ping
-
Posts
2,257 -
Joined
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by ping
-
-
6 hours ago, BrightBow said:
The only good Tanya in C&C, even if she got Kaga'd at one point.
I was very young when I played any C&C game, so I honestly remember nothing about the actual plot (except that Tim Curry escapes to the last place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism).
So all I know of Tanya is badass spy, blows up buildings, and I think she is strong vs. infantry.
6 hours ago, BrightBow said:Bold of you to assume that there are no other characters with 0 bases in important stats.
Anyway, Marty is... bad. But not as bad as he looks. Warrior class bases are amazing and he has good bulk. Which is nice because speed and skill shortcomings are much easier to address. Joke character he is not.
That is concerning (first part) and good (second part) to know. Let's see - it would be fun to see if Marty can measure up to the greatest sailor known to man.
6 hours ago, BrightBow said:You did see the Leadership stars on the 2nd stat page? The way they work her that for any star you have among your allies, you get +3% hit and avoid for everyone in your army. No 3 tile range or anything.
Finn and Eyvel have both 1 Leadership star, so that's a +6% boost for everyone simply by having them deployed.Just keep in mind that not every red unit is necessarily part of the same "army". Or even among blue units, if the characters in question are still just guest units.
So you can't always tell who benefits from whose's stars simply by their color.I did remember that leadership stars work globally in this game (specifically, didn't Arvis's brother appear on a lategame map and provide all enemies with something obscene like 10 leadership stars?). But it's good to know that regular characters can stack leadership stars. Certainly something to look for on new characters.
4 hours ago, Jotari said:I'm staring and staring at those two portraits and I'm really questioning if they're different at all. If I were on my laptop now then I would have overlayed them on paint.net by now. Are we sure the wiki hasn't just accidentally uploaded two Leif's?
Left: Leif's mouth. Right: Leif's mouth (ANGRY).
4 hours ago, Jotari said:She has the best personal skill, which Lil Manster shows on the skill screen. Literal immortality!
I do remember that this was a thing, but it's not actually shown on the skill screen. Maybe on a different setting - on default, there are still some things hidden that I believe are visible if you change settings, like growth rates.
4 hours ago, Jotari said:Oh look, it's Sigurd!
I guess Lester is the guy who canonically grabbed the eastern villages in Ch.8, during which he met Osian's father Sigurd. It all makes sense!
4 hours ago, Jotari said:First Gaiden map is just outside Ram Village. You can even go back inside the village boundary in the gameplay if you really need to use a healing tile.
That's true. Although Gaiden's opening map doesn't have the same "fight between the houses" feel that this one has.
4 hours ago, Jotari said:Yeah it kind of felt off for me too. I'm guessing her Little Leif and Little Nan stuff is an attempt for the translator to localize her saying Leif Chan (or possibly Kun) and Nanna Chan. But it doesn't quite sound natural, at least to me, in English given the context. Like, it's a pretty serious moment.
If I remember correctly - not using any honorifics in Japanese is only considered appropriate if you're really close with somebody, right? If so, your theory would also explain why only Leif and Nanna have pet names, and Eyvel still calls her daughter Mareeta "Mareeta".
3 hours ago, Revier said:At least we got the Kagaisms out of the way early.
I'm sure now that Kaga got it out of his system, we won't see any villains make vague sexual comments towards unwilling girls ever again in this game.
3 hours ago, Revier said:Game so far feels like a pared down Genealogy, but I'll give it some time, after all this is the literal beginning of the game.
Yeah, we've basically reconquered Jungby in the prologue of Genealogy, relatively speaking. Allowing myself a quick peek at Thracia's chapter list, it has 33 chapters (not counting the route split), so one Genealogy map is roughly equivalent to three Thracia maps.
1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:He's hoping you'll be too distracted by their cool sharp portraits to notice the lack of anything creative.
And it's working. That beard goes hard.
1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:7 game breaking axe units.
Very rude to comment on Marty's Con stat like that, Shaky. Not everybody can have as little body fat as you.
1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:To Become An Elitist
I believe the oldschool elitist way was to have strong opinions on stuff you haven't any actual experience with. I've been told that the original BlaBla unit discussions were all made with ranked in mind, even though hardly anybody had ever done a ranked run.
I do qualify in that category by having strong opinions on certain character designs of post-Awakening FE.
-
6 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Did I?
Dang, I don't remember. What were my arguments?
I think you did, when I was starting to tryhard my breeding schemes for Genealogy. But I don't know about any arguments, so I'm not even sure anymore that I'm not just hallucinating.
9 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:I can help you with Xavier. That's something I'm willing to help with.
Beardmen must help fellow beardmen, eh?
10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:And then there's Mememan. Mememan is very funny. I wouldn't bother giving him many kills until you get a few scrolls, if you want to go down that route.
Dayni had requested a party with Marty, although he hasn't been around for a good while now. We'll see how things are when we find the Forseti and Odo scrolls.
12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:It's very weird. Dagdar OR Tanya will rejoin, but only if one of them is dead. If you fail to get 8x with both alive, they are lost forever. Thanks, Kaga!
Kaga's motives are inscrutable. Except when it comes to kidnapped and brainwashed girls. Those motives are disturbingly scrutable.
14 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:I mean, keep in mind this is close to gen 2. Gal's gotten older, but she still takes her intercontinental swims. What a trooper.
She's also kinda dead, I believe, killed by the Empire. Although that information comes from Lewyn, so he might just not have bothered looking for her.
15 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:Yep, there's a couple factors like that to set this map apart from its brethren.
...Not to worry, though. There's always next chapter.
Ah, but those are Pirates, not Brigands. I think. Unless those aren't separate classes. I haven't really looked at the map yet.
-
- The only visible stats are HP, Str, Skl and so on. Derivative stats like Atk or Hit are hidden, as are weapon stats. Even in combat, damage and hit/crit chances are only represented by bars.
- There is no "Trade" command. Characters can only give items to others - so if two characters have a full inventory they can't swap items without help of a third.
- The game is another Gaiden remake, once again without changing any of the original maps. To expand Celica's role, her part in chapter 3 is expanded, adding more maps in a similar design style. She also gets a second brother that can bail her out of danger when needed.
- To improve immersion, the original Gaiden maps are embedded in one huge Valentia map, on which every individual unit has to moved from one battle to the next. The terrain between battle sites is the same as on the adjacent battle sites (so a lot of forest tiles on Alm's side, and a lot of... other terrain on Celica's).
- Of course there's still something to make progress on during these travel periods: Supports, which all grow as fast as they generally do in BinBla. This is where all characterisation for non-Lords takes place.
- To make the game more accessible, we add an unskippable tutorial, spanning 10+ maps. For this, we introduce a new character, who will also be part of the main story, but won't really have a place in it.
- Gaiden lacks a proper Jeigan-like character, with Meißen joining too late to fill such a role. That has to be changed - but because nobody likes old men, the new OPaladin will be fairly young and appropriately strong. Let's call him Htes.
- Beautiful animations are important for the proper gaming experience, so "turning off" animations will play little map animations instead. They take roughly as much time as the regular ones.
-
FE5 Chapter 1: The Warrior of Fiana
Spoiler
...do I dare?
Somewhere in this thread, Saint Rubenio made the suggestion that I should play Thracia 776 blind - or at least as blind as I can, since I did watch dondon151's run of the game years ago when it came out, and didn't actively avoid any spoilers about the game at any point.
So, during this playthrough, I will avoid looking anything up on Serenesforest or the wiki. However, I'm not sure if it's to the benefit of the playlog if I'm ignorant about stuff like character recruitment or gaiden requirements (two things that I'd always recommend to new BinBla players even if they want to avoid spoilers), so I'm asking if I should accept help from readers for stuff like that or if
y'all hate me and/or want me to hate this game"almost blind" is still a playable proposition.I'll say that I remember two gaiden requirements: One almost immediately, which is very important to experience Thracia Fog early and to recruit the only available thief for the earlygame (thanks, Kaga), and whose requirement is to visit (or at least save from pirates) all houses in Ch.2. And the other one somewhere in the mid- or lategame, which is a jailbreak that you skip if you don't get a single character captured and carried off the map. I also know that there's a route split similar to BinBla's Western Isles, and that only one of the routes lets you recruit one of the worst characters in the game, but I don't remember any details except that I think the character in question is called Miranda...?
Everything else, no idea. Maybe something will come back when I see the map in question, but chances are that I'm going to miss plenty of gaidens and that I'm going to murder Xavier if I won't know about them beforehand.
As ages passed and the 12 Crusaders became the talk of legends, a great rebellion arose and spread throughout the Land of Jugdral.
While on the march through the Aed desert, Quan and Ethlyn are suddenly attacked by the Thracian army and killed far from their homeland.
Though grieving the loss of his kin, King Kalf of Leonster fights valiantly. Yet he, too, meets a bitter end, betrayed by his allies, the Connaught army.
The entire army of Thracia seizes upon this chance and assaults Castle Leonster.
As Leonster's army fights in the face of a merciless onslaught, one young knight, Finn, escapes with Prince Leif, Kalf's infant grandson.
As Leif gazes up at the castle, cradled in Finn's arms, can he even begin to understand the terrible sight that meets his eyes?
__
Barely escaping the burning of Castle Leonster with his life, the young Prince Leif was looked after by Finn, his knight and retainer. Together with Nanna, a young noblewoman under Finn's care, the trio fled pursuers sent by the conquerors of North Thracia: the Grannvale Empire, which lay to the west.
Yet Finn proved stronger than those who hunted them, and the three made their way to the cities of Ulster and Tahra, posing as common vagrants.
Fiana was an independent community with its own militia, the Fiana Freeblades, led by the swordswoman Eyvel. Eyvel welcomed Leif's group as if they were her own kin. Under her watchful eye, the deposed prince spent his childhood in Fiana, growing and maturing alongside youths of common birth.
Now, in the year 776 of the Grannvale calendar...
: "Why is such a simple task taking you so long? There is little doubt that the heir to House Leonster is hiding here. You've been too gentle with these villagers - give them ample motivation to talk."
: "We are of the same mind, milord - I've already ordered the men to do as much. Yet the townsfolk claim the prince isn't here. According to them, he left with the Freeblades to fend off a pirate raid on a nearby village."
: "Freeblade? What nonsense is that?"
: "They're the local militia, sire. As I understand it, this village was once home to a group of brigands - rather savage ones, at that. About a decade ago, they were routed by Eyvel, a wandering sellsword. She claimed the village as her own and founded the Freeblades to protect the region from future attacks. She's supposedly quite a wonder with a sword..."
: "Hmm... She may be a problem."
: "You have nothing to fear, milord: we've taken Eyvel's daughter captive. What's more, we also captured the daughter of Finn, the very knight guarding the prince's life. With the leverage we have over them, they'll have no choice but to surrender."
: "Hmph. I admit, you have your uses, Weismann. The women will accompany me back to Munster. You'll remain here and prepare for when these upstart rebels return. See that the young Leonster pup is put in chains befitting a stray mutt."
: "Your trust in me is well placed, sire. Men, bring the girls here!"
: "What's your name, lass?"
: "Hmph..."
: "Hah! A fighting spirit to match a pretty face. Now, let's have a look at the other one... Ah, you must be Finn's young ward. I hear your mother was royalty of House Nordian, is that right? You certainly don't lack for grace, despite living in this backwater hovel - holy blood doesn't run thin even in squalor, I see."
: "....."
: "What a pleasant surprise the two of you make for. Weismann, I'll be departing for Munster now. Don't disappoint me."
: "All shall be as you wish it, milord."
The gameplay hasn't even started yet, and we already have a villain pulling the "I have you now, my pretties" and "Ah, a spirited one" tropes. Wonderful.
: "What's that commotion in the village? Something's rotten here..."
: "I'll scout ahead, Commander. Hold here a moment.
: "Commander, Fiana is packed to the brim with Imperial troops! They... must have struck while we were away."
: "What? No way is the Empire gonna make a mess of our home! Commander, let's move in!"
: "Calm down, Osian. We'll get slaughtered if we just charge in blindly."
: "Yeah, Halvan, I'm sure the village will appreciate your patient attitude while everyone's being rounded up and jailed!"
: "Peace, Osian. Halvan is right. Seems we've finally been noticed by the Empire."
: "Finn, take him as far away from here as you can. Leave the soldiers to us."
: "No, commander! Nanna is still in the village! I won't leave without her!"
: "I'll get her back. Don't worry."
: "It's more than that, Commander... I won't run anymore. That's my decision to make."
: "...Finn, you wanna weigh in here? You going to let the Little Lord throw himself into harm's way like this?"
: "Lord Leif has seen the passing of 15 summers, by now. He's old enough to choose for himself - and as my liege, I will abide by his judgement."
: "Has it been that long already? Hmph, I suppose I let Little Leif come with us to fight off those pirates, myself... Guess I made up my own mind when I did that. If Finn's all right with it, so am I."
: "Then what's the hold-up? If we're done arguing, there's an invation happening over that ridge!"
: "All right, get ready to move in. But stay sharp: most foot-soldiers are just regular folk, forced into the Imperial Army against their will. If they surrender, just take their weapons and let them go. Are we clear?"
: "But we can still bloody them until they surrender, right? I mean, if we can't put up a good fight ourselves, we'll be the ones surrendering."
: "Knock 'em around if you have to, sure, but don't overdo it. That means you, Osian."
: "Hey, c'mon, gimme some credit, commander!"
: "OK, enough chatter! Let's give the Empire a battle worthy of our names as Freeblades!"
It's not really à propos of this dialogue, but I'm curious if the possibility of Finn recognising Eyvel as Bridget will ever come up. Because even if we accept that the two may not have interacted much, if at all, between Bridget joining in Orgahil and Quan leaving from Silesse - she also happens to look exactly the same as the girl whose rescue was the very first mission that Finn joined Sigurd on. He should, at the very least, suspect a connection.
(By the way - I'm grabbing the portraits from this page - so I learned that Leaf has a second, very slightly different portrait. I'd gauge the chances of me noticing if/when he uses it at any point at roughly 0.294%.)
Weapon Levels: Swords (C)
Skills: Adept (AS% chance to hit twice)But storytime is over. Time for some cold, hard numbers. I'm using the Lil Manster translation patch with its default settings - this shows a few additional numbers (for example the progress towards then next weapon level, and I think the Follow-up Crit Multiplier, too) that are hidden in the base game, as well as who will deployed where once battle preps become a thing. Unit swapping will be disabled, though, although it's a possible game setting with the patch, too.
Anyway - Leif. From what I know, he's supposed to be better than he looks, which is good, because his base stats honestly make Roy look positively swole. He does have a very good personal weapon in the Light Brand - although it weighs him down to zero, and unlike Eyvel's Flame Sword, it doesn't strengthen its ranged attack with a +5 Mag bonus.
His Adept skill lost the +20% activation rate it had in Genealogy, so it's not really something to fish for in this game, even with some Spd procs under his belt. Critical simply doesn't exist as a skill anymore, which is just the continuation of Gen2's persistent Ethlyn Erasure, from whom Leif inherited that skill.
Weapon Levels: Swords (A)
Skills: AdeptSpeaking of the Flame Sword...
Yeah, Eyvel seems pretty OP. Capped Spd, highest Str base on the team (although I'd expect that 9 Str won't be particularly good in the lategame). +2 Movement compared to the other footies, too.
I know that she gets stoned relatively early in the game, that she can come down much later, and that I'm likely to miss that because I really don't remember what you need to do for that. I think something about getting a specific magic staff, and moving somebody somewhere, but that doesn't seem like like enough information to actually succeed.
Adept is a class skill for Swordmasters, as it was in Genealogy, so Bridget wasn't actually gifted a new personal skill. She just picked it up when she forgot her supernatural talent for archery and started using swords instead.
Weapon Levels: Lances (B), Swords (D+30 - only when dismounted)
Skills: Miracle ((3x Lck)% chance to avoid fatal damage)Look how they massacred his Miracle skill. Well, it could be worse - when Finn has his Brave Lance equipped, it's still a 45% chance, unlike in newer games where I believe it's always just Lck%, but it's just not something you can use in a calculated way, unlike in Genealogy (...even though I never really did any smart set-ups with it).
But already just for the Brave Lance, Finn seems pretty darn good, as long as he isn't forced to dismount. His stat line seems decent, but it's not a huge lead over the two Fighters that we also start with (this doubles as a comment on Leif's 4 Str / 5 Spd / 4 AS with Iron).
Weapon Levels: Axe (E+40)
Skills: Wrath (auto-crit on counterattacks - only the first attack if Osian doubles, if I recall)I know that Osian's big Thing is that he's a 1-2 range crit machine. His skill makes it so on enemy phase, but he'll also get his personal throwing axe in one of the houses on this map, which carries +30 crit, i.e. +90% crit chance on a follow-up attack.
Weapon Levels: Axe (D+10)
Skills: Vantage (will always attack first)And I believe Halvan is the boring one. Not the crit machine that Osian is, but certainly not as funny-bad as Marty, either. And while Osian can grab his personal axe on this map, Halvan can grab a Brave Axe... that Dagdar is by far the best user of. He does have an awesome FCM of x4 - but no personal crit weapon like Osian.^
And here's the map - not too large to stitch together anymore. This first one isn't even two 2x2 full screens large. Nothing particularly strange about it, either, although I think enemies starting on top of visitable houses never happens in other FE games.
I correctly remembered that Osian's house is the one outside of the village fortifications, so that's where he's going right away.
__
He also proves my memory correct that Wrath doesn't affect follow-up attacks (he needed to miss three hits in a row for that. What dedication to science the man has!), but eventually kills the Soldier guarding the house...:
...there is four variants of this portrait with differently-coloured shirts. There is five for the generic "young village girl" portrait. I don't think I will bother.
: "We're risking life and limb to protect the village, and you're giving me a lecture? You've got a strange sense of gratitude, old man."
: "Not even the Empire knockin' down our front door can stop that fool mouth of yours, I see. Well, no point in draggin' this out. Here. This is what you came for, right?"
: "For once, you read my mind. When a fight breaks out, I just feel off without this axe at my side."
: "Which doesn't explain why you forget it at home half the damn time!"
: "Hey, I came here for the axe, not to get chewed out!"
: "If that's all you wanted, then get going! Go on, now! Don't keep the Commander waitin' on you!"
: "You don't need to tell me twice!"
And there you have it. Pretty over-statted throwing axe - a bit stronger than Iron (9 Mt), but more importantly, a lot more accurate (Iron has 65 hit) in addition to the crit.
Osian won't catch up to the main group, so that's why I just got his little trip out of the way. Now, back to the main stage - and no, lettign Leif chip an enemy on EP was not a smart move.
He genuinely has an even worse start than Roy on hard mode, who at least has weapon triangle on Ch.1 enemies and, starting in Ch.2, can double the Soldiers that he's at a disadvantage against. Well, Leif does have 2-range over Roy, of course, at least until you get the Light Brand in BinBla, too.
__
On turn 2, Finn starts with the capturing already. We'll see how much I'll actually do of this when the maps become tougher...
...but grabbing the two Vulneraries that are on this relatively easy map seems like a good idea.
__
On turn 3, we get some reinforcements:
: "Papa, the fighting's started already!"
: "Ain't no good way to go about this damned battle... Don't matter how good Eyvel is, there's only one of her an' over a dozen of them. We need to hurry."
He seems enthusiastic.
Weapon Levels: Axes (A), Bows (E)
Skills: Accost (add a round of combat if Dagdar's HP and AS are than the opponent's)Dagdar seems... good. Just a big ol' ball of stats. Maybe a bit slow considering he's pre-promoted (same Spd as Osian), but as soon as he can grab an axe with more than 50 hit, he should be really good until he leaves the party. He seems similar to Oifey or BlaBla!Marcus in that I would assume that other characters will out-stat him when they promote, but who knows - maybe his stats are still endgame-ready. Since my Thracia experience comes from Dondon's run, I obviously don't have any idea how growth rates look in this game.
Weapon Levels: Bows (E+10)
Skills: --His daughter seems... bad. Kaga did Rebecca first. Well, maybe - Rebecca has at least decent growths, which I don't know Tanya has. I do know that Thracia is considered to be unkind to bowlocked units, and I also know that another archer joining next map (iirc - could be later, though) who has +1 movement over her and a small chance to gain more via level-ups. She does at least seem to have excellent Spd, although I don't know how difficult it is to double enemies, generally speaking.
Weapon Levels: Axes (D+20)
Skills: --Bord 2: Bord Harder (Electric Bordaloo).
...no, I tell a lie. Bord has a Skl stat. I think Marty combines his literal zeroes in Skl and Spd with bad growth rates, so he's very much the joke character of this game.
__
To be honest, despite the different prevalent enemy type, this map is still very firmly on "typical Ch.1 map" territory, so I don't have much of interest to say about it. Finn captures the other Vulnerary. I try to feed Leif some kills, although the most XP in this chapter is still gained by Halvan, since he can just fight opponents on his own.
Leaf does get a useful movement star, allowing him to grab two kills in one turn. Value!
__
But yeah. Progress is being made, but not at breakneck pace.
Dagdar suffers from Accost, severely.
__
And I'm very boring with the boss kill. I guess I could've tried to give it to Leif instead, but I'm not going to attempt to punch through +10 Def tiles unless it's absolutely unavoidable.
...which does remind me of another Gaiden requirement. On the map that Marty rejoins, you have to capture the boss, but you have to do so quickly because he'll find a dragon in his backpocket and become an uncapturable Wyvernknight. Anf if you don't do that, I think Dagdar and Tanya will be lost forever...?
: "D-Damn... You'll... live to regret this, all of you..."
So then, the other houses - some of them visited before the boss fight, but let's just put them all in a row...:
: "Weapons can be mighty expensive, can't they? Most folk here gotta make do by nicking supplies from Imperial troops. It's awfully risky, but if you can capture an enemy alive, you get to help yourself to their stuff. Matter of fact, I got the drop on an Imperial soldier myself. Heard 'im snoring from three houses away, so I took me a souvenir! ...Not that it'll do me much good, though. Probably better off in your hands, I reckon. And hey, if you don't need it, you can just hawk it for somethin' you do need."
[Iron Sword received]
: "Those Imperial dogs took Dame Mareeta and Lady Nanna - just snatched 'em right up like they was cattle! You're not gonna let 'em get away with that, are you? If you're fixin' to fight the Empire, take this with you. This here ring's enchanted with some spell or another. But don't just wear it on your finger like some common bauble! You gotta actually [Use] it for it to do any good!"
[Life Ring received]
To be honest, unless somebody has a very convincing argument otherwise, this has LEIF written on it in very large letters.
: "Y'all made it back! What a relief... But look, there's no Fiana Freeblades without Fiana, right? So don't just stop with them pirates - drive the Empire from our village, too! ...Not to imply that I ain't grateful, a' course. Take this with you. Use it if you get scraped up. We don't have much in the way of medicine, but it's the least we can do after everythin' the Commander's done fer us."
[Vulnerary received]
She didn't say, "Take this with you, and you'll be glad that you did". 0/10 translation. Next thing you'll tell me that there won't be any traps in America.
I did visit the three middle houses with Halvin, worried that other characters would "consume" his house without getting the Brave Axe. Just Marty in the top left house; the logic being that "Eh, still early-ish in the map".
: "An... axe? Where in the world did you get such a fine weapon?"
: "Darndest thing... I was walkin' past the lake up on the mountain, when this strange ol' crone just floated outta the water!"
That's not a very nice thing to call Queen Rahna, girl.
: "She gave it to me, then vanished, quick as you can blink! I been keepin' it for you, and takin' real good care of it. Now go put it to use, an' make me proud!"
...Pretty darn good. Slightly more accurate than Iron Axes, and slightly stronger than Steel, even without the Brave effect. And only a (D) requirement, too.
Finally, a conversation between Eyvel and Dagdar. I don't think there's a handy overview of the available talks like there was in Genealogy, so apologies in advance for most likely missing the majority of them.
: "Eyvel! Does me heart good to see you in one piece! Listen, ya have any idea why the Empire would come all the way out here? It have anything to do with... the boy?"
: "Yeah. The Little Lord, Leif, he's... He's not just some nobleman. He's the heir to House Leonster. I've been helping him hide from the Empire. I'm sorry... I shouldn't have kept it from you."
: "Mm. I figured as much. Well, no use worryin' about it now. Long as I get to cut down some of those Imperial dastards meself, we're even."
And I do take a peek at the store, but... Nah, not really anything I want to do right now. I only captured three enemies, so I don't have dozens of basic weapons to sell, either.
So, to the next chapter we go. As I said - pretty standard first map for a FE game, just with lances instead of axes. Maybe to drive home the point that Leif is in deep doodoo, so he doesn't even get a Verdane arc to weapon triangle all over his enemies.
