[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

 

10 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

On the flip side, I already have over 1.3K words, and the battle itself would be the final scene of the chapter. Thing is, I am set with my minimum requirement of 2.5K words per chapter, and I feel I already stretched things a bit for the scenes before, so it's either put effort for the fight scenes, or have the chapter end up shorter.

You could always follow in the footsteps of well known fiction writer J.R.R. Tolkein, and use the perspective of someone knocked out 5 minutes into the battle, so you only have to spend a few pages talking about the battle of five armies in retrospect.

 

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Would it be weird to say I want to kiss all of them?

That is a very normal bi reaction to the Herons.

 

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Her best

No, no, no, its last game where she is an Est like Nino.

 

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

At this point all I need to do is put Ike in enemy range without a weapon, watch him draw them in and dodge all their attacks, and then hit back.

Classic RD Ike, even when he isn't killing stuff, he extra trivializes the map.

 

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Well on the bright side this means like the Empire will have lost their only competent general so this should make the war much easier-

Classic imperial competent general pickle, as generals become competent, they become threats to the empire itself, but you need competent generals to deal with threats to the empire...

 

Not to pester folks too much, but any idea when TeeHee madness starts up again?

 

[Co-op FIre Emblem Campaign Ideas?]

Two game styles I have played on this forum come to mind. First what in the Fire Emblem community is generally called a Relay Game (although other games and their communities have other names for this type of run), where one player completes a chapter (or few chapters), and when done pass the save file on to the next player to complete, who does the same, passing the save file around until the game is completed. The second is a Linked Ironman, where multiple players are playing ironman runs of a Fire Emblem game, but their units are linked, so when a unit dies in one players game, the units they are linked to die int the other players games.

In a way I would say you have terrible timing, as there was someone organizing an FE6 ironman relay, but closed admissions for players on Monday.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

6 minutes ago, Lightchao42 said:

Wait a minute, I thought your hack was about The Binding Blade? Unless you made another one.

He did a FE8 one a while ago...

 

[Ironman Starting]

1 hour ago, Samu_77 said:

I haven't posted here in a while, because after dying in that Chapter 7 I got sad and put this off for a while, but now I'm back with a run that's done with Chapter 12, here's generally what's happened

Oof, yeah Chapter 7 is a tough cookie to crack, and good job getting back on the horse after a defeat to reach a new personal best.

 

1 hour ago, Samu_77 said:

 

I trained Lugh, realized I didn't like his level ups, and then benched him, then I leveled Lilina up like crazy and promoted her, she's a little blessed in speed but honestly even with the speedwing that I fed her she's barely above average and is only able to double the very slow enemies

Glad to see you still went with training Lilina, even after you had to buckle down and be more serious with the second run.

 

2 hours ago, Samu_77 said:

I also decided to train Fir for... honestly I don't know what reason. Maybe it's because Rutger is so cracked that I wanted another one, and it is kinda overkill but it's also pretty funny and she got a some pretty good level ups.

Eh, you get enough deployment slots for a few vanity picks, and Fir is a fun project to work on, and train into a little Rutger.

 

2 hours ago, Samu_77 said:

 

Alas, there were no deaths up to Chapter 11, but then Marcus bit the dust and then Clarine died immediately after recruiting Klein because both of their lives were less valuable then the Orion's Bolt AKA another pair of boots. Clarine wasn't trained and Marcus was JUST starting to fall off, so I don't feel particularly bad about either death. 

Nice job making it so far deathless, and even when blood was spilt, it sounds like some easily survivable losses. I find Marcus is starting to fall off as soon as you get Zealot to replace him, and if you weren't training Clarine anyway, that is little loss at all.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

17 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Tellius may have fumbled badly with it's race allegory but it's political intrigue is unmatched by all other FE games I've played so far.

Which to be fair, there's not tons of competition there.

I do wonder what you will think of the Jugdral games...

 

18 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

If there's one thing that Radiant Dawn gets good about it's race allegory it's that racism is established as a true social issue. It's not like there's a few bad apples who are cartoonishly evil and racists, racism is shown to be a integrated problem that plagues even otherwise good people.

Having the fake N word in Sub-human was a nice touch.

 

20 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

TELL ME WHAT THE FUCKING SKILL DOES YOU DAMN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT VIDEO GAME!!!

Lol, that is a terrible bit of UI isn't it.

[Ranking each game by class: Wyverns]

Time for another tier list to show my opinion, although fair warning before I start, I have liked the Wyvern classes since I was a kid, so my views on the class will probably be skewed by that.

 

S Tier: One of the Best Classes in the Game

Three Houses: People joke about the all Wyvern army for a reason, as it is by far the best physical class to be in.

 

Shadow Dragon: This is literally the same class line as Pegasus, so I will just copy-paste that entry. Great weapon ranks for the effective forges that break the game, the best possible mobility thanks to flight in a game with very rigid mobility, and of course the ease of just keeping the busted Wingspear in this class, makes this a clear S tier option.

 

Binding Blade: Miledy is an amazing unit straight out of the box, made even better with Hard Mode bonuses, and even starting at too low a level for his recruitment time, Zeiss is still solid thanks to his own Hard Mode bonuses, and with a little training becomes another excellent unit to use. Both the wyverns have great combat, have flying utility, and can help with plenty of rescue dropping, although Miledy does have too low of aid to carry the armored knight, and Axe units you probably aren't using anyway because this is Binding Blade, and after promotion a few Paladin that have excellent move all on their own.

 

Radiant Dawn: Haar is often considered the best unit in Radiant Dawn for a reason...the reason being everyone with better combat has far, far, far worse availability. Add to that Jill, whom is considered the best of the Dawn Brigade to feed exp to, as she can grow into the best unit for the army that needs the most help, makes this one of the best classes in RD. Having flight mitigates quite a few of the ways RD tried to debuff mounted units, and even buffed Wyverns in particular by trading the common flying weakness of bows for the rather rare weakness of thunder magic.

 

Path of Radiance: Seeing as I gave S tier to Cavs, I have to give S tier to Wyverns too. Its a rarer class to be sure, but an excellent one, able to do a lot of what the best class of pegs can, but coming just a little later in both cases.

 

Fates: Wyverns have solid combat on them, and Camilla (if you actually use, which usually I don't) is probably one of your best unit for a majority of the game, although its the utility the class provides that draws me to them far more. Defense Rally is rather useful in surviving the well crafted enemy formations of Conquest. Lunge is rather useful in how it lets you play with positioning, either helping you setup your own attack stance chains, or disrupting dangerous attack stances of the enemy formations, or moving enemies close enough for units further out to finish off, or lunging things through walls to disarm dangerous enemy formations in creative ways, plus there can be times where lunge is the thing you need to save the run. Finally, having flight in any form can open up paths otherwise unavailable to you, which can be vital in numerous Conquest maps (off the top of my head Fuga's Wild Ride, the Eternal Staircase, Takumi's Wall, and Hinoka all come to mind for this), and Wyverns are the easiest way to access flight in that game. Even in Birthright you get Scarlet to show off the power of this class line, and a lot of the weird maps of Revelation are made much easier with flight. I guess Maligknight is worth mentioning as an interesting class if nothing else, personally I think of it as about the third best non-DLC magic class in Conquest with the unique utility of being the flying magic class for a reason to really pick it over Sorcerer or Strategist, more of an A or B tier class on its own.

 

Engage: I waffled a bit back and forth whether this should A or S, but what decided it for me was the realization that Ivy's personal classes should probably count as a Wyvern too. Starting with the generic wyvern classes, its a class good enough that you want to reclass people into it, which is the sign of a very good class, but made a bit less dominant due to some other solid alternatives, hence the earlier waffling about whether it should make it to S tier. Add in Ivy's class, the combat focused flying mage, with staff utility as well, both of which I find to be especially useful on a flyer in Enage, and my favorite class for her. I wish there was a generic flying magic class, as it is a useful combination in Engage.

