[Minor Character Appreciation Thread]

Now I don't want to anyone mentioning any character you could even pretend to consider a main character or even major in this thread, this for all those Brom, Vander, and Matthis lovers to gush about their favorites minor characters that no one else seems to appreciate. Obviously this is also an excuse for me to talk about a bunch of minor characters that I appreciate, and this is a place for all of you to do the same...yeah  might have gone a bit overboard below, but its fun to talk about the units you like that aren't important enough to generally get much attention from others.

 

Lets start with one that I am probably the only person that has ever cared about them, the minor villain from Genealogy of the Holy War's chapter 4, the mercenary leader Lamia. The vicious leader of an all female mercenary band (the game even brings out all the obscure female enemy sprites just for her little band), famed for their ruthlessness, and being one of the few minor bosses with a unique face sprite (although it is speculated that it might have originally been planned as a face used for a younger Queen Hilda...). She is just plain cool for such a minor villain.

Moving onto generation 2, I have a soft spot for the substitute unit Asaello, the hitman of Connacht. With such a title, one may think I am fawning over minor villains again, but this hitman takes such an ignoble path to help feed the orphans that he grew up with, and has always had a soft spot for children. As someone who also has a soft spot for children, I can kinda relate to the guy. It is a down right a shame that he was cut from Thracia 776, as he would have fit in there perfectly, but they didn't want to imply too much about Thracia 776's continuity by including the replacements...

Next comes a hero from Thracia 776 with Miranda, and with her being the princess of Alster with a noticeable impact on the plot it might seem like a bit of a cheat, but she is not only exclusive to the least popular route of Thracia 776, but also generally considered a difficult to use unit, and much as it pains me to say it, she is. Really she shouldn't be an optional character, as she makes Leif's disastrous attack on Alster make so much more sense. She has a lot of fun spunk to go with her fiery magic, although it is really tough to get her off the ground.

Another Thracia unit, its time to talk about the oft overshadowed Eda. Poor girl had to come with her top tier prepromoted brother Dean, so no one looks at this young dragon rider, but she is still a flier, and a cool little dragon rider, and I have trained her enough to see her become a powerhouse on her own. I kind of pity her really, she gets unfairly overshadowed by units Thracia showers with gifts, and she is constantly putting the feeling of other above her own, following her brother into exile, and in her ending sacrificing her joy to help Altena.

I am going to cheat a little here, as I would be remiss not to mention my love of the Triangle Attack of Ostia, the three great generals Bors, Barthe, and Gwendolyn. This poor trio always gets trash talked, with the dutiful Wendy oft called one of the worst units in Binding Blade, but they can combine their powers into the automatic hit and crit of a deadly Triangle attack. That isn't to dismiss the over protective big brother she looks up to so much, or that loyalist of knights Barthe. What can I say, its fun to setup the right positioning to maximize my number of triangle attacks, and the more restrictive movements of an armored knight just makes it all the more satisfying when you can setup multiple in a turn due to the extra planning needed.

In a very similar vein, I love New Mystery's Axey boy trio as well, with their silly names, and the jokes about people not being able to distinguish Cord and Bord, with ol' Barst as a bit of an outlier. There the lack of the rescue command adds a whole new layer of difficulty to the setup for them to make thing all the more fun, and they hit some impressive benchamarks with the triangle attack as well.

Time for another trio, as I like all the units you recruit in Blazing Blade's Kinship's Bond. I rather like dragon riders, and that split haired Heath was the first one I ever got the chance to use. As for Rath, the quite horse archer that defies discrimination is an interesting mix that appeals to me. Finally a quick word on Isadora, but it always felt a bit funny that she felt more like a friend of Eliwood's mom than him, and discovering her fiance latter in the game was an interesting detail to stumble upon. I know I am rushing a bit here, but I have been rambling on way too long already.

I think I will jump ahead a few games before getting to New Mystery of the Emblem, with another edge case here, of my little prince, Yubello. A bit of a cheat again as he would be royalty if emperor Marth didn't take all the crowns for himself at the end of New Mystery. He is just my little boy, who can be the best mage he wants to be, and I care about my little boy far too much not to mention him a fair bit here.

It is time to jump ahead to the end of things with one from Engage, my Bouchy Boy. He grew on me, I started using him just because he was one of the more functional axe units, but I found a man that loves reading, even genre's generally seen as very feminine like romance novels, and is sensitive enough to cry when he needs to. Plus he has a fun personal skill if you use him after the early game.

 

[Vending Machine Odds]

I have tried looking, but I haven't been able to actually find the odds anywhere, and am sadly throwing in the towel. What I do know is that all the vending machines outside the Fortuna Offices have three possible drinks you can get from them randomly (and it is easy to look up which three). As for the Fortuna Offices from what I can tell there are two rolls, one where it determines which three Drinks are possible for them, and then the roll for which of those three you actually get.

On 4/10/2024 at 7:22 AM, Crows n Murder said:

With the amount of money you get late in the game, is their any value to repeatedly buying drinks to try to get a better choice?

There are only two reasons to do so, first there is an achievement for having gotten all 11 drinks at least once, and second each drink gives different units a temporary luck boosts, but the Muscle Drink EX is the only one that gives everyone a luck boost, and is only available from the Fortuna Office vending machines, which makes it by far the rarest, but best of the drinks to try and get.

 

Its sad how little information I could find. This game is so underappreciated, which I am putting a bit down to it not doing a good job of telling people what it is. I don't think it does a good job of capturing the feel of either Fire Emblem or SMT, but instead really successfully captures the feel of a Magical Girl anime, and I really appreciate it for that odd niche.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

On 4/10/2024 at 12:15 PM, Armagon said:

 

My plan later today is to backup my Pokemon Moon save, transfer my friends to Home, then restore that save. Because Pokemon Moon is the last Gen they can all be together.

The sad consequences of Dexit, so many old pokemon friends can't be together in the newer games...

 

23 hours ago, Armagon said:

Is it me or has this chat been in a lull lately?

Yeah, I know I have been a bit quite...not that I tend to be the loudest around here at the best of times. I tend to be rather socially passive.

 

22 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

 

Rate my V

I like the fiery red hair, and the sprinkling of freckles was a great choice. Also I like that the outfit looks functional enough that I could actually believe they would be swinging a Katana around.

 

23 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

I meant to start something else today that'd trigger discussion here, but... delay delay delay is me.😆 

I know what you mean, I have been planning on creating a new topic for like three days now, and I keep wasting time, and putting off what will be a fun little thread.

 

20 hours ago, Armagon said:

I've noticed it. It's not just Guardian, Sooks has been gone for a while too. Benice as well even though his name does pop up in the lurking.

Yeah, I miss them too. At least with Benice I feel like I got a sense of farewell, and I know they are going off to college for better things, but I still miss him a bit. @GuardianSing it felt like left out of the blue, leaving mid Genealogy playthourgh, and I was rather looking forward to hearing their thoughts and comments on that game, as well as Thracia afterwards. Theoretically their profile indicates they have been lurking a little, which makes me think it might just be computer troubles or something.

Although on the otherhand part of the benefit of the internet is that you can just become something else, or simply fade away...

 

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I tried Discord a couple times, the flow doesn't jive with me. Responding to anything written three minutes ago might as well be necroposting there. Toofastformewhocanspendanhourwritingameticulouswalloftextheretokeepup.

Yeah I know what you mean. Discord is far too quick for me, about the only thing I use it for is voice chat with IRL friends where some are too far away to meet.

[What are your favorite Pokemon?]

Dratini has always been my favorite pokemon, I even dressed up as a Dratini for Halloween once as a little kid, and have a very old plush, and even a Dartini hat that is now way too small for me. They are the first baby dragons, and such a little cutie, and I love them.

Another favorite is Umbreon, which is still my favorite of the eeveelution. I named one of cats as a kid Umbreon, and she was a real sweetheart, and the pokemon will always make me think of her.

I have a soft spot for the 6 Smeargle challenge (first saw Pikasprey do that one, and tried two for myself), and I still think of my favorite little Smeargle, ol' Euripides. I was naming each of the Smeargle after different notable masters of different art forms, as this poor Greek playwright of a Smeargle was the one stuck with just charm as his first move, and it made him the absolute hero of the team, often having to sacrifice himself to ensure our team of artists could make it though tough early game fights.

I have a very soft spot for Dunsparce as well, due to a Crystal Nuzlocke, where I lucked into the 1% Dunsparce encounter at the very beginning. It being a female when I had a naming theme of Zelda characters, it felt like destiny, we had Zelda the Dunsparce, and I decided then and there to try and make her the hero of the team, and much to my surprise, I discovered that Dunsparce is actually excellent in Gen 2 early game. Rage is secretly a busted move in that gen, and she wrecked the first 3 gyms easily thanks to that, adding dig was enough to crush gym 4, and with a bit of careful team support, she was able to carry us all the way to the last Gym, although due to some technical issues, I never did finish that run (I was using a kind of janky DS emulation of GB game, which janked out a little bit when preparing for gym 8...)

I have a bit of a soft spot for Slugma and Magcargo for two reason, the simplest of which is that my first wild shiny I caught was Magcargo (in Heatran's den), and it was my favorite starter from what is my favorite Pokemon hack, the Pokemon Emerald Trashlocke hack, which simply made the game harder by just changing which pokemon to are available at each part of the game to pokemon that are rarely used for being weak (and keeping you from access the TMs from the game corner).

Honestly, I could keep naming a bunch of gen 2 pokemon, it is my favorite generation, and there were a lot of fun pokemon added that gen, plus they didn't feel the need to powercreep everything back then so they could just be a bunch of weird little pokemon. I do mean this, I am willing to go to bat for a LOT of gen 2 pokes, almost all of them are fantastic little guys, and I am showing significant levels of restraint here.

Togekiss became another favorite of mine thanks to Sunnyside, a Serene Grace Para-flinching Togekiss, which was just a fun thing to play with, and a hero of my HeartGold playthrough. Heart Gold was such a love letter to Johto, and Sunnyside the Togekiss is a memorable part of that lovely experience.

I need to mention what I originally called my Z-Team, as I was planning on using a team with one of my favorite pokemon for each generation for the 6th gen game that never was. Fortunately I got impatient, and fell in love with how diverse the pokemon available in Kalos were, that let me make the team without much serious transfering (and breeding). It was a combination of good, and favorite little pokes, and each are a line worth mentioning with the end team having Dragonite for Gen 1 (and I have already gushed about my fav Dratini), Tyranitar for gen 2 (it was one of my brother's favorite's of the generation, and it makes me think of him), Gardevoir for gen 3 (honestly it is a shame how horny weirdos have made people so judgmental about liking Gardevoir), Rotom for gen 4 (I am a fan of ghost types, and this ghost in the machine is so cool with their multiple forms, and it earned its extra prominence with the Rotom-dex), Volcarona for gen 5 (this moth of the sun is really cool, and even as a little Larvesta those flame like offshoots combines a coolness with its natural cuteness), and last, but for a certainly not least, Aegislash (little Honedge is so cool, and as the kind of nerd that liked swords, a haunted sword is a pokemon that is right up my alley).

