Interdimensional Observer

Originally I read it as romantic, and I actually liked it the most of any option for Hector, but the Oswin toss in does undercut that. Though I don't think we can totally rule out the romance possibility due to the last line by Serra- it could apply to sisterhood or contemplation of being Hector's wife. Maybe a scan of the Japanese can clarify this?

Well there are well-done characters that are rather one-note, and those who they didn't even try with. Kieran (and I guess Owain and Arthur) fall into the former, and Mia and Ilyana into the other. And Mia, if you never bothered to read her supports, and most people haven't read them, isn't so awful, she just comes off as perky and cool.

Kieran is rather one-note too. And I while I love Jill and her character arc, I wish her PoR supports had covered stuff other than her Laguz bigotry background and her daddy issues, some rather lighthearted extraneous stuff about hobbies and character habits, the stuff Awakening and Fates supports thrive on, would have actually fleshed her out even more. Ilyana is less a human and more a Pokemon, and even less a Pokemon and more a joke. What can be said? FE unfortunately finds itself getting one-note characters with some frequency due to having a totally new cast of ~40 per game. There is only so much creative juice that be infused into the characters of a given game, and when you run out, you get things like Ilyana. I've been doing the Affinity Missions in XCX en masse, and with a much smaller playable cast (though plenty more NPCs and their intriguing quests), I can find something of a similar issue.

I'm in agreement, the idea behind Walhart is good (and unoriginal- though what isn't?), but he's a slab of hamburger meat more uncooked than the color of his armor. The Valm Arc's disconnect from the arc that came before it- Gangrel/Plegia, and the one that comes after- Grimleal/Grima, contributes to this. We never see Walhart in action fighting the Grimleal, he's on another continent removed from them. You mention Gangrel having grounds for sympathy, and that is true regarding Chrom's Father's injuries to Plegia. I'd like to add that his supports mention his war with Ylisse as being motivated, partly at least, as way of unify the Ylissean (there is no actual name given for it) continent against Valm. That, while bearing a ground for sympathy, is a little odd given Valm is on another continent, and long distance maritime empires aren't that easy to maintain. I'm getting the feeling some plot issues could have been ameliorated, not necessarily by cutting Walhart, but simply by getting rid of Valm the continent and moving Walhart across the sea (Chon'sin can go poof for all I care, Tiki can live at Mount Prism). While Chrom butts heads with Plegia, we could have Walhart, a minor player at this point, agreeing to attack Plegia from another direction, just to gently introduce him. Then, in the year that follows the defeat of Gangrel, Walhart could notice the chaos as having improved the standings of the Grimleal and he invades Plegia to restore order and destroy the cult. Validar would then concoct some sort of response. (Perhaps Validar has some Risen make attacks on Regna Ferox and the attacks are feigned as from Walhart- who been putting Regna Ferox on edge about due to his recent geopolitical ambitions; kinda like what Manfroy did when he faked Issachan attacks on Darna- triggering the Grannvale campaign which begins FE4.) Whatever Validar does, Chrom and co. fight the ambitious Walhart when their diplomacy with him fails and he makes blatantly belligerent statements ("either work with me or submit b/c I must stop the Grimleal threat you somehow don't see"), on top of fighting off increasing Risen swarms which ultimately approach apocalyptic status as Grima comes closer and closer to resurrection.

Single favorites aren't my thing (I'm too indecisive), it's why I generally don't post in topics like this. That said, though I started with Blazing and played Sacred too, I think I'm (yet another) Tellius devotee in my heart. I tend to like mages and the scholarly types in FE (well at least pre-Awakening): Soren and Sephiran are certainly in the highest echelons of my likings (though I keep the exact order blurry). Lucius and Bramimond are close favorites too.

