ping

April 10

8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I do prefer his face. Instead of generic-ass anime teen, he's a squinty boy, which is slightly less generic-ass.

He's probably the son of one of the constipated bossmen. I realise that Asaello's eyes aren't quite Brock-levels of squint, but maybe that's what you get when you mix those genes with those of your average big-ol'-eyeballs anime girl.

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

People still love Travant. Which, I mean, can't really blame 'em for it. Travant's miles ahead of basically every other gen 2 villain by having a semblance of a personality and a few grey undertones.

People will also either ignore or rationalise any degree of puppy-kicking and baby-stabbing as long as the villain is cool enough. Some people will say that the Joker has a point (truly, we live in a society). Name any fascist organisation in a post-apocalyptic setting and you'll find somebody writing an essay why they're actually most moral faction (you see, in a world with extremely limited resources, slavery is prefe--).

I'll say that I do like Travant because of the reasons you said. It's nice to have a villain with somewhat grounded ambitions in a story where the villain is literally satan. And despite what he says in this chapter, he didn't even stab baby Altena when he was given the chance. But he really feels like his most interesting conflict was that with the Empire, which hardly comes into play in the actual plot. Sure, he's being opportunistic, but we're just going from fighting the Empire to fighting Trabant. There's no exciting fight between three factions, trying to play one enemy against the other.

April 10

51 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Did you even really know her? Did Cuan invite you to their wedding or something?

41 minutes ago, Revier said:

In fairness, he's not too far off from where they live, I could imagine him having interacted with her during some casual meetings and such. But the game is hellbent on painting the Leonster family and the Thracians as sworn enemies, so this just looks weird as fuck lol.

I wonder if Arion even knows that Altena isn't his biological sister. My initial interpretation of Trabant's line was that he is misdirecting Arion in that scene, because Arion, as he is presented thus far, would be likely to tell Altena if he knew the truth.

No need to spoil that, though - I'm sure it'll come up when the two interact after Altena's recruitement. I do remember that she can talk to Arion, and I think I remember that she can paint him green, but not blue.

58 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Admittedly said advantage mostly amounts to a useless luck stat and an even more useless magic stat.

Well, that and a certain 30 Mt (effectively 40) weapon. I know that Yewfelle vs. Brave Bow vs. Killer Bow is more situational than just "legendary weapon go brr", but Yewfelle's Big Numbers is the only nice thing that Faval has over Lester, or even Deimne. You even get the Brave Bow and Killer Bow in (or at least at the end) of this chapter if gen 2 didn't inherit them.

April 10

44 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I like how you have a song for every random expression.

To be transparent, I used that one before. "Rumor has it" is just very noticable for me because the refrain of that song is quite catchy.

(And Everlong was a song for the entire fucking "badass rescues swooning damsel all badass-like" trope, because its music video is a really funny version of that)

47 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Meanwhile, Asaello has accost at base.

...I don't think it does much to keep him from been godawful.

Don't be so hard on him. Asaello also has higher Str than Feval (12+40% vs. 10+25%). The boy is trying his best to overcome the nepo advantage that Feval has.

49 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I think he has a convo with Leif but it's only in the previous chapter, for some reason. Did you get it? I wanna say no but I might be misremembering.

Ah.

Quote

Fighting Bloom

Bloom: Ha! So long as I wield the Book of Mjölnir, what reason would I ever have to fear the likes of you?

With Arthur

Bloom: And what are you? Wait... could it be...?
Arthur: Bloom! I've waited years for this moment! You took my mother and sister from me, and today you'll finally pay!
Bloom: Gah... Impudent whelp! Just try me!

With Leif

Bloom: Oho! Quan's son, I presume? You somehow still live on... I'm almost impressed.
Leif: King Bloom! You've tortured my people for long enough! Prepare to die at last!
Bloom: Hmph! A likely retort, but only one of us will die this day, and it will never be me!

With Tine

Bloom: W-wait... Tine?! How dare you betray my many kindnesses...
Tine: I-I'm sorry, Uncle...

Yeah, I didn't get any of these. Arthur because I warped him home to sell his Paragon band, and the other two probably would've been one-shot by Mjölnir if I had tried.

(Leif should not acknowledge Blume as "king", imo)

52 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

"I'm going to be the one to liberate Thracia and unite it into one glorious nation! All right, Altena, go and murder civilians for no reason."

"The villain is almost sounding like he might have a point! Quick, have him stab a baby to keep the black/white contrast nice and sharp!" - writers everywhere

April 10

FE4 Chapter 8: The Dracoknights of Thracia

Alster/Leonster --> Connaught

Spoiler

I spent some time constructing a better first turn - a bit more time than necessary because I kept making small mistakes in recreating it - like Nanna using an Iron Sword to defeat the second Arena opponent (which works, but as it turns out, she'll have bad RNG against the Myrm afterwards), or click "Dance" instead of "Leave Castle" for Leylia.

If you enjoy typos and bad Denglish, here's my notes:

Spoiler

Patty Bolt Sword!
Ares: Thief Sowrd
Oifey: Sell Javvy to Finn

Leaf: Iron Sw bis (6), Brave Sw. für Xenon
    repair, buy Flame Sw, sell Brave Sw, sell Paragon band.
Ulster: (1-4) Iron sw. - (5-7) iron blade
Nanna: Sell heal, buy brave sw
    (1) Iron - (2) Steel - (3-6) Brave, notfalls brute force
    keep Brave Sw?
Seliph: Buy Paragon; Slim (1-6), Silver (7)
Patty: Nur rank 1 (slim) (+Mag)
Julia: No Paragon; brute-force läuft. Buy Silence.
Larcei: Iron Bl. (1-6), Silver (7)
Johalvier: Steel (1-3), Brave (4-6), kein Xenon
Arthur: 1-2 ohne Paragon - 1-7 reicht Wind.
Fee: (1-5) Silm L., (6-7) Brave

TALKS:  Finn->Leaf
    Arthur->Fee
    Julia->Seliph

The main differences are as follows:

Seliph gets the necessary RNG luck to defeat Xenon, the final opponent, which also means that he sells the Paragon Band afterwards. Fee is carrying it to the map instead.
Nobody leaves castle with 1 HP.
Nanna gets through six fights, instead of three. Julia manages to get through the entire thing.
I don't forget about the Thief Sword. Ares grabs it, hoping to get to 40k during the fight.
Leaf buys the Flame Sword from the Armoury - mostly because he'd hit the money cap otherwise, although he does have a non-zero Mag stat.

I also remember the conversation between Finn and Leif, in addition to Julia/Seliph and Fee/Arthur that I showed last update:

: "Lord Leif, the protection of the peninsula realm is our duty as House Leonster's remnants. We aren't in for an easy battle, but no matter what happens, we must persevere."
: "I know, Finn. I've always dreamed that this day, the day of Leonster's freedom, would come... I'll do all I can do to bring peace to the peninsula and save the people from King Blume's tyranny. To fulfill Father's final wishes at last... And if I need to lay down my life to make our dream a reality, then so be it..."
: "Please, my lord! It ill befits a future king to do something so rash! You mustn't say such things!"
: "Er, you're right... Sorry, Finn. I know how ard you had to work to protect me from the Empire's pursuit in my youth. I recall how often you'd let yourself starve, just so I wouldn't have to go without food... All my life you've made sacrifice after sacrifice for my sake, and only now do I understand this... I'll alwas be grateful for all you've done, Finn."
: "My lord, the Thracian region has been plagued by strife for generations, but your father dared to dream of uniting it under a lasting peace. He may be gone, but you still live, and so too does the hope of fulfilling his dream. Only you stand a chance of uniting Thracia."

[+3 Str --> Leif]

"Well, you or Travant, but he's kind of a dick."

____

Now then, to the actual fight. Notchagall's group is less mobile, but because Notchagall is quite the threat with his double Brave weapon set-up, you still have to be careful how to position. Still, I get by with Ares tickling enemies with the Thief Sword instead of eviscerating them with Mystletainn - he does indeed hit 40k gold by the end of the update.

____

The terrain works in our advantage, allowing us to split the enemy up.

I'm keeping with the main group before showing what Team Leonster is up to, but two things need mentioning.

First: Two Brigands start moving immediately and reach a village quite soon. For this village in the far north, this is certainly an issue - and it *has* to be saved, too, since it yields a second Power Ring.

And second: on Turn 3, this recruitable-looking fellow appears:

: "What do you want, Blume?"
: "Ah, Faval. So you came after all. I've been waiting for you."
: "Look, Blume. I'm a busy man. Tell me what you want, or I'm leaving."
: "Tch... Listen carefully. I've an employment opportunity for you."
: "...An employment opportunity?"
: "Yes, Faval. I require your services in putting down the rebel army."
: "Pass. I might be a mercenary, but I'm certainly not about to do your dirty work."
: "Oh, really? Then what will become of all the orphans in your care? Rumor has it your dear sister has taken to stealing the money you need to take care of them. Are you content with such a life?"
: "I guess you're right... I dunno if I can take Patty risking her life like this much longer. And we do sorely need the gold..."
: "Bring me Seliph's head, Faval, and you'll have all the gold your orphans will ever need and more. Your dear sister would approve."
: "...Deal. I know this'll come back to bite me, but if it means saving the kids... You have my bow... just this once."

__

[HP 135% | Str 25% | Mag 50% | Skl 35% | Spd 60% | Lck 85% | Def 30% | Res 12%]
Skills: Pursuit
Weapon Level: Bows (*)
Major Ullur blood

It's a bit of a shame that Patty and Faval have inverted inheritance only for items, not for their stats. Not that Faval would've gained a massive Str growth from that (Bridget only has 30% Str herself), but still - that's a lot of Mag on a character who can never ever use that stat.

Of course, Yewfelle boosts Faval's Atk immensely anyhow, although it has to be added that he isn't terribly accurate with it. I can definitely see that even without looking at his bad Str, Holyn, or really any dude with a better Skl stat than Azel, would make a better father for Faval specifically. Of course, he can swap to the Killer Bow for accuracy... but if he has to do that, this Azel!Faval really becomes just a shitty version of Lester, who hasn't exactly been the star of the show to begin with.

With my incredibly limited experience with this game, I still dare to question the First Mate's authority on eugenics a little. He lists Jamke as Bridget's most desirable hubby, but with Yewfelle being as inaccurate as it is, Holyn really makes a strong impression on me - especially because his Holy Blood also helps Patty quite a bit by giving her Brave Sword access before promotion. I wonder if Lex/Ayra + Holyn/Bridget might be overall a stronger pair of pairs than Holyn/Ayra and Jamke/Bridget...?

And back to the fight, with Lester shrewdly luring an enemy away from his pack. It's interesting that Muhammad's squad is bunching together despite their loose formation at the start of the fight. It seems like the AI doesn't really work all that well with these loose formations - Muhammad and his group move forward very slowly unless there's somebody in range to attack.

I'll count this as a mistake by the AI!

: "Keh... You rebel scum..."

: "We... We've been defeated so easily...? King Blume... I beg your forgiveness..."

____

Aaand that's basically a rout. I guess Notchagall charging ahead by a few tiles didn't really matter all that much anyway.

So, to Team Leonster (and Patty) we go...:

__

Here is why Patty did the first arena fight on turn 1: With the +Mag proc she got, she barely one-rounds the Jav Cavs from Ovo's group. And, even better: Because she gained +2 HP, she also survives three Javelins to the face.

____

...unless a certain idiot forgets to have Nanna heal her, after redoing the turn to experiment a bit with Seliph's group. Luckily, Patty dodged one attack, or this would've been a mark on her permanent death record.

__

And luckily, Patty barely survives an attack from Ovo (he has 28 Atk, she has 3 Res), which makes this enemy phase... probably safe?

__

It's definitely safe with all the Troubadours going for Dermott (who hurried north alongside Oifey and Shanan) and dying in the counterattack. But because they really don't hit very hard, I do think this was fine.

: "I'm impressed you've come so far... But this is the end for you!"

And this was just in time to avoid Ovo's group teaming up with the Mage triplets...

: "I-impossible..."

Dermott quickly disposes of Ovo, and Patty gets in position to gain some very impactful 1000 gold from Banba.

Overall, Patty gained 9000 gold in this update - unfortunately, all the Cavs here only carried 1000 gold, as well. Ares had a lot more success down south.

__

But before we can get to the Mage triplets, Blume receives another visitor:

: "You summoned me, Father? How might I be of assistance?"
: "Ishtar! What kept you so long? The rebels are preparing to launch another attack on me any moment now! I-I need you to protect me!"
: "What's happened, Father? How could a pack of simple rebels get to you of all people? This is so very unlike you..."
: "These are no mere rebels! They've already slaughtered Ishtore, and Tinni is lost to us as well because of them... They've already defeated Banba and her sisters... I can't leave this task to them again. You're all I have left to depend upon!"
: "Understood, but I have one condition. I need the Book of Mjölnir. If I'm wielding Mjölnir, I won't need an army with me. I alone will be more than enough."
: "W-what?! You... want me to hand it over... Fine. Very well... You can take Mjölnir... But don't you dare fail me now!"
: "You can trust me, Father. By your leave."

What a nice young lady. And by "nice", I mean "awfully nonchalant about the death of her brother", of course.

And here are her stats - quite threatening, especially because she comes with both the Adept and Vantage skills. Not even Fee with the Res band can survive two Mjölnir hits.

However, if you're not too bothered by save-scumming a bit (and by a permanent death count) - Ishtar isn't particularly bulky. Seliph, with his very crit-happy Silver Sword, could fish for a clean one-shot against her. Plus, while Ishtar has more bulk on the magic side, her Res still leaves some options...

Before facing her, we first have to beat the triplets, of course. ...note how I forgot that Patty is still injured, even though I just checked her HP/Res against the previous boss. Really not my proudest day of Fire Embleming.

____

But after that silly risk of death, cleaning up isn't that difficult anymore.

____

I think the combat quotes are just the same from the previous map...?

____

At this point, and after Ares robbing the robber, the two groups converge again, just outside of Faval's range.

Unfortunately, Ishtar doesn't want him to be easily recruited...

____

...but Nanna gives us a nice way around that.

: "Hang on... Faval?! What d'you think you're doing? Ugh... Don't tell me you actually let Blume buy out your bow arm!"
: "Patty? Wait... Why are you with the rebels?"
: "To protect people, of course! We've come this far working together, and I know we're gonna stop Blume for good! I don't get it. Did you just go and forget everything? That if it wasn't for the Empire's cruelty, none of the kids would be orphans? But no, here you are, kissing up to the very same man who ruined all our friends' lives! What the heck were you thinking, Faval?!"

There is no ethical conscription under Feudalism. Or something like that.

: "You're absolutely right... I'm so sorry, Patty. I guess I just wasn't thinking at all."
: "Any scumbag can apologize till they're blue in the face! If you're really sorry, then get over here! Come help us fight for peace!"
: "Alright, Patty. I'm with you. You've certainly come a long way lately..."
: "Hee hee... I guess I have!"

I'll add Faval to the list of "blond, allegedly moral men working for the enemy that are smarter than Camüh".

Meanwhile, the rear guard...

: "I've heard tell that over in Manster, people're planning a revolt against the Imperial rule. Apparently the ringleader there's some Silessian mage calld Ced... The people there are so sure that he's the man for the job. Of course, the real problem for Manster is that Thracia's got their grubby eyes on the city... I hope they'll be alright."

[2500 gold --> Tinni]

...

... (worth a try)

...hey, wait, I thought you were mute?!

__

: "Come, Ishtar. I need you."
: "Y-yes, milord! Anything you wish!"

How heartwarming to see this young fella care so much about his girl.

After that, we can approach the bridge leading to Connaught. Well, after Fee rescues the Power R-- I mean people in this village.

____

The Knights and General guarding the bridge seem to entirely refuse to move, which does make this a bit more tricky, arguably, since a triple Bolting group is always going to be a threat.

__

So, here's the plan: Start with the POWER OF LOVE...

...see if we can get away with stealing another 3000 gold...

...*sigh*.

____

In the end, with a bit of experimentation, I land one surviving Bolting Mage and nobody in her kill range. Unfortunately, Finn isn't quite fast enough to double with a Javelin, although that would be quite a tall ask when the Mages swap to Elthunder.

__

: "What in the blazes is happening out there?! You rebel scum... You'll have no mercy from me!"

Blume also gets involved at this point, but...

...

Since his guardsmen don't move, the rest of the fight for Connaught is pretty trivial.

One more talk:

: "Prince Seliph? Please, sir, forgive my foolishness!"
: "Faval, yes? Patty has already told me your story. Relax! I understand why you did what you did. You've nothing to worry about."
: "I don't think so, sir. Letting myself work for the very same Empire I've supposedly been opposing? That was shamefully half-witted of me... Sir, I swear I'll make up for my bad choices. I'll do everything I can to aid you!"
: "Thank you, Faval. I'm glad to have you."

