ping
-
Posts
2,262 -
Joined
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by ping
-
-
57 minutes ago, Jotari said:
Anri's brother is Marth's great grandfather. We actually have Marth's male lineage back to Anri from supplementary materials. His father is Cornelius, his grandfather is Marius and his great grandfather, Anri's brother, is named Marcelus... looking at it like that, Cornelius seems to kind of stand out being the only Altean king without an 'M' name. I wonder what Marth called his first born son. My headcanon, he massively confused historians and called his son Hardin.
Well, Mars is basically Marcelus without the elus, phonetically. So since Marcelus's son is Marius, I expect Mars's son to be Mar, as in Marius without the ius. Turns out Tiki was allowed to choose the name. Small Mar-Mar --> Half a Mar-Mar --> Mar. It's only logical.
34 minutes ago, BrightBow said:Oh, it does. It's just that the Anri stuff is a lot more recent history than the founding of the holy kingdom of Akaneia and the giant guardian god stuff.
Yeah, but the status quo has still been quite thoroughly rocked during that war with Dolhr. Looking at the timeline, Aurelis, Altea, Grust, and Macedon were all founded after the first war between the Kingdom of Akaneia and Dolhr, for example. And even then, the War of Shadows happens only 600 years after the Kingdom of Akaneia was founded to begin with, which isn't that long for a political entity to exist. As an expert on political maps of 11th Nov, 1444, I can say that a lot of today's countries in and around Europe already existed in some form that long ago IRL, not to mention the likes of China, Egypt, or Rome.
I'll admit that the first 489 years of the Kingdom of Akaneia are conspiciously devoid of notable events in the timeline.
52 minutes ago, BrightBow said:She even got a new crown. But maybe the gem embedded into the crown is still the same one.
I suppose it would make sense if it was her dragon stone. Sure, the dragon stone is not red as an inventory item. But like, as an inventory item the Falchion is also yellow with a green gem. So probably best not to put too much stock into their color accuracy.
Either way I wonder if there is supposed to be a deliberate parallel in design between Tiki's gem and the gem embedded in the hilt of the Falchion.I almost wish that real Tiki would still use her Book 1 appearance, with Xane just not quite getting it right. With dragons aging as slowly as they do, it's just a bit odd that Tiki of all people is one of the few characters with a new portrait.
-
FE3 Book 2 Chapter 11: Anri's Way
Spoiler
Hidden under the sands is the ancient city of Thabes, as well as many buried treasures. The legends of this illusion city lured many men to the desert. However... Nobody was ever able to make it back. The sage once said...
Don't go near the death desert of Marmotord, because at there lies a city cursed by darkness.
__
: "Barbarians of the Sand Clan and soaring dragons roam. The illusion town was within sight, but I could only remain where I was standing. ..."
: "Really...? So Anri once came here, and all alone as well..."
: "That's right. King Anri began his travels here, to obtain the divine sword, Falchion. And that was so that he could rescue Princess Artemis... Although it will be long, I would like to describe the legend of Anri."
(music change)
: "100 years ago... The ruler of this continent, the Holy Kingdom of Archanea, was destroyed by the dragon tribe. Humans were enslaved and lived each day in despair. Some people wielded weapons to fight back, but they couldn't defeat the dragon tribe, and many people died. Also, the humans' only hope, the Archanea royal family, was wiped out, and so the world lost all hope. However, at that time, at a small city named Altea. It was discovered that that the princess of Archanea was hiding there. The angered Dolhr Empire sent soldiers to Altea, aiming to capture the princess. That princess... Artemis was prepered to give up her own life to save the citizens. However the citizens of Altea swore that, even if they were completely annihilated, they would protect the princess.
: "Knowing that the princess was still alive, the citizens of Pales gathered a liberation army, and continued the fight against the Dolhr Empire. The leader of the liberation army, Duke Cartas, fought with the royal shield, given to him by Artemis. As a result, he received enormous support. Thanks to his efforts, the war finally began to become in their favour. But then, the King of the Earth Dragons, Medeus, finally moved out. The dark breath of Earth Dragons possessed horrendous destructive power and had the effect of halving the enemy's strength. Under such a dire situation it was thought that Altea's resistance wasn't going to hold out.
: "Then, at that time, a Sage appeared and told the people that at the Ice Dragon Shrine, to the distant north, was a sword blessed by the deities. With that sword, the Earth Dragons could be defeated, but it definitely wasn't an easy task to reach the temple..."
: "So Anri, to save his beloved Artemis, left on a journey to obtain the sword?"
: "Yes, that's right. But I think that's enough for today. We still have a long road ahead of us..."
Holy exposition dump, Bat-Man.
I always found it interesting that Kaga's Akaneia doesn't have the time abyss of "2000 years ago, the status quo was established" that fantasy settings often seems to have. 100 years means that Anri's brother is Marth's great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather, i.e. somebody that his own father or at least grandfather would've known.
And as Ruben put it a week earlier: Kaga's "filthy traditional monarchist peepee [was] positively ecstatic" while writing this (rather young, in-universe) legend, that's for sure. Human civilisation is being oppressed by a bunch of evil dragon, who presumably eat one or two children per day and dragon... and the biggest concern is that if this one princess dies, the royal bloodline is no more. Yes. That is the biggest tragedy that could potentially come from all this.
So yeah, here's one of the worst FE desert maps that I've played. Gaiden's Archer Fortress is the worst, obviously, but this one might take #2? Or maybe #3, I really don't enjoy BlaBla's Living Legend, either.
Marked with circles (because I'm too lazy to draw the correct "+" shape) are the hidden item locations. Thieves are guaranteed to find these (as long as there's room in the inventory); everybody else has a Lck% chance, according to the main site.
The problem: Thieves have their movement cut in half like most other physical, non-mounted classes. Since there's no way to help them out except for the precious Rescue staff, they (and I did field both) have a lot of ground to cover. Slowly.
__
New on the enemy side, I think, is the Barbarian class: Decent Str, surprisingly high HP/Def, but godawful accuracy and the 0 AS that axe-users tend to have. Importantly, they don't get slowed down by the desert, unlike the Hunters...
...and the one Berserkr, which seems to be a Hero by another name. It's a good thing that he's slowed down to 3 tiles, too, since 26 Atk and 42 Crit is very fair and balanced.
__
And of course there's the Wyverns (or FlyingDrs, I suppose). Like in the remake, they have two more points of movement even than Paladins and Dracoknights, but their combat is less threatening. Sure, they two-shot literally everybody except Bantu, but since they have 0 AS, they also one-round literally nobody, either. As a point of trivia, the only characters that they would one-shot at base are Malicisheia, Yumina, and Feena, but these have all gained at least +1 HP by now.
Oh, the boss is just another generic Lv.1 FlyingDr with identical stats to the rest. Only thing worth mentioning is that he drops another Manual.
__
__
Aaaaand the map has become even less interesting. Shame. As it turns out, no enemy moves before you step in their range. And these ranges do not overlap in interesting ways to prevent you from picking them off one by one (or two by two, if you're feeling spicy).
__
So I'll just sum up the rest of the chapter quickly. Right side of the map, Yubello (with Wendell healing him when he doesn't dodge) solos.
He then turns left and one-rounds the Hero/Berserker, although that was not as reliable as I would've liked.
Julian walks to the southwest very slowly and then turns north. Rickard stays more central and picks up some treasures there.
__
On turn 9, the map is cleared. No reinforcements, either.
__
Apart from grabbing free stuff, one of the Pegasi goes and grabs some half-priced stuff. A decent number of WyrmSlys and a couple Silver Swords and Bows - no Rapier, since Marth hasn't even used up the first one yet (and it's not like Phina is going to make good use of the second).
To avoid having to move Julian and Rickard all over the map, other units try their luck finding some of the hidden treasure, too. The Silver Axe in the top right can actually only be found by flyers, I think, since that tower doesn't know how perspective works and blocks the path behind it.
Well, that could've been worse.
Still, really don't like this map. It's boring because enemies don't come at you, and it's annoying because of the low movement for Thieves and for Marth in particular.
: "Marth!! It's been a long time, it's me Tiki! I really missed you."
: "Huh... Tiki!? You came here to meet us? That's right... You're with Gotoh right now. But, I haven't seen you for a while and you've grown. Have you been well?"
: "Uh... I've been really lonely. You didn't come to visit me..."
: "I'm sorry... But, I hadn't forgotten about you, Tiki. I wanted to ask you to come to Altea, after things had settled down."
: "Marth... ...I love you <3"
: "X... Xane!!!"
: "Ah, I'm really sorry. I couldn't help it after seeing that serious expression on your face... Sorry, don't be angry. I was ordered, by Gotoh, to wait here for you. While I was waiting I got more and more angry, wondering why I had to do something so boring. So I thought I'd think of a prank to pull on you. But, my Tiki impression was pretty good wasn't it? Huh, what's with the anxious face? Okay, let's go. You want to meet Gotoh, right?"
: "Xane, how would you know Gotoh? Who are you?"
: "Oh, that doesn't really matter. Well, don't just stand there. Follow me."
What a zany prankster.
The Team:
Lv. HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res +XP Marth 9.41 28 10 10 12 11 9 9 0 -- Palla 14.14 28 12 15 17 9 13 10 7 +40 Catria 16.25 32 15 18 20 10 17 15 6 +196 Caeda 13.36 24 11 14 20 17 16 12 6 +204 Julian 9.48 22 10 9 16 9 8 7 0 -- Rickard 3.09 18 6 3 9 1 6 3 0 -- Warren 14.24 30 13 10 11 3 11 6 2 -- Phina 5.60 18 2 6 13 12 4 4 0 +160 Wendell */9.69 27 5 6 13 4 12 5 6 +56 Jubelo 18.25 24 16 8 14 14 18 7 3 +284 Merric 12.14 24 6 7 11 7 12 8 3 +150 Yuliya 12.06 18 8 8 10 15 13 3 6 +102- Not sure why I didn't remember to field Minerva. I guess I just never scrolled down far enough when I did the battle preps some days ago? Oh well, the only character that didn't manage to do anything of use on this map was Warren, so this still was a decently effective team.
-
The stat booster shelf is filling up:
- 2x SpeedRing, one of them will go to Sheema. Second one... Warren might still be the best recipient, I think.
- 3x Manual, with no plans for any of them. Maybe Marth and Julian, so they can use the Master Sword right away.
- 1x PowerRing. I think Wendell might call in his Old Man privileges.
- 1x DracoShield. I might hold on to this for now. Maybe Arran or Matthis or Cecille, depending how they look after the Starshards are no more.
- 1x SecretBook - maybe Banutu again? It's not like he's 100% accurate with only one.
