Eltosian Kadath

Ah the great green lemmings do their thing. A bit of a shame, as them living gets you a trinket at the end of the chapter, but its enough of a pain that its rarely worth bothering with, and in practice basically means you are hiding Lachesis somewhere far in the back where she can't get any experience, which is a bit of a downside as she has one of the strongest promotions in the franchise, if you can get her the experience to reach it. Its one of those things that the large maps end up facilitating, and a bit of why I like them. In a surprise to nobody, the manga ran with this line all the way into a painful incest hell. A least you got a new recruit out of it. In a sense not so unseen in FE4, as they get a salary based on the number of blue castles you control at the end of every map...

Huh, I feel like I would remember that skill if it were in the base game... He isn't, Salem's class is called a Loptyrian priest, as an appropriate name for the first dark mage. Ced might not be on the level of August Drias and Saias, but you are selling him fairly short there. Yeah, that fog od war map is rough, and the first place I would expect to see a death on an Engage ironman Oof, that is rough buddt. And poor Anna is such a fresh recruit too. Although I have found Ivy to be a bit of a crit magnet, so I am not all that surprised by that death, although she is a really strong unit to lose. A third death on that one map. A real massacre there. Thankfully you are still in Engage's drown you in strong prepromotes stage of things. Thracian healers missing is one of the most overblown things people complain about in that game.

The first 6 chapters cover roughly 3 years, so about 6 months passing between chapters is the average... Oh you have not gotten around to playing Crusader Kings yet, and known the hassle of ambitious vassals, or being that ambitious vassal, knowing your incompetent king is the biggest hurdle to you running a country of your own. Also he does say he is raiding the king's property, and if the king is controlling lands that by all rights should be yours, raid away, and show everyone why you should be the one in control of it, considering the king is too busy with other affairs to properly defend it. You sell it in pawn shop, or keep it strategically as inheritance you otherwise couldn't give to your child (as you can only buy weapons you can use...) They knew how terrible archers are in FE, and wanted to give the best impression of them they could. While you do get a trinket for rushing fast enough to protect the village that will first fully burn, it really isn't that big of deal. Fun fact, when I was looking back at the older translation with Eltosian in it, the skill was translated as Duel, which I find to be a rather fitting name for the skill. Lucina really has the worst super... On the one hand, I don't think the AI can use that skill all that effectively, but it is still scary none the less.

Alright, I have a level 10 Corrin ready for you. Sorry, that is just the level I reached soloing with Corrin before the online features unlocked...I probably should have held back a little, but I didn't notice the level 7, 8 and 9 addition at the bottom of the chart until I was writing this up, and as such level 9 or 10 was what I was shooting for in the mean time. That also means you get E rank Axe, and learn the base skills in the next two levels, because that was the first time I got access to reclassing. Note, if you want/need a higher level Corrin, I can definitely continue the save file on. Named: Eltosian K Class: Wyvern Rider Level: 10 (chapter 10) Primary Skill: Shuriken Breaker Secondary Skill: Inspiration HP: 25 LCK: 5 STR: 10 MAG: 9 SPD: 12 SKL: 12 DEF: 12 RES: 2 Castle Address: 05131-41162 01294-92339

Really they expected you to use the online features to pick up a few foreign resources when you needed them, and the system works just fine if you are able to use those mechanics. At least the translation I was drawing on didn't translate Sigurd that way. It was still in the era where Erin was Fury, Midir was Midale, Quan was Cuan, Seliph was Celice, Ced was Sety, the Forseti was Holsety, the Yewfelle was still the Ichival, Ares was Aless, etc. I could keep going, as I still have the old rom with that nearly complete translation patch attached to it, but those are some notable differences. Seeking out the 108 stars of destiny I see. It is a good enough suggestion, as the series tends to blend genres a little, with almost base building feel to some of the recruitments, and sections with tactic game mechanics to them. Although my main knowledge of the series is from Suikoden 2. I have seen the first described similarly enough to the description below the second image by enough capital G gamers, that I don't think it is that sharp of difference. A surprisingly fitting problem to have considering the previous discussion about localization. Too many old translations like that were satisfied with mere direct translations, unwilling to make the changes needed to spice up the script, or successfully capture the feel of comedy. Don't get me wrong, some put in the effort.