 

A Tier: A Good Class

New Mystery of the Emblem: This is literally the same class line as Pegasus, so I will just copy-paste that entry. I am very tempted to make this S rank, but deciding to put this in A tier is a clear sign that I don't think any of the New Mystery classes are dominate enough to reach S rank, as this is certainly the class that comes closest. For a significant portion of the game this is the best class you can be in, but it doesn't have the right caps for the last stretch of the game, and as you approach that late stage, you end up having to transition away from it. In fact the DracoKnight has the lowest Speed Cap of any promoted class, and this is a game where that really matters. This isn't a game where being a Pegasus/Wyvern gives you some great skill for the future, or is one of the classes with stellar growth rates, its just a great to be in for a significant portion of the game.

 

Thracia 776: The dismounting debuff is definitely keeping this class out of S tier, but it has a far more solid place in A tier than the other canto units. It has all the better flying utility of pegs, with combat at least on par with, if not better than the cavs, the best of both worlds of the mounted classes. Dean is just an excellent unit right out of the box, with A rank Swords to even keep him solid on dismount maps with stats that can survive the debuffs. Admittedly Eda is far worse than her brother, needing actual training, and without the personal weapon available (but tricky to get) with him, but if trained she will be solid as well (something I learned just fine in an ironman). Alright, my Wyvern bias might be showing a bit here too.

Sacred Stones: For a very brief moment I considered putting this in S tier, but then I remembered that Eirka's route exists. To be fair, while Cormag is very good on Ephraim's route, I don't think he would have made the S tier cut in either case, but him coming much later in Eirka's route cemented this placing in A tier.

 

Awakening: This class doesn't get one of the things that breaks this game wide open, but it is a solid class to be in otherwise. My Wyvern bias may be buoying this one up a bit too if I think more about it...

 

B Tier: An OK Class

Blazing Sword: I love all the units you get in Kinship Bond, but Heath comes at a bit too weak for as late as he arrives for me to actually call him good. Vaida in a similar way arrives very late, so late she has little left to do. If both these units came a bit earlier, and they would have been easy A or S tier, but sadly enough they just arrive a little too late to really shine.

 

Genealogy of the Holy War:  I considered putting Altena in C tier with the good infantry, but Canto is still too good, and flight does have utility occasionally. She is the only Wyvern you get, comes very late into the game (the second to last you recruit), and has all the movement issues flying units do in this game. She gets amazing physical stats, but the stretch of the game she is dropped into is filled with powerful magic as the biggest threats, and often long range staff/magic, which greatly limits her abilities, despite coming with a holy weapon. There are a few points at this late stage where flight has particularly valuable utility, but in each case the threats you are flying to deal with are magic threats, which she has a very hard time dealing with. I wish she was better than she was, as Wyvern has been my favorite class line since I started playing these games as a kid, but she simply isn't.

 

C Tier:  A Subpar Class

 

 

D Tier: A Bad Class

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Why

the FUCK

is a "Izana and Yukimura in Rev" mod hiding at the Gay Fates discord?

I just checked it on a whim and someone was talking about it. Never would've found it otherwise, the only publicly available one is the Scarlet mod.

Why? Why not release this to the world? The world needs more Izana. And Yukimura needs to exist, like holy shit that guys gets majorly shafted lol. He exists for like, two seconds in Birthright, and that's it. No wonder he has the best design out of any playable character in the game, Kozaki mistook him for a NPC

Hiding cool hacks in bespoke Discords is such a frustrating common practice now a days that I utterly hate.

 

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Finding the mod did not come without a price, however. Turns out people at the Gay Fates discord had played my first hack.

I just spent half an hour getting roasted. It's been... enlightening, at least.

I am bit curious what they had to say about the hack to roast you.

 

7 hours ago, Armagon said:

I find it funny how there is no alternative dialogue in Rev if Corrin married Scarlet.

To be fair, actually marrying Scarlet in Revelations is such a time barred grind that no one would ever accomplish by accident.

 

6 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

...And it's like, in a game with a 5 year timeskip. TH had one hell of an opportunity to follow through on that. Could you imagine a post TS war scarred unconventionally attractive Dorothea who lost both her looks and her voice as fuck you towards any player who only romanced her in the beginning because of those things.

Alas that would be far too interesting, and cool an idea for a Fire Emblem game.

 

1 hour ago, GuardianSing said:

Bespoke: anyone who holds the Ragnell is gay

You heard it here, Ragnell turned the frogs gay.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Again, you're taking him at his word when that's not the case.

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Basilio has to pretend he was struck down dead for the plan to work.

Why are you taking Basilio at his word that he survived instead of dying and coming back, and not take Walhart at his word?

 

14 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

The game disagrees on him being a Risen.

I never called any of them Risen, I called them walking, and talking corpses. Even if I did believe they were Risen you have just been arguing

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

FE was long past the point where 0HP = Dead every time, even for cutscenes.

against a strict interpretation of gameplay as story. Why should this one be considered more sacrosanct, when the street pass gives us multiple counter examples?

 

27 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

As you yourself pointed out, Gangrel claims to be dead when that's not true.

I never said, or meant to imply that Gangrel wasn't dead. Both of these characters are confirmed kills as we see the bodies. There is no convenient we didn't have time to check the bodies scene for either of them; and their confirmed deaths end their respective wars. I emphasized Walhart because he is especially explicit about not having a heartbeat.

47 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Don't pretend just because you don't like it.

Don't pretend these characters didn't died just because you don't like it... What do you even think happened to them, for them to become playable in the streetpass?

 

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

If something shows up to disprove my conjectures,

By the same token, you haven't disproved my conjecture either.

 

50 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

You'd rather claim Emmeryn is a walking corpse than accept the fact she can be alive,

I am more arguing that her being a walking talking corpse is far more likely, and better supported by the story than her being alive, if we accept what is told by the other streetpass maps is canon. As you admit in an earlier post

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

For its worth, Emmeryn was never confirmed killed, since no one bothered to check her body. Everybody was quick to leave the scene. Or at least, the big players did. It's true no explanation is given, but we're not dumb, we can easily piece it together.

People in real life have survived falls from higher heights than Emmeryn. She also VERY likely fell on sand, which is actually one of the better surfaces to land onto. By its nature, the kinetic force would get distributed over all the individual grains of sand. In addition, Emmeryn would first push the sand downwards if even for a fraction of a second. Combined, it reduces the force of acceleration, which means when it has to go back to Emmeryn through Newton's third law, it will be at a reduced rate from what initially was. The difference might still be small, but it can be enough to cross the crucial threshold between death and survival. It helps to remember Emmeryn didn't came out of it unscathed, so it's not like there wasn't any negative consequence even if she did live. Now it's a matter of someone coming to her side quickly enough, which we can infer is what happened.

Now, I can give you that Emmeryn being sent to an island between Ylisse and Valm and staying there for years might be hard to believe, but her survival isn't what's unusual about her situation. It's unlikely, but not impossible.

the game gives no explanation for how she survived, and that it is distinctly unlikely for her to survive. The street pass story sets the precedent that with a strong enough will, it doesn't matter if she survived, she could come back anyway, and we definitely see a strong will from her. We don't need to invent conjecture about Gangrel clearly leaving in too hot of pursuit of Chrom to check the body, but still slow enough pursuit that Mustafa cutting off their line of retreat would not give Gangrel time to catch up, or improbable whims of physics, or about super secretive traitors whisking her to safety when the camera isn't looking.

 

49 minutes ago, Armagon said:

This isn't bleak tho.

In a sense it isn't, but I meant it more in the idea that opposing Grima to the end, even if that opposition is futile, is meaningful in and of itself, despite knowing the futility of it.