Goomy is a friend shaped blob of goo of my favorite type, which made me a big fan from the start, and Legends Arceus making them a secret slug Drgaon is great, love that line of adorable goo(f) balls 😛 .

Klefki gets complained about way too much for such a cute little goofball, and I will defend the little keyring. People would lambast them as a sign of Pokemon running out of ideas when the first generation had things like Magneton...

Rowlet might be my favorite starter at this point. That cute little leaf bowtie on that adorable little owly boy is the best, and them becoming a ghost archer, it feels strangely linked to me. Getting to use them again in Legends Arceus was just icing on the cake for the little hero.

 I can't help it, I am going to add even more weird dragon types to the list with the lovable bully burning Drampa, the dragon grampa that makes everyone think of Falkor and randomly normal type.

Mimikyu is a pokemon I have such a soft spot for. The little ghostie fella just wants everyone to love them like they do Pikachu, and I am ready to give them the biggest hugs, and all the praise for the little cutie.

The fact that they made multiple apple dragons feels like a present just for me, but I want to just emphasize my favorite of them, the utterly absurd Appletun, the applepie Dragon. I love that goofball so very much.

As many complaints as I have about gen 8, they went out of their way to make multiple pokemon just for me, with Sinistea as another cutie. I live on tea, and ghost is my second favorite type...

I love weird Dragon types, so Tatsugiri, the Sushi dragon is such a pokemon made for me. The little cuties even have different forms with such bold personalities to their designs, I just love the little things. Heck they even got a notable appearance in the plot of gen 9.

I am sure I could find even more pokemon to gush about if I tried, but this seems like fair number to bring up for now.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

Time for some controversial Pizza opinions, Pizzas are at there best when there are both meat and vegi/fruit/mushrooms, when it is a more rounded meal. Really the only wrong way to make a Pizza is when you forget to put all the tasty things on it by pretending a cheese pizza is a real Pizza. Also what is probably my favorite basic Pizza is a Hawaiian plus bacon, so that is where I lie on the Pineapple debate 😛 

[What is your unpopular Fire Emblem opinion?]

On 3/31/2024 at 11:48 AM, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

I propose the erasure of the Skill/Dex stat in future entries.
 

It serves no other purpose than a lil boost to hitrate, a lil bit of crit and the activation rate of skills, the first of which is dictated by weapon stats and weapon ranks, the second is, well, also tied to weapons and more to wepaon ranks and activation rate for skills... lmao. IS isn´t leaning hard enough into activation rates to not require stupid amounts of investments to make them worthwhile.

Removing it would make weapons and weapon ranks more meaningful and would either force the removal of procc skills, or having them be reworked, maybe in a system that involves activation boosts like Quixotic or new one, again, tied to weapons. All the things it does, something else holds more or the same amount of sway over and the one thing it does have going for itself (well, outside of Luck procc skills) is just kinda not great. As such, why not get rid of this redundant survivor of the 1990s? Lay ´em to rest.

You could give this idea a bit of a test run by hacking every unit in S.o.V into a magic class (or just hack as many pitchforks as you need to do that, or just only using magic units I guess although that is a bit restrictive), as the accuracy of magic in that game is untethered from skill.

 

On 4/3/2024 at 10:12 AM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

 

I'm sure they can think of some way to make Skill as good as the other stats, point for point.

Although I think it is time to drop an unpopular opinion here, I don't think all stats need to be equally valuable. How many points of defense equals a point of speed is a silly question, even if one of them is generally better than the other, because we don't play these games in general, we are forced to play with the specific things we have. As long as there are situations where the less useful stats have a solid use it all ends up alright. Take what are generally seen as the two worst stats, luck and skill, starting with skill. Having too little skill is still a notable detriment of reliability as you suddenly risk misses that you might otherwise need, and against particularly dodgy enemies (or those that are taking advantage of strong terrain buffs) you will really appreciate the extra accuracy, plus being able to get a timely crit is more useful in practice than it sounds like on paper. As for luck, the ability to avoid crits can be utterly vital against some enemies, and having a luck low enough that generic enemies have small crit chances against you, suddenly pushes an otherwise great enemy phase unit into a more passive role. These stats have their uses even when they aren't always appreciated.

 

20 hours ago, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

 

By removing DEX/SKL and correspondingly elaborating on a Weapon Rank/Weapon Triangle System, Weapon stats (Really? +5 hit diff, per ranks?) and more elaborate skill systems you´d make CHOICE more interesting, rather than the brittle swiss army knife stat Dex currently is, which can be increased by, oh boy, +2/5 and whatever Rallie we want to use.

How would this change make choices more interesting in any way? It sounds like you just limit the amount of choice you have by removing the ability to use units with skill stats and weapon levels that differ from eachother. A unit that has more weapon options but is less reliable vs a unit with more restrictive weapon options but is more reliable with chances for extra damage is the interesting choice this change would removing with this change.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

14 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

And without that daydream, now I'm just left feeling some despair, some frustration at having broken my self-promised "book something" end-of-the-month deadline. I found what seemed like a perfect counselor that'd put me on the assembly line to speedy existential contentment- explicitly expertise in helping autistic people with life transitions, yay!😄 ...But my insurance ended up being a form of Medicare despite the private company name on it. And Medicare being gov't insurance means it ends up rejected by many therapists, including The One.☹️ I only have myself to blame, since if I had a job with private coverage, I likely wouldn't have been rejected ...but would I even be in this situation, then?

🫂 Its a shame to hear how the American medical system screwed you. Hopefully you find the help you need soon.

 

12 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

 

Daughter checks into the hospital sick. Mom visits every day for about 4 days. Daughter’s friends call mom April 1st and say her condition took a big turn for the worse and daughter died. Mom gets to the hospital and they all appear and say April fools

Mom hasn’t spoken to daughter for 2 years

Little brat needs the shit slapped out of her for that prank IMHO

Some people can just take a joke too far, to the point where it is just plain cruel. It reminds me of a story where a few guys pranked one of their friends who was having enough financial problems that he was on the verge of losing his house, into believing he had won enough prize money to save things...

 

11 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

TIL that Lumera also follows the wine/grape naming theme that Lythos has. As her Japanese name, Lumiere, is also a Wine Brand. In Japan, despite the French name.

Château Lumière | Winery (vivino.com)

Now, remember that one-shot I wrote, where I gave Alear a half-Fell half-Divine daughter? Aurora was the name I choose. I chose it for its meaning/ties to light, as Lumera's name is. Well, it turns out...

Aurore (grape) - Wikipedia

Turns out there's a grape also named after Aurora. And get this, it's a hybrid grape.

You couldn't have written it better even if you tried.

 

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

However! Starting in the late 1850s, something nightmarish-yet-fascinating-in-retrospect happened in Europe. A species of aphid called "phylloxera" crossed from North America to Europe, and began devouring the roots of Old World grape vines. In about a decade-and-a-half (into the early 1870s), French vineyards began suffering grapevine casualties upwards of 50%. Since these vile bugs were native to the Americas, European vines had no resistance. It was a crisis threatening the existence of the entire wine industry. While some employed harsh chemicals to stave off the devouring swarms, what proved most successful was something very different. They would graft American grape roots to European grapes. North American grapes had evolved resistance to phylloxera, and phylloxera only attacked the roots. Grafting roots did nothing to affect the flavor of the traditional European wine grapes, so it was a win-win. Though some opposed grafting, it is indisputable that American bottoms + European tops is what saved the global wine industry from extinction.🍷

What a fun little bit of historic information on a topic I had heard nothing about before. It reminds me of why I like video essays so much, they are often filled with such random information.

 

10 hours ago, Shrimpica said:

it's 17 months, right?

Right?

The pandemic so thoroughly broken my sense of time that I am tempted to believe that.

[Forum FAQ]

22 minutes ago, Crows n Murder said:

I can ask questions here, right? I'm new, scared, and want to know how to use spoiler tags. Speaking of things I don't know, is their an efficient way to search for things? I don't think trawling through every post on this site is humanly possible, but I don't want to ask so many questions I annoy people... (・・;)

I will start by saying that I only use this site on the computer, so I don't really have the know how to explain things if you are using the site with mobile, but I will help as much as I can.

Spoiler tags are rather easy to use, if you hit the little eyeball symbol at the top of the box you type your response in, it will create a spoiler box for you

Spoiler

This is some example text.

Like seen above, and you can click on the space within the box to start typing within it to create the text that the spoiler box will hide. If you see one in a post you just have to click on it to expand it out to reveal its contents.

As for searching, there is search bar near the top of the screen on computer, which you can use to search the forum (which does make me think you are on mobile...sorry I can't be much help there)

 

Finally, you don't have to worry as much about annoying people with questions on the forums, a lot of us are plenty happy to help out, so feel free to ask.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

19 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Ah, I always wanted to play Ghost Trick. So yeah, quite convenient it did got ported to Mobile/Steam.

It comes highly recommended from me.

 

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

I've never actually played the game though, I guess I unthinkingly thought it was just not my kind of thing. ...But curiosity did lead me to read a summary of it years later, so the spoilers are fully known to me. -Though there always is the "it's not about the destination, it's about the journey" silver-lining spin.

Knowing the spoilers ahead of time is definitely going to change the experience in an interesting way, as the game is very, very, very aware of where it is going, and drops innumerable cute little hints that you only really get if you know the spoilers ahead of time. You really get an appreciation for how cleverly it uses the narrator being unreliable to both establish, and keep the rules of the world consistent, while still letting the narrator's assumptions mislead you. There is something magical about getting to the end of it blind, but there is also a lot to appreciate playing it with foreknowledge as well.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

23 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

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

Hopefully the little friend has a comfortable end.

Morbid as it sounds dogs and mortality makes me think of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, a fantastic little game with my favorite videogame doggie in it (the little Pomeranian is literally my favorite character in the whole game). If you haven't played it before, it is well worth playing, and in spite of being one of the best games nobody played in its original DS release, it has gotten a odd revival after the fact with well received releases on Steam and on smart phones.

 

16 hours ago, Lightcosmo said:

 

Reverie update says "rebalance English voice lines". Like, what does that mean? Were some voices too game-ruining?

