Interdimensional Observer

Was I the only one who though RD at least gave Skrimir, Sephiran and Ashera decent voices? Sephiran's suited his character, and Ashera's was adequately stern, unemotional, and mature. Skrimir was a little deep, but not totally out of place for him, and lastly I think Shinon was okay. Misaha didn't sound bad either for her one scene. Surprised to see nobody brought up Greil in PoR though. Doesn't he have meme-worthy line too? This said, his actual dialogue in said scene and the way he physically acted as the scene happened was good.

@DragonFlames

One effect of The Sacred Stones' route choice is that depending on the chosen Renais twin, the main antagonist Lyon is portrayed in two very distinct ways. Both share in tragedy, wisdom, gentleness, admiration for their Renais friends, and a want to do good, but beyond this they deviate. The Lyon Eirika encounters is a much more tortured figure, continually fighting in his body for control against the Demon King, but Lyon is certain to lose this struggle and he watches Formortiis run amok. The benefit to this is that the Demon King gets much more screentime than on Ephraim's route, so we get to know the real villain much better. Lyon's romantic love for Eirika is also on greater display obviously. And a greater effort is made on trying to save the Lyon of old, the one Eirika knew from years ago, than is on Ephraim's route. The Lyon Ephraim encounters displays very few signs of being tortured at all, much less being made of his "illness" caused by having a demon in his body. For instance, he speaks with Orson that Ephraim and Eirika are coming, while Riev does that on Eirika's route and Lyon coughs at his "illness". Formortiis appears possessing Lyon's body on Ephraim route less of the time, and what time is spent possessing him is then claimed by the real Lyon to be an act he arranged. While Eirika!Lyon with remorse accepts blame for giving into the DK's temptations and thus causing the terrible events of SS, Ephraim!Lyon unapologetically accepts every evil act Grado has done as his work. Ephraim!Lyon appears on the surface to be in total control of himself, but as the freshly resurrected Demon King makes clear, although he did not control Lyon directly, he did manipulate him into doing evil, which Lyon believed he was doing for the good of saving Grado from a cataclysmic earthquake (which I don't think is ever mentioned on Eirika's route). So my refresher summary for those who need it finished (imperfect it may be you might think), which of the two almost irreconcilable faces of Lyon of you like more? The suffering prince who loses control of himself to the Demon King? Or the prince self-assured in his free will and acts like it, but really isn't free?

Well RD did have the Extended Script removed (about 5% of the game's dialogue so I've heard, SF has some of it translated), text available only on Maniac (English Hard) and maybe Japan Hard/English Normal. The two scripts exist because the developers at IS thought more casual players wouldn't be so interested in as much story and characters (WHAT?! Casuals if anything are more interested in story and characters, and only gameplay fanatics bother with higher difficulties!). Nothing invaluable is in the Extended Script, but there are quite a few gems that get cut, like Elincia being told the soldiers she loaned Sanaki died in Micaiah's ambush and Elincia bears this sad news with the maturity of a queen. Ludveck and Elincia also said more during their talk at the end of 2-F, helping to flesh out Ludveck's ideology. Then you get issues like the English not mentioning Lekain "died" when he was turned to stone, nullifying the Daein Blood Pact even after Ashera freed him. And you have more ambiguous things, like if Pelleas dies, Almedha in the Japanese goes much crazier with sorrow- threatening to kill Micaiah even. Of course there are few complete mistranslation hiccups too, like Muarim having Mist's profile in the game's library. The English did add or positively alter a few lines. The warp powder malfunction BS of the BK in Japan was replaced in the English by "I was holding back" regarding the PoR duel with Ike. Then you have Sothe and Micaiah bring up Lekain at the end of 4-P, which they didn't do in the Japanese (but Micaiah does say she likes Sothe's promoted costume in Japan). Overall, RD was well handled, alas it wasn't not perfectly translated however. And PoR- well I don't hear of any issues with its translation, so I guess it was spot on.