 

2 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Hey.

I got a prescription for adderall yesterday and I've taken my first capsule just now

This is 6 months in the making of me jumping through medical hoops to get to here, and now I'm finally here

Hopefully it will have been worth it.

Congrats, hopefully it helps.

 

2 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

I like Walhart more than most people but yeah I see what you mean.

I have a soft spot for Walhart, as I see him as answering an interesting question; what would happen if Chrom decided to abandoned his duty after learning of his doomed destiny. Here is Walhart, all ready to fill Chrom's role in the story of Grima's rise to power, should he waver.

 

2 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Honestly thinking about it could've been very interesting if Chrom did actually die when he was supposed to but the story continued on anyway with Lucina taking more of a prominent role.

That would have been far more interesting...

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

If that was the case, then Raimi should be dead (Chapter 3 boss who survives the fight), Lucina should be dead (Chapter 4 fight), etc.

And both chapters are explicit about the battle not being to the death before they start. Now a better counter example is that you fight Walhart twice in the story (before the streetpass nonsense), but even there they are explicit about him not dying even in the death quote. Although the game is otherwise consistent in that this is a power only for Red units.

 

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Assuming Walhart was talking literally. The game never flags him as a Risen, despite Tiki, Nowi, and Nah still being Dragons even when not in the Manakete class. So if they can make that distinction, then so can for Walhart, yet he's not a Risen. He's alive, just making dramatic theatrics.

Walhart is very explicit about not having a heartbeat, and Gangrel almost as insistent on him being dead as well, but as you yourself said

57 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

You can not like it, but trying to pretend it doesn't exist or say it doesn't count is... jarring.

 

7 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Yeah, you're just talking nonsense at this point in a futile attempt to justify what you want to believe.

 I don't want to believe it; I am simply taking the parts of the streetpass story that I would otherwise pretend doesn't exist, or say doesn't count, and insisting they exist, and count, and seeing where that logically takes the story.

Not to call you a hypocrite or anything, but you have set a double standard here.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

15 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

There's only four moments, and one does change things. This compared to all the more times things do get changed without the player being given a prompt.

Which one does? The one at the end where they already took the cowards way out of the story they were building up to.

 

38 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

changing Basilio's fate (another big change to the timeline)

More like retconned his fate, as we watch him die to a critical hit from Walhart when already at single digit health (and would have clearly one-shot him even if he wasn't at low health) as part of a cutscene that uses gameplay to tell its story. Really this clear retcon is where they started shying away from the ending they were setting up with the earlier roughly 85% of the game.

 

14 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

For its worth, Emmeryn was never confirmed killed, since no one bothered to check her body. Everybody was quick to leave the scene. Or at least, the big players did. It's true no explanation is given, but we're not dumb, we can easily piece it together.

Gangrel says he plans on putting her corpse on display...

 

24 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

People in real life have survived falls from higher heights than Emmeryn. She also VERY likely fell on sand, which is actually one of the better surfaces to land onto. By its nature, the kinetic force would get distributed over all the individual grains of sand. In addition, Emmeryn would first push the sand downwards if even for a fraction of a second. Combined, it reduces the force of acceleration, which means when it has to go back to Emmeryn through Newton's third law, it will be at a reduced rate from what initially was. The difference might still be small, but it can be enough to cross the crucial threshold between death and survival. It helps to remember Emmeryn didn't came out of it unscathed, so it's not like there wasn't any negative consequence even if she did live. Now it's a matter of someone coming to her side quickly enough, which we can infer is what happened.

Now, I can give you that Emmeryn being sent to an island between Ylisse and Valm and staying there for years might be hard to believe, but her survival isn't what's unusual about her situation. It's unlikely, but not impossible.

And other street pass chapters claim characters can just walk around after dying without heartbeats, on a lark. Nothing indicates she is more alive than the walking, talking, fighting corpse of the Conqueror. If you want to make this gibberish canon feel free, but it means you can never be sure any character isn't actually a walking, talking, fighting, fertile, and functional corpse. Given how many dead rulers of the era become corpses like this (with the other two ruler we see die, Gangrel, and Walhart becoming them too), I would even say Emmeryn's walking corpse state is even likely in this weird streetpass induced universe.

Hey that opens the door for Basilio just being a walking, and talking corpse too, and Chrom also after Robin actually killed him in the mind control cutscene, with walking and talking corpseism being so rampant among rulers. It even explains how Robin returns at the end if you "permanently" kill Grima. Maybe the real difference in the timeline is that this is the walking, and talking corpse dimension

 

28 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Funny how this convo happened not long after I wrote this.

Honestly I am with you on that one, as it makes Awakening's story border on Fate's level of absurd if you really consider it.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Windows 10 comes with this handy tool called Xbox Game Bar. You press Win+alt+R and it starts recording.

Huh, that is an easier answer than I expect.

 

1 hour ago, Lightcosmo said:

yeah, too bad they focused the storyline on the wrong character. XD

(I would assume this was to avoid making it too similar to FE4?) But really Lucina should always have been the MC. (Also fairly sure the writers expressed disappointment with how her story turned out?)

True, Lucina should have been the main character of Awakening.

 

9 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Yet we got a time travel story, which tend to be about changing the past, or preventing it to be changed depending on what's happier.

Plenty of time travel stories are about how you can't change the timeline, often in the form of the time-traveler causes what they were trying to prevent (the original Terminator movie is a classic example of that), although that isn't the only way to go about it (the amusing novel To Say Nothing of the Dog comes to mind as an example of that).

 

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

The timeline had always been malleable. It's just the characters mistakenly thinking otherwise at first.

It is more than just that the characters telling us that these key events of the timeline can't be changed, the way the player is given a blatant choice that seems like it can change events, but is unable to, is reinforcing the idea far.

 

8 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Changes happened as early as we begin the game with Amseniac!Robin, whose pay-off has to wait almost the entire game, but it ultimately does.

Lucina confirms that Chrom also had a Robin best friend that fought with, betrayed, and killed Chrom in her timeline, with the premonition showing us that even in Lucina's timeline Robin killing Chrom is a mind control based affair. I don't see how this is a substantive change in the timeline at all.

 

8 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

(but surprise, she didn't died, so that too changed),

Pretending the Streetpass maps are anything but nonsense is kind of cute. Multiple blatantly dead characters are arbitrarily made playable, even when they were confirmed killed in both timelines. With both world jumping, and simply being dead both being half-assed explanation for some of these character, and with no explanation at all given for Emmeryn, I don't think you can really say she didn't die in this timeline.

 

[The Serenes Forest FE6 Telephone Game [ENTRIES CLOSED - PREPARING TO PLAY]]

Alright, I will throw my hat into the ring, so sign me up.

This is reminiscent of when I organized a relay game (I called it a Succession Game, as that was the name of that style or play from the Dwarf Fortress and Crusader Kings context I originally got the idea from) of an FE6 HM ironman game a few years back, but as a screenshot LP, and without the blind twist. It will be nice to just play, and not have all the extra stress of organizing the thing.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

5 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

With the whole point being to change it.

The point could just as easily be you can not change the past, even if you want to.

 

5 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

You already got the alternate ending where they just push the Grima problem down the road to be the future's problem (now that's realistic!). I'll just be here enjoying I can witness a happy ending even if it has to be in a video game...

Eh, happy endings are a dime a dozen for videogames, would have been nice to see them do something different with it, especially with how many times they reinforce the idea that the timeline can't substantively be changed in the game, until sudden it just can.

 

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Nah it would've been garbage. It's the same reason dystopian media is usually garbage. It's like what's the point.

A surprisingly philosophical question given the things I was deliberately referencing. The first was a poem by Dylan Thomas

Quote

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The second was a fair bit less heady reference, but at its heart was about the task of maintaining the order of civilization in the face of its inevitable descent into chaos.