Although, come to think of it - this *is* the first first map that takes place inside of a village, isn't it? The Akaneia maps tend to be more zoomed out (like FE1's first map being the entire island of Talys), not to mention Genealogy, and Gaiden's fights take place on open terrain, in dungeons, or at fortresses. So I suppose this only "standard FE fare" in hindsight.
: "Nanna! Mareeta! Where are you?! Please, answer me!"
: "Little Nan, Mareeta... Raydrik must've taken 'em."
: "What?! That means... they were taken to Munster, right?"
: "Yeah - as bargaining chips, in case Weismann couldn't finish the job. It's the sort of thing Raydrik would pull, all right."
: "God's breath... Commander, we have to give chase! The two of them are counting on us!"
: "Now look here, Little Leif-"
: "Commander, you yourself said I'm not a child anymore. Nanna and Mareeta were taken captive because of me - and I refuse to let anyone suffer in my place. I will never again let someone sacrifice their life in exchange for mine."
: "...I understand. We leave at dawn, then. I won't lie, Little Lord: this is gonna get rough. Get some rest while you can."
The Team:
Lv. HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Con XP Leif 2.07 23 4 0 3 6 7 3 5 +107 Finn 7.55 28 8 1 8 11 5 7 9 +55 Eyvel */12.52 28 9 4 18 20 10 7 8 +52 Osian 1.67 27 6 0 7 9 3 4 11 +67 Halvan 3.23 29 8 0 7 7 3 5 13 +123 Marty 1.39 32 9 0 0 0 6 6 15 +39 Dagdar */6.18 43 14 1 11 9 2 10 15 +18 Tanya 1.45 20 3 1 6 10 6 2 4 +45- I believe T776 goes back to the classic "promote at Lv.10+, max Lv.20, promotion resets level", right?
-
7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:
Really? Feels more like it's tacked on (not helped by the terrible narration when Part 2 concludes sounding like an actually-lame marketing ploy). Plus, Part 3 Ike Side is more an ensemble cast that happens to include him, than actually being about him, I would say. And in the scope of the entire game, the amount of time spent on IvM is pretty small.
In terms of volume, I would agree. But the confrontation with Ike is the Dawn Brigade's endgame - or maybe rather postgame, since it happens after their grand triumph. A second climax, if you will: 3-13 is the last map where they're playable as the DB, and then in 3-E, the last map where the GMs are playable as the GMs, the DB is the last line of enemies that you have to face (or maybe not). Even though in theory, the conflict in Pt.3 is between Gallia and Begnion, with the GM and DB/Daein being drawn into the conflict on way or t'other - I found that the big battle between them is the Big (narrative) Thing that part 3 built towards, once the DB rejoins the story.
That said, I haven't played Radiant Dawn in a good while, and it's been an even better while since I last played it while actively following the story. Maybe my memory of it is deformed by my intense dislike of the Blood Pact as a plot device.
7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:More like "dependent", methinks.
Like, it's Azelle, Lewyn, or bust with her (Claud has Mag, yet neither Forseti nor Pursuit and Arthur can't use staffs). Lex I guess for Vantage-Wrath is okay too. She's got no Pursuit, and her not-high Mag growth is I guess kept from not being too bad by the fact enemy Res is usually very low. I insist that Tailtiu by a landslide is the mother whose kids are the most liable to being ruined by a bad choice of father.
Hmm...
- Aideen: Lana will always work decently well as a staff bot, even with a non-magic dad. Lester, I'd say, will suffer from any dad that doesn't support his pew-pew skills in some way, since he doesn't have the greatest innate usefulness.
- Ayra: Ulster and Larcei seem like they'll always be at the very least OK at combat (and great in the arena), but never have great actual utility because of their lack of riding skills.
- Lachesis: No Pursuit hurts both her kids (especially Dermott, who doesn't have staff utility to fall back on). Any dad with Pursuit is automatically going to be good, though, including Azel, since he can enhance Dermott's normally pretty pathetic 1-2 range.
- Silvia: I mean, does it really matter? Lene is always Dancer/10, Coirpre is always a Lv.1 staff bot who comes way too late to have an impact.
- Erin: She passes Pursuit down herself; Fee can work both physically and magically (...with the Brave Lance salvaging her melee combat very well); Ced, while appreciating more magic, should be decently competent even if he doesn't get it.
- Bridget: Faval has Yewfelle, which lets him do very respectable chip damage even if the dad doesn't help him at all (source: my playthrough), but I do think he appreciates more reliablity (and my hypothesis is that Holyn is a very good dad for him just for the Skl)... but he also has a low ceiling of usefulness because he's an Archer. Patty I do think appreciates a dad that helps her get through her awkward unpromoted phase - Holyn for Brave Sword rank, or anybody with Pursuit.
Lachesis and Bridget seem like their kids will vary a fair bit depending on their fathers, too, but I think I agree that Taillte's kids are on a level even above that. Arthur and Tinni just don't have that much going on innately, apart from Wrath to brute-force the arena.
7 hours ago, BrightBow said:The numbers don't always make sense in those scenes. Like with Alvis vs Sigurd. We see Sigurd wielding the Tyrfing but only having 10 Res. With the Tyrfing alone giving 20 Res, this is obviously not possible.
Meanwhile Alvis has no values listed at all. But maybe patch shenanigans have something to do with that.Shit, you're right. That'll teach me to ever trust Kaga.
2 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:
: "Can we get much higher?"
: "So high-ee-igh!"
: "I was gonna save the world, but then I got high
I was gonna promote to Pala too, but then I got high
Now I'm warming the bench, and I know why:
because I got high, because I got high, because I got hiiigh." -
2 minutes ago, BrightBow said:
That's totally legit. Strength capped at 25 + 5 from the Power Ring + 30 from the Tyrfing. That's 60.
38 res is just his cap of 18 with the +20 of the Tyrfing. So with a ring, he could actually go even higher.
Shit, you're right. That'll teach me to doubt Kaga.
3 minutes ago, BrightBow said:Yeah, the presence of the Valkyria staff most certainly shows that you aren't meant to take this too literally. It's no doubt just a side effect of trying to depict this in the engine.
As much as I have been criticising Lewyn's role in gen 2, I do like how Kaga wants to keep his exact nature ambiguous. A little bit of mystery is nice to keep in a story.
-
3 minutes ago, Jotari said:
Still, wouldn't Lester have a solo unmarried scene written? I know freaking Jeanne of all people does because it's the only way to actually discover in game that she's specifically Eve's (or Eva's or Alva's, which ever of them) daughter. But a scenario in which Jeanne both exists, lives and unmarried is extremely niche. All that being said, that there's a fuck up somewhere in the ending is hardly surprising. Like, genuinely, how many possible endings does Genealogy have? There are so many different variables between who is the child of whom and who is or isn't married to whom to inherit what, there must be at least thousands of different possible combinations of endings that are possible, some of which have probably never even been seen.
Lester's unmarried scene is just the same, minus Vendor-Sigurd's interjection. It's more like Vendor-Sigurd taking one of the potential "married scenes" for Fee/Patty/Lene - for example, because my Fee married Arthur, she had a small generic role in his scene with Lewyn instead of...
QuoteIf Fee is alive, has no lover, and does not inherit from father
Seliph: You're headed for Silesse, then, Fee?
Fee: Yep!
Seliph: Is Annand the pegasus in good health?
Fee: Only the best!
Seliph: And the lady herself, Fee?
Fee: Of course! Raring to go!
Seliph: Heh, that's our Fee.
Fee: Hang on, so if I weren't so cheery, then I wouldn't even be me anymore? Is that what you were trying to say, sir?
Seliph: Er... How did you guess?
Fee: Hmph, that's not very nice! Anyway... Bye, Lord Seliph! Take care of yourself!One could genuinely say that a gen2 girl stops being a character if she marries, turning into a small footnote in her husband's epilogue. The only remedy is to inherit a title herself - which allowed Patty in my run to have her own scene instead of just adding...
QuoteIf Lex's son's lover is Fee, Patty, or Lene
Lover: Lex's son, still chatting? C'mon, we should be hurrying!
Lex's son: Lover? What do you mean?
Lover: Nothing'll be a sadder sight than having to walk into Dozel while you're still here. C'mon, you'll thank me later!
Lex's son: Heh, I suppose you're right......to Ulster's scene.
-
14 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:
*COUGH!*😝
You make good points, but unfortunately, you explicitly allowed me to, and I quote, disagree in every possible and some impossible ways.I dunno, the Ike vs. Micaiah scenario is, in my opinion, RD's Big Thing (playable lord vs. playable lord - FE doesn't do that sort of thing otherwise), so I really find it disappointing that it's based on a plot device that I despise on every level. It takes the drama out of the conflict ("oh, we were just forced to fight"), it makes Naesala less interesting of a villain, it's an OP magic spell without any real presense (I could've accepted it more if the threat was, like, a magic nuke in Daein's capital) that somehow distinguishes based on nationality (I could've accepted it more if the threat was, like, a magic nuke in Daein's capital)...
So yeah. First half of RD good, second half bad. If you insist - RD has a total of 42 maps, if we count every tower map seperately, and the 22th map would be 3-5. One map before Micaiah makes her return, so that would be close enough.
10 hours ago, BrightBow said:This is either a work in progress or the guy just really likes swords.
Also nice D&D reference about demons and devils hating each other.
: "Oh, heirs to the courageous! Hear my ode to the crusaders of old."
(I never read that webcomic, but I do remember the meme. Welcome to Corneria.)
10 hours ago, BrightBow said:Yet Celice still is the one who deals the finishing blow in one of the demo scenes.
With 30 Atk (i.e. 30 Str, five above his cap) and 38 Def. What a dirty cheater.
10 hours ago, BrightBow said:Well, it does show Levin getting killed by Manfroy before being "resurrected" by Holsety. So it backs up the idea that Levin really did die at some point.
That isn't even the correct holy blood. What a dirty cheaterThat is interesting. It doesn't answer the exact nature of gen 2 Lewyn - if he's resurrected "as himself" or, as I read it, as Forseti's avatar, though.
6 hours ago, Revier said:Yet another victim of the Camus archetype. It washes your brain in bad ways, I swear.
Despite being in the same game as a genuinely pretty good example of the archetype in Eldigan. The difference in quality between the generations really is astonishing.
6 hours ago, Revier said:I'm conflicted on the Deadlords. On one hand, these are finally enemies worthy of your overpowered holy weapons. On the other, their power is so overwhelming by necessity that they basically invalidate everyone who isn't Seliph, a holy sword wielder, Julia with Naga, or a healer. I don't see a good way to solve this, while later games chose to "fix" the situation by making holy weapons come extremely late and giving them ridiculously high weight, that just comes off as much less interesting, as it doesn't give much opportunity for them to feel relevant, and undermines the hype around them.
Maybe everyone just needs to be as strong as Seliph, lmao.
Honestly, I think they're fine, as far as gameplay goes. You do have a couple tools that can allow non-major-holy-blood plebs contribute - namely the Brave weapons (of which you likely have two with 50+ kills of) or Arvis's Silver Sword (with which Dermott would've had 80 crit...). And since you have so many holy weapon users that don't depend on any gen 1 character getting hitched, I think it's okay for the game to assume that you still have at least a few of them alive.
6 hours ago, Revier said:One of the funniest things you can do with Naga is use it to completely annihilate the Arena. The mental image of random gladiatorial fighters getting smushed by a legendary holy dragon is just too ridiculous to not laugh at.
To be honest, it always presses my hoarder buttons to use the cheapest weapons feasible in any given situation. I did bring out the big guns for this last chapter more liberally, but iirc, I still had Leif beat the entire arena with an Iron Sword.
5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:SMH, why didn't you just set a Shine Barrier on the space that Oifey (Ares?) is currently occupying? Git gud.
Having to replay the whole chapter? That's rough, buddy.
Honestly not that bad. Edda is easy enough to bum-rush, Dozel's forces are a bit of a joke (as long as you have people who can crit through Brian's defenses), and Hilda's Pavise Pals can be largely ignored, too. The map only becomes difficult once Ishtar and the pegasus trio come into play.
5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:If we've learned anything, it's that Road Tiles are the best, and worst, part of Jugdral.
...not inaccurate. I tend to visualise enemy ranges by marking its "tip" in my head and go diagonally from there, which road tiles routinely messes up. But having your horsies move an entire screen worth of distance in a single turn is really satisfying and makes the huge maps far less bothersome.
5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:Nihil stonks coming in clutch!
Interestingly, I always viewed Alec as better for Patty, because Pursuit. And Swords. But this is a considerable advantage for Faval. Maybe I neglected Briggid × Alec?
To reign in the stonks a little - "can deal more damage to Julius if you decide to not get Naga" is a very specific niche.
You definitely get more out of Nihil on either Fee or some character that's more likely to fight a random boss with a relevant skill. ...although to be honest, only Dermott comes to mind as a variable kid who can be quite good for that.
5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:...Actually, this ending is very similar to the way PoR handles it. With Ike seeing all his guests off.
Once again, with feeling: Kaga Did It First!
5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:Thinking on it, Tinny will almost always inherit House Freege. Because Arthur is busy inheriting Silesse... or Velthomer... or Dozel... or Edda...
That's true. Taillte is the only mom with two magic users as children, so she's quite drawn to dads with magic Holy Blood.
Which is another little curiosity: All the magic dads have holy blood, and all of the dads with +Str blood (Sigurd, Quan, Eldigan) have predetermined marriages.
4 hours ago, BrightBow said:The Ethlyn erasure never stops.
Leif would be higher up in the line of succession, wouldn't he? He's the grandson of the previous Duke (assuming that Sigurd never officially took the title), while Oifey is a more distant cousin. But I suppose wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that a foreign ruler can't inherit titles within Grannvale.
5 hours ago, BrightBow said:It would be one thing if he was simply lending a helping hand, but he acts like he is the de-facto boss.
Exactly. The game makes a big deal out of Seliph being the leader of the young generation saving the world, but his real role is just to relay Lewyn/Forseti's plans to his men.
2 hours ago, Jotari said:How exactly did we get Mustachio-Vendor-Sigurd by the way? It's hilarious and I love it as a glitch, how can I replicate it. Lester needs to be unmarried did someone say?
I can only say that Lester was unmarried in this run. My uneducated guess is that the game doesn't check for the correct flag ("Lester is married to Patty, Fee, or Lene"), so it's played by mistake, and because there is no lover to insert into the scene, the game defaults to the name "Sigurd" and, for whatever reason, Vendor Guy's portrait.
It would be interesting whether the scene would play if Lester was married to Patty/Fee/Lene, and what would happen if he was married to Nanna/Larcei/Tinni (maybe both scenes would play?).
-
The first time a live actor officially donned a Superman costume was on the 3rd of July, 1940, but we don't know who that man was. The occasion was a world's fair in New York, but no records of the actor's identity survived.
-
1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:
How unbefitting the Magical Master Manipulator.
Should've tried fleeing, only for his panicked Rewarp spell to misfire and he gets torn apart by naught but the distorted fabric of spacetime itself. -Or you can invent your own, better execution.😛
Turns out that teleportation at will, alongside time travel or some degree of omniscience, can easily poke holes, nay, craters into most stories.
Maybe if the Book of Naga wasn't sealed away, so Manfroy was explicitly guarding it and saw that as more important than his own life. It would remove Julia's obligator excursion to Velthomer, but I didn't find that to be crucial to either plot or gameplay, anyway.
1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:Kaga’s comment: Julia is a human of course, but her role is similar to that of the Falchion in the previous games. It is still possible to defeat the final boss even without Julia, it’s just more troublesome (laughs). To tell the truth, Seliph’s arc reached its climax with the defeat of Arvis, so the Final Chapter is more like an extra addition.
Julia defeating Julius is not meant to come off as her defeating her brother, but more of her driving Loptyr out of her brother’s body. So, no matter how you look at it, it’s not wrong to say that Julia saved Julius. That’s why Julia is the one with the power to defeat Julius, and not anyone else....BinBla did it better. At least that's my gut reaction - I've always maintained that I like Idoun as a final non-boss, it's only too bad about Jahn's Thousand Thrones as the real final fight. The pieces are different, of course, so this comparison is incredibly shaky.
1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:I take it the guy's reputation later went down in flames?😛
Honestly, he would've been so lucky if that was the Bad Thing he (or his name) is remembered for.
1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:Kaga’s comment: This is actually one of my favourite themes, and I won’t give a definite answer. You can put the pieces you learn together in different ways depending on how you play the game. It might be that, in Seliph’s chapter, the dragonkind borrowed Lewyn’s consciousness for the moment; or, if Lewyn was killed in Sigurd’s chapter, the Lewyn that appears in Seliph’s chapter could be an actual dragon acting as his substitute.
To be honest, I always read it as Lewyn dying at Belhalla and his corpse being revived and possessed by Forseti. It makes Lewyn a bit less awful as a person, too, since at least it's not him who is treating his children (in particular if they're Fee and Ced) like dirt for no reason.
1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:Blood Pact vs. Literally Half The Game. -I know I've a Tellius bias😜, but the BP occupies proportionally less time and thus, is less bad.
And, one could argue, that the BP exists to try creating a logical explanation for how an exhausted Daein gets forced into a continental war for the sake of triggering Part 4, and Mic vs. Ike in P3 too (let's not forget one of the first things shown of RD was Mic vs. Cain). Gen 2 Genealogy imploded for no good reason.
-Disagree in every possible and some impossible ways if you will.😀
That's the thing, though - virtually all of P3 rests on the awfulness that is the Blood Pact, so it's hard for me to see anything that happens as separate from it. Miccy vs. Ike for good reasons maybe could've been cool, but Miccy vs. Ike because Pelleas didn't read the small print is something I can't care for. By contrast, Seliph's story is just... not good. I can't say I prefer one over the other, I just find them bad in different ways.
1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:You've more patience than I do. I would've just let Fee die lmao
Let's say we have patience for different things. Reminder that you made a hack of Binding Blade.
1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:The difference is that Hannibal is the most epic man in Thracia. I mean, who's the competition? Arion? Pfft.
Ah, but does Hannibal have an exploding Zeppelin named after him?
1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:I'm more interested in the fact that this man is apparently called Sigurd.
...Wait-- The eyes! I'd recognize them anywhere - He's the father of the constipated septuplets! What a twist!
My guess would be that Sigurd is the first name in a list, and because this line was created without Lester having a girlfriend, the game just defaulted to that.
The portrait is the vendor guy in the castle, by the way - no idea why he would be portrait #1, though.
2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:And Miletos broke away from the peninsula and sank beneath the waves. Nobody cared.
Why would they? They don't even have kings.
(More fuel for my opinion that ch.10 should've taken place in and around the border triangle between Grannvale, Agustria, and Verdane)
1 hour ago, Jotari said:I wonder where Areone was hanging out before he appears on the map. He specifically says he doesn't live in Thracia anymore, but Thracia and the more recently liberate Miletos are the only things in that direction. He must have flown out east of Belhalla at turn 0 and just spent ages travelling south to flank Seliph from a position where no one is likely to be.
Kaga did PoR!Haar first!
(for anybody who doesn't remember - taking forever to create a flank/pincer against Ike's forces is how he appears on that game's bridge map)
1 hour ago, Jotari said:Lopt Sect = Bad. This is true. But, what's really shocking and kind of sad...they are, at least in my opinion, by far the best evil cult the series has done.
Gharnef is great by himself, but his larger support system is non existent beyond exp bags. We get no other named characters of his heretics, and the closest we do get, Ereimya, is just mind controlled.
The Duma Faithful are...alright. They don't really do anything though. And what Jedah does do with Celica is, controversial, to put it mildly. They're also literally summoning monsters and sacrificing their souls to Cthullu. And, like, the lopt sect may be ridiculously evil, but at least they're evil as humans. The Duma Faithful are almost literally becoming unhuman in their evil. Though I guess they get some style points. Alright, I'll call it a tie for them.
Elibe doesn't have any evil cult, unless you want to count Nergal and his morphs. Neither does Sacred Stones. Ping praises Novala, and I agree, he's a bit of fun (Sacred Stones bossmen=Good, as Ruben's next game shall demonstrate). But I think he's just a dark mage working with Riev who is mostly by himself in his inexplicable worship of satan.
Again no evil cults in Tellius (unless you want to count the senators, but they're more polticans than cultists despite their classes). We took a big break from them after Kaga left, huh? But then Awakening comes crashing back into bad evil cult territory with the Grimleal. Whose main goal is literally to get themselves all eaten by a dragon.
And then the worst of them all is the Agarthans in Three Houses. Because they are actually an interesting idea! They're not just crazy evil cultists for the sake of crazy evil cultists. Their a millennia old Illuminati style conspiracy cult with super science! That's fun, that's cool. But they're the worst because they just fuck it up entirely by doing absolutely nothing with them and making the bulk of their evil mostly pointless and just for the sake of having a completely morally black faction.
Uh...sorry, that might have been a bit off topic. Thank you for coming to my seminar on Fire Embelm's worst recurring trope and how the Lopt Sect are only bad in the absolute sense, and not the relative sense...
No worries about the tangent. It's rather solid evidence that "Evil guys who do evil things, evilly, because they're evil evil-doers" really isn't a concept that carries very far. Genealogy makes this very half-hearted attempt of giving them depth by making them a prosecuted minority, but if a minority is prosecuted because they literally murder children, that doesn't help.
-
FE4 Endgame: The Final Holy War
Freege --> Velthomer --> Belhalla
Spoiler
Starting the final update with a big reset: I've moved myself into a corner here, with Fee allowing Meng to attack her from outside anybody else's range. Because Meng has Nihil, Fee can't fish for a Brave Lance crit -
- and because Meng has Pursuit, Adept, and Critical, she's actually quite likely to kill Fee instead.
There would have been a possibility to kill Meng: Fee would have to bring her low enough for Altena to one-shot with Gáe Bolg without dying (not easy because, well, Earth Sword, Pursuit, Adept, and Critical) - in which case Sharlow could've warped Altena over after colouring Arion green, Leylia's could've danced for her (because Altena would have to move towards Sharlow first), and I would have to hope that I'd still be able to fend/block off Ishtar's squad well enough.
Unfortunately, I didn't keep a save file from only a few turns earlier, so I decided to just replay the entire thing and see that I can bring a larger force to face Ishtar east of Freege (and maybe not allow any of the Pegasi an abusive position like that again).
So, there goes Edda again (this time without allowing too many characters to be slept, by just rushing the castle with Seliph)...
...and Dozel's troops get decimated basically the same way as before - Dermott with Seliph's aura, and Nanna plus whoever else might be nearby.
I made a half-hearted attempt of letting Johalvier get a shot against his brother, but alas, he cowardly cantered out of range.
Meanwhile, Fee makes a little detour to visit the two villages on the map. Entirely useless from a purely game-mechanical perspective, but hey, why not.
: "Hear me, brave heirs to the crusaders! In your hands lies the task of proving this war to be a holy war of its own. If wisdom, courage and power be your allies, summon them now and give all you have, should you wish to prevail this day. Trust yourselves to bring forth our destiny, one born where the two trails of light meet!"
[5000 gold --> Fee]
: "Oh, heirs to the courageous! Hear my ode to the crusaders of old.
O Black Knight Hezul, Mystletainn the demonic in hand, smite the devil
O Sword Saint Odo, Balmung the divine in hand, repel the blight
O Holy Knight Baldur, Tyrfing the sacred in hand, shine a light
And at last, O Saint Heim, Book of Naga in hand, pray to the heavens abovePrayer begets light, Light begets the white dragon
Foe of the shadow dragon
Black and white
Light and dark
An eternal struggleShall our prayers yield victory
Or shall it be death?
And yet have no fear
For our battle is a beginning
And defeat is never the end
The flame of light we seek
Is eternal, undying, never lostAnd in all who follow us
I shall believe
And in all who bear the light
I shall believeNot bad, innit?"
You certainly cannot accuse Genealogy of pretending, at any point, that its overarching conflict has any shades of grey in it.
__
Afterwards, Fee goes straight north to thin out the Sleep staff users above the cliff before the rest of the team arrives. She can stay out of Hilda and her Barons' range easily enough, although this does spawn Scorpius. Or maybe the others came too close, but not quite into range, either.
Being more conscious of bringing a larger force towards Freege also allows for a narratively appropriate Hilda kill:
: "Ohohohoho! You're Taillte's other brat, aren't you? Am I to presume you've come to seek my head for your mommy's pathetic demise?"
: "Oh, yeah. I figured that Tinni shouldn't dirty her hands this time around..."
: "Oh, did you, now? In that case, I'll drag you straight to hell with me!"
Arthur's line almost seems to reference that Tinni actually got the kill (well, shoo-away) on Hilda last chapter, but it's what he always says according to the wiki. Too bad - would've been a great little detail if Tinni-vs-Hilda had set some flag for this chapter.
