Interdimensional Observer

Even if he didn't have the stache, Oifey aged quite differently from Finn. Oifey is 14 at the start of Gen 1, Finn's age is unstated, but that he was allowed to fight... probably a year or two older? Just enough to make the difference in the tumult that follows. ...Just ignore Dew. (Although he's a plain thief, not a knight, thieves aren't a profession with age-related labor laws/standards.) Which is why I was silently disappointed that he wasn't fed both of those odd stat-boosting villages in Gen 1. Finn technically gets the most mileage out of them, that's an argument. -Not sure if he needs them though, I can't even remember which two stats get the boosts.😅

It's weird that in a world where family ties and genealogy matters he doesn't acknowledge Seliph first thing as his first-cousin. "The son of my father's friend" is a strange dilution of a connection that's stronger than that. How much of that tiny percentage of DNA that separate individual humans from each other do they likely share? Tomato tomato. I'll forgive you. Translations and names are a fickle thing really.😛 Either way, Leif is one of the only FE lords I actually have any real fondness for. Hector and perhaps Holmes being the other ones I'd say. I like the imperfect underdog boi. Marshal Nova disagrees. Reference to the obscure Battalion Wars, a Western-developed RTS spinoff of Advance Wars. Somehow, the son of the last tsar of Not-Russia became the leader of it when the country turned Commie. He's a sword infantry in PoR. Those two words are soooooo limiting in themselves that Stefan's stats as good/decent as they are outside of Luck (which hurts for dodgetanking as he should be expected to do), are actually fairly balanced, or even underpowered. RD Steffy is just P4-Endgame ready in case you didn't train up one of the alternative Trueblades. Genealogy still operates with non-HP stat caps of 30 or less. Finn has 22 Str and still has seven levels to get closer to his 27 cap. Even if he never hits it, could you seriously at all say his stats are that much worse than the kiddos with such small maximal numbers?🤔 That is weird indeed. Why did he get one with her? Or anyone really? It's more awkward acknowledging Oifey can fall in love with any Gen 2 girl than excluding him from love convos yet leaving his inclusion intact. Was this foreshadowing that one age-difference pairing you found in Vestaria?

-First, the chance she might be dead is a problem. And moving her alone into the "retreat when gameplay-killed" column for Gen 1 would look weird within the context of Gen 1. Two, it's not a bad idea at all.😀 Edain being the infantry healer girl (Ethlyn at least has a horse and swords) does give the impression that she isn't one for war. However, flipping back to Chapter 1, it does say that she was given the option to become a knight (probably because she is the minor-blooded daughter of one of the six dukes). And the only reason she turned it down for the life of a cleric was to find Brigid (which would make ready sense, with the Bragi priesthood being international she could probably freely travel, pray for/heal others along the way as a job, and find free accommodations at any church she encountered). As an advisor to Seliph, Edain could show more of the warrior's backbone she didn't necessarily portray all that much in Gen 1. Plus be a Team Mom, but a different Team Mom from Eyvel and Titania, the other two in FE who'd count for that role. And if I told you Oifey grew that stache because Shannan wanted some daddy?😜 -Don't take that seriously, at all. I prefer keeping things serious, subdued, and somber with these two if I'm going to ship 'em. The lives they've lived together have not been in the least conducive to silly frolicking. This instance even has total immunity from the variability of existence, since neither character is an unfixed child. It's either writing burnout from creating Gen 1 in all its elaborate detail even though we've pointed out holes in it during this playlog, or a simple mistake.

Fine fine fine fine fine! I've no desire to be spoiled on XC3.😀 But go ahead and alert me if you find the buried-sealed-invisible-translated-into-Harappan filing cabinet where the ending to X2 is gloriously detailed. Because dangit TELL ME ALREADY!