Yeah that is a mistake on NoA's part, in the Japanese that line is different. Here is an accurate translation of it: Lekain: “Oh, yes. That. We have a favor to ask of you, Your Majesty. As you are no doubt aware, an army of sub-humans are threatening the peace of our fair lands. We require the use of the Daein army to wipe out this upstart Laguz Alliance. Would you be so kind?” There are two possibilities. The first is that the armor came from Yune's forces during the fight against Ashera's Three Heroes. In the Japanese but not the English in the Tower she says she did perform such blessings. Maybe some of it was preserved? The second is that Sephiran the greatest practitioner of magic in Tellius and servant of the goddesses made the blessings. Note that dragon breath can penetrate the armor if you lose the BK duel in PoR. Ashnard gets blessed armor too and dragon breath and Laguz Royal strikes break through it. Since in this case the blessings only come from a servant of deity instead of a deity itself, the blessing is weaker and hence vulnerable to penetration from the absolute strongest of unblessed attacks, which few yet some could muster. The BK's armor presumably lost the blessings when Castle Nados came crumbling down on him. A giant chunk of castle falling on you should be comparable to a lion's fang or dragon breath (his armor bears clear gashes from the collapse). In the Sephiran case why didn't he renew the blessings after PoR? The BK is one of the strongest warriors in Tellius, what difference does it really make if he has blessed armor or not? He calls it the "dirge of ruin" all in lowercase letters. But presumably it's a Galdrar made for destructive purposes. We have a Galdrars for suppressing Lehran's Medallion's chaotic energies, and its opposite which is the Galdrar of Release for awakening it. RD does have a pairing of Bliss (Biorhythm boost for ally) and Sorrow (Biorhythm drop for enemy) Galdrars. If we have a Galdrar of Rebirth, then it might as well have an opposite- a "Galdrar of Death and Destruction". It'd be forbidden and considered to warp a Heron's nature since such devastation would be inherently chaotic and Herons are very fragile to chaos and heavily aligned towards order. Either one, they hadn't thought of the Blood Pact at the time of PoR. Or two, since he was raiding Lekain on Oliver's behest, he wasn't really defying Begnion. The Senators seem to like bickering with each other over being the most ostentatious, and if Naesala was doing jobs for other Senators and had raided Oliver's ships in the past, then really he is neutral. Every corrupt Senator loathes it when he turns against them, but wouldn't want to activate the BP since Naesala could also work for them. In RD, the Senators are acting as one and Naesala never probably heard Sanaki's opinion on the war due to the coup, nor did it matter since she was couped and thus could not leverage her opinion against the Senate. Since he didn't learn of the loophole from Sephiran until after betraying the LA, he had no choice but to obey. To add my own little unexplained mystery- how in the eight kingdoms did Rafiel go from the island of Asmin to the border of Hatari? What magical force moved him that night that led to this unexplained supernatural phenomena? Was he teleported? Or did he, with broken wings, the glassy body of a Heron, those heavy clothes, and over what would take weeks if not months to travel, swim from Asmin to the mainland and then walk to the Desert of Death/Hatari border, all while in a trance, not eating or drinking probably, exposed to the elements, and not noticed by anyone along the long way?

Well TMS has a few mirage designs that scream SMT. Like Sage Tharja and Sniper Virion, and I get Ongyo Ki vibes from Swordmaster Navarre (the oni mask is a big part why, plus the dark coloring). Kaneko's SMT work is a little "creepy dollface" looking, which does not lend itself well to charming characters and indirectly supports I would think. Seeing him try his hand at Heroes character or two would be cool though. And when was the last time he did artwork for SMT? I thought Masayuki Doi (is the first name correct?) or someone else took over that job. SMTIV Kaneko did scenarios or story or something if I remember the credits right (how do you go from making art to story/whatever "scenarios" are?).

Well that's one weird duet! Seriously Sothe is so no funny business and has enough issues with Tormod that Tharja would be hell for him, provided she bothered to bother him since she might not care. I remember seeing a couple neat stage ideas in an Nintendo Power issue, and I remember one or two cool random download stages when I had online. Ironically Smash 4 had the opposite problem from Brawl- Brawl has a hard time with curves if I remember the stage builder right, while making straight lines are a pain in Smash 4. I tried my hand at a couple original stages, but I forget how they turned out. I followed Brawl through the Smash Dojo so heavily through the development, it was fun! if ruining any surprises for me. I recall fondly reading every new character and stage and item profile. Listening to every amazing music clip (I loved the Meta Knightmare remix, and even the Fire Emblem Theme rendition I'm not so big on now was great), and at the end looking at some interesting snapshot galleries that had been put together. Smash 4 I buried my head in the ground inasmuch as I could (not too much when you're on the Internet) and took a much more chilled, slightly embittered, approach. I wish Pokemon Trainer returned in some capacity, the fatigue mechanic was a little eh, but I liked having PT in the background. Charizard by itself might be better in gameplay, but a little dull since its just Charizard and Pikachu and the Jiggs is enough Gen 1 representation. PT was different since, while it was Gen 1, it represented the universal concept of a Pokemon Trainer. And if it came back, given they did all the Koopalings, I want a selection of PTs from across the Gens, Kris and Gen 2 Gold (I refuse to use "Ethan" and the Gen 2 version is a little older looking than the 4th gen remake's Ethan) being my favorites.

