[What if Ludveck won?]

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.

[What is your unpopular Fire Emblem opinion?]

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Leo is very popular and I like Leo. Still I don't think Leo's very important and that future spinoffs would benefit from excluding him to prevent Fates bloat.

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.

 

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

 

As the original Warriors showed doing all the royals at once is a giant strain on the roster so for a solid roster choices need to be made. Hinoka is the obvious one to exclude but Leo isn't far behind. He lacks the story importance of Takumi and the older siblings. His main contribution would be as Takumi's foil and rival. The problem with that position is that Camilla already takes that role pretty neatly. As a very confident and teasing adult lady she's instantly a foil to an incredibly insecure, prickly and immature young boy. In the story the two also occasionally clash and don't get along. 

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.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

I did try several times. I always ended up being turned off by the fact that the characters just can't shut up during combat.

It's like if Clippy had voice acting.

Just play with the volume off, and listen to something else in the background.

 

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

That just means they can knock out the whole game with one banner.

That is probably the problem right there...

 

[Criticism of my opinions before a Maddening playthrough]

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...

 

27 minutes ago, Lagdou said:

- No promotion in base class before Level 20.

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).

 

1 hour ago, Lagdou said:

- No use of "trick staffs". Only Heal, Cure and Remedy.

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.

 

1 hour ago, Lagdou said:

 

Alear F - (Marth) (Avoid - Dual Support) - (Divine Dragon) - (Liberation +5 - Holy/Dawn Engrave)
I initially did not understand she was supposed to be a dodge tank and found her mediocre for a main hero.

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.

 

1 hour ago, Lagdou said:

I concluded that this character breaks the game, but would like further opinions on the optimal build and the Engrave.

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.

 

1 hour ago, Lagdou said:

And I have intellectual habits of not using random abilities in strategy games, because in my experience it's a bad choice. I tried using him again in late chapters, but without Lyn he seems to not shine.

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).

 

2 hours ago, Lagdou said:

 

Timerra - I benched her immediately after reading on Internet that her unique class also has a random ability. 

I will note, this is coming from an ironmanning perspective, but I rather like how her personal reduces enemy crit chances.

 

2 hours ago, Lagdou said:

 

Yunaka - Zelkov convinced me to build a second dodge tank in Thief with her. Zelkov was not using the additional Avoid of Leif, so it means that she does something similar to him, with 25 Avoid less by abilities, probably less Speed, but higher Def and Res. Thus I plan to pair up with Leif, and perhaps reclass her to Wolf Knight with Sword and Lancebreaker. I would like to know if this is pertinent, in my second play through she delivers as a support but I do not see the potential for carrying the team at the moment.

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.

 

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

1 hour ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

@Eltosian Kadathi think your post is missing most of it's content

@Newtype06 @Punished Dayni how's it looking?

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...

Spoiler

Lets start with a little bit of preps, as I got two ring change ups, first

I give my punch girl Eirika for some extra static damage on the punches.

And the one I basically gave away before.

I am still cycling through my 14 units. I should get back to using Louis...

I didn't change this starting block much, before just jumping in with

Breaking one of the near by foes

I meant it mechanically, but I wont complain about an early kill.

This was more what I meant to do.

Then Ivy pops the actually armored one.

I was hoping he would kill, but I have actions to waste at this point

This is just the opening for low odd crit kills.

I am baiting in from two directions here, but

Everyone in range can take Griss's warp, which will let me chop through his health bar alone on that front

Although that is a big chunk of damage.

While Zelkov just had the avoid without any terrain needed to dodge all these axes coming at him.

Although chain attacks build up a little chip on him.

This is just the turn for actually useful low odd crits.

Lets deal with the bossless front first, with these easy kills Zelkov served up to my units.

After all those crits I was kind of hoping, but alas no dice. The odds were just too high 😛

Plus she setup another chain attack. It is a bit sad that I needed this tiny bit of extra Chain Attack chip to setup

This breaking of the first health bar for Fogado, as he was 1 damage shy before.

I open the next health bar with Merrin churning through most of it

So Bunet can use the weakest Engage special for the kill.

Sigh, we probably got this masochist off with this fight.

I though I was so clever here, with so many units injured by Griss's magic, and him dropping this staff, I thought I could dance and trade to use it immediately, but alas, she lacks the ranks for it.

I am not pushing all that much on the foggy front, but Alfred is drawing in the last scraps in the north there before we move on.

getting a little chip in, but more importantly baiting in the whole group.

And come player phase, I need some healing before we start

Admittedly I would need to get very unlucky for her to need that health, but better safe than sorry

And she gets the crit this time for the kill.

Ivy pops another with magic

And Fogado finishes off the one Alfred chipped

For a really solid extra speed, extra defensive levelup.

That clears out the space for Merrin to crush one mage, and thanks to a dual assist, she doesn't even have to risk the counter.

And with a dance Fogado kills the last of them.

With a fancy crit to avoid the counter too.

This is minor, but thanks to the actual terrain here I can vuln off the chain attack damage with Zelkov's action while drawing in a few of the stragglers ahead of us.

Although my line is an absolute mess.

Although I have few troops around to clean things up.

Fortunately it is just the lancers coming in, and two of them are nicely chipped for me

So Rosado can finish one

TeeHee kills the next one, as he doesn't have a real ranged attack, and the last of these is not chipped, and needs to be killed with ranged attacks to avoid Marni's range, plus I can now use his buff

Although it wasn't necessary to get the kill

I finally get to use that Fortify staff on these fellows. Perhaps a little wasteful, but I am rather low on basic heal staves, and there are a lot of injured troops in that radius there.

And that is a nice little healing levelup there, picking up more of those combat stats on her too.

Although Bunet was damaged enough that he needs another heal.

We are still too spread out to start baiting in Marni, but luckily some of the range threats across the flames start moving on enemy phase

So I have something to do with my returning troops, like Merrin slaughtering this sniper here

And those are really not the stats she needs from a levelup. I can't complain all that much, she has had a long string of very violent levelups before.