- 1x AngelRobe - I'll keep this one around in case Marth's HP doesn't cooperate. If it does, Tiki might appreciate the double effectiveness just as much as Bantu.
- 1x Goddess. Matthis. Since he's semi-forced to be deployed on the last map, Sirius (who has the same 2 Lck as Matt) would be the better pick, but I know my audience.
-
Oh hey, I remember spending too much time overthinking this:
On 1/14/2023 at 8:48 PM, ping said:In today's episode of Spending Too Much Time On A Silly Idea:
-
As 1st gym:
- Remoraid (Lv.9: Water Gun - Lock On - Psybeam)
- Remoraid (Lv.9: Water Gun - Lock On - Aurora Beam)
- Squirtle (Lv.13: Tackle - Water Gun - Tail Whip - Withdraw)
-
As 2nd gym:
- Poliwag (Lv.16: Water Gun - Hypnosis - DoubleSlap - Rain Dance)
- Remoraid (Lv.14: Water Gun - Psybeam - Aurora Beam - Charge Beam)
- Remoraid (Lv.14: Water Gun - Psybeam - Aurora Beam - Incinerate)
- Wartortle (Lv.18: Tackle - Water Gun - Bite - Withdraw)
-
As 3rd gym:
- Polywag (Lv.24: Water Gun - Hypnosis - Mud Shot - Rain Dance)
- Remoraid (Lv.22: BubbleBeam - Psybeam - Aurora Beam - Incinerate)
- Wartortle (Lv.22: Water Gun - Bite - Withdraw - Rain Dance)
- Octillery (Lv.25: Octazooka - Psybeam - Charge Beam - Bullet Seed)
-
As 4th gym:
- Polywhirl (Lv.28: BubbleBeam - Hypnosis - Mud Shot - Rain Dance)
- Octillery (Lv.25: Octazooka - Psybeam - Charge Beam - Bullet Seed)
- Octillery (Lv.25: Octazooka - Psybeam - Aurora Beam - Incinerate)
- Wartortle (Lv.30: Water Pulse - Bite - Protect - Rain Dance)
-
As 5th gym:
- Polywhirl (Lv.32: BubbleBeam - Hypnosis - Mud Shot - Rain Dance)
- Octillery (Lv.30: Octazooka - Psybeam - Charge Beam - Wring Out)
- Whiscash (Lv.33: Water Pulse - Magnitude - Rest - Snore)
- Lombre (Lv.33: BubbleBeam - Zen Headbutt - Fake Out - Uproar)
- Blastoise (Lv.36: Aqua Tail - Bite - Protect - Rain Dance)
-
As 6th gym:
- Seadra (Lv.38: Brine - Twister - Focus Energy - Rain Dance)
- Ludicolo (Lv.38: BubbleBeam - Giga Drain - Zen Headbutt - Fake Out)
- Whiscash (Lv.40: Aqua Tail - Magnitude - Amnesia - Rest)
- Blastoise (Lv.40: Aqua Tail - Bite - Protect - Rain Dance)
- Polywrath (Lv.42: Waterfall - Body Slam - Hypnosis - Circle Throw)
-
As 7th gym:
- Kingdra (Lv.40: Hydro Pump - Twister - Focus Energy - Rain Dance)
- Ludicolo (Lv.44: BubbleBeam - Giga Drain - Zen Headbutt - Icy Wind)
- Whiscash (Lv.46: Aqua Tail - Earthquake - Amnesia - Rest)
- Polywrath (Lv.46: Waterfall - Body Slam - Hypnosis - Circle Throw)
- Blastoise (Lv.48: Surf - Dragon Tail - Iron Defense - Rain Dance)
-
As 8th gym:
- Mantine (Lv.52: Hydro Pump - Air Slash - Signal Beam - Rain Dance)
- Kingdra (Lv.50: Hydro Pump - Dragon Pulse - Focus Energy - Rain Dance)
- Ludicolo (Lv.52: Hydro Pump - Giga Drain - Zen Headbutt - Icy Wind)
- Whiscash (Lv.52: Aqua Tail - Earthquake - Amnesia - Rest)
- Polywrath (Lv.52: Waterfall - Payback - Hypnosis - Circle Throw)
- Blastoise (Lv.55: Surf - Dragon Tail - Iron Defense - Rain Dance)
Generally based on Gen5 movesets, because that's the last generation that I've actually played, but also with some TMs (like Incinerate and Charge Beam) and at least one tutor move (Giga Drain on Ludicolo). There's some spiel for how much the later teams would use Rain Dance apart from the increased damage. I'll just put out there that Whiscash's hidden ability is Hydration :whistle:
I still think Remoraid->Octillery would make a great Pokemon for a low- to mid-level gym leader. Great versatility, to break out of the type restriction a little, but also with very exploitable flaws: paper-thin defensese for Remoraid and awful Spd (and middling defenses) for Octillery.
-
As 1st gym:
-
1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:
Do I make a fat joke here or just mock your intelligence?
As a skeleton, you really have an unfair advantage when it comes to fat jokes. But since you also lack a brain, I don't know if you're in a position to make jokes about anybody's intelligence.
-
9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:
"Watch my income go up it's about to go nuts... 's about to go nuts"
0.0002$
Thanks, I hate it.
9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:Broke: FE11 and FE3 book 1 are the remakes of FE1.
Woke: FE6 is the remake of FE1.
Besmoke: FE3 book 2 is the remake of FE1.
Don't forget "Every FE game is just a remake of FE1".
8 hours ago, Jotari said:I'm quite sure he moves in New Mystery too. Broke my rescue staff before this chapter on my most recent New Mystery playthrough and had a birch of a time trying to keep Merric alive (not necessarily from Arlen but the people around him, Arlen moving definitely complicated things though).
I assume he attacks anyone in range, but doesn't start the map charging at you, because I also remember him sitting on the throne. Dracopope just outranges him, so most people won't see Elrean attack anybody.
8 hours ago, Jotari said:It does give you like a million playable characters to compensate though.
Okay, but they all suck.
Well, that might be a little reductive, but if you filter out all the characters that need a while to get going (not the greatest when you have to replace a heavy-hitter with one of these) and those that are just plain bad, the roster isn't quite as expansive. The principle that weak units are weak applies to every FE game, of course, but I think New Mystery is one of the cruelest games when it comes to bad units.
8 hours ago, Jotari said:There's a fine line between thematic parallels and lazy repetitive writing. For me this whole Arlen thing trends towards the latter.
In concept, it's not a bad idea to have a baby Gharnef at the start of their decline to villainy, to show the player that a perfectly decent person can succumb to jealousy and hunger for power. But in practice, we don't see Elrean The Decent Person; we only see Elrean The Petulant Child throwing a fit.
8 hours ago, Jotari said:"(Yeah, this series is doomed. We got two good games everyone, pack it up)"
Dragon Ball fans: "Toriyama wanted to end after {King Piccolo / Piccolo Jr. / Namek / Cell} (pick one)"
Fire Emblem fans: "Kaga should have ended after Gaiden" -
4 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:
And for reasons I've already laid out this hasn't done much if anything to keep Chicago from being one of the country's leading murder capitals.
Just as an aside, but Chicago is "only" 14th in murders per capita: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate
Because it's by far the biggest city in the upper parts of the list (the next entry with more than 2 million inhabitants is Houston, #38), it does have the highest absolute number of murders, which I assume is what people point at when they try to paint it as this uniquely murderous hellhole. But while 18 murders per 100000 people is still very high, Baltimore and St. Louis are sitting at 55 and 66, respectively. But as long as Obama is still relevant, I'm sure this myth will keep circulating.
-
5 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:
I'd probably go even more on in Hardin and Minerva leading their own forces to do their own things ala Radiant Dawn.
Yeah, going full (or at least 75%) Radiant Dawn is something I could see, too. At some point, you'd probably have to cut some map from Marth to give Hardin and Minerva some additional space without inflating the game to an unreasonable degree, but there are a few maps that Marth doesn't absolutely need. Like, most of Book 1's removals are justifiable, and if that's not enough (depending on how much you want the B and C team to do), it might also be possible to cut some of the indoor maps. For example, turn Knorda Market into that big epic showdown to liberate Akaneia, with multiple bosses and big scary dragons and waves of reinforcements and on both sides and whatnot, but eliminate Pales, Akaneia to reduce the number of chapters.
-
27 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
You can commend him on his hair, though. Dude's got nothing to envy Aideen. You'll understand when you get to the next game.
I think I remember who Aideen is - priest lady who get kidnapped and freed by the thief boy, right? That's about how far I got. If so, I still don't recall if she has the same hair as Elrean or worse hair. We'll see
29 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:Definitely benefits from not having Etzel instantly steal Excalibur from him.
Honestly, I like the personal tomes, although it worked better in FE1/Book 1. There, it was something for Marich and Linda that the prepromoted Bishops can't just replicate. That is still true in Book 2, of course, but now you have Yubello and Elrean, without that kind of uniqueness. Yubello makes up for it with his crazy good Str growth, but Elrean is kinda just there.
32 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:So he just runs off in this one, huh. Doesn't just stay put like in 12. Eh. I don't have any strong feelings on this change. It's a thing. Since Wendell can't hop on a wyvern and fly past his attack range here it probably makes sense to do this.
26 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:I do wish Elrean didn't have crit against Merric. It makes rescue feel mandatory. Fe12 adds a sniper and 2 shaver users to prevent just throwing a flier in the center, but I think shaver having crit largely ruins this map. Ironman-ing would suck.
FE12 was definitely very aware of how the OG dragon pope would be able to break the map in two, although iirc it's still possible to nuke the Sniper and the Shaver Mages with a flyer squad at least on H1 and H2.
Honestly, FE12 looks like it would be a rough game to ironman from start to finish. Ambush spawns, very strong enemies in general, very strong enemies with crit rates on you, your own units being able to get themselves killed by critting the enemy... A lot of RNG and I don't know how much of it you can really mitigate.
39 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:He's not the kind to fall for NFT scams.
He's the one that came up with them.
I was trying to imply that he's trying to sell Marth on it.
But I assume that the biggest NFT gurusassholes would promise larger profit margins margins than 25% in a day.41 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:I do sort of like it in 12? The beginning is very intense, but you have Excalibur. It becomes a matter of trying to take down as many wyverns on EP as possible (and Etzel comes perfectly equipped to eat a breath of fire even on the highest difficulties) and then quickly nuking the rest before the next wave of wyverns arrives. Of course, once all the wyverns are gone, it becomes a walking simulator, but hey. Not the worst map in that game, which is rather impressive considering it's a giant rectangle of desert tiles.
