Interdimensional Observer

I think I've finally gotten the serious Civilization VI addiction out of my system, for the time being at least. I've logged 2 Domination (Poland, Scythia) 3 Science (Sumeria, Australia, Germany), 3 Culture (Kongo, Brazil, Nubia), and 2 Religious Victories (Arabia, Norway), most on Prince difficulty (and Standard size and speed) b/c the one time I tried King, Russia destroyed me 120 turns in. I've learned a lot after so many trials, errors, and successes, so I've gotten better at the game, but I'm still wary of the boosts the AI gets on the higher difficulties. If the major DLC expansions ever go on sale on Switch, I'll buy them (the Khmer & Indonesia pack too). Gathering Storm's resource limitations sound a bit of a bother for war, and I'm concerned the World Ages and Loyalty systems would ruin me. But, I really want those 16 other civilizations. I then read this "Beyond Earth" Civ spinoff is an unfinished mixed bag. Darned, the idea of a sci-fi Civ sounded great, the Affinities and cities on water seemed appealing. I'll skip it then, too pricey. Luigi's Mansion 3 isn't so fun when it gets to B2; its boss I tried once, and it is no fun at all, the controls are horrible. I'm still liking the game though.

The "Venus" of Willendorf (it predates the myths of Venus by tens of thousands of years- it's just a name those who found it gave it). Nobody knows what this Paleolithic figurine of a woman means, or any of the many other similar ones means, nor who made them, this was looooooooong before the invention of writing. But, you can see what it is and what it emphasizes.

Uhh... And I was just reminded, could FE go and add chariots? Sure, they became out of date in warfare after the Romans (beforehand? did Rome use chariots outside of entertainment?) I guess, not sure why. But FE being fantasy, they wouldn't be out of place even if impractical IRL. Their size/bulk could be kinda interesting in a way. The one issue with chariots is that they'd demand two people: one to drive it and one to kill things. How do you deal with that from a writing perspective for Supports and such? Semi-random other thought, I wouldn't want them as a unit, but I would totally be down with FE having non-sci-fi fantasy landships. More a location in itself with its own zip code, and a superweapon the villains develop to invade anywhere they want. It wouldn't be a mount, but you would drive it and yourself to the battlefield. Give me the G.I.L.S. Fjalar.

Although I think you're supposed to take it at face value, you could pretend it isn't meant seriously, that it's only an unbacked or mostly thin assertion to claim authority. Tokugawa Ieyasu claimed to be a descendant from the Minamoto Clan, one of Japan's four great noble families. The Minamoto, Tachibanas, and Tairas being demoted royal lineages, and the Fujiwaras during the Heian period exerted a lot of power as ministers of the Emperor and frequently married their daughters to the Emperors. Thus, it's understandable that if even the genealogical connection was fake or indirect and strained by the passing of hundreds of years, that Ieyasu would want to invoke them as part of his public image. Understanding this, again, you could pretend that more than a few coups and civil wars happened over that very long time, and that Chrom's family's is descendent from Marth through his greatx11 Emperor of Archanea's grandson's third daughter's second son's daughter.... and so forth in what becomes a very tenuous connection, if still technically real.

I say ditch the living mount and give us standing infantry flying on clouds, or discs of magic rock that floats when properly agitated. I do see that Civilization VI has war elephants, called Varu, as the unique unit of India. Classifies as Heavy Cavalry with a very un-cavalry-like movement of 2 (the usual is 4). Although I do see (for I haven't bought Rise and Fall) that while for Gandhi they are defensive weapon, Chandragupta can easily buff their movement and make them a tool for the attack. Either way, Varu debuff the Combat Strength- both Atk and Def in one stat- of adjacent enemies. I guess the debuff represents the fear seeing a war elephant would inflict into those who see them up close.