The third a simple exclamation for why it is worth living even if life is originally meaningless, as we shout its meaning into the void.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Would a bleak ending been a good finale for a dying franchise? Awakening being intended as a potential swansong makes me think IS wouldn't have wanted FE to go out on a depressing note.

Yet there is something compelling about raging against the dying of light, to push against the ceaseless waves, and shout meaning into the void, despite their ultimate futility. I don't think it would have been a bad note to end on.

 

13 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

And given everything else about Awakening, namely its characters, a bleak ending would've been tonally dissonant.

They already setup that intentional tonal dissonance with the arrival of the Risen, and Lucina's story of a doomed future...

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

7 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

I have a doctors appointment todayyyy, here's hoping to finally make some progress.

Good Luck, hopefully it goes/went well.

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wait, what? What do you mean, they don't let you use cash? Why would they do that? What's the point? Is this another 9/11 side-effect, are they afraid you'll hide bombs under the bills?

More of a post-Covid thing, as during that time it was pointed out that money was the most germ infested thing human beings deal with on a regular basis. On average money is filthier than the average public toilet seat.

 

4 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Is this RD bashing?

Sounds like one of my big complaints about RD's story...

 

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Awakening is a fantastic piece of media to serve as a negative example for just about any point. Plus, bashing it is both fun and deserved. In extremely rare cases you get gems like the Hierarch, where things get so bad it's good. But 99% of the time it's just regular old awful.

Bad games can most certainly be quite an enriching experience. Knowing just how bad a game can be helps appreciating all the good decisions that other games make. All kinds of stuff that one might have taken for granted otherwise.

I find Awakening distinctly unmemorable from a gameplay perspective, and my biggest complaint about the story is how they were so clearly working towards a tragedy where the timeline cannot be changed (cemented by the clever use of the non-choices), but then they chickened out on such a bleak ending.

 

@Saint Rubenio I am thinking about joining the FE6 ironman relay, but have never recorded gameplay video before, do you have any advise for what kind of recording software to get/use for it?

[What's the point of Build stat?]

Technically you also need higher Bld to use the Shove skill on another unit, but that is really minor.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

4 hours ago, twilit said:

Finished Yakuza Kiwami 2. Main story, anyway.

Still so much side content to do, and I'll be chipping at it for a while.

 

Yakuza posting, @Benice would be so proud.

 

9 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

So yeah that's why I haven't been active much at all lately. I got the fixed laptop literally today and it was great to finally get back to playing Radiant Dawn as I had lost access to it for that entire week. This laptop isn't great but It'll make do until I get a for-real new one later down the line probably next month or so. For now all that matters is that I had all my saved files.

Ouch, that poor little laptop. At least you managed to save the Hard Drive, and have a solution for now.

 

9 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

I did nearly get a chunk of my team killed during the map because I forgot it a route map and I sped past to kill the boss instantly, not realizing that it would end the chapter and all my heavily damaged units would now be in danger, but it worked fine in the end with no casualties.

A funny mistake to make, and in some way understandable, as rout is the boringest objectives

 

9 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

...Also I'm so glad the hot dragon guy with tied hair is back.

Sadly it will be a while before he joins you.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

Whew, been a bit since I have been in the chat thread.

On 10/6/2023 at 5:53 AM, gnip said:

If we're talking single-player, stuff like Fly or Dig (same power as EQ!) is pretty good, too.

Fun fact, Fly and Dig are actually banned in many multiplayer formats due to a bug where being fully paralyzed during the semi-invulnerable turn causes that state to become permanent until you switch out, or use the move again.

 

On 10/6/2023 at 11:55 AM, BrightBow said:

I mean, the only trainer who swaps Pokemon is Agatha.

Technically there are two other classes that can switch pokemon, first the Juggler class has a 1/4 chance every turn to switch pokemon, and second Female Cooltrainers have the smartest switching AI in Gen I, where they only have a 1/4 chance of switching when their pokemon is below 1/5 HP. Agetha meanwhile has a bit over 8% chance of switching every turn.

 

On 10/6/2023 at 12:50 PM, Newtype06 said:

Rise from the Ashes is too long. I don't think I'm even halfway through it.

Isn't that the truth. Also, I hope you are enjoying Ace Attorney, as it is a series I rather like.

 

20 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

• Master Sword having Durability in TotK makes 0 narrative sense lol

Personally I think the weapon durability was dumb in general.

 

10 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Also, it's FEE3 time 😄 It outlived E3, crazy, right?

That is rather funny.

 

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

Now... Would You Kindly be sure no one is planning to hijack the plane near a certain lighthouse...

LOL. The original Bioshock was a real classic.

[Ranking each game by class: Pegasus/Falcoknights]

 

Time for another one of my tier lists to show my opinions on it. Admittedly, with how full the A tier is this time, I am tempted to split them into two tier, but I am trying to keep things vaguely comparable to my other class tier lists.

S Tier: One of the Best Classes in the Game

Path of Radiance: Each of the Pegasi have a lot going for them to get the class into this tier, starting with Marcia, the clear best unit in the game, followed by Tanith who gets the interesting Reinforce skill, which noticeably scales with difficulty, to make her more relevant on higher difficulties, and while there are a lot of risks to using Elincia, she has a lot of unique utility as the only flying staffer, and with her personal brave weapon, although she needs some extra investment to really shine (whether that is some early Bexp levels, or the Arms Scrolls to use the Sonic Sword immediately, which is fantastic on her). That is all before mentioning how incredibly powerful Canto is in this game.

Shadow Dragon: Great weapon ranks for the effective forges that break the game, the best possible mobility thanks to flight in a game with very rigid mobility, and of course the ease of just keeping the busted Wingspear in this class, makes this a clear S tier option.

Awakening: Including the Dark Flier in this class line, means it is one of the classes that gives you what you need to break this game wide open, which makes it a clear S-tier for me.

 

A Tier: A Good Class

New Mystery of the Emblem: I am very tempted to make this S rank, but deciding to put this in A tier is a clear sign that I don't think any of the New Mystery classes are dominate enough to reach S rank, as this is certainly the class that comes closest. For a significant portion of the game this is the best class you can be in, but it doesn't have the right caps for the last stretch of the game, and as you approach that late stage, you end up having to transition away from it. In fact the DracoKnight has the lowest Speed Cap of any promoted class, and this is a game where that really matters. This isn't a game where being a Pegasus/Wyvern gives you some great skill for the future, or is one of the classes with stellar growth rates, its just a great to be in for a significant portion of the game.

Radiant Dawn:  I really want to put this higher (and am probably still overrating them), as the time I brought all four pegs to the tower and setup a comically large number of triangle attacks per turn was the most fun I ever had with Radiant Dawn, but the only chapters that strat really worked on E-1 and maybe E-2 (and I should note that only the Ike side of E-2 actually matters), and there is a big weakness of this class that I can't ignore. Even in the weird availability of Radiant Dawn, the Pegasi have some of the most restrictive availability of any class. If the Pegasi even got close to the availability of the Wyverns it might have gotten itself to the S tier, but at this rate, I am waffling between A and B tier despite it having so much going for it in this game.

Sacred Stones: This might be a bit controversial to see this miss the S tier, but I do find that the combat stats of the pegasi are just that much worse than cavalry in this game. Still a very good class, but I find they need more babying than I think a class would need for S tier.

Blazing Sword: I almost put this class in S tier, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that they were far more similar to the quality of Sacred Stones than the S tiers they were surrounded by. I do think they fare better than in Sacred Stone, but not by all that much.

Thracia 776: Just like with Cavs I am very tempted to put this in the B tier due to the dismounting mechanics, but seeing as I put Cav in A, I can't put Pegasi below them. Don't get me wrong, the pegasi have significantly worse combat than the cavs, but flight gives them far better utility, and utility is almost universally better in Thracia than combat.