__

Okay, more than only one talk:

: "Faval! What in the blazes do you think you're doing?! You traitorous slime!"
: "Yeah, sorry about that, but I realized that I'd much rather die than help you. Too bad it's you who'll die instead."
: "Gah... I'm surrounded by buffoons..."

Crazy how talkative all these mutes are. And very nice of Faval to hit one of his attacks.

____

No convo with Leif, though. But Seliph has one:

: "Y-you! You're Sigurd's whelp... You won't leave here alive!"
: "I believe that's my line, King Blume. You've nowhere to run this time!"
: "Curses... I'll drag you down to the grave with me, whelp!"

: "Nngh... How... regrettable..."

"I might even consider this inconvenient right now..."

One portion of wasted XP - although Ares at least took that last General's money.

: "Looks like we just dealt a critical blow to the Empire's control of the area, Seliph. Their survivors are fleeing in droves!"
: "Excellent! I suspect liberating Manster has become far simpler than we'd hoped."
: "Don't get too excited just yet. The real problem here is still Thracia."
: "What makes you think so? What would cause Thracia to break neutrality now, of all times?"
: "You've never had to deal with King Travant before, have you? Just ask Prince Leaf. If not for Travant, he would still have his parents. Travant's murder of them was a cruel ambush, an insult to the honor of a knight like Quan. Who knows what dirty game he's planning now..."

To be honest, I don't have all that much to say. Gen 2's story continues to be very straightforward - Seliph runs across the continent and liberates countries, yay Seliph. Travant seems like he was a great villain... off-screen. But in the actual story, he's... well, still more interesting than the villains we've seen thus far, thanks to his opportunism, but in the grand scheme of things, he's still just the next big badman that we'll be up against.

__

After seizing, Nanna sends Fee back to Alster for a second. She's the first unpromoted character to hit Lv.20...

...so she can promote and be sent back by Lana next turn (or the turn after; Patty also needs to be brought back to the front).

(note that this screen shows stats including Fee's collection of rings. In truth, she's at 27 Spd, 18 Def, and 21 Res.)

Dermott grabs the nearby village:

: "Long ago, Thracia and the states of the Manster District were a single nation. 'Course, you'd never know that from how they've hated each other so for as long as anyone can recall! I wish they could just try to make peace..."

[5000 gold --> Dermott]

I'm sure we'll ensure a peaceful future by stabbing all the violent characters.

At the end of the turn, as usual, the next part of the chapter is established:

: "Now's our chance to help ourselves to the north, starting with Manster! Altena! I leave the capture of Manster to you. I'll send General Coulter with you. If anyone stands in your way, suppress them without a second thought. I don't care if it's a little kid with a wooden stick. Cut them down."
: "Hold on a moment, father! I'm as eager to challenge the Empire as you are, but killing innocents makes no sense at all! We'd be much better served forging an alliance with the liberators. We're already surrounted by enemies. Why make more?"
: "Altena! I have no interest in one of your little lectures. Keep your mouth shut and do as you're told!"
: "But, Father-"

: "Best of luck holding our border, Altena."
: "Arion... Very well, I'll do it..."
: "Then don't waste your time dawdling! Go!"

Altena is acting so recruitable here, I was almost tempted to give her a green frame.

: "She's finally gone? Good... Stubborn little thing, isn't she? I haven't seen a woman so brash since her mother... Quite the family resemblance there!"
: "Father, surely you must realize that Altena means you no ill will. You needn't be so harsh on her."
: "Yes, that much is obvious, thank you! ...Let's head back to the capital, Arion. We need to ready the army to claim this peninsula of ours, once and for all!

__

Oh hey, it's Philip again (with a differently-coloured outfit).

I do wonder what kind of story Travant tells his children about their mother (or "mother", in Altena's case). Altena's ability to wield Gáe Bolg is, in-universe, irrefutable proof that she has major Nova blood, so if Travant is holding up the story that she and Arion are both his biological children, that should mean that he had to make up a ~~girlfriend in Canada~~ wife from Leonster.

: "I suppose it was only a matter of time before Travant showed his true colors..."

Actually, I can help with that: http://www.trabant-original.de/otdbx/ColorDB_view.php
- although I'm very disappointed that there is no photografic evidence of the 1959-60 Trabant P50/0 in Venetia-red.

: "The liberation army's sure to want to aid us, but they still haven't crossed the river! What do we do?"
: "Everyone! Get out of here and run for Connaught! I'll stay here and fend off the dracoknights for as long as I can."
: "B-but that's impossible, Sir Ced! Not even you could survive a dracoknight assault by yourself!"
: "I know, but I won't risk any lives but my own. Don't worry. I won't go down without bringing a few Thracians with me! Go on, please! We've no time to waste!"
: "Sir Ced..."

And with that, 600 XP are released upon the map, moving upwards towards us between player and enemy phase.

Capturing Connaught also wakes up the two Brigands to the east, one of which immediately starts burning down the village with the Thief Band - not something I would want to miss, obviously. The Wingslayer Rogue does not move, though - I assume that he'll just go after anybody approaching him.

__

And this is who we'll have to face. A whole lot of Wyverns - although the generics aren't terribly strong.

Altenna, however, is terribly strong. Since she gets more stat inheritance from Ethlyn than from Quan, she is less impacted by his low level (17, iirc) than Leif is. But because I know that she'll only join next map (apparently she is entirely impossible to interact with on this map), I'll talk more about her once she appears there.

[HP 95% | Str 20% | Mag 45% | Skl 30% | Spd 45% | Lck 60% | Def 35% | Res 55%]
Skills: Pursuit, Adept
Weapon Level: Fire (B), Thunder (B), Wind (B), Light (B), Staves (*)
Major Bragi blood

Who will join this map is Ced, in what I assume is his second-strongest form after Lewyn!Ced. I've generally heard people say that Ced is good no matter his dad, but I'll say that the +7-ish Mag he gets from Claud as his father seems like a pretty big deal. In addition to the Fortify and Valkyria staff already in his possession, his increased staff rank also allows him to wield Rescue, although that one seems very much like Leif is the correct pick for it once he promotes.

But yeah. A little frail (only physically, of course), but otherwise really good is my impression.

____

Finally, these are the Thracian commanders other than Altena. Not them most scary stats in general (although Brave weapons are always dangerous), but their mobility makes them, and their entire squads, look threatening nevertheless.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Seliph	  19.89	  55  18   4  20  16  24  17   9  39744  +629  [*]
Leif	  16.85	  46  23   4  16  15  12  16   6  45560  +588  [*]
Shanan	  16.72*  45  20   0  24  24  10  15   4  25500  +92   [1]
Ulster	  17.04	  51  18   3  20  16  10  18   1  48940  +472  [*]

Larcei	  19.24	  56  21   1  25  25  15  17   2  16220  +436  [*]
Patty	  12.73	  42  12   7   7  15  17   6   3  14278  +285  [2]
Johalvier 19.11	  49  18   0  11  16   7  17   3  34520  +304  [7]
Oifey	  20.44	  45  19   9  19  18   9  19   8  26100  +64   [1]

Finn	  24.88	  49  22   0  16  21  18  18   4  38315  +28   [1]
Fee	  21.79	  48  16  14  18  27  13  18  21  10037  +879  [*]
Dermott	  15.96	  47  22   0  18  14  15  14   1  33752  +316  [1]
Nanna	  13.59	  41  15   3  12  11  15   9   4  5132   +448  [7]

Ares	  13.34	  50  19   4  15  15   8  16   6  40660  +190  [1]
Lester	  12.32	  40  15   2  11  13  15  13   0  19863  +172  [1]
Faval	  9.26	  39  10   7  14  18  13   9   1  7388   +26   [1]
Arthur	  19.00	  54   0  19  21  21  22   4   8  34113  +482  [*]

Tinni	  8.21	  38   0  12  15  15  12   2   6  30393  +128  [1]
Julia	  19.87	  40   1  23  10  19   9   5  24  4800   +642  [*]
Lana	  15.10	  43   8  14  16  18  18   7   8  4603   +235  --
Leylia	  5.60	  26   6   1   1  14   4   2   4  12000  +130  [1]

Answers!

Spoiler

On 4/6/2024 at 8:50 PM, CelestialContrail said:

If an enemy thief steals your cash in this game, you can't steal it back - it's just gone. I think the enemies don't have a memory location to store how much gold they have and the game just looks up how much money the class they're in has by default and uses that when you steal from them.

...and that after thieves in FE3 drop all the treasure they grabbed from chests, including gold? I can't believe you would do that to me, Kaga!!

Very good to know, thank you :lol: I'll be sure to get around it by one-rounding, or chipping from 2-range.

On 4/7/2024 at 2:58 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Going back even further, during the Heian period, the Fujiwara noble clan dominated the imperial court (this is pre-rise of the bushi/samurai), a position of power derived from continually wedding their daughters to Emperors, resulting in a strong familial tie between imperial family and the Fujiwara clan.

Good to know that the Habsburgs weren't the only dynasty to incest their way to power.

On 4/7/2024 at 2:58 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Don't worry, Manster District's famed fertility applies to the farmers too. A few border raids each year won't dent the North's population.

I'd be worried that the wyverns are environmentally concious and insist on locally-grown organic farmers.

On 4/8/2024 at 5:54 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

"I'm not owned! I'm not owned!" I insist as I gradually shrink down into a corncob.

Farmers: 3000

Merchants: 600

Knights: 300

Wyvern Chow: 45000

Craftsmen: 1200

Someone who is good at the economy help me. My people are dying.

issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the child hunters LOPTYR. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"

On 4/9/2024 at 11:31 AM, Revier said:

Just chiming in to say that I've been really enjoying this retrospective and all the discussion around it. Fire Emblem as a franchise has never particularly enticed me, but I do love how ambitious Genealogy of the Holy War is, and think it could've been a truly great story with some fine editing and tuning. Ah well, perhaps one day we will get the much eluded remake that will sharpen all of its rough edges. Though it must be admitted that some of them, like simulating entire countries with ingame maps, contribute to its innate charm.

Appreciated!

I'll say that Genealogy is less in need of a remake than Akaneia and (especially) Gaiden were, although there's some elements from modern FE (like a speed-up or skip enemy phase button) that it would appreciate. But it's a fair bit more convenient to play than even FE3 was.

April 6

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's beautiful. No witticisms, it's just beautiful.

: "I know."

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Michael?

Hee-hee!

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hermina would've had no problem.

I probably would never have to ask myself, "Can Hermina do this?"

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Dang, maybe it really was intentional.

...Still don't know if it was the wisest joke to make, but...

It's possible that Project Naga added that as a little joke, too. For all we know, Not-Chagall could've just made a more generic death threat.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

In my different backstories for the subs thread I suggested making this guy be Hawk in the timeline where Ced exists, to show Hawk is still there and fightinging even if he's not the acquired playable character.

It definitely would make sense for some of the subs to turn up once in a while. Would make for a nice little highlight for replays if you could recognise some of the seemingly one-off NPCs.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

It's no issue, Travant feeds his wyvern population using Soylent Green methods. Keeps the peasent numbers down to better share the crops too.

So an African elephant eats about 150-175 kg every day. Let's extrapolate that a wyvern would have to eat about two people every day - humans would have a higher calorie density than an elephant's diet, but a flying animal would have higher energy consumption, too. I think it was established earlier that 30 Dracoknights is shockingly large force in Jugdral, so let's say that Thracia has a standing flying army (...you know what I mean) of 50-70 Wyverns - maybe a bit of a lowball, but let's just go with it for now. This would put the annual number of human snacks necessary to feed the airforce at 36'500-51'100. A city with about 5000 inhabitants would have been considered fairly large in medieval times, so we can conclude that Thracia's Dracoknight squad has to eat about 7-10 entire cities every year, if not more.

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

"You're too late, Ping!"

Oh, shoot! Er... er...

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If he dares, simply deploy a "ur mom" on him.

ur moms too late!

There, gottem.

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Oh yeah, I briefly forgor about this one! Kinda crazy strong for a generic enemy at this point. Take note of the Rogue's "Steal" skill. It's not just for show.

...oh geez. I think I might have to send somebody with the Thief Sword in that direction, just to be safe.

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Guess how many of them are bosses in Thracia 776? (Genuinely @pingtell me your guess for how many named characters from this chapter you fight in Thracia when you're done with it, I'll give you a hint, the number is not zero and it's not nine)

Hmm...

Blume: It would be a bit silly to give him another "curses! I have defeated, but I cannot fall!" case, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen. I'll give it 50%.
Muhammad: Random guy with a recycled portrait. 10%.
Ovo: Random guy with a unique portrait and big hair. 20%.
Mage Sisters: They're more established than the previous two mooks, so I would be less surprised if they made an appearance. 40%, so that's an expected value of 1.2.
Ishtar: I'd be very surprised if she didn't appear in T776, but if I had to guess, I'd say that the game tries to humanise her, not use her as an antagonist. Still, same as her dad: 50%
Faval: Would be funny. I mean, he does work as a mercenary for House Freege. But using a playable character as an enemy in the prequel (to gen2)... Unlikely, I'd say. 20%
Arion: Looks very Camühy, which would make it more likely that he'll appear in T776 to unwittingly help Leaf in some way. 30%
Travant: He didn't have a "curses!" scene like Blume yet, but I don't see a reason to give him another value than Blume's 50%.

So that would give a total expected value of 3.5 Thracia bosses - 2.7 if we count the Mage Sisters as one three-headed ~~monkey~~ boss. I'll see if there will pop up any more enemies in addition to Ishtar and Faval to increase that number.

April 5

April 5

FE4 Chapter 8: The Dracoknights of Thracia

Alster/Leonster (Turn 0-1)

Spoiler

__

The two faces of the Thracian Peninsula are as distinct as night and day. The peninsula's north, once ruled by several small kingdoms, is graced with rich pastures, while the south, the Kingdom of Thracia, is a harsh wasteland dominated by vast mountains. In ages past, seeking to claim the life-giving northern land as their own, Thracia's infamous dracoknights have led countless brash attempts to conquer the north, only to be repelled at every turn by the might of House Leonster. Thracia looked to have won at last following their slaughter of Leonster's army in the Yied Desert, only to be defeated in turn by Blume of Freege, who claimed the land as his own.

And so, the so-called Kingdom of North Thracia was born as yet another servant of the Empire. Over a decade has passed since then. Not even Thracia's King Travant, an ambitious man with a thirst for power and glory, dares to challenge the will of the Empire, and so a strange peace looms over the region. Or so it did, until the arrival of Seliph and his liberation army.

Blume's defeat at his own capital has abruptly tipped the balance of the Thracian stalemate. Both the Alster and Leonster territories nwo lie under the liberation army's control, forcing Blume to retreat to Connaught and muster the strength to take Alster back. The southern Manster Castle, governed by the "goddess of lightning", Princess Ishtar, braces itself for the threat of Thracian invaders. Meanwhile, across the border in Thracia itself, both King Travant and his border watchman, General Maykov of Meath Castle, remain eerily silent. The people are united in their fondest wish: for the entirety of the Thracian Peninsula to return to the rule of House Leonster. And so dawns yet another battle...

Ruben, I think your usual portrait analysis skills might fail you here.

Honestly, it's a shame that almost all of this happened off-screen. It sounds a lot more interesting than Seliph's much more straightforward the-good-guys-beat-the-bad-guys story, with Travant the backstabber's back being stabbed by a better backstabber in Blume. Somebody should make a game that takes place in that setting.

(To be honest, I don't know how much T776 makes use of this mêlée à trois. Really, I don't remember much of what actually happens in T776 - I know that for a significant portion of the game, Leif is desperately fleeing from assailants, but I don't remember what his actual endgame is.)

: "Nngh... Curses! Never did I imagine that the rebels could pose such a threat. Banba! How could the three of you let yourselves be cowed into fleeing? What a disgrace!"
: "A thousand apologies, milord. However, you've nothing to worry about anymore. Even as we speak, General Muhammad prepares his brigade to lay siege to Alster, and General Ovo's cavalry are en route to Leonster. We, too, shall rejoin the fray shortly."
: "Hrm... Don't you dare fail me this time. And what of King Travant? Why are the promised Thracian reinforcements nowhere to be seen?"
: "We've yet to receive any response to any of our messages so far."
: "Gah... What in the blazes is that snake thinking?"
: "King Travant is an ambitious man. To blindly trust him would be foolish."
: "No matter. Even without his forces, we've more than enough power to stop the rebels cold. Banba! Fotia! Eriu! Move out at once. This time, leave not a single rebel alive!"
: "Yes, milord. We will not fail."

: "Sir Ced, please! We all can't take much more of King Blume's abuses! How long... How long will it be until Manster is free from the Empire?"
: "Don't lose hope now! Even as we speak, Lord Seliph and his liberators are out there fighting for the District. They'll be here before long. Go! Tell your friends and family that your freedom is so very nearly in reach! Please, my friends, believe me. Manster's freedom is fast approaching!"

Like with Shanan for Isaach, Leif seems a bit sidelined here. I suppose that permadeath necessitates that - more than for Shanan, anyway, who hadn't even joined when Seliph was made Isaach's one big hope.