So, the new result: More folks in Freege's vicinity, only one folk (Arthur) in range of the Loptyrians that can be put to sleep.
__
And as Ishtar approaches, so does Arion:
: "We have no home to return to, men... But we must keep going nonetheless. Chalphy's fall to our blades shall be the first step to winning back our fatherland. Now, move in! Show these liberators one final defiance from the dracoknights of Thracia!"
What an idiot. He didn't say anything particularly eye-rolling here, I just wanted to reiterate.
Now, technically, Altena only half-recruits him after some more action, but just to get it out of the way...
: "That's enough, Arion! Why? Why in the world do you still refuse to see reason?!"
: "Altena?!"
: "How could you be so craven?! How dare you place your own vanity and pride over what truly matters!"
: "What do you want from me, then?"
: "Take a good, hard look at Prince Seliph! Ask yourself this: why is he still fighting? For whom is he out here day after day, setting his own suffering to the side?"
: "So Seliph fights for justice, and I somehow do not? Is that what you're trying to say..."
OK, there's the eye-rolling part.
: "Very well, Arion... If you won't see reason, so be it. Come on. Kill me. End this. My... my life is in your hands, Arion. ...I die with no regrets."
: "A-Altena... Very well. You can rest easy now. I get it. I was wrong... My mercenary days are at an end, and my final task is with Seliph... Wait, no... With you. I now fight for you, Altena."
: "Arion..."
And green he is. I had Sharlow shadow Altena to get her back into action, but reconsidered. Might as well try to keep the doofus alive, and I think he'd likely fly into Julius and the Deadlords if Altena would stay with the main group.
I'm happy to see Altena lay into Arion in this dialogue, although I think I would've preferred it without the "then strike me down" part, which has become a bit of a cliché with Sheeda's lesser clones. I think she could've gotten the same message across without it. "What do YOU want, Arion?! Kill me, your traitorous sister? Or do YOU want to die by my lance, to burden me with the crime of killing the man who is still my brother? What about your men? Whose hand do you want them to die by?! Travant... no, Father built a bridge for you to make peace with the liberation army and even with House Leonster. Do you want to destroy it so carelessly?"
...there I go writing fanfiction again.
Altena does get warped in to grab a single kill before flying back south to redirect Arion west instead of north. But to go back to the first round of combat against Ishtars forces...:
You won't be surprised to see that Arthur is part of it. Forseti indeed goes brrr...
__
...although even an Adept proc isn't lethal (and crits are blocked by Nihil), and the arrival of Meng with her leadership stars actually makes things less reliable than one might think.
__
__
But Ares and Seliph manage to finish the two first Pegasi on player phase, and everybody retreats a few steps. Good ol' turtle tactics, helping out Fire Emblem players since the dawn of time.
(this is the turn on which Altena talks to Arion, btw)
__
And that's the last group of triplets dealt with, including Fee avenging her self from a different timeline. Apologies for not bothering overly much with their battle quotes, but they're not all that interesting to begin with.
Aaand more falling back. I'm being a bit craven (and/or too lazy to find productive and safe enemy phase set-ups) here, I'll admit.
__
2 x (60-24) = 2x36 = 72. Perfectly safe.
__
2x54 - 18 = 90 > 70. Overkill, but not even that much.
And there goes Ishtar, who had ethics when she remembered them. Mostly off-screen, regrettably.
Overall, I think there's two big reasons why ishtar doesn't quite manage to play her role as a sympathetic villain. One isn't so much her fault as it is the timeline's - because Julia fled from Julius years ago, Ishtar couldn't fall in love with the sweet, innocent, pre-Loptyr Julius, which for me would've counted for a lot already. But the second really is that she doesn't really show much reason why we should feel bad for her. We're told that she's actually really nice by Tinni; we learn that she secretly saves children all the time - but on-screen, she generally just goes along with whatever Julius is doing. It would've been nice had she shown at least a little discomfort when Julius is deriving too much pleasure from death, pain, fear, and sorrow.
__
With Ishtar dead, it's time to haste towards Velthomer - Ares and Seliph for Manfroy-killing duties, Leif and Leylia to get them there more quickly.
A few turns later...
...I learn that the Hel priests around Manfroy actually move. Whoops. For science purposes, I didn't reset immediately to see if Hel might kill targets at 1 HP, but results are inconclusive since Ares dodged all attempts...
__
...but Manfroy still adds a point to the L count.
__
This does give me opportunity to change things up ever so slightly - namely, position Fee to slowly draw Julia back towards Velthomer, or at least make sure that she doesn't push the main group back towards Freege.
: "HA... HA... HA..."
Even though they stayed out of Hel range, Seliph and Ares were still close enough to aggro the Hel Loptyrians, but they're considerate enough to still leave a path to Manfroy...
...and Leylia boosts Ares forward to, at the very least, chip Manfroy down.
Or Ares can just score a crit, since Manfroy doesn't have Nihil. That works, too.
If the RNG hadn't worked out so easily, I still would've had the option to use the arena in Chalphy to advance the RN string, but this just worked out fine on the first try.
And there go the Hel priests.
: "Are we quite certain the Book of Naga is in fact hidden in Velthomer, Lewyn?"
: "Yep. All the evidence we have points to Arvis taking it from Belhalla and keeping it hidden here. That's right, isn't it, Felipe?"
: "Indeed, sir. It should still lie in the treasury. That said, it is likely sealed in a locked case."
: "Huh. Any idea where the key is?"
: "My liege concealed the key within his most treasured memento... The circlet once worn by Empress Deirdre. If we can find that circlet, sir, then the Book of Naga is yours."
: "Deirdre's circlet, huh..."
Aaand more dance+rescue to get Seliph back to Julia quickly.
Fee luring Julia further back east puts her into Julius's Meteor range on the following enemy phase - but no danger thanks to Papa Claude, and no battle quote because it seems that Julius's voice can't carry that far.
However, this does activate the Deadlords - or maybe they start moving because Velthomer is seized. A mixed blessing - they're more difficult to approach when they move (since they tend to be really dangerous to fight on their terms), but they do move away from Julius's Meteor range.
__
Unfortunately, miscounting tiles leads to two more resets...
__
...and overreliance on Forseti to a third. Brave Sword and Killer Bow do have some extra accuracy, and Arthur had no +avo in addition to the forest. OH WELL
__
In the end, I just give up on any enemy phase damage, unless we count Fee's magic damage against a high-Res opponent. But what happened to Julia?!
Oh, right. Of course.
: "Julia! Wake up... Please!"
: "..."
: "...Nnh... Lord Seliph?! I... why am I here?"
: "You can thank Manfroy's dark arts. He brainwashed you into his service."
: "Manfroy... Oh, that's right... That man who caught me..."
: "Thank goodness you're safe..."
: "Lord Seliph, I-"
: "It's fine, Julia. I know. Lewyn already told me everything. I'm sorry... I am so sorry. I failed to protect you..."
: "No... It's fine. Don't worry, Seliph. I finally know why I've survived for all these years. I know my fate... I'm fated to fight. I'll never run away again!"
: "Your strength and courage is such an inspiration, Julia... But you're right. This is the will of fate, tragic as it is. None can afford to cower or flee now. Until the bitter end, we must march on..."
And, one turn later thanks to the magic of magic staves...
: "Okay, Julia. This is the treasury. Try fitting the gemstone on your circlet into that niche there."
: "Here we go..."
: "It worked! It really worked! There it is! The Book of Naga! And it's yours for the taking, Julia!"
: "Wow, I... Oh! How strange... It feels so warm... It's almost as if I've known this book all my life..."
But first, more arenaing. Julia rejoins only at Lv.25 - unacceptable! With the Paragon band, she gets to Lv.29 by the end of her run.
__
__
At the Belhalla end of the road, the Deadlords are slowly wittled down. Not too much to say specifically - they're strong, yes, but the Velthomer expedition, joined by Nanna and Dermott, has pretty good player phase offense to offer.
__
__
...close enough. The priestess (or whatever that class's name was) is just a healer, and Leylia can survive a Meteor with the Barrier Sword equipped.
: "Feh.. We meet at last, Seliph. The so-called scion of light... Don't make me laugh! What challenge could an heir of Baldur possibly provide? This is where your story ends!"
...he's not wrong. The combination of Loptyr's Atk-having effect and Nihil circumventing any crit potential means that even holy weapon wielders struggle to deal meaningful damage to Julius. Even Altena, who thanks to Gáe Bolg's Str bonus reaches 67 Atk normally, would only deal 8 dmg (33 - 25) to Julius... and get horribly slaughtered in return, since Julius doubles her for 2x42 damage.
I've seen how Julius can be cheesed without Julia and the Book of Naga - berserk the Hel Deadlord, who only has 25 Res, pick a god, and pray. Killing him legit without Julia seems like an exercise in patience - since Julius has Wrath, nobody without Nihil can fight him once he reaches half HP, which leaves Seliph as the only Holy Weapon user (...and I suppose the Sword Twins can tickle him to death) to get him from 40 HP to 0.
If you wanted to plan a playthrough accordingly, I suppose Alec!Faval would be the best option to increase your damage per turn against Julius, since like Altena, he gets another +10 Str / +5 dmg vs Julius from his holy weapon. The other physical holy weapon wielders don't have variable dads.
So, Julia it is!
__
...who, in contrast, completely dunks on her twin brother. Good lord.
__
So, one turn, one miss and two Adept procs later, it is over.
__
__
So before we get into the epilogue - what about the final map itself? Well, the tail end of it is honestly quite good. You throw OP bullshit at the enemy's OP bullshit, which is an appropriate finale for this game - and, relative to the majority of gen 2, it's quite the difficulty spike, too. Not even close to the peaks of the hard(est) modes of future games, of course, but still requiring more precise play than I was capable of in order to get through without resets. Ishtar's group is somewhat threatening (if mostly because of the huge mobility and proc potential of the pegasi), and the following set-up of Julia approaching while you sneak past her to Velthomer is pretty neat.
Before Freege, the map wasn't as interesting, though. Edda, with all the long-ranged tomes and Sleep staves highly encourages what I did in the second run and just rush the castle with Seliph, and Dozel's troops are easily trivialised by strong sword users (and maybe some aura support to make it entirely safe).
But let's get to the epilogue. We'll be here for a while.
: "Thank you, Lewyn, but our victory means precious little while our world still lies in ruins. Where do we begin from here?"
: "There's only one way to rebuild all the scarred lands. Everyone needs to come together and share the work among you. And for that, you'll need a good leader. The crusaders' heirs will be returning home to assume their rightful thrones. And with the proper leadership, they can pool their strengths again to build a new world, one where all can live in happiness."
: "A new world, you say..."
: "Yeah, Seliph... A new world. And your role is the most crucial of all. You'll remain here in Belhalla, and you'll guide the rise of this new world as the King of Grannvale."
"And Julia, major Naga blood or nay, doesn't have a penis, so she's not an option."
(I'll admit that, if we accept Kaga's conviction that monarchy and inheritance by blood is imperative, even Seliph is more leadership material than the girl who spent most of her youth with trauma-induced amnesia)
: "The two of you have inherited the last will of all who lost their lives on this path. These souls watch over you, even now. You mustn't forget the light for which they strove."
: "Mm... I understand, Lewyn. So long as I have the power, I'll do all I can."
: "Now, Julia. What do you say?"
: "I agree, of course. I wish to aid Lord Seliph... No, my lord brother, every step of the way. I know this path will be a grueling one, but that's all the more reason to give it my all..."
: "Well then! Looks like everyone's making their way here from the front lines. Seliph, this'll be your first task as king. I'm sure they'd all love some words of thanks."
And indeed, the whole team is standing in the outskirts of Belhalla. Poor lonely Faval, up there in the corner...
: "I doubt I could ever thank you enough for all you've done for me, Shanan. All my life, you've been here to protect me at every turn. I owe you so dearly."
: "Your father, Lord Sigurd, was always there for me as well when I was a child, as was the Lady Deirdre. But when we lost Lady Deirdre, I couldn't do a thing to stop it... I failed Lord Sigurd. Even now, I'll never forget that day... You don't owe me a thing, Seliph. Not when I've caused you so much pain..."
: "No, Shanan. If it weren't for you and the people of Isaach, I wouldn't be here today. To me, Isaach will always be home. Nothing will ever change that."
: "I'm sure everyone back in Isaach would be heartened to hear such kind words."
: "I've always thought of you as a brother, Shanan. I pray we never forget that bond."
: "My blade will always be yours, King Seliph. I'll never forget that so long as I live."
: "Well, it's time to say goodbye. Best of luck to you!"
Shanan is a character who I like in principle. His loyalty to Seliph resting (in part) on his feelings of guilt for failing Sigurd and Deirdre, even though he was barely a teenager at the time, is a nice concept - but similar to Arvis and Travant, he doesn't have the stage presence necessary to actually work with that concept.
Next, Leonster:
: "The Thracian Peninsula has suffered from war long enough, and it's high time we rebuilt. I know my sister, Altena, wishes dearly for a restored Thracia as well."
: "Indeed. This war has lain waste to Thracia, and I can only imagine the burden laid upon you, the king-to-be of a united peninsula. I pray you gie it your best, no matter what happens."
: "I will. You take care as well, Lord Seliph."
: "Long ago, our fathers Sigurd and Quan were bound by the closest of friendships, sharing their deaths as they did their lives. Prince Leif, I'd love nothing more than for us to follow their example and remain lifelong friends."
"And eventually get stabbed to death and burnt to a crisp, respectively." - They would deserve nothing less for their continued disrespect towards Ethlyn, honestly.
: "As do I, Lord Seliph!"
: "You're about to leave, aren't you, Leif?"
: "Do you wish to accompany me, Nanna?"
: "Huh? Would that really be alright with you?"
: "But of course! All I want is to have you and your might by my side."
: "Th-thank you!"
: "At the very least, I ought to atone for the legacy of my adoptive family... Travant and Arion."
: "How wonderful it would be, if Arion were to work together with you..."
: "I... I don't believe that could happen for the time being, sir. But perhaps someday, he'll feel the time is right."
: "I shall be bound for home as well, milord. I wish you the best of health."
: "Sir Finn, you've come to my family's aid time and again, and for twenty years played a crucial part in both my cause and Father's. I couldn't possibly thank you enough."
: "No, I am a servant of House Leonster. As a knight, I have but followed where my lieges have led. No more, no less."
: "Thracia is in your hands, Sir Finn. I hope you'll assist Prince Leif in granting Thracia its hard-won peace."
: "Yes, sir. A peaceful Thracia was my Lord Quan's lifelong dream as well, and I'll do all I can to bring that dream to life."
: "Many thanks, King Seliph! I shall excuse myself now."
: "Are you headed for Thracia as well, General Hannibal?"
: "Indeed. Thracia yet hangs in the balance, and the people await my return."
: "Who better to lead the reconstruction of Thracia than a mighty war hero? Do your best for the youths of Thracia."
Me, a German, side-eyeing the wikipedia article on Hindenburg: "..."
: "I see. You know, Sharlow, I've seldom seen anyone as happy as you are now. I confess I'm a bit envious!"
: "I'm so proud of Papa, sir. I may just be adopted, but I'm still the son of the great General Hannibal!"
:"The job awaiting you, the heroes of Thracia, certainly won't be easy. It's up to you to unite two peoples long divided by bitter hatred, and build for all of them a new, peaceful land."
I don't have much of substance to say about the Thracians here. All fairly generic stuff, to be honest. Like with Julia, one can point at Altena being the one inheriting the holy weapon of her family, and unlike Julia, she's even Leaf's older sibling, but I guess we can just assume some level of agnatic succession law in every realm in Jugdral.
Next, Agustria!
: "Oh, no, Prince Ares. The joy chancing upon you brought is thanks enough! It was such an honor to meet the son of my father's dearest friend. As tragic as their lives were, their faith in each other was unshakable to the very end. Our fathers, Prince Ares, were united by a singular dream their deaths left unfulfilled. Let us fulfill their dreams where they cannot. Let the two of us, hand in hand, guide all Jugdral toward bringing the dream to life."
: "Well spoken, King Seliph! My father so dearly wished to see his beloved Agustria united in a lasting peace. In the name of his dying wish, I'll carve for Agustria a new, prosperous future."
I probably sound like a broken record here, but Ares is, I would say, actually the biggest missed opportunity of all gen 2 characters. He and Seliph could've be used to re-examine the relationship between their fathers, what their faults were, and why they eventually came to fight each other. Instead, Ares gets this letter to Memphis from Raquesis/Nanna which just proves that they always loved and trusted each other, they were both literally perfect, and their conflict was just this big tragedy but it doesn't really mean anything.
: "I see... Don't worry too much. Somebody wonderful, I know, will be graced with your charm someday, Leylia."
: "Hee hee... Oh, Lord Seliph! I know you're just trying to perk me up. But it's okay! I've always got dancing... I've been alone my whole life. Staying alone for the rest of it won't be that bad."
: "Leylia..."
That is sad. Now I almost feel bad for not hooking her up with Ares.
: "I'm going with Prince Ares to Agustria, Lord Seliph. I'll lend the prince my strength and help rebuild the country."
: "Dermott? Ah, of course. Your mother was a noblewoman of Nordion, yes?"
: "Lord Eldigan's sister, Raquesis, to be exact, sir. Nobody was closer to him than she was. I'll give my entire life to fulfilling the last wishies of my mother and Eldigan, and to creating a united Agustria."
I wanted to say there should be absolutely no way that Seliph doesn't know that Dermott is Eldigan's nephew. But then I remembered that he constantly forgets who his own aunt was.
: "Even as we speak, Agustria's still embroiled in a civil war. A gruelling task awaits you all, but I know you can handle it if you give it your best together. Agustria's fate now lies squarely in all of your hands."
Next, Jungby:
: "Ah, of course. You're the heir to Jungby. ...Will you be okay?"
: "Huh? Why, Lord Seliph, you're not saying you think I'm nervous about this, are you?"
: "Er, no. That isn't what I meant I just-"
: "I'll be just fine, sir. I'm the daughter of the great Lady Bridget, after all! Sure, I don't look the part, but when the going needs doing, I'll go and do it! Just watch me go, sir!"
: "I'm going back to Jungby as well, sir."
: "Mm. I know Jungby will need your might in the years to come, as will I."
: "Yes, sir. I want to help my cousin, just as my mother once helped my aunt, and I hope I can for the rest of my life."
Gay representation!
Not sure if this a rare edge case, a common bug, or something the translation patch messed up. So I'll just assume that this is canon and that Lester has a thing for moustaches.
: "I know you're mad at me, Lana. Lester told me as much."
: "That's because you've... No, it's fine. I'll be fine. I'm going home to Jungby now. Farewell, Lord Seliph..."
: "Lana..."
This one surprised me a bit, simply because I didn't think Seliph/Lana was pushed that hard during the game as a pseudo-canon pairing, à la Roy/Lilina or Eliwood/Ninian. But I suppose they are mutually their most likely partners, with their only other partner starting with a non-zero love value being the late-joining Coirpre/Sharlow for Lana.
No comment from Lewyn for this one.
: "But of course. We'll be with you every step of the way."
...that's all? Gosh, Seliph is even worse at smooth-talk than Marth.
Checking the wiki on this, it seems that I didn't get a tiny intersection that Seliph's lover is supposed to have right at the start of the epilogue. Might be an issue with the translation patch, but it's very possible that it's removed because Tinni has her own gig going on and can't just "support Seliph" as that intersection would suggest.
: "Your father was Lord Lex, correct? I'm sue the people of Dozel eagerly await your return, Ulster."
: "The likes of Langbalt and Dannan have tormented the people and stained House Dozel's good name for too long. Now that my father is gone, it falls to me to heal the state's wounds."
: "Mm. I entrust Dozel's welfare to you. I pray you'll be able to lend me your might in the years to come."
: "Yes, Lord Seliph!"
Like with Dermott, Seliph really should know who his childhood friends' parents are or were. But in Ulster's case, this is just the generic "Lex's son" text, so I can't mind this too much.
: "So long, Seliph."
: "I leave Dozel's care to you, Lord Johalvier."
: "Facing my people ain't gonna be easy, but one way or another, I've gotta atone for my dad's crimes somehow. Guess I won't know till I try. I really owe you one, Seliph."
: "You truly are an odd one, Lord Johalvier. Your rough words hide such a gentle spirit."
: "Heh, I guess. Talking like this never felt right, yeah? Good luck with everything, Seliph. I'll see ya around."
: "Don't worry, Lord Seliph. Johalvier's always felt awkward about what really lies beneath his act..."
: "Hahaha, I though as much. Do take care, Larcei. And do take care of Johalvier."
: "Yes, sir. I suppose I can't really afford to leave him be, can I? Rest assured, I'll look after him. Take care as well, Lord Seliph!"
The crowd is thinning...
: "I take you're headed for Edda, Ced?"
: "I am, sir. In the name of my father, Claude, I'll breathe new life back into Edda."
: "Saint Bragi's faith is strong indeed. I know your exalted prayers will bring peace to Grannvale and the world."
: "Yes, sir!"
Very generic. Not Ced-specific, either - he's just speaking as "Claude's Son" here, and because Fee got together with Arthur, Claude's Daughter doesn't make an appearance here.
: "I beg your forgiveness, Lord Faval. The task which now lies before you is the most painful of all."
: "No, sir. I'm all that's left of House Velthomer, and it's my duty alone to atone for the many crimes of my kin. I know that's what my father, Lord Azel, would want as well."
: "Faval, I can't bring myself to hate Lord Arvis any longer. Knowing now he was but a sad victim of fate, I can only offer you my condolences."
I'd call Arvis a schemer that got out-schemed, but I appreciate Seliph's sentiment.
: "Thank you so much, Lord Seliph..."
He said the thing!
: "I'll work tirelessly until the Emblem's honor and good name are restored."
'nother generic "___'s Son" ending here.
: "What? Why, Oifey? Why?! I thought you would never leave my side! I... I still need you."
: "No, sire... You will do a magnificent job ruling on your own. I know it. And whilst you do, it'll be my duty to protect House Chalphy in your stead."
: "Chalphy... I understand, Oifey. You are right, of course. I won't be able to inherit its throne, which leaves you as the last bearer of the blood of Baldur who can claim it. I suppose there isn't much choice..."
: "Everything will be alright, sire. I'll always be watching over you, even from Chalphy."
: "Oifey... To me, you've always been like the father I've never had. You taught me all I know... How to strategize, how to live as a knight does... And how to be kind. You've done so much, and I could never thank you even nearly enough..."
: "Sire... I, too, owe your father dearly for all he once did for me. When my parents died, Lord Seliph took me into his home. He loved me just as if I were his own brother. And yet... I couldn't even be by his side in his final moments... I was such a coward."
: "Oifey... Please don't cry... This is my fault, not yours..."
: "Sniff... My apologies, sire. You shouldn't have seen that. Now then... Please, sire..."
: "I know, Oifey... I know. You take care as well..."
And we save Lewyn's son for last.
Oifey, in his relation to Seliph is obviously similar to Shanan, including the part where the story doesn't do a whole lot with it. I like the set-up more for Shanan, I think, since he has that concrete act of (self-perceived) failure with Deirdre's kagaing.
: "Well, Lord Seliph, thanks for everything. I'll be going back to Silesse with Father now."
FUCK OFF.
Honestly though, I get it, we're in the middle of the Happily Ever After, everybody is in full peace-and-love mood... But we're still talking about Lewyn here. Think of him what you want, but he's not a good father to anyone. And not even Lewyn!Ced deviates from the script at this spot.
: "Lord Seliph! I'll be going to Silesse with Arthur."
: "You will as well, Fee? That's very reassuring. I pray you and Arthur will pool your might to aid Silesse's people."
: "Got it! I'll do my best!"
: "No. My work there is done."
: "I don't belong on the throne. Silesse needs a fresh start with its leadership, just like everywhere else. What Silesse needs is you. It needs to be guided by your youthful hand."
: "I don't understand... Silesse needs you, too... And I need you. Please, Father... Please. Come home with me!"
: "Settle down, Arthur. You're embarrassing me here. You already know exactly why I'm doing this... Don't you, Arthur?"
: "...Father..."
: "...That's enough. There's nothing left to say. Go! I leave Silesse's fate to you..."
Bad dad to the end. (...although I appreciate the implied "you know this isn't Lewyn speaking" there)
: "Thank you, Lewyn... Thank you so much... You've done so much for us, the young generation. You've always guided us... From the bottom of our hearts, thank you."
: "I did only my duty, Seliph. I am the wind, a wind fated to guide the beating light of life. And this very light shines on within the hearts of every last one of you."
: "I understand now... All my life, I've heard tales of how the dragonkin feared becoming entangled in the sorry affairs of mankind. But you were different... You guided us where your kin never would. So long as our world lives on, humanity will never forget your kindness..."
Gasp!
