Interdimensional Observer

I wonder what Swordmasters will be wielding this time!

I don't think we should completely trust absolutely everything the recollection books say. Things like the all-too-rosy Laguz-Crimea relations (which contradicts Blood Runs Red) in one of them suggests that some of this is beta lore.

If 2-3 range bows were to be standardized, I want range 1-2 heal staffs standardized. Otherwise, I definitely have to resort to vulneraries at chokepoints. Also, no giving standard 2-3 range to horseback bow users for the sake of making archers stand out. Berwick Saga (never played it myself) lets one of its archers attack from range 3, albeit at -15 hit and only if the unit doesn't move. I bring BS up more because it also features a skill called Shooter. Instead of attacking (and you can't move beforehand either- BS seems to like forcing you to choose between moving and attacking), it allows the unit to attack the first enemy to enter its range on the enemy phase, and if the archer hits, the enemy's movement is halted if it planned to continue moving. A very defensive skill that is probably better for the enemy's use yes, but still a possible way of making archers unique. It could also give them a limited enemy phase of allowing them to bait 1 foe per turn.

If anyone is interested, here is my take on Garon (with a gigaton of backstory).

I actually did that in my Fates rewrite. It makes little sense for Nohr to keep Kamui's name the same, otherwise there would always be the chance Hoshido could find out and then rescue Kamui.

You're certainly not alone. Considering I bothered spending hours upon hours actually making a full 28 chapter rewrite which I continually revised. And mind you I acknowledge it to be garbage (for one Garon and Mikoto are either too angelic or too evil at any given time). I really should've spent the time doing meaningful things with my life (or actually playing games).

I was thinking of something like that for a Genealogy remake. The parameters would be the following: Sex/Appearance/Voice Starting Class Some choice that gives a boost to your base stats (I would like to say personality trait, but I'd rather let the player define this via conversation choices) Home Country- affects when they join in the Prologue: Grannvale/Agustria has them join with Sigurd, Issach/Silesse/Yied puts them with Lex and Azelle, Manster/Thracia has them join with Quan's trio, Verdane/Miletos has them join with Midir Holy Blood- you can choose one minor holy blood type except Loptyr and maybe Naga, a "none" option gives a small across the board growths boost The split between Home Country and Holy Blood is to maximize the space for the player to imagine their own backstories for their avatar. For the Second Generation, definitely give them a kid; but as for the avatar itself, having them join Sigurd's fate would seem jarring, but if they survived into the Second Generation, not having them be playable would be its own bummer, and balancing a level 30 unit (even after some sort of deleveling) would be difficult

Perhaps IS was trying to get into the China market with Tellius- their historical erotic preference is for the legs (hence their liking of leg slits on dresses) I once heard from an East Asia professor. And on that topic, why the meaningless jump towards the enemy at the end of Impale? Is Sentinel Nephenee trying to do a Bayonetta-esque tease of sorts and go "as you die, take a look at what you'll never get"? Geoffrey is Finn 2.0, that explains why he is what he is. The blue hair, the Brave Lance, a horse- all Finn. And I'd also like to add to Heather to the pile of bad Tellius characters (alongside Aran and Ilyana). Heather is no Soleil (not that I'd know much given I haven't watched a single scene of plot or support in Fates- I've skipped everything from the beginning due to how much people have criticized them), but Heather is awful in the few conversations she has. She bashes men and is willing to con them for no good stated reason, and is just dying to make love with every lady there is. She hates Ludveck because he kept her from getting to stare at Elincia! A lesbian who is driven wholly by her erotic passions- stereotypical, unrealistic and offensive.

In gameplay- Wolfskin all the way. Physical durability and more Str is superior to what the Kitsune have. The Kitsune might have more Spd, but they're definitely not 1 rounding much even if they double; plus dodgetanking is unreliable in Fates. The Resistance lead is useless, because they have no 1-2 range at all, making them even worse than Falcoknights and their crummy Javelins at being anti-mage (to speak nothing of the Ninjas). Aesthetically- Kitsune all the way. Wolfkin are inferior to Beast Laguz. Volug and Nailah savagely rend into Velouria and Keaton with roaring success. The Kitsune on the other hand have never been done before and fit in perfectly with Hoshido's Japan theme. The Wolfkin feel like the forced Nohrian opposite of the Kitsune, with a little fairytale and werewolf inspiration. As long as we're in agreement that the Taguel were the absolute worst. Mutant bunnies that aren't cool and lack any redeeming combat abilities.