But she needs the healing because of the dragon in the distance.

And I give it the choice of trying for Timmera instead (while we are still getting my troops back in position).

And it actually missed Merrin. Honestly a bit of a lucky break as

It lets her chip it (and poison debuff it) come player phase.

There is also a sniper in Fogado's longbow range, which he starts chipping at. Really I just needed a moment to figure out what to do one the dragon front

And by having Bunet wait in range to add a chain attack, that is just enough for Rosado to finishe it off.

Which lets me waste my dance just finishing off the sniper.

You could have gotten that the first time so I didn't need the dance...Oh well, its not that big of deal.

There is one last foe to deal with, and TeeHee does so with aplomb, and can more importantly canter back out of the fire...

But I think my troops are close enough together to finally bait in Marni.

Yeah, that Roy on her really makes it even more of a nuisance to take her down.

Looking at the numbers, I really need a turn to pull my stragglers together, so I pull Alfred back, and use the fog to extinguish some flames, and hold off the group

Ivy gets a speed levelup from healing

And Seadall gets an excellent defensive levelup (what else do you want in a dancer ?)

This might be a little premature, but I want a little extra chip on the armors coming in, and I am expecting to need a lot of attacks to finish off Marni...

But we are all ready to deal with her.

Frustratingly he is still shy of debuffing Marni

But the other armors are getting some damage and debuffs on them

And more strength is exactly the kind of thing I want on him.

Huh, that makes things a lot easier than I was expecting. Its a shame the Roy death block is in effect.

Alfred can then finish her first health bar, thanks to TeeHee's damage buff

I have a bit of a plan here. I should have been more careful with Ivy's positioning, as she is just out of Seadall's range, but where she is, it will be difficult to use the goddess dance on her as effectively as I would like, but he can finish this one here, canter back

And get a solid defensive levelup that I can't even pretend to complain about

Back to the tactical situation, Seadall can now dance TeeHee,

and be in range of the Goddess dance here. Although I really bungle thing with how I canter him

Before I get any further, I use the fog machine to create enough difficult to deal with terrain that I can mostly hold off Mauvier's assault group, and have a better sense of where they will actually threaten next turn.

Now Ivy can drop Marni back to 1 HP again, but without TeeHee where they were, I can't really damage Marni, so I need a slightly different plane here.

I start by letting Rosado get this kill on the end

And another defensive levelup. I was hoping for something a bit more offensive, but in an ironman defenses are good.

Now Bunet can get some Hammer chip in on the remaining Armor

And Timerra can get some chain attack chip while switching Bunet over to a 1-2 range weapon, so he can

Give Alfred the chain attack kill here, while avoiding Mauvier's magic range.

I can't even argue with her all that much as I really had to cheese the damage onto her.

That is a rather sucky levelup though.

Sadly, I think I need Ivy to kill the Armor here, which makes the chip I did on it kind of useless.

Not for the damage per se, but because

Mauvier is threatening the spaces I would use to kill it,

Which Veyle though?

Back to the point I was making, Ivy tanks it rather well with her high resistance, and can damage him in return.

His other forces open with a whiff fest

The rest of them get hit by both Zelkov's hits though.

I open with this buff for a very important reason.

It lets Framme double Mauvier, and utterly decimate the man. I was real worried about how difficult Nosferatu would make him, but she both breaks him

And after a dance, simply kill him all on her own.

You could have joined us...Not yet? Oh well.

She really earned this murderous levelup.

Time to clean up the left overs

The undamaged one is swept away by a single Poleaxe hit

I will gladly take that levelup on Panette.

I let Timerra finish the last of them

For another basically double speed levelup.

All the while my fog machine was pulling ahead

To bait in the wyrm...

But that makes everyone except for Zephia to start charging down at us.

And I pull back very slightly to

Deal with the horses here, first with a breaking chip here

And Timerra follows Bunet's lead, but with more damage due to doubling

So Fogado finished one of the chipped,

TeeHee finishes the other

And Merrin then uses the buff to get in some solid chip (and debuff) on the Wyrm

And thanks to a dual assist, Ivy can exactly finish it with the buff and debuffs here

She even crits to avoid the counter.

That leaves one more to chip down

With Panette finishing it.

And with a dance Zelkov can fog machine the deadly hoard bearing down on us.

Probably both. As good as this game can be about battle quotes, as Ivy's retainer, I could imagine Zelkov having something to say about the shambling corpse of his king.

Also Zelkov actually gets an enemy phase kill here...

But we have a lot to deal with come player phase. With them splitting up like that I fog machine to delay dealing with what is ahead of us, so Ivy can kill this armor

But she will have to take an enemy phase hit when doing so

A very important thing to note here is that Zelkov is very deliberately in 2 range of Veyle

As otherwise she would be in range to ignore all his avoid, and smash him with Lodestar Rush.

Instead Zelkov gets off some chain chip in.

And while Ivy takes some damage, she one rounds her attacker.

And levels off the kill for some more speed, and strengthening that resistance.

The fog machine is so good at controlling the battle field, giving me even more chip and debuff on Hyacinth over here.

But it is time to start clearing some of our foes away, first off with Ivy one rounding armor...but this is a bit of a tell that I don't think I can finish things off here, as I want to see the battle quote...

Now thanks to baiting Veyle into 2 range, that lets Framme break her while killing a health bar

But that does trigger the purple health stone buff.

We see so little of Lumera, it is really hard to say. At least the Divinely awakened Emblems are way better than the Fell awakened ones.

You only realize this now TeeHee?

While she is broken, I decide to see the battle convo between these two.

I couldn't help myself, going for the battle convos are always so enticing.

Honestly, the smoke rather takes away from the gentle beauty of the sunset and flames.

Only because you wasted enough time burning things down for us to catch up. It really was a stupid move overall, as you could have caused much worse damage to Firene if you had rushed the castle to kidnap/kill the Queen.