For Valentine's day, a male masquerading as Cupid would give us a flying Bow user. Plus some lovely fanservice. Now who is the lucky dude? And don't try to pull a fast one IS or whoever is responsible and give that to some loli or busty babe! Ah White Day! A correction to a misogynist error where the businessman who brought VD to Japan mistakenly advertised it or thought of it as a day where women gave stuff to men, but not men to women. Then recognizing the whoopsie Japan invents White Day where men give women white stuff. Associated VG: Red vs. White. Celica is bifurcated for this battle.

I give you Ryoma... as a Falcoknight. Ryoma, like Xander has his nation's flier class as his Heart option. Yet although Xander has reason to go Wyvern Lord for a chunk of CQ, Ryoma has no reason whatsoever to ever go Falco or Kinshi. For him, it's a humiliating crippling. Nonetheless, I've been fascinated by the Falcoma, and hence thrust him upon you. You can't capture characters that'd be playable on a different route, only nonplayable non-story important (so no Iago or Kotaro) bosses of human classes. Not even Breakfast Benny.

I don't think it'd necessarily anger anyone. Your opinion is your opinion, most people here will respect that. And not everyone brands Corrin as the worst, or if they do sometimes they lump them with others.

Don't know where it came from or the context (I'd say just look up the earliest released info on Goddess of Dawn/RD if you want to find that out), but here is the picture:

Speaking of that, I'd take Custom Robo on GC VC (not that I'd need it since I still have all my Gamecube stuff). It is something of a shame there hasn't been another entry in the series since Arena, which while loaded with far more customization options and therefore better gameplay, had a kiddy anime aesthetic like most of them. While Battle Revolution (the Japanese subtitle for the GC one) was more of a serious-ish (not totally given sexy chief lab scientist and battleable enemy generics in just their underwear) teenage anime aesthetic with more realistic-ish robos that would look awesome in HD. It's a shame I gave up on ever playing Terranigma, since the plot of that game sounds really cool for its time from what Wikipedia summarized of it. But I only read Wikipedia's summary since I thought I'd never actually get the chance to play it and hence would never see the plot outside looking it up online. Obviously they need Paper Mario Thousand Year Door and they better do that yesterday! Loved the game despite its backtracking faults. My younger self never tackled the Pit, nor learned to superguard, but I love PMTTYD. Yoshi, Ms. Mowz, Vivian, Excess Express, Glitz Pit, and Rogueport, I wish for others to know you. But I really wish they got rid of those two bizarre scenes with Peach For the love of Beat Em Ups, could they put Viewtiful Joe and Viewtiful Joe 2 on GC VC? Although the GC version of VJ1 would lack the PS2 port's playable Dante- least we still have Alaster. And obviously I want the Baten Kaitos duology up there. For all their faults (I'd say BKEWatLO has slightly more), they are two solid JRPGs. I think the game used the Mic so I don't know what they could do about that, but Odama, the Feudal Japan Pinball RTS, is certainly one of the more unique GC titles out there.