Confirmation bias of one's mind and memories is a thing. You generally don't remember every 5% crit you do or 90% hit being your units dodge, because you never counted on them happening and they're just a nice bonus. Whereas you expect to dodge a 5% hit/crit as part of your strategy, and thus one actually hitting throws a wrench in things and turns out to be more memorable. Furthermore, you generally don't talk of your own low chance hits hitting, because players generally don't bother even attacking when hit rates are too low. Whereas you rely on 90% hits hitting as part of your strategy, and for one to miss is frustrating and thus more memorable. It is possible that the RNG produces "valleys" of low RN values and "peaks" of high RN values. A string of low RNs means things will generally hit/crit, and a string of high RNs means things will generally miss. I heard the RNG in at least one Dragon Quest game features such highs and lows (which can be frustrating with you're trying to Zing somebody back to life, but you constantly miss because the RNG is going through a high). That would not be too difficult to check for, all we'd have to do is crack open the RNG, look at the numbers being produced, and see if we can find such trends.

Chrom is stupid at the end. "I can't sacrifice Robin even if it keeps Grima from ever coming back! Robin is special!" Really? Remember, Grima destroyed your own daughter's world and forced her in fear and desperate for hope to come to yours. There is no guarantee that light will always overcome darkness, nor that someone else will be able to time travel back to when light stood a chance like this time. Millions of lives are at stake, but you'd rather not sacrifice the one life near to you. Utilitarianism is not always right, but this is one case where it should have taken precedence. Provided Robin didn't go "Chrom is demanding that I sacrifice myself- screw it! Grima here I come!" Squall Leonhart makes a similarly bad decision at the end of FFVIII, but thinking on how many lives it'd save if he chose otherwise, maybe not so many in his case. Chrom should not be a ruler- he is too driven by his heart. Elincia has a heart, but chose to be a realist and let Lucia die (even though her choice got undercut by surprise). Sorry, had to get that polemic out of me. More on topic- avatars should be unique wholly in their player customization, they should be totally passive in plot.

Practically every game in the series has been accused of wonky RNG at some point. But thinking the RNG is consciously looking out to get you just when you need everything to go right doesn't make sense if you think logically. How in the world would you program a game to look at the situation and see your strategy? Computers can't think, they can only crunch numbers/data and react according to their results. So unless there as a way of calculating how good the player must be feeling/progressing along on a given map, and then modifying just the proper RNs. But that'd be difficult to tell if I had two units doing independent actions on different sides of a map- Left Unit needs the to dodge at 19% or it'll die, but Right Unit is in no such situation. How could the game tell which I plan to move first? Add more units and the "proper RNs" become impossible to predict. I guess it could "tag" a separate set of screwy RNs to the proper character(s), but what if I decide "this is too risky, let me pull back"? If it were possible for the game to predict exactly when I would feel the most frustration at being screwed over by the RNG, then that kind of AI programming would be better served elsewhere in terms of applications of technology if it wasn't already there.

While supports matter, we should also factor in gameplay concerning roster size. How many of a given class should we get? 2-4 seems ideal for most classes. 1 often seems like too little outside of dancers, but in the case of Canas, it kinda works by making him genuinely unique with exclusive access to Luna and Nosferatu until Athos. Pelleas being one of a kind on the other hand is meaningless because Dark Magic in RD is nothing special. Rinkah being the only natural Oni Savage is okay, but at the same time not really so excusable because other characters (MoA, GK, Scarlet) can use Axes/Clubs. Though I think that could justify her as the only Oni Savage. I have no idea what I should assert. Sacred Stones definitely should have had a couple more units I feel. Lute as the only Mage, Garcia as the only Fighter, Gilliam as the only Knight and Cormag as the only Wyvern Rider seems perhaps too limited. But, I could counter argue that Ewan, Ross, Amelia and promoted Tana/Vanessa could all compensate for my complaints. Again, I'm lost. RD invariably has too many characters as a result of wanting to have all but one from PoR return, while adding new ones. However, unlike in HoLaS, the Part system plus the division into three armies in Part 4 makes the oversized roster work out somewhat. Many characters will be seeing at least marginal short term use, though using everyone is far from necessary (probably because permadeath would make it difficult for some players to complete the game if that weren't the case).

Not to mention that Micaiah with +2 Spd would be a massive help for surviving 1-9. She needs like 11-13 AS to avoid getting doubled there and you never know if she'll be screwed or not.

There can be only one answer (other than main character density)- Greil could handle his liquor like a champ! No wonder Shinon respects him! (Gatrie on the other hand is just pathetic- two mugs and he's three sheets to the wind.) Probably used to compete to see who was most "steadfast" with Tauroneo, Bryce, and Lanvega.