: "Pardon me, Father, but King Blume is requesting our aid yet again. The Empire has already lost both Alster and Leonster to the Isaach rebels. He wishes to use us to help reclaim them."
: "The Isaach rebels are led by that Seliph brat... Sigurd's spawn, correct? Heh... Poor, poor Blume. He's getting so old, even little children are a thorn in his side! Pay Blume no heed, Arion. The Empire and the rebels are best left to break themselves on each other for now. We'll mop up the leftovers once they're nice and weak."
: "I should have known, Father... All along, you've been waiting out Blume's little storm, haven't you?"
: "But of course! It'd make no sense to bend over backward for the man who snatched our hard-won north out from under our noses, would it? Leonster's downfall should have meant a peninsula unified under our rule... I'll never forgive nor forget Blume's craven conquest."
: "Even now, we still lack the power to truly match Grannvale on an even battlefield... I can only imagine your frustration, Father."
: "Thracia's fate depends on a unified peninsula. The verdant northern soils are the perfect cure for the famine and poverty wracking our south. We've been shunned and vilified for centuries, dismissed as ravenous hyenas... Yet what choice did we ever have? If not for our answer to this world's craving for sellswords, Thracia would never have had the funds to barely survive as we do. We've toiled in poverty long enough, Arion. It's high time Thracia carved itself a future! A future, I might add, which depends on the outcome of the game laid before us..."
: "Mm."

So is Hoshido vs Nohr just the worse sequel to Leonster vs Thracia? Hell, Thracia's king even kills his enemy counterpart in an ambush and kidnaps - sorry, adopts - their child afterwards.

: I have a bad feeling about this, Seliph... Is Leonster well guarded?"
: "I believe so, but then again, reinforcing it further certainly wouldn't hurt. Should I send them some support?"
: "Do it."
: "With Blume still on the loose in Connaught, there's no sense in skimping on the defenses. Oh, and also, we've received a plea for help from the people of Manster Castle. The sooner our forces reach them, the better."
: "Very well. We shall make the first move!"

So, as a result, Leif, Nanna, and Finn move a little to the north to start the map in Leonster instead of our home base.

Which sucks, because it means that they can't do their arena runs without disabling the start-of-turn save feature, which doubly sucks because Leif is carrying the Paragon Band into this chapter and thus has to do his run first (or, at least, very early).

The map! With Manster still under a red flag, although I think it will eventually turn green with Ced on its defenses.

To be honest, even disregarding the problem with the arena, I don't think that having Team Leonster start at their own castle was super necessary. Why not have it unguarded at the start and urge the player to send whoever they deem appropriate to defend it north as quickly as possible? And if it requires you to send your horsies to Leonster, that would give the remaining infantry more importance in fending off the group of enemies closing in on Alster.

____

And this is said group, led by who I believe is Chagall, and not even a simple recolour. Being able to use a Brave weapon in both melee and ranged is quite dangerous, especially paired with Pavise, although we have a number of characters that can survive two hits from Chaghammad without too much trouble.

I'm also relieved that the Bishop is just a healer, not a status staff user.

__

Ready to ride against Leonster is a group of horsies led by Izana's biggest rival for the Best Hair trophy of the year.

The generics in this group aren't terribly threatening - Jav Cavs and Troubadours with Slim Swords, so one half is inaccurate and the other half can't hit very hard at all.

Guarding the chokepoint towards Connaught is a smaller group of enemies, but they're supported by a trio of Bolting Mages.

But before we have to deal with that, the Mage sisters are back, and faster than ever. As a Binding Blade enjoyer, I'm devestated that Kaga didn't do Boots For Everyone!! first.

And finally, Blume is back, but left his Mjölnir tome somewhere. HMMMM. Instead, he's carrying the fourth Bolting tome on the map - we'll see how threatening he'll be with it.

__

In the easternmost part of the map, we have a trio of village-destroying villains - at least I assume that the Rogue is going to be part of that, too. In any case, he's probably a prick. Because the two villages nearby are in a cul-de-sac separated from the road between Manster and Meath by a mountain range, Fee is the obvious character to save them, so adding effective weaponry against her is a little mean.

That'll teach me not to find Alec a nice Peggy Sue for a girlfriend.

Well then, on to the arena. Opponents for this chapter are the following:

(1) Dewey - Lv.5 Fighter
	40 HP | 9 Def | 0 Res
	[Iron Axe] - 23 Atk | 78 Hit | -14 Avo | -7 AS
	[Hand Axe] - 19 Atk

(2) Fete - Lv.8 Thunder Mage - Item: Shield Ring
	34 HP | 1+5 Def | 7 Res
	[Elthunder] - 23 Atk | 102 Hit | 2 Avo | 1 AS

(3) Marshach - Lv.11 Paladin
	51 HP | 12 Def | 6 Res
	[Steel Lance] - 28 Atk | 104 Hit | 0 Avo | 0 AS
	[Javelin]     - 24 Atk

(4) Luis - Lv.14 Myrmidon - Skill: Pursuit
	44 HP | 9 Def | 1 Res
	[Steel Sword] - 21 Atk | 108 Hit | 22 Avo | 11 AS

(4R) Hester - Lv.14 Archer - Skill: Pursuit
	44 HP | 9 Def
	[Steel Bow] - 25 Atk | 98 Hit | 12 Avo | 6 AS

(5) Malder - Lv.17 War Mage - Item: Shield Ring - Skill: Adept
	47 HP | 12+5 Def | 10 Res
	[Elfire] - 29 Atk | 110 Hit | 6 Avo | 3 AS

(6) Gismont - Lv.20 General - Skill: Pavise
	60 HP | 18 Def | 5 Res
	[Steel Axe] - 34 Atk | 94 Hit | -14 Avo | -7 AS
	[Steel Bow] - 30 Atk

(7) Xenon - Lv.23 Swordmaster - Skills: Pursuit, Adept
	63 HP | 13 Def | 5 Res
	[Silver Blade] - 38 Atk | 102 Hit | 30 Avo | 15 AS

(7R) Jackson - Lv.23 Sniper - Skill: Pursuit
	63 HP | 13 Def
	[Silver Bow] - 36 Atk | 106 Hit | 20 Avo | 10 AS

Wiki.org lists Pursuit as Malder's skill. Not something that can be disproven by a screenshot, but I did see him proc Adept (i.e. attack twice before his opponent had a chance to counter), and that is the War Mage class skill.

And this is the progress I've made:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Seliph	  16.90	  52  17   4  20  15  20  16   6  15124  +320  [7] -- holds Paragon
Ulster	  16.72	  51  20   2  22  16   8  17   1  40514  +440  [*]
Larcei	  18.64	  54  20   2  24  24  16  16   1  15660  +376  [*]
Julia	  15.33	  37   0  23  10  17  10   4  23  800    +188  [7]

Fee	  17.23   45  14   6  13  21  11  13  15  28242  +420  [*]
Arthur	  17.84	  51   0  18  21  21  21   5   7  36393  +364  [*]
Johalvier 18.71   49  17   0  11  16   7  17   3  37420  +264  [7]
Leif	  15.73	  45  20   5  17  14  13  15   4  50000  +576  [*]

Finn	  26.12	  47  22   0  16  22  20  19   4  32915  +152  [*]
Nanna	  9.95    37  11   3   9   9  13   8   4  14832  +84   [4]

And here's the first victim of the lack of RNG abuse. I'll see if Nanna can have another shot at getting further in - she doesn't really have the money for Paragon, but that only means that she really wants the money from the arena to buy/repair her staves.

__

The final opponent, as a Swordmaster, has both Pursuit and Adept (with a 35% activation rate), which makes him rather RNG-dependent even for characters more suited for the arena, not to mention poor Johalvier. Maybe Julia can find a good string later - Seliph honestly should be able to, with his crit Silver Sword.

However, Julia just barely earned enough money to buy the Silence staff that Lana really should've had inherited. With her 23 Mag, she can shut down Blume, if he turns out to be a problem (and, indeed, there might be another worthwhile target), so that's potentially quite nice.

Because I can't save during all this, I also have to play through turn 1 for this update, including some convos:

: "Lord Seliph..."
: "Oh, Julia. Is something the matter?"
: "I... I'm scared... I sense an evil presence... Something dark... And it's closing in..."
: "What do you mean?"

(this part of the dialogue only advances very slowly)

: "Julia! What's happening to you?!"
: "Ahh... I... W-what in the world just...?"
: "Julia... You're..."

[+1 Lck --> Seliph]

I hope that Julia's ability to see the future doesn't just... happen and won't be brought up again. Prophecy was supposed to be Bragi's thing, I thought, not Naga's.

: "Er... Yeah, I suppose so."
: "Hmmm! Who know you had it in you? I never would've guessed that you're even able to worry about anyone but yourself! I might have to rethink everything just a bit!"
: "Well, er, you're something of a special case..."
: "Huh?"
: "Er, never mind! Anyway, just don't do anything too rash, alright? See you..."
: "Arthur..."

[+3 HP --> Fee; +100 love points]

I do enjoy the banter between the two, although it's more one-sided here (and also not really in line with how I saw Arthur's character? The guy has been traveling the world just to find his sister, after all).

__

So, this is where we end the update: Team Leonster and a warped Patty for stealing purposes to the north; everybody else (except Ulster, who'll be warped next turn, and Lana, who will do the warping) to the south.

: "Move in on Alster Castle! We've nothing to fear from these rebels! If anyone dares to question my command, come forth and allow me to relieve your neck of your head! ...No volunteers? Good. Attack!"
: "Good, everything's ready. Men, we tear through Leonster's defenses in one fell swoop! We'll not let Muhammad's men put us to shame!"
: "It is time, then... Fotla, Eriu, shall we proceed? We'e no room for error this time."

Man, Muhammed even inherited Chagal's penchant for decapitation...

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Small terminology error, Ping wins, Shanty Pete loses.

That is how the internet works. It's unfortunate that he can still override that by portraying me as the crying wojak and himself as the chad.

April 5

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

...Wait, didn't this very chapter confirm that you don't actually have to cross the Yied Desert, to get from Leonster to Tirnanog? You can skirt it to the southeast, and avoid having to cross any sand tiles. Unless that portion is also treated as "desert", in spite of appearances.

You can go all the way from Leonster to Tirnanog and only ever cross Plain and Road tiles. Although going right past a desert filled with evil wizards sounds like a risky proposition for a lone traveler, too. I wanted to refute that because Raquesis is still a Lv.30 Master Knight, but even with her 27 Str, she'd still need a Brave weapon to avoid getting counter-chipped to death. With a Silver Axe (22 Mt), she'd still only one-shot the Lv.1 Dark Mages (41 HP | 7 Def).

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Maybe he refers to commoners as "miss" and nobles as "ma'am"? Boom, Seliph is classist.

Alternatively, it can be seen as reflective. Laylea address him as "Mister", so Seliph responds with "Miss". Tinne calls him "Sir", so Seliph calls her "Ma'am".

Surely, a classist wouldn't use any honorific at all for common folk.

I like the reflective reasoning, though. Maybe it's just that "Ma'am" sounds like Seliph thinks he's talking to a middle-aged woman and not a girl that's roughly 15-16 years old.

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Wait, does marriage provide a Hit boost? I know it provides +20 Crit when adjacent, but I hadn't heard of a Hit boost until just now.

Yup. One's lover (but not sibling) is always Charming enough to give the same +10 hit as the skill, in addition to the lover/sibling crit.

(https://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/miscellaneous/calculations/ <-- under "Accuracy")

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I mean, if you can find anyone in your army brave and vulgar enough to pry it from a Mage Girl corpse's leg, then by all means...

Ayra pried it from a pirate corpse's leg back in chapter 3.

4 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous of which is, never start a land war in Jugdral. But only slightly less famous: never cross sand tiles as a cavalry unit!

🤓 Actually, Sand tiles are functionally identical to standard Plain tiles. Desert tiles are a separate category 🤓

April 4

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Uhhh...

See, something funny just happened. I uh, completely forgot there's a map between this and Thracia proper. I had a feeling I was forgetting something, so I went to the wiki to check, saw the next map is called "The Wyvern Knights of Thracia" and just sort of assumed "yeah, next up is Thracia then."

Sheesh.

Beginner's mistake, Ruben. A chapter featuring Hannibal would never be called "The Wyvern Knights of Thracia", now would it? Meanwhile, "For Whose Sake" is clearly a rhetorical question with only one sensible answer.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Related to the above, Fanore is my personal localization of Phinora, so that's what I was referencing in my previous comment, in case that was unclear.

Whoops... Yeah, should've deduced that myself.

Thinking about the "King Quan" thing... I still think it's odd to just give him that title without further comment, but I suppose there are scenarios where he would be called such, even if he isn't officially named king in absentia. Even if it's just the Leonster population murmering that "the real king" might still be somewhere out there and will clobber that bastard Blume one of these days.

April 4

59 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Fine youths, yes. I'm sure this claim won't be put into question by Ishtar's actions later on.

Listen, if you want to date literal Satan, you have to make some compromises.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Not to worry, the next map is way better. I mean, I recall it being about as boring as all of gen 2 gameplay-wise, but the most important character joins the army there.

Wait, Hannibal only joins in ch.9, and Hawke doesn't exist for me. Or did I miss you being a huge Faval fanboy?

26 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I know it's in the Thracia opening, but...does Leif actually know that? How did word of Quan's demise reach Leinster? Since it was a total party kill on Quan's part the news would have only trickled in once the Empire secured an alliance with Travant. Before then Quan's just MIA and who can say when he died relative to his father? Of course someone does manage to tell Sigurd ad Fanore Castle somehow.

Alternate theory, Leif is insecure and grandson of the king sounds less impressive than son of the king.

The slaughter of Leonster's Lanzenritter was actually observed by the people of Phinora:

On 3/24/2024 at 9:26 AM, ping said:

: "[...]Actually, we've just received word of yet another skirmish in the desert's southern depths. Alas, we find outselves in dangerous times..."
: "In the south, you say... What happened there?"
: "As we understand it, the lance knights of Leonster were on a march north. They were savaged by Thracian dracoknights en route. There were no survivors, it seems."
: "W-what?! You can't be serious!"
: "I'm sorry to say I am. By the sound of it, there was a young girl in the Leonster party. Our hearts all break for the poor dear..."
: "That's that was Ethlyn and Quan... Forgive... forgive me..."

But even if word doesn't reach Leonster and Quan is still considered missing when his father dies - Quan would never be crowned king. I know of the concept of "the king is dead, long live the king" - i.e. the heir becomes king the moment the incumbent dies - but I don't think it works like that in Kagaland. Marthipan is still Prince Marth for all of Book 2, because he never got around to being crowned between books.

April 4

April 4

FE4 Chapter 7: Beyond the Desert

Darna --> Alster

Spoiler

__

First things first, I replayed the last turn of the previous update (yay past me for skipping the autosave in favour of the between-updates save) because I had once again forgotten to pick up the Thief's Sword with Fee. So if there's some stat discrepancies between the last update and this one, it's because Seliph and Ares had to redo their arena runs.

And, as expected, this last part of the map is kinda boring. Mostly running around the map, doing a little bit of arenaing...

...and doing the remaining conversations.

: "Excuse me. You wouldn't happen to be Nanna, would you?"
: "I am. And you are?"
: "Perfect! I've finally found you! I'm your brother, Dermott!"
: "Huh?! What... are you talking about?"
: "I didn't know until just now, either. King Lewyn told me everything. In the war seventeen years ago, I was with the kids who fled to Isaach. But you were born after our mother, Raquesis, went to Leonster instead."
: "You... You're my brother? Then where's Mother now?!"
: "Er... Where's Mother? What exactly are you getting at here, Nanna?"
: "I haven't seen her in so long... When I was around three years old, she left us and traveled alone to Isaach, to try and find you. She never came back. I've waited to see her again for years..."
: "She did? But... but I never saw her!"
: "You... didn't? Then were is she..."
: "The Yied Desert... It's a treacherous place. Very few lone travellers survive it..."
: "...No! Oh, Mother..."

[Lck +1 --> Nanna]

I think this reduces the list of mums that might have died at Belhalla to... Ayra and Sylvia. And because we won't get any information about Sylvia, lemme check the wiki real quick...

Quote

Silvia survived the Battle of Belhalla, but surrendered her infant children Lene and Coirpre to a convent in Dahna before disappearing.

Hm. Only Ayra, then. And Ethlyn, if you count Travant's ambush as part of the overall battle.

While he's here, Leif visits two of the villages, before the Armour squad interrupts that.

: "Blume's got some terrifying warriors on his side. There's Banba, Fotla and Eriu, a trio of powerful sorceress sisters. Then there's Tinni, a young mage... Blume's niece she may be, but that girl's still got a kind heart on her. She's come to our aid and the aid of our neighbor villages time and again... She's nothing like her family..."

[4500 gold -> Leif]

No unique dialogue if you visit the village with Tinni, it seems. At least the wiki doesn't list any.