Presumably they mean rebalance the audio of the voice lines. In all likelihood that means the voice lines were either way too quiet, or way too load compared to the music and sound effects before, or perhaps that the volume of differing voice lines were too inconsistent with eachother etc.

 

15 hours ago, BrightBow said:

And maybe pref weapons not breaking at 0 durability is a thing now?

That would be a very nice improvement for that game, and how good the pref weapons tend to be...

 

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

Alright, I decided to save more paralogues for the next stretch, its time to finally reach the next checkpoint.

Spoiler

Time for a few things that I have put off for too long.

First off with some forges...although on second thought, I think I will skip over the rest of the forging images, as they aren't all that interesting. I end up boosting this knife, one of my Longbow, a Radiant bow, and Ivy's Fire tome.

I also finally get around to dressing up the old people. Usually I like giving people glasses, but I like the way the colors of the mask go with this emerald coat on old man Lindon over here, and the white lining fits with his white hair as well.

I end of giving this snowy lady this nice little snowy outfit for her.

I also decide to change up Rosado's fashion again for funsies. As you might be able to tell, I think the Solmic fashions go well with Rosado, although thinking about it after the fact, perhaps I should go with a more Elusian style in honor of lost friends...

Alas this is the only arena level up I get this time. I do end up having a bit more prep to do, but what really got that started was a good long look at my ring choices, so we have a little bit of story to get through first.

With Zephia scolding the two hounds we let scamper off with their tails between their legs.

Good point Griss, but she didn't even manage to steal any, so its just losses all around.

You sweet summer child

...that gets immediately bitch slapped by Zephia, so I suppose in a sense you were right, as your punishment is coming from her and not him.

Nice clap back there Marni

But Zephia is really trying to push all the blame onto Veyle, when she is the one that was tricked. Admittedly the fact that Veyle's voice gave the trick away before the reveal (thus preventing me from being fooled) may be skewing my opinion of it a bit.

Alas Mauvier's attempt to take all the blame

When he very, very obviously doesn't deserve it, fails to accomplish anything, both of them are to be punished

And Zephia was a liar the whole time, so he couldn't have protected Veyle with his failed martyrdom even if he wanted to.

Press X to doubt kids, because I certainly don't believe this off screen excuse for her actions with the magic hat.

You saw it here first, that giant magical fire attack leaves our punished hounds just "out cold". I guess she set the giant incinerating fireball magic to stun or something...

You would think Mr. Salivating for punishment over here would learn that fucking up gets him what he wants after that display, but

He does his job to a t, as the loser TeeHee is about to be unmasked by this goon.

Don't worry TeeHee, facing Veyle is next chapter 😛

It is nice to see our protagonist trying to learn from their mistakes, although as we will see next checkpoint, that theoretical caution doesn't end up amounting to much.

Although that is a nice bit of callback, to reminisce over the last emblem to return.

Again it feels like these moments should be preparing for the chapter after this one, but perhaps they thought it would be too on the nose to get this foreshadowing immediately before the big defeat. Also, while I get that they mean we haven't recovered all the Emblems lost that day, we have recovered and grown stronger in a lot of other ways, so this feels a little flat.

Time for another big battle of just corrupted and hounds, now with more Fog of War instead of nasty Miasma,

I guess this is a bit of a homecoming for Ivy, but with all the people that make the place home absent, it certainly doesn't feel that way.

It is nice to see Griss so up front about the fact that we get Celica back by defeating him this chapter. No guessing if they will escape with or without the ring this time.

Although it is getting to the point that we are basically overwhelming them with our ring advantage at this point.

Take a chill pill on the suicide threats there Grisle...

It is getting a bit old how they all insist talking about Veyle has to wait til after the battle, but I guess I better get to it...or at least get to my more last minute prep work

Because it is time to take a long hard look at my party, and realize that the unit that makes the most sense to add to my army after Zelkov's death is actually Lindon. I put it off for a bit (as I have my army set for max deployment, and we are still at least one chapter away from that being the norm), but looking at who would make good use of the Micaiah ring really cemented it. Framme has Eirika for the funny punchy powers, I am saving Celica for Ivy, and putting Micaiah on anyone without a staff rank means I can't use her powers for Rescue and Warp staff uses. Additionally I have been really wanting another magic focused attack, and having a third healer for the three lane back to the future map makes sense from a army composition perspective anyway (the very three lane focused miasma chapter had that feeling too, although I cheesed one lane with the fog to ignore that issue in the end). I guess this decision may be making @Saint Rubenio day a bit.

This ring change up is probably expected, and showing that Rosado is being deployed this map

I am not sure if this will end up being Roy's final wielder, but it made a bit of sense with who I am deploying this chapter

Whereas this ring change up is more a result of the rather limited (comparatively) deployment slots, as there is only one slot more than Emblem rings at the moment, and giving the dancer an extra point of movement (and even more with an Engage if I need it) is a use for Sigurd here.

Speaking of which, this is the deployment I decide upon for this chapter.

Although I go back and get Canter+ on all those that can afford it, most notably I got it on Framme, Seadall, Fogado, Rosado, Lindon, and of course TeeHee.

I do fiddle a tiny bit with starting position as well

Sadly Griss's taunt is only true the first time

As he vanishes into the darkness...

But as a Micaiah boosted Illume reveals

He appears in the same Sombrom be damned place every time.

After marking his range, I open by breaking this hard hitting axer

Add in a bit of chip with Rosado before

finishing with Timerra

There is also this horse mage solidly in Griss's attack radius, and with Fogado being the only one with the range and canter+ to attack him and escape Griss's attack-warp radius, that means I start with this round of chip (which chronologically happened before I killed the axie, but it makes more narrative sense to...)

It makes sense to use the dance to have Fogado finish it all in one go (...show both attacks together rather than split like how I did it in the gameplay).

On the other side, I have Bunet go for the opening hit on this swordie

But after literally all the attack made so far miss him, I am starting to worry this guy might survive the player phase

I guess I can forgo fogging to finish things with Mer-

I guess TeeHee just had to come in and laugh at my worries with this crit kill here.

Sadly the fogging I earned hinder my foes movement enough that there will be no enemy phase action today

Although some thieves did spawn in to keep me moving

And not all our foes are idle, as this bulk crit axe has come close enough for Panette to go for another break

In retrospect, this was a bit of a wasted attack, as-

Oh right, the battle convo first. Well in this case filling you with arrow holes doesn't really fit any of those guesses, but the real kill would probably fit the mash as

With double reposition support

Framme can punch a whole health bar away by her lonesome.

Which breaks a purple gem to boost Griss, but also

Ends the game of hide and seek before it even begins. They should had a few possible starting positions for him, which he would randomly be at, to at least make it a little more interesting on future playthroughs, as that rather fun little mechanic is to easily bypassed otherwise.

Timerra can then put the original well drop to good use killing the crit axe

Or would have if all the chain attacks hits, so instead ol' Lindon has to finish things.

On the other side Bunet is proving it is just not his day with another miss.

So TeeHee has to deal with the puncher

With another flashy crit to make up for all the ones Bunet has been missing this map.

But I finish the turn using my dance to get in enough chip on this silver puncher to

finish it on enemy phase, after some nasty punch damage.

I open next turn with a trap I was planning for the enemy entrap staff since the preps

Timerra then gets the break on this blader

Although Panette squanders the free hit from the break with a miss

So I use some ranged magic chip

And Fogado's deadly arrows to finish things.

On the other front TeeHee gets in some heavy chip on a swordie

And when the chips are down, Bunet finally pulls through with the kill.

I also use a Great Sacrifice for the exp (which also gets a little extra healing exp on Framme as well)

I am probably playing things a bit too safe on this side

While again the fog is too restrictive to allow any enemy phase on the other size.

The entrapper takes the bait, but in hindsight

I should have equipped Ragnell for more defense

As the magic damage enemy doesn't actually attack Rosado...although with them needing three crits for the kill (~1 in 4000ish odds) its not the biggest deal.

At least the dagger can't actually hurt us.

Now I open the turn by refilling Lindon's Engage Gauge, dancing him, so he can then

Engage Micaiah to warp this little army in

Although the kills here are a little dicier than I would have liked, Ivy hits this one

And Timerra gets the one Sand Storm proc she needs for this one

Which lets Rosado go for the easy kill on the entrapper

With Fogado finishing off the Wolf. Phew, that was a lot tighter than I thought it would be.

But I got all the kills I needed in the east

While Merrin is fogging up the west.

Although the thieves had raided their first treasures. Depending on where they escape to, thing could get a bit tight here...

I guess this is some safe chip

And it gets Merrin this fantastic levelup from it.

She even lucks into some extra chipping with this crit here.

Before slaughtering the horse mage.

Come player phase TeeHee can finish the critted Great Knight with effective damage

For even more speed on the levelup

I then proceed to make a bit of a mathematical error here as

Even with the TeeHee, and poison bonus on all the hits, the effective damage All for One at the end is still 1 damage shy of the kill.

Lindon gets his first levelup using another Illume staff

Although my first real action in the east is still rolling the dice as

The Dual Assist+ proc here was necessary for the kill.

Not surprisingly this misses...sigh, I guess it is time

To call in the doubles.

Its not exactly my best end of turn, but

The doubles soak up a hit

The Great Knight gets a free break on Bunet,

While the rest of the chests are raided, so I need to push on player phase

With Merrin pressing in deep with the fog

I wonder why this guy didn't go for the break on TeeHee during enemy phase.

Well, Bunet can finish off the one he just barely failed to before

For a rather underwhelming levelup,

In a way I dun goofed with my doubles placement last turn, as it let this guy claim the terrain he needed to dodge Rosado, although I do get some Dual Assist+ chip for my trouble

Fogado can then press in to dish out a lot of damage to this killer axe

Which he finishes with a dance.

I can't complain too much about a speed levelup.

I start trying to setup chain attack on this one thanks to that terrain boosted avoid

But against all odds and expectations, I actually manage to hit all those 30s for the kill here.

My luck giveth, and taketh...

This is a little reckless, but they can canter back into terrain, and

I was already planning on proccing the Great Sacrifice full heal.

Things are a little deceptive on this side at the end of turn, as its the fleeing thief that is "threatening" Fogaod at the moment.

Although things prove a bit scarier on the other side, as TeeHee revealed a second of these lancers, and without that Great Sacrifice before

Would have been at risk of dying if all the 24s hit.

So I open the turn by again refilling Lindon's Micaiah powers

And immediately reposition him to both safety, and back into dancer range

Although once again Fogado is banking on a dual assist+ proc for the ki-

I guess that works too.