I don't like it in 12, either, honestly. I find that desert maps are best when there's still some (useful) paths through the sand, so that the desert tiles still impede your progress, sure, but their bigger impact is how they limit your formations because you can't just move your horsies wherever you want. It works a bit better in GBAFE because there's still rescue/dropping to give you some more tools to overcome the low movement (Hot Take: Cecilia manages to be decently useful in her joining map through this alone). But the upcoming map, nevermind the Gaiden Desert Fort, those maps are just painful to navigate.
42 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:Glad you at least still have some shred of common sense.
I thought me finishing Gaiden would've proven that statement wrong.
25 minutes ago, BrightBow said:Or simply using Jeorge. With Feena he can easily kill both of them, then immediately get out of range.
Ah. I wasn't aware that he can move on water - Warren can't, and in my head, Hunters have the better movement type than both Archers and Snipers. But looking at the main site, the latter even have pretty generous movement across "stream" tiles.
29 minutes ago, BrightBow said:Well, if his invincibility is caused by mind control, it should be possible to arrange a scenario where he gets killed indirectly. Like when he happens to stand in a position where a big rock just so happens to fall down. That sort of thing.
True, traps prepared in advance should still work against Hardin (or Maph!Gharnef, for that matter), unless the Darksphere somehow manages to suppress any Hardin-killing thoughts thought anywhere in the world.
30 minutes ago, BrightBow said:Which is fair enough in concept, but the big reason it doesn't work here is because it's the wrong story for it. This conflict is not about humans and dragons, after all. It's strictly humans vs other humans.
If this happened as part of Book 1's plot, it would make more sense.I was thinking this before, but I don't think I formulated it - Book 2 feels more like a remake than a sequel at places. Like Kaga wanted to create a version of FE1 how it would look without the NES limitations - thus the many recycled characters and plot points. You still have the same origin of the conflict (Gharnef revives Medeuth), but there tend to be a bit more to the plot points along the way. Like, I'd have to look up who exactly administrated the occupation of Akaneia during Book 1, but now it's this former ally driven mad by grief (...and a big helping of black magic). Similar plot point of liberating the biggest power on the continent from evil tyranny, but the whole thing is more personal for the main character.
But in the end, we get this neither-fish-nor-fowl result where Book 2 is its own story, but highly derivative, which is (and that I did say before) even more painfully obvious because of the decision to include Book 1.
Er, and that relates to the quote because it feels like it's added to Book 2 because Kaga felt that it should've been in FE1, but it doesn't work the way it's done for the reasons you mentioned. Plus the part where Marth just doesn't have the time to just fuck off for a month or three, which makes Gotoh look really bad for insisting despite his teleport spell.
-
Ahh, too bad. Fun game tho, very close until ~5 minutes before the end. Better goalie on the German side, but France had the better defense as a whole.
Some surprising results elsewhere, too. Spain (silver two years ago, bronze in the World Cup last year) got kicked out by Austria. Norway ties against the Faeroe and loses to Slovenia, although they still move on to the second round.
-
FE3 Book 2 Chapter 10: The Two Mages
Spoiler
Under the ruling Pontifex are numerous high bishops, and the city is run with their co-operation. However, because Pontifex Gharnef joined forces with Dolhr, in the previous war, the city was dragged into conflict and destruction. After losing all the high bishops, Khadein was ruled by the newly elected Pontifex Wendell, who began the first steps along the road to reconstruction. But, Wendell, in order to complete his mission from Gotoh, left Khadein in the care of two youths. Merric and Arlen... They were both skilled youths, with high hopes placed on them.
I'd be very disappointed if somebody told me they were on a Mission from Go...toh.
: "I became Master's student before you, and I was stronger than you. Yet he gave Excalibur, which should have been mine, to you. Why, Merric? Is it because you're a noble of Altea? I was so angry. I believed I was going to be Master's successor..."
: "Is that it? I'm sorry, Arlen, I will apologise to you. However, I never once thought about succeeding Master. I don't hate Khadein, but I had already decided to return to my homeland upon finishing my studies. At Altea there is somebody that I wish to protect for my whole life... So, that's why Master Wendell's successor can only be you. Arlen, please! To reclaim Altea, will you lend me your strength?"
: "Altea!? The country that betrayed the Archanea Empire and, so, was invaded by them? Why should I help them? Our mage army has already sworn loyalty to Emperor Hardin. Right... So it was you... It was you who brought the Altean army here!"
: "No!! It's all a misunderstanding!"
: "Shut up, you traitor!! I'm not going to listen to your lies anymore! Will your Excalibur prevail, or will it be my Thoron? Come! Let us find out!"
I was going to commend Arlen for his anto-aristocratic ethos, but then he turns around and bends the knee to the Kaiser. Very disappointing.
The map is honestly a bit of a let-down after the previous ones, too. The enemies are all really weak, so this map mostly comes down to "click Rescue to keep both Merric and Arlen alive". Not very interesting. Some of the Mages do come with Elfire, so they're technically stronger than what we ran into outside in the desert - but they're still Lv.1 Mages and can be oneshot with as little as 18 Atk.
[HP 80% | Str 20% | Skl 50% | Spd 50% | Lck 50% | WLv 80% | Def 20%]
Merric returns with stat increases appropriate to his later joining time. In Book 1, he joined as a Lv.1 Mage, now he's 9 levels higher with +4 Str, +4 Spd, and +3 Def, which all seems adequate, though not incredibly strong at this point. Xcalibr obviously adds some punch, but he kinda pales compared to Linde's ability to Aura-bomb that much earlier in the game, or in our case even compared to Jubelo, who is starting this fight with a whopping +6 Str advantage.
That said, I know that we're going to see a bunch of Wyverns (the kind without a dude on their backs) in the upcoming fights, against which Merric will deal huge damage. I'm probably going to use him for that and then promote him come endgame to give him some extra utility when he's done de-kagaing Elice.
[HP 90% | Str 10% | Skl 30% | Spd 40% | Lck 10% | WLv 70% | Def 30%]
Arlen has exactly the same base stats as Merric, apart from +2 WLv, allowing him to use Thoron. But Merric makes up for that with his Xcalibr access, so Arlen's only real advantage is slightly higher HP/Def growth, which he pays for with slightly lower growths everywhere else (except for much worse Lck, but 6 base is decent enough).
Honestly, the main problem I see with Arlen is that he lacks Xcalibr to blow away Wyverns in the upcoming chapters, and a girlfriend that forces the player to deploy him on the final map. As a result, he has an even harder time than Merric to make a case for himself vs. all the other mages. I don't think he's bad - just not very exciting, stat-wise.
Oh, and of course he starts the map as an enemy; nominally even as the boss, although he'll start chasing after blue units immediately. But since the comparison between him and Merric so obvious, I thought I'd get ahead of myself a little.
Have we seen enemy Clerics before in FE3? I don't remember.
I remembered that not killing any of them results in a reward in FE12, so I followed the Geneva convention for a change, but as it turns out, that wasn't necessary here. Oh well, it's not like they give a significant amount of kill XP.
WARNING: Not Safe For Rubens
Spoiler
Marlicisheia was deployed.
Not sure how I feel about the entirely unreachable chests on this map. I guess it has an advantage over New Mystery in that, because you can't send Rickard on a 20-turn journey to open them, it's very clear that this is where you're supposed to use the Thief staff. And because you get that staff on the previous map, this is also soon enough to make it feel like an additional reward for killing the enemy carrying it.
The two Bishops directly above the starting location both carry Swarm tomes, so killing them early is very helpful. Marth can water-walk (one tile at a time, so he needed Feena's help) and one-round with Steel; Bantu can water-walk, but only in human form, so he has to move to the correct tile before using the Firestone.
The easier solution would've been to use Julian, who has +1 Str compared to Marth and can also water-walk, but using Bantu is obviously still the better option because you're using Bantu.
One problem: Arlen moves in a way that would allow him to attack Banutu on the next turn, and he one-rounds. As in, Banutu one-shots Arlen, obviously. So, Marth has to stay in range to make sure Arlen doesn't commit suicide by Dragon.
__
__
It's a close call, but Marth can do the distraction work without requiring a Physic. Risky business, of course, with the Killing Edge Merc attacking him twice.
The workload distribution: Yubello murders the left part of the map, with Arran hanging around in case he can steal some XP (well, he manages to get one kill). This does require a Physic use, but Yubello repays the investment by easily one-rounding every single enemy in the area. The right part of the map is shared between all the other characters.
__
Annoyingly, Arlen decides to walk the wrong way for a turn, even though Warren, Banutu, and Linde were just a single tile out of his range. Does he think that the Cleric is barring his way?
__
: "Arlen! What are you doing?!!"
: "Oh, Master Wendell... You've returned..."
: "You still don't understand my actions? You are indeed a talented magician. But you don't have a caring heart, and that is why I didn't pass on Excalibur to you."
: "... A caring heart...?"
: "Before, I had already decided that, when the time was right, you would become my successor. But what you're doing now is betraying your own will... How are you different from Gharnef?"
: "You're comparing me with the Dark Pontifex, Gharnef? Please, Master! That's too much."
: "Listen to me... Gharnef and Miloah were both Gotoh's most talented students. But Gotoh saw that Gharnef's inner heart was weak, so he gave the Aura and Khadein to Miloah. Driven mad by jealousy, Gharnef stole the Darksphere from Gotoh, and created the Imhullu spell. As a result... His heart was corrupted by the Darksphere. Originally Gharnef was a youth with a strong sense of justice. But his jealousy led him down the path of destructin. Arlen, do you understand now...?"
: "...Master..."
: "That is all I can say to you. I hope you will understand. You still have many things to learn, and your will is too weak. Do you really intend on retreading Gharnef's path?"
: "Master! I'm really sorry, I... see my wrongs. Please forgive me!"
: "Arlen, you should begin by letting your strength be used by others... Understood?"
"Surely, my student who is much like young Gharnef will not do what Gharnef would do in his position after I leave." - Wendell, probably
The delay doesn't end up mattering, though. The Cleric politely moves out of the way (probably because Arran chipped a Mage with the Levin Sword on the other side of the map) and Arlen manages to orient himself properly again. In the end, this doesn't even slow down the map...
__
__
...because not only does Julian still have to grab the other two chests (which also was slowed down by Arlen's wandering, of course), but there is also a very important Thief that spawns on turn 10.
The Silver Card is the reward that you get for keeping the Clerics alive in FE12. Here, you get it as a reward for killing yet another random passerby.
So yeah, this map will always take at least 11 turns if you want to grab all the things (and the Silver Card is a rather important thing).
"I have here a very post-modern artwork of a monkey that isn't very entertained. Only 20000 gold today. Tomorrow, it'll be worth at least 25k."
: "Ah, Gotoh! Yes, I can hear you... You're using the power of magic to talk to me, right?"