Ah Ninian, if she had lived longer, she would've been alive in Binding Blade- and that's the part of the problem! We aren't shown Roy's mom in FE6, so they had to make sure they weren't alive in FE6. Simply saying "death by childbirth"- that classic problem of pre-contemporary motherhood, would have sufficed, and who knows? Maybe that is how Ninian's life ends, holding the newborn Roy in her gently with the fading strength in her arms, giving him his name before passing on. Any who, I think the death thing was also done for dramatic effect- making so Ninian's choice to stay behind with Eliwood instead of return to beyond the Gate had a price, which it wouldn't really be felt to have otherwise for the player (beyond Ninian separating from Nils). Let us also look at the larger world of Elibe, beyond our first shy dancer. In Arcadia in FE6, all the dragons are dead (why?) except Fae (who seems to be totally fine). Athos's reminiscing in Sands of Time suggests however there were more dragons alive there just a few centuries ago- not dead like you'd expect if Ninian's fate was the norm. Actually Ninian is only half-dragon, so shouldn't this make her less frail? Why, Sophia is also Half-Dragon, yet she lacks dragon form, and has been alive for much more than 20 years given her appearance in a Ruin in Victory or Death. The only excuses are: Sophia is half-dragon, but doesn't have a purebred dragon parent (a bit contrived of an explanation); or being on the opposite side of the Dragon's Gate for so long gives Ninian shifting powers in Elibe, but renders her frail, and Sophia having spent her entire life in Elibe curtails shifting powers, but lets her live without any issues. In summary, could we call Ninian a "special snowflake"? FE7 is willing to seemingly contradict FE6 for the sake of Ninian. And on a different note, let us return to the Ending Winter- the event that forces Manakete form onto the Dragons. Before this, nothing is said of biological problems among the dragons. Maybe they existed and played a role in causing the Scouring, but if so, it isn't at all stated. All we have suggests perfect harmony between dragons and humans that was suddenly interrupted, there is nothing else to go on. If the dragons came from Archanea, we have no records of it, and only FE6-7 remakes or some new official artbook or IS interview could "clarify" this.

True enough.

EOV- just in time for the holidays, yay! Now I just need to get back to my Classic Expert EOU file (stopped at Iwaro), and my EOU2 Classic Expert (stuck at Juggernaut- does anyone know which of Protection Vow and Self-Defense helps my Beast survive more? My team is a totally suboptimal Axelandy, WM, Beast, Survivalist, and Sov.- it was only luck which let me beat Scylla and Harpuia). I'll skip SJ:R, because I'm about halfway done with Eridanus. Though I must say I'm worried my demons are reaching their limits- I'm still using an Angel! As for RH: PC, it's a maybe. Gotta see how much it exactly adds.

Cool! The first step to an open-ish/more traditional JRPG world FE?

You're being a little too harsh here on Ike. Anyone could use Ragnell yes, but because it relates to his father's murder, something he keeps everyone in the dark about for most of the game, Ike understandably shows it to no one and thus nobody else gets to use it. Ike's duel with the BK is personal, so it's understandable he'd fight the BK alone (with the exception of Mist), so really the armor blessing here is meaningless. There should be nothing stopping anyone from using the Ragnell for the remaining two fights (and the entirety of RD)- so you have grounds for criticism here, particularly when anyone can use the Alondite in RD. Surprised you forgot to mention Ashnard- who should've been damageable by anyone (they could have come up with another way of making a moving final boss not an easy victim to being ganged up on- but they took the dreadfully easy way out). Well to be fair, Elincia only got to Begnion ultimately because of the GMs, it'd make sense that he'd be present as to see what kind of people were supporting her. As for Elincia not being named commander of her army- a no experience princess who relies on others for running her army isn't the best of ideas, though the difference between Elincia leading her army with Ike as the real commander, and Ike being named the commander outright, though nominal, might have been better since Begnionites used to blueblood leaders would have been a bit more amenable to Crimea's cause. I will agree to Ike being let off too easy after his tantrum in Begnion, and that the Goldoa scene was a little too perfect (though the point to it is bad luck with Raven Laguz, good luck with the Dragon Laguz- not showing diplomacy- though it could have done both). And I'm in complete agreement we need FE lords who screw up more and have to learn from their mistakes. While this does not excuse the issues with Ike's portrayal, it is worth considering that even in the earliest of development days when the world of Tellius looked radically different, Ike was the lodestar of FE9, while Crimea and Elincia were a later addition.