: "King Blume and his queen, Hilda, have got two children between 'em: Ishtar and Ishtore. Ishtar's ruling over Manster right now, and Ishtore's posted at Fort Melgen, both doing Blume's dirty work. Unlike their folks, they're fine youths. You'll be sure to face 'em sooner or later... Be on your guard, stranger."

[4500 gold -> Leif]

Yeahh, it's pretty clear that you're expected to visit these sooner.

: "Darna is lorded over by Count Bramsel, who's as revolting as they come! If he isn't playing the slimy sycophant to some visiting Grannvale noble or other, he's prancin' around like he's the gods' git to kings! Ugh... The sooner somebody sticks a sword through that pig of a man, the better!"
: "It ain't that simple, though. Standing between you lot and Bramsel is the best mercenary force his money can buy. One of 'em, Ares, is the strongest of 'em all. He's still just a kid, really, but he's frightfully strong, 'cause he's got this magic blade called Mystletainn. From what I heard, the mercenary captain, Jabarro, found Ares as a wee little kid and took him in. The two're real close, I hear. You ain't got much of a chance against Ares. Sorry to rain on your parade like that, kid. Here, take this shield ring as an apology. You oughta be able to get some use out of this."

[4500 gold, Shield Ring --> Patty]

This one... Yeah, I guess you're supposed to visit this one before seizing Melgen, too.

__

After that, it's finally time to get into combat again. Specifically, it's time for Fee to steal some cash.

____

Unfortunately, she isn't particularly accurate (she would've been a good recipient for a Skill Ring, actually - either the one Finn carried to gen2 or the village in ch.6), but she still manages to grab money from everybody except for one Knight.

____

Clean-up's not too much of a problem after that. Really, Julia could've just soloed this part, but as a staffer, she shouldn't have that much trouble staying ahead of the XP curve, anyway.

At Alster, there's a bunch of characters just standing around waiting. And I end up getting spooked by a surprise reinforcement Knight - a single one during all of this, which is really just weird. I was worried for a split second that the three Generals suddenly started moving, which easily could've ended with somebody dying.

: "Everyone, we've only a little further to go. We can do this!"

__

A neat little side effect of seizing Leonster is that Lana can warp Leylia right to the village she has to visit. Before that, though, some deep and thoughtful dialogue.

: "Mister Seliph, right? Nice to meet ya!"
: "Er... Hello. And who are you?"
: "I'm Leylia, the dancer!"
: "You... You're Leylia?"
: "Ohh? Mister Seliph, is this the first time you've ever seen a dancer?"
: "Y-yes, miss..."
: "Hee hee... That's adorable!"

I'm in awe. Such depth.

: "My boyfriend set off to fight in the war, too. I'm not exactly a fighter myself. Not much I can do but wait for people like you to finish it... Oh, I know! Here, this charmed blade'll boost your resistance. Go on. This one's on the house. Be sure to make some nice deep cuts in some Imperials for me, won't you, sweetie?"
: "Thanks, miss! I'll take good care of it. Hey, what's your name anyway?"
: "Me? The name's Anna, and my boyfriend's called Jake. If you see him, be sure to tell him that Anna's worried sick!"
: "Jake...?"

[Barrier Sword, 5000 gold --> Leylia]

One of the weaker Anna portraits of the series, in my opinion. I think she generally looks better with a more smug expression.

I don't think we'll be meeting Jake in this run - I believe he's only there for some secret substitute scenes, starring subs sadly absent from the team.

Still not satisfied with the contents of her purse, Fee grabs the remaining villages:

: "Near the end of the war all those years ago, this entire region was conquered by King Blume, the son of Duke Reptor. His rule's been one tragedy after another... Just when we thought he couldn't get any worse, now he's just letting those child hunts happen! We can't take this anymore..."

[5000 gold -> Fee]

: "Ahh... The liberation army... It's a blessing to know that Prince Leif has finally taken a stand. Lord Quan... Lady Ethlyn... I pray you're both proud of your son... Please, kind knight, accept this speed ring. I'd like you to wear it proudly to your battles."

[Speed Ring, 4500 gold --> Fee]

Obviously, Fee isn't the character most in need of even more Spd, and she'll likely sell the ring to somebody before long, but the village takes her quite close to the important 40k funds benchmark.

And speaking of money, Patty finally arrives at Alster! With Ulster glued to her side, although they still won't even dwelling on each other's minds by the end of the chapter (or maybe they do, but Ulster is mostly thinking of Lana while Patty is fancying Shanan).

__

Darn.

__

Well, I guess Patty can use the XP, too.

__

Tinni does get the second General kill while chipping the third...

__

...who is killed by Larcei for very specific reasons. But before we get to that, Seliph still has some talkin' to do:

: "Lord Seliph! What an honor it is to meet you at last. I'm Leif, the son of King Quan of Leonster."

That's not quite right, is it? When Quan and Ethlyn were killed, Quan's father was explicitly still alive, if in poor health, so Quan should still have been *Prince* of Leonster.

: "The honor is all mine, Prince Leif! I'm glad to see you've made it thus far unharmed."
: "My parents both died in the Battle of Belhalla's prelude... They were felled by a Thracian ambush. My homeland, Leonster, soon found itself in the clutches of an Imperial occupation, and fell under the reign of its Duke Blume. If not for my knight, Finn, I wouldn't be here today. He raised me in hiding in nearby villages, and we awaited the day Leonster would rise again. We though that day had finally come, but then..."
: "...We both took to the battlefield around the same time, did we not? By now practically all of Jugdral knows of King Blume's brutality. I sorely wish my army had made it here sooner and could've properly aided you. You have my deepest apologies, Prince Leif."
: "No, Lord Seliph. I'm the one who should be apologizing. Our failure was squarely my fault. However, this isn't over. I am the son of Quan, a man worthy of being dubbed a Knight of Nova. I refuse to put to shame his legacy, and so I'll live on. I'll fight on, no matter the cost. To that end, Lord Seliph, my comrades and I would like to join your army. I may not have much of an army left, but what I do have is yours. May we serve you well in restoring honor to Grannvale."
: "Thank you, Prince Leif. Often have I heard it said that our fathers were inseparable friends, bound together to the bitter end in both life and death. Not to mention, your mother, Queen Ethlyn, is also my aunt..."

THANK YOU, Seliph.

: "Both of your parents gave their lives to support my father's cause... Prince Leif, you have my deepest, most heartfelt apologies for their sacrifice..."
: "Thank you, but that isn't necessary. I am proud of my parents' sacrifice, and I've the utmost respect for Lord Sigurd. The only hatred I bear is for the true villains, Emperor Arvis and King Travant!"
: "As do I... Prince Leaf, in the name of our late fathers' last wishes, I seek to restore peace and light to all of Jugdral. Please, join me in my cause!"
: "Yes, sir! You have my blade as your own!"

With how adamantly these two don't call each other cousin, I have to wonder if there's some cultural context here. I vaguely remember hearing/reading that a married woman, by traditional Japanese custom, will join her husband's family and not be considered as part of her old family anymore, which is why Ethlyn is worried that it might be unproper for her to ask Quan to help her brother. So, is it by the same logic that Leif and Seliph don't consider themselves to be related, and Ethlyn being Seliph's aunt almost just a curiosity? I believe this is how it worked (at some point in time) in the Roman Empire, so it's not as if that line of thinking was unprecedented.

: "Um... Pardon me, sir..."
: "Hm? And who are you, ma'am?"
: "I am Tinni... Arthur's sister..."
: "Ah, of course. I've been told your story, Tinni."
: "Um... I'm sorry!"
: "You've nothing to apologize for, Tinni. With the likes of King Blume for an uncle, I completely understand. You had no choice."
: "Are... are you forgiving me, sir?"
: "Certainly! There's no question that you're not our enemy, and it would be an honor to have you with us."
: "Wow... You're everything the stories say you are! I wish we could've met sooner..."
: "Heh... Thank you! Listen, Tinni. I know fighting your own family is a painful prospect, so please, don't force yourself if you're at all uncomfortable."
: "Sir..."

To nitpick a little - Seliph is calling Tinni "ma'am" and the older-looking Leylia "miss". I know, Leylia shares her dialogue with Lene, but surely, "miss" would've been more appropriate for Tinni, too?

And - although this isn't "bad writing" or anything - I don't think Seliph quite got the picture when he says that Tinni had no choice. Blume didn't physically *force* Tinni to do his bidding, he used emotional manipulation to make her think she ought to follow his wishes.

Now, speaking of Blume - he has 5000 gold that would look really nice in somebody else's pockets...

Well, darn.

: "Ha! So long as I wield the Book of Mjölnir, what reason would I ever have to fear the likes of you?"

But no fear! With the power of Seliph's own Leadership cancelling (most of) Blume's, Nanna's charm,...

__

...and the Reset button, even odds as bad as these can be overcome!

__

For the actual bosskill, the obvious picks of Oifey and Ares do some work, but our greatest weapon is clearly Larcei!

__

See, this is why she got one of the General kills for another level-up.

__

And with stacking even more hit from her newly-wed husband and from Leylia (who wasn't quite in time to help Fee), she even reaches a pretty reasonable chance to hit.

: "Nngh... How? How could I lose... I've no choice... For now, I must retreat to Connaught..."

That's the power of love! And charm! And leadership!

____

After that, Seliph still has to twiddle his thumbs for a bit, as most remaining characters go through the arena.

Fee sells the Thief Sword to get a full arena run (and with a crit Brave Lance, she needs not worry about clearing it)...

__

...and Patty also manages to cheese her way through. She needed the sleep against Hoepner (Lance Armour) and Wolfen, with the latter being very stubborn about not falling asleep. I'm thankful that emulator speed-up exists.

Finally, Patty drops her money on Leif so that he can get through, too. I have to admit that I didn't try very hard with Nanna (and she only beat the first three opponents) and didn't even bother with Leylia.

Well then, off we go.

: "Excellent work, Seliph. Thanks to you, Alster is finally free from the Empire."
: "I wouldn't get too excited, Lewyn. King Blume yet lives. I assume he fled to Connaught amidst the flurry of Alster's capture."
: "Eh, these sorts of things can't be helped. After all, the war's only just beginning. We're only now starting to carve out our foothold in the Thracian Peninsula."
: "And yet, the citizens are already all so eager to support us! I've seldom seen such joy..."
: "For the first time, they've got hope for a future free from the Empire's abuse. You're the people's last hope, Seliph, but the worst of the war still lies ahead, huh?"
: "Mm. And yet, I've so much incredible talent fighting by my side! With such amazing men and women with me, I know no challenge will be too great!"
: "Yeah... You'll all do just fine, Seliph."

There's really not that much to say about the story here. Fairly generic saving-the-world business. A closing line from Lewyn that has a bit of a double meaning, considering who's talking.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the map was half bad, literally. The beginning was nice (RNG for Shanan notwithstanding) with its multiple little skirmishes - then, Melgen was boring - then, enemies appearing in both Alster and Darna was interesting again - and then the last part of the map was pretty boring again.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn  W/L
Seliph	  13.70   47  15   3  18  15  18  13   4  45384  +630  [*]  21/0
Leif	  10.97	  38  16   4  14  13  11  13   4  23820  +997  [*]  13/0
Shanan	  15.80*  43  19   0  24  24  10  14   4  25500  +380  [*]  10/0
Ulster	  12.32	  45  16   2  19  15   8  15   0  33034  +594  [*]  6/0

Larcei	  14.88	  49  18   1  22  22  15  13   1  4000   +986  [*]  10/0
Patty	  9.88	  38  12   5   7  15  17   6   3  5278   +888  [*]  5/0
Johalvier 16.07	  46  17   0  10  16   6  15   3  50000  +347  [*]  9/0
Oifey	  19.80*  44  18   9  18  17   9  19   8  25500  +188  [*]  17/2

Finn	  24.60	  46  22   0  16  21  18  18   4  39515  +80   [*]  8/0
Dermott	  12.80	  42  21   0  16  12  14  13   1  28752  +610  [*]  22/1
Nanna	  9.11	  37  11   3   9   9  13   8   4  12432  +611  [4]  2/0
Ares	  11.44	  46  17   4  13  14   6  14   6  20500  +444  [*]  3/0

Fee	  13.03	  38  14   5  12  20   8  12  13  41822  +788  [*]  14/0
Lester	  10.60	  38  15   2   9  13  14  12   0  19863  +464  [*]  13/0
Arthur	  14.18	  47   0  18  21  21  19   3   6  38893  +790  [*]  8/0
Tinni	  6.94	  34   0  12  13  13  10   2   6  27893  +394  [*]  2/0

Julia	  13.45	  35   0  23  10  17   9   4  22  27300  +1025 [*]  8/0
Lana	  12.75	  40   7  13  14  15  15   5   8  4683   +675  --   0/0
Leylia	  4.30	  25   5   0   1  13   4   1   4  12000  +130  [1]  0/0

Dwelling: Seliph<->Lana, Ulster->Lana
Fancy of late: Shanan<->Patty, Leylia<->Ares
Truly in love: Leif<->Nanna
Married: Larcei/Johalvier
N/A: (Finn), (Oifey), Dermott, Arthur, Tinni, Julia, Lester, Fee

16 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Well, each point makes a big difference, but only situationally. Going from 15 to 16 AS makes a huge difference against 15 AS enemies, but essentially no difference against 8 AS enemies, or 24 AS enemies.

But every situation has this specific breaking point where a character suddenly doubles their damage output (or, in the other direction, halves their durability). You have characters that are insanely dependent on their early Spd growth (BlaBla Bartre; Alan and Bors are examples in BinBla) and characters that really don't give a shit about their Spd growth because they double everything all the time anyway. Speed is a stat that is much more swingy - both in how much its own importance varies and in just how much it can flip a character's combat performance on its head - than any other stat. Sure, a character can have overkill Str, but a lot of time, even that can allow them to swap to a lighter/cheaper/more accurate weapon and still get the kill.

16 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Ooh, nice positioning. It'd be a real shame if they suddenly got 3 extra movement apiece. But what are the odds of that ever happening?

That would be amazing. Because surely, they would all drop their Leg Rings, right? Right?!

April 3

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

For me, it brings the mind to FE fangame Sun God's Wrath. Don't recall if you played that one or read my LP of it, but without delving into detail, suffice to say that game's protagonist, Astrea, indulges in some... strategic decapitation at one point.

Ah. No, I'm not familiar. I think the only FE fangames I played somewhat recently were Project Ember and The Sacred Rubens.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It comes up, very subtly, a few other times where corrupted are concerned. Alear's terrified of them. However, it's all very lowkey, and for the most part they're just "protagonistic protagonist." Again, the writers wanted to really push Alear's cowardice and their growing out of it in the story, but the higher-ups said... well, yeah, the bolded part, pretty much. Thanks a fucking lot. Hope they're happy now that Engage is widely regarded as one of the worst stories in FE.

Now that you mention Alear's fear of the corrupted, I do remember that. I think my impression was more that Alear is especially sensitive to the "corruptedness", not that they are simply more fearful than other characters.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Cut the dude some slack. He's under a lot of stress. His kingdom is being invaded and his son was just murdered like yesterday (no, seriously, that's Ishtore's one half mention in Thracia that I alluded to earlier, that Bloom is taking his death pretty hard).

True. If we assume that he had a premonition about the current events, what, 15 years ago, that would explain why he's a bit rattled. Can't blame him for anything, then. 😛

26 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Truly the 2nd coming of the iconic trio.

...dangit, Leaf and Nanna are already at 400+ love points. Too late to fully recreate the constellation by hooking him up with Julia.

(which I think is possible? Other than Seliph, she has 0/0 love base/growth with everybody, which makes me think that she might cannot fall in love outside of the Seliph jealousy bug, but I don't think I ever read anything to that effect.)

29 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

I just mean that it we really need to have this cringe scenario, it would be a nice change of pace if the damsel gets to face it with her head held high.

Oh, yes. Full agreement with that. The whole episode is the classic Damsel in Distress scenario played so incredibly straight; even including the "I have you now, my pretty" cliché when Ares is leaving Darna.

31 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

If you actually commit to the incest, I can at least respect it.

~~Funny you mention this, Johalvier and Larcei are already married by the end of ch.7.~~

Pretty much to see if I can get Johalvier somewhere with some favouritsm. Since Larcei is filthy rich thanks to innate Paragon, she can make sure that he'll always be able to arena with the Paragon band, and maybe even another ring or two if required. Once Leaf promotes (probably start of next chapter; he's at 10.97 by the end of ch.7), I might even put the Pursuit band on Johalvier instead of Arthur or Tinny.

April 3

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

As the world's only Bloom stan, I resent that statement. Tinny says Bloom was nice to her in her final chapter conversation with Arthur (contradicted somewhat by her blaming him for her mother's death in her battle quote with him in the following chapter, which itself is oddly contrasted with her battle quote in this chapter where she actually apologizes to him, I blame the rebels for poisoning her mind against the righteous and noble house Friege).

Sorry, but nah.