Huh, that is an interesting point. The more accurate facsimiles of life are more unsettling in very different ways...

That is strangely sweet of her, to make TeeHee's greatest fears lessened when he fights them.

Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, I think she kind of understood. These villains really don't understand the other Veyle do they.

Time for Zelkov to show off the other way Corrin controls the battlefield. Not only does this hit three foes at once, but all of them are now stuck in place, so if any of these bosses survive the turn, the people they can target is now highly limited.

So Merrin can wipe out one of the mobile generics

Alfred deals massive effective damage while breaking the other

So Timerra can finish it. That just leaves the immoble ones, and the distance Zephia.

Bunet then finishes off Veyle, but this is blatantly a mistake, and I don't notice until it is almost too late...

Does that end up being true for TeeHee?...hmmm...it just might, I will have to double check.

And Bunet gets a fabulous levelup from the kill though.

And it is only after this kill that I realize how much of a mistake I have made. As I put Bunet exactly in Zephia's 2 range. Despite how late into the turn this is, I do actually have an out for it, as I have two major units I haven't used yet

The first is Fogado, who is going to need to Engage to save the day, so he might as well get some chip in,

This is going to be a little tricky, as Hyacinth still has more than a healthbar to get through as well, but here is a good start.

The other was I hadn't used my dance yet, so I can have Fogado call the doubles into Zephia's Overrun range, so she will be baited into that instead of the two range kill...

And since I have the actions for it, I might as well get this chip in here as well before I end the turn.

Phew, what a mess I have made of this last turn. Well enemy phase starts out funny at least, as

Hyacinth wastes his attack on a double

That limits Zephia's Override into hitting only two units instead of four.

I just can't help myself.

That is right, she missed her father's death in the Cathedral...

Does she mean reincarnation, or implying this is a different life for Hyacinth?

And Sombron would probably take the opportunity to taste her royal blood, so the two would have to be corrupted together. How sweet.

That is a refreshingly logical sentiment, for such an emotional moment, and very counter to how Hortensia spoke just a few chapters ago.

It really is a rare boon, to have a second change to say goodbye to a loved one.

And this is such a defiant assurance of her capabilities.

And so Hyacinth gets...some kind of buff I am sure.

How deluded this sad corpse is.

Timerra can only reach Hyacinth, so she might as well setup another layer of chain attacks while chipping.

Similarly Merrin can only reach him as well thanks to the fire restricting movement, although she really doesn't do well against him, but it is enough, even with missing a chain attack,

For Zelkov to exactly finish it off. I was tempted to use his attack to show off that Sigurd's immunity to freeze, also makes it immune to the engaged debuff Corrin applies that drops move to 0, but I couldn't pass up the perfect damage here. Plus taking down Zephia is going to be tricky, having already used the action of a lot of good units already. Now I

So Hyacinth only sees the truth at the eve of his double death.

Even Hyacinth had a moment of clarity to say his loving farewells to his daughters. It is a bit of cliche that they regain their mind in their final moments to say goodbye, but it does lead to a touching moment here anyway.

Although given the state we find it in...

In retrospect I made a small mistake here. I should have just immediately moved Bunet in to give every attack against her for the turn some extra chain attack chip, but after this break, but this one damage hit

Managed to trigger three dual assist. I do take advantage of the break to setup one of my chain attacks at least for better consistency on that bonus damage.

Although I am getting rather luck with the dual assists, it really wasn't necessary for Fogado to safely finish with a longbow.

He really is racking up the speed, but I would love to get some more strength along with it.

Alright we just have one more health bar to get through

But she is frustratingly tanky, as I pull the Wyrmslayer out of the convoy for a tiny bit of bonus damage on her, and TeeHee canters back to better setup the next two attacks with the bonus damage from their personal.

Funnily enough her punches do more than Eirika's super...I hope I have enough attack left to kill her at this rate.

I have Rosado engage to make it impossible for a crit death, and the break here should give Bunet a chance to finish things...

If both attacks didn't manage to miss...I still have Seadall's dance left to fix this

And of the people he can reach, Fogado has the best odds.

I do have Bunet to try for the kill, if enough of this misses like Rosado...

But he gets enough hit. That was uncomfortably close in the end there.

I would have been tempted to give it to Framme personally, but I can't argue to much with this, Ivy was certainly instrumental as well.

That is rather fitting, as he was the only thing we managed to actually kill. This must be what the enemies feel like when the player is on Casual mode...

And now it is time for the comeuppance our foes must face for their cruelty to our Veyle

Although I do wonder how they all missed the bright purple eyes of hers staring at them...or the change in voice. I rarely play the game with sound, but I did see this scene with it, and the difference in good/evil Veyles voice made it obvious who was in control, even before they revealed the eyes.

The path this ring takes in the air when thrown...

Don't kid yourself girl, we have already forgiven you, heck this you didn't even do anything that needs forgiveness.

I am not made of stone, that face, and vocal line, are so utterly charming.

It is odd that they cut to black before Zephia utterly bitch slaps Veyles face. Was animating that too costly?

You literally just tried to do that with the theatrics on the shore...

It is funny that they entrust the guarding of the rings to the other traitor here.

By Lumera, it is good to have the Jugdral Emblems back. So many units would love that Canter on them, and I am a big fan of both of them, even if Leif is objectively one of the weakest emblems.

It is odd how high a position they gave that pawn

But I guess she is mostly a surrogate for Sombron in her manipulated state.

You are Sombron be damned right we are going to rescue her Diamant. Hopefully I don't end up needing her, but with a endgame deployement sized team in rotation, she is a vital replacement if things start going wrong late game.

...Fair enough, we do have a bit to do before we give chase.

Going immediately from 50-50 to a 2-1 advantage is a significant shift here.

Although you are kind of getting ahead of yourself with that statement.

And that covers the main story, but there were a few interesting things to see from the post-battle movements

The balls on this man for saying that directly to the face of his own god.