Engage: Flight is rather nice to have in Engage. The only universal base class with flight is a pagasi, it gets solid combat, and when it promotes to Griffon, it gets some rather useful staff utility. Its a good class, but as is often the case, it can get a bit overshadowed by the Wyverns, although the usefulness of staff still give it a reason to be chosen over Wyvern in some instances.

Fates:  Personally I find them to be a class that gets better skills than it is to necessarily use (due to their mediocre stat line), and I tend to give my Corrin this as their personal class on Conquest to pick up some of those skills up on people in the mid to late game (switching to a flying class for Fuga's wild ride and the staircase of doom, where flying utility is at a premium). Darting Blow is great for any player phase unit (although tends to be overkill for the Pegasus stat line itself), and Speed Rally is an amazing utility skill to get (and the most difficult rally to get in Conquest thanks to Izana coming with the other Birthright rallies for free), while going the Kinshi route gets easy access to the Air Superiority skill, which I like to have to make the Hinoka chapter more manageable on Lunatic. The Kinshi class line is probably the best option to stick with if you actually intend to stay in this class due to the power of bows in this game, and even without the skill utility, it would at least reach B tier from its combat capabilities in the other routes.

Three Houses: The intermediate class is probably the best to actually be in. That is somewhat undercut by the gender restriction, and how aggressively the line gets overshadowed by the Wyvern line at any class level above that. I keep trying to talk myself into putting this in B tier, but it is just way too good in the early game to mid-game.

 

B Tier: An OK Class

Echoes, Shadows of Valentia: Your Fliers are really good on Celica's side of things. Being able to ignore awful terrain, bonus damage on monsters after promotion (admittedly it is a far later promotion than I would like, because Gaiden hated female classes...). If there wasn't an Alm side to emphasize the weaknesses of this class, I might have even put it in A tier, although given how much more pronounced their bow weakness is in this game, where more enemies have actual bows, I doubt it would have made it anyway.

Genealogy of the Holy War:  Having Canto is good enough to make it at least one tier above every non-dancer infantry class in the game, but oddly enough, this is one of the few games where fliers have a noticeable mobility disadvantage over their horse mounted competition, as they can't take advantage of the ubiquitous roads, and thus can easily fall behind the ponies. Their stats also tend to be in the middle of the cav range, but they get some staff utility on promotion to try to make up for that.

Binding Blade: The worse combat of Pegasi is even more pronounced in this game, than the other GBA games, due to higher enemy quality, to the point that I think they deserve a lower tier. The utility of flight is enough to keep the from going any lower than this (in all likelihood that is true for every game). I do also think a lot of people over use them due to the common fear of Sacae, and thus see them in a better light than they deserve thanks to that intentional grinding.

 

C Tier:  A Subpar Class

 

D Tier: A Bad Class

 

[A Fun Pokexercise: 12-Type Teambuilding]

I avoided these as options before, but it is time for a few Regional Form teams for fun

 

First The Alolan Regional forms only team

Spoiler

Exeggutor (Grass + Dragon)

Marowak (Fire + Ghost)

Ninetales (Ice + Fairy)

Raichu (Electric + Psychic)

Dugtrio (Ground + Steel)

Muk (Poison + Dark)

Which is a fun looking team there, especially when there are only 10 pokemon lines to make a team with.

 

Sadly, the Galar version is impossible. Rapidash, Slowbro/Slowking, and Weezing create a dual type triangle with Psychic/Fairy/Poison that ensures only one of them can be chosen. The Legendary Birds all share a Flying typing, so you can only chose one of those. Yamask and Stunfisk share a Ground typing so only one of those can be chosen. If you include Zen mode, both Mr.Mime and zen mode Darmanitan share an Ice typing, so only one can be chosen. Add in the last option of the Linoone line, and you only get to 5 pokemon.

 

Now for the Hisuian team, which is one I am a bit excite to create

Spoiler

Zoroark (Ghost + Normal)

Arcanine (Fire + Rock)

Goodra (Steel + Dragon)

Electrode (Grass+ Electric)

Braviary (Psychic + Flying)

Samurott (Water + Dark)

Technically there are ways to do it without a starter (replace Samurott with Qwilfish in my list will work for instance), but I like the look of this team better.

 

Paldea has too few actual regional forms to make a team from, and even adding in the ecologically similar pokemon still doesn't get enough, and if I add the paradox pokemon in, it will be to similar to the Paradox Pokemon team I already did.

 

After two dud rounds, I think I will add one last little fun team, time for a no-evo team, with each member from a different generation to make things more fun.

Spoiler

Aerodactyl (Rock + Flying) ~Gen 1

Heracross (Fighting + Bug) ~Gen 2

Spiritomb ( Dark + Ghost) ~Gen 4

Klefki (Steel + Fairy) ~Gen 6

Turtonator (Fire + Dragon) ~Gen 7

Veluza (Water + Psychic) ~Gen 9

I did also make sure to include only pokemon I haven't yet included on a team, which let me include some fun pokemon I wasn't able to before.

[Teehee Madness 3 - Fire Emblem x Pokemon Linked Ironman!]

Seems the week itself was just as busy, but here we go, finishing off the two parter, and reaching the next checkpoint.

 

On 9/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, Punished Dayni said:

You do realise the sin was playing Gen 8 Pokemon right?

You should play Legends Arceus instead then...

 

On 9/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, Punished Dayni said:

And I now have to figure out which routes I immediately throw as sacrifices.

It is an interesting decision to have to make. It makes me regret not playing a Pokemon game with this linked run, just a little.

 

On 9/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, Punished Dayni said:

You wouldn't consider it for a higher might tome?

I probably should have, but I was thinking it should be on the most bread and butter weapon, and the basic Fire fits that in my mind.

 

On 9/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Fair enough, though -3 Mt is a bit ouch to me.

The high might forges of daggers does compensate for that a bit...also that is why I went through the effort of getting it on a Silver to begin with.

 

On 9/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Okay.

You plan on Bow Knight, Sniper or Warrior if you'll get a ring with Axe proficiency back?

If I end up keeping her it will probably be Sniper, as having access to a 20 range Astra Storm is an emergency technique I like having available on an Ironman.

 

On 9/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, Punished Dayni said:

The power of bullshit no jutsu at work.

I mean, the narrative stretch for this may be bullshit, but it gives us Chapter 11 bankruptcy, I've seen worse BS.

If she just didn't try to rub it in I would have been fine with it, as the time Crystal is a bullshit the player can theoretically use too, and the idea she can use it better for cutscene bullshit as its original owner seems appropriate enough.

 

On 9/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, Punished Dayni said:

And effective damage on Luin.

I really want to emphasise it, as someone who suffered it.

I was kind of banking on the effective damage convincing her to go for TeeHee actually, I even looked up the stats of the thing online to double check that they could live it, even with all the weird nonsense powers it has, I just overlooked the crit rate while factoring in triple might, and extra speed damage...

 

Lets escape the trap set before us in chapter 11

Spoiler

Now we are trapped like rats, and must chew through the walls to safety

At our very weakest, unable to even surpass the more believable dragons defending the more questionable one.

I really hope not, it would be kind of embarrassing to lose it all here, but without any of the emblem tricks to pull out of my pockets to save us will make things complicated

And instead our enemies have all the tricks at their disposal.

Such optimism...although I do wonder how the game handles it if you did monotonously grind enough to be able to deal with routing this map.

 But realism prevails for the first time since the trap was sprung.

Because it is time to run like Thracia

Because this is an escape map.

...but we do have some key preps to deal with first.

Like putting some boring rings on everyone so we still get SP, plus the minor stat buffs.