Let me think: Hopefully that is all. Sorry my chapter labeling is a little crude, it was a chore enough gathering these. All Majors are supposed to have them I think, and they don't necessarily appear right away, since a delay is how Agustria got itself stuck into a sticky situation where the Major Blood possessors were a junior branch of the Hezul lineage to a Minor/bloodless senior line. Although I must ask just how old that daughter or granddaughter (whatever it is) of Hezul was when she was married, since if the marriage was consummated before it appeared, that could be 16-18 years if IS wanted to yield to modern sexual consent sensibilities. Pretty darn long. However the official artwork, original, TCG, and Treasure alike, don't show any marks, not even on Mareeta or Galzus or Julia or Deidre. Julius alone might have a visible one on his forehead (and ironically Jamke of the bloodless kingdom always has a bindi (little dot some from India wear on their forehead)-esque mark). I'm surprised none have them on their hands (although many wear gloves). Not even the Crusaders themselves in the one great Treasure image of them have visible Brands. But presumably they do, we just need to wait for Jugdralian swimsuit season to see them (may it never come for love of tastefulness!). I too would be interested in that Greil Mercenaries vs. Shepherds topic, but I'm not going to start a topic just for it, someone else can do that if they wish. The Greil Mercenaries are much tighter as a group, we know who belongs and who doesn't. Who exactly classifies as a Shepherd? Everyone up to C3 obviously, and maybe Maribelle and Ricken. But Cordelia and Lon'qu probably aren't, and Panne and Nowi aren't either. Unless the Shepherds have open enrollment and Anna really counts as one. But then I raise you a Marcia and a goddamn master of the sword and descendant of a White Lion Hero Stefan, since they both join the Mercs before PoR C18 when the nature of Ike's group changes to a liberation army. In RD, I can declare Haar instead. Also, while the GMs are strong, you might be overestimating them slightly. 3-3 River Crossing as I mentioned in another topic has the GMs only in a limited role, smashing a supply camp that is relatively undefended. In 3-P and 3-1, they're likewise doing smaller tasks and not fighting whole battles- they take ballistae and some other units while Beasts do the rest, and in 3-1 they do a covert job. The GMs are the Marines of Tellius, give them a special assignment and they'll win, but they can't fight an entire war by themselves. Concerning Defends in Tellius, the first in PoR at the GMs' home is perhaps the most extreme case of their power shown. At Gebal Castle, the game makes it out as they were on the verge of defeat until the Beasts arrived just in time. 3-5 in RD is less justifiable, but still finds some in that it was only a minority of troops that attacked since most obeyed Zelgius's ceasefire. In 3-7, they're a decoy. In 3-8 they fight a token force. In 3-10 they have Crimea's help fighting only Valtome's personal troops since Zelgius curtails the rest. PoR 17 and perhaps the battle where they first find Elincia push the GMs to the utmost limits of their power levels, the epic closing to Part 2 RD aside. Part 4- everyone in Tellius who survived the judgement and isn't Branded is implicitly a super warrior by this point with the exception of the Convoy quartet (and Almedha?- but she's a dragon, she is strong by nature). The Shepherds- what do they do by themselves as an elite group? Very little I think. Most of Awakening, everything post C6 or 7 I think has an invisible army of NPCs along them the whole time. Ike gets one at C18 in PoR and the Laguz Alliance is always present in Part 3. The difference is that we have a much longer time of just GMs in PoR, and RD P3 makes it pretty clear when the LA is working directly alongside the GMs, and when they are elsewhere fighting or retreating or staying out of things. I don't mean to discredit the Shepherds, I just don't think we can judge them so easily. As for personalities. Remember the GMs has a gullible hopeless canonically romantic in Gatrie. And Rhys who can be a little fainthearted and woozy at the sight of some things. I'd criticize Mia since I find her one note, but then again she is good with the sword which matters in this situation. As for the name mixup, well old habits die hard. I think Ced can be pronounced the same as Seti/Sety due to the malleability of English, but the proof will be in 4 Remake.

Well if Robin was able to make the powers of the Fell Dragon obey them (sounds like a nice fanfict), they could be a close contender. Julia's Tellusian descendant Micaiah could rival Grannvale's princess, since she can funnel Yune half a creation goddess right through her- even if she never actually gets to use this in gameplay. Also, while this really doesn't count, worse come to worse, the Jugdralian children can just summon their armies. Most if not all with the right pairings are royalty or nobility. Sure Lucina and Owain could invoke Ylisse, and Siegbert and Shiro could bring Nohr and Hoshido to bear, being faced with the entire might of Jugdral save Miletos (Arion would probably send Altena Thracia's support), Jugdral would possibly win in a war of the worlds. Wasn't it said in some developer interview that eventually the Holy Blood would weaken and so would the weapons? Besides being more balanced in gameplay, the reduced stat boosts and might of the Holy Blood weapons in Awakening, plus the fact anyone can use them, would suggest that by the time of Awakening, nothing really remained of the Miracle of Darna's power, the Holy Blood itself should be virtually extinct. But do lands other than Fateslandia have DVs? In a hypothetical war that would matter, plus what would stop the dragon blooded kids of Jugdral from learning how to use them in not-Fateslandia? You do have a point, but quite understandably we don't have enough information as to how they'd play save as homefield advantage in a crossover battle. I wish Odin had the power to use DVs in Fates (the only issue is Laslow could be sired by Chrom, so him not having DV power but Odin getting it would be ruling out a pairing option for Olivia- a big no), since limiting access to royals and their kids is a little unfair regarding unit choice.

One, you forgot the Rudol Gem as a Skill, since they turned the Recover and Follow Up/Pursuit Rings into Skills, might as well turn this totally forgettable item into a Skill. (Astrid better get the Knight Ward while we're at it.) Him giving it to Sanaki felt a little forced, and they could have just raised his Def cap by 10 for the same effect, but restricting Sephiran's Def cap to 25 has a basis in his highly understandable physical frailty. His battle map could make an easy GHB. It's all flat samey looking terrain but varied in the effects the Wardwood, Cover, and Healstone tiles have. Making an enemy only warp anywhere Skill and giving all of Sephiran's minions a sacrifice themselves skill when he is about to get a fatal hit sounds workable.