: "Yes... You summoned me? I will share with you my strength. What is it that you wish for?"
: "Gotoh! There's something I want you to tell me. Why was Hardin changed so suddenly? Also, what is the power that is protecting him?"
: "Hmm... that would be the Darksphere. The Darksphere is what's shielding Hardin..."
"I'd rather see you flee in terror from Hardin while your friends and family suffer. Hi-la-ri-ous. But alas..."
: "In this world, there exist 5 sacred Spheres containing mysterious power. Aside from the Light, Star and Geosphere that you have seen. There is also the Lifesphere and what is known as the... Darksphere. The Darksphere opposes the Lightsphere, and it can greatly increase the strength of one's mind. It can give its owner courage, release them from suffering, and increase their ambitions and wishes. And, during battles, it can control the enemy's mind as well and prevent them from moving. But, the Darksphere is too dangerous for humans to use. It will react with humans' anger, disdain and jealousy causing them to increase tenfold. Eventually it will destroy their soul and turn them into a monster. I don't know how Hardin obtained the Darksphere. But after that... His heart was consumed by darkness."
: "How could that... Why...? Hardin shouldn't be such a weak man. He should be happy for being able to marry his beloved Nyna. Why should he be jealous...?"
: "Your highness... Humans aren't simple creatures. But, regardless, as long as Hardin has the Darksphere you cannot win. The only thing that can defeat the Darksphere is the Lightsphere. If you want to defeat him, you must come to me to obtain it."
: "Huh? Gotoh, really? Wit hthe Lightsphere we can save Hardin...?"
: "Hmm... If his heart has not been completely consumed, perhaps he can be saved. But that depends on whether Hardin is really as strong-willed as you say..."
: "Thanks, Gotoh! Please allow me to borrow the Lightsphere."
: "Hmm, but I have one condition. If you can reach the Ice Dragon Shrine, where I am, I will hand over the Lightsphere to you. But, that won't be an easy task. There has only been one human that has ever made it here. That's right... The hero Anri. If you, like Anri, are a true hero, I will lend you the Sphere. Well, Marth. Do you have the courage to challenge Anri's Way?"
: "Yes! Of course! Please let me go there! I must obtain the Lightsphere!"
: "Then, first head directly north, across the Marmotord Desert, and then come to Thabes Tower. I will have somebody meet you there."
: "Okay, I understand. I'll be there for sure!!"
*sigh*
It's been brought up already, but the whole "test the hero if he's worthy" plot here doesn't work very well, unless it's supposed to make Gotoh look like a prick. People are dying, dude. Maybe don't send the guy who already proved his worth to you in the previous game on a week- if not month-long journey right now.
I also have to mention that Marth is still thick as a plank when it comes to romance. He knows that Nyna was very much into Camüh, so even though the guy is definitely very dead, it's not that big leap of logic to figure out that she might not be quite as much into Hardin. In line with his end-of-book-1 scene with Nyna and Sheeda, I suppose.
What I do appreciate is the set-up that Hardin might be able to be cured of his corruption because he's that superstrong ally of justice... for that (spoiler warning, I suppose) to be smacked down with the small exception of a short moment of clarity because nah, Hardin's a strong dude, but he's still just A Dude.
The Team:
Lv. HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res +XP Marth 9.41 28 10 10 12 11 9 9 0 +82 Arran 7.87 23 9 9 11 4 10 11 6 +42 Caeda 11.32 23 9 13 20 17 15 10 6 -- Warren 14.24 30 13 10 11 3 11 6 2 +104 Julian 9.48 22 10 9 16 9 8 7 0 +42 Banutu 4.99 25 2 9 5 1 2 3 1 +82 (+7 HP, +5 Skl) Wendell */9.13 27 5 6 13 4 12 5 6 +46 Linde 7.71 21 4 7 11 10 10 3 5 -- Jubelo 15.41 23 13 7 12 13 16 6 3 +192 Merric 10.64 22 5 6 10 6 10 7 3 +64 (base) Arlen 10.00 22 5 6 10 6 12 7 3 -- (base) Yuliya 11.04 18 7 8 9 15 12 3 6 +122 Marisha 3.38 17 2 1 6 12 5 1 5 +140 Phina 4.00 17 2 5 13 11 3 4 0 +80Answers!
Spoiler21 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:My pitch would be Caeda as the protagonist, ready for revenge after getting spurned by the heartless and power-hungry Dark Emperor Marth. Remix Book 1 a different way -Caeda fights off an invasion from Talys castle, Ogma shows up with the twins
reclassed asinstead of the axe bros, you fight the Wolfguard at Aurelis, Camus eagerly joins you to get his revenge on unfaithful Nyna...It would be a very different FE game, in which the protagonist can recruit literally every enemy in the game.
20 hours ago, Jotari said:Something that low-key bothers me about the Shadow Dragon flashbacks in New Mystery is that they always use Marth's New Mystery portrait. As if it's a retconned appearance and not just a new outfit. The Shadow Dragon portrait still exists, there's no reason not to use it.
To be fair, SD!Marth looks really derpy. I wouldn't be surprised if this was part of the decision.
14 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:Dahl is actually a bit of a meme in Japan and has appeared in a few hacks with the iconic death quote.
Understandable. I think he stands out because his death quote seems more unintentially funny (which my change would make worse, actually), compared to, say Batta the Beast or Mr Peerless Swordsplay, where their boasting and its contrast to their status as tutorial bosses seems much more like a deliberate joke.
15 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:The english Book, Legacy of Archanea, makes large changes to this so humans worship Naga to begin with as their only Goddess and Naga sends a giant warrior to help them instead of Naga being one of their many gods, Naga being considered male by the legend, and Naga appearing as a giant man.
Thoughts @ping. Personally I dislike it.Might've been an attempt to make the religion more monotheistic and thereby more christian-like, be it to avoid controversy or to make the religion seem more familiar to western audiences.
To be honest, I don't have very strong opinions here. As I alluded to earlier, I don't think that changes in localisation are inherently problematic, and the Akaneia lore is vague enough that I can't really tell which version I find stronger.
15 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:Also sorry I didn't respond to this sooner.
Hey, no worries. I'm happy about all responses no matter when they come.
-
21 hours ago, BrightBow said:
So did Maria hide his body the entire time or what?
Her dress probably has pockets and she just kept him in one of them19 hours ago, Jotari said:Yeah but that's standard fair for Avatars. People seem to treat it as uniquely sinful when it happens to Kris. At least Kris has the good sense to be awkward and humble about the universal acclaim.
Well, avatars are kinda lame. (in games with a story with virtually zero player agenda, such as Fire Emblem. They can work in games where you can actually make decisions that shape the world.)
19 hours ago, Jotari said:Nevertheless this map still annoys the hell out of me. A sit starts the grand trend of Book 2 reusing Book 1 maps. I was okay with the bride last time even before I learned it wasn't actually I'm Book 1. There it makes perfect sense, Marth is coming from the south so he crosses the choke point in reverse to the previous game. But here we have the exact same map. Why is Marth's approach to Kahdein the same as last time when he's coming from another direction? Just do what Sacred Stones did with Castle Renvall and shift the chapter over a few tiled to give a completely different feel.
A Shrine of Seals situation would've been cool, where you copy the central structure and its surroundings (the lake and the string of buildings make the area somewhat distinctive) and then create a map into another direction. Marth is coming from the west, so it would've made sense if the city had been in the top right of the map.
But really, the geography doesn't that well here just in general. Marth escapes via boat to the west of Raman, which means that he'd have to sail all the way around Grunia to get to Khadein, even passing Altea on the way there.
3 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:I don't remember it being implied that Hardin had any reason to believe that Nyna was into him. He's basically nonexistent in FE1/Book 1 after recruitment, but Nyna is one of the few characters that gets lines - most of them pining for Camus. To me, between books Hardin comes off as partially lovestruck over Nyna and partially hungry for power in the upgrade from King of Aurelis to Emperor of Archanea. But that's probably just headcanon, I don't know if any of that is backed up.
In FE11, Hardin is written to explicitly not be power-hungry:
QuoteHardin:
“I’ve left Princess Nyna someplace safe for now. We need to decide who will command here. I was hoping it would be you.”Marth:
“Me? But, Sir Hardin, you are far more qualified-“Hardin:
“Tsk, Princess Nyna would not be pleased to hear us nitpicking over who will be listed in the history books. Take command, so we can oust this Medonian scum and be done with it.”Pretty sure that you need to actively have them talk during the fight, though. I remember being rather confused that this random Cav apparently had had a big role in FE11 when a FE12 base convo flashbacks to that dialogue. But hey, he's only almost nonexistant in FE11"!
Can't really add much to the overall Hardin discussion that hasn't already been said, though. Friend-turned-enemy is a neat concept, but it doesn't really work when the friend wasn't one of the, what, three-and-a-half actual characters that FE1 has.
Bottom line, Marth should've married Nyna and become EVIL Marth, with Jubelo and Yumina as Book 2's protagonists. -
5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
I do wonder why Wendell cares so much about the perpetrator of this whole disaster that he can recruit him, but he doesn't give a crap about this other dude. Fuck him, he can die for all the popeman cares.
I was going to say, "Arlen has an cool anime boy portrait", but Yodel really wouldn't have looked out of place as a playable character, either. I guess when Jagen talks about "making sacrifices" in the opening dialogue, that's what he means. They're attacking us, we have no idea what the heck is going on, we need to fight our way through; the loss of innocent life is lamentable, but acceptable for the Greater Good.
Oh god, Jagen is American11 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:...Then again, that might be because I honestly don't think book 2 is all that either way. Might go as far as to call it one of the most boring, nothing stories in FE.
I don't know if I'm being unfair, but "FE1 with some extra window dressing" doesn't seem too far off to describe it. Book 2 literally revives the two main antagonists from FE1 / Book 1; you have to liberate Akaneia again, you have to liberate Altea again... You do things in a different order and with changed details, and of course the upcoming Anri's Way segment doesn't have an FE1 equivalent, but a lot of the basic ideas are still there.
Abducted girls, for exampleHonestly, the existence of Book 1 is odd, if you think about it like that, since it only makes that "same but different" nature of Book 2 only more apparent.
(And can I say that I prefer BinBla over Book 2 as an Akaneia derivative? Well, I have to say that, as a militant FE6 apologetist, but I really think that FE6 manages to be more deliberate with when it follows and when it breaks with precedent. Like with Perceval who is the Camüest of Camüses until he suddenly isn't; or how Idoun is built up to be this scary Medeus 2.0 until she's revealed to be just a girl who has been Kaga'ed.)