What FEs aren't linear? They all are. I can't choose to participate in the siege of an enemy fort instead of assisting the withdrawal on the northeast front. All you're talking about is stuff I can do before I continue down the razor thin path of linear campaigning. By that definition, practically every RPG is nonlinear, when most of them don't deserve that classification. Considering grind can make any FE too easy, I don't spend too much time doing it. That I don't care about unlocking supports either or the Monastery in recent games, means even SoV and 3H feel linear to me. And FE is fine that way, even if I would like tryin a game where it's more than picking a path at 1 or 2 pivotal points. Plenty of smaller route splits is intermixed with a few big important moments would be something FE should try. Of course, the small moments should in some instances affect the big ones, or small moments each other. If you helped the siege in the above example, maybe you then fight a battle the withdrawal ends up going different than if you were there and it affects the next battle. Either way, your choice here wouldn't change the bigger picture of how things stand. Copying the SRW format of "string of opening chapters, route split, reunification for a few chapters in the middle, route split, reunification, route split, end game reunified" would be fine. But I'd go and change the end to an SMT 11th hour monumental route split.

Yep. Not sure exactly how it works, but I think horses only lose HP while you're mounted, so dismounting is recommended when you don't need the extra mobility/Lance access (but Spears- aka most of the pointy sticks b/c Lances in BS are only for jousting into enemies- can be used on foot or in the saddle). One character even gets a personal horse, and it isn't the lord. It's a Thief from the plains who does, a very pretty girl who uses only daggers. A novel idea FE proper hasn't ever done actually.

There is. It's almost finished, only Chapter 15- the final battle- and the very long ending is left. A few more months should correct this. Be aware that Berwick is quite different in many ways. The typical "round of combat" doesn't exist for example. Instead, it goes like this: Attacking Unit- *attacks* IF attack hits, round of combat ends. IF attack misses and the Defending Unit can counterattack at this range, Defending Unit- *counterattacks*. IF Defending Unit's attack hits, round of combat ends. IF Defending Unit misses, Attacking Unit can *attack* again. Regardless of whether the Attacking Unit hit or missed on their second attack, the round of combat ends. Skills and various weapons will mess with this of course. But you shouldn't expect, I would think, to ORKO very many enemies, b/c that would require an OHKO. You should also expect lower accuracy b/c of this system I think. If every hit was super-accurate, then enemies would never get a chance to counter you. Other deviations from standard FE for good or bad:

Doing a GBA chests chapter-by-chapter comparison: So it isn't that many more, but FE6 felt a little chest-sloggy to me. I recall that PoR has one bad chest chapter, but the rest wasn't bad, and being able to smash open doors getting to them mindlessly easier. RD almost abolished chests, I felt. 3H didn't need chests, I felt it only had them out of obligation to the franchise's past of having them, what was the point to the lone Gronder chest? Of course, Chest Keys are an underrated gift. Add a few Door Keys, and barring stealing, Marcus, Clarine and Rutger alike can be just as good as any Thief at their job + their day job of slaughter or healing. It isn't like everyone needs all five inventory slots full all the time. It's only a little extra work juggling the keys around and remembering who has them.

You didn't notice that so far? That not a single early boss or grunt had any droppable items? But yeah, consider fielding two Thieves in some chapters. That is, if you prefer cutting back your offense by 1, rather than having some more empty turns where all you do is move your lone Thief around as they pick chests and Roy waits until they done to seize a throne long abdicated.

Chapter 6's problem for me was you only have one Thief and faaaaaar too many doors and chests, some rooms being total duds/traps makes it even worse. FE6 is only so laden and oversaturated with chests b/c they didn't think to bring back enemies that can drop items, you know, a mechanic that was in every prior game except Thracia. Fix that, remake. Chapter 7 I recall being a bit hairy on Normal, and I've only heard evil of it on Hard, the earlygame jagged peak of infamy.

They did tweet at the very end of last year that people should anticipate SMT5 news next year. So, there is hope that this will finally be it. It will have been exactly four years since IV: Apocalypse released just a few days from now. Assuming dev began shortly after Apo or even beforehand, ~four years should be plenty of time to make a good game.