Framme is asking the questions many do when the rewind mechanics are a part of the plot...

That is an interesting little way to reveal Bunet's hometown there. I can't remember how many times I have highlighted it, but it is rather common for people to mention when they are close to their home towns, but I like how they made me piece this one together here.

Her last meeting with her father, when he is knowingly, and blatantly sending her off to die, was not a great final moment to remember your father. Having another chance to say goodbye, to get their final feeling across, knowing his death is imminent, even if they had to violently clash to do so; I get it, that does help add a sense of closure to his death for her.

 

And like that I reached the checkpoint...

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I completely understand if you want to stay out of random 3Hells discourse, but the thought popped in my head and you're the only here who'd understand it IIRC. Two words- 3Historias.📕😛

I guess I am not all that active, but I have definitely played Radiant Historia as well. You had one of the time twins as your avatar image for the longest time, and I think I even commented on that in the past.

 

6 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Sure, but I thought they take at least Sundays so seriously that they won't even hold elections on Sundays, unlike everyone else.

There are some really bible thumper parts of the country that do have laws requiring retailers to be closed on Sunday, those just tend to be parts of the country no one actually wants to live in because that isn't the only incredibly backwards thing about them.

 

6 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Elections on Sundays might mean more Minorities, Poor and Younglings can vote. We can't have that, can we?

There is that classic republican complaint

 

5 hours ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

Good news is that I managed to finish 60 books which was my challenge for the year. 22,000 pages later I feel like…

Congratulations sticking to it like that.

 

35 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Somethingsomethingwowthat'saverybigmapiwonderiftheothermapswilllooklikethishaha.

Naw, this is the small tutorial map.

 

36 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

"You can't put a price on your health...but also you have to pay us."

What is this, America?

Lol, it really is isn't it.

 

36 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

This is a skill.

Yes, but there are a few means of getting crits without that skill. Being next to a sibling or lover when attacking also provides a crit bonus, and ability to crit. Some weapons also come with the crit skill on them, and any weapon that gets over 50 kills on it also acquires the crit skill.

 

37 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Oh wow, you can look inside the castle for units and items during the battle?

Yep, it is also where your units usually start the map off at.

 

37 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Gee, it'd be a shame if you put the bridge on the exact location my badly damaged axe unit is sitting so that the ambush spawn immediately goes to kill him.

You kind of walked into that one.

 

37 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Never punished.

But got lucky anyway.

 

38 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

I mean 10 guys winning against like 50 is pretty impressive.

Have you seen this guy's stats? The only issue with soloing 50 is it wouldn't be worth the cost of fixing his holy weapon.

 

38 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Well at least she makes up for it in the banter.

I hate to point it out, but Midir is a guy, but a lot of people make that mistake with him.

Also you might want to look at the Secret Events page on Serenes Forest (here: https://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/miscellaneous/secret-events/ ) for some very useful items on the next few maps...

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Well that was a nice chronology of events that scrolled by way too fast for me to process any of it.

Yeah, this really does scroll by way faster than it should.

 

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

I've had enough of Prince Kurths at this point.

They are completely different characters, you see Tellius had Prince Kurthnaga, and this here is Prince Kurth with the Holy Blood of Naga in his veins.

 

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

SIX houses?? That's like double the content of Three Houses!

Congratulations, you have now proved it with science that is game is two times better than Three Houses.

 

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Yeah his is the funny name. I think there is even a Mario (or was it Luigi) in the Arena...

 

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Seems highly irresponsible to leave the country largely unprotected to serve a foreign war, the king's been playing too much EU4.

But the computer never breaks a non-aggression pact...

 

3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Welcome to the 4th entry of a long long series, Sigurd.

Ah don't worry, baby Jeigan over here wont be fighting along side Sigurd, he will instead be the brilliant 14 year old tactical advisor.

 

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

On 12/23/2023 at 3:55 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Fun fact: On maddening Wyrms reduce Engage meter to 0

A real pain

That sounds obnoxious...

 

On 12/23/2023 at 3:55 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Is that how Alear came to be?

It should have been

 

I got delayed a bit by Chritmas present games, but I am back, and while I was tempted to do another paralogue to feed my costly addiction to fashion, I ended up reaching the next checkpoint instead...

Time for the battle that has split the emblems down the middle, between the light, and the dark.

Spoiler

Back at the Somniel, I start with some Arenaing this time with

A little extra defense on some already tanky boys.

I also decide to give Rosado a bit of a head start in Ike's bond, as I plan on giving Ike to Rosado at this point. Alas, at the end of the day, we have another problem

There are brand new clothes in the shop, and I am out of money. I was very, very, very tempted to do a paralogue to get the funds, but after a bit of agonizing

I end up selling off a big pile of Vulneraries to buy a dead woman some clothes. In retrospect I probably should have saved some money for healing staff, as I am down to a single heal staff and a bunch of physics, but surely the fashion of dead women is more important than that. Also I wish I could figure out how to sell Master Seals, as they gave me another one last chapter, and I already promoted everyone I am likely going to. 

I also deck out Rosado in this sweet Ebon Gown. I might end up changing this outfit up as I go along.

I do also finally get around to using some of those stat boosters gathering dust in the convoy. Zelkov's repeated refusal to dodge low odds magic encouraged me to give him this Talisman.

This is purely for favoritism.

It made sense to give a bit of extra bulk to my dancer, and this was a nice way of doing so.

These were the two most using their magic stats, so they made sense to snuff that spirit dust. Perhaps I should have given both to Ivy as my only combat mage, but I am fairly certain it impacts Framme's combat as well.

I still have an Energy Drop, and Talisman in reserve, and I will think about how I want to use those. But now, onto the story.

It does seem odd that they are already heading towards the port (instead of the castle), before seeing

The smoke coming from the port

And I appreciate that show the smoke when we get to the port.

