De Geso

You are aware that there is a chance that your unit will take more damage, and the skillful player will be able to account for this without needing to know the exact number by which the damage will increase. It doesn't explicitly lay out what the Crest does, no, but it doesn't have to. It wouldn't have been made worse by the change you are proposing - if we didn't know that Luna reduced def and res by 30% and it instead only said "chance to reduce def and res," a player still knows that there is a chance they will have to rely on a different strategy besides tanking with a high defense unit. Similarly, knowing that def will be reduced by 30% is only important if you need to calculate the exact amount of damage you need to be able to take in order to survive, and in all the scenarios in Conquest when an enemy has Luna as a skill (of which there are only a small handful), Luna is not a significant factor because the unit is best disposed of with effective damage on player phase, including C24 Hinoka. It changes how you approach the challenge to such a degree that the exact amount of additional damage you will take is irrelevant. However, all that aside, that is not comparable to Crests. A better question would have been, "If Hinoka had a Crest would that make her a worse or better designed boss," and the answer would be that the quality is largely unaffected - as long as you know the unit in question has a Crest, you can play around the presence of that Crest.

"Half of Crests don't actually describe what their effect is." That's untrue - they don't give you exact information about what they do, but they don't have to to be functional as a part of the map's "puzzle." This is discounting the fact that fighting enemies with Crests is pretty infrequent to begin with, so the main concern is whether the Crests on your side should be relied on or if they should be thought of as a nice bonus that sometimes helps the player out.

The examples are at odds with one another, though. For that matter, your example is nothing like the way Crests work or are described and to say as much is disingenuous. Weapon might is known because it directly affects the outcome of the battle every time, regardless of the battle. Skill and Crest activation is different because most battles are not affected by skills and Crests, and none of these are something the player can manipulate in a meaningful way. If Ferdinand's crest prevents counters a percentage of the time, it doesn't matter how often that happens - as long as it has a chance of happening, and as long as that is known information, the player can plan around it. The player knows that it has a chance to happen, so they know they should probably engage Ferdinand on player phase rather than risk him getting a free enemy phase attack on his units. Similarly, if players know that Felix's Crest gives him a chance to do additional damage, they know they would do well to attack him from a position that doesn't allow him to counter a unit who would be killed by the damage boost. The rules are established in these scenarios (and in all scenarios with Crests). The only thing unknown about Crests is the rate at which they activate, but knowing the exact probability is meaningless - even if you didn't know Luna's PROC rate, you'd still be a poor tactician for relying on Luna to activate, whether it's skill%, luck%, etc - you're also a poor tactician if you find yourself in a situation where a critical is your only solution, and knowing exactly how often you will critical does not make the strategy better nor does it make the game poorly designed for not telling you your critical chance. If all Crest descriptions were, "something may happen when this unit fights," I would agree with you and your comparison would be apt, but that isn't how things are, so I don't and it is not.

I really disagree but I understand your sentiment. I think too many things in modern games are explained and handed to the player, and while this is fine for skills and combat arts because they are clearly supposed to be disconnected from the story, Crests are story-specific and are a subject of a lot of research and discussion. I think it would detract from the narrative about them if we knew exactly what they did all the time - why is Hanneman researching Crests if we know exactly what they do and how often they will work? It's a minor thing but I think they're more interesting as a concept in this way. I'm not normally one for story being paramount in games but in this specific instance I like it better this way. I'm also sick of new games handholding the player and giving them information without having them work for it. 3H does the opposite a lot (like in the greenhouse, a lot of modern games would just give you a handy-dandy list instead of having you actually garden and figure it out for yourself) and it works great for me.

Well, you could just play on NG if you're going to add so many restrictions.

I didn't know that the first 9 chapters of Sacred Stones ceased to exist once you beat it once...after all, they don't change at all prior to the route split. I think you're only noticing it with 3H because of how much time is spent in the Monastery versus SS where you can blaze through the early chapters in about an hour.

I think a way to have more fun with Three Houses is to ignore tier lists and instead try to find a way to beat chapters reasonably quickly while using suboptimal builds and units. On Hard the game is pretty easy with Maddening being the only real challenge in the game, so (especially on NG+) you have a lot of room to work with in deciding what you want your roster to be.

The one who most prefers solitude.

I just want them to finish Crimson Flower.

Instead of going through all that, just kill Wolt.

Thank you for putting this together. Do we know if students default to two skills or if they split their skill experience more than that? For example, does Lysithea only have additional ranks in reason and authority or does she have ranks in other skills also?

The other option is to have a totally different Fire Emblem game, so yes, for Three Houses to work as it does Byleth needs to be a teacher.

I really like the music in this game, it's probably my favorite in the series.

Totally, it blows the dub away for that reason alone.

I think it does. Impregnable wall would also work to get him off his avoid tile, yeah? If you can get either of those on NG before Chapter 4, anyway.

I was referring to the side objectives, not just clearing the chapter. The citizen that gave me the most grief was the one on the bottom right, because he was inclined to move toward Solon and nearly got himself killed on the armor and mage that are there with him. Thankfully, killing the red civilian who was attacking him made him disappear before they could take him. Anyway, yes, I did that without stride. Although I don't know if it's possible without one of Warp, Stride, or a Flier to save the one you mentioned in your post.

People struggle with Chapter 8? I recall beating it pretty handily without either Stride or Warp, just using a couple Pegasi...

I'm not sure if this is a bug:

Master Ninjas with the Sol skill.

Do we have confirmation that enemies are not being placed in greater numbers or better positions? At any rate, I wasn't expecting Conquest 2 but I am hoping that the challenge is enjoyable.

It's okay for media to portray characters acting however the author wishes. If they do not like stuff like that they can ignore it and not buy the game, or not unlock the support, or not read it and skip it, or even go so far as to get Ingrid killed if she says something they really hate.

I think it was Otonoko, or perhaps just Otoko. I can't remember certainly. In either case, I am familiar with the meaning behind either word...and, more importantly, that doesn't excuse changing the translation to suit delicate sensibilities. One should be able to see a character say, "If you hit on a man you mistook for a woman there is something wrong with you" and go on living without getting up-in-arms about it. It's nonsense and shouldn't have been changed.

"You hit on a guy that you thought was a girl, you'll really go to any lengths to flirt" makes much more sense for a human being to do than hit on a scarecrow he mistakes for a person. I don't see how "I didn't know he was crossdressing or I wouldn't have hit on him" is hateful.

I caught this one too, clearly censored. It's better than Fates but not stellar. Thankfully it has dual audio.

Once I finish my current BL run I will certainly be doing GD on Maddening (NG). Sasuga IntSys.