-
FE3 Book 2 Chapter 9: Sorceror Sactuary
Spoiler
He then waited for the rest of his troops to catch up.
The magic city, Khadein, is a sanctuary for mages. Many prospering mages go there to undergo vigorous training. The basis of Sorcery relies on sealing nature's hidden power into tomes and staves, and freely using those to harness great power. Hundreds of years ago, a sage created an academy here, and taught his life's teachings to people. However, originally designed to bring happiness to people, magic was used in conflicts, and was bought and sold in masses. The sage was disappointed, and disappeared without a trace.
"That sage's name...? Albert Einstein."
Oh.
But right now, those who can wield tomes and staves are limited to a few high bishops. But even they can only use weak Fire and Heal magic. Powerful magic like Aura cannot be created without the power of Spheres. Also, those who can wield such powerful magic are limited in number. This was chosen to be by the will of its creator. Magic city Khadein... A proud and almighty Sanctuary of Sorcery.
I'm suspecting an inaccuracy in the translation here - we have direct evidence that Bishops can absolutely use advanced magic such as Swarm and Physic, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese intro only says that very few High Bishops can create these advanced spells.
: "Hello generic bishop, I make spell that murders people."
: "Hello Cat-oh, I use spell to murder people."
: "YOU FUCKING WHAT MATE"
: "Minerva. If you wait in this village, you should be able to meet Marth. Although I don't like that boy, he is indeed of heroic calibre. You should aid him."
: "Brother, what are you going to do next? If possible, you should come with us..."
: "I don't plan on doing that. I just want to find Maria, and bring her back to Macedon."
: "Brother, you've changed... Or should I say, you've changed to how you used to be. So you truly were under the control of Gharnef's dark magic."
: "No, it wasn't that. Wanting to destroy that prideful Archanea, and allow Macedon to become the conqueror of this world, was my own idea. I originally planned to ally with Dolhr to destroy Archanea, and later join forces with Grust's Camus to defeat Dolhr. But father didn't agree with me, and finally he sent me away."
Yeah, good luck trying to make Camüh do anything even remotely intelligent.
: "So that's why you killed father? You idiot... Didn't you know that it was a trap set by Gharnef? Father was indeed very strict towards you. However that was because he loved you. Why didn't you understand?"
: That's enough, Minerva. I'm not stupid. When I was struck by your lance, I was just outside death's door. Later, when I found consciousness, in front of me I saw a crying Maria, praying to the deities. She saved me, by selflessly and tirelessly taking care of me, even though her face was completely in tears. I don't believe in deities, but at that time she turly looked like an angel. The way I treated Maria, and yet she still cried for me... Minerva, I must go. I must rescue Maria. That is the only thing I can do to repent!"
: "Michalis..."
Plot twist: Contrary to Misheil's delirious visions, Maria's reaction to his supposed death was more like, "Too bad, but he really had it coming" and she went on with her life.
Anyway, although I don't particularly like that Michalis is brought back for this redemption arc, I can appreciate that Kaga doesn't try playing the "he was controlled by Gharnef!!1!" card here. I almost always hate it when a villain gets that kind of excuse in a sequel. Give them proper motives and maybe even a sympathetic backstory, but let assholes be assholes, ffs.
: "Jagen, everybody appears to be safe. That's great to see."
: "But, your highness, what should we do next?"
: "Hmmm... I want to return to Altea, but if we don't defeat Hardin we won't be able to save it. What on earth should we do...?"
: "Please wait a second. I just received some news. .... What!? Your highness, there's trouble. Khadein's mage army has launched an attack at us. It seems Khadein has allied with the Empire."
: "Huh!? Even Khadein views us as enemies? What is Merric doing...?"
: "Your highness, we've got to do something. Even though we'll probably have to make some sacrifices, we should charge straight for the temple. If we don't hurry up, Archanea's pursuit squad will appear from behind and prevent us from moving."
: "I understand. There's no choice. Troops, charge into Khadein Temple, but try to avoid needless battles if possible!"
As if.
This is another scene where a third character would help its flow. Here, New Mystery actually uses Kris in such a fashion: Marth and Kris ponder over their next moves (while Kris is being aggressively boring as usual) and Jagen interrupts them with the news of Khadein's attack.
The map! It's another pretty good one, and probably one of the best desert maps in the series. Interestingly, the map is a bit different from Book 1: The village wasn't there before, and the designers took the opportunity to have the player start on that little island instead of the larger landmass south of it, and to simply cut off a few tile rows at the bottom. It's to the map's benefit, since it's one less 1-tile choke that you have to move your entire (non-flying) roster through.
What this map does better than Gaiden or the upcoming second desert map is that it's not just one big rectangle of sand slowing everything down. There's enough flat terrain that even some horsies can be of use at the start of the map, although they certainly take a while to get to the boss, if you want them to. And like in Book 1, you have your tools to deal with the map. Three flyers, two of them OP, and even if you didn't invest in Yubello, you'll always have Linde as an unimpeded hard-hitter against the Dracoknights in particular.
The boss hits hard, but is incredibly frail physically. Kinda similar to the boss of Pales, Akaneia in Book 1. He's flanked by two Swarm bishops, so you do have to be careful when you send in your boss killer.
The Wyverns are nothing we haven't seen before. Strong, bulky, but with very pronounced weaknesses.
__
__
Step one: Get two heavily starsharded levels on Catria and Sheeda.
Step two: Repeat double-effectiveness Angelic Robe shenanigans from Book 1. There may or may not be more efficient recipients for this, but this is clearly the correct use of the item.
__
__
Astria and his gang spawn on turn 7 on this map, immediately chasing after you. It's early enough that you have to worry about it, but it gives you enough room to be methodical about pulling enemy Dracos and Mages in small groups.
__
Eyy, one relevant stat proc! Just as many as he got during all of Book 1.
Two Thieves do get dangerously close to Minerva's village. But it turns out that if you move Marth his full movement every turn and add some Feena help on turn 1, he'll get there just barely in time, even if you don't have any flyers block the Thieves.
__
And after a while, all enemies between us and the boss are dead.
It's difficult to describe this in a highly dramatic fashion, since you do just repeat the steps (1) pull enemies (2) kill enemies a few times until you're done, but it does work well as a map in practice. To no small because it only took me around 25 maps (plus the... 7? I played previous to all this) to figure out that you can in fact check enemy ranges, or at least movement ranges - without that, I'd probably be a lot more annoyed by all those enemies with better movement than almost all of my own units.
__
Since she's quite bulky on the magic side and can tank a Swarm plus an attack from the boss, Catria removes the two Swarm Bishops from the picture.
: "You dare trespass this temple, unforgivable! Earth, punish them! Bolganone!"
Meanwhile, Minerva:
: "Huh!? Princess Minerva, what are you doing here?"
: "My brother... Michalis rescued me."
: "Really? That's great. When I heard that you were taken by Prince Michalis, I was very worried. But he actually saved you. I wonder what he's thinking."
: "Michalis's life was saved by Maria. Maria is a gentle child, unlike me... Even a man like him could be moved by Maria's gentle heart."
: "But, you also hoped for that, and that's why you didn't finish him off, right?"
: "Oh. ....."
: "I understand. The bond between siblings cannot be torn so easily. Princess Minerva, please look up. You don't need to worry about Macedon. I already left some trusted people to begin its reconstruction. I hope that you can fight together with us, like in the past. To crush Hardin's ambitions, I wish to borrow Macedon's and your strength."
To be honest, I always misread this part of the Macedonian Royal drama. Because Misheil saw Maria "praying to the gods", I read that as some mythical vision of his, not that Maria simply used her perfectly sciency magical healing staff.
[HP 40% | Str 30% | Skl 50% | Spd 40% | Lck 40% | WLv 70% | Def 20%]
Minerva prods some serious buttock. 13 Str is tied with Catria and Siriüh for highest on the team; 15 Spd is obviously perfectly good (even as Catria and Caeda both hit 20 during this fight), and 16 Def is just straight the best we have. Compared to Book 1, she gained [+4 Str | +3 Spd | +4 Def], plust some points in the less important stats, which is remarkable even against the general powercreep of Book 2.
Note to myself: It seems that Hidden treasure can only be found if there's room in the character's inventory for it. I had Julian stumble around that area for several turns, doubting my ability to read maps for a bit, but luckily had the brillian idea of having Linde take one of his weapons off him. Important information come the worse desert map.
__
: "Arlen... Is what we're doing really okay...?"
Boss kill: Well, as Yodel is so physically frail, it's only fair to let Yubello (...and Yumina for a Heal and some extra hit/avoid) face off against him. It takes two turns for Yubello to take the kill...
...during which Astria's squad arrives. A nice touch is that Astria is the furthest away between them, so a slower player will be harrassed first by the less dangerous (and recruitable) members of the group.
As you can see, they do get on your case a little bit; in particular if you don't rescue Marth over. Like on the previous map, the big threat feels pretty well-timed.
__
__
Aaand some XP collected. The sand slowing down movement obviously works both ways, so not everybody was able to get a safe(-ish; no dead Julian, luckily) attack in, but that seems decent enough.
: "Your highness, there's something strange about the temple's situation."
: "Hmm, you're right, something's definitely going on. Let's go, Jagen. I'm worried about Merric."
Short and sweet. It's not like there's much additional info between the start of the map and now, so I appreciate that.
The Team:
Lv. HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res +XP Marth 8.59 27 9 10 11 11 9 8 0 -- Matthis 11.40 25 11 11 11 2 11 9 1 +141 (+5 Skl) Cecille 12.41 23 11 10 16 11 14 8 1 +65 Minerva */8.10 25 13 9 15 7 14 16 0 +10 (base) Palla 13.74 27 11 14 17 9 13 10 7 +125 Catria 14.29 30 13 16 20 10 15 14 6 +237 Caeda 11.32 23 9 13 20 17 15 10 6 +155 Warren 13.20 30 12 10 11 2 10 6 1 +10 Julian 9.06 22 10 9 16 9 8 7 0 -- Rickard 3.09 18 6 3 9 1 6 3 0 -- Banutu 4.17 25 2 4 5 1 2 3 1 +117 (+7 HP) Wendell 8.67 26 5 5 13 4 11 5 6 +49 Jubelo 13.49 23 11 6 10 12 14 6 3 +343 Linde 7.71 21 4 7 11 10 10 3 5 +26 Yuliya 9.82 17 6 6 9 14 11 3 5 +158 Phina 3.20 17 1 4 12 10 2 3 0 +100- Another map with zero XP for Marth. I should probably try to change that in the future.
- And here I thought Catria was overpowered in New Mystery.
-
As far as stat boosters go, we have access to one Speedwing, one Manual, and one Secret Book, all of which increase their respective stat by +5. My ideas:
- +5 Skl for Banutu. Dude's never been the most reliable, at least offensively.