I do have a little to say about this - obviously, since it's a rather big bomb to drop in the very last line of dialogue of the entire game - but I think I'll keep that in the overall opinion piece at the end.
The very last piece of the story is one final tour of Jugdral. Frankly - a bit superfluous, since we already had the characters talk things out, but here we are.
At long last, Thracia has been unified. A region once swamped with countless small nations constantly warring among themselves, with the restoration of House Leonster and the downfall of the Thracian kingdom, the Thracian Peninsula finally knows peace. And as the first ruler of this new Thracia, the people ardently desired for the throne to be taken by Leif. And so, Leif worked together with
Nanna, Leif's wife,
Finn, the lance knight,
the great General Hannibal,
Sharlow, the holy youth,
to build a new nation for Thracia's people.At Leif's behest, the old Thracia's former lands were entrusted to his sister, Altena. Legends tell of Altena's love for and dedication to the very soil that raised her, and this love never died so long as she lived. The Thracian peninsula thus gave rise to a new realm: the Kingdom of New Thracia.
The Kingdom of Isaach may have found its freedom from Imperial abuse the quickest, yet its people could not rest easy while its heir was absent fighting in the war. This changed with the final victory of the liberation army, and when Shanan returned from battle, the people greeted their liege with raucous cheers. And so, with Shanan assuming the crown, and others by his side to restore the land, they also strove for a new age of diplomacy and trade, seeking to build a wealthy nation. Isaach was once reviled by others as little more than a barbarous eastern land, but under the reign of Shanan, Isaach will grow like never before and shall one day be reborn as a mighty nation, every bit the equal of other realms.
The aftermath of Agustria's civil war left it to be annexed by Grannvale, and so the land fell to harsh tyranny. After years of abuse, its people dearly wished for the rise of a unified nation, one led by House Nordion, heirs of the legendary hero Eldigan. And so the people eagerly welcomed the homecoming of Ares. In Ares, the people saw the very same aure Eldigan had borne in his youth.
(Translation: Ares is literall Eldigan with bigger eyes and a different wardrobe)
Ares was accompanied home by
Leylia, the resolute dancer,
Dermott, the charming knight,
and worked with them to unite Agustria. Under the reign of Ares, Agustria will soon become Grannvale's most crucial partner and will grow to be greater than ever before.
Even at its peak, the Empire had shunned and ignored Verdane. Uninterested in seizing the region within its iron fist, it completely abandoned the old kingdom. Instead, Verdane was left to the mercy of constantly warring clans, and brigands ran rampant. Nobody had any hope of peace. With the holy war's end, Seliph led an expedition to restore peace to Verdane. The people were overjoyed to, at last, be saved by Seliph, the son of Deirdre. Deirdre had long since passed into the legends and folklore of Verdane, now revered there as a saint, and now Verdane's people clamored to come under the rule of Deirdre's son. Seliph, too, held a deep love for the land of his mother's youth, and so Verdane joined Grannvale's lands, becoming the Royal Province of Verdane. Verdane is a land of natural beauty. Its verdant forests are Sigurd's prayers... Its sparkling, crystal-clear water is Deirdre's tears... And these are its people's emblems of hope and faith...
God, even Sigurd and Deirdre are worse characters in gen2. It's been a thing with how Ares views Sigurd and Eldigan, but it's even more egregious here, how they literally become saints because... er, why exactly? Jamke's brothers were huge jerks, sure, but Sigurd arguably just swooped in, smashed the existing administration, and went on to more important castles to seize. While Deirdre... existed, I guess? I can buy that Verdanians might feel pride that Seliph, world saviour that he is, is half-Verdanian, but Deirdre honestly might be the least active character in all of gen1. She doesn't really do anything, things are done to her. The constant veneration of her seems rather unearned.
Silesse had long dwelt under the empire's cruel hand, and so Arthur devoted their life to rebuilding the ruined land. Assisting them was
Fee, his wife,
all bearing hope-filled smiles.Probably the most obvious it gets that these segments are automatically generated.
A breathtaking land... A peaceful people... Lewyn had devoted his life to protecting the Kingdom of Silesse, and at long last, his decades of work came to fruition.
FFS Kaga, stop pretending that Lewyn has been a good person at any point of his life. You even confirmed just now that the guy helping Seliph hasn't been Lewyn all along. I suppose it's in line with Sigurd, Eldigan, and Deirdre's posthumous elevation to paragons of love, justice, virtue, knowledge, wisdom and whatnot.
And in Grannvale itself,
Velthomer's new lord, Faval,
Freege's new lord, Tinni,
Edda's new lord, Ced,
Dozel's new lord, Ulster,
and Johalvier,
and his wife, Larcei,
Jungby's new lord, Patty,
and Lester,
and Lana,
Chalphy's new lord, Oifey,
and others all returned to their lands.Okay, that is also a rather clunky segment.
In the royal capital Belhalla itself, with overwhelming support from the public, Seliph was officially hailed as their king. The newly anointed King Seliph devoted himself to rebuilding his land and bringing peace to all, his goal nothing short of a prosperous world free of oppression and bigotry. And by his side, one would always find his sister, Princess Julia, regarding his toil with the warmest of eyes...
In ages to come, the people of Jugdral tell legends of a king of ages past. None shell ever forget his name: Seliph.
TL;DR: The divine right of kings is restored, and the correct people are in charge. In Verdane, the one place where the correct bloodline died out, anarchy obviously follows, until the Über-correct king comes and restores the natural order. Everybody cheers. All is well.
After this, turncounts and W/L for every (gen 1 and 2) characters pass by with some nice little artwork on the side...
...until the final rankings are listed. As well as evidence for my very liberal usage of the speed-up button, I assume. To go through the four individual ranks:
Tactics - 417 turns (399 or lower required for A)
- Prologue - Birth of a Crusader: 14 turns
- Ch.1 - The Spirit Forest's Maiden: 39 turns
- Ch.2 - Crisis in Agustria: 45 turns
- Ch.3 - Eldigan the Lionheart: 42 turns
- Ch.4 - Dance in the Skies: 39 turns
- Ch.5 - Threshold of Fate: 28 turns
- Ch.6 - Heirs to the Light: 36 turns
- Ch.7 - Beyond the Desert: 52 turns
- Ch.8 - The Dracoknights of Thracia: 41 turns
- Ch.9 - For Whose Sake: 31 turns
- Ch.10 - Light and Darkness: 25 turns
- Endgame - The Final Holy War: 25 turns
Honestly, 18 turns behind the highest rank is closer than I would've expected. I'd have to take a closer look to see if it's as easy to spot potential turn saves as "check the maps with 40+ turns, dummy", but I assume that it's a reasonable (if not as easy as, say, Eliwood Mode) Tactics rank to ace.
Experience - 995 level-ups (1000+ required for A)
No, really. I didn't expect to be that close to the A rank here, since I hardly bothered leveling up the non-dads in the first generation at all. But to take a look at ALL THE NUMBERS:
Lv. HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res W/L levels missing Sigurd 30 61 25 0 22 22 16 21 4 79/1 0 Noish 7.68 35 12 0 10 10 4 9 0 6/1 23 Alec 9.21 37 12 0 12 11 6 12 0 2/1 21 Arden 8.41 39 16 0 6 5 3 15 0 4/0 22 Finn 23.80 46 22 0 16 20 17 17 4 43/1 -- Quan 17.05 47 21 0 16 17 7 13 4 17/4 13 Midir 29.98 49 23 1 16 23 9 15 4 43/1 1 Lewyn 30 56 4 30 25 30 8 12 15 25/0 0 Holyn 22.48 51 21 3 27 21 7 16 4 0/0 8 Azel 30 47 7 25 14 22 8 14 13 52/3 0 Jamke 24.09 52 22 0 19 22 13 17 4 5/0 6 Claude 30 41 2 24 19 17 14 5 23 1/0 0 Beowulf 30 55 23 0 30 19 4 19 3 19/0 0 Lex 30 58 27 2 18 14 12 25 4 37/0 0 Dew 11.58 32 8 0 10 18 14 4 1 3/2 19 Deirdre 7.82 29 0 16 10 13 6 4 18 3/0 23 Ethlyn 30 43 15 13 20 24 14 18 8 9/0 0 Raquesis 30 44 27 9 23 20 13 24 10 24/1 0 Ayra 30 53 24 2 30 30 10 14 5 35/1 0 Erin 30 46 17 9 19 30 12 20 15 47/0 0 Taillte 28.05 52 4 22 24 24 22 6 18 23/0 2 Sylvia 13.70 didn't note her final stats 0/0 17 Aideen 30 48 9 26 17 19 28 9 11 1/0 0 Bridget 30 55 27 4 25 22 19 18 10 25/0 0 -------------------------------------------------------- Lv. HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res W/L levels missing Seliph 30 69 25 10 22 22 28 22 16 57/0 Shanan 30 68 24 1 30 26 14 22 6 20/0 Leif 30 66 27 8 27 27 17 27 11 28/0 Sharlow 30 45 4 27 16 18 14 10 18 0/0 Finn 30 51 24 1 18 22 24 21 4 19/0 Hannibal 30 67 24 2 18 13 8 25 6 1/0 Ares 30 73 24 9 23 22 19 24 14 30/1 Oifey 30 58 23 10 24 22 14 22 8 24/3 Julia 30 50 4 30 18 29 12 5 27 20/0 Altena 30 69 27 3 24 22 11 29 9 19/0 Leylia 15.66 30 9 2 2 16 8 3 7 0/0 15 Johalvier 30 60 26 0 19 21 7 25 8 28/0 Ulster 30 70 27 7 27 26 13 22 5 6/0 Faval 30 68 18 15 20 27 30 14 6 16/0 Ced 30 55 5 27 22 30 29 14 27 11/0 Dermott 30 65 23 0 30 25 22 20 7 68/1 Lester 30 58 24 3 19 23 25 18 5 38/0 Arthur 30 70 6 23 22 22 27 11 11 42/1 Patty 30 63 22 17 22 27 24 17 9 30/0 Larcei 30 70 27 1 30 30 21 22 7 18/0 Lana 30 61 12 24 24 23 29 12 11 0/0 Fee 30 56 20 17 24 29 15 20 24 55/0 Tinni 30 63 4 27 24 27 30 11 17 15/1 Nanna 30 58 24 7 22 21 24 24 8 26/0In total, there's 1165 possible level-ups to be gained - 606 in the first generation and 559 in the second, counting Finn as a gen1 character. The numbers showcase that maxing out all of gen2 isn't too difficult (outside of Leylia - and since Leylia gained 12 levels without Paragon, it seems that Lex!Lene doesn't even need to arena too crazily to cap, as well), so reaching an A rank here obviously seems like it's almost exclusively a challenge in the first generation.
Survival - full recruitment, everybody alive.
Combat - 23 registered deaths (0-3 required for A; 4-10 required for B)Honestly, very straightforward. I was pretty cavalier with potential character deaths at some points (like with Azel in the prologue already), but still - combat might actually be the most stringent requirement of them all, considering how long the chapters can be that you might have to replay entirely.
So there's the confirmation: I am an average Fire Emblem player. B tier. Not great, not terrible. ...but genuinely, trying my hand at a ranked run is definitely tempting, especially with how much closer than expected to A I was in Tactics and especially Experience.
Spoiler
Now, with Beelzebub back underground - what to make of Genealogy as a whole?
Praise for this game, as far as I can tell, is more often directed at the story than the gameplay, so it seems appropriate to start there. And for the first generation, I'm absolutely willing to sing along the choir of these praises (preferably as a basso; bariton if it's absolutely necessary) - more than I expected, honestly. Of course, it's not perfect, but what FE story is? Tellius, the dilogy that story enjoyers usually point at, still has a fairly standard main plot in Path of Radiance and the Blood Pact in Radiant Dawn.
But before I get to the detractions, I want to start with the positives. For starters: Sigurd is a really good protagonist, as I was shocked to learn. I would even say that Sigurd is what Corrin wishes they were (minus the "burnt to a crisp" part, presumably): A protagonist that other characters are drawn to, because he is honest, straightforward, polite, and noble... but he's also a bit of a dummy, who can't quite fathom the concept of diplomatic solutions ("maybe the problem will go away if I seize another castle"), doesn't recognise the implications of his actions ("helping the crown prince of our war enemy is the Right Thing To Do, I don't see why anybody would suspect or insinuate ulterior motives"), and who seems entirely incapable of recognising duplicity ("Arvis, who just stabbed his former friend in the back, now wants to be my friend? ...Neat!").
What's about Sigurd is that he starts to grow out of his weaknesses - namely, in Ch.4 he's more aware that invading can potentially be seen as an aggressive move - but his growth is cut short because his mistakes also come to haunt him. I know that this can be debated, since Sigurd doing the sensible thing just as well could've allowed Langbalt and/or Reptor to fight him without the strong allies he collects on his campaign. But I think that discussion would lead me too far away from the question how good FE4 really is, so I'll just quickly say that my read is "Sigurd had no chance, but he didn't use it, either" and observe that it's a good sign that one can genuinely have this discussion about a character that's seemingly just another "I do what is right" Fire Emblem protagonist.
And to add another character that I found a lot more convincing than most other representatives of his archetype: Eldigan is pretty great. Most of the time, anyway. His first interaction with Chagall is a bit inadverently goofy; the second one ensures that Eldigan's last impression isn't the greatest. But most of the time, Eldigan's attitude is quite reasonable, if too rigidly loyal to a king that doesn't deserve that loyalty. The entire Agustrian part of the game is really some of the best stuff that Fire Emblem writing has to offer, and it's largely because Sigurd and Eldigan play their roles very well. It's a believable scenario of two friends being forced - admittedly partially by their own mistakes - to fight one another.
Unfortunately, Genealogy doesn't manage to hold that high past Ch.3. I'll give the Silesse chapter a pass (for its story, anyway) because it works well as a small hope spot for Sigurd, but the game never manages to sufficiently build up its main villages, much to Ch.5's detriment. Reptor and Langbalt can quickly be dismissed as non-characters with a cool monocle and beard, respectively, but Arvis (and I'm going to reach into the second generation here) feels like a missed opportunity. A great character - offscreen. We're told that something very intriguing is going on behind the scenes - Arvis's scheming during the first generation, and his desperate attempts to counteract Julius's maniacal ways before and during the second - but because he makes hardly any appearances onscreen, his presence in the actual plot is miniscule considering how important he is to it.
But to close the first generation, I have to go back to singing Kaga's praises again. The insanity, the fucking balls on the man, to just murder the entire cast (terms and conditions may apply) at the halfway-point of the game. It's been discussed when it happened in this playthrough, but it's a damn shame that the scene is "I am your father" levels of famous in the FE community, even for players that know nothing else about Genealogy, since that must be a hard-hitting scene for anybody running into it blindly.
Unfortunately, though, I have to start another paragraph with "unfortunately". Story-wise, the second generation is a mirror of the first: Instead of "great, but with some weaknesses", Seliph's story is "awful, but with some good elements". From Sigurd, the good man who can't keep up with the intrigues around him, we go to Seliph, the good man who does good things in a good manner and all is good. The guy has less character than FE1!Marth, which is not a good look for somebody with more dialogue in a single chapter than the entire script of FE1 as a whole.
Where the second generation shines (...well, manages a little shimmer) are two of its villains. Travant is pretty cool as a villain whose goal is fairly grounded and not actually that evil - ruthless and with limited supply of empathy, but not a cackling villain. His decision to get himself killed to give his son a clean slate to make a deal with Leaf and Seliph was a good scene (even though Arion fucks it up...). And Arvis manages to make an impression when he re-enters the story - but not by being this awesome badass. It's very striking to see the smug and powerful villain of the first generation already beaten by his son, only able to act against him in secret and with no hope of standing up to him at all. It's done quite well, I think - but like in the first generation, his actual stage presence is very short, which reaffirms the impression of Arvis of a great character... ofscreen.
But despite these two positive examples, the main villains of the second generation are godawful. Of course, Manfroy and the Young Men's Loptyrian Association were already present (and awful) during the first generation, but I find that it becomes a bigger problem in Seliph's story where they're more of a direct antagonist instead of the shadowy organisation behind the likes of Chagall and Arvis (and I'm irrationally happy that I can bring them up side by side here). They're just so boring. Generic, boring evil. No redeeming qualities, no flair, just generic "Mwehehe, I'm evil, watch me stab this toddler, mwehehe" Evil McEvilness. The guy feeding people to the giant spider in early Sacred Stones is a better villain than the entire Loptyr cult combined. He at least had fun.
I think this also hurts Julius as the final antagonist of the game. Not to say that he'd be suddenly amazing - but his "creepily sadistic teenager" act might've been more impactful if the Loptyrians had been a more... moderately evil. Present them as this cult who is trying to rule from the shadows, sure, and won't shy away from murder when necessary, but maybe don't go into the child hunts until Julius makes an appearance, the thing that the cult has been working to create all of gen 1 - who then turns out to be this cold, sadistic boy who revels in the fear of the masses. When the "EVIL" notch is at 10 the entire time, even the child hunts honestly lose a lot of their shock value.
Now, I think I've established what I think of gen 2's story, so I'll swap my complaining to the presentation. I've consistently made clear what I think of Lewyn if he was an actual person (which is very little), but overall, I don't think he works very well as a plot device, either. With Sigurd, I had voiced some frustation that he collects the information necessary to figure out at least something about the going-ons. With Seliph, my main issue is that he doesn't really collect any information at all, and the problem here is Lewyn.
Lewyn is basically the exposition bot for Seliph. If some new information needs to be established, it's via Lewyn. If the story demands that a new information only become available at a certain point, like Julia's parentage - well, then Lewyn happens to somehow acquire that info at a convenient point in time. I found that very annoying, because at no point did I have the impression that Seliph is working to find answers to some of the unsolved questions. He just does what Lewyn tells him, and receives some more insight whenever Lewyn happens to feel like it.
This also runs contrary to the theme of the game, I find: It's about the young generation doing what their parents couldn't, but also building on the foundations that their parents left behind. You find that most obviously in the inheritance mechanics, but also with Seliph finding help from people (starting with Oifey and Shanan) repaying Sigurd's kindness, directly or indirectly. In general I liked that a lot (and I'm going to forget about any ghostly apparitions) - but Lewyn not just having an advisory role, but in effect dictating Seliph's strategy every step of the way - I think that undermines the theme of the young 'uns taking over responsibility. And that didn't even take into account that all this time, it wasn't Boomer Lewyn directing the liberation army, it was an Actual Deity Forseity, but...
...considering that I never liked text interpretations back at school, that has already been far more rambling about the story than I expected I would do. So, I'll just sum my thoughts on that up with "Seliph being told what to do by a dragon/deity only makes it worse" and move on the the gameplay...
...which I think averages out at "OK". I will say this: The size of Genealogy's maps wasn't nearly as big a deal to me as it's usually made out to be, and I say that despite complaining about "dead turns" in the previous games. It's also a small, but constant annoyance in Genealogy, but I don't think that the game stands out particularly much in that regard. Yes, maps are huge - but most of the time, so are movement ranges. It does impede non-mounted units a fair bit, but that can be somewhat alleviated with some foresight - don't move your footies all the way to Anphony, for example, when it's clear that the next target is going to be Mackily at the other side of the map. At other points, the Return/Warp slingshot help greatly.That is not to say that there aren't specific maps (or parts of maps) that are particularly annoying. The Spirit Forest back in Ch.1, or the entire northern half of Ch.4's map, for example. But overall, "maps too big 😞 😞 😞" seems to me like a rather overblown criticism of the game.
What I would call the main failings of Genealogy are (1) it's mostly quite easy, which makes the myriad of optimisations one can do feel a bit pointless, and (2) the way a turn, and specifically an enemy phase will go is really random.
I don't think I have to elaborate on (1) too much. The very last chapter, while it did have more dangerous enemy formations in Ishtar's group or the Deadlords, also threw the Grauenritter at us which Dermott (or any half-decent Swordie) could solo with minimal support. And (2) is something that I brought up once in a while: Proc skills and imperfect hit rates tend to make individual rounds of combat very variable ("54% of the time, Lewyn kills this enemy every time.") and with the AI making inscrutable desicions on a turnly basis, it's anybody's guess how any given enemy phase will go.
I'm sure that a more diligent player (and one more willing to just lean on a small number of hard carries) can reduce, if not remove, most of the randomness - case in point, Dermott outnumbering the Grauenritter one to fourteen, with the only randomness being how many Brave Sword uses he'll save via crits. But assuming that I'm a somewhat average FE player, I think that for most, Genealogy tends more towards the left on a "Gambling <--> Strategise" scale.
What I did enjoy a lot were the eugenic optimisations one can do. There's a lot of directions one can take - simple minmaxing (Beo!Dermott comes to mind), stupid broken shit (Ch.6 Forseti, lolol), odd but viable builds (Mag-based Patty for ranged stealing (sorry about your Str, Faval)), funky skill combinations (Holyn x Ayra for ALL THE PROC SKILLS, or Lex x Taillte for Vantage-Wrath), or simple silliness (Arden x Taillte for Vantage-Wrath, minus the Paragon). But as I said, because Genealogy isn't all that difficult, planning this out felt a bit like playing Civilization on Chieftain difficulty: The meta plays and optimisations are still "good play"... but that good play doesn't translate into a good game when you end up shooting swordsmen with your rocket artillery.
Overall, I didn't have to write all this to decide that Genealogy goes into the B-tier.
But I'm less decided about its position relative to Radiant Dawn, which I put at the top of that tier at the start of this project. As far as the quality of their stories are concerned, I find that they're actually very similar: Both start very strong, but fall off eventually (*coughbloodpactcough*). For gameplay... I'd actually call Genealogy more interesting because of its inheritance mechanics providing a more long-term element. But of course, RD benefits greatly from the brilliant minds of BinBla's designers coming up with the concept of multiple difficulty settings - as much as I dislike the removal of QoL features that RD uses to "increase difficulty".
In the end, I think I'll go with the subjective "jank is more forgivable in old game" criterion and put Genealogy at the top of the B-tier. Flawed game, but still a good game, and definitely an improvement over Old Mystery.
-
8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:
...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..."
In a way, the odd phrasing ("I crave your pardon") makes it worse - if it was more generic, I would've been more likely to pass over that they're the same word for word.
8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said: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!
Turns out that Brian wasn't the messiah. Just a very naughty boy.
8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:This one isn't even a fucking good recolor. Why is his robe's brightest color blue, but the shadow colors are red?
I didn't even tamper with that one!
8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:If the game had come out 20 years later we would've gotten Travant discourse.I'm waiting for the inevitable "was Zephiel right, actually?" discourse if/when Binding Blade gets remade.
8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:It happened to me.
8 hours ago, Jotari said:Oh wow. The only time Seliph hasn't got hitched with Lana for me was when he hooked up with her substitute Muirne.
Petition to rename Genealogy LTC runs into FAS (Forever Alone Seliph) runs. Seems like it's at least a bit of a challenge to achieve.
8 hours ago, Jotari said:He is such a charismatic and charming individual than Manfroy.
It needs a lot of force of persuasion to be as obviously cackling evil as Manfroy and still convince people to go along with your plans.
8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:Forbidden knowledge must be earned. Simple as that. -Don't question the video game logic.
Earned by suffering Lewyn's presence for this entire campaign, I assume, since it's not like Seliph did anything else. Specifically to unveil the grand secrets of the Twelve Crusaders, that is.
8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:They all have 4 Luck, must be the common Japanese homonymic wordplay. "Four" and "death" in Japanese are both pronounced "shi", though their kanji are different, obviously. 4 is thus an unlucky number in Japanese. Learning about feudal Japanese banquets- you would be served three sets of three dishes. Sometimes a fourth set would be present -but you never called it the "fourth dish", to avoid accidentally calling it the "death dish" -you don't want to taint the banquet with death- you would say "additional/extra dish" instead.
That is a neat little detail.
8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:More appropriate on some level, methinks?
It'd be Elffin - prince, posing as a bard, exposition bot for a while (though not as long as Lewyn), fleeing his homeland, associated with the annoyingly immature dancer girl. Elffin's just far less of a prick about all this.
8 hours ago, BrightBow said:"Recently"? Could you not sense the "aura of Naga" in all the years taking care of her?
And if you didn't know, what else was so special about her that back then you felt compelled to take care of her personally? Surely there was no lack of war orphans you encountered during your travels, who also were in dire need of a caretaker.
Not to mention chances are that Lewyn left behind two children of his own. Fuck 'em, I suppose.
8 hours ago, BrightBow said:Finally a whole army where everyone has Great Shield.
Hurray...? Well, at least it's also an army that is very easy to ignore almost entirely.
8 hours ago, BrightBow said:You would think that they have the Delta Attacke, but I can't say I've ever seen them try to set it up. Unlike the mage trio, they don't seem to prioritize attacking foes in melee.