*Is about to start up DW9 again, gets overwhelmed by despair-joy-anger-despair internal cycling before I can.* ...Not the best thing in the morning. Did manage to play the first three Lu Bu story battles last night though. It wasn't a bad start to this odd bonus storyline built around a single hyped-up (yet pretty flat) character. Eunuch-murdering, protecting and then killing Dong Zhuo, not going off into total fantasyland at least to start. -Finish the XCX story first!😛 ...After that, I assume that at some point, Monolith will run out of reasonable room in the present Xeno-verse, and have to start another. To make that transparent when it happens they should change the name to Xenoshield or Xenospear, because swords are overrated.😝 I'm not sure exactly how I can respond to this. XC3 is still something I can't speak on. And for Xenosaga, well the way I experienced it was a tad bumpy, so I don't know if I can see what you can. For Xenoblade though, it is self-contained stories, no characters returning over multiple games (the XC3 DLC aside, which again, I can't speak to and my fearful irrational gut reaction until I play it is that the unimaginable absolute worst case scenario unfolded totally ruining everyone who came back), Xenosaga was episodic. Significant difference. Also on Xenosaga... did MOMO get any character growth in Episode III? Maybe a pinch for the peach biorobot if that? Did KOS-MOS and Shion get that much in Episodes I&II? I'm not sure. Was Jr. the only character to get significant development in all three games? Did chaos get any real development ever? Or being what he is, was chaos pretty much developed completely from the very start?

👏😄 On the other hand, I was only getting increasingly aggressive in my recent ES2 runs. The last I did had me jump into the midgame conquering all the good parts of the half of the galaxy I started in, intentionally stopping short of the ownership threshold I needed to trigger an early win so that I could watch the fruits of my aggressiveness grow. Did it with a faction that is supposed to be pacifist (which ironically ended up being very good at taking the major disapproval hits from owning so much territory) and defensive. Drive. Or Red Pollen Orbs. Takahashish.🍁

Majin Tensei is old and most people haven't played the fan translations. Devil Survivor however, certainly some SMT fans were born because of those two games. -Me being one of them. And I love both entries.😈❤️ Certainly lean more on the RPG side of "SRPG" (whereas FE traditionally leaned on the S), but then that's expectable given what it's a spinoff of. Give it a samsara-spin. By which I mean: The combination of the two individuals sees their souls momentarily return to the underlying reality of the universe. While part of the collective unconscious, the fragmentary ancient memories of other lives contained in those two souls are combined. When all the memory fragments are added together, the one other life which the combined souls possess the most memory fragments of becomes the focus of this fusion process. The fused soul searches for other fragments of this past life in the collective unconscious and collects as many as it can. -If at the cost of shedding some memories of the two lives now one. Finally, the fused soul is physically reincarnated, resembling the old life whose memories were reassembled. ...I think this works?😅 SMT has touched on samsara before, it wouldn't be unusual for it. This is less fusing people, and more... soul-searching?

I went to check as I wrote that out. The answer- they don't. They should've, obviously, since they've the aforementioned two decades of history together. Genealogy Remake would hopefully fix this, and maybe bring both of them into Seliph's new chatty entourage. (I'd definitely want Leif in the modern entourage too. I'd like Ares in there as well because he is a Major-blooded, and then we could have Sig-Quan-Eld Jrs. as a trio. Yet Ares's inclusion would be perhaps excessive, he isn't actually important at all. And I imagine we have to find an obligatory female -or probably two since Julia eventually leaves- to throw into it, to keep it from being total holy swordfest. However, Altena is optional and late, and any other female would feel very forced.)

That's why Edain survived, to non-awkwardly care for Larcei & Lana. The boys -Seliph, Ulster, Lester, Diarmuid- were usually under the direct fostering of Oifey and Shannan. Two now-grown men, who have known each other since 757, and are the only two who understand what each other has gone through in the past two decades. Thus, it should be of no surprise that during that time, particularly as they've engaged in some nontraditional parenting, they've developed certain affections for one another. Although they've rarely shown explicit tenderness to each other, they've been much too busy with more important matters, and Ulster was a such a crybaby that they rarely got to sleep alone for almost a decade.

