Interdimensional Observer

We don’t know the details since it’s brought up only in passing in the FE6’s ending. What it means that the Lycia Alliance which gave way to the Kingdom of Lycia, would likely include the new monarch taking power away from the marquesses, in favor of more centralized and organized administration. Contrary to my lazily put statement earlier, the marquesses would have a very high likelihood of enduring, for the sake of having a body of experienced nobility to pull government officials from and maintaining a continuation with the government of old. It’s not as unifying an action as the other examples in FE, given it incorporates no new territory and the polity already existed. But it is still a movement away from multiple centers of authority to one. A hypothesized but unstated cause for the transition from aristocracy to monarchy be the treasonous failures of the Lycian Alliance in Zephiel’s war. Defense against foreign invasions is one of the fundamental duties of government since time immemorial, that could bring reform to the forefront politics if the country survives. Removing some of the autonomy of the marquesses and granting a monarch incontestable power in matters of war could better defend the realm. Laus, the twice-traitor as FE7 would add, wished to see Lycia ruled strongly by one, ironically, it may have gotten some of its wish, but it was not they who would lead it.

Alcohol is beautiful, just don’t drink it. I enjoy a nice, long documentary on the art of high-end alcoholic beverages. Scotch: A Golden Dream, was the most recent of the sort I’ve seen. The passion, the science and the history of the craft is to be admired. Doesn’t mean I’d ever try a single malt, as one of the interviewed distillers said, the first time they tried it during a workplace lunch break, they were floored. But I hope someone keeps consuming the stuff, keep the tradition alive. Also, they said that ultimately, all the craft and intricacies doesn’t matter, the best booze you’ll ever drink is the stuff you have in good company. 🍻🥂

It sounds to me like a form of primitive and juvenile masculine behavior. Metaphoric testicular dangling over your defeated foe? What are we, human or walruses stabbing the rivals to a harem to a bloody death? And being a form of trolling, I think we can universally agree the Internet would be a better place without it, and I’d say we should want the same in games. -Of course, getting incensed is precisely what the trolls want.

You need not do it, Grandmaster = Grindmaster, Scramble = Words, Einherjar = filler. Maybe FP because of the kinda relevant plot, but getting the good ending there means all kids alive, and I’m not sure if you’d be able to do that. Spotpass Paralogues... You might be able to one-turn Emm’s. Aversa’s can be cheesed. Gangrel’s might be doable, but if Chrom is vulnerable to being ORKO’ed by Gang, then skip it or you’d need to pop Rescue after each of the first two chats. Walhart’s requires Chrom survive a round with him. Yen’fay’s should be bearable, Priam’s might not. But, let’s recognize most of these will likely be a little more criticism of Awakening’s writing.