The multi-part chapter 17 of Path of Radiance did something similar to that. Each part lets you add 2 reinforcement units, which you chose from the menu between each part, and arrive on turn three of that part of the map.

I think its a joke about Fate's Xander... I am fairly certain that is one of the bugs the project Naga translation patch fixes. From what I remember they also fixed the bugs related to certain things not being updated until you reload a save (not a save state, and actual in game save), so no more worrying about the dancer event freezing the game, and you don't need to load a save to give Seliph the leadership stars he should (instead of having Sigurd's until). I am not sure about the jealousy priority list updating as well, I think it is, but I don't remember if they specified in any of the patch notes like the other two, but it is the same type of bug... Thracia 776 implies there is at least one more recipient, although it is doubtful it came from the same lake... You've got to train her, this is an ironman and her personal reduces enemy crit chances!

I stole his name for a reason 😛 Shanan is Ayra's nephew (remember in an earlier scene Shanan called Ayra his aunt), Ayra's brother (and Shanan's father) ascended the throne after their father's death. You need someone to be the fall guy, hence of the tales about the vizier being evil, but definitely not the ruler being evil... You can't linger within them like you can with the starting castle, and it has all the same stuff as the starting castle, but it is a nice thing to visit if you need some repairs, or sell your equipment to an ally, or something mid map. Yeah, there are some arena battles that can take a while. Fun fact, if you are playing on a version without the project Naga translation patch, an exceptionally long battle like this can cause an interesting bug. If the battle went on too long, the list of RNG the game sets up by the game before a battle would run dry, the game had a way of dealing with that for the basic parts of the battle, but if you leveled up you wouldn't have the RNs left to gain any stats, and even stats that have growth rates above 100 wouldn't gain even the single point that is certain. You could avoid the consequence of this glitch by using the B button just before the battle would end to access the menu section, and chose to continue instead of quit, which would reset the RNG list. On the other hand, Sigurd has already rescued her, and is actively still invading Verdane... Oh boy, he must have proced...actually I don't remember what translation of the name is in vogue, charge? Accost? Its an odd skill, requiring the user have over 25 health, with a proc rate based on current health, and how much faster than your foe you are, and it will not proc more than 19 times (...I think, it cutting off like that might be related to a bug relate to the RNG string running out that the translation parch fixes, and seeing more than 5 procs is astronomically unlikely) in a single battle, as it is causing an extra rounds of battle to occur with each proc, so if this foe could counter, it would have the opportunity to do so with each extra round. Fun fact, there is alternate dialogue if you managed to kill Sandima before Sigurd triggers her recruitment, and tells you some interesting information about herself. In case you are curious I dug up a video from a commentated Youtube LP that shows it in the spoiler box below I see you took my advise about the Secret Events. It is a classic allusion to one of Aesop's fables honest woodcutter. That really is a fun touch about the staff. The Jugdral magics really do go all out on the animations.

First off, calling them medieval is like calling both WW2 games, and Cyber Punk games based on modern times. Second, I like that they are still melee focused, as there are plenty of gun based tactic games around, and the tactics of those weapons make things very different. Unless they do something like Dune where force shields have made melee weapons relevant to war again, I would prefer they keep it in the vaguely fantasy past. I do have a real soft spot for The Fist of Mars. It is nothing like the other Zone of Enders (which are great, and I consider them the best way to feel like you are playing a Mecha Anime), but a fun little tactics romp. Naw, it would have to be either metatron, Aumann, or potentially one or both of the sister frames of Jehuty and Annubis, or sister frames of Testament and Iblis if we want to focus more on the Fist of Mars than the series as a whole. Poor Dew, the thieves just do not resemble a combat unit unless you grind them up to promotion. There is a bit more going on, but you are right, he probably should. Then again, leaving a child to the wolves that want to use him isn't exactly the kindest of things either. Oh you sweet summer child. Big oofs for that one. Ayra is a real combat beast. I believe in Arden, he has got this. Just look at all the confidence in that face of his. An important caveat to remember is that people have found way to solo the first gen with everyone in FE4, and that this isn't like a Seth solo, there are times where you need to actually position him, be careful at times, and think about your moves a little bit. Try the calcs with the mage army of chapter 4 next, as that is one of the real places an actual Sigurd solo really struggles in. As said, he can do it, but you have to be clever to do so, especially with how SIgurd's combat can suffer at 1-2 range, and the disjointedly forested terrain slowing his horse down. Really its a different set of substitutes that people will argue compete with the originals, with the substitute being the only way to get a dancer with the charm skill, and in her brother's case, access to the Berserk staff at all. Dancer and healer being some of the FE classes that are least reliant on stats for relevance really helps that out a fair bit. I kind of like how the world has more heroes than just you in it. That is a really fitting start there. A prepromoted Mauvier defending little Veyle.