On 4/2/2024 at 3:23 PM, ping said:

: "Hmph... One would think I could expect more gratitude from someone I raised out of the goodness of my heart after their mother died. Or have you forgotten my many kindnesses?"
: "No, uncle..."
: "Good. Now, get moving. Remember, these rebels are responsible for murdering my dear son, Ishtore, and his true love, Liza! Avenging them is your mission, Tinni!"

This, coming from a parental figure, is not kind. This little dialogue communicates that Blume didn't raise Tinni as a daughter, but as a servant, wielding his "kindness" as a weapon to keep her in place. According to Arthur, Taillte's abduction was ordered by Blume, as well, so he never took her in out of charity to begin with. I maintain my judgement of "piece of shit" for him.

And I don't blame Tinni to be inconsistent in her attitute towards Blume. The girl has been manipulated by him for basically her entire life - it's no wonder that she can't just shake that off.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah that's a pretty neat detail. This alone makes him beat Blume, which means he's officially the most forgettable member of his entire family. (Sorry, Jotari)

Hmmm... if Reptor hadn't worn a monocle, would he still be more memorable than his son?

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Certainly beats Malledus.

Ah yes, the guy who I listed as "advisor guy" in my portrait url list because I (a) couldn't remember his name and (b) didn't care enough to look it up.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

She was the continent's greatest warrior. Alas, she was taken by the greates affliction in anime middle ages: Grief.

Second-greatest affliction. I think Mild Cough is still the most deadliest disease known to... honestly, not just anime, but most genres of fiction.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Not entirely sure what the reference there is, but Astrea is a name that brings a different image to my mind.

Whoops... I meant "Astria" ( = Astram), but as somebody who occasionally watches competitive StarCraft 2, my mind went to this fellow. I don't recall any threats of decapitation uttered by him, though.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Funny how this is basically the same as Engage's avatar worshipping. Yeah, the game acknowledges it, and that's cool. Doesn't make the protagonist any less of a bore. Except Alear has a few moments where they show a personality - and more were intended, but the executives forced the writers to make them more saccharine because what if otakus can't relate as much. Seliph... Yeaah... He sure is a character!

I remember Alear being a coward near the start of the game... which lasted roughly 30 seconds and I don't remember a second time this came up. Can't have the player insert display actual weaknesses, now can we?

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

We'll get to the other one. When the time comes, you'll have to bear(d) with me.

I'm sure Hannibal would be called a "bear" in certain communities, too.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I mean, he basically already says that with slightly different wording. Let's not forget, the Odin Dark shtick already is a reference to this. Remember Missiletainn?

I didn't remember. But yes, that is fantastic. Good job, Fates. You did a Good.

(I suppose I wasn't clear enough, but was referring to that same line. I, as a translator, would've absolutely gone for "Mystletainn is aching for blood." there, unless Ares has an even better line somewhere)

55 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I like it for what it does for Lewyn's character. In that the whole messianic myth is something artificially arranged by Lewyn to help bring about victory. Unfortunately Seliph just doesn't do anything with it himself. Doesn't embrace it, doesn't reject it, doesn't feel stressed about it, doesn't feel cocky about it. He's such a frustrating character that Seliph. I like how he acts in pretty much every conversation he has, but he's just lacking any kind of cohesion to have a core character or a proper arc leading him to be just so god dang bland. Putting me in the situation where my favourite Fire Emblem narrative has my least favourite protagonist (including all those modern avatars...but not including Itsuki, because no one's more bland than Itsuki).

Since I just acknowledged a good thing about Fates, I think I'll balance it out by saying that, thus far, I'd still take the non-character that is Seliph over the actively detriment that is Corrin. At least Deirdre didn't pen a letter to Julia that she's secretly the daughter of Deirdre's good friend and non-relative (and Julia's combination of Holy Bloods is, er, divine intervention, stop asking questions already).

Just now, Saint Rubenio said:

If it helps, basically the only thing Reptor has going for him is the rad monocle and not being surrounded by more interesting family members. He's less boring but more by context than any merit of his own.

Ah. That answers my previous question. :lol:

April 3

FE4 Chapter 7: Beyond the Desert

Melgen --> Darna

Spoiler

____

So, here we are in a bit of a pincer, which means that we have to split our forces, which makes this part of the fight automatically more interesting than the previous. Now, I announced last time how Fee would be able to kill some butt here. However, two problems - first, because we're facing Sword Cavs, she doesn't actually double with the Horseslayer.

Second, she manages to miss three out of three attacks.

However, because of how squad AI tends to work, things aren't too bad despite that. Only the five (minus one that Ares killed on EP) cavaliers that could attack Fee or Ares used their full movement, so the group is somewhat split up now.

____

As a result, this formation is quite safe, with Jabarro not quite in range to attack anybody.

And it allows Johalvier to be useful. Bravo, I say! He actually manages to kill four Cavs despite having the same hitrate as Fee.

You're welcome for the free propaganda material, Ruben.

__

: "Heh... Welcome to your deaths!"

The following boss kill is not going to be RNG proof, but that's what start-of-turn saves are for. And not only do we get Jabarro's 3000 gold into Patty's pockets...

...we also get a dramatic confrontation.

: "Ares! I've found you, you ungrateful sod! You're not gonna get away with this!"
: "I regret it's come to this, but so be it. Farewell, Jabarro."

: "Ugh... Ares, you dastard..."

____

And there goes Jabarro's crew.

Of course, during all this, Tinni and the Mage trio were facing the other half of our units. So before dealing with Bramsel himself, I'll cover that encounter:

__

Slow start - Oifey doesn't even double...

____

...but like with Jabarro's group (if less extreme), the Mages aren't very good at acting in unison. The selected enemy is Tinni, so not a lot happens on this enemy phase, either.

____

: "Excuse me, but... That pendant of yours..."
: "Huh? It's... It's a memento of my mother..."
: "Really!? Then you're Tinni! Oh, I've finally found you!"
: "Er... Who are you?"
: "Here, maybe this'll clear things up. This pendant of mine's exactly the same as yours, and I've had it my whole life."
: "Y-you're right, but... What are you saying?"
: "See, decades ago, my mother was a warrior figing in Sigurd's liberation army, and after the war she fledto Silesse with her children. When I was little, my mother and my newborn sister disappeared... I was left behind with nothing but this pendant. I only recently learned what really happened. It was King Blume of Alster. He abducted them. He took my family from me. The rumors I've heard all said Mother had died a while ago, but they also said my sister is still alive... That's you, Tinni! I've finally found you, after all these years! I came all this way just to see you again..."
: "I... I never even knew Blume did that to Mother... It makes sense, though... I can't remember much of Mother, but I know I never saw her smile or laugh... You're my brother... Ohhh... Sniff..."
: "I don't suppose you'd like to lay down your arms and join our army, Tinni? We've still got so much to talk about."
: "Mm. Thank you, brother. I never did want to fight..."

Tinni got!

I know we're working on fundamental Fire Emblem logic here, but Tinni really seems to be Nino-in-Cog levels of not being appropriate to be sent into battle. "I never did want to fight..." - "Awesome, that means now you can fight... for us! Against your uncle!" An uncle who admittedly is a complete piece of shit, unlike Lloyd/Linus, but still.

__

Following that, Julia has her first instance of being genuinely crucial to the combat plan, and not just as a healer. The Mage sisters can't wrap around her for a Triangle Attack, and between Julia's high Res and the Nosferatu tome, she isn't threatened by them whatsoever.

: "Taste the howling gale, traitor!"
: "Taste the wrath of thunder, rebel!"
: "Taste raging flames, brigand!"

Although she doesn't do a ton of damage in return, either.

__

: "Nnhg... I must retreat for now..."

____

Unfortunately, the following clean-up doesn't quite work as intended. Leif trying to chip Eriu down to 1 HP was a crapshot, of course - I didn't screenshot the numbers, but I believe using the Slim Sword wouldn't have been enough to chip her down enough for Tinni. And then Tinni doesn't manage to convert Julia's set-up anyway...

__

...which leads to the other two boss kills going to the highest-leveled characters on the team.

Definitely could've played that one out more intelligently - not trying to blame RNG for all this - but I did this part after moving Seliph's group around and I was too lazy to redo the whole turn.

__

The last action before going back to Seliph: Arthur returning to Rivough to make the Paragon Band available to Seliph and, probably, Patty and Fee. ...Very silly, looking at it now, with Blume still alive, but I believe I'll have some way to beat him without Forseti.

____

Honestly, with all remaining Darna enemies being stationary, there isn't too much left to be said about that theatre of the fight.

Patty gets some money, and a kill.

__

Ares can make a "heads will roll" speech.

: "Seliph... At long last, it's you..."
: "Hm? And who would you be?"
: "They call me the Black Knight, Ares... Perhaps you would recognize me better, however, as the son of Eldigan."
: "Huh?! It cannot be... You don't mean the legendary Lord Eldigan of Nordion, do you?!"
: "The very same! I am the son of Eldigan the Lionheart, the man whom your father killed in coldest blood! My noble mother, the Lady Grainne, died wracked with grief and rage at Sigurd! It is high time you knew my family's pain!"
: "That's... I don't understand, Ares. As I understood it, your father and mine were the closest of friends. As tragic as their end was, I don't believe our fathers could ever have begrudged each other."
: "That's impossible... Sigurd was my father's mortal foe! This... This is all I've known my entire life..."
: "Please listen, Ares. Would you consider joining my army? I know we can resolve this misunderstanding, if we just give it some time. I hold the late Lord Eldigan in the utmost respect, just as my own father did. Please, Ares. Please understand this."
: "Seliph... Very well. I suppose I can stay my hand for now. However, be warned. Should I learn that even a single word of your claims is false, your life is forfeit in your father's place. Do I make myself clear, Seliph?"
: "If that happens, then do as you must. Ares... I wish you could know just how ecstatic our fathers would be to know we've met at last! If only we'd met under better circumstances..."

Out of curiosity, I checked the wiki if Ares has any convos with Leaf. Nope. And really, all Ares needs to complete his Astrea cosplay is a Paladin wife with blue hair and awful stats.

More seriously, I think this convo could've done with at least a little reference to Lene/Leylia. She's the one who first gave Ares doubt about the whole "Sigurd and Eldigan were enemies so grim, their enmity will span genearations!!" mindset, after all.

Mo' money!

____

: "What?! Jabarro bungled it, did he? Darna is my city! Mine! Nobody will ever take it from me!"

For the bosskill, Seliph chips and canters away...

__

: "Nngh... No... Darna is mine... All... Mine..."

...so that Patty can get Bramsel's money and his life.

: "So this is Darna... The legendary city..."
: "Long ago, at the peak of the old holy war, Darna was the last bastion of the resistance army... It was the last free land in Jugdral. In battle after battle, the overwhelming might of the Loptyr Empire had devestated the resistance. Ultimately, the last of the resistance soldiers barricated themselves within Darna's walls. Battered and wounded as they were, they were nonetheless determined to fight to the bitter end. But then, suddenly, there was a miracle... From the heavens descended twelve gods, who bestowed upon twelve young heroes miraculous weapons and immense powers. Thus were born the Twelve Crusaders, the heroes who led the resistance to victory."
: "That was the legendary Miracle of Darna, yes?"
: "Yeah, the very same. And even as we speak, Seliph, another miracle is dawning upon us. Just as the resurrection of Loptyr looms on the horizon, so too are the Crusaders themselves arising in our world once more..."
: "...I beg your pardon?"
: "Heh... Don't worry, Seliph. You'll understand soon enough..."

OK, when I said in an earlier update that Seliph had "messianic" vibes, I wasn't aware of this conversation. But since I think I remember who is talking to Seliph here, that seems to be literally the case. Hm. Not sure how to feel about that.

Very considerate to remind us, Mr Kaga. Unfortunately, Lana is two squares short to warp Seliph to Melgen, so it'll have to wait another turn.

At this point, the generic enemy squad arrives at Leonster, so Seliph will take a little detour to, if I understand the mechanic correctly, add some money to everybody's pockets.

I won't finish the chapter in this update, but just to get a few things out of the way...:

____

Seliph grabs the Paragon band and goes through the arena fairly easily, mostly using the Slim Sword, except against Hoepner (the Lance Armour) and Wolfen. Afterwards, he sells the Paragon Band again, as well as Patty's Brave Sword.

: "Leylia! Where are you? Answer me!"
: "Ares..."
: "Oh! Is everything okay, Leylia?"
: "N-no... It's not... But someone from the liberation army rescued me... And I... I know you'd come, Ares..."
: "Leylia, I... I beg your forgivenes... I was a fool! So very, very foolish... I should have heeded your word..."
: "It's okay... After all, you're here now..."
: "I swear to you, I'll never let this happen again..."
: "And I swear I'll try and keep my big mouth to myself from now on! Don't ever leave me again, Ares..."

Honestly, as trite as the whole "rescue your crush, all badass-like" story was, I don't mind Ares and Leylia as characters too much. It helps their case that their gen 1 equivalents were Lewyn and Sylvia.

Ares also goes through the arena while he's here. Mostly with cheap weapons (he buys a Slim Lance and an Iron Sword as cheap, light alternatives), but he whips out Mystletainn against Wolfen because I don't want to reset my way through the arena outside of home castle.

[HP 50% | Str 50% | Mag 10% | Skl 20% | Spd 40% | Lck 30% | Def 20% | Res 20%]
Skills: Dance, Charm
Weapon Level: Swords (C)

And I thought Azura was the first swole dancer in the series. What a fool I was to doubt Kaga. ...I believe I failed to make the joke when Feena joined back in Book 2. So there you go.

That aside, even though Lene can never match Leylia's muscles (best she can do is 35% growth), it's probably still easier to shove Lene through the arena than Leylia, between innate Miracle (so Lene can use other special swords more freely), potentially other useful skills, and generally better bulk, even if Lex isn't her dad.

I can't say how the two's respective advantages weigh against each other, of course. Lene has potential inheritance (in particular the Knight Ring; I'd assume that Seliph would still call dibs on the Leg Ring), so she doesn't even need to go through the arena all that much. Leylia has Charm, obviously an excellent support ability, but we'll see how likely it will be in future chapters to have her actually apply it, between her frailty and the fact that it's a Dancer's job to move adjacent to characters who already acted, and then send them away from herself.

And that is it for now. Unless something drastic will happen, I expect the rest of the map to be more busiwork than anything actually requiring strategising - with the exception of the final boss kill, that is. But mostly, I'll have to run around collecting village rewards, including a Speed Ring (maybe to Leaf? His Spd is a little underwhelming), a Shield Ring (Patty, probably), and the Barrier Blade (which only Leylia can get). Plus, all the characters that haven't gone through the arena yet.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Seliph	  13.70	  50  16   2  18  15  18  13   4  40844  +630  [*]
Leif	  5.45	  32  13   3  12  11  11  10   3  3778   +445  [1]
Shanan	  14.30*  41  19   0  23  23  10  13   4  5000   +230  [1]
Ulster	  12.32	  45  16   2  19  15   8  15   0  29034  +594  [*]

Larcei	  12.66	  46  17   1  21  20  15  13   0  32034  +764  [*]
Patty	  3.64	  32   8   2   6  11  12   5   2  9000   +264  [1]
Johalvier 16.07	  46  17   0  10  16   6  15   3  17500  +340  [*]
Oifey	  19.80*  44  18   9  18  17   8  19   8  21500  +188  [*]

Finn	  24.16	  46  22   0  16  21  18  18   4  18015  +36   [1]
Ares	  11.06	  46  16   6  13  14   8  13   5  16500  +406  [*]
Dermott	  12.50	  42  21   0  16  12  14  13   1  24752  +580  [*]
Nanna	  6.95	  34  11   3   9   9   9   7   3  3932   +395  [1]

Fee	  7.96	  32  12   2  10  17   6   9  13  15402  +281  [1]
Lester	  10.45	  38  15   2   9  13  14  12   0  15863  +449  [*]
Arthur	  14.18	  47   0  18  21  21  19   3   6  34893  +790  [*]
Julia	  10.47	  32   0  20   9  15   7   4  20  23300  +727  [*]

Tinni	  3.00	  33   0  10  11  10   8   2   6  6393   --    [1]
Lana	  10.35	  38   5  13  12  13  13   5   8  683    +435  --
Leylia	  3.10	  24   4   0   1  13   4   1   4  3000   +10   [1]

ping: "Hm, I'll try a magic-based build for Patty." Patty: "lol, +2 Str +0 Mag, NERD"
Fee also got another point of Str - her third in five level-ups despite a 25% growth - while only having gained +1 Mag thus far.

12 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

A shame that Patty doesn't start with the Brave Sword in her inventory, then give it to Seliph via the conversation. That way, players with Chulainn!Patty could let her keep her mouth shut, and keep the Brave Sword in her inventory.

Anyway, lame-ass take, but you could just keep one Brave Sword in the home castle. It's usually the best weapon for Sword users to clear the Arena, so being able to buy it, and sell it back, is invaluable. Especially for units who aren't able to Arena at the very start of the map. That said, in the field, Leif is great with it. Honestly Oifey too, if it ever feels like he's falling behind.