So I counted the size of every FE playable character roster out of boredom (yeah I waste my life). I put it in the spoilers. What are your thoughts as to what you think the ideal number of playable characters in a single Fire Emblem game is? Edit: Fixed the Revelation count

I'd like it if they gave Aida a soliloquy or Saias some talk of what his mother was like/thought of Arvis or something in the eventual Jugdral remakes. To name a good minor antagonist- Bryce wasn't bad for the little time he had. A relic of the past simply unable to move on due to his age, pitiable. Levail was a young and idealistic fanboy, but not the worst. Jarod seems a little too angry to be likable. I have no problem with him being discriminatory to the people of Daein, but randomly stabbing people when angered is a bit much. If he was "well this job sucks, but it's my duty, and my way to advancement" I think he would have been better. On Ludveck- do recall this is the guy that casually abandons his home base and leaves every soldier there to die or be captured. Like Jarod, he was made too nasty to be truly likable. Not that all villains have to be ones that you can empathize or sympathize with. On that note- Valter I'd prefer if he wasn't insane due to a cursed lance. And Valtome can be held in the air by Zelgius for eternity for stealing Kefka's laugh. Travant appears decently complex, as is Naesala (if you could call him an antagonist at all), who I wouldn't be surprised if he was inspired by Travant. Jugdral inspired Tellius just as Archanea inspired Elibe and Valencia Magvel. The hawks and ravens one lived together in the southern islands, only to break apart- like the Thracian Peninsula. Tibarn as not-Quan and Naesala as not-Travant seems very feasible. Both Travant and his successor are undercut (made out as too innocent) by their subseries sequels though. Also, why the heck did they invent Kishuna? He plays zero role in the plot or anything really. So he was an early morph of Nergal with a touch of emotions made to be a copy of Renault's best friend and who yearns in his final chapter to be killed. So what? How does that matter in the grand scheme of FE7's plot? Honestly, I would have preferred three chapters that could allow the player to piece together Nergal's past, too much of which is left too vague. Basically: A Glimpse in Time, a chapter hinting at what happened to Nergal post-Aenir's death, and another showing his initial turn to darkness. Though I'd put the turn to darkness in place of Genesis, and the post-Aenir death scene in place of the Value of Life. So you see Nergal good and normal, Nergal turning bad, Nergal in grief, and then "Aenir? Don't understand." fills in the one remaining gap.

I've played the Hyper edition of WO3, plus DW7 and SWC. I really should get to downloading the original Orochi on my PS3 to see what pre-6/7 the DW characters were like. Visually, I can see they looked a lot less flashy, and much more historical (or at least could pass as appearing historical). Perhaps something was lost in the redesigns. Suddenly, I'm visualizing berserk Ike looking something like Susano-o, who was pretty nasty in his opening battle in WO3. When you had to blitz to Sima Yi and Cao Pi before he got to your base and took out Da Ji. And just thinking on which FE characters you could kind of typecast as DW/SW ones. I was thinking we could make Ephraim Sun Ce, Erika can then take Sun Shangxiang. Eliwood Sun Quan. Marth Liu Bei. Sigurd... Sun Jian? Guan Ping for Leif? Roy as Lu Xun- don't Japanese fans adore him? If so, we need somebody to be like him for sales. Leo as Sima Yi or Shi. Soren can be Jia Xu- he isn't as ambitious as Sima Yi, but still realist. Ryoma as Yukimura Sanada. Toshiie Maeda maybe for Chrom. Xander could possibly be like Mitsuhide- aka always feeling their loyalty under stress and questioning their betrayal even when they finally commit to it. Takumi is loved by the Japanese fans- Mitsunari Ishida is similarly loved, and the two are both abrasive. IDK as to who NA/Europe likes, Deng Ai maybe? He combines manly bulk with strategy abilities, a wonderful combo.

The Zelda series, for me at least, is defined by its mild blend of gameplay. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It has puzzles, but not as mind-bending as a pure puzzle game. Platforming, but not as crazy as a pure platformer. Action, but not as intense as a pure action game. And the same can be said of exploration. Play Professor Layton if you want just the first, Mario or Freedom Planet for the second, Bayonetta/Souls/GoW for the third. But I like Zelda's hybridity. I'll admit the plots are trash; though I like the efforts to build up lore over the games (but not the timeline). Also, I still have Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, and TriForce Heroes unfinished, but that is more owing to a general tendency on my part to not complete games, nothing particular to Zelda. (Though The Lady I just can't get past in single player in TH.)