More importantly, the theives revealed that they are far easier to catch than I was expecting, with them having to backtrack to their escape point instead of it being behinf the boss.

Violence is Framme's middle name.

Altough it is Rosado who gets the honor of the kill (and thus the securing of the treasure)

Although the real treasure was the sweet levelup from the kill.

On the other end, TeeHee secures a dangerous looking kill, but after cantering back into terrain

That is further reinforced with +30 avoid from the fog, TeeHee is now too dodgey to hit...

But I proc another Great Sacrifice just in case my math is off somwhere.

Also the combination of fog and Bunet's placement is slowing the thief down, in spite of its Pass skill.

Truely divine.

I really need to kill that thief this turn, so TeeHee opens by crippling it

With Bunet cleaning up.

So that Merrin can keep the fog up, making both her, and her subject of study beside her safe.

With this as his last turn of Engage, I figure I should use it now

And with a chain guard for safety, I can draw the central wolves towards my much stronger front.

Time for one of the larger enemy phases so far, which I then flub a bunch of screen shot on, missing the Lancer killing itself

And basically everything important from TeeHee dodging and chipping this axe

At least I get my act together after TeeHee, with Merrin dominating her axe foe

Timerra getting a perfectly safe enemy phase kill on the chipped wolf thanks to dual guard

For a solid levelup, that I still want to complain about becaus she really wants a little more strength

Before she gets a smidge more wolf chip in before the start of player phase.

And I open player phase with aggression in the west, Merrin killing one axe

With Bunet finishing the other.

The wolf hunt in the east opens with a bit of a barbeque, that is a bit shy of the first kill

Although I probably should have started with this Panette chip that sets up her double Chain Attack on the two wolves at once

That lets Lindon coast off the chain attacks to pop the corn of the most injured wolf

For his second levelup...and it seems magic is everything with him.

Rosado then misses the kill on the last wolf

So Timerra has to show off her wolf taming skills to pacify it.

But that does leave us with a rather boring enemy phase.

So I prepare for the enemy phase after that one with a Chain Guard on Panette

As I lure the last cluster of enemies right into my face.

With Panette opening with some nice chip.

The fact that the big boss masochist moved along with all of his hench  zombies makes this a bit spicier

But I open with Timerra perfectly getting the kill on the chipped one

Alas, she misses here, but still wracks up a tiny bit of Dual Assist+ chip.

This hurts a lot, but I need to freeze Griss here, so I can deal with the minions now, and put him off for next turn.

More painful retaliation, but our little lady's punches are fatal.

Rosado can then use Canter+ to get in some serious chip on the backup punchers

For Bunet to then miss the kill.

I then let TeeHee slaughter the other healer. Remember kids you can't spell slaughter without laughter.

Ivy roasts the last pugilist, leaving the master masochist alone.

And Ivy become more physically tanky, and generally killy.

I break one last health bar before ending the turn off

With another Great Sacrifice from the oldest of men.

For a great little levelup.

Also of note, Great Sacrifice triggered Diffuse Healer, so Lindon was left with more than 1 HP afterwards, which is an interesting little interaction to keep in mind.

Seadall also levelups on the dance I use to heal Lindon back up to full

I decide to end the last turn by hitting Griss from a perfectly safe 3 range

Although that ends a bit sooner than I expected thanks to Dual Assist+ procs, as well as

A Grasping Void proc from Ivy for the kill.

...Sigh

Eh, I would have probably given MVP to either TeeHee, our little puncher, or maybe Lindon.

Welcome back Celica, Ivy has her finger all ready for your ring.

Griss has never heard of subtley has he.

She did know the old TeeHee a little, which I feel makes it a bit better than a hunch. Although I do like that she really isn't certain before, we are talking about someone she thought was long dead, and whom changed the color of an eye, and half their hair in the interveneing years.

With how Sombrom treats all of his kin, I don't know how you can imagine he is on the side of any of the fell dragon.

And now Engage circles around back to an old theme of Fates, is family forged in blood or bonds.

The camera is really hamming it up with the double dutch angles with this reveal.

Thank you Griss, someone finally points out that ol' Jagen here isn't old enough to know anything about our amnesiatic divine dragon here.

I do love how this is foreshadowed by Lumera not using an invocation to summon Sigurd, and how she instructs TeeHee on the importance of the thoughts and prayers they use to summon the Emblem at the begining of the game.

The poor little amnesiac doesn't remember what an adoption is...admittedly there is a little more too it, but I am getting ahead of myself here.

That is down right cruel Griss...unless...does he know about the plan for corrupted Lumera already?

That investigation and delaying action just cost you half your ring supply

But that might have been worth it. With such a ring desparity, you have to take risks to turn the tides, and if this fractures the Divine Dragons army into infighting with the rings, that would be a serious boon, and even if it didn't, the time and info bought with its loss was still worth something to the cause.

Usually I would expect that kind of logical cynacism from Timerra or Ivy, not Alfred and Diamant...

I have a fair bit of respect for TeeHee openeing up about what must be some raw fears here

Although I don't know why they would think red hair and eyes (how did they "see" that in a memory anyway?) would indicate they were a Fell Dragon. Neither Sombron or Veyle have the same eye and hair color as Fell TeeHee...

Time for TeeHee to bring up a smart solution to this little conundrum

And reveal that Sigurd was in on it the whole time 😛

TeeHee is really hung up on this question. I guess it is a bit different from Fates in the framing

As it is telling far crueler version of Conquest, where the thing keeping TeeHee from being a family with those of his blood is malice from them

But still with bonds of love forging the family they found with Lumera.

Although again there is a bit more too it, as Lumera when a step further with making TeeHee family

Again, a bit of solid foreshadowing here, but Sigurd gets a bit too heavy handed in explaining it to the audience TeeHee.

That is a rather dark fate for our Emblem friends, that so many of them have suffered through the enslavement by Sombron's invocations...I guess we were a bit of a Liberation army for Sigurd here 😛 

It would be kind of interetsing if one of the Emblems actually exerted that free will to defy us at some point, even if temperarily...

I guess Lumera did have blue hair and eyes, just a different blue from our TeeHee here.

What a cruel thing to do to her child. TeeHee having the power of a Divine Dragon, her doing what she felt was necessary to make them a part of the family, is part of what killed her. There is a sickening cruelty in that.

I almost wish they went the whole way with this, give all the surviving playable characters a moment here to affirm their willingness to stay with TeeHee. Perhaps it would get old eventually, but it would be in line with what a lot of Fire Emblem games do in the endgame...

I must admit, this feels a bit disengenous coming from Alfred. The dude claims to have befriended TeeHee while they were still a sleeping Dragon; was that all a lie, and you didn't care about them before? I guess the sappiness of it still fits with the Alfred we all know, but it still feels a bit off...

I do like this sentiment coming at this from the perspective of a strategy/tatcics game. Although it is also easy to see this as a bid for TeeHee's ring to become thier other half too 😛 

And Timerra is coming in with the best take of them all. A bit of a cliche I know, but a good one.

The great Timerra takes just keep coming in, showing her to be not just the best designed character of Engage, but simply one of Engage's best characters.

And Ivy true to form comes in with a very practical take, to trust her gut instincts.

I forgot we got this last burst of gold. Unless a LOT more clothes show up in the shop this should last us to the end of the game (plus there are still paralogues to loot along the way for even more funds...)

Alright, that is a rather funny take from Hortensia...perhaps I will give you another chance one of these days.

How, our army searched this place just before that conversation for Sombron and Veyle.

Someting TeeHee knew, although I can see why they didn't connect the dots with so much else on their mind.

It really was a fated moment, a setup for dramatic irony to come...

And so we come full circle, returning to Lythos, the land of the Divine Dragons, in the next climactic section, and checkpoint...

And so I have reached the next checkpoint. I think that just leaves @Shrimpy -Limited Edition- to reach the next checkpoint. The number of paralogues really slow things down through this section of the game, although with the next section being a dramatic two part for me, I have saved a few Paralogues to do early to keep it from going by too quickly.

 

[Returning Characters]

8 hours ago, BubbleOdyssey said:

In Fire Emblem Fates they brought back a bevy of old characters, as you all already know. They brought back Owain, Inigo, Severa, Gaius, Cordelia, and Tharja in some form. What characters would you like to see make a cameo in a possible new game? What characters would you hate for them to bring back? How would you bring those characters back in a natural way?

I do find it a little funny that you mention Fates, but not Engage with all it's returning Emblems...also the "return" of Gaius, Cordelia, and Tharja was a bit of a cheat, as they aren't the same characters, just parallel universe doppelgangers.

 

Although to answer the question, it is time to bring back Anna's counterpart Jake.

I would also like IS to show the same kind of guts Kaga did by making the incredibly obscure Shannam into a recurring character for the two Jugdral games. Let's see some more super obscure ones which you might not even see on your first playthrough, like having Karla return, or Stefan, or Illios.

 

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I think Alfonse, Veronica and Sharena could make good cameo characters in some form or another. Hopping between realms is kinda their thing. 

On a similar note, Lucina's alter ego "Marth" as basically the hero of the Tempest Trials would make for a fitting returning character, especially if her cousin Owain continues world hopping too.

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Power Rangers did that for years with some of the most celebrated episodes.

Its nice to see more people talking positively about Engage like this 😛 

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

 

*Any of the Genealogy substitute units. These guys just don't have their own identities. I just made a thread talking about giving them more original backstories, but just plain using them again in a different context would serves to give them an independent existence. Especially considering, as, mostly commoners, they don't have the same ties to the setting that their noble counterparts do.

On a more serious note, this is one of the best suggestions yet. Lets see more of people like Asaello the hitman of Connact, little Charlot, or Jeanne.

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

I am not particularly proud of how I did with chapter, as this one was rough...

Spoiler

Who am I to turn down fashion advice from the nerdy Lucina.

The dashing young thief is ready to steal the hearts of all she meets 😛

I do also hit TeeHee's first level cap in the arena, so

That does end up costing me a Second Seal

And I get one last arena levelup on Framme as well. Nothing too exciting really.

I also make sure Merrin has access to Pair Up, that way she wont go down the same way Zelkov did. I do end up going back to do a little more prepwork before the chapter at large, but it was after getting a good look at the map, so I kind of feel a little obliged to keep things chronological and move onto the story.

With Zephia about tell the other hounds how her meeting with Sombron went

Oh you silly little masochist,

You aren't actually willing to fail thoroughly enough for daddy Sombron to punish you.

Only the hubris of a little fool who thinks she is above punishment would deserve it.