Interesting. I haven't continued playing yet, so I was just going by what FEWoD and the wiki.org say. We'll see, maybe I'll be forced to see for myself, considering just how mobile they are.
8 hours ago, BrightBow said:They are named after the numbers 1 to 12, but in German.
Not in Project Naga, though. Ich glaube, das hätte ich sonst gemerkt.
4 hours ago, Revier said:Or Seliph/Ares/Shannan.
Yeah, see? 😆
...Honestly, yeah. Every sword user could've done this, I think. Even Oifey still would've had the necessary stats, I think. Although Hannibal (-26 avoid, compared to Dermott if using the same weapon and stat rings) would've needed a little more support to do this safely.
4 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:My approach that I alluded to earlier was, I was able to trap Brian on a mountain tile. Because I killed most (all?) of his subordinates, his "retreat for reinforcements" AI kicked in. But because he was stuck, he couldn't actually go anywhere. And his retreat AI wouldn't let him attack, either. So, he became a non-entity.
Ah, that would work. Hannibal was in that state for a turn or three, although in his case, it's much easier to set up because you can just plonk somebody on his castle without seizing.
-
FE4 Endgame: The Final Holy War
Edda --> Dozel --> Freege
Spoiler
__
__
How To Trivialise Dozel: Use Dermott.
He has 76 avoid vs. the Great Knights' 98 hit, so that gives them 2 hit against him after weapon triangle. Add Seliph to the equation and that goes down to 0 without anybody noticing.
And with 40 Atk, he deals 4x18 = 72 dmg against their 70 HP. *Chef's kiss*
__
Do that over the course of two enemy phases, and Brian's entire entourage (well, except for a few healers) is done.
: "How dare you murder my father... Learn the pain and wrath of three generations of House Dozel!"
And Brian himself, well...
Sigurd/Seliph's Silver Sword has 100+ kills, so he has a 72% crit rate with it.
__
(lookit Sharlow being useful!)
Ayra/Beowulf/Dermott's Brave Sword has 74 kills after running through every Grauenritter, which puts him at a 59% crit rate.
: "Even with Helswath, I... I fell so easily? Could it be... Could I have been wrong... all along...?"
Meanwhile, the majority of the unpromoted axe cavs are dealt with by Nanna, who basically could've done the same thing as her brother if given the same resources (namely a Power Ring, Speed Ring for avoid, the gen1 Brave Sword, and a Skill Ring for the better crit rate).
__
: "Damn you all! Your heads are mine to cleave right off!"
: "H-how could this be..."
(contrary to what I said last update, I think this is the fifth Philip, not the fourth. I just already was too lazy to make a portrait for No.IV)
Generic Loptyr man is allowed one Fenrir against Nanna (he misses)...
...before Fee stabs him with yet another crit weapon.
I have this weird sense of déjà-vu here...
__
Before seizing, there is one little surprise: Seliph did not randomly hook up with Lana, which I think the First Mate (?) said earlier is the most likely outcome if you don't pay attention to his love life.
: "Lord Seliph..."
: "Tinni?! Stay back, please! You are ill suited for the front lines!"
"Warmages and war do NOT mix!"
: "All I want is to help you, Lord Seliph. Please... My power is yours!"
: "But I... I couldn't bear to lose you..."
: "I won't leave your side, Lord Seliph. The thought of meeting the same fate as Lady Deirdre... It's too painful... Please, Lord Seliph. I'll fight at your side till the very end!"
: "You're right... My apologies. How could we not be better off fighting as one? Come, Tinni. We ride together. Your power will bring us victory. I know it!"
: "Lord Seliph... Thank you!"
[+3 Mag --> Seliph]
Well, there is one fate that Tinni shares with Deirdre, and that is that she certainly won't ride together with a twelve-move Seliph without a horse. Honestly, this convo is roughly the 392th time that I've seen some iteration of it in a Fire Emblem game, so I can't really find myself caring too much for it.
I didn't conciously set up this pairing at all, but considering that Tinni starts at 0 love points with Seliph (and everybody else) and only has one convo providing them with a free +100, I suppose I must've kept them adjacent surprisingly often, considering their incredibly different movement types.
Seliph does have the Wind Sword in his inventory, but I believe it's still entirely unused, making the +3 Mag he gained rather useless. I suppose the most efficient romancing (and I feel that's one of the most cringeworthily German things I've ever typed) would've been with Lana after all, who would've given Seliph +2 Res to hit his cap.
After that, Seliph seizes for another cutscene:
: "What a bloody disgrace... How could a pack of idiots like House Dozel be of Crusader heritage? If it weren't for Langbalt, the world wouldn't be in such a mess..."
: "Lewyn, I cannot wait much longer. Just where did the Crusaders' power come from? What in the world are these gods?"
: "I can't say for sure... But whatever they were, they realized that our land's misery was caused by the power of the dragonkin. And so they came to Jugdral from some other world to save the human race. It was they who suddenly appeared at Darna, just as its doom seemed certain."
: "That would be the legendary descent of Naga and the eleven gods found in scripture, yes?"
: "Yeah. They say the gods took human shapes. Naga, the light god, appeared as a little girl, while the fire god Salamand was an old man. With twelve chosen warriors, the gods bound themselves in a blood covenant."
: "A blood covenant?"
: "Basically, the gods drew their own blood with a scratch to the fingertip and presented it to the warriors."
: "...I beg your pardon?!"
dun-DUN-dunn...?
This is played as a big revelation, but I have to wonder: Does this matter?! Comparing this to the similarly awful plot dump at the end of Binding Blade - and I can't believe I'm using that one as a more positive example: Jahn's story time at least changes the historic narrative that Roy had been taught, describing humans and dragons as two sides in a fight for survival instead of the humans being bullied by those dreadful lizards. Here, I suppose that the "gods" are made more mundane, but... the basic narrative is still "Loptyr (super-powerful being) empowered an asshole to conquer the world. Twelve other super-powerful beings decide to help the oppressed to fight back".
But back to Lewyn, who isn't done expositioning yet:
: "With a single taste of the blood of dragons, these once humble warriors of the liberation army were reborn as the Twelve Crusaders. Each dragon presented to their crusader a weapon steeped in their own power. And then, with some final parting words of wisdom to the Crusaders, the dragonkin departed Jugdral."
: "I see... So our power is, in truth, that of dragons..."
: "Now, Loptyr himself is actually from a dragon clan whose fell power is amongst the mightiest of all the dragonkin. The great dragon Naga, strongest of them all, bestowed their own blood upon the leader of the liberation army, the priest Heim. Naga knew only their power could possibly hope to stand against that of Loptyr."
: "So nobody else among the dragonkin would be able to prevail against Loptyr?"
: "It certainly wouldn't be easy, I think. Even if you had every last dragon fighting together, they'd still need Naga's power. This, of course, means that if we're to win today, we'll need the surviving heir to Saint Heim. In other words, one of Deirdre's three children. Of those three, you didn't inherit the full breadth of Naga's blood, and it's pretty obvious that Julius didn't. Actually, I only recently learned who it is. The inheritor of Naga's power is Julius' twin sister... Princess Julia."
: "E-excuse me?!"
: "Yeah, that was more or less my reaction too at first. Julia is Julius's twin sister... which also makes her your sister, Seliph."
: "So all this time... Julia was my sister..."
: "I guess now we know why Manfroy took her to begin with. Needless to say, Seliph, we've got to rescue her, no matter what. We absolutely need Julia's powers if we want any hope of stopping Julius!"
'nother question, Lewyn: How did you figure out that Julia's parentage? I sincerely hope it was after your "so you wanna tap that, eh?" towards Seliph, so it must have been very recently.
But even if this entire exposition dump turns out to be entirely sensible and consistent, I really dislike this way of presenting it. Apart from the pacing issue of Lewyn just barfing it out all at once, there's also no narrative weight to it. Seliph doesn't find out about anything by, say, finding an ancient temple in which the twelve gods are represented as dragon statues. He doesn't even find an ancient sage on top of the tallest mountain. No, the dingus who has been traveling with Seliph for almost the entirety of the second generation just didn't feel like explaining anything until now. Bleh.
Since the conquest of Dozel wasn't the most exhausing of battles, I'll continue to Freege, so let's see how this'll be set up:
: "Dozel's fallen to the rebels? What the hell were my men doing out there?! Feh, why'd I ever expect any better? Worthless cowards, the lot of them! It's time I took this into my own hands. All I need is to lure these flies into my web. Then I can crush them, once and for all! Send Scorpio of Jungby a messenger! Pass on to him this plan. The Gelbenritter will coax the rebels our way, leaving them wide open to a deluge of the Beigenritter's arrows from behind! They'll have nowhere to run or hide. Kill them all! No survivors this time!"
So, here's the next target. For now, not a very diverse group of enemies: Hilda with a bunch of Barons, and a gaggle of Sleep Loptyrians led by your average Fenrir Dark Bishop.
__
Apart from swapping her holy blood, Hilda also lost her Speed Ring while retaining all of her other stats, so she's a bit weaker than she was in Ch.10. However, since she's on the field now, I suppose she's more likely to apply her Charm aura to her mooks.
__
Going from Dozel to Freege is the return of the bad ol' walking simulator that is Genealogy at its weaker stages. But at least we have the Rescue staff to speed it up a bit.
Eventually, we get close enough to Freege to trigger the reinforcements from Jungby:
: "With Freege at their front, we'll choke them like a snake on a rat!"
__
The Beigenritter won't be particularly relevant.
One interesting detail is that Scorpius doesn't have any holy blood. His dad still had minor Ullur blood, but I suppose, contrary to the game mechanics, it's too watered down to have any effect for Scorpius.
Now, to make the Beigenritter irrelevant... You only have to kill a single Baron to open a path to the castle, which Seliph can do even without fishing for a Silver Sword crit.
Unfortunately, Leylia fell back ever so slightly too much, so Leif has to use another Rescue charge (the last one, as it turns out, but he'll have the funds to repair it).
Leylia's dance also gives Fee the reach to attack Hilda...
: "Hmph... I won't fall anywhere near as easily as those other worms!"
...who falls just as easily as Brian. Fee does need a crit to one-round her (4 x 16 dmg vs. 70 HP), but at a 57% chance per hit (83 kills + 24 Skl), the odds are quite in her favour. Like, we're talking 3.4% to not get the kill.
: "Gaah! This is a travesty... Ishtar... Avenge me... You must avenge me..."
...all three Loptyr dudes on the castles have had the same lines. Hm.
Anyway, killing Hilda wasn't strictly necessary here, I don't think...
...since her entourage disappears with Freege's capture. However, you can see that the Loptyrians on that ridge stick around...
...and will put Leylia to sleep after she cantered forward. I might replay that last turn; I haven't overwritten that save yet. But that only happens after a couple more cutscenes, so let's get to those:
: "But... I can't help but wonder... Are the children at Belhalla still unharmed? I pray they are..."
: "Funny you should say that! We've got a visitor who's got a bit of news on that front, Seliph."
: "And who are you?"
: "My name is Felipe, sire. I was once an aide to the late Emperor Arvis. On secret orders from His Majesty, the abducted children were moved here to Freege for safe-keeping."
: "What? Is that true? You've saved all of the children?!"
: "Rest easy, sire. They're all hiding in the city's abbey, and they're all in good health."
: "And all under Hilda's nose, at that! That you've kept every last child safe in Hilda's own city... Color me impressed."
: "Actually, sire... Princess Ishtar deserves your thanks. Without her generous aid given in secret, we could never have done this. No imperial soldiers dared come even close to the abbey, on pain of the princess' wrath."
: "Princess Ishtar?! But why... Why would she-"
: "Few people in this land are as kind and caring as Princess Ishtar. All along, the princess has toiled behind the scenes to aid our cause. It was Princess Ishtar herself who ensured that every last child escaped from the bowels of Belhalla."
: "I see... At any rate, thank the gods for their safety. I'm certain everyone will be glad to know the children are in good hands. You have my deepest thanks, Lord Felipe."
Very nice of Ishtar to be so nice. Off-screen only, of course. I'm sure nobody in this thread has any particular opinion on this scene.
: "Well, Seliph, that's one job done. Good to see we're finally getting some results out of this mess."
: "Mm. And yet, Julia still eludes us... Where could she possibly be?"
: "The only options left now are Belhalla and Velthomer. It's got to be one of those two."
: "And Belhalla is where Julius awaits..."
: "Yeah, we'll have to find Julia first if we want to go anywhere near Belhalla. Without Julia's power on our side, we won't have a hope in hell against Julius."
: "But no matter what's happened, Julius is still her brother. Will she even want to fight him..."
: "...You'll have to convince her."
: "If I may, Lord Julius, I'd like to lead the Weissenritter to bolster the capital's defense. This will require that I leave your side, even for a while. I beg your forgiveness."
: "Feh. Why the rush to get out there so suddenly, Ishtar? All the soldiers they could ever throw at us could never so much as scratch me. Why even bother with those maggots?"
: "Yes, I know... But for me, there is no greater pride than being one of Freege's great mages. My parents and brother lie dead, and I cannot stand to leave their murderers to run amok... Please... All I ask is a chance for vengeance."
: "It sounds as if what you really want is to join your family in death on a rebel's blade! Are you so desperate to escape me, Ishtar?"
: "No... Nothing like that, Lord Julius. I love you. Nothing will ever change that."
: "Hmhmhmhmhm... I know. Very well. Fight if you must. I won't stop you."
__
: "The time for games is over. Every last rebel dies, here and now!
And here's the defenses of Belhalla. At the same time at Velthomer...:
__
Julia joins the field, slowly moving west towards Belhalla and Freege.
To re-recruit her, I know that we'll have to beat Manfroy first - who is quite tanky even by the standards of the quite tanky Dark Bishop class. He has Pursuit, Adept, and Charm which makes him quite dangerous for some to face(specifically, Dermott gets two-shot by him).
And he is surrounded by Hel/Sleep users, so Dermott is very much not the play here.
Mr Final Boss grabbed a Meteor tome to make sure he can harrass any approaching unit, and the Nihil skill to make sure he can't be cheesed.
And his girlfriend grabbed a trio of Falcon Knights, Triangle Attack inclusive. They have minor Forseti blood, represented by a capped Spd stat.
I forgot to make a screenshot of Ishtar herself, but she received quite significant buffs compared to last chapter. HP from 50 to 70 and Def from 10 to 18 means that she's a lot more difficult to one-round, especially considering her incredible Spd and therefore avoid. Apart from that, her stats didn't go up as much, but "that" is a pretty big thing to be apart from.
Finally, the Deadlords. I neither speak Latin nor know a ton about biology, but I assume they're all named after scientific species names?
Not going to show them all, though. Wide variety of classes and weapons.
Before closing the update, I almost forgot about two lovers' convos that were unlocked (and that I grabbed) after Dozel's capture. First, the kissing Dozel cousins:
: "But hey, Dozel's in our hands now, right? Gotta keep going! Just a little longer..."
: "Don't do anything too dumb, okay? Dozel'll still need you around to rebuild."
: "Yeah, you got it. I can't just die now and leave behind my father and brothers' mess, now, can I? I'll be needing your help too, Larcei."
: "Sure. You've helped me an awful lot, you know. I ought to return the favor."
: "Whoa, thanks! I love ya so much, Larcei."
: "Wh- Johalvier! What'd I say about doing dumb things?!"
B-baka!
This convo would've gotten Johalvier +3 Str, but he's already at the (rather disappointing, tbh) cap of 26.
: "Say, Lord Leif... how soon do you think this fight will be over?"
: "I cannot say for sure... And yet I cannot help but feel our triumph is drawing ever closer."
: "And once this is over, I take it we'll be headed for Leonster?"
: "Indeed we are. The Thracian Peninsula has known naught but strife for decades, and to unify it was my father's dream. I'll pledge my life to fulfill his grand vision, and I'd love nothing more than to have you by my side every step of the way, Nanna."
: "Of course, Lord Leif! I'll be by your side forevermore, wherever your path leads. Even to the very ends of the earth..."
I don't suppose we'll comment on the detail that Quan's grand vision is surprisingly close to Travant's.
Again, no stat bonus because Leif already has capped Def at 27. Would've been a nice +3 otherwise, as well.
...Well then, one more update left for Genealogy, I assume, plus then the usual summation of my thoughts. Curious how tricky it'll be to recruit Julia quick and safely, when you can't just press the "WARP" button. Well, you can, but it won't be very helpful towards this goal.
-
I think I'd give Tellius the nod. Character designs and portraits are the best in the series, in my opinion. Although GBAFE is great, too. The battle animations are as fun as they go, and I actually like the map visuals a lot, too. Later games might have more "realistic" visuals, but GBAFE maps look good while also being very easy to read. In some of the later games, i sometimes struggle to see at a glance what terrain a specific tile is.
-
10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:
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.
You don't ask the stream not to flow down the mountain
You don't ask the rock not to fall to the ground
You don't ask Shouzou Kaga not to include a 13th creepy abduction scene in his newest videogame, available on the SNES.10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:We got trouble?
"Bye, Felicia" actually has a wikipedia page, which I think is funny.
10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:...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.
10 hours ago, BrightBow said:7 years ago. So it's not like Ishtar's boyfriend turning evil is a recent thing.
Welp, I was going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she got together with normal Julius, but... guess not.
10 hours ago, BrightBow said:Most certainly on another level than his brothers.
And here I was hoping that Larcei could go out and channel her inner Sheeda once more.
6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:You got us. Unlike the Germans, we can't even afford to put two dots over a third of our vowels.
Wales is secretly the wealthiest place in the world.
6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:If I'm not mistaken, Boyce has the same portrait as Jacoban - the Gen I Hero who also fought with a Bolt Sword. It was neat of them to give him some scary skills. Finally, a case for Nihil.
Well, that or a case for Forseti go brrr.
6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:One thing I would've liked- mention of these rebellions in the prior chapter, at least on the villains' side. -But somebody then assures the other villains "but if we win here and kill Seliph, they'll all fall effortlessly overnight".
Likewise, for this the final chapter, I'd like some villain grunt to tell Julius or the like "Our surviving forces withdrawn from Silesse and Agustria have been reorganized for this the defense of the imperial heartland.". To which Julius or Manfroy would respond- "May the worthless lots regain a shred of honor here or die failures to the end.".
Merely little scribbling-ins to make the Empire feel more under pressure.
Not to congratulate myself too much over my Ch.10 relocation idea - but if that penultimate chapter took place around Evans Castle, you would be able to integrate that into gameplay, too. Manfroy/Julius give orders for the local garrisons from Agustria, Verdane, and Silesse (they're pegasi, so that still works) to move to Grannvale even though these rebellions have broken out. Or maybe it's even Arvis giving the order, seemingly to crush Seliph, but really to make sure that those rebellions don't get brutally subdued, and because he gauges that Seliph's army has a better shot at handling those troops even if they're combined. Or maybe he trusts that they don't all arrive at the same time.
4 hours ago, Revier said:Yeah that's pretty unfortunate, especially considering how strong Lex seems to be in the beginning. Perhaps some axe shaped spears would've served them better? Not like it matters much, most units die to the awesomeness of Seliph, Ares and Shannan at this point anyway.
I've seen people say that Lex isn't all that hot even with the Brave Axe, but I have to say that he held his own even in the later stages of the game. Even in Silessia, with all its wind mages, he could still one-round those (although +hit auras do help), and against physical enemies, he's just straight up the tankiest character in Gen 1.
Except for Bridget, who in my final stat overview is listed with 81 Def because of a typo -
FE4 Endgame: The Final Holy War
Chalphy --> Edda
SpoilerSeliph's long journey is drawing to a close. His army's victories are a beacon of hope to the Empire's victims, and a wave of further rebellions sweeps across Jugdral.
__
__
Meanwhile, Verdane... exists or something, idc.
Duke Brian of Bozel and the axe knights of the Grauenritter; Duke Scorpius and his elite archers, the Beigenritter; and Freege's Queen Hilda and the war-mages of the Gelbenritter stand between Seliph and the capital. Belhalla itself lurks under an eerie silence, as Ishtar and the enigmatic twelve Deadlords lie in wait to defend Prince Julius himself. Over a year has passed since that fateful first battle in Isaach. The tragic struggle pitting kin versus kin wears on, splitting the Twelve Crusaders between the light and the dark...
So begins the final holy war...
♪♫ Of our elaborate plans, the end ♪♫
♪♫ Of everything that stands, the end ♪♫
♪♫ No safety or surprise, the end ♪♫
♪♫ I'll never pay money to trade items again ♪♫: "Father died, you say..."
: "The Emperor had long served his purpose, Your Majesty. He was little more than an obstacle to your ambitions. He had to die."
: "Pfeh. I almost feel sorry for him. All his life he was your tool, Manfroy, only to be thrown away so casually..."
: "All in your empire's name, Your Majesty. Arvis was a lost cause. To think he, a man of Loptyr's blood, dared to challenge the revivale of the empire! The righteous heart of the crusader Vala burned too fiercely within him. It was only a matter of time until he turned on you."
: "I know, I know... Now then. I hear those rebels have stumbled as far as Chalphy. Are our defenses really that pathetic?"
: "Rest assured. I've already tasked Edda's Bishop Rodan and Brian of Dozel with purging Chalphy of those vermin. You've no need to worry, Your Majesty."
: "Don't I, now... Where's Julia?"
: "She awaits her end in the dungeon... You there! Bring us Princess Julia!"
♪♫ Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain ♪♫
♪♫ And all the children are insane ♪♫
: "Ah, Julia. It's been a while, hasn't it? Tell me, do you know who I am?"
: "Julius... My brother, Julius..."
: "Oho! So you do still remember! I can hardly believe seven long years have passed since you slipped away."
: "I... That night is seared into my memory, clear as if it were only yesterday..."
The killer awoke before dawn
He put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall
He went into the room where his sister lived, and then he
Paid a visit to the Dark Bishop and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door
And he looked inside
: "That night... The night Manfroy came with that eerie black tome... Nothing was ever the same again. My real brother, the kind and caring boy I once knew and loved so, died that night. In his place stood a demon of terrifying power... My brother in name only. You... You monster... You've taken my mother and my brother from me! Who are you? WHAT are you? Why... Why must you torment us all so?!"
: "I am the heir of Loptyr's kin, and the inheritor of his limitless power. This world belongs rightfully to me. And you, Julia? You are the heiress to the power of Naga, my eternal foe. I cannot allow you to live any longer!"
"Father?" "Yes, son?" "I want to kill you"
"Sister? I want to... actually, I want to kill you, too."
: "Using Naga's power to serve me? Interesting... Very interesting. Very well! I must return to Belhalla. Julia is yours, Manfroy. But be warned. Be extremely careful! Even a single mistake with her could cost her dearly."
Fuck, fuck-ah, yeah
Fuck, fuck
Fuck, fuck
Fuck, fuck, fuck yeah!
Come on baby, come on
Fuck me baby, fuck yeah
Woah
Fuck, fuck, fuck, yeah!...wait, no, that doesn't really work that well here. Hmm...
Kill
kill
kill
kill
kill
kill♪♫ This is the end ♪♫
♪♫ Beautiful friend ♪♫
♪♫ This is the end ♪♫
♪♫ My only friend, the end ♪♫Similar to the big firework celebrations at the midway point of the game, Julia's "Who are you? WHAT are you?" is a great twist/revelation that I can't fully appreciate because I already knew. The previous chapter (or chapters, I don't quite remember how long this goes back) already set up the idea that "no human would ever do these things", and Julia's outburst, while not outright saying it, functionally states that Julius is possessed, if not fully taken over by Loptyr (or the Loptyr tome, which at this point could still just be a cursed artifact).
On a less positive note, I also have to point out that Julius is going along with Manfroy's idiotic plan very quickly, considering that he recognises Julia as the greatest threat to his power and his life. It's necessary, to a degree, to allow this dramatic confrontation to take place and have Julia not bite the dust at the end of it - but if I ever see anybody point to Ethlyn and Quan as the dumbest idiots of this game, I'm going to assume that that anybody never played the entirely to Genealogy.
: "His Majesty has issued his command. Priest and sellsword units! Defend Edda itself with your very lives! Cavalry unit, move in on Chalphy! Reclaim our land from the rebels!"
: "Yeah, that's what this is. Julius is descended from Loptyrian royalty, and he's been working to revive the dark empire. No matter what it takes, we must stop him."
: "It feels as if you know everything, Lewyn. I'm beginning to feel left out... Please, what in the world are you talking about?"
: "Yeah, sorry about that, Seliph. I know there's a lot I've not been telling you. I've spent over a decade on a journey to figure out the truth behind all this, and I'm finally onto a bigger picture here."
: "...The bigger picture? "
: "It seems the old Loptyr Empire's founder, the Bishop Galle, dedicated his youth to a world-exploring voyage across the seas. He desired nothing less than to drink the blood of a legendary beast. Even a single drop, he believed, would bestow upon any human limitless power."