How about a super-early bad ending where you turn down the offer to work at the monastery saying “Yeah, I don’t want to put up with this s***.” and just leave the premises for a live as a vagabond mercenary elsewhere not caring what others think? Your irresistible magnetism means at your cool but shocking departure, Edelgard puts Rhea into a headlock armed with a dagger to the faced pinned to the ground when the latter tries to grab you for themselves. Dimitri response points a spear to Edelgard’s spine, Dimitri and puts his feet on her back, only for Claude is standing in front of all three, pointing an arrow ready to fire at Dimitri’s junk. Rhea has her one free arm stretched out preparing an Agnea’s Arrow to rip Claude to shreds. In minutes, the faculty and house members join in and the EDM dwellers come out for the fun too. This ending skips over the chaotic events that follow, showing you only a CG where the Monastery used to be, a few inches of its walls and the charred floors being all that’s left. Sothis stands over the ruins in lament from the total destruction that took less than a day to occur, Byleth is nowhere in sight, because offscreen they told her most rudely “Get out of my head!”. Everybody died because you wouldn’t let any of them have you, and you don’t care. *Ahem* What was I going to say again? Oh yes, unification. IRL, doesn’t unification sound like a nice idea on paper? Wouldn’t it be lovely if all the countries on Earth could be become one and the only passport would be the heart? Except, there is no guarantee of unity post-unification, regardless of whether the union resulted from peaceful or forceful means. And the new unified government best not favor any particular polity brought into the union, be that favoritism real or imaginary and found only in the minds of the various peoples. Biased government brings forth riots and instability. -I’m not advocating for Catalan/Scottish/Québécois independence, I rather like the idea on paper of fewer countries and increasing regional autonomy within those structures if they’d still be functional. What I am saying, is that good political unions are hard work, demanding lots of good civil service. You could use force, but that’s a last resort for “good” unions. Oh, and 3H wouldn’t be the first debatable unification in FE. Mystery gives Marth the entire world outside of Khadein, and I suppose Dolhr and Pyrathi and the barbarian wilds. FE6 abolishes the marquess system of Lycia for King Roi. Gaiden of course brings two hitherto separate and quite different countries together. Jugdral has the Seliph-if-no-heirs unification that likely won’t happen outside of like Verdun on most playthroughs. And the Thracian peninsula is reunited despite disparities, but to be fair, they were one during the briefest reigns of Dainn and Njorun, and combined with the incessant warring without a union, is at least worth trying.

That’s where I got off the S.S. Pocket Monsters. Halfway into the into the generation to be precise. I was, likely unfairly, not happy about the plot being something new for the first time in five generations. Though I was in high school by this point too, my views on games as a whole were becoming less magical. Pokémon became nothing unexpected, a new gen or game was no longer shock and wonderful awe. I had discovered Smogon too and although I never got into competitive battling, the knowledge of it diminished my enjoyment by altering my perspectives. I learned from experience that the Pokémon postgame content, like the Battle Frontiers, weren’t for me either, leaving Pokémon with an easy once & done main game. This said, I did get Black 2, I tore off the plastic in the box, but it has never been actually played, despite having seen it a lot over the years. It nags at me from time to time. To go back it now... well, before I die at least. If I never play it ever, I’m concerned its overwhelming anger and loneliness will transform it into a murderous eldritch monstrosity.

Took two days break from Sakuna, I’ll get back to it tomorrow. A 100 floor dungeon, which need not be done all at once and said parts of it are unavailable until story progression, opened up. Here’s hoping it’s got good challenge I may not complete. I played some FoMT since I was still in a farming mood from Sakuna. I finished upgrading the Fishing Rod and Sickle, and then whilst Winter still lasted, filled my inventory with a full inventory of cheap yet nourishing Curry Udon and in one sitting went down to the 255th floor of the Lake Mine and got all six cursed tools along the way. I had dozens of Curry Udons left at the end, I got lucky on finding the ladders to the next floor. Things got faster after nabbing all the cursed tools with that slowdown past me, but it was overall unfun. Had to it do once, and thankfully that’s it. Barring nabbing the Kappa Gems I missed and doing the same thing with the Spring Mine, ugh. I also popped in old Advance Wars: Days of Ruin again. Sure I know how to beat the AI again and again, but there’s fun in that old game that makes me want to keep returning to it. I’m not exactly happy with that, however, as it means I’m wasting time that could go to playing new games.🙁 True, they’re not painfully brainless, but they aren’t truly difficult either. They’re enough to trigger some cerebral activity, but not enough to strain it. Exploration is rather bleh in non-WW and BotW Zeldas though. It exists, but it usually it’s got a lot that’s not accessible until you’ve dived into the dungeons. I don’t want BotW to define all future Zeldas either. I think I have to do a Zelda dungeon in a single sitting. Keeping track of where I left off is too difficult, I get confused on starting it back up.