Thanks for collecting all this tedious minutiae! I can feel for ya since I've done similar stuff in the past. I could've sworn Kishuna in Imprisoner of Magic (his first appearance) had two Snipers- they don't move so they aren't a threat though despite the Silver Bows. Also, PoR Maniac Mode promotes all the enemies sooner I think. I believe Chapter 18 is a major shift that brings nearly everyone to promoted status I heard once. One LP of Maniac Chapter 20 shows only a Priest and some Wyvern Riders unpromoted. The reduced EXP gain on Maniac is partly countered by this abundance of higher classes, but from what I saw, besides being rather strong, Maniac enemies are ridiculously durable. Whereas I heard Merciless SD enemies get ginormous offensive boosts, but hardly if any durability boosts outside of the Speed increase. As for Awakening, I noticed it does promote pretty quickly on my own. The biggest jump being Fort Steiger, and smaller ones coming at the start of the Grimleal Arc, and then Priam's Paralogue. This doesn't compensate for all its gameplay faults, and if anything encourages low manning perhaps so you can get so strong as to steamroll over the bumps, and that works pretty much to the end I think. I do like RD's layout of: Tier 1 Part 1. Mixed 1-2 Part 2, All 2 Part 3, and SP/Tier 3 Part 4. But that they had to invent the SP classes in the first place indicates how, despite the flashiness of them, the Mastery skills were lazily handled. For Blazing Blade, I think the abundance of unpromoted enemies helps with a Ranked run. Since it makes meeting the EXP requirement a little more bearable because that rank forces you to bring along weaklings. Then again, if more enemies promoted sooner, then you wouldn't need to bring such weaklings since your promoted units would actually gain good EXP! For the GBA, maybe the abundance of unpromoted enemies isn't totally bad still, since Def values rarely hit 20 on even Paladins (SD has a similar issue I think). Hence unpromoted units remain able scratch you units; taking advantage of their low Skill and blending some dodgetanking into your repertoire solves this though.

Yeah, Day Breaks is a pretty good finale to the "Begnion Arc" of PoR, that long midgame stretch, definable as roughly C13 (the Defend on a ship) through 17, where fighting Daein fades and the attention is turned to other things (you could argue the Arc begins with C12, given it introduces the Ravens and the Bird Tribe is essential to the Begnion Arc). Much like FE3's Anri's Way Arc (I haven't played 3, but it probably isn't as good), it actually does have a purpose, unlike Valm and therefore proof you can actually have a semi-removed arc with significance. The significance being Ike gains an army to fight Daein and coincidentally learns a lot about Laguz and Beorc and helps mend ties between them. Plus Reyson, Leanne, Naesala and Tibarn all continue to be very significant post-Begnion Arc. You see Valm? You weren't destined to be terribly irrelevant just for existing. *Ahem* Actually discussing Day Breaks, it does weave a nice bit of story between each stage, neither too thin nor overbearing on the matter. Plus the individual fights aren't terribly long, the 2nd part, the Arrive, being very quick with a flier or two. Tibarn means that like or not the final stage can't go on forever or be losable (if he kills Oliver, fortunately Nosferatu is terrible in PoR and doesn't sell for much either), and the first fight, the Rout isn't overly long if it isn't Maniac I think. Only the potentially hectic Survive the 3rd stage is will last a while. My biggest issue is that Boggly Woods the grey and black burnt forest makes it hard to identify terrain, like what is marsh and what is plains. Fates has a similar issue on some maps, Kiragi and Siegbert have Paralogues thick with forest and plains that looks like forest, but the mini map on the lower screen can give you a clear image of what is what there. I didn't mind it either, so as long as you can save between parts (so I don't like you Chapters... 16-17? Rev) and the individual fights aren't too long. RD 1-6, well I don't think making it two parts was bad, it makes the Raising the Standard feel a little like more like a significant effort to establish the Daein Liberation Army rather than a single quick fight into stardom. Plus the hostage taking isn't so sudden, which it would be if the first part didn't exist, and this is better because it gives time for the enemy to take significant losses, get desperate, and realize they need to pull out their underhanded scheme, rather than just panic and use the hostages right away. Plus the Dawn Brigade is strapped for EXP as is, they wouldn't mind if every battle in P1 had ten parts to it.