Damn. Jill owned Xander hard! Many a fan would love to see this. Unfortunately I don't think IS would include such a clear rebuke of their writing quality. I also like the Naesala-Shura thing. Naesala is a decently complex character, undermined only by IS's invention of the Blood Pact in RD. And I forgot to mention a couple other interactions I'd like: Hector and Zephiel in battle: Hector comments "Heard you killed the old me from Roy. So that is what I got for saving your life as a kid!?!" Zephiel responds "You saved my life the night before I was declared of age? You said nothing of it. Had you, I would have spared you. All you said as you fell to my blade was that your death had been foretold as a violent one years ago." Eliwood and Elincia: If the heroes end up fighting each other by mistake, misunderstanding, or manipulation, somebody has to step up and sort things out. Eliwood isn't much of a fighter, but his appearance in Lyn Mode where he gets Caelin's neighbors to stay out of the heir dispute suggests he is a decent diplomat. Elincia proves herself a mediator in RD. Erika I guess could be one as well, less due to talent at negotiations and more her gentleness. And (this is devolving into pure plot wishes) can we please have at least one major character get possessed or an evil double or something? I was thinking Ike ends up having to defend Yune from being captured by evil, and becomes so desperate in his protection of her that he has to force Yune into himself. Remember how Yune is the Goddess of Chaos, the thing that was sealed in Lehran's Medallion? You know, the thing that drove Ike's father Greil berserk when he touched it? Well, Ike forcing Yune into him basically turns him into berserk Greil, except much, much worse. Ike tries to restrain himself with all his strength, but inevitably he ends up rampaging indiscriminately across the world, with the other heroes having to save him.

Gotta say Nasir looks cool, is a decently developed character, and I love the fact he deals magic damage in RD. But the Tellius dragons do suffer from a serious lack of availability, which derives from their whole neutrality thing. What a shame.

Well yeah, Ike is good, probably the best unmounted unit. He doesn't start godly, but grows into a great unit, there is no denying that. And the formula for Aether in PoR is Skill = % (every other game it's in reduces it to 1/2 Skill = %). Ike's Skill caps at 27, so a 27% chance of activation at best; better or comparable to an SM's critical chance sans Wrath or a Killing Edge. Of course, some people get lucky with/think they get lucky with SM critical hits and for that reason love SMs, so your love of Aether is understandable.

FE doesn't do final bosses that well due to the fact it isn't about taking down single foes. Final maps is another story. Of the ones available outside of Japan, Blazing has a decent concept for the final map- a boss rush with high stats and ultimate weapons across the board. Plus, Athos is there as a crutch if things are too difficult. The Fire Dragon is too durable given only Hector, Athos, Lyn, and Eliwood can deal decent damage to it and Eliwood and Lyn are questionable gameplay-wise and have awful effective weapons. SS's is nonthreatening outside of Lyon and the Draco Zombies. Formortiis is nice in that everyone can damage him decently unlike PoR or Blazing, but that at the same time makes him easy. PoR has a nice looking map, and a moving (human) final boss is cool and threatening. Ashnard's damage immunity keeps you from blitzing him (sans Wrath + Resolve Ike), but also means you need Ike to be good. RD has five final maps. The last being a good way of centering the final battle around the final boss. The first two maps are okay, the third most awesome, and the fourth too easy. SD is okay. Definitely captures the final battle feel, if not the best designed map (forgivable given the age of it). Awakening- blitz the boss, Naga suggests it and the map is built around it. (The same for Future Past 3.) The final choice is a false choice. Fates: Birthright is okay. Revelation is an HP sink. Conquest's pulls a few pages out of T776's evil playbook, but it otherwise excellently designed, like much of Conquest. A human final boss (albeit a possessed one) is interesting. Glimpsing over a few of the other games (meaning I haven't played them): FE4's looks grand and FE5's has Blazing final chapter vibes. FE6's Juan and Idunn maps are both awful. Tearring Saga looks nice, Berwick Saga's seems bleh.

I'm considering the Awakening ritual to be a reforging of the Falchion. Not quite a literal one, but Naga is unleashing its power, and probably adding a little fresh power to it too. I mean the blade looks nothing like it does in Marth's games. I speculate that the first Exalt took the Falchion to Naga, and Naga modified it to make it extra effective on Grima, changing its physical shape in the process.

Aether has at best a 27% chance of activating, you shouldn't rely on it for healing or damage. Also, an A Oscar's +30 avoid boost I'd daresay offers Ike more durability than Aether. And again, Wrath and Resolve exist for the final fight, though it'd be understandable if you chose to give them to someone else. Not to mention on Easy the final boss doesn't move, so there is less incentive to kill him quick. And there is no second phase of the final boss on Easy so you get your final battle recruit pick almost right way. Prior to Ragnell acquisition, Ike isn't the best fighter. You obviously should raise him, and he has the awesome stats for sure, but swordlock hurts in PoR. Ragnell is powerful, adds to Ike's physical durability, has infinite uses, and range 1-2, but is only usable in the luck fight and the last two chapters- less time than Roy gets the Binding Blade if you're going for the True Ending in his game. As for the luck battle character thing, technically, while a character does die if you lose, from a gameplay perspective there is no character death, seeing how you never recruited them in the first place. Plus, you can't recruit a different character if you win, though winning or losing doesn't kill them plot-wise. I myself go for the win if I can, and sometimes I use Aether, but I've accepted losing the fight on a number of runs. Mostly because I don't want to refight the entire battle that precedes it.