Um, what? The dragons went into the Dragon's Gate to escape the Scouring, they didn't suddenly enter the world through it. Now that I think about it, I don't actually think it is ever said when or why the Dragon's Gate was built, only that it was used to escape the Scouring (does anyone have any info on this?). The possibility that the world beyond the Gate is Archanea, presumably in the Golden Age of Dragons before the decline into Manaketes and civil war, I am willing to entertain, but I don't think we have any conclusive evidence of it unless we find Ninian's name inscribed in the Ice Dragon Temple. And @Jotari I'm in agreement that getting rid of dragons won't magically solve FE's writing problems, no one simple fix could. Although I think you underplay Anankos a little bit. Yes, he isn't there upfront during Conquest or Birthright, but he and his degeneration to evil is essential to Conquest's and Birthright's plots. Without Anankos, Garon would be very different and we wouldn't have the Nohr-Hoshido war as we know it, nor crazed CQ Takumi, or even Corrin themselves. We could keep Anankos's influence and instead give Corrin a spine on CQ, or Ryoma a brain on BR, and better develop the world on both routes, but I've already admitted that there is no magic bullet.

Magic. When the First Exalt rose up and recollected the Falchion and the Gemstones, he probably brought them to Naga and she reforged the Falchion. The Holy Weapons of Jugdral have lost a good chunk of their power by time of Awakening, so it's fully possible that the Falchion, which is weaker outside of its anti-dragon properties, ended up needing to be reforged to best Grima. And in the process of powering up the Falchion again, its physical form changed.

Visit a village in Chapter 20 (Camus's). The Hammerne is Lena exclusive, but has 12 uses.

People are, justifiably, complaining a lot about this now. FE1 is the oldest game and it's understandable it'd have one due to its age. FE2 didn't really explain what Doma and Mila were. FE3 is 1 and a sequel to 1, so it makes sense. FE4 reduced the dragon to the spirit of one possessing a human being without draconic form, so it's less upfront, but still present. FE5 doesn't have one due to its scope. FE6 is a throwback to 1+3, explaining why it is. FE7 had to have a dragon solely due to its buildup of the threat- it's the first game where having them wasn't really needed you could argue. SS's big bad isn't much better than a dragon but at least he certainly isn't one (until the SS remake that is). And FE9 only has a guy riding a wyvern, while FE10 doesn't have a dragon at all (and I will say the Dragon Laguz are better than Manaketes in several ways). It's Awakening where the current degeneration of FE's villains into dragons begins, but by itself it isn't terrible- it's just a reference to FEs 1/3, 4, and 6. Fates had zero need for dragons, and the way they were included was in-your-face and ruined a possibly perfectly good human v. human grey conflict. SoV is just beating a dead idea into the ground at this point. Somebody better get to cremating all these geriatric scalies before they hijack another game!

You're talking about Desaix with the Dracoshield right? He is actually totally optional here, beat Slayde (the Paladin) and he retreats. Desaix's Defense and Resistance are both too massive thanks to the shield to deal anything more than chip damage to without extreme grinding. But if you do beat him, you get the Dracoshield, which is very heavy, yet it also offers giant defensive boosts and +5 HP per turn. While the Dracoshield is good (but not amazing due to the Spd loss and no Atk boost), the amount of grinding needed to get it makes it generally not worth it- the grinding alone will break things for a while. Plus, you can get another Dracoshield (again optionally- except this time it requires only some brainpower, experimenting, and a bit of strategy) much later. And it's possible technically get infinite Dracoshields- but that'd require a lot of luck.

I was only commenting on you calling 40% shaky, when 50% is even shakier. That's all.

To be fair, 50% is even more variable, there is an equal chance of gaining a point and not gaining a point- the maximum of inconsistency. To call a 50% growth worse than a 40% when all other things are equal, would be strange though.

Eyeballing everyone's growths, 40% Def is pretty solid, the highest is it with anyone is 50%. And remember the difference between a 50% and a 40% is 1 point over 10 levels, so it isn't enormous, a 45% is only 1 extra point over 20 levels. And Skl isn't quite so worthless in SoV I'd say given hits are far from guaranteed much of the time due to terrain. As for the Atk, yeah it's a problem, but forging or going Mage can fix that.