Sounds like you could almost make this work as a “Pick choice C, watch ending, get Game Over, no credits, game reloads at the start screen, save file intact” situation. This might be the best FE players would put up with. I’m also being reminded of Radiant Historia’s many little bad endings. You’re okay with letting a little girl abuse her shamanic power? She, out of uncontrolled love, locks you in a pocket dimension, the world is doomed without you, the end. Whoops. Fortunately, a quick time travel via the White Chronicle lets you go back to before you spoiled her, now you know to put your foot down. Byleth sounds like they could’ve had this fun.

I forgot about the Beaststones, though I did remember that the Taguel class is bad. You’re right on bows having a niche, but it is as you say only to semi-counter Counter and player-phase some stuff at the supremely high end of Awakening. I meant on a more... less optimized level. Tomes hit Res with good Mt & 1-2 range (and Nosferatu for durability) so they’re the best. Axes and Lances have Handelins being infinitely buyable and they can kill things readily enough on a snowball unit as weak as they are. Dragonstones are 1-2 if hindered by being locked to a slow class. Swords need Armsthrift + Ragnell/Amatsu for 1-2, but being range 1 locked is far better than being range 2 locked in most circumstances. No surprise, the drastic phase imbalance casually defines Awakening’s weapon balance (prior to getting a full team of Galeforce gals and sons of fallen angels). Not like it hasn’t happened before, although RD was cruel to tomes. Steal does exist, and mastering Thief lets anyone use it any time, though I never really tried to see what it could get me. The one thing I do remember is the bridge battle in the second half had a Master Seal you had to steal from an enemy, I think.

The fact that swords are the second worst weapon type in Awakening doesn’t help Thieves (bows are the worst). Myrmidon and Mercenary are better generic infantry sword classes too. And then there is Locktouch not being locked to Thief or its promotions. Panne can take Locktouch and then jump ship for Wyvern Rider, which, triple weaknesses aside, is a better class. Fates has the same Locktouch issue, but Outlaw and Ninja are actually good classes not inherently outdone by two others. 3H however... the game should’ve abolished chests altogether. Chest Keys are infinitely buyable all the time, Thief is rather bad, and some chapters seem like they have random chests for no reason other than they’ve been a thing in FE in every game barring Genealogy.

Nerf the strongest conventional Artes then and make it less a vertical divide than a horizontal one based on what the enemy is more vulnerable to and what comboes better in that particular moment. Nerf Yuri a little, make his attacks less painful. TP, as I pointed out before, can feel limiting. If a melee character like Judith or Regal or a hybrid like Anise needs frequent Artes usage to be fun to play as, then TP is a mistake if the rate of consumption necessary to make a character fluid greatly exceeds their ability to generate TP. I’m not wholly against the concept of MP/TP/SP in RPGs. However, thinking on Xenoblade makes me think it is worth asking if a consumable stat that is used for the performance of various attacks and replenishes naturally on a limited basis and instead is mostly restored via consumables and healing spots, contributes to the game in question. I’m not saying abolish the stat in all games henceforth, or go back the RPGs of yesteryear and interrogate each and every one of them. This is but a modicum of critical thinking for video games.

I thought I remember reading once that the nude Chrom recruitment poster was an invention of the localization, the Japanese is more tepid. Reminds me I did Future Past with only Chrom paired to Robin once. It was capable of being completed on Hard on a females-only run. FP2 was entirely doable no problems, FP3 had to be one-turned, FP1 demanded a turn-one rush to keep Noire from being sniped in a single attack. No parent conversations are available if one does this.

The sight and sound of the roaring waves upon the sandy shores, perhaps with the sun rising in the distance, that’s good. Maybe the smell of the ocean, maybe some people watching with binoculars too, they might be nice things. But... Blazing sun in the summer weather. Blasting winds of either temperature. Gritty sand on my feet and in my shoes. Having to cake oneself in smelly, yucky sunscreen during the summer. Getting wet with seawater that dries into a crust upon my clothes and body. The busyness of peak tourist season. Me being too easily discomforted to enjoy reading physical books, and too caring of their paper tomes to risk exposing them to sand. Me also being too caring to risk electronic devices to risk exposing them to the shoreline elements, and being unable to read said devices anyhow due to so much solar glare. Having to lug around beach chairs and towels and umbrellas, because sitting on the sands midday without shade is utterly uncomfortable. And altogether, it says “maybe a monthly visit in the morning or evening, sticking just inland of the sands where I can see everything without beings on it” is enough for me. The idea of the beach > the reality of the beach. And it is perhaps for that very reason of liking an idea over a physical existence that you find me posting on a video game forum.