Maybe it's not the most perfectly designed... , but 3-3 River Crossing from RD is chief among my personal favorites. Plot wise: Two armies, separated by the Ribahn River on the Sestohl Plains, each numbering in the thousands. The problem for the heroes in the Laguz Alliance is that as strong as they are, the Begnion Central Army led by the fierce Zelgius Earl of Cador is far stronger and would win in a fight purely of strength. The solution? A triparte gambit. The Beast Laguz led by Skrimir march across the river on a foggy day, emerging like legion through it, they confront the Begnion Central Army head on. A few of the Hawk Tribe however split from this fray and instead airlift Ranulf and some of the other elite Beasts into the rearguard, and General Zelgius falls for the most alluring thrill of battle against these strong warriors. With mass of the BCA clashing against innumerable claw, fangs, and talons, and the officer corp distracted by a duel with Ranulf, all in a beautiful perfectly befitting animation clip, their convoy is left almost completely undefended. Thus Ike and his Greil Mercenaries, a small group of the finest in the Laguz Alliance are airdropped by other Hawks into the base camp. They set fire to all supplies, raid the tents, steal the valuables out of the hands of the Senators and set their horses to run free. Oh beautiful chaos! How high the Senators rank, but how stupid they are! Rather than bear to suffer in the slightest, they force Zelgius to withdraw their forces, and so cede ground to the savage beasts they loathe and fear. Not to say all went swimmingly, for Ranulf almost died to the General's hand, but so he was spared, Tibarn rushing in to save the day, Zelgius miraculously standing his ground against the all powerful Hawk King, Tibarn shows a little honorable mercy to Zelgius, letting him live another day, a day when he will exact his vengeance for Phoenicis's massacre. This is perhaps the most elaborate military strategy ever devised and portrayed in FE. It is multilayered, circumstantial due to needing the fog, but not miraculously so, and climatic conditions are something no military advisor should forget. The presentation is top notch, the feeling of two massive armies engaged in a great campaign against each other is there, and you just feel good seeing this carefully crafted battle go so right. You get a full cast of characters each benefiting from the chapter- Ike does his job quietly, Ranulf reluctantly takes a near-fatal risk, Tibarn eagerly awaits the fight, Skrimir roars it into action, and Zelgius shows himself a badass. In gameplay: The chapter is fun because of the idea behind it- destroying an enemy encampment in a limited time. Haar as said before trivializes it with flight, and the GMs are too strong to really lost anyhow, but in spite of this chapter being a little too easy, it is still well designed. This isn't a plot heavy chapter where the gameplay suffers for it, the two are quite well integrated. Surely other fights are better designed, or feature more serious and meaningful plot, but what is wrong with loving a little fun?

One little detail you're missing, the Fire Emblem has a dot on it for each dateable girl plus one in the middle for the guy. It's an easy way of seeing how far you've progressed in all your relationships. To unleash your true power, you must progress all of these relationships far enough that they all perform a magical song to power you up in the final fight. I liked TMS a lot, but purely for the gameplay. I never got into the story, nor ever watched one of the those JPOP numbers, not even the Fire Emblem Opera of Light scene. The characters, my liking for them isn't that deep (not that you have to like everyone deeply), because there isn't much depth to anyone and everyone is a cliche. The aesthetics, the normal music, and some of the costume/carnage/mirage designs were quite cool. I'd take a sequel, ideally featuring different games as the inspirations, and perhaps with a non-Japan setting the way Sakura Wars that beloved anime pretending to be game series went on to Paris and New York after the first 2-3 games were in Japan. I don't hate Sakura Wars or have ever played one by the way, but the heavy emphasis on anime dating scenes would keep me from ever playing it. With playable Illusory Dancer Maiko using an Olivia Mirage! And also using Magic to attack, since there is significantly less Magic use than Physical use in TMS, and packing super support skills named after the Rings in FE7. Aya also gets her own set of character sidequests showing her rehabilitation after years of possession. Itsuki is no longer mandatory in every battle too. Plus a business management minigame for unlocking trivial Fortuna Office and Bloom Palace decor and maybe a couple costumes. Add a full fledged bonus dungeon while we're at it. ...Is that too much to ask for?