: "Do... do you mean the dragonkin of old? It couldn't be... Is that not a myth?"
: "You'd think so, but... When Galle returned to Jugdral, he bore bizarre powers nobody else understood. With these powers, he set to work swaying youths across the land to aid his ambitions. Before anyone else realized, he'd raised a fell legeion unflinchingly loyal to his cause."
: "Where, then, does Loptyr enter the tale?"
: "Odds are Loptyr was a dragon himself. Every last one of Galle's heirs has borne the blood of the dragonkin. The dark powers Loptyr's kin command are nothing more than the dragonkin's powers."
: "And what of the Crusaders?"
: "I'm sure you know how the legend goes. The gods descended upon twelve warriors of the old liberators at the fortress of Darna. But..."
: "But?"
: "Sorry, Seliph, but this'll have to wait. The enemy's just about on our doorstep."
I smell a sequence of plot dumps incoming. Every time our boy Seliph seizes a thr-- castle.
Before getting to the map, I'll quickly go over the arena. With everybody at, or close to, Lv.30, I don't really need to have everybody beat every opponent - which is nice, because this last arena is actually quite a lot more tough than the other ones in gen2. I believe all the opponents are the final bosses of previous arena runs. I still have a decent portion of the team run the whole gauntlet - sometimes for the money to repair their staves or holy weapons, but also just out of principle.
(By the way - despite all the deserved shit-talking about the Lck stat: That extra avoid that Lana gets from her 29 Lck does help with her odds in the arena, where her flimsy Def would otherwise pose a significant problem)
The opponents are as follows:
(1) Dulles - Lv.19 General - Skill: Pavise 59 HP | 17 Def | 4 Res [Steel Blade] - 31 Atk | 82 Hit | 8 Avo | 4 AS [Steel Bow] - 29 Atk (2) Chaimos - Lv.23 Hero - Skill: Pursuit 63 HP | 13 Def | 5 Res [Steel Blade] - 34 Atk | 96 Hit | 24 Avo | 12 AS (2R) Marilyn - Lv.23 Sniper - Skill: Pursuit 63 HP | 13 Def [Silver Bow] - 36 Atk | 106 Hit | 20 Avo | 10 AS (3) Xenon - Lv.23 Swordmaster - Skills: Pursuit, Adept 63 HP | 13 Def | 5 Res [Silver Sword] - 32 Atk | 122 Hit | 36 Avo | 18 AS (3R) Jackson - Lv.23 Sniper - Skill: Pursuit 63 HP | 13 Def [Killer Bow] - 32 Atk | 136 Hit | 30 Avo | 15 AS (4) Thornton - Lv.27 Great Knight - Item: Shield Ring 67 HP | 18+5 Def | 5 Res [Brave Axe] - 36 Atk | 100 Hit | 6 Avo | 3 AS (4R) Luigi - Lv.27 Arch Knight - Item: Shield Ring 67 HP | 16+5 Def [Brave Bow] - 32 Atk | 112 Hit | 16 Avo | 8 AS (5) Canaan - Lv.27 Baron - Skill: Pavise - Item: Magic Ring 72 HP | 20 Def | 9 Res [Tornado] - 34 Atk | 100 Hit | 26 Avo | 13 AS (6) Atlas - Lv.30 Baron - Skill: Pavise - Item: Skill Ring 75 HP | 21 Def | 10 Res [Bolganone] - 30 Atk | 112 Hit | 8 Avo | 4 AS (7) Zeus - Lv.30 Emperor - Skill: Pavise - Item: Pursuit Band 75 HP | 24 Def | 18 Res [Earth Sword, melee] - 36 Atk | 118 Hit | 38 Avo | 19 AS [Earth Sword, range] - 32 AtkSpoilerNote: Like Queen, Emperor has Charm as a class skill, so (7) Zeus probably has it, as well. It doesn't change the fight against him either way, though.
(3) Xenon uses a Silver Sword, not a Silver Blade as the wiki states.(4R) Luigi has 16 Spd, not 15 as the wiki lists:
__
112 (Faval's base hit) - 20 (arena avo) - 76 (disp. hit) = 16 (Luigi's avo)
--> Luigi has 8 AS. Brave Bow has 8 Wt --> Luigi has 16 Spd....and The Team at the end:
Lv. HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Funds XP Arn Seliph 30 69 25 7 22 22 28 22 16 49200 -- [*] Leif 30 66 27 8 27 27 17 27 11 19472 -- [*] Oifey 30 58 23 10 24 22 14 22 8 50000 +134 [7] Finn 30 51 24 1 18 22 24 21 4 50000 -- [2] Dermott 30 65 23 0 30 25 22 20 7 19957 -- [1] Nanna 30 58 24 7 22 21 24 24 8 42000 -- [*] Ares 30 73 24 9 23 22 19 24 14 33280 -- [*] Fee 30 56 20 17 24 29 15 20 24 25257 -- [1] Altena 30 69 27 3 24 22 11 29 8 32520 +183 [*] Lester 30 58 24 3 18 22 25 18 4 29916 +190 [*] Arthur 30 70 6 23 22 22 27 11 11 24340 -- [1] Shanan 30 66 26 1 30 26 13 22 7 14440 +165 [*] Ulster 30 70 27 7 27 25 12 22 4 17500 +152 [*] Larcei 30 69 27 2 30 30 21 22 6 26465 +172 [*] Patty 30 62 22 16 21 27 25 17 9 19350 +49 [*] Johalvier 30 60 26 0 19 21 7 25 8 10845 +126 [7] Hannibal 30 66 23 1 17 12 8 26 6 28920 +112 [6] Faval 30 68 19 15 20 27 30 13 6 22120 +143 [*] Ced 30 55 5 27 22 30 29 14 27 7800 -- [2] Tinni 30 63 4 27 24 27 30 10 17 50000 +115 [*] Lana 30 61 12 24 24 23 29 12 11 21446 -- [*] Sharlow 30 46 4 27 18 18 14 9 17 7663 +242 [3] Leylia 13.76 29 9 2 1 14 8 2 8 16000 +50 [1](Technically, this is from the end of the update - Leylia didn't earn 50 XP out of nowhere, and Sharlow had to spam a few staff uses to get to 30 - but by and large, this is the team with which I started the fight.)
The order of business seems fairly predictable: Go to Edda, then Dozel, then Freege - then past Belhalla to rescue Julia at Velthomer, *then* to Belhalla to finally fight Julius. Jungby Castle isn't on the map, but I assume that Scorpio (the cousin of our four Jungby kids) is going to appear in the southeast corner at some point.
The four Loptyr priests (two with Fenrir, two with Silence) northwest of Chalphy are a funny bunch. Yes, they reach Chalphy with their spells, but not anyone who goes east towards Edda. Clearly, they'll become relevant once Dozel wakes up, but Fee with her enormous Res stat should be able to murder them all while everybody else faces the Eddan forces.
Edda's force is fairly big - although the group of horsemen isn't too intimidating. But the defensive line - with tons of long-ranged magic users - seems potentially headache-inducing.
The leader of the horsies is this Waltzy-looking fellow: Brave Sword, Pursuid, and Accost, so he could be dangerous if he can attack one of your weaker units. But his raw stats aren't amazingly strong. His generics use Silvers and Elfire tomes.
__
The castle's defenders are actually two groups: One under Boyce the Swordmaster (with Pursuit, Adept, Critical, and Sol!); the other under Rodan, who isn't particularly noteworthy apart from his Sleep staff. And even with that he isn't too special, since six (!!!) of his underlings carry Sleep, as well - plus four Meteor Bishops and four Bolting Bishops.
On top of the castle is a guy.
__
So, out we ride, killing the for Loptyrians to the east of Chalphy on our way.
Still with most of our forces on the field, but to be honest, I don't see much of a point in moving everybody out. They're Lv.30 anyway, so there isn't much of a reason to feed them kills, so they might as well stay back, not require the button presses to move them around, and watch for potential backstabs.
__
The only "meme" I'm allowing myself here is to use Tinni as our frontliner, but with her good base avoid plus aura support from Seliph, Nanna, and Dermott, she actually isn't half bad at it. ...Now if only she had bought the Pursuit Band off of Johalvier... I might do that for the next part of the map.
__
The following player phase, everybody dies.
__
__
On the enemy team, that is.
And before I get to the assault on Edda, I'll quickly mention that, as I said earlier, Fee cleans up the Loptyrians northwest of Dozel easily enough.
__
You can actually pull apart the two squad guarding Edda very easily - the physical enemies all move if you step in one of their ranges, while the magical enemies don't move, full stop.
__
__
Bye, Felicia.
__
But here starts the annoying part: Sleep. Sleep everywhere.
__
I go with the same tactic as I used at Miletos last chapter: Bring so many characters that those Sleep spells don't matter all that much.
__
MORE SLEEP!
__
...and an Altena that actually gets rather low on HP (silly me for not swapping her to a lighter weapon), but actually no chance of death.
I'll admit that I didn't invest much brainpower into this - otherwise, I'm sure I could've figured out how to do this without having a third of my team doze off for a few turns, and without relying on the long-ranged damage spells to be spread out between multiple characters. But to be honest, this is also one of my issues with Genealogy's gameplay in a nutshell - because everything is so variable, it's often too valid a strategy to just shove and see how the RNG works out.
__
__
Yeah, this definitely could've worked without moving everybody into Sleep range. But no matter - hopefully, we'll see what comes next.
: Oh, of course. Ced and Fee. They're going to be great rulers for Edda. And after all they've been through, I know that'll bring a smile to the people's faces."
And that's the first part of the fight. I did finish the turn, so I'll also show what happens next:
: "Against the full force of Dozel's legendary axe knights, the Grauenritter, the rebels stand no chance! They'll drop like leaves!"
: "At once, milord!"
(I know, wrong colour on the clothes, but come on...)
"Grauenritter" is a pretty good, edgy name for a group of evil knights, by the way. It's still yet another colour (the Grey Knights), but can also be parsed as "Dread Knights".
__
This is actually interesting: Two groups of enemies attack Chalphy and Edda at once...
__
...with the force sent against Chalphy being significantly stronger. Although the generic Great Knights don't have the greatest accuracy, so I think I should be able to set up some reliable interception. But Brian himself is of yet another caliber, with Helswath raising his defenses to pretty ridiculous levels.
__
By contrast, the guys attacking Edda are a bunch of chumps. Even Philip... IV, I think? isn't even as strong as a generic Grauerritter.
But I haven't played that next part, or even just figured how exactly I'm going to approach this, so that'll have to wait for another day.
10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:I'll actually be interested in seeing this, because in my run... Uh, well...
You are a crazy man, Ruben. Godspeed. Hannibalspeed, even.
10 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:Yeah, not like Garon, who's just an evil child-murdering king with exactly two cronies that he has do everything.
: "Evil child-murdering cults are like seeds. You must plant and nurture them until they grow into full genocidal bloom."
-
11 hours ago, BrightBow said:
Man, with jumps like that, Celice could attack Berwick Saga wyvern with 0 range attacks.
Fun Fact: In his initial appearance, Superman couldn't fly, only jump really high and far.
...which doesn't have that much to do with your comment, but I managed to amuse myself with the image of Seliph (or any other horse unit) imitating flight in a similar way.
10 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:A lot of Saias talk already here, but this seems like another time for him to show up! Arvis tries to legitimize his bastard and place him over Julius after whatever happened with Julius vs Deidre and Julia. But now that Julius has awakened to his power, he (and Manfroy) aren't having it. Arvis goes from proud Emperor to the broken old man we see in Chapter 10 after losing everyone dear to him, Deidre is dead, Julia is missing, Saias is allowed to live but banished from Grannvalle, Julius becomes Emperor in all but name, and the Lopt sect start their child hunts.
I remember barely anything about Saias's actual character, but in concept, I like this a lot. A nice, concrete plan instead of the vague "Arvis banished Julius, or tried to, didn't work" that we got.
7 hours ago, Jotari said:The Ghost Scene with Sigurd is, like all Seliph scenes in my view, nice in isolation. Sigurd takes Seliph down a peg, humbles him and stressed that all of this is being done for the common person. But, this just follows the pattern of Seliph:s story beats having little to nothing to do with each other. Like, what the hell? The suffering of the common man? Seliph only lived hunted by the Lopt Sect and the Empire all his life. I don't think we're meant to believe growing up in Tir Na NOg was a resort for him. He has felt the suffering of the common man because he's been down in the trenches with them. And when does he ever display any iota of arrogance that would suggest he thinks his victory over Alvis was single handed? And how would the spirit of Sigurd understand the plight of the common man any better than Seliph? Sigurd grew up in luxury all his life, and even after things went bad for him he still lived in a Castle in Silesse with a close personal relationship with the ruling queen. Sigurd has always had a power base and people looking up to him. Death just bestows enlightenment, I guess.
Honestly, I don't even like it in isolation. What Deirdre ("power of friendship, yay!") and Sigurd ("stay humble, son") have to offer aren't exactly fresh new concepts, nor are they really specific to Seliph's character or situation. For me, all it does is take a previously underlying theme ("despite being orphaned at a very young age, Seliph's life is still influenced by his parents's deeds") and turns it into a baseball bat to hit you over the head with by making Sigurd and Deirdre physically (or rather ectoplasmally) watch over Seliph's progress.
3 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:: "Well well well, Seliph-boy. You may have come this far, but I still hold all 12 Egyptian Deadlords. Only the five pieces of Naga, the Forbidden One, could possibly save you now!"
"My mother's family has no pathetic members except you, Julius. But it does contain... the unstoppable Julia!"
"Gah! Impossible!"(Sorry, I'm not actually familiar with actual Yugioh, outside of watching some of the early episodes disjointedly as a wee lad, and then the abridged version later.
Pretty sure you're quoting Pegasus-man there, but I have no idea how that scene plays out.)
3 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:Ah, that's English English. Flavoured with a bunch of unnecessary "u"s, and centred on "r before e". In American English, it's Bern.
Look at those Ameripoors. Can't even afford the printer ink to write every letter 😭
2 hours ago, Jotari said:
"The Crusaders made a grave mistake, Seliph. They didn't commit genocide hard enough. You must learn from history. Be wiser than those who came before you. Make sure you eradicate the enemy completely. Let no tolerance of alternate religions flourish in this land. Make this, the Last Holy War."
: "Evil child-murdering cults are like seeds."
4 hours ago, Revier said:Not much else to say about the ending, besides dropping a special mention for Arvis' sick beats. I really do think Genealogy would be a lot better if it scaled enemies better to keep up with your crazy overpowered fighters. That, or nerfed them a bit, but that's not as fun.
I think the second generation is an especially severe case of the usual FE problem that the powerlevel of a player's endgame team is extremely variable, so it's tough to create an endgame that is challenging for an optimised team, but still doable if the player didn't reset for the OP bosskiller, didn't focus XP on the good growth units, or, in Genealogy's case, didn't set up inheritance. Most games of the series, as far as I'm aware, tend to be somewhat frontloaded with their difficulty as a result.
-
FE4 Chapter 10: Light and Darkness
Miletos --> Chalphy
Spoiler
__
__
Well then, time to kill some Roteritter (would one decline that noun?). Getting through the group of Knights in one turn isn't too difficult, although it's a little scary to do so with the mages and horsies nearby. For reliablity, Ced silences the nearest Mage, and Ares takes the point with his high HP and (with Mystletainn) mixed defense stats.
By the way - you're seeing Patty one-rounding the Commander, thanks to a siblings crit. I think that might be the first one in this playthrough? I did see a handful of lovers' crits, though.
__
__
...and killing almost all the mages and horsies on the next player phase turns out to be quite doable, too. Just one Great Knight (the axe variant) and one healer remaining.
So, next are the Meteor Mages in front of Arvis.
__
A bit less successful, but still -
- only a single Meteor is thrown at us.
__
__
Meanwhile, Fee and Altena have defeated the Dark Mages to save the children. Easy task when you have both your flyers available. Nanna then warps Altena back so that Sharlow can bestow upon her some magic resistance:
: "Are you hurt at all, Your Highness?"
: "Ah, Sharlow. Thank you, but everything's fine. Don't forget to take care of yourself as well. You shouldn't do anything too risky."
: "Er... Say, Your Highness..."
: "Is something wrong, Sharlow?"
: "Your Highness, I want to cast a Ward spell on you."
: "Oh, right. You're concerned about my low resistance to magic, aren't you? Are you sure? I've heard that few spells endanger the caster as much as Ward does. Look, Sharlow. I'm honored, but I don't want you risking yourself for my sake."
: "But you've always been there to help me, Your Highness. You're the closest thing I've ever had to a mama. Please, Your Highness! All I want is to do anything I can to help you!"
: "Oh, Sharlow... Very well. I can hardly refuse if it's so important to you, now, can I? All I ask is that you stop casting the spell the instant it puts you at any risk at all. Promise me this, Sharlow."
: "Okay! It's a promise, Your Highness. Don't worry, I won't let myself get hurt."
: "Thank you, Sharlow. Now, shall we? I'm ready when you are."
: "Right, I'm ready! ...Hear me, O great Saint Bragi. ...I implore of you! Bestow upon this woman your exalted power..."
[+5 Res --> Altena]
Speaking of things that will make you feel old - I think being told that you're "like a parent" to them by somebody less than 10 years younger than you will probably do the trick.
I appreciate that Genealogy is consistent with Ward to be a dangerous spell to cast, between this, Julia casting it on Seliph earlier, and the classic Barrier staff not being available at all - even though I know that T776 is going to retcon the heck out of this. Not sure if it also comes up in the story, but I know that both the Barrier staff (or maybe Magic-Up staff, I vaguely remember that name) and Holy Water are back as temporary Res boosters.
__
With the Rotenritter defeated, Seliph makes the trip to Palmarch. With the Leg Ring, it doesn't even take that much time.
: "Are you unharmed, Your Grace?"
: "Lord Seliph! Ohh, bless you! We've awaited you for so long. I've done all I can to survive, all to ensure you receive your birthright. Here... Take it, milord."
: "W... what is this?!"
. "It is the sacred relic of House Chalphy. The divine blade... Tyrfing."
: "But... How could you have it, Your Grace?"
: "My apologies, milord, but I cannot say. I swore an oath..."
: "I see... Fair enough, then. I couldn't possibly thank you enough, Your Grace. So this is Tyrfing, then... I've never felt power quite like this..."
: "Milord, I beg of you... Please, retake Chalphy at once! Your subjects have endured for so long, in hope of one day seeing your return..."
: "Rest easy now, Your Grace. So long as I have Tyrfing in hand, we have nothing more to fear!"
And it's even fully repaired! Pretty sure Sigurd didn't scrape enough money together for that.
The five children around Palmarch go to Faval (x2) and Tinni (x3). At the end of this chapter, everyone but Sharlow and Leylia is at least at Lv.28, which I should expect is enough to have a full Lv.30 team after the last chapter's arena.
(all the kids say is some variation of "oh wow! Liberators!", so I'm not going to bother combing through my screenshots to collect the exact wordings)
Nice little detail: Palmarch heals characters in his range. Not necessary in this playthrough, but still very nice of him.
Now, Arvis. I know that Seliph has to be the one to defeat him in order to get him to see ghosts, so nobody even tried chipping him before Seliph returns.
: "You... Emperor Arvis! Why... Why did you betray my father..."
: "At long last... Seliph. I must commend your courage, boy. But courage cannot save you now. Not since your dear departed father have I seen such a pathetic worm... My flames shall purge you from this world!"
I like how Arvis starts complimenting Seliph before realising that he's playing the villain and thus has to follow some narrative conventions. It's an interesting parallel to Travant that Arvis is also convinced that he has to die in battle for the Greater Good.
__
General strategy against Arvis: Avoid chances of death, we wouldn't want that on anybody's permanent record, but otherwise just hack away and hope that no random Adept proc kills him.
(Valflame's animation is pretty sick, btw)
Part of the effort is Arthur - one attempt on player phase, another one (after being healed twice by Ced's Fortify) on enemy phase. The latter brings Arvis down to 10 HP...
__
...which is enough for Seliph to get the kill with his second swing on the next turn.
And while he makes his way to the nearby beach, I'll go over the remaining side objectives:
Sharlow promotes and does some arenaing. Massigli is a massive roadblock for him, since Sharlow has no +dmg skills whatsoever to swing the unfavourable numbers, but some start-of-turn save abuse during Oifey's arena run allows him to eventually overcome him.
...I don't even bother with the second Jormungand user, though. Five out of seven ain't bad.
Back at Chronos, Ulster rescues the last remaining child, bringing him to Lv.28 as well...
...and Ced gets warp-relayed to grab the village near Rados.
: "'Tis only been lately that we've had t'deal with these rites of sacrifice. Not so long ago, from what I hear, Emperor Arvis himself forbade 'em entirely. What the devil could've changed his mind? Please, I'm beggin' you! You've gotta save our children! Here, this magic ring oughta help you out."
[Magic Ring; 3000 gold --> Ced]
: "Seliph... Oh, Seliph..."
: "I-is somebody there?"
: "Oh, Seliph... How you've grown..."
: "Could it be... M-mother?! Mother! Is it truly you?"
Gasp!
: "...Seliph, never forget. Your friends... Your companions... You must always cherish them... You owe them so..."
: "...Y-yes, Mother. I understand. Oh! I've defeated Emperor Arvis! At long last, Father has been avenged!"
: "You did... But what of Julius and Julia...?"
: "I still don't know. Wait! Mother, how could you know of what happened to them? ...Mother?"
(I blame the fandom.com wiki for the poorer quality of Deirdre's portrait)
(and my laziness to clean up her portrait from a screenshot)
: "Listen, Seliph. You must stay humble, no matter what. Remember, your power alone was not what put an end to Arvis..."
: "What? How do you mean, Father?"
: "You must learn the sorrow of the common man, Seliph. Your truth is not the reality of all."
__
[Renewal Band --> Seliph]
: "Rely on the Heart of the Cards, you must! Hrm."
Not a huge fan of this scene, to be honest. Very heavy-handed. Seliph's story has a bit of a theme going that he's standing on his parents' shoulders - game-mechanically in the form of inheritance, but he also benefits from Sigurd's reputation and the personal friendships he had forged. Most directly Shanan and Oifey, but there's also Fee who is moved to help Seliph by Erin's stories about Sigurd. I liked that better when there was more subtlety about it.
: "A job well done indeed, Seliph. And would you just look at that! The locals are so happy to see you. Look! They're already pouring into the streets to rejoice at your return!"
: "Mm. I'm home. At long last, I'm home... Nothing has ever felt this good. But... I mustn't celebrate just yet..."
: "Julia, right? You must be worried something fierce. Heh... Got a little thing for her, do you?"
I'll take this as evidence that Lewyn doesn't actually know who Julia is, or even that she has Naga blood. I think that came up recently in the thread?
: "Oh! Er... No, nothing of the sort..."
: "I've had a word with some locals who've seen her. Archbishop Manfroy's got his grubby hands on her, by the sound of it. It's a pretty safe bet that Julia's still somewhere in Grannvale."
: "Say, Lewyn, Something feels amiss. We've defeated Arvis and avenged my father, and yet I still feel... Empty."
Seliph, literally 20 seconds ago: "Nothing has ever felt this good."
: "That'd be because we still have a while to go until we reach the end of all this. If anything, the real battle here's only just about to get started. Trust me. By the time this holy war has come to a close, Seliph, the truth behind it all will be clear as day."
And endgame time it is. I don't think I have much to add to what I've already said about the chapter. Arvis mostly good, but with too little stage presence. Julius... mixed, although I think I'll keep my thoughts on that for the summary after finishing the game, since it intertwines with some other thoughts. Ishtar still hasn't had a chance to actually do something to make herself appear more sympathetic.