Of course you can, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to- it's the final battle, it'd be odd to have an unkillable foe right in the middle of the way to the final boss.

I'm guessing Cantors are just glorified Arcanists when summoned? I can't imagine 1-turn assistance conjuring. I'm disappointed that Link doesn't summon Bow Knights and Myrmidons, and Villager doesn't summon Villagers. Assuming the Amiibo illusions have the same priority normal illusions do when it comes to enemies attacking, if you have quite the Amiibo collection, you could bait baddies for a longggggg time.

You know there's this wonderful website with lots of information for each and every FE game. https://serenesforest.net/dark-dragon-and-sword-of-light/ First shop with staffs is in Chapter 8, the next one after that is 11. It appears the dry spell of vendors is only in the early chapters. What can be said? The first FE might have had a few issues, including shop placement.

The recruitment page on this site puts their re-recruitment chapter at 8/8x. I was a little confused not having played T776, but reading the C8 script, it appears that if one of Dagdar and Tanya are dead by C8's end, the other will join at the Chapter 8's end without the gaiden.

Rescue is all Atlas gets of note- but Faye is the only other choice for it, and you may want her to be something else. His other spells are just Fire, Saggitae (at level 8- the earliest of any character other than Deen), and Recover- the basic stuff. As for Warp users, only Silque and Tatiana get it, and Alm can't recruit Atlas- unless killing him on Classic mode and then reviving him with Alm is a thing- character transferring via death and revival was in the original Gaiden I believe. Could someone check and tell me if it is? Even if Atlas can't go over to Alm's group, attack-and-Rescue is still a nifty thing, just not quite as potent without Warp. And if you're going to play Act 6- then there's that too. And with his 55 Atk growth factoring in the +5 of Mage plus his base of 14 Atk, Atlas should be able to Rescue over a good distance by the time he learns it as a level 4 Sage. As a side note, Kamui, if you went through the process of sending him back to Villager gets Freeze (another spell only Faye otherwise has), Deen shares Silence with Mae, and Saber curiously enough gets Seraphim.

Atlas does get Rescue as a Sage, so that's an option for him, he's the only one other than Faye to get it. And I went with Archer myself- if his Speed is going to be so low everything doubles him, might as well make it so he never has to be hit by anything in the first place.

According to the RD recruitment page here on SF- skip his Base Conversation at the beginning of P4 Final and he won't join. And I stand corrected- Geoffrey can die in PoR pre-recruitment, there is plenty of alternate dialogue which only happens if he's dead. And though having not played T776, I noticed no one has heavily illuminated who you miss out on in that game. You lose: In summary: Nanna is our only staffbot until Linoan joins, and Linoan is our only magic user until Saias (who is also our third healer). Given what I've heard of fatigue issues affecting healers heavily in this game- this isn't very good. And while Olwen and Daim Thunder was always an acquired taste, everyone acknowledges Asbel and Grafcalibur are precious (though non-full recruitment LTCers do without him), so to lose Merric 2.0 is bad. As someone else pointed out, we also lose two of our thieves, and because Lara's talk with Perne ends in recruiting him, we lose her as our Dancer too. And returning to Saias, no Forseti and no Galzus cuts into our cheesers for the final fights. Dagdar might constitute a significant loss too if he is missable (but his value is always being debated). We also lose the Bragi Scroll (which we'd miss if we chose the non-Sleuf route anyhow), but surprisingly nothing else really in terms of items due to Capture existing and many potential recruits starting as enemies. On the bright side- Finn and his Brave Lance and Othin/Osian/Orsin/Orwhateveryouwanttocallhim and his Pugi are still around. Marita can go and butcher things with her sword too with a little babying. Karin, Deen, and Est the Dracoknight gives us a near complete airforce (the complete airforce depending on your route choice). Halvan and Machyua add to our footies, and we get most of the cavalry. So physically, we still have plenty of units to use.