With all the items you get from conversations, Genealogy runs into this situation really often. Ethlyn hiding Gáe Bolg in her saddlebag is the most egregious example (although she at least gives an excuse in the form of that superstition), but we also had Lana giving Julia a Mend staff, which would've been a better staff than Muirne starts with, too.

12 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I love how Ares is almost trying too hard to be edgy. He's coming across as a goofy, overenthusiastic LARPer.

...Admittedly, he's a touch more lethal than most LARPers. Not all. But most.

"Ares, the Black Knight" as a moniker has an energy that isn't too far removed from "ODIN DARK", either.

...If I was in the translator's shoes, I'd totally see if I could smuggle in an "aching blood" somewhere. Even if it's just Mystletainn aching for blood.

12 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Kid named B Staves upon promotion:

True, true. Honestly, I don't think I ever even equipped either of Tinne's parents with staves during gen 1. You get enough staff users that a staff rank honestly felt like an opportunity to grind XP a lot of the time.

12 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Hm... how would it work? A "chance-based" follow-up, that increases with Speed margin? A guaranteed follow-up, but whose damage increases based on the margin? Limiting the ability to follow-up to player phase? There are some neat possibilities there, but personally, I'm a fan of the existing systems.

Weaker follow-ups (half damage? half Atk, to make high-Def, low-Spd units less susceptible?), but you get one follow-up per 4 points of Spd difference.

Honestly, anything that makes Spd such a binary stat, where one point means the world, and everything beyond that is basically as useful as Lck.

11 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Considering this scene starts with Leen being all "Yeah, I suppose this is about what I'd expect from you", it feels awkward for her to lose her composure so quickly.

To her credit, Lene/Leylia acknowledges that when she promises to Ares to not run her mouth again.

April 2

1 hour ago, RPGuy96 said:

Let me interest you in a game called Berwick Saga, made by one Shouzou Kaga...

~~Kaga? Never heard of 'em~~

I should by now be conditioned to expect, every time I think of something that might be a cool FE-related idea, somebody to point at at least one of the Kaga Saga games. :lol:

1 hour ago, RPGuy96 said:

I'm reasonably confident that rings don't stack.

Which would be reasonable, since getting +10 to a stat like Str or Def would be seriously OP. But I'm playing a game with a whole arsenal of holy weapons granting a total +30 to their wielder's stats, so I don't necessarily expect there reasonable.

59 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Oh, boy. Don't look at her Forging Bonds to see what they did with her this century. At least most of the rest of her conversations in this game are about saving orphans.

I treasure my ignorance of all things Heroes, I really do.

31 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Not beating around the bushes.

The "Sigurd sets up Seliph's story" angle on Genealogy's story is interesting, although I don't think it works all that well. Kaga seems to have thought that people will be frustrated at Sigurd for making bad choices while the universe conspires against him - but thus far, I'm more bored by Seliph being the golden boy.

His summarisation of Eldigan is spot-on, though.

April 2

FE4 Chapter 7: Beyond the Desert

Yied --> Melgen

Spoiler

Seizing Yied unlocks a second instance of fangirl Patty:

: "Kyaaaaa! You're Lord Seliph! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!"
: "...Oh? And who would you be, miss?"
: "I'm Patty, the one true love of Prince Shanan!"
: "You're Shanan's...? Er, somehow, I doubt that."
: "Whoops... Okay, you caught me! I'm actually a thief! Well, I used to be. I've had enough of all that now. Now, I want to pitch in with your army instead!"
: "Er... You aren't serious, are you? Military life is dangerous. There's no place for your ilk here."
: "Oh, you sound so sure! You barely have a coin to your name, but if you're gonna win this war, then nothing's more important than money. But with me around, you're not gonna have to worry about money ever again!"
: "I've no use for money tainted by theft."

Note to the reader: This conversation happens right after Patty dropped around 13000 gold on Seliph.

: "...You really have no idea, do you, sir? For every last coin carried by an Imperial soldier, there's a poor villager who they took it from. You can't look at all this and say that it's wrong for us to take that gold back! The people of this land've already lost so much... I... I just want to give something back..."
: "I see... Er, my sincerest apologies, Patty."
: "Sniff..."
: "Say, Patty... I'd like you to come with us."
: "Huh? Really? D'you really mean that?!"
: "But of course."
: "Th-thank you, sir! I promise I'll work as hard as I can for you! Oh, that reminds me! Here, take this sword. It's a little present, to commemorate us getting to know each other!"
: "Wow... This is a lovely blade!"
: "It's one of those rare brave swords. And it's aaaaall yours, sir!"

I probably don't need to reiterate that this isn't exactly my favourite character archetype. A few bonus points, I suppose, for cutting her losses and not insist that Shanan is totally into her.

Anyway - I wasn't aware that there's a second Brave Sword available, and this early, too. I don't think I'll keep it on Seliph, though. He has about 70 kills on his Silver Sword at this point, and while the Brave Sword is much more reliable in dishing out that extra damage, there's a few other characters that wouldn't mind grabbing it. Leaf, who is using the inaccurate Silver Blade as his hard-hitting option, or Nanna, who doesn't have any hard-hitting melee sword at all right now, or even Patty after she promotes (and this second Brave Sword honestly is a pretty good argument for Holyn!Patty).

One turn after seizing Yied, we get another cutscene in Darna:

: "Ohohohoho! Leylia, was it? That was quite the dance there! Come hither. I have a little reward for you..."
: "Eww, how rude! You get off your butt and come over here if you've got something to give me!"
: "Hohoho! As cute as that fiery heart is, mouthing off at me so violently? I can't say I care so much for that. Bring her to me!"
: "W-what d'you think you're doing?! Let go! Let! Me! Go! You ANIMALS!"

: "What? And who exactly are you? How dare you, a common sellsword, turn your blade on your employer!"
: "Nobody shall lay a hand on her, lest you face severe consequences. Are we clear?"
: "Gah... What is this sorry little pantomime? Seize him! End his little life!"
: "You all see my sword, correct? I trust I need not introduce the demon blade. Beware, for Mysteltainn craves the blood of men! Who dares to come forth and slake its thirst?"
: "M-Mystletainn?! That's the one and only demon blade? Th-then you... It can't be..."
: "Oh, but it can. It is indeed I: Ares, the Black Knight."
: "M-my deepest apologies, sir! I was merely jesting about! Look, I'll never lay hands on the little darling ever again! You forgive me, right? Right?"
: "..:Very well. Leylia, are you unharmed?"
: "Yeah... Thank you, Ares..."

Not everything about that scene is bad. It made me think of the music video for Everlong, so that's what I'm listening to right now.

Spoiler

Liza's squad is lazy, which makes this next part of the map an exercise in walking around. Bit annoying, but since it's only four characters (Seliph, Patty, Shanan, Lana) that have to cross the desert, it's not as bad as it could be.

Meanwhile, Fee takes a little detour to save the village to the west. She's not going to collect it, since I want somebody else to grab the Shield Ring from it with somebody else (actually, can you even stack multiple rings of the same type?), and unfortunately, when restarting the chapter last time, I forgot to have her grab the Thief Sword from her convoy - although that one is going to have an unintended benefit down the line. Probably. The pieces will be on the map at the end of the update, but they won't have interacted yet.

Eventually, I pull Liza's little army. Could've done a more impactful first contact, so to speak, if I had waited another turn...

__

...but nobody dies, and I just do a bit of a fighting retreat with Arthur getting a little bit of action.

Note how one Knight and one Mage decide to move up on the left side of the cliff - quite nice, since it reduces the number of enemies I actually need to fight.

With that, the enemies are out of Ishtore's Bolting range, so clean-up time it is:

____

...well, with a bit of RNG reshuffling to make sure that Seliph can crit-kill a Knight, and Julia hits two Nosferatus (at 80 hit).

: "So you're the rebel army... This is where your insurrection ends! So long as I, General Liza, draw breath, you shall never reach Melgen!"

: "Ahhh... Ish... tore..."

Well, as I said last update - Liza is not particularly tanky.

__

Enemy: cleared. Basically. On their own, the Ballistae don't really threaten to kill anybody, with Julia being out of range for the one further right.

__

Seliph and Dermott kill them, getting ready to kill two of Ishtore's guards. These guards become aggressive if Ishtore dies before they do (and note Arthur's position), so I'd rather remove at least two of them on the same turn Ishtore dies.

(small detail: Lester is still injured from killing the Mage that went west of the cliff, so he keeps behind a bit so that Ishtore can't target him)

: "You... You vermin! How dare you slaughter Liza like that! You'll have no mercy!"

It's a neat detail that Ishtore's battle (and death) quote change depending on whether or not you killed Liza before facing him. He's obviously not much of a character, given how little time he has spent on-screen, but he seems to work decently well for what he's supposed to do.

Next turn, Forseti. Adept. Dead Ishtore.

: "Liza... I..."

('nother small detail: Seliph cantered back a few tiles to provide Arthur with his valued Leadership. There's always something funny about a boss having zero hit against your dude)

And that's Melgen conquered.

I liked the first part of this chapter, with the caveat that Patty and Shanan's fight against Yied's troops is very RNG-variant. This second part is fairly boring in comparison - only this one fight you have to do (well, Leaf's group had some very minor clean-up left to do), and no real incentive to move fast. No, I don't count the one Brigand - he's an incentive to send A Guy (or Gal) over to kill him, but no obstacles between your army and him.

: "I still doubt that Prince Ishtore or his general were truly wicked people... Must we kill still more like them?"
: "That may be so, but don't forget they still actively served the will of a brutal tyrant. As far as our cause is concerned, there is no doubt. They were the enemy. This is war, Seliph. There's more to it than only fighting the thoroughly evil, or those whom we hate."
: "I suppose so..."
: "Heh! It's okay, Seliph. You're a good man, through and through. You could just stand to worry a bit less. Now then! We've got our goal to focus on: coming to the rescue over in Leonster."
: "Indeed. Let's move in on Leonster. Everything shall begin there!"

So I know that Ishtore is going to come up again, which could change my opinion on him to the better or worse, but I think that in this short segment, he... works. Lewyn's comment that, no matter how affable Ishtore may have come across, he's still fighting for an utterly despicable cause, is a nice change of pace from the usual Camüh sob story, that war is so cruel because it forces good people to kill each other.

After seizing, Shanan has finally caught up enough that Larcei can have a little talk:

: "Prince Shanan! Whew... Glad to see you're still in one piece!"
: "Oh, Larcei! Sorry I wasn't around to see all this begin. From what I've heard, you've all had quite the tough time so far."
: "Don't worry about it. The important part is that you're safe. I, er..."
: "How's your sword arm doing? Any stronger?"
: "Yeah, but still far below your prowess, sir."
: "How about a quick lesson to patch that up? See, raw power isn't quite enough here. Try putting a bit more spirit into it... and swing!"
: "Nnn-yah! Like this, sir?"

[+2 Str --> Larcei; 100 love points]

During all this, I have been moving Leif and company towards Melgen, too. Leif and Nanna continuously adjacent, because that seems like a fairly obvious pairing to shoot for.

After seizing, more cutscenes - and a new recruit:

: "What? Melgen's fallen already?! Blast! We were too slow! Oh, well. We can still ambush them while they regroup. Men, this is our chance! Jabarro, send in your brigade! Hit them hard while their backs are turned! Leave no survivors!"
: "At once, sir!"

: "D'you really have to go, Ares? Please don't leave... Please!"
: "I've little choice in the matter. It was Jabarro who found me as a lost infant, and raised me all these years. I owe him dearly..."
: "Don't you get it? He's just using your loyalty to treat you like a weapon! I...I hate him so much!"
: "Leylia... No, that isn't..."
: "Okay, fine! Whatever! Go with him, if you love him so much! It's your life to waste, after all! But you can just go forget we ever met!"
: "Leylia..."

__

*sigh*

Also *sigh*, but for the very different reason that I'm going to have to remember which witch is which.

: "I want you to show these rebel pigs just what it is that the Empire can do!"
: "Yes, milord. Leave it to us. We will never let you down, milord. The rebels shall be destroyed quickly, cleanly, efficiently and utterly. Excuse us, milord."
: "Hmm! Everything depends on you.

: "Hmph... One would think I could expect more gratitude from someone I raised out of the goodness of my heart after their mother died. Or have you forgotten my many kindnesses?"
: "No, uncle..."
: "Good. Now, get moving. Remember, these rebels are responsible for murdering my dear son, Ishtore, and his true love, Liza! Avenging them is your mission, Tinni!"

__

: "Fotla. Eriu. I trust you already understand. We must work in absolute, perfect unison. We will be the ones to claim Seliph's head as a trophy this day. We mustn't be beaten by Tinni's unit."
: "I don't understand... All the villagers talk of the rebels as if they're liberating heroes... But why... Why did they kill Ishtore? I... I don't know what to do anymore... Oh... Mother... What would you do..."

Taillte helped killing her father. ...honestly, not the worst thing Tinni could do in this particular timeline.

At the start of the player phase, one last cutscene, finally delivering that new recruit (it's not Tinni, yet):

: "There you are, girlie! How dare you embarrass me like that the other day. It's about time I thanked you properly."
: "Oh? And what exactly're you gonna do about it? I see right through you! The moment Ares is nowhere in sight, you think it's okay to act all tough again, you vile louse! Don't even think about coming any closer. I don't need Ares around to stop you!"
: "Of all the nerve... You little wench! Throw her in the dungeon! You'll have plenty of time to think about what you've done there!"
: "Ahh! No... Ares..."

♪♫Come down, and waste away with me♪♫
♪♫Down with me♪♫
♪♫Slow how you wanted it to be♪♫
♪♫I'm over my head, out of her head she sang♪♫

: "Y'know, I don't get you, Ares. Why the hell'd you go and get yourself all cosied up with a broad like that? Oh well, I guess. It's all in the past. You're gonna forget 'er sooner or later."
: "I beg your pardon? What exactly are you trying to say, Jabarro?"
: "Heh heh... Oh, nothing. Well, 'cept that I bet Bramsel's right about to..."
: "T-this can't be... Jabarro! How could you know his foul intent, yet let your tongue lie still before me?!"
: "You can't worry 'bout the fairer sex, Ares. Have your fun with 'em, but never stick around for when their sorry lives come crashin' down..."
: "How dare you! And to think you held my trust for so long... I must return to Darna! Leylia needs me!"
: "Nah, that ain't gonna happen, see. Nobody, and I mean nobody, blows off my orders and turns tail on my watch! Not even you, Ares."
: "Keh... I've come far in your company, Jabarro, but our association ends now. If anyone wishes to stop me, Mystletainn will eagerly welcome your necks!"
: "Grr... I'll show you your place, whelp!"

♪♫Breathe out, so I can breathe you in♪♫
♪♫Hold you in♪♫
♪♫And now I know you've always been♪♫
♪♫Out of your head, out of my head I sang♪♫

I'd like to imagine that Leylia will have an opportunity to whack Bramsel with a frying pan, but alas, I know that she only joins when Ares visits Darna, which is to say after Bramsel has been slain by a white knight. Or black knight. We'll see.

Anyway - as you can see, Fee is still nearby, after saving the village northwest of Darna. This is why there's some advantage in me forgetting the Thief Sword: It would've replaced the Horseslayer from her inventory, since there were zero mounted enemies on the map at the beginning, so she'll be able to kick some serious ass here in the next update.

Jabarro is somewhat dangerous, although mostly because of his high mobility and the swarm of cavs around him. He does have Adept, thanks to his class, but with 28 Atk, there's only a handful of characters on our team that he can two-shot.

Bramsel is dangerous if you don't pay attention, but he's also stationary and locked to 1-range.

[HP 130% | Str 90% | Mag 5% | Skl 20% | Spd 30% | Lck 50% | Def 40% | Res 30%]
Skills: Pursuit, Adept, Vantage
Weapon Level: Swords (*), Lances (C)
Major Hezul blood

And here is Ares, who goes right from red to blue without the intermediate green step. Very considerate of him.

I'm happy to announce that, at this moment, his cousin Dermott actually has better stats - specifically, 7 points more Str (and +8 Lck, lol) and roughly similar numbers otherwise. But of course, Mystletainn makes that announcement moot. Its stat bonuses don't look too exciting at first glance - but because it also grants Ares the Critical skill, the +20 Skl matters a whole lot more than just for the accuracy. In addition to the 32% crit chance, Ares also has a 28% chance to proc Adept, which means that with every swing, Ares basially flips a coin to see if he does any bonus damage.

And, of course, even without a proc, Ares just hits really damn hard. Holy weapons tend to do that, and with a 90% Str growth, he's only going to hit damn harder.

I also have to mention that, as somebody pointed out, Ares's mum must've been an incredible badass in her own right. Eldigan didn't have any skills whatsoever (outside of Mystletainn's Critical), so Ares inherited all three of his skills from her.