Honestly this is probably overkill, but it still makes sense for ironman safety.

I did also get another Master Seal, so time for another promotion, and with Micaiah gone, it has to be one of the mages to get me access to another staff user (as my flyer is long dead as the other main new promoted healer option), and

I am just liking how Citrinne looks statwise with the promotion more than Celine.

I will note that while we can't change our deployed units, I can switch up their positioning, and do a little bit here, but now, it is time to start this mess

With Diamant opening with a Breaking chip

For Louis to then chip it further past the Holdout threashold

Before Cantering out of Warp Ragnarok range, and still be at the edge of enemy archer range

So Citrinne can trade-equip him to Javelin for enemy phase while she

Finishes the Roy wielder off from thunder range.

And while it would be nice to get that ring back, Veyle whisks it away with time magic before we can recover it.

I just move forward with the rest of my army, unable to escape the staff range of the enemy Micaiah, with me very intentionally baiting the enemy flyer Marth with TeeHee, so it can't more effectively use its flight to harass me with effective weapons later. Onto enemy phase

Louis gets some nice chip

And Diamant safely lures in Celica's corrupted.

We are unable to hear the utterly tragic battle quote Marth has with his beloved TeeHee

And is crippled by the battle, before

We get a bit of a lucky break. Really its not that big of deal, as I have a restore stave for this map, but I am a bit surprised they went for such low odds.

Bouchy Boy then crushes the enemy Lief, even dodging the crit he would live anyway.

Lapis then out snipes the enemy archers, and

Elsurge means the enemy's clever plan of warp-ragnaroking onto terrain for evasion is extra useless.

Although the evasiveness of Marth himself is a bit of a nuisance

But Alfred gets the kill, and level on the first try.

Which lets us progress a bit ahead, and being just out of range

Of the pursuing Sigurd, who is neutered by him missing his opening attack, with Lapis chipping him enough

For the Ridersbane kill. Turnabout is fair play Sigurd.

Although this need to deal with Sigurd (and the pursuit from behind in general) has led to our army being spread out a bit.

With enemy phase actions at both extremes.

And we open next turn by laughing at Leif screwing the enemy armor into a 19% accuracy miss

But it makes it tanky enough that I still need to magic to deal with that three health it has remaining.

Anna can then go for the

character development by actually hitting the kill.

Now to deal with the Roy poking us in the rear, first with a long bow from Lapis

...Eh, even if he didn't miss the kill by exactly one, Roy would keep it alive for another hit anyway, so I would still need

Alfred to finish things.

And Framme heals up the chip Boucheron got from this.

But we now have a very distinct rearguard and vanguard to our army, and I am a bit split onto where to send poor Diamant stuck in the middle...I end up sending him closer to the rearguard, but with a little bit of distance just in case.

It is funny how much Louis fills the traditional Jagen role of crippling the enemy to feed kills to my army

But this complicates things a LOT.

I open by taking off a little of the pressure on Alfred by taking out the Leif that can target him, but that isn't the real issue

Because Sigurd is back to remind us that turnabout is fair play

And If I want to restore him, Framme has to stay in the very edge of Sigurd's range, and with the Corrupted Sigurd is hitching ride on having a Greataxe, Framme will be finished off by the combination of its attack, and the 5 damage Warp-Ragnark flying in from the west. If only I got Canter on Framme instead of the link dead Alcryst. I am in a very literal pickle here, with me having to chose between a dead Alfred, a dead Framme, or giving them a choice of Lapis or Diamant.

But thanks to my earlier waffling with Diamant, I find my out. Celinne can pass along the Freeze staff Hortensia dropped last chapter, which Diamant is close enough to be given, to then pass it off to Framme

And this enemy Sigurd has yet to learn his signature immune to the freeze status skill Headlong Rush (fun fact, Corrin's Dreadful Aura causes the freeze status, which Sigurd's Headlong Rush skill is immune to). As I said before Sigurd, turnabout is fair play, as I can use freeze to escape the pickle freeze put me in.

Alfred might as well chug a vulnerary while he is stuck here.

Anna then continues to amaze by not missing at embarrassing times

...Sigh, I guess she really did need the extra crit avoid.

TeeHee can then continue to hunt Marth, so his effective weapon can't threaten the invincible Louis from charging ahead

Or in this case make sure the one that drops a free weapon is active, while cantering ahead for it to die on enemy phase

...sniff, I am kind of proud of you Anna. I didn't know how you would handle it without a staff to lean on.

Lapis then draws the Ragnarok, before

All the terrifying Emblems threatening to overwhelm the rearguard with their powers get drawn back to join

With the Hounds, which is a brief reprieve, but now we really need to run with everyone.

Cause the stats on these monster, even before you add in the power of the Emblems, will wipe the floor with out army

And they have the movement to outrun us, if we don't take full advantage of our current lead on them. I wasn't sure if I got far enough with TeeHee to trigger this when I did it, but I am kind of glad I did, as that last turn was intense.

Enemy reinforcements do appear, trying to cut us off in the front, but my vanguard is my most powerful force

And the ones most able to endure an assault, sent ahead to make sure we can end this map when we need to.

Plus WE get some reinforcements for once.

With some Emblem power to boot, but with the end so close in sight, it isn't the largest impact on the map.

Alas all Zelkov gives us is the useless time crystal. It is a little weird that Veyle is still allowed to use some of those Emblem moving shenanigans, but it helps that most get attached to the Hounds that are unlikely to be defeated in this map.

Again we see the death of a parent leaving such stark issues unable to be resolved.

Thematically, it really should have been Lucina and Lief, but Lyn is more useful.

Ivy is finally ready to join us, to seek redemption for her soul seeking ways from before.

Its a little too late for you to turn things around on this map, but a timely Astra Storm, or use of the doubles can really turn things around.

I like how they keep the joke about Lucina disguising herself as Marth around. Keep the memory of that nerdy historical cosplay of hers alive.

An odd Emblem, as her powers run the gambit of being mostly useless, to deceptively powerful.

It fits well enough for Lucina to be saying this, but Mr Major Arc of My Game is about Escaping really should be a part of it too.

Back to gameplay, Lapis gets her revenge on the flying Ragnarok, but with Sigurd and Micaiah taken by the Hounds, that is the only action the rearguard has to see

In the Vanguard, TeeHee immediately slaughters the nearest mage, and repositions to let

Zelkov miss the kill on this lancer with his new Silver Dagger, but that is fine

As Ivy can pick up the kill with Thunder.

We are getting close the end here, with the rearguard bunching up as they struggle past terrain to flee the hounds on our heels, while Louis does his usual baiting

To mixed results with a crit kill on one hand

And having accidentally made a thief unhittable on terrain.

So I open by getting Anna into a backup position

But it literally has the second worst possible max HP for a backup unit to help with, and even with Elsurge getting a free solid hit in, it will be hard to finish

Unless Ivy just hits a 24 out of the blue on the next attack

Zelkov then shows the dead thief how being an avoid tank is really done.

Enemy staff range is uncomfortably approaching my rearguard, but next turn should be the end of things.

And I open that turn by crippling the enemy chain guarder

With Celine finishing it.

For an OKish levelup.

Roy's Holdout then prevents Citrinne from getting the kill on this last enemy

So Zelkov finishes thing. Now this chapter ends as soon as TeeHee escapes, so the rearguard can do some dangerously silly things

Like getting some Hound boss quotes

This quote was almost much more ominous, but with just linked units dead so far...

Lapis then gets in a little chip exp from breaking a chain guard

And lets Bouchy Boy trade it over

To grab a last minute kill

And Canter out of the way for Alfred to trigger another boss quote

...Ouch Alfred really got roasted there, especially with him dealing 0 damage to her.

And last, but not least Framme gets a survival levelup with some last minute healing

But TeeHee escapes, saving me from the consequences of my reckless final actions.