Quick question- how do the Axe Bros even know Larcei???? She's a rebel, the enemy, who has spent her life alongside the Big Rebel (Shannan) and the Little Big Rebel (Seliph). When, where, and how did they get to know each other? ...Although this wouldn't necessarily apply to Creidne, since she wouldn't be a lesser royal of Issach. Creidne could've possibly joined the rebel army only a year ago or so at best, and could've met the Iu/Jo Bros normally before that without any risk of being taken captive. I mean, the conversation ought to be exactly the same had you gotten Hermina. These conversations have to be a double-serving of generic to account for that.

Where are your physical games made? What about the Switch? And maybe some components of your computer? -You're certainly already giving money to the Red Despotism via your gaming, just not to a Chinese developer. -Though I get declaring these to be different things. That's true of most of us, ain't it? If -I ask upon this Good Friday- there be divinity almighty, may they hopefully judge it fairly that we were practically-powerless sheep, subject to the vicissitudes caused by our shepherds.

I getcha on both counts. I get having a sort of stigma against Chinese games, I've also had doubts/concerns about buying games from there (thankfully, a lot of what they make is gatcha, so no sweat ignoring that). One thing I've tried asking myself though- does the developer have much a choice but to be based in China? Now I'm not talking Tencent and Netease, where it's pretty obvious I'm told that the authoritarian gov't has a strong hand. A small developer though? Should you not buy an honestly & lovingly-made game from them just because they have little practical choice (how expensive would it be for the entire dev team to move out their home country and rebase elsewhere?) but to live under the People's Bureaucracy Of Total Control and any restrictions it imposes? -Not sure if I'm right thinking this.

Dunno why you're holding back, what reason(s) is there for you to resist?😜 -Don't take that seriously, take your time to decide and whatnot.😀 I'm one who seriously overthinks my game buys about as often as I don't.😅

Noooooooooo idea.😆 Although, stealth as an element, not the entire mission.... Well, is it any surprise that you saying SRPG + the girl holding a rifle made me think of Valkyria Chronicles?😄 And sure there's the occasional *walks into a surprise hailstorm of bullets, dies in two seconds*, but the stealth aspect there ain't too bad.😀 Hopefully it's GOOD then!😃🤞

Feels like Zhuge Ke would be a viable Wu member, if only for the sake of having another non-generic enemy for Jin to fight. Plus he's a Zhuge and that'd give every kingdom a Zhuge member. Although for that, it sounds like it might would possibly be better to add Ke's father Zhuge Jin, big brother to Liang explains why Liang wears green and Jin would hypothetically wear red. -But Jin wouldn't add anything for Jin to stab. No, I think I can see an appeal to this. The idea did strike me once long ago of a plot wherein all the "true heroes" suddenly died and the plot limped its conclusion with their second-rate underlings in charge of finishing it. Would be very bittersweet, very frustrating for likely a majority of consumers even. But it's still a different idea. And it's no doubt been done before and I simply live in a Platonic cave and are totally unaware of it. With Musou, I think they could do it just fine. Again, not overly epic, but I'd settle for such a Jia Chong and Wen Yang-only finale. Maybe Dracula Boy would suddenly start waxing nostalgic for the "Era of Warriors" in his old age, yet still showing his ruthless desire to bury the last vestige of it -the division of China into Jin and Wu- with himself. Looks like it's up your alley? "VN that's serious with plenty of suffering" vibes?🤔 Like "girl always sleeps with one eye open, keeping watch for the next person infected with the Livereater virus to stroll in, and she never thinks about how she unthinkingly shot all her comrades dead when they spontaneously got infected that one day three years ago". -Or maybe I'm totally wrong, and she spends her off-duty hours happily preparing choux buns filled creme patisserie (eclairs) for her man in this picture. ...So hard games make you *gets written out of existence before finishing such an awful😑 low-hanging fruit """"joke""""*. -And then there's me, who doesn't mind Musou games, or easy (and often flashy) games in general.😅 ...Doesn't making stealth optional often lead to "yeah, don't bother, just run in guns/magic blazing, it's easy enough"? Or at least, that's the impression I've gotten from a few games that give the choice.