- Save the +5 Spd for Sheema. She'll need any help she can get, honestly.
- Honestly, I see no immediate need to use the Manual. Even Warren is pretty close to Parthia already, so I think I'll keep that one around for now. We'll need a staffer with 20 WLv for the Again staff, so it might be smart to hold on for it in case Yuliya's growth won't be agreeable.
17 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:Gee Marth, I don't know. Look into his eyes and tell me yourself.
Honestly, the complete lack of subtlety that Gharnef cast Dire Charm on Hardin is a bit disappointing. I suppose there was ambiguity about the nature of Hardin's sudden ruthlessness as long as he was off-screen, but you can see immediately after his appearance that there's some witchcraft involved.
17 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:...Also, this is one of the moments where I kinda agree that the Kris insert is kinda lame? It takes away from the army for Jagen to go "no problem, Kris is with them they'll make sure everyone gets out safely." But people also rather overblow how much emphasis is put on the army here. I mean, look at that line. Jagen basically just handwaves the possibility of someone falling behind and that's it.
Tbh, I still think Kris is kinda lame, pope hat notwithstanding. Maybe they would work as a minor character, as somebody for the sillier characters to bounce off of but... Taking this guy/gal with the charisma of ten bricks with a raw potato on top and declare him to be Mar-Mar's emotional crutch, both center and cornerstone of the world, everybody's best friend - that just doesn't work, in my opinion.
-
15 minutes ago, Yexin said:
but now I really want a "Fire Emblem - The Lord of the Rings Edition" game though
Finally a game where Archers are completely overpowered as long as they have pointy ears.
-
FE3 Book 2 Chapter 8: Soulful Bridge
Spoiler
...to escape.
However, after easily reaching the central islet, the Altean army was attacked by a new foe. "Archanea's army is approaching from the north. If this continues we'll become surrounded." There's no way to go! Can Marth and the others safely overcome this danger?
__
: "Mmm, I had to break through the enemy to get here. But, they have already secured the northern bridge now."
: "It doesn't matter. We'll crush them."
: "No, that's not possible. Hardin is being protected by a mysterious power. We can't touch him. Basically, if we fight now we can't hope to win. You should head towards the north western fort and escape by ship to the Khadein desert."
: "Your highness, the mercenaries towards the south are beginning to move out. This truly isn't the time to fight. We should do what Cain says, and escape to the Khadein desert. Afterwards, we can formulate a new plan..."
: "Really...? Even though it's regrettable, that's our only choice... Troops, we will march to the north western fort!"
Maybe I should leave Ruben some room to gush, but this is a good map. Like the previous one, it feels different - although obviously also different from the big Thief hunt. Instead of a bunch of weak enemies running away from you, this one has a small number of tough opponents that you have to punch your way through.
And because this fine gentleman starts moving on turn 6, there's also pressure on you to punch good fast.
This part works really well as escalating pressure on the player: First, reinforcements arrive from the forts in the south - not very tough, but in a constant stream. Then, the first enemies that will become an issue if you don't move fast enough are Astram and his crew, who this time will join Hardin's assault. And if you then still aren't getting Marth's butt to the throne, Hardin himself will arrive and start murdering.
__
I'm trying to remember - do the Generals move in FE12, too? When you move into their range, they do, yes, but I think they don't start the fight aggressive. Or maybe I'm once again exposing myself as a scrub because I'm thinking of some lower difficulty.
But anyway, they move here, with the exception of the one dropping a Manual, which does make the map more interesting. With the narrow bridge, you're not really in danger of being overwhelmed, but of course you need to make sure that you can kill them quickly, probably with magic or Armourslayers (which are buyable in the Armoury. Kaga is a merciful god, when he remembers to be).
This chapter's "boss" is Jeorge, but he can be recruited by Gordin. But for heartless players, he politely drops both his Starshard and the Parthia if you just go murderhobo.
__
Of course, between all the tough enemies, there's still two wimpy Thieves, which Cecille and Warren quickly dispose of. They're both loaded with Starshards, although Cecille still manages to limit herself to a HP/Skl/Lck/WLv level.
With Feena's help, Marth can reach the village on turn 2. By the way, the "village in the opposite direction" actually works better here than usual - it's not that far off, for starters; we finally have Feena to accelerate this kind of detour; and moving Marth fast is part of the challenge, so it feels less pointless than on other maps.
: "Oh, Prince Marth. It's been a while since we met. There seems to be some commotion outside. What's going on?"
: "Ah, Bantu! I didn't expect to meet you here. How is Tiki?"
: "That child isnt with me anymore. Gotoh took her back to the Ice Dragon Shrine."
: "Ice Dragon Shrine? What kind of place is it? I've never heard of it."
: "It's located in the northern icelands. However no normal person can reach there. Besides the hero Anri, no human has ever visited it."
: "Anri!? Then, could that place be the "Realm of the Gods" as described in the legends of Anri?"
: "I've said all that I can say. If you want to learn more, you'll have to ask Gotoh."
"Aw, but he's a prick. And constantly trying to sell me Enefties, whatever those are."
: "Actually, could you listen to a request of mine? My precious Firestone was stolen by thieves. If youo can recover it for me, I will help you as best as I can. Thank you, Prince Marth."
One FireStn? Ha! We have two! (although Warren still carries the second one)
__
For a good while, I try to dance around the range of the Sniper next Jeorge - only to figure out that he doesn't move. Maybe (probably) on turn 6, once everybody else charges at you, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
__
A start! Arran would really appreciate any point of Spd he can get, but I'll never complain about a Str/Def level.
__
__
Since the General with the Manual doesn't move, Catria and Sheeda (both armed with Armourslayers) come to him. As long as you get to him before turn 6, you can attack him without stepping into Hardin's range. Catria's crit makes Sheeda's presence unnessecary, so she rejoins the main group.
Reinforcements are three Knights and a Mage every turn, although the Knights start very far back.
And this is when I realise that the Sniper doesn't move and I didn't need to be nearly as careful as I was. Whoops.
__
But although Gordin was just one tile short to recruit Jeorge here, the overall timing works out pretty well. This way, we get some more dialogue (plus, Marth himself wasn't quite in range of the throne, either):
: "Hahaha... Prince Marth, it's been a while."
: "Hardin... Why did you attack my country? Why did you do it? Even now I am still in disbelief. Have you really changed?"
: "Your highness, I am the Emperor of Archanea, ruler of this world. I cannot allow those who oppose me to go unpunished. And that includes you, Prince Marth... This disgusting world must be destroyed... Everything in it is a mistake. Rebels, this game is over. You will all die here. Troops, charge! Slay the traitors without remorse!"
__
And so they do. Or try, I guess. Except for Jeorge. That would've been a nasty surprise.
No, Marth can't recruit him.
: "Mister Jeorge! Please wait a second!"
: "Huh? ...Gordin? Long time no see. You appear stronger, but has your archery improved?"
: "Yes, right now... I am recognised as the finest archer of Altea. It was all thanks to you, Mister Jeorge, that I could become this strong."
: "So? Did you come all the way here so that you could duel with me?"
: "Wh-what? Of course not! This might sound silly but... Can you come along with us again?"
: "....."
: "Please! Mister Jeorge!!"
: "I already swore an oath to Nyna, but I can't stand Hardin. He used his might to threaten other countries, and executed anybody who opposed him without question. Archanea's army right now is just a bunch of paid savages with no dignity of a knight. I will draw my bow against my own country, to bring back to Kingdom of Archanea of old. Gordin, I hope you can pass on my thoughts to Prince Marth."
: "Thank you, Mister Jeorge!!"
Can't help but point out that Sheeda would've managed more convincing recruitment speech than "Pweease? Pwetty pweeeeeease?"
[HP 60% | Str 20% | Skl 10% | Spd 20% | Lck 10% | WLv 50% | Def 10%]
So, here he is, after the blue paint is applied. His growth rates are just as bad as they were in Book 1, but he got a few significant base stat boosts, specifically +3 Str and more than enough WLv to use Parthia at base. I dunno, I can't think of yet another way of saying "stronger, but so is everybody else, so he feels pretty similar to Book 1". Good filler, especially if you're not training up a bow user - right now, his combat is comparable to Warren's (less Str, more Spd), except that he can also swap to the Parthia if needed.
That reminds me... Aren't I forgetting somebody?
[HP 60% | Str 30% | Skl 60% | Spd 60% | Lck 50% | WLv 60% | Def 20%]
I do! Cain is back! And as you can see, he even did a tiny amount of work this map - countering the two Paladins on the first enemy phase of the fight.
Growth-wise, the only change is a reduced WLv growth (from 90 to 60%), but obviously, Cain is quite the different character, now that he joins roughly one third into the game.
He still seems fairly good, though. Offensively, he's very similar to Matthis (note that we're talking a Matthis after 3 Str and 2 Spd procs) and [26 HP | 10 Def] is very respectable as far as defensive bases go. I'm not going to use him since we already have a lot of horses on our team (Cecille, Matthis, Arran, Sirius), but he looks like a good pick, especially if you didn't invest in any Cavs from Ch.1.
__
Well, after that, there's only some XP grabbing left to do. Not a whole lot, I probably could've positioned myself better, but I don't feel too bad about the clear, even though the overall XP gain isn't quite as high as last map.
Very disappointed in
my maths abilitiesMatthis's insistence on not gaining a level after I made sure he was carrying all the Starshards he'd ever want.
: "But, everybody is still fighting. I can't just leave them."
: "Don't worry. They will all escape safely. We will all meet up at Khadein. Well, your highness, please get onboard the ship!"
...yeah, Kaga is definitely cooking up Thracia escape maps as he's writing this dialogue.
The Team:
Lv. HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res +XP Marth 8.59 27 9 10 11 11 9 8 0 -- Arran */7.45 23 9 9 11 4 10 11 6 +85 Sirius */8.50 28 13 12 16 2 14 12 6 +20 Matthis 9.99 24 10 9 9 2 11 9 1 +74 Cecille 11.76 22 10 9 15 10 13 8 1 +82 Cain 9.14 26 10 8 9 4 8 10 0 +14 (base) Caeda 9.67 21 9 11 19 16 14 9 6 +45 Catria 11.92 27 10 13 17 9 14 12 6 +90 Julian 9.06 22 10 9 16 9 8 7 0 -- Warren 13.10 30 12 10 11 2 10 6 1 +122 Jeorge */5.00 27 10 11 13 4 15 10 3 -- (base) Gordin 7.78 22 7 7 6 5 8 8 0 -- Bantu 3.10 18 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 +10 (base) Wendell */8.18 26 5 5 13 4 11 5 6 +59 Jubelo 10.06 22 8 6 9 11 12 4 3 +100 Linde 7.45 21 4 7 11 10 10 3 5 +55 Yuliya 8.24 17 5 6 8 14 10 3 5 +70 Phina 2.20 16 1 3 11 9 2 2 0 +70- Unfortunately, Wendell got a Starshard-less first level-up and gained only a point of WLv.