And Mauvier is starting to get a little protective of the true Veyle, after their first attempt to permanently remove her failed. I guess the cruelty of the new round of magics made him have a change of heart.

That does seem like an odd object to have, one would expect it more to work the other way around

I wonder how they even heard about that. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if the randomly reviving miniboss wasn't killed again, and thus able to report back, and once again is too unimportant to even pretend to mention.

Yeah that boat that we got in spite of the main port burning down was a surprise to me too.

Alas this chapter we have to deal with the M & Ms, Marni and Mauvier.

And Mauvier is trying to delay Veyle's super brainwashing, hopefully long enough for us to save her, but...

She is straight up a liar.

It does seem a little odd that we only see that at this point, and not when the two of them had an opportunity to interact with eachother

She is really over controlling with the Hounds, especially

With how she claims they are her family. That is the kind of mentality that will make a very dysfunctional family...

Credit where it is due, they have been doing a nice job of setting things up for future chapters here, with a little hint for the checkpoint chapter.

As the saying goes

Ah the silence of the dead...

Well it wasn't able to tell you with its words...

Which means we have a tough chapter, especially with all that miasma swimming around.

Oh those poor naive princes, they think Sombron's goal is conquest...

If only we could skip this chapter, because the enemy warps are nasty...

It is interesting that Timerra is the one to bring up this objection. From before she was always the more callously practical one, but I guess she gets particularly defensive about her people (and thinks Ivy should be too)

But instead she is on the side of practicality...

Because she correctly reasoned that there is no one left to save.

And so did TeeHee.

I would say we need to pick out battles, but we get drawn into a battle here anyway.

Ah you soft little flowered prince, don't let them kill you innocently helpful nature.

I mean its not that surprising,

As they already have a B support with eachother 😛 

Oh I wish...

As we are about to be forced to stay and fight those corrupted together with half the Hounds as well.

Hey now, I think the Miasma and Micaiah warps are far scarier...

I guess I appreciate the offer, but obviously the answer here is no.

Here we go...

I guess we have one last question of our own to ask, and while Mauvier is to the point of being happy to help

We got this little pest in the way

So it will have to wait until the end of the map.

And we got two particularly nasty rings to deal with this time as well.

Which the silly little fool stole from her master

And will definitely suffer for the hubris of it.

Now we have a few ring change ups to make, and its time to get Sigurd back onto my old friend Louis for this one.

Merrin becomes the Fog Machine for real this time

With Bunet reclaiming the Lucina ring from Merrin.

But with this as what I decide to go with for my deployment, I decide I need to go back for a few skills before the map

First putting reposition on a flier for some shenanigans on this map in particular

I then decide to spend the big bucks, by burning my last expert book, and 4 novice books on top of it to get Louis

A copy of Pair Up of his own for protection

I do also decide to burn my speed wing trying to get Alfred's mediocre speed over a threshold, but he really is behind on the speed.

Unfortunately this map is too big to catch my full opening placement in a single shot, but I did do a fair bit of fiddling

I open the map by burning a fair bit of Miasma away, while burning some near foes as well

And its shenanigans like this that made me go back for reposition.

I even use a bit of swap to get Merrin a little closer

To the central corridor I plan on letting her hold with the fog.

I use the other flame cannons to burn away some nearby miasma.

Before ending the turn.

Alas, Mauvier is going to make this chapter particularly annoying by teleporting a lot of cavs deep into our lines

I will also note that the three that burned are just Physicing eachother up.

Oops, I forgot to equip the avoid boosting dagger, so this one could theoretical hit. It obviously didn't, but lets not make that mistake again in the future

TeeHee did also draw some heat from the warpers, but managed to dodge the hit for pure punish

And its time to recruit the old lady.

Yeah, it has been a while since I saw, but in all seriousness

How? Her being recruited now in this dead port makes no sense.

Better yet, talking doesn't waste an action, so TeeHee can kill the one with audacity to attack them.

In retrospect, doing this so early was a little bit of a mistake, as

These guys are a lot tankier than I remember. I should be able to deal with this, but it will be tri-

Oh no...Oh no...I misclicked...I was just going to check if any of the Engage weapons would make a difference, but now I not only wasted this Engage, but he is 1 damage shy of the kill, and now I can't canter him where I need to, to protect my dancer. This might force into a position where I have to chose between a dead Framme, and a dead dancer...

Bunet, I could kiss you. Your random crit luck in this game has just saved my bacon.

So now I can Dance Framme, and she can

...Seadall, don't interrupt me with your pointless levelup, as Framme

Can get a damageless kill with her super, and everyone here should be able to survive the last of them. Admittedly if I hadn't misclicked my way into a lucky crit, I probably would have had to burn my 20 range Astra storm, but could have probably saved Framme's engage instead.

As I could have killed the one Panette chipped with this, and Bunet could chip the second so Framme could finish with just punches (Note I don't actually make this attack here, it is just to show how I would have escaped the position I was in before more reliably).

In retrospect, this was a bit wasteful, as those three main ones in the flames can just keep spamming Physics.

Back to less extreme situations, Alfred finishes off the other injured enemy in the center while putting a little distance with canter

While Ivy repositions another of the troops past the boat

And she can snipe one of those Physic bots trapped in the flame.

Speaking of which, its time to find out if they will prioritize healing, or throwing their spears

As we hit the end of the turn

Alas, they prioritize healing instead of killing themselves.

The last of those that spawned from the house surprises me a bit by going for Panette, but it does get the hit.

And the next round of enemies warped in emphasizes that I need to reposition Merrin to better control their movement.

These jerks are rather tanky...

Back in the south, Panette gets the guaranteed break

While Framme can heal her back up, before

Bunet finishes him

I tried to find give the kill to someone else here, but TeeHee had to finish it.

Hopefully this should hamper the warped troops enough to prevent them from heading south to annoy my main push.

I do also decide to leaver Timerra on the boat for a bit, so I can fire cannon the bosses when they spring, while sending Ivy to the north. There hasn't been much action in that direction, but eventually will be

But there is definitely far more heat in the south, and Bunet is drawing in

A wolf that can only just barely damage him.

Also one of the warper this turn was able to just about reach Ivy

But Merrin sees a little bit of action too.

This isn't that big of deal, but Timerra being able to get some range chip from the boat was just fun.

As Fogado doesn't need the help from his sister to finish him.

Stuff is finally happening in the north, and I want to burn the Miasma the lead foe is on, that way

Louis can get some serious chip before canter out of the flames

While there is a lot more action in the south, and I start with this break here

With one of them being a crit.

Anna finishes the wolf, and even gets a good levelup from it, but I am frazzled enough that I miss the image of it.

Panette did deal enough damage for Alfred to finish things with a Ridersbane

For a nice little levelup on him.

Truth be told, my positioning wasn't great with Panette's canter, so I needed the dance here for a bit of repositioning

This was a bit of a mistake. For some reason I thought the movement cost for fire was only two instead of three, which would let me finish off the two wolf in the back there fairly safely

And with that little mess up, I have to improvise a bit here with a break on the near one while cantering away

Which was another small error as if she stayed in the fire I could have setup a slightly better Goddess dance here, but I can get a bit of work out of it.

Without the miasma Alfred kind of wrecks the wolves with his Ridersbane

Tempted as I was to do that to the other wolf, the fire would prevent him from cantering back a space to safety, and I need just a tiny bit more damage

On this tanky fellow, and thanks to some Dual Assist+ procs, he even eeks out some extra damage here

Although I do need an obstruct use to hamper the other wolf now

Before Panette can kill off the nearby great knight.

In the north Louis is setup for an easy enemy phase kill, and

The only person in range in the south is Alfred

and as we already saw the wolves can't touch him

...ughh...looks like my Merrin position has been slightly off this entire time, as Mauvier is able to just barely warp a spave past her letting this jerk get a free hit on Anna.

It is very irritating that his body there prevents me from seeing the edge of his warp range even as zoomed out as I can, so I have to count squares instead, so I know I have to move Merrin down one space to block him from repeating that maneuver.

Now the flower prince can Ridersbane the one that warped in to a brutal death.

And I make another mechanical mistake here, as even though I hit the smash weapon here to try and push the wolf out of the miasma, you need to deal damage for the smash...

Which means I am just pulling back with everyone I can in the south.

In the north Louis is setting up for a bit more enemy phase chip

While the wolf takes the obvious free hit on TeeHee in the south.

Louis is trivializing thing in the nor-

Guh..Uh...*SIGH*. I can't believe I spent all the resource for the Pair Up on Louis, and then forgot to equip the Sombron be damned thing...That I got Reposition on Ivy right, and this one wrong makes this so very frustrating. This chapter has just been full of little bungles from the beginning of it.

Now that the wolf is out of the miasma, Alfred can skewer it

The north is a bit spicier, with Fogado finishing one of the chipped ones off

Although Ivy still needs to reposition him to safety afterwards.

In better news, Merrin successfully body blocked the warper this time, so Bunet can finish i-

Oh he missed...

But he doesn't the second time

For a fairly Bunet levelup.

Although that was the last of Mauvier's warps...

Although that means the only interesting thing that happens on enemy phase

Is Louis's chip fest.

But with him missing both, that is going to make this a little tight here. Fogado gets a lot of chip here

So Louis can go for a kill here

Which gets him a very Louis levelup from.

Which makes the kill on the last on very easy.

I am starting to reposition some of the southern army in anticipation of the bosses doing Something...but in the end it is a very boring enemy phase.

And now I have a dragon to deal with in the north, and opening with some free Override chip seems like a good start

With Fogado getting in just enough chip here so that

Ivy can finish the tanky beast before it counter kills her.

Although at this point more enemies are heading to the south, so I get the southern army back in position to deal with them

With Alfred in position for the enemy phase chip.

Although with Marni finally starting to move, things might get a little dicey.

Panette can open the turn by finishing the chipped foes

For a nice little levelup on her.

In the north I am just getting ready to go for the Dragon Shield house, while

While I pull back more in the south due to pressure from the southern Wyrm.

Although this time it is Bunet getting in the enemy phase chip

And this god of a man is determined to prove all the haters wrong with the most timely of crits.

Alright, I can't put this off any longer, as I need the Engage still going to get away with this...

Although I made a fairly clear mistake last turn. I should have Engaged and called the doubles with Fogado, as that would let him get a kill on one of these fools, with Ivy Repositioning him to safety afterwards.

Although the south has a wyrm to deal with, and wracking up the chain attack damage seems like the best route, so I get a tiny bit of chip here while I am setting it up

Similar sort of idea here, but much more chip

Especially when one of them is a crit. What is this monster of a man cooking with?