On the Alster's shore, the group led by another generic Commander seems primed to go and conquer Leonster. I think this is actually a good thing mechanically? If I understand correctly, letting Leonster fall means that Seliph can go paint it blue for another 1000 gold payment for everybody at the end of the chapter. ...who's paying that these days, anyway? Heck, who's been paying that after Sigurd was declared a traitor to Grannvale?

____

On the west side, the Mage Girl trio is strong enough to two-shot most people on our team. We'll see how to approach that, but this seems like it'll call for quick player phase action.

(and yes, I know about their triangle attack. With Genealogy remembering every death even after resetting, I'm afraid that this run won't include a triangle attack. At least not willingly.)

[HP 105% | Str 15% | Mag 35% | Skl 80% | Spd 85% | Lck 60% | Def 20% | Res 15%]
Skills: Adept, Critical, Wrath
Weapon Level: Fire (C), Thunder (B), Wind (B)
Minor Tordo blood, Minor Forseti blood

Tinni seems to be a very straightforward better version of her mum. Same base level, similar base stats (less Skl and Res, but a nice +5 HP) - but better growths in literally every stat and with two additional skills, although Taillte gained Adept by promotion.

That said Tinni doesn't seem amazing or anything. Her brother gains a little bit more from having Lewyn as his dad (turns out starting with Forseti is helpful), even though her high Spd and access to Elwind is quite nice. ...except that Tinni doesn't have Pursuit, of course. For her, Azel probably would've been the better dad. She'll be able to get through the arena with Wrath abuse, she'll deal good damage because she targets Res, but I don't know how much of an impact she's going to have.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Seliph	  8.45	  41  12   2  14  12  15  10   3  23744  +105  [1]
Leaf	  4.67	  31  12   3  11  11  11   9   3  3778   +367  [1]
Shanan	  14.02*  41  19   0  23  23  10  13   4  5000   +202  [1]
Ulster	  12.00	  45  16   2  19  15   8  15   0  29034  +562  [*]

Larcei	  12.02	  46  17   1  21  20  15  13   0  32034  +700  [*]
Patty	  1.71	  30   6   2   6  10  11   4   2  0      +71   [1]
Johalvier 14.66	  44  16   0   9  16   5  14   3  17500  +206  [*]

Oifey	  19.25*  44  18   9  18  17   8  19   8  21500  +133  [*]
Finn	  23.88*  46  22   0  16  20  17  17   4  18015  +8    [1]
Dermott	  11.34	  41  20   0  15  12  14  13   1  24752  +464  [*]
Nanna	  5.74	  33  10   3   9   8   8   7   3  3932   +274  [1]

Ares	  7.00	  40  13   4  12  13   6  12   4  3000   --    [1]
Lester	  10.08	  38  15   2   9  13  14  12   0  15863  +412  [*]
Fee	  6.50	  31  11   2  10  17   5   8  13  15402  +135  [1]

Arthur	  13.80	  46   0  18  20  21  18   3   6  26893  +652  [*]
Julia	  8.20	  31   0  18   8  15   7   4  20  23300  +500  [*]
Lana	  8.00	  36   4  11  11  12  13   5   7  683    +200  --

13 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Like, was she getting wedded off at age 16 or something? Not like that's unheard of for ersatz Medieval Europe, but still.

(If a Genealogy remake includes an avatar that partakes in the eugenics program, that will be a very questionable game)

13 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Wait, THAT's how Project Naga spells the substitute Dancer's name? What a tragedeigh...

Probably to emphasize the diphthong that the name (レイリア - looks like four syllables to me) has. "Laylea" looks more like Lay-Lee than Lay-Lee-Uh to me.

Although, honestly, I find that the name just could've been Leyla to begin with.

13 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I think it'd be fine... IF there were a way to mitigate those skills. Something like "Adept always activates, but only on the first hit, and only if the attacker's AS is at least equal to that of the target." That way, your speedier units would be immune to Ishtore Adepting on Thoron, while only the slowest would be at risk of a Bolting Adept. Also, the obvious "let Luck function as Crit Avoid". At the very least, Nihil nullifies that one. Also also, as for Accost... maybe just get rid of it? It's one of those "hurts as often as it helps" skills, that even in the best case, reduces a unit's reliability. And it has no effect in the Arena, which is essentially "infinite Accost".

Hot Take: Throw out, or rather significantly rework, all of the "attack again" skills, including Pursuit. In every FE game, I think it's a design flaw that a single point of Spd can double a character's damage output (or losing -1 Spd having a character's survivability, although that's a rarer scenario). But the fanbase would probably be revolting even more if such a classic mechanic would be removed or at least nerfed significantly.

13 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

That's a pretty funny one, but in a weird way, it almost makes them worse. Like, I feel like I need to "hold back" on using them in the earlygame, rather than letting them fight when they may be at their most useful. Before the enemy power levels ramp up and they sorta-kinda fall behind.

Looking at the stats of their non-subs in my run, not sending them through the arena seems like it would be enough to keep them below Lv.10. The real problem, I would guess, is a certain new sword-wielding recruit who will always outclass them so hard it's not even funny anymore, and who happens to join just as that conversation is unlocked.

6 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Considering that FE3 didn't have the ability to skip dialog yet, I wonder if maybe the dialog in this game is so brief because the devs themselves were not sure if this was a feature that they would be able to implement. Not to mention what the exact limits of saving would be.

I mean, if this was like FE3 and you couldn't skip dialog and maybe couldn't even save between castles... novel-length dialog in the style of Tear Ring Saga might have been not exactly ideal if you end up having to reload once or twice.

Mid-chapter dialog was also pretty much a non-factor in FE3. But it's most certainly a thing here.

I don't know if Genealogy's writers really held back with their dialogues' length. Some mid-fight convos (Fee and Arthur is a recent example) are still pretty darn long, so the short ones (or blatant omissions like Oifey/Shanan) might just be due to the writers not having enough time to create more (and, arguably, focussing on the wrong characters).

April 1

27 minutes ago, CelestialContrail said:

My interpretation of that part of their exchange is that now that Seliph is getting older and a bit more built, he's starting to resemble Sigurd more and that's what Shannan started to comment on before thinking better of it.

Oh, that makes sense. Telling a 16yo that he's really grown over the last however long Shanan has been awol doesn't need to be "nevermind"ed away, but telling somebody that they're just like their parent is something I avoid with my younger relatives.

April 1

23 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In all seriousness though. Come to think of it, I've been so focused on the Lene/Laylea thing that it didn't even register with me that this is how it is for all character/sub pairs, isn't it? I didn't even know that. I had always just foolishly assumed they'd write them different lines because, you know, different characters.

Not quite all dialogue. It's common enough that kids and subs have the same dialogue that the wiki.org has that as the default ("All second-generation characters and their substitutes have identical dialogue except where noted. Second-generation children are used, except where substitutes have unique dialogue."), but there's stuff like Fee mentioning to Seliph that her mother was on Team Sigurd, which Hermine obviously can't. And of course, some of the substitutes have some exclusive convos, like Roger-Roger stepping on Creidne's, but not Larcei's toes, or Tristan and Dalvin having a little crisis together (TL;DR: "Oh my god we both suck so much") in this chapter if both of them are below Lv.10.

April 1

New York technically isn't named after the English city of York, but after James Stuart, Duke of York, the later King James II.

In a wild coincidence, both Carolina and the man who the territory was named after, King Charles I., ended up being split into two parts.

April 1

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh.

...Well, at least she has a less cringe design. So there's that.

~~In my own defense, this is the one pair of subs I didn't get, so I kind of just assumed, since she looks less childish...~~

~~I'll just remember this incident if I ever have to wonder if Ruben is going to lead me astray~~

Leylia's portrait does look, what, 6+ years older than Sylvia and Lene's (~20 years old instead of 14), which in itself is a significant point in her favour.

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Somehow I get the feeling that I am not missing out by not playing Engage.

Frankly, even as a kid I found Lyn's obsession with the self-insert to be just painful to endure. And now that mr. Watanabe Generico is literally a deity, IS doesn't even need to pretend that everyone is worshipping him because of actual merit.

To my memory, the two little kids would, in a vacuum, be a funny parody of the usual avatar worship in the newest games of the series (and BlaBla), because they're so over-the-top, but that rings hollow when other characters still do the same routine entirely straight-faced. As far as I watched Engage's story (I followed Mekkah's initial LP, but my interest fizzled out), I found that it had some good ideas and scenes, but was overall a lot of anime with not that much substance.

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Huh, I suppose he could use Continue. Maybe they figured the chance of that happening is neglectable, given the tome's massive weight. Unless they actually did code something in to prevent Continue from triggering for those weapons.

It's honestly bad enough with Thoron, which Ishtore has a ~1/3 chance of triggering Adept with. Although, thinking about it, you do have a few tools to deal with it - Shanan; (as long as Ayra got married) Nihil on the Sword Twins. Julia with Silence... if you don't leave it with Deirdre like an idiot, go through the arena with Julia and have Patty give her a bunch of cash so that she can buy it from Lana.

Still, I don't find that it's good game design to give Adept, Crit, or Accost to enemies that already two-shot basically (if not literally) every unit you have.

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Seliph does later refer to Shannan as being like a big brother. Presumably it's mutual- Shannan is just amused seeing his baby bro having grown up and now becoming a man (although Seliph is probably the least traditionally masculine of male lords visually ~~and to think people mocked Brawl!Marth~~). ~~And I'm sure that in their rearing of the six kids, that Shannan played up his big brotherliness when Dad Oifey couldn't convince the children to do something, a perfectly legitimate parenting tactic.~~

That's fair. I think Shanan's awkward follow-up is what makes that dialogue read a bit odd to me.

April 1

35 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Bad Ping. Go back and do it optimally. What if you need that +3 strength against the final boss?

I have the feeling that Finn is going to do about as well against Julius with or without those three points, although my memories about the precise mechanics of that fight are vague.

~~Dangit now I must try and find a situation where one point of Str for Lester makes a difference ...~~

36 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Pffft. She's gonna wish she was Shannan's drinking water next?

...What a silly character that one was...

But you see, it doesn't count as avatar worship because Alear is humble about it.

38 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

For the record, and in case you needed more proof that I have never, ever led you astray - As I recall (someone yell at me if I'm wrong), Lene's personality is exactly the same as Sylvia. Had you married the latter, you would've had to endure that again. Instead you get actually kind of badass dancer. No need to thank me.

I hate to tell you that the only spot where a quick Ctrl+F through the chapter's script returns "Leylea" is the village where she can get the Barrier Blade. If the archives aren't incomplete, that means that she has precisely the same dialogue as Lene.

41 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I guess Kaga figured 10%s across the board was reasonable enough.

We're talking about Shouzou "let's disallow 0%/100% hit rates" Kaga here, so that sounds realistic.

April 1

FE4 Chapter 7: Beyond the Desert

Rivough --> Yied

Spoiler

Small whoopsie: Overwrote the turn 1 save and then noticed that my entire troop movement was balls. Why the heck would I send everybody towards Yied when there's literally nothing left to kill once they arrive?

On the plus side, the redone arena run includes a full clear for Julia, with a little bit of brute-forcing. When Wolfen one-shots anyway, it makes no difference if Julia goes in with 1 HP. I don't even think she wasted too many Nosferatu charges with this - a lot of fights in which Wolfen just kills her right away, but I think she managed to win the second or third time that Wolfen missed his initial attack.

There isn't a lot of smart strategies for Seliph's group on the first turn. A Cav can barely enter the closest Dark Mage's range, so Lester does so to counter on enemy phase, but that's about it.

No, wait, I tell a lie - one convo to strengthen Dermott a little:

: "Say, Dermott. You have a sister in Leonster, don't you?"
: "Yes, sir. We were separated when we were very young. From what I've heard, she grew up with Sir Finn, a knight of Leonster."
: "Sir Finn, you say... You're eager to have the chance to see her again, aren't you?"
: "Yes, sir. I can hardly wait!"
: "Heh. You'll have to give this battle your all first, then! How about a quick swordplay lesson?"
: "Yes, sir! I'd appreciate that!"

[+1 Str/Skl/Def --> Dermott]

Short and sweet. I like the little parallel to Finn receiving a similar lecture from Quan back in gen 1.

For Shanan, first priority is, of course, to get Balmung.

: "Kyaaaaaaa! Stop! Get your hands off of me!"
: "Ugh... Look, I don't want to hurt you. Could you just give me that sword back?"
: "Wait... give it back? Is it yours?"
: "Yes, it is! It's my family's ancestral blade, Balmung. I'm the only person capable of using it. You've nothing at all to gain from keeping it."

"For some reason, no pawnbroker in all of Jugdral will ever buy it from you.

: "Wait, so how'd this thing end up in Yied, anyway?"
: "It belonged to my father, who died in Grannvale's war with Isaach. Someone must've stolen it from him after he died. I only recently learned that it was being kept at Yied, so I came to retrieve it."
: "Hang on, hang on, hang on! Could it be... Are you Isaach's Prince Shanan?!"
: "I am..."
: "Really? It's really, really you?! Wow! Oh my gosh, this is incredible!"
: "Er..."
: "No, really, I've heard all the stories about you! All of them! I've been a huge fan of yourse for so long, but I never thought I'd actually meet you! But you're here! You're really here talking to me right now! It's like all my dreams've come true!"
: "...Yeah, I think I get the idea. My sword, please."
: "Oh, right! Sorry. Here ya go."
: "Balmung... My holy sword... It's finally mine... Hm? Ahh! What is this power...?!"
: "Wooow! This is incredible!"

__

Incredible indeed. Balmung is Forseti's physical equivalent - with even more speed because it's two points lighter, although of course Forseti's 1-2 range and res-targeting are a bigger deal than that. Still, with this, Shanan suddenly only faces hit rates of 16% from the nearby enemies instead of 56% - which gives him a decent chance to solo this whole area, but not without risk, because three Dark Mages (who two-shot him) will follow him and Patty.

Finally, Leif and company head out to face the Brigands. Finn goes west to go after the two Brigands there, while Leaf and Nanna face the trio closer to Leonster.

Paragon worth! A polite Thank You to Lester for not proccing any skill on enemy phase, since I believe this is Arthur's only fight outside the arena in this segment.

____

The Dark Mages are spaced very conveniently here, giving you the opportunity to pick them off in small groups. Bonus points for these two for not having identical ranges because of road tiles, so Lester can do the same thing he did on turn 1.

And while everybody else moves southwest and murders Dark Mages, Seliph and Fee go straight west to help out Shanan (Fee) or arrive when everybody has done their thing and seize the abandoned castle (Seliph). Lana also follows then around, unfortunately with all the desert slowdown that magic units will be free of in future entries, to Physic people if necessary. Julia can handle healing duties for the main group on her own without problem.

Here, Shanan takes a risk, since the Dark Mages two-shot him quite easily...

...but he will dodge every incoming attack. He didn't manage that in the abandoned attempt - he didn't die, either, but this is nice because it allows him to keep stabbing (and one-shotting) Dark Mages on player phase. And because he really dodges all incoming attacks, he can even face the boss without prior healing, since the guy is precisely one point of Mag short of one-shotting base level Shanan.

__

Leif and Nanna manage to get a bit ahead of schedule killing the Brigands, with Nanna getting an Accost proc and Leif getting a crit, resulting in two dead Brigands instead of one. Since Brigands will always go after villages first, it's no problem that Leif ends the turn at low HP, either.

In the middle of the enemy phases, we get a cutscene in neutral Darna Castle:

: "Milord, we've received word that the Isaachian rebels are on the move."
: "Isaachian rebels? Ah, the ones led by that brat... Celice, was it? Or Serlis? Something like that. Heh... Interesting. Very interesting, indeed!"

Love the "Celice" meta joke.

: "The Empire's put a hefty price on that boy's head. Let's make sure we're the ones to rake in that bounty, shall we? Keep our border locked down for the time being. The best option is to let them run themselves ragged, leaving them wide open to our strike! Instruct Commander Jabarro to put his squad on standby. His services will be needed in short order!"

Interesting twist on how the map will play out, too. I don't know how that'll be exactly, but pincer manoeuvres tend to be where Fire Emblem is at its most interesting.

: "Hey, what's with all this noise? You're not about to go to war, are you?"
: "No, we've not entered such a dire state yet. For the time being, we are merely preparing for the arrival of the Isaachian rebel army."
: "Oh, that's good. I guess I'm a bit worried about how you're gonna have to go and fight, too, Ares..."
: "What sorry excuse for a mercenary would I be if I refused to join a battle Leylia? Never mind one which, rumor has it, will oppose Sigurd's son... Never would I deny a chance to personally slay the spawn of my father's mortal foe..."
: "Hee hee! You're still going on about that, are you? Oh, you dolt. I mean, think about it. Both your father and that Sigurd man were knights, weren't they? And isn't killing part of a knight's job? It's like my job. Sometimes, I've got to dance for foul, leering, men! I hate it, but it's part of the work. I have to just deal with it. We've all gotta do what we gotta do to get by in life. I dunno... I just don't think it's right to hate someone for doing their job."
: "Leylia... I understand. I'll have to think it over for a time, but I do understand..."