Played through the Jin storyline in Dynasty Warriors 8 the past two days, was needing to get to that. The second rendition of Jin in the franchise was definitely different from the first. Sima Yi never actually died onscreen this time and instead simply retired from public life. Xiahou Ba tried defecting ...but was persuaded not to, but only temporarily, long enough to playable in the color of Jin-cyan once. And they chose to end things with the conquest of Shu ...and never mentioned Sima Zhao's death or the events that followed that culminated in the conquest of Wu. Likely since that stuff has an unsatisfying timeskip that has to be told entirely in text and has nobody from the prior generations left alive to celebrate the reunification of China. Although I don't remember it well, the addition of Jia Chong means Zhao's reluctance and ultimate acceptance to take up his family's signature coldness felt decidedly different from DW7. Not sure if I'm entirely emptied of Musou cravings now. I suppose I'll do the thing of 100% fan fiction called the Lu Bu storyline since it's there, even if I'm not one for the barking cockroach at all. Then maybe the Other assortment of battles. And then at a later date, fulfill all the conditions I didn't complete on the four normal storylines and then do their hypothetical routes and other alternative battles. ? Saw this thing a few days ago- Jehuty. The groinspike looks absolutely ridiculously bad.😝 But it tells me what I'll have to pick up hopefully on the next major Steam sale. ...After I play the GBA not-SRW side story to Zone of the Enders.😆 Wouldn't surprise me if you fell back on a (relatively-new) old favorite.😛 Though it's pretty relatable. R-E-L-A-T-A-B-L-E.🤣 Why the willingness to materially detach oneself like this? I don't think I'd have the guts to do that, even if I was done with and or didn't particularly enjoy the game.😅

I'm plenty aware of Ghost Trick. I do remember reading about back when it hadn't even released yet, including a little NP magazine interview where the writer was asked "What if Maya channeled Sissel?", to which he said one- her hair would stand up; and two- she had never been possessed by a male spirit before. I've never actually played the game though, I guess I unthinkingly thought it was just not my kind of thing. ...But curiosity did lead me to read a summary of it years later, so the spoilers are fully known to me. -Though there always is the "it's not about the destination, it's about the journey" silver-lining spin.