The Team:
Lv. HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Funds XP Arn W/L Seliph 30 69 25 7 22 22 28 22 16 37720 +422 [*] 51/0 Leif 30 66 27 8 27 27 17 27 11 14892 +521 [*] 27/0 Oifey 28.66 56 21 10 23 22 13 22 8 27840 +332 [*] 22/2 Finn 30 51 24 1 18 22 24 21 4 50000 +91 [*] 19/0 Dermott 30 65 23 0 30 25 22 20 7 19957 +456 [*] 48/1 Nanna 30 58 24 7 22 21 24 24 8 40680 +210 [*] 11/0 Ares 30 73 24 9 23 22 19 24 14 33870 +494 [*] 23/0 Fee 30 56 20 17 24 29 15 20 24 30417 +276 [*] 40/0 Altena 28.17 67 27 3 24 22 11 28 8 43860 +641 [*] 16/0 Lester 28.10 56 23 3 18 21 24 18 4 41316 +614 [*] 32/0 Arthur 30 70 6 23 22 22 27 11 11 46520 +410 [*] 31/0 Shanan 28.35 64 24 1 30 26 13 20 6 42880 +485 [*] 19/0 Ulster 28.48 67 27 7 27 25 12 22 4 3000 +708 [*] 6/0 Larcei 28.28 67 27 1 30 30 20 22 6 36570 +368 [*] 17/0 Patty 29.51 61 22 16 21 27 24 17 9 3000 +461 [*] 28/0 Johalvier 28.74 58 26 0 18 21 7 24 8 29715 +134 [*] 28/0 Hannibal 28.88 65 23 1 17 12 8 24 6 40820 +692 [*] 1/0 Faval 28.57 66 18 15 20 27 30 13 6 38423 +706 [*] 16/0 Ced 30 55 5 27 22 30 29 14 27 28600 +647 [*] 10/0 Tinni 28.85 61 4 27 24 27 29 10 16 50000 +1026 [*] 13/0 Lana 30 61 12 24 24 23 29 12 11 17726 +27 [*] 0/0 Sharlow 27.58 43 4 27 15 18 13 9 16 6708 +1658 [6] 0/0 Leylia 13.26 29 9 2 1 14 8 2 8 16000 +250 [1] 0/0- Holy Matrimony: Ulster/Patty, Larcei/Johalvier, Nanna/Leif, Arthur/Fee
- Truly in Love: Seliph<->Tinni, Lana->Seliph, Leylia<->Ares
- They Fancy Tinni: Shanan, Dermott, Oifey, Lester, Ced
- They Fancy Lana: Faval, Sharlow
- Nobody Has Anyone On Their Mind:
- Forever Alone: Altena, Finn, Hannibal
4 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:with Seliph contrary somewhat to the public mood promising him a burial (or cremation by pyre, which was popular for most of Rome's history) with full honors.
Cremation by pyre seems... appropriate.
-
9 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:
Amy: Um… Kitty-cat man, will you come, too?
Ranulf: Sure. I’ll even let you sleep on my furry belly.
Amy: For real? Yay!
Ranulf: Don’t tell anyone, but my belly is super comfortable. You’ll be asleep in no time!
Lucia: Wow, that’s great, Amy. Let’s get going.
Amy: Yes! Kitty-cat pillow! Kitty-cat pillow!
Elincia: …Thank you, Ranulf.
Ranulf: Don’t mention it. I’m a sucker for kids.1996 vs. 2007, the difference.
I can't believe Ike's sexy catboy husbando is a nerd, too9 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:Eeeeeeeh? IIRC, reading a history of the entire Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire, the surging Arab menace didn't silence all internal court-squabbling. A national crisis should but by no means is guaranteed to shut down needless infighting.
Plus, Julius has probably spent the vast majority of his life in Grannvale. Warp magic does make for a higher degree of potential travel than IRL, but he could still have very well spent 70% or what have you in Belhalla and wherever the other grand imperial estates are. What is Manster District and to a greater extent Issach, to him? Real places? Or merely names on a map? While Julius may believe the world is his to rule, Seliph has yet to show up on his real doorstep, when the true concern might set in.
You can certainly explain Julius not taking the threat seriously, what with him (as you later say) being a spoiled brat that has never faced an actual threat to his power before. But I think it might cheapen the eventual victory a bit: Seliph doesn't win because he achieved something super special awesome - Seliph wins because his enemies handed him the necessary tools on a silver platter. Making your arch villain so imba that the heroes can't touch him, so the villain has to produce his downfall himself sounds like a beginner dungeon master's blunder - although I'm sure I exaggerate (at least a little) with this description of Julius and Manfroy.
9 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:Honestly I don't think I bothered putting anyone who could be Sleep'ed into the range of the staffers. I used the handful of units who passed the Res check to dispatch everything (I went canon with Lewyn for Erinys, and gave Claud to Silvia, so I forget if Phee and Ced passed the Res check), and the rest gathered elsewhere doing nothing.
I went with the opposite approach. Shove everybody into the fight, so it doesn't matter if three guys get slept. Still enough offensive power to punch through.
9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said: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.
'Tis what happens if you skip 17 years of a story, but I agree. I think it works better with Arvis because his transformation from smug badassery to humbled and broken is something of a "oh, damn" moment, but he shares with Travant the problem that their most intriguing stories happened off-screen. And that aspect is arguably worse for Arvis, since it basically happens twice for him, with his scheming in Belhalla while Sigurd is out a-conquerin'.
9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:That must've been SUPER long ago, considering we never even saw him when Sigurd was the protagonist of the game lol
I first thought that he's the guy who officially made Sigurd a Paladin after the prologue and later shared juicy court gossip with him, but...
...nah. Other Oldman.
9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:Get Hawke while you're at it.
Either that or Arden/Erin.
8 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:"Ishtar"? No, that's Julius, speaking to himself in the third person! As Julius is wont to do.
(first 30 seconds)
8 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:Daddy Lewyn is interesting because - while you obviously want him to pass down Forseti - I wouldn't call any of his pairings actively bad. Critical and Adept make for a really solid pair of skills, especially on kids who already have Pursuit (the Sword Twins and Faval). The Speed boost from Sety Holy Blood is always welcome. And Lewyn!Lana probably has the best post-promotion combat of any version, thanks to the skills and Elwind access.
Honestly, considered "on average" or "overall", Lewyn might be the best dad, period.
It's a hard choice from the perspective of the children. On the one hand, you get incredible speed, solid +dmg skills, and maybe even Forseti... but on the other hand, your dad's going to be Lewyn.
4 hours ago, Jotari said:Killing a unit is indeed the lamest way to deal with them. The most based way to deal with them is to have them deal with each other.
Very nice.
Their dialogue afterwards is surprisingly appropriate (if you don't know what "game" Julius is referring to) - like they just had a little sparring match.
4 hours ago, Jotari said:Would be nice if we got the implication, or even a scripted battle, that Alvis was willing to fight, until it came to the moment where he actually had to trade blows with Julius and he just couldn't. Despite everything he couldn't fight his own son. And Julius would miss the weight of that entirely believing it only to be his own power.
It would require some more rewriting, since it's only Manfroy in that scene with Julia, but I agree that seeing Arvis at least trying to fight for Julia's sake would've been nice. Maybe if you made the First mate's suggestion (that Manfroy is threatening to kill Julia right there if Arvis doesn't co-operate) more explicit in the writing, that would work. (although that would still sell Julia, who's likely to be pretty competent at fighting magic users in particular, very short)
4 hours ago, Revier said:To be fair, Isaac is separated from the Grannvalian core by a harsh desert, so it's unlikely that news of its liberation came to the royal court in time. Leonster is a bit less explicable, but Thracia is also seen as a backwater, and from what we see Leonster has been embroiled in a civil war for a while already, so it's possible that news from there isn't considered very reliable, because it must be a complete mess of contradictory reports about the battles conducted there. That said, the fact that a Loptyrian shrine that was once the former Loptyrian HQ itself is situated right in the middle of the desert makes Seliph evading detection rather unlikely.
Ah, but you didn't consider that information travels instantaneous across Jugdral.Loptyr HQ being an early target of Seliph's campaign would explain why Manfroy is so worried about this - although it's not like he really needed additional reason with Isaach and all of the Thracian peninsula being taken from Grannvale's control.
4 hours ago, Revier said:So the pragmatic strategist is not completely a jerk. Just mostly.
He is sometimes, in some timelines, not completely a jerk.
Lewyn: Heh... Bratty little thing, aren't you...
Fee: EXCUSE ME?! Ohh, that does it!So, since T776 makes Lewyn/Erin canon, he's officially always completely a jerk.
3 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:Wait... how did Arvis become Emperor in the first place? King Azmur stipulated that his successor would be a male child of Arvis and Dierdre with Major Naga blood. Until such a child reached maturity, Arvis would serve as Regent. Now obviously, those traits were split between two children, so it's not clear which one has a stronger claim to succeed Azmur. But in either case, while Arvis might be the next Ruler of Grannvale, I don't see how he could claim to be the next Emperor of Grannvale. ...Outside of, say, simply declaring himself Emperor. And nobody of influence being left alive to challenge such a declaration.
Anyway, if Arvis weren't Emperor, then Julius' immunity from being displaced would make more sense. Arvis' rule was never in-his-own-right, but only via his marriage to - and parentage of - descendants of Azmur. If he banishes Julius, he removes the only known surviving source of his own legitimacy.
Well, Arvis made himself Emperor. As you say, Azmur was King Azmur. Probably a good helping of headcanon on my part, but it wouldn't be unrealistic if Arvis would've arranged the inheritance laws of that new political entity to be more to his liking, and maybe disconnected it from Azmur's bloodline.
Come to think of it, it would've been an interesting touch if Julius would already have been King Julius of Grannvale - only that he'd still formally answer to Arvis's authority as Emperor.
-
FE4 Chapter 10: Light and Darkness
Rados --> Miletos
Spoiler
__
Well then, on to Miletos we go.
: "It has been a long time, Ishtar. How fare you of late?"
: "Oh, Your Majesty! What brings you here?"
: "Listen, Ishtar. Release the captive children. I know you care no more for these foul deeds than I do."
: "My apologies, sir, but I'm on Prince Julius's-"
: "Pay Julius's orders no mind. I'll be having a word with him soon."
: "But..."
: "This is an order from your emperor, Ishtar! Has Julius bent you such that you will no longer listen to the word of your liege?"
: "No... Never, Your Highness..."
: "Julius! How dare you-"
: "Why, Father, it almost sounds as if you still don't know any better! Old age must already be dulling that once brilliant of yours. Why not retire before it grows still feebler? Unless... Ohoho! Don't tell me you still seriously believe that you can banish me?"
: "No... I know better than to try something so futile again... I... I have no objection."
: "That's better. Now, then. Begone! Return to your post and haunt my sight no more. Defending Chalphy is crucial. Don't fail me for once in your sorry life, Father."
: "Y-yes, Julius. At once..."
Clearly, Julius is the true self-insert character of Genealogy, to give the teenage boys the fantasy of ordering around their parents after cruelly being told to clean up their rooms.
(It's a nice little disturbing detail that Julius calls Ishtar "his", in particular in response to Arvis trying to give her orders)
: "Never would you think this wretch, now clinging only to the ghost of a crown, was once the most powerful man in Jugdral."
: "Ah, Manfroy. Where's Julia? Have you restored her memory yet?"
: "Your dear little sister is in Chalphy, burdened once more by her old memories. Never have I seen such horror as when she recalled how you, her brother, almost killed her! Or how her dearly departed mother spirited her clear of the castle and your clutches..."
: "Indeed... Near everyone puts up some defiance to death by my hand, yet Deirdre never so much as flinched in the end. She accepted her own demise, all to save Julia with what little strength she still had... Julia possesses the foul powers of that ghoul, Naga, just as Deirdre once did. Nothing is more crucial than killing her now, Manfroy, lest we lose the chance."
: "You overestimate her threat, milord. After all, the Book of Naga remains under the strictest lock and key in Belhalla. Without it, I cannot fathom now Naga's soul could ever come to dwell within that girl..."
: "How many times must I explain, Manfroy?"
: "Every last one of the avatars of Naga, the heirs of Heim, must be purged from existence!"
: "Understood, milord. I'll have my men see to it that Julia is dead by sundown."
: "Do not fail me, Manfroy. Now, then. I suppose I'm needed in the capital."
: "I shall ensure that holding the Miletos territory is the Order's highest priority. Before the week is done, Your Majesty, the corpse of Seliph will lie before you."
: "Seliph? ...Ah, of course. The one the peasants call the 'scion of light'... Feh, just as they call me the 'scion of darkness'. The alleged eldest son of Deirdre, and the alleged true heir to Grannvale... A fairy tale told to inspire hope amongst fools!"
: "He poses a threat to use nonetheless, milord. The sooner we dispose of him, the better."
: "Surely, he doesn't truly bear the power of the crusader Baldur... He couldn't possibly... I might not care about him, Manfroy, but you're welcome to do with him as you will."
: "Very good, milord..."
: "Lord Julius..."
: "Ishtar. Shall we be off, then? I've tasked the Order to defend Miletos. Say... I have a better idea."
: "I want to play a game. Rumor has it that a small army of fresh sacrificial meat is headed our way. Let's see who can claim the life of a rebel first."
: "Yes, Lord Julius. I'd love to!"
Sounding rather excited there, Ishtar.
In a way, I appreciate how Julius and Manfroy mirror each other in how they underestimate the threats to their power: Manfroy is worried about Seliph while Julius dismisses him - Julius is worried about Julia, but Manfroy dismisses her. But I feel like it's getting really late for that story beat to continue. Seliph has liberated Isaach (let's ignore Shanan) and Leonster (let's ignore Leif) already - surely, that's enough to draw some attention?
__
__
Back to gameplay - a couple enemies start very close to the gate that opens after Seliph seizes Rados. Results in a little jump scare because one of them uses Hel, but no other enemy is in range to follow up on this.
__
The entire defense force of Miletos is unusual for Genealogy, in that it's spread out all over the place. The Dark Mages also have varied equipment (Fenrir, Hel, Jormungand, Sleep), although that is pretty much the standard at this point.
__
Julius takes the field, and he's obviously quite the terror. The Loptyr tome seems like one of the weaker legendary weapons at first glance, only providing a measly +5 Res, but it also carries the same effect that Medeus had in FE1 and FE3, halving any incoming attack's power.
As a big ONLY USE SELIPH AND JULIA, THEY HAVE NIHIL sign, Julius has the Wrath skill, guaranteeing a one-shot on literally everybody (well, save sub-100 accuracy) when he is below half health. And to keep it spicy even for those two, he has Accost, as well.
Ishtar seems fairly similar to her previous appearance - fairly frail, but evasive and very deadly. Notably, she has effectively 31 Res, which makes it *almost* impossible to disable her via status staff. Ced (27 Mag) and Tinni (who'll reach 27 during this update) should be able to silence or sleep her if they equip a Magic Ring. But I don't have that set up, so there'll be a chance of Vantage/Adept shenanigans from her.
I know that Julius and Ishtar will both leave the map if the respective other is defeated in combat - so realistically, killing Ishtar is the way to go. With how Julius is introducing them to the map, I also assume that they leave if they kill one of your units, so the easist (and lamest) method would be to allow somebody to get killed and then use Valkyrie to revive them. And finally, if Seliph just runs around them to kill the boss and seize (not difficult, between Leif's Rescue staff and Leylia's dancing), I would guess that they disappear, too?
(and the way I've written that previous paragraph spoils what I'm going to do, I suppose)
The guy on top of Miletos Castle is very forgettable.
__
__
While the presense of Fenrir and Sleep is, if not dangerous, at the very least annoying, the spread out enemy formation makes this next segment easier than one might think, so I won't be giving a turn-by-turn.
Of course, facing multiple Sleep staves is annoying, especially when the Restore staff is still on poor ol' 5-Move Lana, but that's nothing that can't be solved by the Rescue staff and a dance or two.
...Good thing I did that right away, too, since Leif is one of the targets on the second turn of this engagement.
And quite soon, the forest is free of enemies. On to Julius and Ishtar! ...OK, just Ishtar.
First attempt: Dermott with the Brave Sword, with aura support from Seliph and Nanna.
: "It seems as if this game shall be mine, Lord Julius!"
__
Well, that's awkward. Vantage: activated. But no fear!
Ares is still available, can benefit from Dermott's aura in addition to Seliph and Nanna...
__
...and he has the HP/Res to survive two Mjölnir hits! Huzzah!
: "You've lost, have you? Hmph... We leave at once!"
And with this, Ares won't die to the remaining Fenrir Dark Mages, either.
In the meanwhile, some side objectives:
Arenaing for Hannibal and Dermott (before the latter was returned to the frontlines by Sharlow and Leif). Only Oifey and Sharlow (90 XP away from promotion at the end of the update) remain. Well, and Leylia, but that's not gonna happen.
: "She goes 'round stealin' kids, then if they so much as cry, she kills the mams so calm-like, you'd think she was just swattin' flies! There's no way that woman's human! It's a fiend that's rulin' us now..."
[5000 gold --> Ulster]
: "A terrifying man, that Prince Julius is... Just a single glance into those eyes of his and you're gone... You lose yourself. So many of my friends and others my age've been all left for Belhalla to serve him. I've heard nothing from any of 'em since..."
[5000 gold --> Oifey]
: "None of yeh come even close t'being strong enough t'fight Prince Julius. Hate t'say it, but sometimes, yeh need t'make sacrifices if yeh wanna keep goin'..."
[5000 gold --> Oifey]
Visiting villages - with Ulster because he's nearby saving children and can give that money to anybody via Patty, and Oifey, because he was below 40000 gold and hasn't arenaed yet.
And Oifey also eliminates the last remaining threat to the last remaining village. Speaking of - that last village (near Rados) contains the second Magic Ring. Arthur or maybe Ced seem like the logical recipients.
Finally, villagers are being rescued from nobody in particular. Ulster gets a second one, then Hannibal gets another two, and one is still remaining near Chronos. Honestly, there's just nobody who *really* needs the XP. If this was a ranked run, Leylia would be the obvious target here, but other than that, most characters are on a good way to reach Lv.30 either way - and we're about to get another five rescuable children. The lowest-level (besides Oifey, who hasn't done this chapter's arena yet, Sharlow, and Leylia) are Lester (Lv.26.66), Faval (25.59), and Tinni (25.55), so I suppose they're going to split the XP between themselves.
: "Wait, you're a crusader? Really? Huh..."
: "Ohh! You're a crusader... I was really scared there..."
: "You're the liberation army? Wow... You're all amazing!"
Oh, and I almost forgot: seizing Rados unlocks a convo between Tinni and... not Seliph, actually:
: "Pardon me, Tinni. Lewyn would like a word with you. If you need anything from me, I'll be waiting over there."
: "Say, Tinni. Hilda was your aunt, right? I can only imagine how painful having to fight her was..."
: "No, not really. Lady Hilda is a horrific woman..."
: "She didn't treat you well, did she?"
: "Mm... Day after day, again and again, she kept on beating and abusing us. And she kept on accusing Mother of being a traitor..."
: "Your mother... Taillte, right..."
: "Yes... After the Battle of Belhalla, she and my brother, Arthur, fled to Silesse. I was born there soon after. I never knew my father. I think he must've died long ago..."
: "I see... Then you went to Alster, right?"
: "King Blume and his minions came to Silesse one night... They dragged us away to Alster... Mother never left there alive..."
: "I... You've had such a hard life..."
: "Mm... Hilda hated Mother so much. I've never seen anything like it... Mother must've coped with so much, all to protect me from Hilda. She was always in tears, right till the end..."
: "She... She did?"
: "Lord Lewyn? Is... Is everything okay, sir?"
: "Yeah. Why d'you ask?"
: "It's your eyes, sir... Are those tears?"
: "I... No, it's... It's nothing. This is just a bit of sweat. I'm fine... I... I'm okay..."
[+4 Mag --> Tinni] (normally +5, but that would've brought her above the cap)
Astonishingly, I believe this is Lewyn being as good at being a dad as he goes. With Lene, his refusal to tell her that he's her father follows her lament that she's so lonely without her parents. Towards Fee, who would've known that he's her father, he's just being a complete arse.
__
But with that, the Miletos arc is over. We've talked about it between updates, but I think I maintain that this entire island didn't need to be a part of the story, since it's virtually unused as a backdrop to the plot - at least as far as events go that couldn't have happened in the exact same way at another location.
__
__
: "Looks like we're too late, Seliph. The kids are already gone. I'm guessing they're well on their way to Grannvale."
: "Blast... Not again..."
: "I hate to admit it, but I doubt we could've gotten here soon enough either way. Now, then. It sounds like they're finishing up repairs on the Miletos Straight bridge. Ready to move in on Chalphy?"
: "Chalphy... My father's homeland..."
: "So it is. I'm betting the citizens there will be even happier to see you than usual. Let's not let them wait any longer!"
: "Indeed! Everyone, move out. Onward to Chalphy!"
This time, I did finish the turn after seizing, so I'll include the cutscene playing afterwards:
: "Ah, Bishop Palmarch... Your Grace, I need you to escort these children to safety."
: "Come again?! Are you setting them free?"
: "Indeed. More of Julius' minions from Belhalla will be here at any moment. You need to move, and quickly!"
: "Y-yes, of course! Thank you, Your Majesty... Thank you so much..."
: "I... I also wish to entrust you with this."
: "Hold on a moment... Isn't this-"
: "Once, long ago, you were a confidante to Sigurd, were you not? ...You already know what you must do."
: "Y-yes, sire..."
: "Julia, I... I beg your forgiveness. For all the misery I've wrought, you must hate me so..."
: "That's not true! It doesn't matter what happened, Father. Not even for a moment have I hated you! To me, you've always been one of the kindest men I've ever known!"
: "No... I am a fool. I've been a fool from the outset. All this time, I've been Manfroy's puppet. When I finally saw the strigns he was pulling, it was too late. I was powerless to do a thing. I had already given the Empire to Julius... The embodiment of Loptyr, the dark god. He... He took the love of my life from me... And you are next..."
: "Mother sacrificed herself for me... She gave the last of her strength to ensure I made it as far away from Julius as possible. I think the trauma must have wiped my memory... And if Lewyn hadn't found me... But just knowing that Julius did that to his own mother... Now I remember, I almost wish I didn't... It hurts so much..."
: "Oh, Julia... We have so much more to talk about. I wish we could, but time is short."
: "Now, I do believe His Imperial Majesty should keep to Prince Julius' orders. That is, unless you want your dear daughter ot meet the axe."
: "How dare you, Manfroy! You address your Emperor! How dare you seek to use my daughter as a common bargaining chip!"
: "Hmhmhm... So you still feebly cling to your titles and thrones, do you? Your time has long passed, Arvis. You, and this world, now belong to Prince Julius. Unless you wish to know pain beyond the ken of mortal men, still your tongue and obey your new liege without question. It is almost a pity your heroics are for naught. Every last child you freed shall be a festering corpse before this day is done! Hee hee hee..."
: "F-Father!!"
: "Julia... I am so sorry... Julius' thugs are too powerful. I cannot protect you... All I can do now is give you this... This circlet belonged to Deirdre. This... Only it could possibly save you n-"
: "Enough! We leave at once, Julia!"
: "Father! Oh..."
__
And the pieces join the board.
Seeing Arvis this pathetic is a bit hard to believe. I appreciate the shock effect - the mighty and prideful Arvis is now cowering in fear before Julius and Manfroy, not daring to defy their orders openly - but considering that gameplay is about to present him as a still incredibly powerful fighter, I have to question why he doesn't even make an attempt to stand up to Manfroy.
What I do appreciate without reservations is Arvis's regretfulness. He sacrificed a lot of other people to become Emperor, and now the ends that justified the means are not just in shambles, his ambition to overhaul Jugdral has been entirely perverted.
: "Come along, children! Hurry!"
: "But there's nowhere for us to go, sir..."
: "The dark priests are right behind us! We're gonna die, aren't we?"
: "Be at peace. All will be well. Lord Seliph will be here at any moment to rescue us. have faith in the crusaders, my children!"
But first, the crusaders have to endure the onslaught of... one Bow Armour.
Guarding the approach are three groups of enemies - Armours, some Priests and Mages, and a couple Paladin-adjacent classes.
__
No additional commander with a face, but all quite strong enemies.
Arvis himself doesn't have Julius's strength-halving trick or Wrath one-shot potential, but his raw numbers are even stronger than those of his son. He also has the Nihil skill (in addition to the usual Pavise, as well as Charm and five leadership stars), so he doesn't brook any bullshit from the player's side, either. Just a bunch of big numbers, even one-shotting a decent share of our characters.
__
And finally, a group of Dark Mages, who I assume will go after Palmarch and the children. Fee should be well-equipped to face them, though.