Anna as MVP? She is certainly showing improvement, but not really the MVP of this map.

An odd transition from snowy forest to endless boiling desert...

Don't worry Ivy, she will join us in due time.

The only option is to move forward, instead of stagnating in the broken past.

The cruel price of naivete, that TeeHee must learn from.

And you called us stupid, Ivy didn't even need time shenanigans to pull that off.

Yeah, we are at a very serious Emblem disadvantage despite Ivy's aid, and it will be a while before we correct that imbalance.

If only you weren't the dragon loli of this game, St. Rubenio would probably like you, and those war crimey words, and step on us words.

That was certainly a blatant mistake

But there were plenty pushing you towards that mistake, with the kind of emotions you have shown yourself to be most vulnerable to.

And Ivy is brutally telling it like it is.

Much as I want to call this out as another instance of Engage shying away from an interesting idea, we are at too low a point to survive such conflict between our crew

And Diamant has the right of it. Ivy is not responsible for the actions of her father. It is fitting that Diamant brings this up, as if you read any of his supports, you will see how he tries to move away from the mistakes of his father's warring ways.

And these groups of apologies feel like a resolution to thing, that might happen when people talk things out like normal people.

With a tragic confession from Alcryst here. Here we have a more traditional feeling of regret about the death of a parent, but still shows the way death freezes the state of their relationship, to the regret of the survivor.

A real blunder on your part with that one, as he left it to you two before his suicide by Hyacinth.

And eventually we will...but it will be a while.

And now Lyn teaches us an important distinction about not killing ourselves the same way Morion did. You don't have to accept the battles your opponents offer, where they are in a position of strength, and instead set up positions of strength for your foes to fall into.

Lets us move away from this folly, to fall into new ones.

We do need to gather strength, with more Emblems, new recruits, and added experience all around.

I know I am the only one not to lose a unit yet (and if this is anything like my last ironman, I wont have a death til we meet Timerra), but such hubris is just asking for a death...

But we are riding that hubris into the heart of Solm

That was an uncomfortably close call, but we made it out of it again...and to the next checkpoint, for me at least.

[A Fun Pokexercise: 12-Type Teambuilding]

Well this was interesting

Gen 1

Spoiler

Dragonite (Dragon + Flying)

Gengar (Poison + Ghost)

Jynx (Ice + Psychic)

Parasect (Bug + Grass)

Poliwrath (Water + Fighting)

Rhydon (Rock + Ground)

I love gen 1, but it is a shame how constrained this little experiment is in this generation.

 

Gen 2

Spoiler

Lanturn (Water + Electric)

Jumpluff (Grass + Flying)

Magcargo (Fire + Rock)

Sneasel (Ice + Dark)

Steelix (Steel + Ground)

Girafirig (Psychic + Normal)

Controversial take, but I love that Gen 2 pokemon are distinctly not power creeping gen 1. I have all these interestingly typed pokemon, who are all OK at best, and didn't feel the need to be better than every other pokemon of their types from the previous generations, they could just be pokemon of that type.

 

Gen 3

Spoiler

Sabeleye (Dark + Ghost)

Ludicolo (Grass + Water)

Metagross (Steel + Psychic)

Flygon (Ground + Dragon)

Swellow (Normal + Flying)

Blaziken (Fire + Fighting)

I feel a bit basic for having both a starter, and one of the innumerable Normal/Flying types in this list, but I don't feel strongly enough about Gen 3 to make a better one.

 

Gen 4

Spoiler

Rotom (Ghost + Electric)

Drapion (Dark + Poison)

Lucarion (Steel + Fighting)

Gastrodon (Water + Ground)

Abomasnow (Ice + Grass)

Vespiquen (Bug + Flying)

I went out of my way to avoid any of the new evos with this one, which was an interesting additional constraint...in fact, time for a bonus team

Spoiler

Roserade (Grass + Poison)

Honchkrow (Dark + Flying)

Magnezone (Electric + Steel)

Rhyperior (Ground + Rock)

Gallade (Fighting + Psychic)

Froslass (Ghost + Ice)

The Opps all new evos team as well 😛 . I almost thought it was implossible, before I noticed that I forgot about Roserade.

 

Gen 5

Spoiler

Chandelure (Fire + Ghost)

Sawsbuck (Grass + Normal)

Seismitoad (Water + Ground)

Sigililyph (Psychic + Flying)

Hydregion (Dark + Dragon)

Galvantula (Electric + Bug)

This is such a fun little excercise, as it lets met build such intersting little teams here, although sometimes it hurts to make decisions on some types

 

Gen 6

Spoiler

Aegislash (Steel + Ghost)

Dragalge (Poison + Dragon)

Malamar (Dark + Psychic)

Hawlucha (Fighting + Flying)

Auroras (Ice + Rock)

Dedene (Electric + Fairy)

I got four pokes into this one, and realized I could no longer fit a classic Grass-Water-Fire core to this team, and then decided to not use any of those types at all, which was a fun additional constraint

 

Gen 7

Spoiler

Bruxish (Water + Psychic)

Drampa (Normal + Dragon)

Dhelmise (Grass + Ghost)

Togedemaru (Electric + Steel)

Salazzle (Fire + Poison)

Ribombee (Bug + Fairy)

So many interesting, and tragically forgotten pokemon in this generation, which I do kind of love, like the oft bullied Bruxish, the amusing Drampa, and that odd ball of Dhelmise.

 

Gen 8

Spoiler

Appletun (Grass + Dragon)

Wyrdeer (Normal + Psychic)

Basculegion (Ghost + Water)

Overqwil (Poison + Dark)

Kleavor (Bug + Rock)

Enamorus (Fairy + Flying)

After locking in the best of the adorable apple dragons (and I legitimately do love that there are multiple apple dragons to chose from, all the way up to three  fully evolved ones as of the new DLC), I showed my combined love of Legends Arceus, and contempt of the main-line gen 8 games by filling the rest of the list with Hisui exclusives. Congratualtion Enamorus, you get to be the only legend on the list due to this pettiness.

 

Gen 9

Spoiler

Scovillain (Fire + Grass)

Tatsugiri (Water + Dragon)

Tinkaton (Steel + Fairy)

Lokix (Dark + Bug)

Grafaiai (Poison + Normal)

Kilowattrel (Electric + Flying)

Fun fact, each pokemon on this last list is a dual-typing I have yet to include on any of the lists before. Admittedly half of them are type combinations unique to their line (Scovillain's Fire-Grass, Lokix's Dark-Bug, and Grafaiai's Poison-Normal). I will also note that I avoided Paradox pokemon intentionally as well, so its time for another bonus team

Spoiler

Slither Wing (Bug + Fighting)

Iron Moth (Fire + Poison)

Iron Bundle (Ice + Water)

Flutter Mane (Ghost + Fairy)

Roaring Moon (Dark + Dragon)

Sandy Shocks (Electric + Ground)

Of Opps All Paradox Pokemon 😛  Also, it amused me to no end that I could fit both the future, and past versions of Volcarona on this list, which made me feel a little better about it getting the boot for Chandelure on the gen 5 team. I did also skip over the DLC mons here, but I don't think there are enough for me to make another bonus team.

 

 

On 9/23/2023 at 7:42 PM, indigoasis said:

And Gen 6:

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• Aegislash (Steel/Ghost)
• Heliolisk (Electric/Normal)
• Aurorus (Rock/Ice)
• Dragalge (Poison/Dragon)
• Malamar (Dark/Psychic)
• Hawlucha (Fighting/Flying)

 

We almost had the same team for this gen, with me just trading your Heliolisk for my Dedene.