Now that is an unexplained mystery, albeit an important one, being the spark that triggers the cascade of events that follow. I presume Darna is actually an unexplained independent city-state. Reliant somewhat on trade, and heavily on religious tourism aka "pilgrimage" to what is likely the holiest site in Jugdral that everybody or at least most people recognize (the Crusader faith being international, whereas local deities are just that). And it's that holiness plus location in the desert that guarantees Darna's independence. I don't see how intra-Issachan strife would be resolved by attacking Darna. Feels the only thing attacking Darna would do, would be to make you the enemy of every good Crusaderite on the continent, with mailbags of fiery denunciations from anyone with a gram of socio-political status pouring in for days. It seems like such an unwise move that King Rivough either had to be one aggressive lunatic -or that it was Manfroy's work. Rivough bordering the desert, it also happens to be very close to Yied. Perhaps King Rivough thought conquering Darna would give him a title superior to that of The King Of All Issach, that of something like "The Successor To All The Crusaders". Or to go more radical, perhaps Manfroy converted King Rivough to Radical Loptyrism and he decided that he would ransack the place that began the downfall Glorious Loptyr Empire. -But then you'd have thunk Manfroy would've saved him from Manaan's retribution had King Rivough been a zealous convert to the dark god, so the first explanation seems more viable to me. Sophara does look pretty defensible. -But then centrality and defensibility often aren't the determinants for a capital. Washington DC once was fairly central -but how often does being coastal help with defense instead of hurt it? Capitals naturally attract commerce yeah, but it's also been the norm to place them where commerce already thrives. Demographically, I would imagine that the population of Issach is unevenly distributed, with the majority living in the south. Sophara could be well-watered with lush mountain valleys and plenty of mines, if a little difficult to reach. Ganeishire doesn't look too bad, just insulated from the world beyond Issach. However the land immediately east of Tirnanog looks like a lot of wasteland, no wonder Seliph would be hiding out there after so many years. Westernmost Issach along the Silessian border is an enigma to us though, never being shown on any gameplay map. Being so far removed from the center of authority leads me to imagine its local economy is pretty disconnected from the rest of the country's, almost begging for an upstart to try making an independent country out of it + Lubeck. And I'd think it'd be Silesse sooner than Issach that would muster an army to effectively suppress such a secession. Rome had Ostia and later Portus to be its window on the waves, an inland capital having a seaport city nearby and strongly bound to it isn't unheard of. Considering how fabulously wealthy Munster District is supposed to be, why wouldn't Issach engage in maritime trade? Munster ought to have a serious food surplus and they ain't selling it down south. Think of all the bulk cargo ships filled with bushels upon bushels of fine Leonsterian wheat!🌾 Yes that's the rice emoji, but it's still grain. Since Treasure says Issach has a pastoral economy, maybe they're sending over wool and lamb chops. A kind of natural comparative advantage situation where it's better for Munster's mega fertile soils to grow export crops, whereas the less-fertile Issach finds its dirt better maintained with subsistence farming + flocks of livestock seasonally moving across the landscape. Also, as I've said before, Seliph could've sent Leif aid via boats, possibly. No need to clobber imperial forces through the desert, just sail straight south and overwhelm some imperial coastal defenses if they're still intact. -Although the ingame C7 map and the world map show a great disparity in how much sea actually separate Issach and Munster District. Not sure how the winds were blowing and if oar-powered galleys would've actually been viable if the winds were dead/blowing from the south just make Gen 2 Lewyn useful for once and have him provide for the sails🌬️.

It is mentioned by Ayra that Rivough was the one that attacked Darna. Probably without evidence I'm guessing the result of Manfroy's evil manipulation, but as with Agustria, rooted in some kind of internal discontent. And then King Manaan destroyed Rivough (despite marrying his older daughter to Rivough's ruler) before Big Man' had him assassinated. Rivough just so happens to the Issach region bordering the Yied, so it's possible that Grannvale began receiving some kind of assistance from dissenters there even before Issach as a whole was conquered. ...Although we don't know if the King of Rivough's presumed discontent with the King of Greater Issach ran deep among the Rivoughans, or if it was just another Guy At The Top vs. Guy At The Top squabble.

I'm late, but yet I agree with what has already been said and get whoever makes it easier/less slow to get him and Nosferatu. I liked having Julia Nostank on my one FE4 run, even if it took a little RNG to initially get rolling. However, Genealogy only has so much fodder to spectacularly slaughter. You might not find room for holy leeching fun. I hazard that sometimes, even the most illegitimate of dynasties -and I'm sure the Issachans see the descendants of Neir as nothing less than the Bull****Dozer Dynasty- is on some level concerned with the appearance of legitimacy. And -also making sure their masters higher up the imperial chain aren't angry at them, else they lose their petty thrones to somebody else.

Not sure what to start/play today. My 🐶 is feeling okay now with the help of medication, though it's obvious their days are numbered and what exactly will end them. So I feel like I can start something new that isn't pure-gameplay and not have it contaminated by the sting of loss. Yet I'm still undecided.😅