The Black Knight is just an FE Darth Vader. Ike I am your father....'s mentor.

Just out of curiosity, have you tried looking up to see how many of these translators do have a work and personal account?

A bit awkward to do when twitter became a major (and almost necessary) networking tool for creatives.

More of a sad necessity of their name being in the credits...

What sort of estimate would you put it at? I am betting the number is still unreasonable Also, I do think that an important part of the equation here is that these people are being harangued with questions about their work in their off hours. How many times would you have to be questioned like that about your work in your off hours before you told people to fuck off? One of the interesting things about FE4 is that usually you are the one controlling the positioning of fights a lot more than in other games. The game tells you from the start that defending the castles is something you are going to have to do. Its like complaining about accuracy being awful when you ignore the weapon triangle, and keep having your axe unit attack a Sword Master. I disagree with this sentiment a lot. That would be moving away from the more strategic movements of Genealogy back to the more tactical movements of other FEs.

Literally the second paragraph in the image you shared opens with "You can be disappointed in the localization choices"...

How many 0 are at the end of the average number of times you have to field those many questions per day?

I am going to be honest, I don't care enough about this random BL Manga localization controversy to do a deep dive into it, although I would be willing to bet that death threats were sent to both localizer, and original author over this one. I find this double standard silly. How would you respond to innumerable strangers (who have usually merely heard of your job on the internet) insisting you explain and justify every decision you made months ago, many of whom are not doing so in good faith, and at all hours of the day online? Have these people ever tried scrutinizing the original author's decisions like this, and seen their responses? It would be like working retail, but the worst customers decide to treat you like you are at their beck and call whenever you appear online...

I guess I am getting a bit ahead of myself with the optimism for the Engage manga at this point.

I disagree, because of the Japanese text. The way its phrased in the Japanese it sounds like joking banter to a friend, something that the localization captures, and the overly direct translation fails to. The direct translation does a better job of capturing frustration, but misses a lot of the characterization to do so. The issue is that characterization is interpretive, and can even be culturally dependent in a way that doesn't translate at all. It kind of is their job. Mindlessly, and directly translating things leads to boring works at best, and Google Translate gibberish at worst. With creative works, mere translation loses too much of the meaning, as how someone says something can be as important as what is being said. Worse yet, there simply aren't ways to really convey how something is said with the same meaning between so disparate of languages and cultures (as a lot of that how is culturally specific); you are forced to work with imperfect substitute. That leads to localizers having to reinsert that lost meaning by interpreting characters in ways that the language and culture can better handle, rather than leave a dearth of meaning that otherwise can not be filled. There aren't complaints about it because that change in intent or characterization isn't there, its because the English script is better, and people don't need to dig around for reasons to complain about not liking the script... Honestly, I see a fair number of localization complaints as falling into three crowds, people who are digging for a reason to justify their dislike of the writing, whining about the localization not going along with the complainer's personal interpretation of the character, or plot point, etc., and people just parroting one of the other groups (as they really don't know enough of the language to formulate an opinion on their own, and found one of the other arguments persuasive). I see two major issue with that approach, first due to deployment location, and second due to the objective of defending the castles you seized. If we were to think about splitting Genealogy up into separate maps for each seizing castle, by far the most obvious difference would be in the starting locations of units; in the original that is entirely dependent on where your units ended up when you seize the previous castle, but that doesn't really work with the maps split into chunks like this. Losing that aspect of the maps takes away from some of the strategy, for very minimal gains, and I would see it as a diminishment of what makes the game interesting. I see it as a move away from the more strategic movement that make Genealogy unique, whereas most of the other Fire Emblem game I can get away with almost entirely tactical movement with not a thought for the other. Although by far the bigger issue is that defending the castles you have taken is a feature of a lot of chapters in the game. From a minor stated threat in the prologue, to the intentional fake-out of chapter 1 (technically it is possible to lose there if you are very, very, very unlucky, and left no defenders, so perhaps fake-out isn't entirely accurate), building towards the more credible threat near the end of chapter 2...I could keep going, but instead I will jump to the biggest point, that I don't even know how you would deal with the final section of chapter 9 in this format, as that is all about having to defend your distant and divided taken castles from a rain of wyverns. I know what you mean. I kind of hope someone ends up making a story hack to incorporate the manga's story differences, and world building into Engage someday... Oh boy...this is definitely going to lead to a new "All Your Base" moment in gaming. The key thing here is you are using it as a tool, in conjunction with human agency, not as a means of replacing humans. Replacing human localizers with AI translation is going to be very bad, and with how prone Large Language Models are to "hallucinating" it could make things much worse for the translation purists. If I am too pessimistic, and they do mean to use it as a tool, I don't see how AI would improve the localization in the ways all these people are hoping, its more likely going to impact the really generic and ancillary writing (like shop text boxes, minor NPC lines, item descriptions, etc.), which can take up a massive chunk of the text, but usually only requires minimal creativity. The only Ys game I played was a remake of 1 and 2 on the DS, and I remember not liking the bizarre bump attack mechanics, and that the extreme leveling system made it impossible to have a satisfying level of difficulty. Let's hope IS is taking notes, they can really improve the series by following the manga 😛