Regardless, Alfred gets the kill, with the crit from Bunet letting him avoid a counter

With Alfred getting a speed levelup from the beast.

Things are in a bit of a mess in the south after that wrym attack, but for some reason Mauvier and Marni are just wasteing time by clustering around the middle of the map for some reason, so I have the time to regroup.

But I messed up my calcs bad in the north. I miss read it, and though they only deal 5 a hit, so now

Even with one of the chain attack misses, Louis can die. Worse yet, if I had only not forgot to equip Pair Up, like an idiot, Louis would be fine. With the rest of the attacks hitting he is probably going to die.

Sorry Louis, I really failed you

I was entirely ready to catch an image of his death quote here. When it was happening I didn't even register that these guys hit 5 57s in a row to make it this close (with two of the chain attack missing to emphasize my weird luck).

He lived, by about as little health as he could, but HE LIVED. With that

Fogado can kill one, so Louis can use the last turn of Sigurd move to escape (and burn a vuln so I could enemy phase one if I wanted

Although I end up using a freeze to keep them from hitting Fogado, which might not have been all that necessary.

I also have TeeHee grab an Engage refill just in case I need a Goddess dance to deal with the two bosses.

I am out of enemy phase for now

That lets Fogado finish a chipped one in the north while cantering to safety

While I am repositioning the southern army. Also the enemy has decided to make a giant cluster in the middle of the map for some reason.

I also healed up Louis enough with Ivy for him to get some chip in

So come player phase I let him grab the kill.

I also start chipping away at the physicers in the center.

I really hope I can draw in that formation just sitting there in the Miasma. Something I did here really broke the AI of the big rescue-warp strat that Mauvier is supposed to do with Marni, as I now have this giant diamond formation in some impenetrable miasma...

Seems like the Physicers will kill themselves on enemy phase if their AI isn't telling them to heal.

In retrospect, I should have gotten kill before fogging up, but worse case scenario here is that he kills himself on Merrin on enemy phase.

And it earns Ivy a rare luck levelup

Its time to see if any of the enemy will leave their miasma dogpile to attack us

Phew. Looks like the AI isn't so borked that I have to slowly advance in with the fog. Well I guess I am still doing that, I just don't have to go as far this time.

I also figure we might not even be close enough to fire bomb the bosses, so I repo Timerra over.

I also start getting Louis in position to help bait together with Merrin

And it starts working almost immediately.

Fogado lucks into the kill a little unexpectedly here with some Dual Assist + procs

While Ivy gets a far cleaner kill on the one Louis drew

I am being even more aggressive with the Louis baiting here

And Mauvier finally uses his Rescue staff to unlock his movement.

Our baiters draw in another foe apiece

But now the only foe with magic damage can move, so I need to be a lot more careful with Louis.

I try to feed the wolf kill to Timerra, but

She had a miss so Anna picks it up instead

While Fogado again gets the dual assist proc to secure a kill.

With Mauvier (and presumably Marni) on the march, I am pulling back a tiny bit

Fortunately Mauvier is not a Mystic unit, so in spite of his bluster

So he can't touch our some wolf

This is why I was keeping Timerra back on the boat for so long (despite it being Ivy to pull the trigger), a beautiful little Flame Cannon hit on literally all the remaining enemies, two bosses included

With both flames an fogs restricting movement, its time to thin the herds a little

Showoff.

That is a second one dealt with, but in spite of what I said before

Mauvier still has an oppressive range, so I dance Alfred away

And it gets Seadall a garbage levelup

I then cover Anna with a chain guard, and trade her over to the strongest bow I can

As she is staying in Mauvier's range

And he goes for it. Tragically she doesn't quite have the power to finish the first health bar on enemy phase

While some of our other foes are still throwing themselves at our little fog wolf.

And with Marni separating herself a little from the pack, I can make a very bold maneuver. I start by letting Anna finish off the health bar she almost broke on enemy phase.

And she gets a bit extra defense and speed from it.

Which triggers him to get some silence immunity

Although the maneuver I am going for is switching from fog to freeze. Although this does mean I need to clear out that little box of troops there

I start with Ivy burning through one

With Fogado's Radiant Bow burning through another, and that lets me

Give Louis the override double kill

For another very, very Louis levelup.

That let me deal with Mauvier a bit more safely, and I let Anna break another health bar after a dance from an even safer 3 range.

Although that is all I feel safe going for at the moment

And then the last remaining enemies all perfectly lined up for a perfect Torrential Roar here.

After far too many close calls and never punisheds I intent to play things slowly and safely.

It is time to start working on Marni, and dealing with her means dealing magic damage, and she even gets enough Dual Assist procs that Marni has to live it on the Hold Out skill.

I am also playing it safe against Mauvier with another 3 range hit, but at this point

I can go for the kill.

Sadly we still got a couple chapters before you join us, so get out of here.

I also figured I should deal with the last of the generics while I am at it

As Panette crits for the kill.

And I have her canter into range to give her chain attacks against Marni, and after breaking the first health bar, Bunet will give his own Lucina assisted chain attack to cause of finishing things this turn.

Huh, a magic levelup is a bit of an oddity for him really.

I then let Framme use her fists to crush Marni's defenses

And with a crit, Marni again has to live it on the holdout alone.

And after so long sitting on the sidelines of the boat, I let Timerra finish the chapter off with a Quadruple Hit

Goodbye Marni.

The speed is nice, but I would like her to get a bit more from her levelups.

Honestly, I should have used Fogado's Engage a bit better this chapter, and while I understand the game missing this, Merrin's work in the center is probably a lot closer to the MVP, as I suspect it is her work that messed with Mauvier's trap.

*~*

And now we get one of the most powerful Emblems in the game, Micaiah and her staff manipulation. Perhaps I shouldn't dismiss Roy, as it is one of my favorite Emblems for units that need to catch up, which is something rather important for an ironman run.

But they can't fall here...

But first we get to hear the fate of TeeHee's little sister.

And it is dire sounding news, that falls a little flat after all of Zephia's failure in attempting the detruction of the good Veyle from before.

I guess Mauvier is starting to have doubts, and perhaps these feelings are a bit fresh.

It has been what we have been doing the whole time, why would we all change now?

And that is a far better reason to let Mauvier go this time, than we have had before.

They really are great Emblems to get back, but I must admit Micaih comes with a bit of a pickle of who to give it to for me...

That is a bit of a no brainer there Roy.

He sort of gave up on sovereign blood half way through the monarchs

And I guess moved on to consuming entire nations.

Although that is a dark veiw on things, that we are at the point of wonder if people even remain in a nation...

Time to drive those dogs into a corner...

We also get a sad reminder in the exploration section about Anna origin as a Elusian.

Phew...that is a really tragic thing to realize

Even the great cooker of crit feels the impact of this lost town, and he isn't even all that connected with Elusia. There is something so tragic about never having the opportunity to meet people you wanted to.

I am not quite sure whether I will do one more paralogue before reaching the checkpoint or not, but the end of section is finally in sight.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

who's actually sexualized here, genuinely speaking? And to be clear, there's a difference between finding a design attractive and finding a design "sexualized".

The three that jump out to me are Opalnaria, Amoretta, and Advocat, possibly even Chartreuse, but I would need to consult with a furry before really committing to that last one. I am tempted to give Opalnaria a pass because of how much older Hollywood has tried to skew what corsets even were, but once I noticed hers was filled with weird belts-

...hmmm... Have VanillaWare ever went on record that there character design is meant to be parodic?

 

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

 

Again, nothing really here.

Are you really trying to claim little miss wearing only half a skirt over there, with the stocking held up by an unsuspended garter to keep her thigh clear while appealing to the stocking fetishists isn't being sexualized? Heck the almost flesh colored leotard of the middle fairy is giving some weird vibes as well (why is it flesh colored?).

 

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

Where's the sex?

Although I will give you the last one there.

 

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

This is literally the Jason Schier criticism minus the pedophilia accusations lol. 

It looks like he hit the nail on the head for some of these

5 hours ago, Armagon said:

 

especially this one. In fact I would not only believe you if you told me it was intentionally being a parody of what teens claim are the sexiest proportion, but would have a fair bit more respect for the art style if that is what they were intending.

No really, has the art team ever talked about their character design being a parody?

 

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

 

You lack the whimsy Eltosian. Maybe putting the designs by themselves wasn't enough, i gotta put the whole package

This is more just pushing me closer towards an opinion akin to this one:

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Vanillaware has a good artstyle, severely dragged down by some of the worst character designs I've ever seen in videogames.

 

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

 

All of them fit well into the world in which they were designed too. Even the Dragon's Crown ones

...Of the four game you show as examples here (at least I am assume it is 4 different games), the 2nd and 4th game I would agree with you there, but I don't think the 1st and 3rd really do. Heck compare the two characters

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

 

in this image here, and the playable one feels particularly out of place.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

11 hours ago, Armagon said:

And like, The Answer was part of P3FES. So they took something out of the game to sell it back at you lmaooooooooo. 

Atlus will never be them

Removing The Answer is an improvement

I am only half joking with that. The gameplay part of The Answer cuts out most of what makes Persona interesting, and storywise, it feels like if the creator of the Sopranos were forced to make a movies explaining the ending to people that didn't get it. I guess it adds a few nice details, but most of it just feels embarrassing that they felt it was necessary, especially since the ending credits song is there to help the media illiterate... although I guess people who don't understand any Japanese have a little bit of an excuse there.

Spoiler

 

 

14 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Is it "failing to understand human proportions" or is it a stylized take? Vanillaware.....doesn't really care for the realism.

I am going to be perfectly honest, showing all those images just emphasizes how hideous their art style is. Its like what an alien would draw if they asked a classroom of horny teenagers to described what human beings looked like and tried to mash them all together. Even in Sentinel 13, the one where I would actually believe one of the aliens on the art team had actually seen what a human being looks like before, have this surreal look of similarity to, it that it must have only been one or two of them.

 

34 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

like the sleeves looking out of place or her boots incomprehensibly having toes,

At least from these two the surrealness of it comes from massing together very distinctive styles of medieval fashions from half way across the world, from the very Japanese split Tabi style shoe (designed to allows the wearer to put a sandal like shoe, a geta of what have you), and the distinctly Germanic split sleeves (which they also fail to understand is supposed to have far more extreme contrast between the two colors). Its a surreal mashes two cultures together without quite understanding what made them fashionable.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

1 minute ago, Lightcosmo said:

For Golden Sun, my worst experience was inputting the password for the 2nd game lmao. That... was awful. 

The gameplay was unique for it's era i think is the best way to phrase it? In a good way.