 

On 9/23/2023 at 8:16 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

 

Moving on to Gen II, I noticed that every submitted set shares one particular Mon, in the form of

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Lanturn (Water/Electric)

I'm wracking my brain to figure out whether it's a must-have, and I'm leaning toward "yes". Namely, there are no teams out there where I can swap sonething new into its place, and still have everything work. I thought I could with @X-Naut's team, but turns out, there was actually an overlap there - oops! But if anyone can come up with a Gen II team that doesn't have that particular species, then drop me a line!

Laturn was my first choice on my original team list, but if I wanted to avoid any of the gen 2 water types...

Spoiler

Magcargo (Fire + Rock)

Sneasel (Ice + Dark)

Girafirig (Psychic + Normal)

Jumpluff (Grass + Flying)

Heracross (Bug + Fighting)

Steelix (Steel + Ground)

This team should work...although looking at it again, even though I made it anew, it ended up as my original gen 2 team, but replacing Lanturn with Heracross
 

 

[Ranking each game by class: Dancers/Refresh Units]

Honestly this is probably one of the boring-est class to rank, as it is difficult for me to justify putting them below S tier in every game, but here we go

Again with the theoretically useful image..

S Tier: One of the Best Classes in the Game

Genealogy of the Holy War: Much as I want to drop it a rank for not having a horse, being able to refresh four units, and the way you can use super canto to setup those multi-dances are just too much for even a high version of A tier

Thracia 776: Even before the dancer promotion, Thracia's future dancer puts in some work with minor thief utility, and as solid capture bait unit. As for dancing, letting you use your high rank staffers multiple times a turn is definitely worth a top tier ranking

Binding Blade: With enemies being tough enough to make this a more player phase focused game, not to mention the key aspect of helping your units carry Roy to the seize point, dancers can really shine in this game

Path of Radiance: Much like Genealogy, the lack of horse, and how enemy phase focused this game is both make me want to drop it to A-tier, but even time limited multi-dances (on top of the other bonuses Reyson gets on transforming) is just too powerful to keep out of S-tier.

Engage: With Byleth's power letting you refresh your dancer, and being able to give them canter in general for better position, that lets you use you best unit up to four times in a single turn, which is ridiculously powerful.

Fates: Its more difficult to setup a multidance in Fates, but being able to shelter-transfer-switch to get your dancer to fully refresh a unit multiple times in a turn is still ridiculous.

Radiant Dawn: Multiple herons get to dance more than one unit a turn with their refreshing, although its a bit complicated which, and when they can, that is still a S-tier power. I suppose I should mention in passing that they also get other utility chants, but they are either mostly useless, or require more grinding than anyone should ever want, or need to do on a dancer.

New Mystery of the Emblem: With how difficult positioning is in the DS games (no canto, or rescue...), and how player phase focused that game tends to be, its dancer definitely earns its S-tier

Three Houses: Having so much control of who can become your dancer lets you build them into a unit that you don't have to treat as gently as in other games, especially with them getting the skills to become more of a dodge tank, letting them far more safely remain on the front lines, plus dancing helps to setup the quick boss kills that seem to dominate so many maps of this game.

Blazing Sword:  At first I had this placed in the A-tier, as this game is far more enemy phase focused, where the Jav Cavs can charge ahead of the dancers as the battle goes on, but when I remembered about Ninis Grace, and Filla's Might, I figured that was just enough to push it over the edge, as both facilitate enemy phase action far more than the more player phased focused power of a refresh.

 

A Tier: A Very Good Class

Sacred Stones:  The ability to refresh is strongest as a player phase focused tool, and while it can help with setting up enemy phase action, it doesn't shine as much. Sacred Stones is the just the major enemy phase focused game where dancers weren't given anything extra to compensate for that.

Awakening: With Galeforce giving your best units easier access to extra actions late into the game, it feels like the power of dancing falls off a bit later into the game, but its still really useful in general to refresh units. I am somewhat tempted to drop this down to B-tier, but I am letting it live in A tier for now.

 

[The Use Everybody Challenge]

16 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

TFW you spend all your money on Super Repels so you're not obligated to swap your level 30 Quilava out for a level 3 Caterpie.

You would never be able to get a Quilava to level 30 the way I was planning them, as I tried to keep the number of pokemon changes between badges to be less than 6, but otherwise as high of average as possible and low of variance as possibible, so for example the gen 1 routing I concocted looks like:

Spoiler

in {} represents the encounter being replaced, [] is each major badge, also instead of directly including every town with water, I instead have one city fishing encounter per rod.

Red/Blue
Pallet Gifts; Route 1; Route 2; Viridian Forest; Route 22; [Boulder Badge];
Route 3; Mt Moon {Pallet Gifts}; Route 4 {Route 1}; Route 24 {Route 2}; Route 25 {Viridian Forest}; [Cascade Badge];
Route 5 {Route 22}; Route 6 {Route 3};Old Rod {Mt. Moon}; Route 11 {Route 4}; Diglett Cave {Route 24}; [Thunder Badge];
Route 9 {Route 25}; Route 10 {Route 5}; Rock Tunnel {Route 6}; Route 8 {Old Rod}; Route 7 {Route 11}; Celadon Gifts {Diglett Cave}; [Rainbow Badge];
Pokemon Tower {Route 9}; Route 16 {Route 10}; Route 17 {Rock Tunnel}; Route 18 {Route 8}; Good Rod {Route 7}; Safari Zone {Celadon Gifts}; [Soul Badge];
Route 15 {Pokemon Tower}; Route 14 {Route 16}; Route 13 {Route 17}; Route 12 {Route 18}; Super Rod {Good Rod}; Saffron Gifts {Safari Zone}; [Marsh Badge];
Route 21 {Route 15}; Fossil {Route 14}; Pokemon Mansion {Route 13}; [Volcano Badge];
Route 20 {Route 12}; Seafoam Island {Super Rod}; Route 19 {Saffrom Gifts}; [Earth Badge];
Power Plant {Route 21}; Route 23 {Fossil}; Victory Road {Pokemon Mansion}; [Ending]

 

 

[The Use Everybody Challenge]

12 hours ago, Jotari said:

In other words, every time you get a new unit, you have to stop using the oldest unit in your army.

So more of a FIFO (First In, First Out) challenge. I have actually been thinking about a similar style challenge with Pokemon, doing some encounter routing prep work to see which games you could setup for each encounter getting at least one gym to play around in, or modifications you might need to get there.

 

11 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

(Nino's face lights up as she realizes people will actually use her now)

I did end up so depleted in my successful HHM no Lyn Mode ironman  that I was legitimately using Nino by the end, and if I had managed to recruit everyone (Erk died as a green unit, Florina died too early for me to recruit Fiora, Dart died just before I could get Geitz, and Bartre definitely died too early for Karla) it probably would count as an example for the challenge name.

 

11 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

 

Honestly GBAFE becomes the most straightforward of the lot to me, focus on later recruits like Douglas or Zeiss, Renault or Nino or Saleh or Knoll. I kinda think these would be relatively straightforward (Harken's recruitment should be possible as Isadora should be available still). And if you have recruiters who would be benched for a unit you want, well..... there might be ways to make room.

I think Engage would be by far the most straightforward of the bunch, with people complaining all the time about how much stronger the latter recruits are.

 

11 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

 

Thracia also has the concerns around Stamina to consider, RD with how the army splits affect it.... I can see these titles throwing spanners in the works. Maybe wouldn't matter with some tweaks or careful management (see Stamina).

Thracia sounds like an interesting one, especially with how you handle Stamina in the rules, whether it opens up a slot for anyone to use, or the next most recent unit available, or a forced empty slot. I could see interesting strats like intentionally exhausting units to get access to an earlier healer for key chapters for instance...

 

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Just Nino? I woulda thought you'd mention Renault or Karla.

I tried using Karla once...she is really bad for that late section of the game. Renault is fine, as you don't really need stats on a staff bot.