Happy New Year’s.🎉🎊🎇🎆 May your joys be pure joys, and your pains, champagne.🍾

Give whoever decided to make Elzam the character in that super rudimentary first battle on Ryusei’s route in OG1 a Custom CPU (that really awesome and rare part). His theme is as genius as his dodging.

I’m not beholden to Ablazes myself. Maybe because I started long before they were invented. However, some dedicated battle themes I admit are a waste of musical talent because they’re either made too short to be truly good, or they’re normal length and you rarely get to hear all their greatness because battles are short. And then there’s my minor experience with SRW Original Generations, wherein groups of characters or even individuals get personal battle themes and they’re usually nice tunes. If a bit samey due to the sheer quantity that must exist. Considering this was introduced to me during my childhood on the GBA, it could still be exercising an influence on my aural strategic combative tastes. True. Although the FE3 B2’s theme has a something of a “Arabian oriental palace/quaint old-fashioned organ at a baseball game” formality which gets in the way of the emotion for me. If I want real feels from Mystery, it’s the Theme of Love that does it for me.

*Sees people talking about recruitment themes* Are those things going to be bygone fossils in the future? Do Fates and 3H even have recruitment themes? You don’t really need them if there aren’t substantial numbers of red and green to turn blue. FE’s growing tendency to give you everyone with a bare minimum of effort undermines the number of chances for the theme, though I concede that there have been moments when the recruitment music played when blues showed up. I prefer Thracia’s myself. It has a certain preciousness to it, it isn’t “Hey, join us!” happy, it’s more “We’re in dire straits. Please, help us!”. An intimate sad plea. It is a remix of FE4’s, and considering FE6 had it too despite the new continent, I’d say Melee could be the reason Together We Ride made its return in 7. But, I prefer 5’s rendition.

True, Yen’ is a thin character. I never read his hot springs convos or his Robinsexual supports, but I’m not sure how much they could help. Valm was too small for two major villains, stuck as it is between a Mad King and two cultists and their god. Gangrel I’d say is indisputably the best of the Awakening villains to me, since he actually rises to being kinda good. For one, the villain archetype he falls into hasn’t been done very much in Fire Emblem, and he does it relatively well. He’s a crass nihilist who likes pestering the heroes and mocking their goody-goodness. He gets sufficient appearances to develop an antagonistic bond with the player, but doesn’t overstay his welcome, which I find helps his kind of bad guy (though, I consider Hades in Kid Icarus: Uprising to be of the same mold and he works though he be around much longer than Gangrel).

Setting the blackmail situation aside, I still find Yen’fay weak. He is made out to be a threat, but falls in our sole encounter with him, and we never once see his face beforehand IIRC, neither on nor off the playable battlefield. For the criticism Walhart has been getting here of being rushed, he did get the Basilio kill to show that he was strong. And whereas Walhart has an appreciable bombastic personality and failed but cool concept of an atheist law & order charismatic dictator, Yen’fay is stoic and naught but a glum Eastern warrior.

No surprise on Bantu, his growths are 10% in HP, Skl, and Lck. That’s it.