Well I found this little nugget. https://legendsoflocalization.com/does-lyn-talk-like-a-country-gal-in-japanese-fire-emblem/ Unfortunately as it says at the end, it only covers the first two chapters. Nonetheless, it appears here and possibly in other games, NoA may intentionally alter tone to make things more serious. Having read all of the Extended Script SF has for RD, the translator used the English wherever there wasn't new additions or a significant difference in tone, which was the majority of the time. Suggesting possibly either a more formal writing tone in the Japanese and hence no need in the English to upgrade it, or a willingness to accept informality in the English. Probably the former if anything since RD is overwhelmingly serious- cracking jokes is a no outside of some Base Conversations. I'm fine with some modernization, and I dislike formality that becomes stilted for the sake of it and possibly incomprehensible due to a being a mess of flowery wording. But then again, I don't like overly modern designs in characters or for their humor to be too blatantly the spawn of the internet. I also really like Bastian's formal tone and poetic language. But it'd be unreasonable to ask for more than two or three Bastians in any game, since that's a lot of work to make, and at a certain point, the fatigue it would bring would result in sloppy incomprehensible false poeticism because they lack the energy to write it well anymore.

Well I think it's implied she uses her foresight more than see ingame. She uses it liberally in Part 4, and sometimes in Part 1: 1-4, and 1-6. The rest of Part 1 doesn't directly invoke her prophetic powers, and Part 3 she is stripped of them. 3-6 is won only by virtue of the LA not expecting Daein at all to get involved. 3-7, well would the LA have won it even without Soren's distraction stratagem? It all depends how much stock you take in Ranulf's intel of the Daein Army being poorly armed. 3-12, we've expressed differing opinions of how the procession through Daein goes. You insist Ike engaged in active combat through it, while I interpret Sanaki's attempts for peaceful travel through the country to stand for the entirety of the LA-Sanaki's Loyalists-Crimean force, meaning Ike tried to avoid fighting and the whole General Maiel thing wasn't Ike seeking a battle, but rather Micaiah starting one and the LA engaging in self-defense. In your scenario, Micaiah pulling off 3-12 is more exceptional than in my scenario, since in yours Ike hasn't been holding back while in Daein, and in mine Sanaki's desire for the whole of the four nation army to avoid fighting Daein means everyone Ike included has their hands tied and can't take aggressive preventive measures against whatever Daein does. No matter how you spin it, I do applaud Micaiah for what she does do throughout the game. Her background is a fortune teller- what do they know about warfare? I hesitate to use that baleful word "prodigal" with her, more she learns expediently. Plus I think you could say that once she joins the Daein Army, Tauroneo and other invisible but properly trained military advisors back her up. But that is fine by me- since she's humble about her abilities and one-man high commands is perfectionism and that is bad. Plus I appreciate her P3 struggling. But yeah, I would say Micaiah is the best of the females as a strategist (and she is the only one to lead a real army). Lyn has Mark to think for her (and on the male side, Chrom has Robin to think for him). Eirika- well she has the early pre-split chapters, but never does Eirika ever actually lead a true military force, only a handful of troops with Seth plastered to her side (not that Seth is comparable to Robin or Mark). Celica- similar situation to Eirika, and I don't know whether she is better or not, I'm guessing better. Forrin doesn't count because Forrin can be Morrin and hence Corrin is truly genderless and cannot be claimed for either the male or female camp.

Beautiful metaphor, I've tried concocting similar ones before, but none quite so nice. Helps Corrin is always barefooted. Ephraim's only redeeming features are: unique weapon type (not a Sword- yay!), pretty nice stats plus Reginleif, and an awesome looking base class. At least his perfectionist warrior bark is matched by his gameplay bite- they were consistent here. And okay his Supports weren't bad for me- the perfection reckless streak doesn't appear here thankfully and I like him telling off Myrrh about the ridiculousness of some of her requests for closeness. That was good at the time, and extra good after TMS where Itsuki lets Tiki (who I think is fine- if contributing indirectly to the lolikete issue by putting one in a spinoff even if by itself her inclusion wasn't bad) call him brother all the time. Ephraim does let Myrrh call him brother, but its nice to know he isn't a passive sponge who will let this dependent little girl get everything she wants. Not to say people should trample over Myrrh, but Ephraim is encouraging her to grow as an individual and break from dependency, which is again nice given things like Faye in modern FE where dependency/obsession without any attempt to fix it is a thing. Soren I've heard some, with some validity, argue never grows out of dependency on Ike either, not good for him personally, not good for his character for us. It is the problem of: Marth (mostly FE1/11), Seliph, Roy, Ephraim, Ike, Corrin, Alm. They never lose, and any personality flaws are glossed over either completely in the case of Corrin and Ephraim, or just don't exist like Marth, Seliph, Roy, and Alm. Ike does get called out, but not enough compared to the praise and plot attention they get for some people, which can be reasonably argued. Marth, Roy, and probably Seliph all have self doubts and put on facades of strength, but that isn't a personality flaw, unless they suddenly have a nervous breakdown in their games, which they don't last time I checked. I wouldn't mind that though. Chrom might also be a Corrin-like situation, flawed, but his flaws are ignored spun in positive light. So most of the male lords are arguably perfect/flawless. The ladies never have qualified, Lyn being the closest in terms of what happens to her in the plot, but that is because after LM, she is unimportant- so no damselism, naïveté or major chance to show imperfection. And in terms of tactical perfection, Micaiah is the strongest with her miraculous powers guiding her military moves, but too much chaos can blur them and fatigue her outside of direct combat. Combat perfection- Micaiah is frail, so I'd hazard Lyn or Celica.