I know what you mean, I remember trying to put in the gold password once, and had to just give up after I couldn't figure out where my typo was, and had to just dig up a link cable, and talk my brother into using both the original GBA, and the like brand new GBA SP at the same time to transfer data instead.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

On 3/9/2024 at 5:48 PM, Capt. Fargus said:

IMHO one game that well deserved a remake was Golden Sun. Hideous graphics but I cant really hold that against it

You are being far too harsh on that game, as it absolutely pushed the boundaries of what was possible graphically for the GBA. The first was released only a few months after the GBA itself, and was considered one of the best games on the console graphically for years. The original pair are absolute classics, and it is simply a shame the attempt to revive the series with Dark Dawn proved tragically mediocre.

...god, I just realized this game is over 20 years old, and it makes me feel old.

 

21 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, this sounds promising.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/california-lawmaker-introduces-new-bill-to-end-daylight-saving-time/

I wouldn't hold my breath, there has been talk about ending daylight savings for as long as I can remember...

 

19 hours ago, Armagon said:

So the dilemma here is that Tactical is a bit too easy. But Expert does the thing where it jacks up the stats for no reason and you run out of stamina really quickly.

It really is frustrating when a game simply doesn't have a satisfying difficulty setting for you. It makes me think of Awakening a little in that way.

 

14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

TIL my hack has a tv tropes page.

It has two tropes and one of them is factually wrong, but I'm still super flattered.

You finally made it big as a hack maker, people are lying about your hack on the internet.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

10 hours ago, Lightchao42 said:

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is the most Ace Attorney non-Ace Attorney game I've ever played.

I should get around to playing that one of these days...

 

4 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

And how they are more involved in the story in general, but that's thanks to the lack of Perma death

What does the game do to discourage suicide tactics?

 

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Plot forcefields my beloved.

So beloved in fact I put them in my hack.

They lift when you murder Tethys, they're just there so you can't spare her because I am a cruel human being

Lol, I respect the villainy of not letting the simps save her.

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

On 3/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, Newtype06 said:

Suspiciously specific denial here, dude

Its kind of sad that Brenden is so insecure with his masculinity that he can't admit to loving pokemon dolls...

 

On 3/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, Newtype06 said:

Save the world as always

Brendon/May don't have the largest presence as rivals in this game, but it is nice to see them present them (or at least Brendon) as one of the rivals that you aren't stomping on the hopes and dreams of in every fight.

 

On 3/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, Newtype06 said:

 

This guy is going to be useful later...

...I am a little scared about whoever is linked to that literal pokemon bomb.

 

On 3/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, Newtype06 said:

 

TEEHEE ALERT!!!!!!

OMG, we are truly in Teehee madness now.

 

On 3/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, Newtype06 said:

 

Thanks, nurse. I normally don't play games on my birthday, so I pretty much never see these messages

Ah, that is a rare treat. Fun fact, quite a few game celebrate the players birthday with the rare replacement of hail with the shining Diamond Dust. Sadly Hoenn has no hail to replace.

 

On 3/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, Newtype06 said:

 

I defeated them with just two attacks: Marcus' Surf killed Solrock and Exia's Magical Leaf finished the job with Lunatone.

Yeah, the Emerald version of this fight is so much better, although I am a bit surprised that the surf strategy did so well. I often see people expect it to be the only plan they need for Tate and Liza, but the reduced damage of multitarget moves, their pokemon having special defense boosting moves like Light Screen and Calm Mind, make it fall a bit flat, but I guess you just overpowered them with great pokemon.

 

On 3/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, Newtype06 said:

Let's save the world. Insert Connie's panel here

Its funny how willing the champion of Hoenn is to hoist his responsibility onto random children.

 

On 3/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, Newtype06 said:

 

And now the worst part of the game begins...

TOO MUCH WATER

Ah classic...although with how much water you have already crossed, aren't you already neck deep in it.

 

On 3/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, Newtype06 said:

Who?

No, him

Ah, that makes sense. Also in case the strike through question is genuine, he is the creator of FNAF.

 

Alright, time for the Corrin paralouge, so I have the means of preventing another chain attack death...

Spoiler

But first we have a few arena levelups to attend to

With Bunet getting more of what he is already good at

And Framme gets a rather underwhelming one of her own.

Now it is time to fix the mistake that killed Zelkov, before I condemn another of my troops to become another fogging thief...

Its interesting how most people have a name of the place their trial lies, but Corrin simply has an event. A vital event, where the game itself saves, but it is a bit of an oddity.

Although the paralogue itself implies our Corrin Emblem is a Revelation Corrin, as that is the version of the branch of Fate we face.

It says something about how tropey Fire Emblem, or perhaps simply with how navel gazing Engage is with how well we can fit TeeHee into a similar form, born as a fell dragon, but raised as a divine dragon.

I guess they are trying to make the stories from these paralogue as relatable to TeeHee as they can, but there is an irony in us being too early to see it. Then again, I guess we have Veyle is a tie even blind players see that TeeHee has to the other side of this conflict, and his discovered father for those with extended knowledge...

If Fate's story has a bright side it is that they handled this moment, this branch of Fate rather well. They would go on to undermine it later in the story, and this framing of that moment tries it best to hide the flaws that the story would really break open...

One of these definitely isn't framed as the golden path that solves everything, which this paralogue reinforces is the right one /s

Alas TeeHee, there is no branch of Fate for you; yours is an even more static story than hers.

Is that really a choice? Whether to try and save the world, or ensure its doom barely seems like a choice at all. It feels like this is written for latter point, when we have reached the point where Sombron is willing to leave this world alive if we just let him move his villainy onto the next. That might work for a better choice, whether to save this world, or risk it to save others as well, as I feel like someone might actually make either of those choices.

Yeah, lets move onto the fighting, that is the fun bit.

And this has frustratingly small deployment, so I am have a ring change up here for that reason

In fact we barely have enough deployment slots for out rings, as I give my dancer the movement...

Just 8, compared to the 12 I had just last paralogue. I guess that is better than the 3 in the original map (although we have a much more expansive victory condition to compensate for our extra troops)

I kind of wish I could change TeeHee's starting position, but I guess this works fine.

I appreciate that they warn us of the change to the river here for those that don't have any hint from the original game. Although it does end up a bit different this time around...

I open by wiping out those peaking there nose into the unbridges sided of the river

Although Fogado is going to need a little help to pull his longbow kill off

But a dance is definitely enough.

Showoff.

Although on the bridged side of things, only TeeHee started close enough to do much of anything

Although they could have easily been broken instead of getting their chip in

And it was enough that I could feed the kill to Timerra very easily.

Which makes it easy to press in

And earn a nice little murderous levelup from the kill

Ivy then wipes out the lancer, although that will leave her vulnerable

To the other archer that TeeHee is just shy of killing

Fortunately Alfred can finish it off, so I can save my dance

For Fogado to keep

Killing across the river

Although we don't end up close enough for any enemy phase action this turn.

The foes across the river are still pressing in, but at least Fogado can longbow the mage to death

But now it is Ivy's time to be shy of the ki-

Damn, another relevant 1% crit. Something about that feels a little ominous, but I guess in the short term this means I can save my dance for across the bridge this time

But first Framme gets to murder a man, and his horse with her bare hands

Merrin knifes a poor fool trying the guard the mage

And Alfred even lucked into the only Dual Assist (well + in this case) I deployed to get the kill, so I didn't even need the dance on this side of the map anyway (and could have cleaned things up with TeeHee even if that was never in the cards for this turn anyway).

Here it comes, the great river of fire

Aww...thanks Corrin.

With how well I have broken the other side of the river, the fire opening up mobility isn't a problem, and the last little mage trying to cross it easily falls (and Fogado can even canter back out of the flames).

Although a lot of foes have started moving, so I am playing things a little cautious this turn with a little enemy phase to lure some foes in.

Its nothing too violent

But Alfred can take what little heat these mixed attackers are emanating

Fogado continues trying to cover the river, but I end up missing the 50 crit both times, so

Ivy has to clean up after him.

At least Alfred can get a clean kill on the injured Ryoma here (and even with a bad miss takes trivial damage)

He even gets a nice little level from the kill.

With the last of my royals getting the other chipped foe dead.

But I end the turn off with Framme's blood stained fists punching off Takumi's head.

But there is one last group of the Nohrian royals, with a pair of Hoshidan sisters to rally behind our target Corrin.

And with her moving in with a Dragon Vein use, I have two choices, kill her now, or freeze her, and I hit the freeze.

There are a lot of difficult to reach kills this turn, but I start with Merrin's wolf going after that bird Hinoka

Fogado snipes Elise to death before her brother can do it for her

And a dance lets him kill both Nohrian sisters in a single turn.

Framme then kills off the last of Corrin's sisters

With Alfred breaking the ol' truth illusionist.

While cantering back into a perfect Goddess Dance formation.

So Alferd an brutally Ridersbane Leo in an instant

While Fogado finishes off his hunt of the third Nohrian royal this turn.

To earn a levelup worth of his hunt of the Nohrian royal family.

I even have the actions for Framme to punch a health bar out of Corrin

Timerra tries to deal with another, but she fails to proc Sandstorm on any hits

But it does get her an alright levelup

And with the dance she needs to escape Corrin's attack range anyway, she can finish the health bar off in a position where the spawned terrain wont prevent her from cantering out of range this time.

That was a very good turn, and I will note that Ivy does not deal enough damage that I could have gotten the kill instead of the freeze this turn, even if I saved the dance for Framme to solo another health bar.

Plus this gives me the luxury of going for some battle convos that would be foolish to go for otherwise

I guess she kind of did save him, but with him carrying her ring, and trying to save the cursed ring princess, it almost felt like the opposite.

Lol, really debunking Seadall's tarot there.

I was going to joke about us being able to see the battle forecast, but the uncertainty of a hit, or a crit, or a skill proc is a vital part of making these games interesting. When things go unexpectedly well, or I have to accommodate for unexpected bad luck, both make the game far more interesting, and in different ways.

The irony of Fate's name when so much of it is about choice...

Might as well go for the other battle convo, while still leaving the kill open to whom I wish. Side note, I regret not going for the convo's on Sigurd's paralogue.

It really is Fate's most iconic moment.

If you say so TeeHee. At the very least as a player, the lack of any real choice through this keeps me from really feeling like you can understand this moment for Corrin.

Don't jinx it now Corrin, I am just going for the chip here

Your path is so much more static than hers. One thing I do want to emphasize, is that I don't think that is a bad thing. Multiple paths do not automatically make the game better, but they do both give a very different feel to the games.

Sigh, should have known you would hog the kill.

I can kind of see that, as Fogado did a fair bit this map. Honestly that went fairly quickly all things be told.