Quan, Eldigan, and Sigurd were always together back in the day... Also fun fact Eltosian is an old and defunct translation of Eldigan's name. Alright. Each chapter has a set gauntlet of 7 enemies to face in the Arena for all units, with alternate weapons (and in the case of Swordies) or foes for units that are using bows. If a unit win against one of those foes their HP is set to full, they get 500x(Round+1) gold added to their personal supply of money, they gain experience for the win, and they get access to the next round until the 7th is cleared. You can press B during an arena fight to go back to the menu, to change weapon mid battle, or quit out early. If they lose, they have their HP dropped to 1. Note that arena battles do expend weapon uses. You should try to get each of your units as far in the Arena as you can, as it is a vital source of money to repair, or purchase weapons, not to mention experience. Oh wow, you aggroed Ayra with her? That sounds bloody. I guess I can see it as a little surprising, but aggroing Ayra is vital to recruiting her. Its usually better to think of seizing a castle as the rough equivalent of a chapter in other Fire Emblem games. There are only 12 full chapter in this game...

I doubt Ludveck's invasion of Daein would amount to much. When Ike and crew storm through, we see how much of a quagmire the bridge would be for a force as lite on air forces, and heavy on cavalry as Crimea's is, and it was garrisoned by troops that weren't part of Micaiah's expeditionary forces. I don't think Ludveck actually cares enough about invading Daein to expend the political capital necessary for the extended, and expensive campaign of breaking through that bridge; thus I think the invasion would stall out on the bridge, and not significantly impact Daein's role in the Begnion-Laguz war, as long as the blood pact is still tying their hands with bad writing. The biggest difference would be when the Begnion forces try to cross through Crimea into Gallia, and while it would definitely go differently, I could see it go many way. I could see Ludveck offering to join Begnion for the kill against Gallia, perhaps offering Crimean help for territorial gains from Gallia Begnion would have a difficult time managing themselves. Alternatively I could see him being very defensive, and trying to repel Begnion's encroachment of Crimea by force. The more interesting outcome I could see as likely is if Ludveck ensnares Velthome in a long extended discussion over what form of compensation would be necessary to allow this incursion, requiring delays for exotic "gifts" to be brought from the Begnion capital, until the Empress's escape ends the escapade without a Crimean skirmishes at all.