Speaking of Persona, the very first one tossed some queer men into its casino IIRC. And I remember a random transgender male NPC in Persona 2: Innocent Sin. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, which released in the same year as Persona 1, featured two effeminate males as well. And SMT III: Nocturne had a gay shopkeeper who showed up in several stores. And I remember SMTIV had an NPC who crossdressed once, and maybe a second minor NPC of the queer kind. Oh, and we shouldn’t forget the Catherine controversy concerning its transgender character. So many instances Altus, never once in good taste.🤨 Why? Modernity being SMT’s setting is probably part of it. I hear the Yakuza franchise has its okama controversies too. I think some localizations dropped the questionable optional events altogether. I don’t remember the reinforcements having staffs or healing Grima. Although the game tells you as much that you should kill Grima quickly. Despite Dragonskin, and Aegis+ and Pavise+ on Lunatic, Grima is squishy and vulnerable to a weak demise via the two Falchions and Brave weapons.

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. It’s equal parts 2D action and rice farming simulator. It’s been fun so far. The farming is distinctive from the usual farming sim, because it’s focused solely on a single crop. But the rice growing process is more much detailed than your Story of Seasons/Rune Factory/Stardew Valley approach to agriculture. The game could offer some additional guidance at the beginning on how to get a good harvest, but things become clearer later. The combat has a few minor hiccups, but it is fundamentally good. Remind me somewhat of the fellow feudal Japan beat ‘em up Muramasa: The Demon Blade. My main issue is that overleveling makes things too easy and the game could use a hard mode for pro action players. Increasing your stats BTW doesn’t happen by killing enemies, they go up at the end of every rice harvest. And if you figure out how to better develop a particular trait of the rice, like Aroma or Yield, a corresponding stat will increase more when the time has arrived. It creates a functional gameplay loop where you venture out to progress the story and get stuff to improve your farming, and the the farming makes you stronger so you can fight better.

The title-skill system in Graces was something I’ve mixed feelings towards. It does something meaningful with Titles for a change, but it’s grindy too.

First, look up his Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE design.😛 Second, apparently, he is an Okama, in Japanese tropes. It can mean gay, queer, or transgender, but the trope is undoubtedly very discriminatory, barring any efforts Japanese LGBTQ advocates may be making to reclaim and redefine the word. -Provided they want to keep it, instead of finding or inventing better terms for their community. I don’t follow Japanese queer activism, so I don’t know. Syncretism was a thing IRL. Be it the conversion of the Celtic goddess Brigid into a Christian saint, or Gautama Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu, or the hyphenated fusion the two greatest Egyptian gods into the one Amun-Ra. Is this where it is said that Walmart has a million-man army? Because, although it’s a bit of a dead horse, no commentary should go without mentioning how IRL unrealistic this is for the time period. Yes, fliers do alleviate some communication issues, and Walhart has an entire big continent to conscript from, but it sounds a wee bit not feasible. Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grande Armee he sent to die in Russia in 1813 was an astounding 600+ thousand, with possibly enough soldiers kept elsewhere to reach 1 million. But, Napoleon is long after Medieval. Though, surprisingly, more than 400k of the 600k were French.

An interesting question, different from the more expectable “Which animations do you like the most?” Nowadays, after one playthrough, I usually turn animations off barring rare moments. In the cases of Fates and beyond, I turn them off from the very start. As for why to like them, flashiness has a certain appeal. Though even for the diehard lovers of spectacle, they eventually lose their luster, for time at least. Spectacle can have a deeper purpose of adding weight to the ongoing story. Seeing Sirius crit that bandit as he helps protect Ogma and the Grust twins can be a form of fan-invented development that Sirius is iron-willed in his goal of defending his country’s heirs. You can also say that animations starting with Awakening more objectively showcase the characters’ personalities. The critical quips for instance. Jugdral, Tellius, and the Kaga Sagas do maintain simple animations even when set to map. I like them. There’s still a solid thud in every hit of an axe, and wispiness in every dodge. That’s what I want, it’s dynamic, clean, and charming. GBA, DS and beyond took a step back by merely having a unit nudge itself towards the other when attacking on a map. RD also had a no animations at all option (oddly 2nd playthrough-only), which is proof you can have three options here.