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I haven't played the game myself, but maybe they meant pacifism as a way to win battles? Undertale favors nonviolent victories over fighting.

Everyone at certain Stage Ranks get one additional slot for each type of skill. 12 is universally the rank for the extra Command, 12 out of 20 max, and that is the earliest they come. But that is it for slot expansion. A small tip would be to leave "-kajas", the temporary stat buffing skills, out of your selection. You can buy consumable stones with the same effect. Debuffing "-kundas" or Fang Breaker/Shellsplitter/Hamstring, do not have a consumable item equivalent, so they're more worth keeping. No worries on that. Gangrel was brutal for me on my first run, and for my Lunatic file, I think a little luck was involved in me not losing even once. Gangrel is just one of the harder bosses. Thank you for reminding me that the Dogma and Saga were not all that intelligently given only two Gem slots when everything else has three. Dunban's lightsaber-like anti-Mechon weapons were memorable too. Blade Core Chips in XC2 I don't remember that much visually, never really noticed the differences in practice. Maybe it has something to do with XC2 only having 2D artwork in its menus, while 1 & X show off the 3D models of everyone.

Peanuts, yum. I had a peanut butter milkshake from Five Guys'; sweet, drinkable peanut butter pie-esque deliciousness. I need this more often. If only they added "Fashion Weapons" in XCX2, that be great. Because, what if I'm at level 60 and don't want a red-colored weapon? Or what if I want a Gatling Gun, and I want mine to be Thermal b/c Thermal is the Attribute slightly more suited to GGs, but I don't want a giant Nopon-ish flower? Being able to fashion any weapon that belongs the type of what you're actually using would be great (so only other Longswords can fashion over an equipped Longsword). I still can't forget the person on another message board who said that for some reason they liked the idea of using a Thermal Raygun, but couldn't bring themselves to do so b/c the only option looked... overcompensatory. I do appreciate the customizability, even if I went no further than a silly face tatoo and green hair. Technically, the outlandish customization options shouldn't exist b/c mimeosomes as a strict rule are supposed to resemble your real body. The ability to change your mim mid-game is provided by a shady guy who illicitly acquired a pod to do so and only lets you do it late at night without any allies alongside Cross. Never mind this thin excuse- for why you can halfway into the game go from being an ordinary human to a pink-haired green clown of the opposite sex- fails when nobody reacts to you like they should. But, this is a gameplay-story/world segregation I don't mind one bit. I think it's after Chapter 2 (or, no later than 3) that you unlock the ability to infinitely reforge Carnages and thus relearn everything from old ones if you want to. The only price is the obtaining the materials again and then doing some more battles to remaster the skills. A reforged Carnage gets a tiny bit of extra Atk too, albeit after the 10th reforging, the tiny cumulative Atk boost is no longer certain. but random. Still, if you reaaaaaaaaaaaaly loved a particular Carnage visually and you invested a lot of time into getting Performas, you could probably make it endgame-worthy in Atk. But you'd have to be a nut to this. Reforging Carnages and going through them a second time lets you nab a fifth skill that you couldn't the first time around. Not of all of these fifths are unique, you may find them easier to get off another Carnage which has it without the need to reforge. But a few skills are only obtained via reforging.

During my brief stint into FEH, I more or less played "clothes on, no eye contact", much as I semi-irrationally have since Fates when it comes to new FEs. In general I don't play games for fanservice, it isn't worth paying for or ingame time and effort mostly. But, if it is to my liking by some chance, I'll look and take some light enjoyment from it. I didn't buy TMS for fanservice, but Touma I later noticed was shirtless, so why not smile at it? And I won't say I'm "holier than thou" either, I've had my lowest of the low smutty self-insert fantasies too. 🙂

Yep, you can check in the main menu once you've made them, or you can check before you even make them with Tiki. On the Carnage Unity menu, you'll just have to press a button that'll flip from the required Peformas needed to make the Carnage, to the skills it offers. Only a Carnage's fifth skill is hidden, but you don't need to be thinking about those yet, they aren't made available until later.