 I don't think she took out her Yato once...also it is funny to think that they are coyly talking about a Fire Emblem now.

There are some dark undertones to a weapon being forged to bring peace to the world.

While people love to criticize this, the game is called Fates...

Again the cliched death of a Fire Emblem parent is used to link these Emblems to our orphaned TeeHee.

Its odd to say but it is more the Brodian royals that go through this arc, with TeeHee going along with it.

There has been a fair bit of personification being added to Corrin's Fire Emblem here. I don't really remember that being a part of Fates, but I guess changing the framing of things in Engage isn't the worst thing.

I guess choice was a major part of Corrin's story, but it does clash a bit with TeeHee's story.

Another fitting comparison between the two, as in their moment of greatest darkness, when death seems eminent, they are not alone, both have family there. Although in a sense the role between the avatar and family are almost opposite between these two, Corrin's family telling her she can't give up, while its TeeHee telling their sister that she can't give up.

Although I suppose it is time to unveil the one to take back up the mantle of fog machines

Its the little fog wolf Merrin.

Next time I will take on the next story chapter. Jeez, I still have two of those to get through to reach the next checkpoint...

[Rest in Peace, Akira Toriyama...]

So passes a legend of the art world. I know most people remember him for his most iconic work Dragon Ball, but as someone that has always been more into games, I will always remember him for his iconic character design in Chrono Trigger, and Dragon Quest VIII (he may well have done work with other DQ games, but that is the one I most remember from him...).

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

7 hours ago, Armagon said:

Shouzou Kaga when he's in a misogyny competition and his opponent is Atlus: 🤯

Even P3P was a little weird about the FeMC, with this whole warning when you try to pick it about it not being the intended experience, and more for fans looking for a new experience.

 

5 hours ago, Armagon said:

Oldsona is like the only time the previous protags show up in a new game, right?

MC specifically, I think so, but it is quite common for there to be cameos, or cute references to party members, or Social Links from other Persona games.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

7 minutes ago, Lightcosmo said:

To be clear: I am in no way stating that I dislike Symphonia, Abyss, Berseria, etc, just that they miss the right "notes" for me to say they are great. Will likely move Arise down to it's own tier, though.

Naw I get yah, and honestly B tier is definitely where I would put Abyss, although I have enough nostalgia for Symphonia that I might put it a little higher. Heart is the one I like most of the ones I played, as Innocence has the worst dungeons that I only slogged through because I love the framing of its story.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

 

 

23 hours ago, Lightcosmo said:

My new Tales of opinions (gameplay only) on the games i've played so far:

After playing Graces for a while, I gained quite a bit of respect for it (I actually learned how to play the game the right way lmao)

Its funny that I have played like half the number of Tales games you have, and half the ones I have played you haven't. For those curious, the ones I have played are Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Innocence, and Tales of Heart.

 

10 hours ago, Lightchao42 said:

Atlus is saving her for Persona 3 & Knuckles which will release next year. Using lock-on technology, you can connect it to Persona 3 Reload for the complete Persona 3 experience.

Lol...actually that lock-on technology was rather cool, connecting the cartridges together is a very viscerally satisfying thing, and the way Sonic 3 transitions into Sonic and Knuckles as an extended games (allowing you to use Sonic 3's save features for Sonic and Knuckle's campaign) was very cool. Plus being able to play my favorite Sonic game (Sonic 2), as Knuckles is a fun little extra as well.

 

10 hours ago, Lightchao42 said:

Unicorn Overlord is almost out already? I probably won't get it right away but I'm interested in seeing what everyone else thinks of it.

Yeah, it sounds interesting, but I will probably end up waiting a bit before getting it. Its on my list, but its been a long time since I got a game on release, and I like to leave a few console games around so I have an answer to what I want as a gift. Odd as this sounds, I would probably get it sooner if it were on Steam because digital goods simply don't feel as gifty...

 

10 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Guess what my birthday present was...

Happy Birthday, and have fun, Persona 3 is my favorite of the franchise, and probably one of my favorite games as well.

 

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You wish it was that way but that just finished killing my interest in the game lmao

Eh, I doubt the random celebratory art has much of an impact on the game, even art as cringey as that. If you are worried, wait for a few reviewer you trust to play it, and see how it goes.

 

[Favorite Support Bonuses]

I think it depends on what we are looking at. I love that the element system of FE6's supports and the bonuses they give are not just game mechanics, they are a thing in universe (Yoder and Dayan have a whole theological discussion about it in their A support, its fascinating), although you were probably meaning this in a more mechanical sense.

As with a lot of things, Fates mechanically is the most interesting with how it handles support bonuses. There are two different version of them to encourage each of the competing stances, the bonus to derived values (Hit, Avoid, Crit, and Crit Dodge) that pushes you more towards attack stance (by keeping units adjacent but not paired) and the increased stat bonuses in Guards Stance, and that these bonuses are dependent on the characters, as well as partially inheritable (as opposed to Awakening's system)

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

Damn, I did the accidental post early again... Sorry.

Spoiler

I do not have confidence in me taking both of them out at once, so I open by freezing them with Corrin, which lets me canter to safety after attacking...

...She technically survives this, but taking down this first health bar is going to hurt.

But she then levels everything she managed to use in that combat.

Fogado can even wipe a health bar on his own without taking damage, thanks to the doubles.

I then go for some survivable chip with TeeHee

But they get enough Dual Assist chip added in to level and kill here.

That lets me get started on Julius, with her finishing off his first health bar here with her potent punches.

And it even breaks him so I can get some free chip in with Bunet

Which was useful enough that I can just go for it again with a dance

Which gets her a well deserved violent levelup from the great Loptous puncher, as random dual assist procs turn that into another broken health bar

This is literally just an attempt for some free Dual Assist chip

Before ending the turn.

And I open next turn with a bit of over caution in freezing him with Corrin again from a safe 3 range.

Honestly, Dual Assist chip has gotten a bit ridiculous, but with the water no longer debuffing Julius's avoid, things are a bit dicer otherwise.

She did still manage to get the kill and break, so Rosado goes for the first round of safe chip on the his final health bar

For an underwhelming strength levelup.

That lets the doubles get the kill from a safe 3 range.

With Fogado getting the spoils of a levelup.

That leaves just the three immobile one defending the first castle.

And I open by having Bunet break the dual guard

I do also use an Astra Storm, mostly so it wont go to waste.

But it does make Merrin's breaking of the first health bar free of retaliation here.

And I let Anna kill that healer from before,

For another rather nice levelup on her, but truth be told, I started this assault a fair distance away, such that

I need a Goddess Dance to actually reach these kills this turn.

So Fogado can kill the boss

Which will be dropping the bridge on enemy phase...

But I do have one last kill before

the Bridge drops

Which spawns a whole army of troops that barely matter because Sigurd has an absurd amount move, and does move.

But we still have enough time to refill some Engage meters...

But i am burying the lede a little here, as I am going to sent Ivy to try and grab the hidden Goddess Icon

And I was not setup to actually do as quickly as I should have, so I am going to have to find a way to stall for a few turns...

Which reveals a few things I have never waited around enough to discover, first that only the mage army that starts on the map is moving, and second that after Sigurd leaves his gate, he will wait unless baited, so I keep pulling back to try and kill that group without dealing with Sigurd

But with a pair of moving siege tomes, I feel the need to snipe the nearest one with a Lyn shot.

Also Seadall gets a dancing levelup while

Refiling TeeHee's Engage gauge.

Things are getting a little tight space wise.

But by next turn I have finally gotten the Goddess Icon

And the mages are close enough for us to go for the kills, with Anna freezing, and heavily damaging a line of them

So I can start picking up easy kills

Like so, and that one

Even earns Louis a very Louis levelup from it.

With a dance, Anna can also kill the other siege tome, which also spreads the freezing

Which makes it even safer to pick off these mages

But we can't quite reach them all after avoiding siege range

Its funny how much better a magic levelup is on a bow wielder.

Those last two will have to wait for next turn.

And it is easy to get that cleanup safely

And the magic bow levelups just keep coming in.

And that just leaves Sigurd to deal with...unless I want to try and deal with the armies that remain motionless in this massacre. Perhaps I will do that some day, but sounds like a real hassle to do safely in an ironman setting.

I try to bait Sigurd into an Aether trap, expecting him to go for his super

with my troops setup to prevent him from cantering away from its range

But he just goes for the basic hit instead, and thus does canter safely out of Aether range.

He is also just far enough out to be a little obnoxious to deal with

I open  with what I hope will be the last turn with Rosado smacking the jerk, with enough random Dual Assist procs

That Merrin can destroy the first health bar with a Dual Assist proc on her own hit (also setting up a more permanent chain attack thanks to Lucina)

I then have Timerra go for the break here, while also setting up another chain attack so I am not relying on Dual Assist+ procs as much

Which I cement by having Panette use the break for some free chip (and chain attack setup)

And that both breaks another health bar, and means all of my chain attacks are in position at this point.

I also wanted to emphasize that thanks to Headlong Rush, I could not use Corrin's freezing ability to stall things here.

I then have Louis break him while the chain attacks take down close to half his health

Before letting Bunet finish thing.

With how much of her 3 range, and freezing I used on this map, she definitely deserved the MVP here.

Thank you, Thank you...

It is very fitting that he emphasizes family in what is otherwise generic power of friendship talk.

This is a rather interesting question from Sigurd here. This is where Seliph avenged Sigurd's death, and his spirit had a moment with that son

And it sounds like Sigurd is trying to guide TeeHee to the same conclusion Seliph found, where he no longer hated Arvis, rather coming to pity what he had become. While the situation is a bit different, it still is an interesting parallel to how the heroes were just talking about Lumera's own killer las chapter, the future party member Veyle...

This does have an odd feel to it, as Sigurd never really lived long enough to reach the conclusions his son did. I guess Genealogy does imply he reached that conclusion posthumously...

This is a rather cute reference to the secret ghost Sigurd conversation on this map's counterpart...although it is odd how Sigurd is taking the role of his own killer on this map.

Alright, cool it a bit game, this is getting close to Fate's truth illusionist rant.

More fiction should really look at the peace that comes with the end of far more common war...

It is kind of fitting that Sigurd makes a promise he actually can keep. Perhaps his doomed fate makes him more aware of his mortality, even as an Emblem.

Phew. Sorry, I will probably try doing the Corrin paralogue next, in the hopes of preventing another death like Zelkov, although it might get a bit spicy, as it is a little high on the level curve compared to a more comfortable map like this. Also I will try to get it posted a bit sooner this time, as I still have quite a few story chapters to get through before the next checkpoint...