- Second map in a row where Marth didn't gain any XP. Like in the DS games, it really doesn't help him that he has to grab all the villages (although the previous map, that was not the problem).
- It's not as impressive as when Darros did it, since he's been making use of Libra very consistenly, but Warren's Spd is coming along very nicely.
12 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:I should play this map again.
I feel tanks like Sirius, Palla and Draug would help alot in dealing with the reinforcements, especially if they have a good position.
I think it's very helpful if you have enough potential tanks to rotate them a bit, and probably a few Vulns to pass around. Part of the problem is that two of the enemy spawns (a Jav Soldier and an Archer) have 2-range, so you generally can't have your healer heal whoever is currently choking the point.
12 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:Fair point, but I feel Samto is the first whom is actually an intentional pure joke stat-wise if you know what I mean?
Kind of. Samto might be the first character who combines a funny recruitment with deliberately bad stats. You could count Matthis, but he isn't really worse than Biraku and (FE1!)Roshe. Rickard is weaker than Julian, but that doesn't really matter for a thief (and it isn't connected to the recruitment convo). Mishelan has funny bad stats and a funny portrait, but doesn't have any opportunity to have a funny conversation with anybody. Roger has the funny recruitment, but his stats are actually a slight upgrade to DOGA's bases.
-
6 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:
Inca ought to work well in snow compared to everyone else. Or tundra and dry desert, extra food can salvage the poor terrain.
Well, Ollantaytambo just had a high enough number of good tiles on its own. Five sea resources (six after unlocking oil), a Salt tile, 2x Deer, 1x Sheep, 1x fresh water hill. That's already 10 tiles with 2+ food and generally good yealds. Huamanga (the Petra city that couldn't) is a prime example of a basically Inca-exclusive settle. Any other civ would've had 4 2f/2p tiles; Pachacuti adds 3x 3f/2p and one 5f/2p, 6f/2p and 7f/2p, each.
12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:I don't like warring in part because you're constantly rushing the clock with most of them in Civ5. China NEEDS to get to its Chu-ko-nus ASAP! And with the shift from Xbows to Artillery, from Arty to Bombers, that means anyone who wars is on some kind of crunch to take cities before shifting the composition of their army becomes necessary. I don't like that pressure.
Considering the Mongols have only the worthless CS bonus once Cavalry become Landships (I don't think the mounted movement transfers to armored units), they're on a time limit more than any other warmonger, perhaps.
Going Machinery before Education is a pretty heavy investment for China (and England) specifically, yeah. But at least their X-bows can last them really long, since Chu-ko-nus get +1 range much faster because they can gain XP twice per round, and Longbows just get it for free (although they take longer to get Logistics than Chu-ko-nus to get range). Both great to outrange cities as long as X-bows are still passable, and to create Gatlings that are actually useful.
Mongols do at least have their poor man's Camels (and, no offense to the Arabs, it's a travesty that the Mongols don't have the best shoot-and-run unit in the game). But they really do feel like a shitty Arabia, +1 Movement on their horsies or no. Weaker unique unit, and Arabia also has some economic bonuses to fall back on.
-
-
I think I should pop my Golden Ages a bit more aggressively.
I should be disappointed that I didn't find this beatiful spot early enough to prevent Arabia from ruining my Petra dreams, but I can't be mad at a city of this caliber. Still, imagine...
The entire Incan realm. I still love how the snow-settled city is a genuinely great expansion.
It's not a good day to be Genghis. A nice demonstration of what happens to a warmonger civ if they can't find an early victim. Genghis even managed to fail three times at capturing a city state, with two of the attempts directed at a very close city with basically no defensible terrain.
-
7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
No stranger? He loves it. It makes his filthy traditional monarchist peepee positively ecstatic. I swear there's like 30 "special blood" moments between the two Vestarias.
And there's a certain upcoming game in which I hear the lineage of some people in a crusade plays an important role, and all the nobles are, in a very concrete sense, superior to the peasant rabble.
-
23 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Divided the two sides of her character between the two, too. One for the whole "ditzy dancer" shtick, and the other for the "endless exposition" part.
...Three characters! (I was actually thinking of Clarine, since her shtick with Rutger is 1:1 lifted from Feena and Nabarl. Their support even has the "you'd be handsome if you dressed more nicely" part)
25 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:Kaga went on record saying it was meant to imply as much lol
I shouldn't be surprised
It's not like Kaga was a stranger to the whole "special blood" idea.
29 minutes ago, BrightBow said:You would think that someone who supposedly has quite the reputation could find some better paying clients.
Granted, I can see that Nabarl wouldn't work for Lang, considering that guy is really big on that whole "hurting women and children" thing.
Although Nabarl had no problems hunting down Feena, just like Lena. He only changed his mind when Feena acted the same as Shiida did and invited Nabarl to kill her. So maybe this kind of phrase just works like some kind of magic spell on the guy, rather than the change of heart being the result of a genuine moral conviction.
I mean, that whole "I won't harm a women but I will happily aid those who will" stick just doesn't feel very convincing.
You could maybe fill out the gaps in this chapter's background and assume that the plundering of the temple was promising to be highly lucrative, which is why they could get Nabarl to join them.
The interaction with Feena could've been more consistent with his "no hurt the girl" moral dogma if she had gone, "I won't go back to the bandits, stay back, I have a knife" - close enough to Sheeda's gambit in FE1.
-
2 hours ago, Armagon said:
Zephiel did plan on killing himself when all was said and done though. Unlike Manfroy, Jedah or Gwen Nachos, he wasn't under some delusion of grandeur.
So, SuicideCult-kun? -
FE3 Book 2 Chapter 7: Scarlet Swordsman
Spoiler
However the ancient temple, built to worship Naga, was wrecked by constant warring and has now become a thieves' hideout. "They're escaping with the temple's valuable treasures. We mustn't let them take them away. We must recover them!!"
"So that WE can take them away, which is a very different thing."
"We mustn't attract the attention of the soldiers guarding Chiasmir Bridge. We don't stand a chance of winning, so don't approach at all costs."
"Also it seems there's a travelling child dancer who's lost her way in the forests. We must rescue her before she gets ambushed by the thieves!"After the troops received their orders, they surrounded The Fane of Raman. THe flame of a new battle was about to ignite.
(yeah, there's three separate quotes in this opening sequence)
: "Huff, huff... Please... Help... Those thieves... are going to..."
: "....."
: "Why... Why... Aren't you saying anything? Oh, could it be!? You are... one of them? I understand... You can do as you please! If you must kill, then kill me!!"
: "Miss... Follow me. The Altean army is approaching from the south of this forest. I will take you to them..."
: "Huh, why are you helping me? Aren't you a thief as well?"
: "I was until now. But, I've changed my mind."
: "Why...?"
: "Within the Altean army there is somebody I want to see, that's all..."
: "Huh... But, in reality it's because I'm cute, right? But, that's alright. My name is Phina. I'm a dancer from Warren. Just seeing me dance will raise peoples' spirits. I'll show you as well. Oh, that's right. I was following a performing company, but I lost my way in the forests. And then I was ambushed by thieves... But this is great. Even though you look frightful, you're really a gentle guy. However, you appearance is... Your face isn't too bad, but your fashion sense is so and so. Also there's that hair. Does anybody have hair like that these days...?"
: "Enough! Have you finished yet!? Anyway, just don't leave my side. We'll head through the passageway towards the west and make our escape. If you don't want to die, then be quiet!!"
: "Ah... Ye-yes. I'm sorry..."
Apparently, Phina was so popular that they turned her into two characters in Binding Blade.
Enemy variety: The map.
It's not so much a fight and more of a duck hunt. All thieves that drop some piece of treasure, which is 6 out of the 15 (not counting the boss), will run towards the bridge instead of fight, so you have to make sure to catch them before they get out of range.
However, Navarre completely destroys them - he doubles and takes very little damage in return, so all this crit did was save a Killing Edge use. So even though the two thieves closest to the bridge carry loot, it's not a problem at all to intercept them all. Much easier than FE12, where I believe Nabarl might not even double on H1, but I might be wrong about that.
In any case - this map feels different than previous ones, which is good, but it's really not very challenging. Like on the previous map, reinforcements provide a bit more of a challenge, but even those don't actually feel as pressuring here.
__
Astram and his squad are obviously very strong. 31 Atk will two-shot everything, and 13 AS will double a lot, but even the generic heroes don't mess around. Two or three of them wouldn't be too bad, but eight at once will fuck you up pretty bad.
Of course, the game is pretty vocal that you're not supposed to fight them at all. They will only aggro if you go inside a rectangle that goes one tile below the three forts and two tiles to the right of the single one. Marth will have to move through the forest a little bit as a result, but it's not too bad.
Our new recruits:
[HP 90% | St 50% | Skl 40% | Spd 50% | Lck 60% | WLv 30% | Def 20%]
Navarre lost one point of Lck between books. Gasp! But really, I think he's the most improved character we've gotten since the Whitewings: +4 Str and +5 Spd are rather incredible gains. Overall, he seems to be easily the best of the three Mercs, after Ogma at least had higher base stats over him in Book 1. He can honestly hang with Palla and Catria as far as stats go, although it should be noted that they didn't gain as much XP as I assume would be "efficient". Still, excellent character, with not much investment needed as he's only two levels from promotion.
[HP 40% | Str 60% | Skl 70% | Spd 80% | Lck 70% | WLv 80% | Def 20%]
Funny low bases outside of her Spd/Lck, funny high growths. Dancer/10.
I think her ability to use a Rapier has been seen as indication that she's nobility of some sort, although I daresay that "fighting with a Rapier has some dancer-like quality" works just as well as an explanation. I'll admit that I'm biased against the "special guy can use special sword because he's so especially special" trope, though.
[HP 60% | Str 10% | Skl 30% | Spd 20% | Lck 40% | WLv 70% | Def 10%]
Honestly, considering how low his growths are overall, Wendell's stat increase is looking pretty good, too, most notably +2 Str and +4 HP. I wouldn't say he stands out any more than he did in Book 1, since the powerlevel in general is higher than it was, but it's still nice to get a staff user with 5 Mag for free. Yuliya isn't even quite there yet herself.
General strategy: The Pegasi fly up and grab some kills, since I don't plan on using Nabarl long-term and Thieves are worth a whopping 40 XP, while everybody else marches along the road until they (or at least Marth) gets pushed into the forest by Astram's danger zone.