When I rewatched the quick tutorial they give you on them First Strikes are stated to not be guaranteed. Annoying, but given the ease of knocking down enemies I can see why they made it only a chance. Although, on the chance an enemy touches you from behind, there is likewise only a chance they'll get a first strike on you. As for Carnage Unity, you can easily master them all with fairly minimal grinding. But skipping ones with skills you don't think you need is fine too. And as Lightcosmo said, you do master weapons faster the more a character fights. So once you have more than three characters, if you feel like someone needs to master a Carnage faster, put them on the main team.

My memories say to me no and yes to this statement. No, because we do see plenty of him talking in his castle. Yes, because Ike has little direct interaction with him, nor does Ashy do much outside of talking at his castle. Maybe if he lusted to take a stab at Ike coincidentally as he approached Nevassa, but then we're left with why Ashy wouldn't finish the job then and there? Well, his plans, the same plans that keep him away from major interaction. However, given what Ashy's plan was, and his personal inclinations, maybe, while Ike was sailing to/in Begnion, Ashy could have decided to incense Gallia and revel in some firsthand fun by going to the Gallian border and collect a few tiger skins to turn into loincloths?

Not quite sure, but my memory of the impeachment section of the Constitution didn't say anything about a limit, perhaps b/c the Founding Fathers never considered the possibility. But if you find new high crimes to charge them with, why not? It's not like you can't try someone who was acquitted of murder after DNA tests revealed they may be responsible for a separate murder. Although I've doubts a second impeachment could happen in this year. In 2021? That require a possibility become reality that sends me the furthest from my happy place, and hence I do not want to consider it.🙂

Although asking if their judgement is being questioned is in-character for an arrogant evil monarch. It depends I guess on whether you prefer uncoated bluntness, or something with a veneer of sensitivity/indirectness over the same core character. The difference between "You failed to kill X as I ordered you to" and "I was hoping you would have killed X by now" to use another instance I can imagine. Neither is wrong, just different. I recall ~2-3 instances when the talking baddies announced reinforcements in advance. I forget exactly. I can dig up my list of Nergal's Every Missed Opportunity if you'd like it.😄

"I don't believe in astrology; I'm a Sagittarius and we're skeptical." –Arthur C. Clarke A quote I've seen recently. Agreed more or less with the above sentiments. In a game or something thats using them in some way for thematics, it can be fun. Likewise, I acknowledge the role of astrology in cultivating humankind's pursuit of scientific wisdom during the premodern majority of history. But, to think distant balls of plasma, rocks, and gas spheres could play a role in the personalities and fates of human lives. -Well, Jupiter does play a role in the fate of humanity, but it's through deflecting a lot of meteors from reaching Earth via its massive size making a huge gravitational distortion, not giving me magic power in the month of June.

Wrong, a game, that garnered first-week sales so low in Japan that TMS#FE Encore edition sold 19-20 times it, did that.: Or maybe this isn't metal, I'm not familiar with the genre, I just felt like adding a little levity to the topic.

They're a glitch that either got overlooked, or intentionally left in. FE7 knowingly chose to keep them it seems, but of a lesser quality. Outside of like Awakening on all non-child units (including non-start-as-enemies) from ~Nowi onwards, the franchise has never used anything like them again. I don't consider difficulty PC stat boosts a bad idea. Of course too many stat boosts kinda negates the point to a higher difficulty setting, but as a method of keeping characters usable from the start, I think they have a use. -Not that this was at all FE6's reason for the PC boosts. The cause of the glitch, looking at how it is applied, is that the game knows not to give playables that start as enemies stat boosts -if they are visible from the prep screen. Anyone who is loaded in after the map begins the game fails to screen out, and thus they get the autolevels that don't actually raise their level like any other starting enemy or reinforcement.