Well when you reread the dialogue, you question whether you ever actually read it in the first place sometimes. I long thought that Bastian's boss convo with Izuka was Bastian asking Izuka about a cure for the Feral drug and Izuka saying something to the effect of "There is no cure for the feral drug you fool!", that is totally absolutely not what Bastian and Izuka actually say. The closest thing in the script is Bastian saying he was trying to get a cure from Izuka, and Izuka offering to make a cure in exchange for his freedom, which Bastian turns down because letting Izuka free is a bad thing. Maybe my mind was distorting that, and I'm doubting I ever actually had Bastian and Izuka fight when I was younger now that I think about it. For Ephraim, this little line from 5x upon rereading suddenly sent the ship of love into the Marianas Trench. Kyle: “We’ve secured the entire castle. You were brilliant, Prince Ephraim! What a plan! What a battle!” Ephraim: “I estimate at least half of the enemy troops are in the field. We took the castle, but we don’t have the manpower to hold it in a siege. There’s no point in lingering here. Let’s continue on to Grado Keep.” You have 3 playables including yourself, probably no more than two hundred soldiers or something in invisible NPCs, given we know he's been desperate and doing guerilla warfare. You say you can't hold a single castle in case of a siege, and that you took it while the enemy's bulk was elsewhere. And yet you have the audacity to think that you have the power to defeat Grado, the biggest most militarily prepared country in all of Magvel with that?! George Washington might as well have sailed to London and made England American! Or how about the modern little Polynesian island of Nauru invade Washington DC right this very instant? Ephraim, I really like the first two sentences up there, and the third is fine, but by whatever gods you worship, how did you seriously think the last? There is also just changes in yourself and what you want of course/what your outlooks are. That happens too. Rereading Ike's rather badass throwdown to Ashera before the final battle starts has suddenly led me to compare to Super Robot Wars's Kyosuke Nanbu, since he makes a similar final boss throwdown in OG1 on his route I think (or was it OG2? I can't remember). Helps that Ike and Kyosuke are alike in that they're quite stoic and very talented. Ike using the Ragnell, a big heavy sword and being himself physically a giant in RD reminds me of Kyosuke's personal mecha the Alteisen (Old Iron in German). Which he got because he's a test pilot used to unstable experimental mechs. Alteisen is big, heavy, loaded with close range weaponry in an awkward manner, the result being a robot that has major issues just standing upright. Yet Kyosuke manages to actually control it. The concept of the Alteisen is massive rushing offensive power. Later in OG2 the Alteisen is upgraded to Alteisen Reise (Old Iron Giant), it gets a Tesla Drive- a device for enabling constant flight- added to it. Yet the Tesla Drive doesn't actually let the Reise fly, since it got a bunch of armor and weapon upgrades that made it so incredibly unstable it needs the Tesla Drive simply to remain upright. Long story sort- Ike in my headcanon has an Alteisen Reise called Alteisen Strahlend (Radiant in German) with the Revolver Stake/Bunker replaced by a giant Ragnell, the Claymore launchers replaced by explosive Ettards, the Heat/Plasma Horn by a Regal Sword, and the Autocannon can fire mini Iron Swords or something. Rampage Ghost is replaced by... well I don't know what Soren's ideal mecha would be so I can't say.

From 4-3: Lekain: “Poor false apostle… No one ever told you about your older sister, did they? She was the true apostle.” Sanaki: “I…had a sister?” Lekain: “She died before you were born, assassinated along with Apostle Misaha by the heron clan. So the senate installed you, the second daughter, as the apostle instead.” I don't think Lekain would lie about murdering someone (even though he is obviously lying about the murderer here- even though he knows Sanaki won't believe him on that). Removing her from the equation would throw the monarchy into further chaos, strengthening the hand of the Senate even more. How did the Senate "kill" her? I'm guessing they kidnapped her, now someone as heartless as Lekain I'd expect to just stab or suffocate the infant, but that obviously didn't happen. So I'm guessing they abandoned her in the open, leaving her exposed to the elements thinking that a feeble baby would easily die that way. Not expecting an old woman would stumble on the infant and take her in.