The Team:
Lv. HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Funds XP Arn Seliph 29.84 68 25 7 22 22 28 22 16 34720 +406 [*] Leif 30 66 27 8 27 27 17 27 11 27372 +521 [*] Oifey 25.58 53 20 10 22 21 12 20 8 47340 +24 [1] Finn 30 51 24 1 18 22 24 21 4 50000 +91 [*] Dermott 30 65 23 0 30 25 22 20 7 16957 +456 [*] Nanna 30 58 24 7 22 21 24 24 8 37680 +210 [*] Ares 29.26 72 24 9 22 22 19 24 13 30870 +420 [*] Fee 30 56 20 17 24 29 15 20 24 27417 +276 [*] Altena 28.05 67 27 3 24 22 11 28 3 40860 +629 [*] Lester 26.66 54 22 3 18 20 24 18 4 30563 +470 [*] Arthur 29.42 69 6 23 22 22 26 11 11 43520 +352 [*] Ulster 27.48 65 27 7 27 25 12 22 4 5000 +608 [*] Larcei 28.28 67 27 1 30 30 20 22 6 33570 +368 [*] Shanan 27.49 63 23 0 30 26 12 20 6 39880 +399 [*] Patty 28.63 60 21 15 20 27 24 17 9 12000 +373 [*] Johalvier 28.74 58 26 0 18 21 7 24 8 26715 +134 [*] Hannibal 28.88 65 23 1 17 12 8 24 6 37820 +698 [*] Faval 25.59 62 17 15 20 27 28 13 5 35423 +408 [*] Ced 30 55 5 27 22 30 29 14 27 22600 +647 [*] Lana 30 61 12 24 24 23 29 12 11 13226 +27 [*] Tinni 25.55 58 4 27 24 27 27 9 16 29753 +696 [*] Sharlow 19.10 36 3 21 12 13 10 6 13 10458 +810 -- Leylia 12.26 29 9 2 1 14 8 2 7 13000 +150 [1]On 4/20/2024 at 11:09 AM, Saint Rubenio said:Next you'll tell me he has emotions. Real men aren't like that!!
What a nerd. We should give him a wedgie.
On 4/20/2024 at 11:09 AM, Saint Rubenio said:lol
lmao even
As is my nature, I'm already contemplating interesting ways to replay Genealogy. "No Forseti Inheritance", even though I'm not really looking to do a full substitute run, is looking like a strong option, honestly. Well, not a strong option. You know what I mean.
-
6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:
Can't wait for "Archer Lana" to be meta in the inevitable sequel. Alongside "Warrior Brigid" and "Sage Arthur".
Warrior Sharlow.
Finally, a worthy successor for Yubello.
6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:Ooh, imposter syndrome. He just like me fr fr.
Seliph's almost a character in that specific dialogue.
6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:Crazy how similar the statistically-worst sword in the game (Thief's Sword) looks to one of the statistically best swords in the game, Mystletainn. Is Ares here to crit-kill me, or to tickle all my gold away?
Can't say about Ares, but Dermott is here to tickle you to death and take your money.
5 hours ago, Revier said:It's a bit weird for sure. But he did annex Verdane and Agustria almost single handedly, and that alone would've won him a lot of reputation, I would imagine. Not to mention his dad himself was very close to the crown prince and had won honors in multiple battles.
Although the conquests of Verdane and Agustria might not have the same positive vibe with the people that it once had. The end result is that Sigurd handed these territories on a silver plate to Arvis, who, as far as the common man knows, may or may not be the antichrist. I do like the explaination that Jotari gave (or relayed), that it's Imperial propaganda backfiring, painting Sigurd as this powerful enemy of the state - but unfortunately, that angle isn't present in the actual game at all, at least thus far.
5 hours ago, Revier said:What setting is it, then? It clearly has the outward looks and trappings of Middle Ages Europe, though there are definitely bits and pieces of jarring presentism, especially in the more recent games.
Fire Emblem has the aesthetics of Medieval Europe, but outside of feudalism being the mode of production, its settings are very much modern in terms of social norms. That's not meant as a criticism (FE never pretents to be "historical"), but it means that "this is how it worked in 1200 AD" is basically a non-argument when talking about anything FE-related.
-
34 minutes ago, Jotari said:
The way I interpret it (possibly backed up by some village statements or Kaga notes, or Thracia or something, possibly just my own creation, it's kind of hard to keep track of things with how scattered some of this information is), is that the Empire's propaganda against Sigurd has backfired on them. They painted him as a devious rebel who wanted to snatch the throne for himself. But, because the empire turned out so shitty, Sigurd as the enemy of the early empire instead became the only sane man who saw the writing on the wall and tried to stop all the tragedy before it happened, at least in the eyes of the common people. The dramatic irony is that he wasn't that either and was really just a dude trying to protect himself with no real knowledge Lopt Sect plans or possible future beyond the vaguest knowledge that they existed.
That would've been really interesting if it had ever come up in the game. A Kaga special, tbh.
27 minutes ago, BrightBow said:Gotta push those cousin romances, I suppose.
Well, in medieval Europe, cousin r--
27 minutes ago, BrightBow said:Although since their mothers were identical twin sisters, biologically it's less cousins and more half siblings.
Oof.
(Disclaimer that Fire Emblem isn't really a medieval setting, specifically not when it comes to social standards and values, so "it happened in medieval Europe" isn't really much of a point, anyway)
-
FE4 Chapter 10: Light and Darkness
Perlucos --> Chronos --> Rados
Spoiler
I'll have to immediately credit this map for this: No two turns of walking about before encountering the first group of enemies. Right out the castle gate, we can (and have to) take a stab at the Dark Mages.
__
And with all our mounted units plus a dance, you can do quite a lot to those Loptyrians, too. You can also see Shanan at the top right of our group, after having a convo with Seliph:
: "You've grown so strong of late, Seliph! You really are your parents' son. There's nothing left for me to teach you."
: "Thank you, Shanan... For everything. Any might I have springs from your teachings. To me, swordplay is every bit as natural as breathing, and I owe it all to you."
: "Heh... You think so, do you..."
: "You look awfully weary, Shanan... Is something amiss? If only I could lend you my strength..."
: "Hey, come on! You needn't treat me like some old man. I'm as young and spry as ever, you know!"
: "Oh! My apologies, Shanan... That wasn't what I was-"
: "Heh, it's fine. ...Thanks anyway, Seliph. It heartens me to know that you care."
[+3 HP --> Shanan]
Shanan was probably called "mister" by a teenager for the first time recently, so that's why he's a bit sensitive here.
__
__
And here's the result of the first round of combat. Very horse-centric, since foot units just don't have the reach. Most importantly, both Fenrir and both Hel wielders are dead immediately, and Altena is not in range of the left enemy Sniper.
In the back, Faval and Lana had a little moment:
: "Wait a minute... I've never seen someone so frail hold their own out here like this. Aren't you scared at all?"
Fun fact: If Lana had decided to become an Archer instead of a Priest, her Str would've been 7 points above Faval's, and on par with Finn, Nanna, and Ares. She's also basically as tanky as Faval on the physical side (+1 HP, -1 Def) even in her High Priest class, although she admittedly has an 8-level lead at the start of the fight.
: "I won't lie to you... I am. I really am. But I could never sit back and do nothing knowing all those children are still in peril."
: "Huh, so you're fond of kids, then?"
: "Oh, certainly! I love children. And from what I hear, you do as well! You've been looking after orphans, haven't you, Faval? I think that's just wonderful!"
: "Er, don't get too excited there... Patty dragged me into the whole 'look after orphans' thing. Not the biggest fan myself."
: "Hee hee hee... You sound so sure! I'm not blind, you know. How, then, do you explain all the sobbing children who begged you to stay as you left to join us? Why, they must all see you as some sort of father figure!"
: "H-hey, stop it, would you! I... it's just that... Look, I've got some things to go do, okay?"
[+3 HP --> Lana; +100 love points]
Everybody point and laugh at Faval for his lack of rugged manliness. He's good with children! How embarrassing!
Speaking of children, Patty gifts Sharlow her arena earnings. He'll pick up the Warp staff to spam himself to promotion and beyond, although he won't get started with that just yet. But next update, somebody is going to be ping-ponged between Perlucos and... somewhere. I believe Larcei is still carrying around one of the Return Bands.
__
__
No danger during enemy phase. Not sure what the logic behind targeting Leylia is here - I redid this first turn once because I didn't think of selling Warp with Lana and Leylia took a map in both cases, so my first guess was that maybe it's because Leylia has the lowest HP on the team. But that Sleep Dark Mage is going to survive for another turn and he'll target Johalvier next, even though Leylia was also still in his range, so I have no idea.
__
I think I like this John Constipatius. Too bad he has to die.
__
__
So, on we go, with Leif starting to make use of the Rescue staff. He has a decent amount of cash (about 27k) and absolutely zero need for the Paragon band, so I don't think I have to be conservative about its usage.
So he rescues Leylia ahead a second time on the same turn. I'm feeling very ltc right now.
__
__
Not a lot to say here, except "sucks to be you if you don't have a horse".
Turn 3, Dermott stays behind a bit to kill the two Pirates coming from the south. He kills the first with the Brave Sword and will get a double-proc next turn, allowing him to one-round the second with the Thief's Sword.
__
You'll also notice that I try to get Tinni some work. She's carrying the Paragon Band onto the field, so she ought to make use of it (...although she could easily cap out by grabbing the Return staff to play ping-pong with Sharlow).
Still on turn 3, Seliph reaches Hilda. ...Rescue staff with no worries about durability is fun.
: "It's you! YOU are Seliph! Gah... If not for you, Blume and Ishtore would still be... You will not escape me!"
...well, that was a very productive first round of combat.
__
__
Much better. Sure, I'm wasting my time by chipping with Seliph, since that means he won't be able to seize with the same action, but I see a chance for narratively appropriate boss killing:
: "You really are every bit the ingrate your dear mama was!"
: "Hilda! You... What you did to Mother..."
: "Ahh, that takes me back! It's been so long since I've had as much fun as tormenting that eyesore you call 'mama'... Ahahaha!"
Hilda, she called her "Mother" just now.
: "No! You... I won't forgive you..."
: "Why, if I didn't know better, I'd say that's the smart mouth of someone all grown up! What could a brat like you ever hope to do? Good think you miss your mama. You're about to join her in hell!"
Bzzt!
: "Gah... This can't be happening! I can't stay here... I must retreat..."
With Leif using Tornado already, there's not much use for Bolganone, so it's really just some extra cash for Tinni.
Here, Leif and Altena cross path again, which ticks the box for the third and (for now) last conversation available:
: "Is everything alright, Altena? You look rather weary."
: "Oh, Leif... No, it's nothing. Don't worry about it."
: "Well, if you say so... Listen, Altena. Don't be afraid to ask for my help. If you ever need anything, I'll gladly do all I can."
: "Thanks, Leif. Er, actually... I was thinking of Arion."
: "I thought as much. Is it true that someone came to spirit him away after we brought him down?"
: "It is, and from what I hear, that someone was Prince Julius..."
Seliph is really bad at relaying critical information to his companions.
: "The Empire's crown prince himself?! But why... Why in the world would he do that?"
: "Perhaps he's trying to win himself a new ally by appealing to Arion."
: "That makes sense... And I suppose it means we'll be crossing blades with Thracia's dracoknights again."
: "Mm. I'm afraid so. So long as this war continues..."
: "To be honest, Altena, I believe this actually good news."
: "Huh? How so?"
: "Think about it. So long as Arion is still alive, there is still hope that we can help him. Never give up, Altena. So long as we keep moving forward, surely everything will be fine in the end."
: "Thank you, Leif... I think I'm feeling better already."
: "Oh, thank the gods. I couldn't bear knowing that my sister was in such grief. I'm here for you, Altena. All I want is to ensure your happiness, and I'll do whatever it takes to help you."
[+1 Lck --> Altena]
And while we're collecting dialogue:
: "Ohh! Oh, noble crusader! We beg of you, save our children! The children... the dark priests want to sacrifice them to their god!"
[5000 gold --> Oifey]
And because I'm forgetful, Seliph does not seize Chronos despite being part of Leylia's dance. Although this will be somewhat useful next turn, so I should probably pretend it was deliberate.
__
This is also the first bit of combat against Riddell's group. Altena is in the range to counter three of them, one-rounding them with the Silver Lance, and to get a big zap from one of the Mage Knights. She can't use the Gáe Bolg (and she might not have doubled with it) because the Lance Pala probably wouldn't have attacked her.
Now, how much can we do on player phase...
Well, first of all, Dermott can get another one-round with the Thief's Sword. Very nice.
__
__
And the general answer to the question is, "Quite a lot, actually". And Seliph being that extra few tiles forward does help including him in Leylia's dance.
__
: "Nngh... So this is how the gods will my fate..."
__
And here I thought Genealogy was an EP-focussed game.
: "Any luck finding the children, Lewyn?"
: "Nope, no luck. Looks like they've already been sent to Miletos. Let's move! There's no time to lose while they're still in danger. But it looks like we'll need to capture Rados as well, if we're going to get the gates of Miletos open."
: "Understood. Castle Rados is our next challenge, then!"
And the next turn, I remember to actually seize Chronos.
: "Long ago, the Twelve Crusaders waged holy war against the Loptyr Empire for fifteen years. Nary a single corner of the land of Jugdral escaped the war's clutches. It was Saint Heim who smote the dark god's avatar, Emperor Galle XVII, restoring light to this land at long last. And yet... the dark god is upon us once more. Oh, great crusaders, protect us all!"
[4000 gold --> Leif]
Well, I suppose I was still thinking about Leif's staff repairing budget.
Seizing Chronos unlocks a conversation between Oifey and Seliph, mirroring that of Shanan earlier:
: "Look, sire! The territory of Chalphy awaits us just acroos the Miletos Strait."
: "Chalphy... My father's homeland... I can only imagine all the memories you must have of it, Oifey."
: "Mm, of course. I don't think there's a single corner of Chalphy which I don't recall fondly... Lord Sigurd and Lady Ethlyn... Noish, Alec, and all of my other peers among the young knights of Chalphy..."
---
: "..."
---
: "Every last face there was a friendly one..."
: "Hm... I can only imagine, Oifey. I've never so much as set foot in Chalphy, have I?"
: "Indeed, sire. You were born in Agustria, and raised in Silesse and Isaach. Come to think of it, sire, you've never been anywhere Grannvale till now."
: "Quite the sorry excuse for a prince of Grannvale I make, wouldn't you say? It almost feels as if I've tricked the world."
: "I know, sire, but I pray you understand. This is the will of your citizens, all long abused and stripped of power by the Empire. They've endured decades of suffering beyond compare at the Empire's hands, all in the hope of, one day, seeing the coming of their savior."
: "This savior... Do they believe it to be me?"
: "They do. The common folk have long prayed for the second coming of the hero Sigurd. The folklore claims he comes once more in the form of a legendary child whom Sigurd begat with Empress Deirdre."
: "A legendary child... It's terrifying to know that people have taken to seeing me as some sort of god, Oifey."
: "Think of it as a product of the sheer brutality of the Empire's regime, sire. Look around you. We stand in a realm where children are snatched from their parents in droves, and all who resist are put to slaughter. No mere human could ever wreak such madness. A great evil lurks behind it all..."
: "Say, Oifey... I've been hearing tales that Emperor Arvis is the dark god itself. Where do you stand?"
: "I've heard the same from countless others in our travels, but I doubt it."
: "Then who could it be? Manfroy, perhaps?"
: "Sire... Whoever it may be, the dark god's return is fast approaching. We must hurry. Your people have come to revere you as a crusader destined to save them. The time to heed their call is upon us."
[+3 HP --> Oifey]
To be honest, I didn't expect Sigurd to be exalted to this degree. I appreciate that he's remembered fondly by the people he fought with (for example, Erin telling her children stories about him), but making him into the great hero whose "second coming" (in case somebody still didn't pick up on Seliph's messianic vibes) will deliver mankind from all sins seems more than just a little disproportional. He drove off barbaric invaders, yes, but those aren't connected at all to the current catastrophe, and his following victories all took place outside of Grannvale. When he returned, he was basically tricked by Arvis to help remove his rivals for power, Langbalt and Reptor, before immediately getting murderised himself.
That said, Seliph being perceived as a savior isn't entirely baseless, as much as I dislike the trope of the "Chosen One" - but that should come from who his mother is. Deirdre is the one with Naga blood - and since Arvis's claim to power comes from her lineage, that isn't much of a state secret, either. Who exactly Seliph's father is (apart from "not Arvis") doesn't really have to matter in this narrative.
__
After Riddell is defeated and Chronos seized, getting to Rados is pretty much a formality, with no mobile enemies remaining on the field. So, a small delegation pays him a visit, while the other mounted units already move further on towards Miletos.
(note: Those who played this map will possibly be a bit anxious at that second screenshot. I will indeed have a little shock after seizing Rados - although I didn't make screenshots or saved the game after that - but nobody is going to die)
: "Behold. In your final moments, you will cower in fear of my dark sorcery!"
That's not dark sorcery, that's blue sorcery!
__
And after cleaning up the nearby enemies (XP is XP! ...what do you mean, they'll cap their level anyway?), Seliph kills Morrigan and seizes.
...okay, that does not sound like something DA:O!Morrigan would say.
: "This is... It's like a ghost town..."
: "The handiwork of Morrigan's mages, I hear. Any who dared to resist met a grisly end..."
: "How could they... How could anyone be so savage..."
: "And that's why we've got to fight this war to the end, Seliph. This is something you've got to understand. This is the way of the Loptyr Empire. They have no place at all for the good-hearted... Now, it shouldn't be too long before the gate through to Miletos opens for us. What's your next move, Seliph?"
: "Needless to say, we must march on Miletos. We can't afford to rest while those children are still at risk... Or Julia, for that matter."
: "Good. And after that, Grannvale awaits!"
Speaking of children, the ones of Chronos have been pretty much ignored this entire time. Ulster rescues one of them on the turn Seliph seizes and might rescue another, but overall, since this isn't a ranked run (and cannot be because I have way to many L's in the augury), the XP from these really doesn't matter much anymore.
That's it for now. The story didn't really move forward very much ("Loptyr bad" and "Seliph is blue-haired Jesus" have been established already and have only been reinforced here), but having peeked ahead to what will happen next turn, I can say that something will come up then.
The Team:
Lv. HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res Funds XP Arn Seliph 29.84 68 25 7 22 22 28 22 16 34720 +406 [*] Leif 30 66 27 8 27 27 17 27 11 27372 +521 [*] Oifey 25.34 53 20 10 22 21 12 20 8 37340 -- [1] Finn 30 51 24 1 18 22 24 21 4 50000 +91 [*] Dermott 27.26 60 23 0 30 23 20 19 7 42532 +182 [1] Nanna 30 58 24 7 22 21 24 24 8 37680 +210 [*] Ares 28.46 71 24 9 21 21 18 23 13 30870 +340 [*] Fee 30 56 20 17 24 29 15 20 24 27417 +276 [*] Altena 27.25 66 27 3 23 22 11 28 2 40860 +549 [*] Arthur 29.39 39 6 23 22 22 26 11 11 43520 +349 [*] Lester 26.54 54 22 3 18 20 24 18 4 30563 +458 [*] Ulster 26.48 64 27 7 27 24 11 22 4 0 +508 [*] Larcei 27.88 66 27 1 30 30 19 22 6 33570 +328 [*] Shanan 27.29 63 23 0 30 26 12 20 6 39880 +379 [*] Patty 28.22 60 21 15 20 27 24 17 9 0 +443 [*] Johalvier 28.74 58 26 0 18 21 7 24 8 26715 +134 [*] Hannibal 21.96 60 21 0 16 12 7 23 6 44120 -- [1] Faval 25.59 62 17 15 20 27 28 13 5 35423 +408 [*] Ced 27.69 52 5 26 22 30 27 14 27 22600 +416 [*] Lana 30 61 12 24 24 23 29 12 11 13226 +27 [*] Tinni 24.81 57 4 23 24 27 26 9 16 29753 +622 [*] Sharlow 13.10 34 2 16 9 11 9 5 11 20493 +210 --- Leylia 11.56 29 9 2 1 14 7 2 6 13000 +80 [*]6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:Was it because Kaga thought so little of Sigurd that retracing the failure father's footsteps was deemed unexciting? Or that total map reuse, even with changed enemy formations or whatnot, was frowned up as too repetitive to feature? -I would strongly assume the latter.
6 hours ago, Revier said:Do we know how Book 2 was received back in the day? It getting complaints over reused maps could likely explain why Genealogy actively tries to avoid revisiting places besides Grannvale during its campaign.
That is a good point. I don't know if it was much of a point of criticism when it was released, but Book 2's reused maps (with the exception of the bridge) really weren't all that good, so I could understand if Kaga was reluctant to repeat it... even if I still think it would've been cooler than this entirely new country without any real relevance to the story outside of this one chapter.
4 hours ago, Jotari said:*
Manfroy kidnapping Julia(it's there, but really they barely even tried)*Confronting Hilda in some manner
*Seeing Julius in action for the first time
*Getting Tyrfing
*Killing Alvis
- Since House Freege was supposed to get the Agustrian lands anyway, having Hilda appear in this area would make a lot of sense. Maybe not so much in the border fort of Evans, but she could appear together with reinforcements - maybe at the start of the fight, maybe when Evans is seized. Realistically, she'd reside in Agustry Castle, but rush to the scene when she hears of Seliph landing near the borders of her lands. You would have to put yet another Philip on guard duty in Evans, but it's not like Genealogy is shy about that kind of thing.
- Julius could appear similarly to how he does in the real Ch.10, in front of Jungby once you've seized Evans. Or maybe in front of Chalphy ("You sit back and see how Ishtar and I handle these upstart rebels, father. At your age, you shouldn't excert yourself too much.")
- I haven't read up the details, but I know that Arvis will send out some old man to deliver Tyrfing to Seliph. He could to the same here, just for that old man be intercepted by Scorpio and brought to Jungby. That would also address your (good) point that the path past Jungby to Chalphy is so open that ignoring Jungby would seem like a good move. And speedrunners / LTCers could figure out if it saves time or not to skip Tyrfing... although I suppose they have to do that in the original, too.
- Yeah, Arvis wouldn't really require any changes.
...I wrote that before reading your own thoughts, and I see mine didn't turn out too different.
4 hours ago, Jotari said:
I remember that you alluded to this back in chapter 5
Nothing to add, she should've had a gen 2 appearance.
-
17 hours ago, Jotari said:
I tried to mock up a Chapter 10 where Miletos doesn't exist. I wanted to start from Luthecia (the chapter where Coirpre/Sharlow is held) and end up in Edda, to have continuity between the maps, but the distance is too far both vertically and horizontally to fit on a standard Genealogy sized map. I could just about fit a chapter in where they start at Melgen (Ishtore's castle) and reach Edda.
As comparison, my much simpler suggestion of smushing ch.1 and the prologue together:
So basically, Seliph arrives at Genoa by boat; from there, he captures the strategically important Evans; after that, the Grannvale reaction is to attempt a surround with collaborateurs from all over Jugdral: Verdanian axe bois and hunters from the southwest, Agustrian paladins from the northwest, Silessian pegasi from the southeast where there is just the ocean and definitely nothing else, and probably some dark mages stationed in Jungby. Could possibly make for the equivalent of Victory or Death in BlaBla, Murdock's map in BinBla, Clash! in PoR etc.pp.
If Kaga absolutely wanted Miletos to exist on Jugdral's map, there could still be half of an island in the bottom right - with the castle just out of sight, similar to Nordion and Marpha on the other side of the map, so that Seliph doesn't have to go seize it. Plonk a village or two on there that only Fee or Altena can reach, and you can have a little bit of backstory fluff about Miletos, too.
16 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:All of Gen 2 has this one consideration behind it- how does a ragtag group of Issachan rebels end up overthrowing one-and-a-half-decade-almighty Grannvale Empire?
Direct confrontation between the core Grannvalian armies and Seliph's group could've happened as early as Chapter 7. Edda is directly west of Darna, the Empire could've easily sent out Brian as Seliph was dealing with Ishtore and flanked the rebels.
However, if you've any liking for a notion of realism, that couldn't happen. And if you wanted Gen 2 to be longer than maybe three chapters (without writing a retreat into Seliph's story), you couldn't have it happen either. Helping Leif on the Thracian Peninsula keeps away from Grannvale, and limits Seliph to only fighting regional imperial occupation forces -even if they're led by one of the leading families in the Empire. Travant & Arion are another useful distraction.
It's only with Miletos, 5/6s into Gen 2, that Seliph begins strategically aiming for Grannvale itself, he isn't moving away from it as he did going into the Thracian Peninsula. His army is well-experienced by now. Even if it might not feel like it, because Gen 2 has to share a game with Gen 1, and those giant maps... might impose limits on the feeling of story development/progression?
I agree that it makes sense for Seliph to first operate at the fringes of the Empire's control. However, I still think that you don't actually need Miletos to create that story structure, and that the story doesn't actually do anything with the new setting it introduced. Hilda could be stabbing children in Verdane (or Agustria, but that doesn't work geographically) just as well. Narratively, I think it would me much more interesting to return to Sigurd's old stomping ground - it's a cause to reminisce about Sigurd meeting Deirdre, or a little drama that Ares, Nanna and Dermott must fight their countrymen, or even the question if Sigurd is to blame for the desolation in Verdane (and/or Agustria) because he was always thinking with his seize button.
So all I know of Tanya is badass spy, blows up buildings, and I think she is strong vs. infantry.
Difficulty editing my posts on this site
in Site Content
Posted
Oddly enough, I haven't had this problem since the last forum update. I can't verify this for sure, since there's always been some randomness involved, but I just tried editing some old and long posts of mine and didn't have any issues.