I recently rewatched Shaun's classic youtube video on the dropping of the nuclear bombs, and this is making me think a lot about the discussion of "strategic" bombing...

That almost makes it sound like there might be some kind of time limit for this map, but alas there isn't

While here it seems like they were trying to setup side objectives involving green units, or visitable villages or something with this line, but in many ways the mission ahead of us is more straight forward than that. That isn't to say its an easy chapter or anything, but its just a map without any side objectives.

You probably should have thought of that before burning the port down...

There is something really funky going on with the timing here. We will see shortly that Marni and Mauvier arrive late, so who burned the port before this crew got here? Did they just let generic Elusians commit war crimes without any of the Hounds leading them?

Why did she think having Sombron's army with her would make it a good opportunity to talk...

That really is a good question, even for the good Veyle. She really hasn't been paying any attention to them, beyond trying to weed out some corrupted every now and then.

She doesn't have a good grasp on who is in charge here does she. She should be asking Zephia, but I guess she latched onto Griss. Poor girl really knows nothing about Sombron's forces...

Oh the building irony

Calling herself a monster with her own lips.

And now the ones who were supposed to arrive first instead arrive last

And she is finally explicit enough th-

...Sigh I guess she still needs it spelled out to her for all the children in the room.

Dun Dun DUUUUUUUUN

Now Zephia is just lying to us. She knows how Sombron treated his Fell Children in the last war, and they were always too intentionally expendable to carry on any kind of legacy.

What he really wants is an obedient pawn

Its interesting that this power comes from Sombron, and that he didn't simply use this power himself...

That draconic impulses are so barbaric and monstrous is an interesting detail. Is that what degeneration is, Dragons become more draconic?

He wanted her to be little more than an extension of his will...

This is making me think a little bit of the cherubs of homestuck a little...

There is a strangely circular irony to this.

She must see it as a delicious irony as well, but given their true relation, it seems almost fated.

Its just that you were the one misunderstanding things.

I feel like this is one of the most obvious statements to make. The poor girl was so perpetually lonely that just jumped at the faint possibility that they might be her friends.

This breaking of the good Veyle's spirits is exactly what Zephia was hoping for, but this has done nothing to shake the hope she has for her living sibling, which ensures good Veyle isn't willing to give up (like later...)

But Zephia does manage to bring the dark Veyle out.

I hope so to. This is a tough chapter, and it would be tragic to start losing troops here.

...How did she find out now then? Did the game just skip past Zephia giving her a recap? Was there a pair of swapping on the boat trip for the hounds to fill evil Veyle in on things?

What an odd thing to say in general. There is no truest form of a person.

It is really odd that they waited til this pseudo gameplay section to introduce dead Hyacinth here, was he a late addition or something? Could afford him in the cutscens?

I do find it interesting that Veyle is shown being more gifted than Sombron is at creating corrupted. Especially with weaknesses with other Fell powers we will see later, it gives the sense that Fell dragon have a real range of powers they might, or might not have. If only we got to see more of them...No stop making DLC noises I wont buy it.

It is interesting that personality modification comes up again, in such a wildly different context this time. I wonder if she learned it from Zephia...

That really is a cruel vengeance...which I will gladly facilitate for a battle quote.

I bet Griss really likes this sadist side of her.

This really makes this one of the most iconic chapter of Engage here, with us having to face all the old Emblems we got so used to in the beginning.

 

Yeah I accidentally hit the post early hotkey while gettint the images in. Hopefully this edit doesn't break the size limit glitch, and keeps the cutoff from being too jarring, as I will continue on with the gameplay...in a while probably.

 

[Duma blessing on Rigel]

The most insightful view into Duma's blessing is in the encounter with the only Duma statue we see in a shrine. It challenges the player with a trial by battle, and gifts the winner Duma's Lance. The message is clear, strength will be rewarded, and the weak shall perish...

[Who would you consider the smartest and dumbest Lords of all?]

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

Also, unless there's an updated and more accurate translation of Genealogy's script that I'm not aware of, I gotta disagree with the assessment that Deirdre "chafes against" a more motherly role.

Yeah, this might be slightly uncharitable of me, especially if Shannan was already their go to babysitter off screen, and her just leaving Seliph in the kid's care isn't as out of the blue as it comes across.

 

1 hour ago, Sunwoo said:

nor does it suggest that Sigurd tries to force Deirdre off the battlefield after their marriage.

But this is not a place where I am being uncharitable. Dierdre literally has to guilt trip Sigurd into letting her join the army in chapter two, and he insists on conditions for her to join that fight. In chapter 3, he puts his foot down with a guilt trip of his own.

 

45 minutes ago, ping said:

In other words, this is not a Celica thread.

I rather respect the fact that Eirika and Celica haven't really come up in the thread as one of the dumbest yet.

 

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Are we including the stupidity the writers are forcing onto Byleth and Alear for their perpetual refusal to use their nigh-unfettered mastery over space and time to keep people from dying because the writers somehow think the rewind mechanic needs an in-universe explanation?

Which reminds me, people haven't mentioned how silly it is that Ike is just casually keeping the Ragnell in his luggage for a majority of Path of Radiance according to the story, despite how powerful that thing is.

[Difficulty editing my posts on this site]

Ah the glitch which always tends to plague LPs. I don't think I have any definitive answers, as it can be very inconsistent, but I have heard from others that it is related to the size of the post, and in my experience images and embedded videos make it more likely for it to show up. As far as I know it has been around for a while, and it isn't just a phone issue either.

[Easiest and Hardest Fire Emblem games in universe?]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Tracia easily comes off as the hardest due to being a bunch broke rebels fighting off a supremely powerful empire. I guess one could argue Seliph's position wasn't that much easier even if the gameplay doesn't really reflect that. 

I see Seliph's situation as much better than Lief's for almost the same reason Micaiah's situation is better than Lief's. Both Micaiah and Seliph are given very powerful (in universe at least) divine blood powers to offset the situations they are in, whereas Leif is a lot closer to a normal person than those two (although still has some minor holy blood in him).