__
Navarre still grabs 5 kills, but Caeda comes out of the chapter with the most XP gained.
But wait, what's that?!
__
Gasp!
The FireDrgn spawns if you move close-ish to the cave at the western edge of the map. Can be a nasty surprise, since it's an ambush spawn, but 20 Atk doesn't one-shot too many characters.
__
Although base Linde would've been one of them.
Honestly, Linde gaining +1 HP some time between her recruitment and the previous map is turning out to be far more impactful than one would think. The kill goes to Cecille, who can avoid a counter using a Silver Lance.
Reinforcements on this map are three Knights plus one Mage spawning from the forts. Warren can easily dispose of the latter immediately when they spawn, while the Knights are taken down by a group effort.
Oh, I also need to mention that somebody learned to read, which will hopefully result in less disappointment for everybody. Base accuracy in FE3 is actually 2xSkl, so the SecretBook is genuinely a really good stat booster.
__
The boss is very weak. I even forgot to take a screenshot of his stats, but 4 Def should tell you all you need. He's getting one-rounded by Sheeda with an Iron Lance here, who admittedly makes him look even more pathetic thanks to the Pegasus Knight class's base Res.
:: "Stealing what rightfully belongs to us thieves. To think there could be such people in this world... You lot are monsters!"
: "Murderer."
There is comedy in his laconic death quote. I propose to change it to "Rude." to maybe increase the effect further.
__
__
With a dance from Phina, Marth is able to seize one turn later, which will be t.6. On that same turn, there's still a little XP to be had. (Note: Three hurrays for Libra. Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!)
This kill wasn't planned, but is certainly welcome...
__
__
...especially because the kill that was planned still comes to pass on another Hero. Caeda might be carrying a few Starshards here.
And Jubelo not, unfortunately. Oh well, he had more success last map.
: "Your highness, we've finally got rid of the thieves, but the temple has been completely wrecked by them and there's nothing left there."
: "Really, even the Fane of Raman has been reduced to ruins? This is a frightful age we're in."
: "Yes, I bet even the Guardian God Naga is furious. It's as if we're headed towards the ruin of this world."
...honestly, I know that Wendell brought up Armageddon after the last fight, but Jagen still seems to overreact a little here. What's a little graverobbing between friends?
: "Jagen, you know of the tales of Naga? Can you tell me what you know of them?"
: "Yes, but I only know a little... This occured almost a thousand years ago. Back then there were no kingdoms in this continent, and people lived separately in small villages. At that time there existed frightful monsters, which would occasionally attack humans. At one stage, only around 10,000 humans remained and mankind was nearing extinction. It was said that the surviving humans prayed to the deities for help. The deities answered their wishes and sent a gigantic warrior to the earth. The warrior held in his right hand a sword of light. In his left hand was a shield encrusted with five jewels. After many violent battles, the monsters were defeated and the warrior returned to the heavens... That warrior was the Guardian God Naga, who was worshipped in this very temple."
: "You highness, you should know that line from the first chapter of the Raman Bible."
: "Hmm, I have heard that before. The tales of Naga..."
: "Your highness, we must cross Chiasmir Bridge next. If we don't hurry, the enemy will gain full control of it and we won't be able to cross."
: "Hmm, that's true. That bridge could become very dangerous. Okay, tell all the troups that we're going to break across Chiasmir Bridge, and make sure that nobody falls behind!"
You can basically hear the gears in Kaga's brain turning in that last half-sentence. Although I guess it'll take two games until he has his eureka.
Also, I have to say that this is an instance where a third character could actually improve the flow of the dialogue. The change of topic to Chiasmir Bridge is very abrupt and à propos de rien, so I think it would help if there was a third character that would interrupt the mythology lesson to bring urgent news.
Not that Kris does that in FE12. They just "No, not really" when asked if they know anything about Naga, and "Yes sir!" to close the dialogue. What a great addition to the game.
(That said, this is the point where they're allowed to don a pope hat, so not all is bad)
The Team:
Lv. HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res +XP Marth 8.59 27 9 10 11 11 9 8 0 -- Arran */6.60 22 8 9 11 4 10 10 6 +84 Sirius */8.30 28 13 12 16 2 14 12 6 +42 Cecille 10.94 21 10 8 15 9 12 8 1 +60 Matthis 9.25 24 10 9 9 2 11 9 1 +47 (+5 Skl) Palla 12.49 26 10 13 16 9 12 9 6 +10 Catria 11.02 27 10 13 17 9 14 12 6 +160 Caeda 9.22 21 9 11 19 16 14 9 6 +355 Ogma 8.64 26 8 14 15 5 9 9 0 -- Navarre 10.00 25 10 17 17 8 12 8 1 +200 Julian 9.06 22 10 9 16 9 8 7 0 -- Warren 11.88 29 11 9 9 2 9 5 1 +128 Wendell */7.59 26 5 5 13 4 10 5 6 +59 (base) Jubelo 9.06 21 7 6 8 11 12 3 3 +64 Linde 6.90 21 3 7 10 10 9 2 4 +42 Yuliya 7.54 17 4 6 7 14 10 2 5 +48 Phina 1.50 16 1 2 10 8 1 2 0 +50 (base)- Despite missing out on the previous map, Catria is getting out of control. +2 Str and +2 Def in the two levels she got this map.
- Like Matthis, Warren also got a +Spd level, likely thanks to Libra. Very nice.
8 hours ago, Jotari said:I bet it was a nice surprise for those Old Mystery lovers to play New Mystery where the game gives you big warning about those reinforcements only for the first wave to be Norne and Frey, characters the first wave of players probably didn't expect to be in the game at all.
Honestly, one of the more well-integrated added/returning characters in New Mystery. Certainly better than the random villages the Axe Bros were shoved into. I always appreciate when there's a warning just before you're hit with ambush reinforcements, and it's a nice touch to have that warning come from allies who are specifically rushing towards you to warn you from them.
-
10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:
You don't have to. A little "war", even without conquest, is an option. Just keep taking and deleting her missionaries, and you'll be of good luck if she sends a full charge prophet which you could then plant for a nondenominational Holy Site. -But then you'll be unable to peace out for like ever with her then.
Well, the point has become moot, since Theodora didn't even get a religion.
She got beaten, in that order, by Ramses (peak wonderwhoring, he got both Great Library and Stonehenge), Harun, myself, and Ahmad. Happens when Byz doesn't pick a faith patheon, I guess, and three of the other AIs go Piety.
-
4 hours ago, Jotari said:
Looking at the maps, I think the original intention actually was for it to be the castle Camus and Lorenz were guarding. As it actually is in the exact same place on the map on the SNES. It's the DS remake that moved it to a slightly different position and called the Shadow Dragon castle the Grusthold while this castle was always Olbern Keep. So it's the remaker's fault 😠 (also yes, I did go and look it up, and yes, I was right that it was something starting with an 'O'). Still, not as big a fuck up as their accidental movement of Port Warren in Shadow Dragon, which makes Marth's invasion of Pyrathi even worse.
Hmm, I don't know. The terrain of B.1/Ch.16 is completely different than that of B.2/Ch.5 - the castle's position is defensible because it's surrounded by mountains on three sides, not on a peninsula like in B.2.
18 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:A friend of mine had tons of trouble with this chapter and its reinforcements.
Well, so did MatthisNot surprising, honestly. With reinforcements spawning turn after turn after turn, there's always the issue that you can't fight one wave without allowing the next one to attack a (probably weakened) character on enemy phase, and chances are that your healer can't heal without also getting in range (or spend a precious Physic charge, if you even got it on the previous map). It's easy to get worn down in this situation. Heck, I seized quickly just to avoid the headache of rotating the frontliners against the reinforcements properly with only a single healer (who, btw, did eat one Javelin, so she had to be really careful, too) around to restore them.
23 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:Would it be fair to describe Samto/Samuel as FE's first joke character?
I think you could make a point for some of the FE1 characters, too:
- Matthis - his recruitment has him basically say, "eh, I suck, so I'm going to die anyway", and the "fall in love with a thief" may or may not be intended to make him look clueless.
-
Rickard -
goodol' "them funny gays" trope. I didn't mention it, but Book 2 even plays goofy music when he's recruited, so it's not a wild assumption to make that Rickard hitting on Julian is supposed to be a funni. - Roger - changes sides because Sheeda's non-commital (and entirely disingenuous) flirting.
- Dolph and Mishelan - I mean, look at their portraits, and their stats considering their joining time.
32 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:Maybe the speed penalty is why more bosses don't care javelins in FE3, whom knows really?
Damned if they don't, damned if they do, really. With a Silver Lance, Linde could just chip him down at her leasure. Lang at least has the attack power to one-shot base Linde (20 HP | 2 Def), so it's possible that you don't even have that option.
To Become an Elitist [Playlogs FE1-5] [currently playing: Thracia 776]
in NES and SNES Era
Posted
Comparable to not knowing your country's head of government during WW1, I suppose. Well, Spain kept out of it, but I think most people will be able to name at least Wilson, Willie II. , and Nicky the last. Don't ask me to name every French Premier during the war, though.
It's a very 90s / early 2000s thing, these very hidden goodies. To encourage exploration or to sell strategy guides, depending on your level of cynicism. Some Baldur's Gate examples because I already have them uploaded:
(diamond, $$$)
(magic ring, rare (at least this early in the game))
('nother magic ring, one of the best in the game, on the map that's probably the third you're going to visit)
(2nd best armour in the game, with a way less restrictive Strength requirement than the best)
Here's the thing: That neat blue silhouette showing the treasure? That's an addition by the Enhanced Edition. In OG Baldur's gate, you'd have to scan literally the entire map pixel by pixel and see where the cursor changes in order to find these goodies.
"OK, so why did you think it was a good idea to instigate this while transformed into a pre-school girl...?"
Greetings, fellow Blurple noCB-er.
Jokes aside, I do like that idea. Messes with the whole Roman theme that the family had going on, but that would be a nice way to combine the parents' families' naming schemes.
I almost forgot about that (until I saw it referenced in the timeline), but I do like that detail. Could have been used to wax philosophical about the nature of royalty a bit, along the lines of "from where it came shows that kings are no better than any peasant, but from what it is now still comes this resposibility". Seems like something an official FE12 localisation could've had some fun with.
Well, Wyvern Rider/Lord transitioned into an Axe Class starting in Tellius. Axes instead of Swords as the secondary weapon type in PoR, then Axes as the primary weapon type in RD, then back to secondary in DSFE, and I think it's been primary ever since.
Goodness, they're not a good class for once (iirc, elitists don't like them because they can't use roads, right?) and you still don't use them?