Same. In my loose headcanon... Lewyn and Briggid take up a predominant role in the action that follows. Both have holy weapons, they should be superhuman and likely be able to mow down crowds. Lewyn at some point swaps from fighting grunts, to a dance of wind and fire with Arvis. One that ultimately ends with him getting singed, but it goes on for a while and distracts Arvis, perhaps some of his mages too. Perhaps -for some gameplay-story integration, he acquires Sigurd's personal possessions that Seliph later inherits, but Arvis's flames stops Lewyn the moment right before he can grab Tyrfing. Arden, Alec, Naoise, Midir, Beowulf, Chulainn, Jamke, Dew, Lex. These all day in the chaotic fray as one presumes would. If I wanted to get a little fancy with some of these demises... Arden dies standing on his two feet either bodyguarding or protecting somebody's escape, never does he actually literally fall in battle. Suits an armor knight. Dew can, being the shota thief, can try doing something creative/cunning to help somebody, maybe to help somebody flee. He knows he's taking a huuuuuge risk, and while the escape is successful, it doesn't pay off for him.☠️ Azelle- I'll go with house arrest for the outcome. Not sure whether he'd try fleeing b/c fragile mage, or if he'd fight like any other, or choose to attempt to confront his brother. Ayra- Offers to secure an escape route for some to escape the fiasco. While a woman and thus a priority to escape, having the pride of a warrior, she chooses to wait to flee herself until the last possible moment. She waits too long. Tailtiu is captured before she can flee. Edain and Lachesis flees successfully and unconditionally, rarities. ClaudxSilvia do flee, but separately in the chaos. Silvia drops Leen off at Darna to freely find her husband, Bragi priests hide Claud in various places. Silvia eventually finds him, though permanently bedridden he be from injuries he received, all the weakened Claud does now is pray and receive visions. Coirpre is conceived in their one tender embrace in this moment. Silvia goes to Darna again, drops off her infant son -and if we want to be extra cheery about it stays long enough that she actually meets Hannibal and entrusts her son to him, thinking him kind yet politically prominent enough to protect her son the heir to Edda- before departing to find her husband once more. Indeed, quite the difference between having your body offered up to the Demon King (after getting doubled by literally everyone b/c lol0AS) and getting chopped by Tristan (after a few cuts by some blue dude).😛

Alfimi's theme is memorable too of course. How could it not be? Younger me really liked her gradual struggle/awakening to her humanity.😃 Plus the Lichkeit is very distinctive. I'll admit at one point, years later (not sure when it began exactly), that Alfimi's inability to understand how Kyosuke made her feel, felt relatable to me. I came for a time to use Alfimi as a "mental embodiment of an aspect of myself", that part of me which didn't quite understand but was perturbed by my slowly-surfacing attraction to men. And no, I don't think there's anything wrong with internally personifying part of yourself as someone of the opposite gender. My younger self rather quickly got to using Tales of Symphonia's Presea as the embodiment of my fearful awareness of the inevitability of death and the irreversible passing of time, although not quite depression, perhaps until the first year or so of college. I've heard this before, but I was not aware this was an Impact tune. Here I thought it originated in EF1. ...Now this one I don't think made any appearance in the OGverse. Sounds like that was a mistake (the absence I mean).

The most recent rendition, with some sound effect-free & VA-free animations to go with it for your viewing pleasure. I chose to post it because of the moment I first heard it. Ryusei Route Episode 5. TL;DR I was... 13, maybe 14 at the time I played Super Robot Taisen Original Generation (1) on the GBA? I didn't have that many JRPG/SRPG/anime game experiences in my life's catalog at the time. The above chapter in OG1 was very memorable to me, and his iconic theme only served to further ingrain it in my memory to this very day. No matter how many times I listen to it, Dark Prison can still fill me with reverence towards dreadful power of Granzon and the aura of Shu. It can even make me laugh maniacally, no other composition has that power over me.😏

And since you don't care for it gameplay-wise, I hope ya don't mind me throwing a track or two your way as I have.😆 Peaceful story/dialogue theme for Original Generation 1. Need something to accompany all the chill, silly, explanatory, unvoiced dialogue on a battleship before every mission. This plus it's similar-but-different Original Generation 2 companion track... ...Were the essence of video game conversation-music for the younger me.😌 And still kinda are. (Admittedly, they probably wouldn't work as well as they did if SRW had VAs burying the music.) I'll admit my most recent homoromantic mecha-styled daydream has seen me use these too much as the musical backdrop in the past few days. -Though again, the battle stuff was important too.😛