 

I guess I can answer the main question as well, but I am not adding much by doing so. If it isn't obvious, I am in the Thracia 776 being the hardest in universe Fire Emblem camp, and think FE7 makes the most sense for the easiest in universe Fire Emblem.

 

[Who would you consider the smartest and dumbest Lords of all?]

An odd one to throw out there for dumbest, but Sigurd comes to mind. First off the game opens by emphasizing that the brilliant young tactician Oifey is riding by his side feeding him tactical advise. Second off, Sigurd ignores basic aspects of politics, which by all rights, as heir to the duchy, he really should be paying attention to, and this ignorance leads to disastrous results. Another small thing to mention is how he treats his wife, despite her literally recruitment being her showing her competence on the battle field by saving Sigurd's hide with her clever use of magic. After their marriage he repeatedly tries to force her off the battlefield, and into a more motherly role that she chafes against, and just like with his staggering ignorance of politics, these efforts lead to utterly disastrous results.

Hector is an interesting one to mention for dumbest, as he has an in universe reputation for being a bit of an ignorant lout, but if you actually pay attention to the plot, his reputation is a bit deceptive. We see him understand the political situation he is in, make clever moves, like out maneuvering the more accurately described lout of Erik, and even piece together the lie about his brother's health before the end. His issue is more an example of the disastrous consequences of toxic masculinity, and I see that as something a little different for mere dumbest. 

 

As for smartest, Micaiah definitely earn a mention for having multiple massively unfair advantages over numerous other lords. Not only is she one of the older lords, able to learn much through those years, but she also gets fed some prophetic information, and actually uses that information to make informed strategic, and tactical decisions. While there are "advisors" around her, they are clearly more of a hindrance than a boon, and its Micaiah's intelligence that navigates the impossible situations her nation starts the game in.

Sigh...I hate to mention it, but mister I don't pick fights I can't win Ephraim deserves a mention for being the Gariest Stus of Fire Emblem protagonists even on the intelligence side of things. Sadly this poorly written member of the blandula twins is unable to lose, even when by all logic he should, because of how perfect, and gifted, and handsome, and intelligent he definitely is, the writers promise.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

30 minutes ago, Capt. Fargus said:

IIRC PS2 will play PS1. At least mine will

My PS3 will play PS2, but I once heard not all the PS3s would. Dunno if mine will play PS1 so now you kinda got me curious 

My vague memory on the matter is that only the first generation of PS3 were backwards compatible with PS2 games, but all the PS3 were backwards compatible with PS1 games. Fun little fact, the PSP is also natively able to run PS1 games, you just have to get the game into a file format it can read, no emulator needed.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

Just now, Armagon said:

That's the neat part, i can't. I don't have a PS1 lmao so this is just a collector's item for me.

But it is a sign i should replay the game this coming year. Last i played it was in 2018.

 Eh, Play Station 1s are fairly cheap now a days (and I think PS2, and PS3 are both backwards compatible with PS1 games as well for more options).

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

1 hour ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

My poor Bouchy Boy, I gave him one of my votes (and I was stingy with votes), but he still did so poorly...

 

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

I can now say i own Xenogears physically.

That is rather cool. Have fun playing on that classic play station hardware.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

Happy Holidays everybody

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

6 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

 

Now I'm unable to sleep because I have fucking insomnia apparently and haven't had a stable sleep pattern in like 5 months.

I know that feel all too well...

 

5 hours ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

Thank the Emperor for spiked eggnog.

I love the combination of peppermint schnapps and eggnog, it simply tastes of Christmas cheer, and is dangerously tasty for liquor.

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Look at this woman.

Damn she improved from her green unit appearance in VS1.

 

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

A conversation elsewhere sparked me to try and find a pegasus knight tier list.

I found one, then added the remaining characters.

I've finally put my feelings toward this classline into perspective with a tier list.

I'm actually surprised at how many of these lamers I can stand.

I am surprised Sigrun is in with the rest, as she sucks enough in Radiant Dawn I could imagine you using her.

 

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

 

21 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

omg drunk ironman

Managed to lose exactly one unit on each of the three chapters I did then, and all of them were stupid.

 

21 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Tbf

Merrin is a Top tier unit.

Fun fact, in my last ironman, Merrin died on the chapter I am doing in this very update. It was bad timing with the water rising to cut off the support she needed, and she was 1 damage shy of getting the kill that would have saved her...

 

2 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

>Hex and Freeze Staff enemies that can move

Yikes, that is a spooky feature to see on a map.

 

2 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

>36 Siege tome boss (although one that gets weaker the more we kill mages, since he has magic resonance, ie. +2 Mag for every allied mage)

Huh, the weakening mechanic is a kind of cool detail to the map.

 

3 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

But before we start, have a Gharnef

Ah yes, the invincible Gharnef's brief assault

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

We take out Mr. Hex. Staff.

Great way to start out a map.

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Bad lvlup, but she learn's Rally Def O:

Oooh, Rally Defense is great to get

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Just 2 more turns...

Wow, the Gharnef chase seems a LOT more intense in this game.

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Let's reach the checkpoint and save Marth's home!

Oh boy, a double header.

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

The power of Auras and Rallies!

Now that is how you play Fates.

 

9 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

uhh

Why did they start moving?

That is a scary question to be asking in an ironman...

 

9 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Now to go the left side....Arran should've a Ridersbane, no? That can help me deal with the horsies

...he does not. However, Shelter can save my ass here.

Its a little scary how you tried to rely on information you literally didn't have to save you. Thank goodness Cancer man at least had shelter to save the day.

 

9 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Shelter & AI manipulation by baiting the enemy into a Palla that can't counter attack does save my ass, barely hanging in there in there and reinforcements appear

That sounds rather intense...Shelter really is one of the most powerful skills in Fates.

 

9 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Ofc, i decide to not attack, just wanted to check y'alls FE knowledge. Answe in spoiler Tag below.