Gotta give props to Leylia for just plain laugh at Ares for going, "Grr, my honour demands!". I feel like her argument that you shouldn't hate somebody for doing their job falls apart pretty badly in edge cases, but I appreciate the sentiment.

(Leylia and Ares won't hit the field before this update ends, so the frame colours are entirely by vibe. Honestly, I just should've gone with Eldigan's portrait for Ares and see if anybody would've noticed)

Next turn, Seliph does a thing! Which is just some chip damage so that Fee can retain her HP, but still. A thing!

(Honestly, it's refreshing that, for once, we don't have the lord as the vanguard, plowing through enemy lines. But it feels kinda bad to have Seliph see literally zero combat except for this.)

____

I think the main group is mostly covered already: Push forward, kill small groups of Dark Mages. So, to focus on Leif for a second - because Nanna and Leaf got lucky with their proc skills, they can finish their initial task before the Knight squad becomes a threat to them.

And with Canter, Finn can rendezvous with them (well, close enough to it) once the Knights do arrive.

____

They aren't terribly strong, only three-shotting both Nanna and Leaf, although with the random chance that they might kill an enemy to allow an additional one to hit them, they do have to be a bit careful about their positioning.

__

They're fairly successful in grabbing kills without relying on Finn to bail them out all the time, but unfortunately, Finn does get the boss kill, gaining him not a whole lot of XP. Could've fixed it by reloading, but I guess I was a bit lazy.

Afterwards, another small group of enemies comes out of Alster Castle. I'm not sure how these reinforcements worked, and if their numbers are fixed, but I appreciate the additional XP for Leif.

Final little whoops for that group: Forgot to swap Nanna away from the Earth Sword for enemy phase. 4000 gold she won't be seeing again.

Back to Patty and Shanan, with one of the few rounds of combat that Patty sees. Unfortunately, she gets one-shot by the three castle guards around Ctuzof - otherwise, she could've attacked one of those to steal money and make sure that Shanan can one-shot to avoid a counterattack. But with Shanan being perfectly evasive today, this didn't turn out to be relevant anyway.

__

Next turn, the cavalry arrives, and introduces itself with a crit. Turns out, the kill that Seliph set up for Fee earlier brought the Brave Lance to 50 kills! #TotallyPlannedISwear

__

Pictured: Me not checking the numbers and being a bit silly. "I should let Ctuzof attack on enemy phase", I thought, "in case Shanan doesn't kill him". Shanan, of course, has 100 hit on Ctuzof, since Jormungand isn't exactly a light tome, and overkills him by 15 points.

It wouldn't have mattered if Ctuzof had actually attacked on enemy phase, but he's apparently still busy looking for his Fenrir tome. The result is a bit more delay because the two enemies circling around from below the castle are approaching. Very convenient that the Dark Mage has lower movement...

__

...because it allows Patty to grab another 1000 gold. And save two Balmung uses, so that's another 2000...

__

Luckily, I've been fairly quick before this little mishap, so Shanan can still run through Ctuzof before he can kill Patty and/or Fee with Fenrir.

: "You rebel worms... How dare you defile the sanctity of the Yied Shrine! Come! Embrace the darkness, as it entombs you forevermore!"
: "G-glory to... The Loptyr... Empire..."

Perfect. No risk of death.

Overall, because Shanan has no way to heal himself until Lana slowly waddles close enough to use Physic on him, I found this part of the fight too "swingy" to be actually good. He's either lucky and keeps dodging the incoming 16%s, or he gets hit once and has to choose between running away or constant fear of death. My initial impression is that this would've worked better if Genealogy had Elixirs or some other strong, but expensive self-healing (with a nearby church maybe being too cheap). Gambling high-value items, or a decent chunk of money, in order to kill Ctuzof would've been fine, but I feel like this would've been a really annoying part of the map if Shanan hadn't been so lucky.

__

More money! And XP for Patty. Also quite nice.

Eventually, Seliph will get around to seizing, but before that, two more coversations:

Moving along.

At this point, I expect that these enemies will turn hostile after Yied is seized, so I positione everybody at the edge of their ranges - unnecessarily, as we'll see later.

: "Shanan! I'm so glad to see you've made it unscathed."
: "Yeah, sorry to worry you like that. You went and took back Isaach behind my back, did you, Seliph? I can't thank you enough!"
: "No, we'd still be in Tirnanog if not for you. You inspired ups. You gave us your courage. If not for you, we could never have taken to the field!"
: "Heh, you're starting to put on a bit of muscle there, aren't you? You're finally starting to..."
: "Shanan...?"
: "Hm? ...Oh, it's nothing. Pay me no mind, Seliph."
: "Anyway, we're finally starting to challenge the Empire! Not bad, wouldn't you say?"
: "Heh, not bad at all, Seliph! I've waited so long for this day... We all have, really."
: "Thank you, Shanan!"

[+1 Skl --> Seliph]

I don't know if I just can't see the elephant in the room, but I really don't get where Shanan's mind was going with that "bit of muscle" comment. It almost has a bit of a "oh myyy, you got jacked!" vibe, but this is a gay ship I certainly don't condone.

And with that, Seliph seizes, on turn 12. So while I didn't take not on what turn Shanan had killed the boss, it evidently still was with a bit of time to spare.

: "So this is Yied Shrine... It looks so sparse..."
: "The remnants of the Loptyr Empire have hidden within the depths of the shrine for generations. They had no choice. Trying to build new lives on the surface would have led to their mass persecution, or even being burned at the stake. I suspect that at first they weren't really bad or unusual people, but before long, their life here twisted them into what we know them as today."
: "I can hardly believe it... It's as if they were all being tortured for the sins of their long-dead imperial ancestors... All my life, these people have been branded as the 'dark cult', or the 'devil's kin'... I can barely imagine their pain... Hold a moment. This scribble on the wall... Is that a child's penmanship? It's a prayer... And it begs for the return of the dark god... ...Was Loptyr the only hope these people had?"
: "Yeah... Consider this a lesson, Seliph. Good and evil can't be easily reduced to such simple, black-and-white ideals. If you must hate, hate the evil which lurks in us all, not the individual. Never forget this."

Another lecture that, to be perfectly honest, becomes questionable if you consider the edge cases of particularly vile acts. Like, to take a random example, murdering children.

Here, Kaga decides to be merciful again, opening a path from Yied directly south towards Melgen. There's still some desert in the way between Yied and our main group, so these guys (especially the three without the Leg Ring) still are a bit behind the rest, but it's definitely nice that they don't have to do the entire loop-around that Seliph had to take.

: "We'll let them proceed through toward Fort Melgen, let them wear themselves out some more, then strike their wide-open backs! Kehehe... It's almost too easy to be any fun! Wouldn't you say, Jabarro?"
: "Heh, just another hard day's work for you, sir... But hey, so long as you're payin' the bills, my men've got nothin' to complain 'bout. 'Bout time we had a good fight, anyhow."

And with that, the border guards retreat back closer to Darna. Now, on to our next target, Melgen:

: "Hmm... The rebels have already taken Yied? Liza, what do you make of the situation?"
: "I suspect their most likely aim is to come to the aid of the Leonster rebels. As it stands, Ishtore, your father is still preoccupied besieging them at Leonster. Should they reach Alster and strike while he's occupied, the results would be disastrous... It is imperative that we intercept them here and now. Our force will be more than enough."
: "Indeed... My lord father could use the aid. Liza, may I place you in command of my army?"
: "Certainly. Leave everything to me, milord."
: "I confess I'd rather keep you away from the eye of the storm, but there's nobody whom I could ever trust more than you. My apologies, Liza."
: "I... Rest assured, milord. You've nothing to worry about. Just... Please, Ishtore, be careful... Now, excuse me... Men, move out! Assume your positions!"

So it seems that that portrait is used for female generals that their lieges are romantically involved with? Although I don't know if Aida's previous relationship with Arvis is actually established in Genealogy.

Liza hits pretty hard, two-shotting literally everybody on our team (except Julia, but only as long as she can Nos-heal inbetween), but she's also very frail despite the Shield Ring. Dermott can even avoid a counterattack if he kills her with the Brave Sword.

She notably has four Authority stars, one more than her boss, even.

In all other regards, Ishtore is the more powerful foe, though. A fair bit more bulky, with slightly higher Mag, a more powerful tome for hand-to-hand combat, and of course, Bolting. Oh, and as a War Mage, he has access to the Adept skill, which gives him a chance to randomly kill anybody who he doesn't one-shot to begin with (which, right now, would be Leif, Patty, Nanna, and Lester, although he'd need to use Thoron against the latter two).

The solution, I suspect, is called Forseti. Arthur even has weapon triangle advantage over Ishtore, which I believe will reduce Ishtore's hit to zero if Seliph is nearby to counter his Authority stars. Without Lewyn!Arthur, Ishtore just seems like a real arsehole of a boss.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Seliph	  7.47	  39  12   2  12  12  15  10   3  23744  +7    [1]
Leif	  4.35	  31  12   3  11  11  11   9   3  3778   +335  [1]
Shanan	  14.02*  41  19   0  23  23  10  13   4  5000   +202  [1]
Ulster	  11.26	  44  16   2  19  14   7  15   0  29034  +488  [*]

Larcei	  10.26	  44  13   1  20  18  14  11   0  32034  +524  [*]
Patty	  1.71	  30   6   2   6  10  11   4   2  0      +71   [1]
Johalvier 14.44	  44  16   0   9  16   5  14   3  17500  +188  [*]
Oifey	  18.98*  43  17   9  18  17   8  18   8  21500  +106  [*]

Finn	  23.88*  46  22   0  16  20  17  17   4  18015  +8    [1]
Dermott	  9.82	  39  19   0  14  11  13  13   1  24752  +312  [*]
Nanna	  5.34	  33  10   3   9   8   8   7   3  3932   +234  [1]
Lester	  9.12	  37  14   2   9  13  13  12   0  15863  +316  [*]

Fee	  6.16	  31  11   2  10  17   5   8  13  15402  +101  [1]
Arthur	  11.48	  43   0  16  18  20  16   3   6  26893  +520  [*]
Julia	  6.96	  29   0  16   8  14   7   4  18  23300  +376  [*]
Lana	  7.75	  35   3  11  11  12  12   5   7  683    +175  --

It's not like Finn didn't do his fair share of work, he's just that overleveled.
Johalvier's Lv.Xp is really taunting me to restart the game.
As you can see, Patty gave Seliph all of her hard-earned cash. Since he inherited the Renewal Band from Sigurd, he can now sell that to get the Paragon Band, once Arthur has an opportunity to sell it.

Answers!

Spoiler

On 3/30/2024 at 11:46 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Hey, guess what, it's time for the same joke I make every time there's one of these screenshots.

...To be fair, Ishtore isn't particularly ugly. He could kiiiinda pass off as a playable. Except he's instead probably the most forgettable asshole that gen 2 pretends is kind of important. Wah wah.

Honestly, Blume is the only one that really looks non-recruitable here. Ishtore doesn't really look any more despicable than, say, Shinon actually is.

On 3/30/2024 at 11:46 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

This boss is complete garbage. I distinctly remember him. He's everything that sucks about FE4 bosses combined.

To be honest, Ishtore looks even more garbage, since it's more difficult to avoid getting screwed by Adept than it is to avoid getting counter-killed because of a Pavise proc.

On 3/30/2024 at 11:46 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

...Also, Rickard/Julian. Not sure if I'd call that excellent, but... They do get the same amount of interactions as Julian/Lena (exactly two), and heck, in FE12 they actually get more, due to sharing a support.

Well, Rickard/Julian doesn't seem particularly accidental, either.

On 3/31/2024 at 3:17 AM, BrightBow said:

Btw, did you notice that it plays the FE1 player phase theme if you wait in the arena lobby for like 30 seconds?
And the arena battle theme theme is also the version from FE1. It lacks the additional instruments that the FE3 version overlaid.

It's nice that they used the FE1 versions instead of the FE3 ones. In particular I find the FE1 version of the player phase theme to be much more pleasant.

I did not! To be honest, the speed-up button sees a lot of use when I'm arenaing, but I'll pay attention next time.

On 3/31/2024 at 3:46 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Which is why I was silently disappointed that he wasn't fed both of those odd stat-boosting villages in Gen 1. Finn technically gets the most mileage out of them, that's an argument. -Not sure if he needs them though, I can't even remember which two stats get the boosts.😅

Hey now, the +3 Str village is still with us, in the form of 0.6 Str on Lester and 0.3 Str on... Lana. :lol:

On 3/31/2024 at 5:28 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Ishtore only exists to

Reveal hidden contents

Die, and for his death to motivate the women around him. ...Wait, did Kaga just invert a recurring sexist trope there?

Evil fridging be like:

On 3/31/2024 at 5:28 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

There is a "chicken-and-egg" question here. Did Ethlyn fall in love with Quan via his close friendship with Sigurd? Or did Quan and Sigurd become close friends following his romantic relationship with Ethlyn?

Either way, yeah, it's weird that he doesn't refer to Sigurd as his "Uncle", or "Mother's Brother". Just "Dad's old war buddy". Like, you share a holy blood type with this man, Leif.

Since Quan and Sigurd (and Eldigan) are portrayed as going way back, I always assumed that Ethlyn and Quan met each other via Sigurd. Especially because Ethlyn's portrait looks younger than Sigurd's, too, although I'm not sure if the game explicitly established who was the older sibling.

On 3/31/2024 at 5:28 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Wait, so offscreen Edain only ecists at Tirnanog if her kids also exist? ...I mean I guess that makes sense.

Anyway, much as I'm no fan of "damn, I've been defeated! I must retreat", I feel like it would make sense for Edain's character. She's not a "fight to the death" sort of person, much more concerned with helping those around her. I could see her surrendering and getting picked back up later, as can happen to Deidre or Julia. And one way or another, I feel like the Tirnanog squad need some adult accompanying them. Especially when they're taking along an undisclosed quantity of babies.

Thus far, middle-aged Aideen only exists in Lana and Dermott's ch.6 conversation. So unless that will change, she indeed doesn't exist if those two don't, either.

I do agree that Aideen (alongside Deirdre) seems like the least fight-like character of the first generation. Does make sense, with her being the only staff-only character until she promotes.

On 3/31/2024 at 6:28 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:

I only just remembered I had this image.:

Reveal hidden contents

Leif's actual army, don't believe this Genealogy nonsense.😝

Welp, I guess that T776's entire cast was wiped out in the failed mission Finn and Leif talk about at the start of the chapter.

March 30

March 30

54 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

The thing with the Sleep Sword is that it actually works in the arena. Sure, it would be too expensive to chip down armors with it, but the status actually remains even after you cancel the battle.
Which means that after inflicting sleep, you can simply cancel the battle and continue the fight with a different weapon.

Technically you could have done this the entire time. A battle is only truly reset once you either lose or leave the arena. Until then the enemy fighters won't recover the health they lost.
But there was no real way to take advantage of that until now.

Yeah, I remember reading about Vantage/Sleep Sword starts in the First Mate's Matrimonial Mondays; specifically about Lex!Patty.

I experimented with the weapon-swap in the hope that you can swap away from the Miracle Sword and keep the bonus. Unfortunately not the case, be it because canceling and continuing counts as restarting the fight (in which case Miracle doesn't work in the arena, after all) or because the avoid bonus is actually tied to having the skill active (as it should, but it was worth a try).

59 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Actually Pavise won't trigger against Nosferatu ever.
No clue why, it just doesn't.

Such an odd detail. Gaiden already had the thing where Nosferatu can pierce through Doma's protection, so it's either because the added HP steal effect tends to make things a bit wonky, or because Kaga likes vampires and wanted to give the spell even more uniqueness.

But hey, I'm not complaining about reduced randomness.

29 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Genealogy still operates with non-HP stat caps of 30 or less. Finn has 22 Str and still has seven levels to get closer to his 27 cap. Even if he never hits it, could you seriously at all say his stats are that much worse than the kiddos with such small maximal numbers?🤔

That is true. Impressive for an entirely non-noble dude, then. ~~Clearly, Finn is the Oifey of Genealogy.~~

30 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

He's a sword infantry in PoR. Those two words are soooooo limiting in themselves that Stefan's stats as good/decent as they are outside of Luck (which hurts for dodgetanking as he should be expected to do), are actually fairly balanced, or even underpowered. RD Steffy is just P4-Endgame ready in case you didn't train up one of the alternative Trueblades.

Yeah, but PoR!Stefan is often credited for having incredible stats for his join time, and...

Marcia	21/4.97	  40   19   7  20  23  12  20  14   (+7 HP, +2 Def)
Jill	19.81	  31   17   0  14  15   7  16   7

Boyd	21/3.72	  47   22   2  19  19  11  13   6

Stefan	*/8.00    38   19   8  27  25   5  12   9

...yeah, he can compete with the heavy-lifters and their ch.15 stats, as recorded in my Maniac run, but even ignoring movement and weapon type, he's not exactly a league of his own. His bulk in particular is fairly mediocre.

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