head and make the right decisions or anyone else can be killed. It also really captures the mood when you realize you've made a mistake and someone is probably going to die.
And the Fire version, just... when you sit and just listen to it, you can hear so much going on with so many different instruments. The emotion and intensity in it perfectly captures a rush out of the gates into war and enemy fire. Love it!
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There might not be any psychological reason behind it. Merely Anankos needed a human host and Gunter was the first person he grabbed in one scenario and Takumi was in the other. What I'm personally questioning now is the time frame of events. I've been assuming Revelations takes place over a longer period of time since the Eclipse never seems to happen during Birthright or Conquest yet if that's the case then it means Gunther was possessed for longer than Takumi yet they were able to save Gunter and Takumi was written off as a complete lost cause.
I'm guessing that it had something to do with how vulnerable they were. Takumi was an easy target for possession because of his emotional fragility. It made him easy to influence and control.
Also, Takumi is a lost cause in Conquest because by the time they realize that he's possessed, Anankos already forced him to kill himself so he could take over. He's just a shell at that point.
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Not automatically. They will show up in your logbook, and you have to buy the skills from them.
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Sure you can! The characters that appear in the shop are the ones you pick at the orb for your My Castle team, so just mix that up if you want to change them. I think a gold-rank Einherjar shop will grab all ten.
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You can buy your own characters as Einherjar. Just boot the save file that has the skills you want, buy the characters in the Einherjar shop, and then save (preferably in an expendable file so you don't waste money). They should then show up in your logbook in every file and you are free to buy skills from them.
Otherwise, yeah, saving them to the logbook after beating the game works too, it just takes longer.
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Favorite: Dwyer's, mostly just because it's the first one I did, so I didn't really know what to expect, and I have fond memories of freaking out getting attacked by promoted units when my units were all unpromoted scrubs. The fun kind of stress.
Least Favorite: Under normal circumstances, I would probably hate Shiro's considering how terribly designed it is for late game, but my Shiro had Armored Blow and Renewal, so I don't have bad memories of it. I'd probably say Hisame's. All of the other maps at least have something interesting about them, whether it's the design of the map itself, the enemies and boss within it, how the level pressures you to play, etc., but Hisame's? Nope. It's just full of awful terrain and faceless and that's it.
And Fates Worst Character Award Goes To...
in Fire Emblem Fates
Posted · Edited by Delfino
Unit-wise, I'd say the worst is a tie between Nyx and Setsuna. I've been able to make use of even Odin many times in a lot of classes, but those two? They always seem to turn out terribly. They suffer from similar problems in that they both have only one or two good stats (Setsuna has speed, Nyx has speed and magic), while the rest are either meh or downright terrible. Neither of them gets any skill or luck to even hit anything (further compounded for Setsuna since yumi have horrid hit rates), and they can't even take a hit to make up for it. Setsuna's strength is freakin' terrible because it's supposed to be counter-balanced by the high might of yumi as well as the Quick Draw skill so she's not broken considering her speed, but that just makes her all the more difficult to reclass, which sucks since you have Takumi in the same class, who just blows her out of the water in almost every way, giving her bonus garbage points. Nyx gets bonus points as well being in a nerfed class with a nerfed weapon type in the route that's significantly harder than the other two. And in Revelations, they both suck.
When it comes to portrayal, I'd say Corrin (referring to Corrin as "she" because I always play female). As others have said, though, it's mostly the bad writing that's responsible for this. She is an idealistic moron, trusting Garon up through Conquest chapter 14 even though he's clearly an asshole and has threatened to kill her several times, not recognizing the singer as Azura, etc... and she whines incessantly throughout Conquest. Oh but she's supposed to be this perfect snowflake who everyone loves and that the world revolves around, and if you hate her, you're clearly wrong... I get that they probably wanted the avatar character to be awesome, but they tried way too hard to make her special, to the point where it's bothersome. She also proves to be a hypocrite in some of her supports.
Dishonorable mention goes to Peri, who, as I've said before, is like some 14-year-old fangirl's crazy OC, multi-colored hair and all. She drags every other character down with her in her supports as they all scramble to calm her down when she starts throwing a tantrum whenever she can't have her way. For some reason, they're all willing to overlook the fact that she kills innocent people whenever she feels like it because she's Xander's retainer and she's good at fighting. For a guy who seems to care a lot about his image, Xander sure doesn't seem to care about how her actions may reflect upon him, even though he freaks out at Laslow for his habits.