Got to be one of the FEH skills. Hopefully just Quick Riposte, but I know there are a lot of dumb armor only skills as well that give arbitrary doubling...

 

10 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

We arrive at the boss.

I guess he has Lucky Seven to make evading early fly skipping him harder?

That is an interesting addition to discourage cheese strats like that.

 

Time to go get the lovely Rosado, and a walking corpse I am going to have to babysit for the chapter.

Spoiler

And I open by testing out the fortune telling

And that is an ominous start. In fact, I try it out with all my active troops, and less than 1/3 of them have the more positive facing on their cards...

One of those with a positive fortune was little Alfred here, and he gets this down right amazing arena levelup.

And I think I will agree with Ivy on this one, that is about the minimum standard on this arena levelup.

Onto fashion news, I get Seadall that excellent scarf and cool sunglasses combo. I was a bit mixed about it at first, but I think the look is growing on me. The sunglasses really bring it together

Meanwhile in the story, we are at a bit of an impasse. The rings are now all split between the light, and the dark, no more adventuring to scrounge up more

And we really aren't in a good position to attack a fortified front.

Plus they have the magical MacGuffin edge to their side

Although letting our foes set the tempo is a terrible position to be in as well.

Too true Alfred. Can't really afford to play offense or defense. The real answer is a more Fabian tactic, shadow our foe to counter their efforts, but don't take the direct battles they offer, and wait for them to make a mistake we can capitalize on.

But alas, it is already out of our hands, as the hounds are really setting the pace with this move.

I do like the shot of these ships here, with their massive Elusian branding on them.

That makes it sound like a big part of the plan is speed, so delaying this lead element with this distraction will hopeful help a little.

Well that is morbid. Also heroes, really Marni ? You know whose side you are on in this.

They portray Marni as so spoiled, and childish...

After the body count comment, this seems remarkably tame for dealing with deserters.

But they have given us a real opportunity to even the scales a little here.

I do also like this little lamp shady explanation.

How did you try to keep them in line anyway? Threats? Lies? Hostages? Blind Loyalty?

The irony of saying this immediately before a map.

Lucky they get enough of a rest that they will be ready for combat in a few minutes.

Yeah, if you had really lost them, you would have a few minutes. At least you got close enough for us to save your bacon. Well for one of you at least.

That is an odd conclusion to come to. An accurate one, but why search party? Are dragons used like bloodhounds in this world of something?

More like on the Divine Dragon's bench. Although it does seem odd that this needs saying. Why did they make their escape with the ring, if they didn't know Hortensia had joined us? I guess it implies that lies were used to encourage their continued cooperation with Sombron's army.

Lol, that is a funny gag.

Seems she really ate Ivy's explanation before up, and is using it as her own now.

Thank Lumera Rosado gets the Eirika ring now instead of our walking corpse, that way we can use it on this chapter

Now this is an obvious ring change up, but it does free up the Lucina ring, so

I end up giving it to Bunet here. Also I plan on mixing up my deployment a little, so I also

Switch around the Ike ring.

As I am leaving Louis, Alfred, and Panette behind this time. I am juggling almost too many units, and at this rate, I wont have room to add Veyle and Mauvier to my team, which is a bit problematic, as I rather could use another mage, and staff bot, which are niche's both of them can easily fit.

Alas, we have this frustrating gimmick to deal with, which will unexpectedly hamper my grounded unit's movements at the worst possible time. Fortunately we get another flier to help out, along with the dead weight on the screen.

Aawww, thanks for noticing Rosado, I put in a bit of effort to pretty up the troops between missions (also leaving Louis behind definitely reduced our toughness).

And we get introduced to Eirika's true damage capabilities...

But I will try to chip this thing enough that I don't have to have Rosado engage to deal with it

Nice work Bunet! With that crit in

I don't even need to use Rosado for this kill

She even crits to avoid the enemy's counter attack

Although that listed 16 crit ahead of us makes me pause before pressing in too much with the fliers. Although I do setup a little bit of enemy phase action in the south

With Fogado getting an effective damage ranged kill.

And with the water lowered for this turn, I decide to use obstruct here to keep the thunder mage knights from interfering in the middle

Fogado pops the other flier that advanced on us

For a fantastic level...In fact I might even give him a Radiant Bow with how that magic of his is coming along.

I then crush the two axes ahead

With Bunet missing this unlikely hit, although it both sets up a chain attack opportunity from Lucina, and is

In position for my early Goddess Dance. To be fair, there is an Engage spot right there ahead of us to refill it.

And another fantastic levelup there too.

That chain attack from Lucina/Bunet was just enough for this kill here

Merrin presses in to destroy this Radiant Bow Knight ahead of us

While Zelkov prepares to show everyone the power of the fog machine. He will solo this bottom section of the map with its power.

Finally, I have Anna engage here for the Laguz Friend's half damage, with the plan of Great Aethering the cavs we can see a little further ahead there in a turn or two.

We have pressed in enough that we will have a fair bit of enemy phase action.

With Merrin killing an enemy thief

With Anna tanking the swordsman, without breaking thanks to terrain

With Zelkov doing Zelkov things

Lol, the Thunder Mage Knight that didn't get distracted by the fog decided to equip his Silver Sword to break the Obstruction.

Well I can start by fogging things up here.

Although these swordies prove to be a real annoyance, and overall I am in a bit of a pickle in the center. I start by getting a little chip here, and set up more chain attacks, but

Sadly TeeHee is one damage shy of the kill here, even with it

I let Timerra grab a kill after a dance

Thankfully with the effective damage of this Engage weapon, Bunet has the power to pop the thunder mage knight that stuck around to be a thorn in my side

I then have Rosade break the enemy chain guard here with damage

But I need Ivy to use her action to heal up Merrin, so she can get

Enough health to survive the enemy phase after killing the other thief.