Leo is more important to Fate's story than people think, as he is the one to use the orb of Anankos revelation in Birthright, kills the traitorous Zola in Conquest, wields one of the legendary weapons that awakens the Fire Emblem, and even becomes the King of Nohr in Birhtright. People don't want to hear this, but Camilla is by far the Nohrian with the least plot significance, despite having one of the strongest impacts on the gameplay. And its probably controversial to say, but I see Sakura as less plot significant than Hinoka, as she does become the Queen of Hoshido in one of the ending...but its not by a large margin admittedly.

Just play with the volume off, and listen to something else in the background. That is probably the problem right there...

I will start by saying, I have never been that into building units. In Engage, the only skill I tend to inherit on people is the best versions I can afford of Canter (on everyone I can get it on), Dual Assist (on all the backup units), Pair Up (on the units I use to tank), and Reposition (shrug). Also I tend to ignore peoples assessments of units and use the ones I am finding interesting (heck I am using Bunet now in the Linked ironman Screenshot LP of Engage I am doing on this very website, and my Bouchy Boy will probably always be a mainstay on my team unttil death). So keep that in mind with what I am saying. I want to mention Chain Guards as useful for Maddening, but I lucked into an S Deirdre ring from the gatcha when I tried Maddening (haven't gotten around to finishing it though, got distracted by other things), which made it far easier to use... I would recommend against this constraint for a few reasons. First it even further incentivizes you to immediately drop your unpromoted units for the prepromotes the game gives you, which is almost a problem the game has. Second, you can use second seals to easily reset levels (either by changing class, or at level 20), and experience is entirely based in the character's internal level, so you don't miss out on anything by promoting early (except the potential cost of late game seals). As long as you are following the "in the spirit of the game" rule, I think this constraint is a bit unnecessary. Engage has a lot of interesting options for trick staves that you can use for rather interesting tactics (especially when combined with the Micaiah Emblem), which can really save your bacon in tight situations. Don't get me wrong, if you aren't following the spirit of the game, I can see why they might come across as almost detrimental to the experience. I see Alear far more as a really good support Lord. Her personal is amazingly potent, adding 3 to the damage units deal with each attack, which is added after calculating damage (so every attack buffed by it will deals at minimum 3 damage per hit). You might have to get creative with position, so getting canter on her before you loss Sigurd helps with that a bit. Add into that the power a Dragon class gives to Emblems like Byleth (so +3 to all stats rally and Goddess Dance when engaged), and you have a fairly solid support unit. Giving her Corrin (assuming you aren't using the fog machine combo) is another great option, as dragons gets to chose which class's Dragon Vein they want to use every turn, which adds a shocking level of flexibility. Also, I like promoting her as soon as possible (with the first seal if I can), as it helps to keep her more combat capable. The fog machine combo (thief + Corrin) is less broken on Maddening, as enemies will never directly attack foes they have 0 hit (and 0 damage) against. If that was your main problem with the build, you could try doing the same with Etie. She tends to have worse speed problems (but Lyn is still good enough to fix them), and better strength, for more consistent (but similar on average) damage. I used her on my first run with a similar enough build, and had what I suspect are similar results (although I will note that I was doing an ironman on hard throughout). I will note, this is coming from an ironmanning perspective, but I rather like how her personal reduces enemy crit chances. I think she fills the fog machine role better than Zelkov does, but in a way that I suspect you would dislike. Zelkov does not need that much avoid when fogging, and that higher resistance covers one of the fog machine's few weaknesses (that the Mystic class lines ignores foes terrain bonuses), and her personal gives her a much higher crit rate when in terrain. The fog triggers that personal, so she tends to randomly crit kill a LOT of units over the course of a playthrough. Personally I am far less opposed to random sources of increased damage (from proc skills, and crits), as the way to incorporate them into strategies is to use them to chip, with that random increased damage giving you far better margins of error to cover misses, or to push in further with the additional actions those killing chip hits add in. I also find proc skills make the multi-hit emblem specials (like Leif's Quad Hit) noticeably better, as each hit has a chance to proc the skill.

Yeah, that was an accident...which oddly enough I didn't notice til this message, I thought it was just a weird internet hiccup, as it managed to restore the post in the editor, which it usually doesn't after posting something. I edited it to make the cut less jarring, but here is the exciting gameplay to come... And like that I reached the checkpoint...