And she gets a bit of a sad levelup from it

At least I still have enough action to finish this other swordie off, but that wasn't the best of turns all things considered, and it means I have to put off the Aethering for another turn

The funny thing about it, is if I thought it was appropriate to use Goldmary, even just for the chain attack, I would have had far more of a margin for error in that section.

Our foes first attempts to actually use chain attacks to down Zelkov does sour for our foes with another lucky crit.

But there are still enough of them to rack up a little chip on him.

While Merrin dodges one of these, she still gets broken here. But then the water rises, much to my mild frustration

I guess Ivy can kill the one trying to burn down the village.

I have to be a bit careful with Zelkov, as the fog refuses to rest upon the water...and even if it could, it would be canceled by its avoid debuff anyway.

At least this gives the center some time to heal up, with Framme getting this healing levelup

Rosado finishes off the one who punched Merrin

Although the big thing is the rising water prevents me from Great Aethering those horses sitting in the shoal there.

And with that, Zelkov has killed all of his foes

Except the one that out ranged him.

And with nothing to worry about on enemy phase, he can finish that one off on player phase.

We do get the opportunity to refill TeeHee's engage gauge in this little bit of down time

And while she will have to

Take a dragon hit, Anna also refills her gauge. But next turn thing heat up a bit, as the waters fall

And reinforcements appear to press us. TeeHee even gets a pointless crit here, to offset the more useful crits I was getting earlier.

While Framme followers in her deity's suit

With a pointless crit all of her own

That just leaves the one with terrain to deal with,

And while she missed the kill the first time,

she would have to miss two more 80% to-

Lumera fucking Sombron, this girl is doing everything in her power to die on this chapter again, missing three 80s in a row, while failing to dodge both 59 that targeted her...

At least a 20 range Astra Storm can't miss this asshat.

While I instantly regret the thing I have been planning for a while, as that 16 crit is still rather dangerous even with all the Ike buffs up... so to I try an mitigate it

By position Timerra to debuff anyone that attacks Anna's crit by 5, which at least reduces it to a mere 2%, although that does leave her open to a potential attack or two...

Almost forgot, there is also Zelkov fogging up the place.

Honestly, I made a minor error in positioning, as I should have place Timerra one space diagonally up and to the left of where she is.

Anna takes her first hit here, but

The one that breaks Timerra positions himself out of Great Aether range

AAAAAAHHHHAHAHHAAH....huh ...huh...huh...I guess Timerra saved the day in a way I wasn't quite expecting there, as it gets the 2% crit anyway, but drawing just one away was enough to save Anna.

...Well that complicates things. If he could deal even one damage, the poison debuff would start wracking up to make the kill fairly reliable, but with no damage dealt, we might be stuck in a bit of a standoff.

At least the Backup unit couldn't reach yet

...That point of strength there, literally changes everything.

Lets see if we can fix this disaster in the center, as horses are pushing in from both entrances from the west.

But first, let's make sure Zelkov has some dry ground to fog up, in case that annoying water decides to flow in again.

Back in the center, Fogado pops one of those horsies

Thanks to effective damage, TeeHee crushes the tanky one pushing in from the north-west

And Timerra gets a little bit of chip on the crit-er

Ivy slaughter one of the injured ones in the south-west

While Anna finishes off the horse that crit her with a Radiant Bow hit.

This chip is a bit unnecessary, as

Rosado can kill him alone.

We have cleared out the center again, but Zelkov still has his enemy phase action to deal with.

Alas, the chain attacks will be piling up a little again.

And that one point of strength was enough to turn the tides of this battle.

But he is very slowly bleeding health from the chain attacks.

It is a good thing I ran for the shore, as the water is back...again...

Not much interesting the crew trapped in the center can do, but a few fliers, and a big bad dragon are trying to press in despite the water. I do end up using my last turn of Fogado's Lyn engage to lure them in with some doubles.

Come enemy phase, Zelkov kills the backup unit before

The slow whittling down of this big tanky boy continues.

I should have probably been doing this before, as it lets me use his player phase to continue hacking away at this guy.

I must admit, seeing this guy walk onto the visit space, gave me a bit of a heart attack.

But onto player phase, Fogado pops the flier

And after a bit of waffling, I decide to let Seadall take the further out dragon hit, to spare Fogado.

Here that dragon comes, and it fails to even damage Seadall.

While Zelkov's poison has nearly finished this tanky beast.

Meanwhile, I open the dragon fight by getting Anna in position to chain attack, so Merrin can chip, and debuff, which is enough

That Rosado can get another Dragon kill without burning a super.

Alas, the water gave our foes enough time to muster even more reinforcements, so Fogado gets in position to

enemy phase the Radiant Bow Knight.

Meanwhile Zelkov finally finishes that tanky foe, all while healing up on a fort

Back to player phase, Fogado crushes a flier.

And gets another magic levelup.

Seadall also gets a surprisingly violent dancer levelup,

But I am mostly just preparing for the next assault.

I almost forgot to mention, a pair of thie-

Well, I guess one thief now, is attacking his fort.

This is just the enemy phase of crits it seems.

They even dodge the status staff, just to add insult to our foe's injury.

Onto player phase,

I try for this effective damage kill with Anna, and while she misses, a Dual Assist gives her enough chip exp

For a magic, and defensive levelup on the little girl. Although that move did serve a second purpose,

But first Fogado cleans up her miss.

Before Anna gets danced, to get in some longbow chip on this rather difficult to reach flier (thanks to even more water...)

But its enough for Rosado to get the ranged kill.

For a kind of sad levelup all things considered.

In the next corner, Timerra tries for some free ranged chip on this high crit foe, but after a miss

She not only manages to get a really good levelup from it, but

I send Bunet in, both for a second chain attack on the killer swordie, but also to chip this fool with a smash weapon.

But it is just enough for Merrin to go for the kill here

But one of the chain attacks miss, so Ivy has to finish it, instead of the smasher

And that is a terrible levelup on her.

The fort is still enough to make Zelkov invincible, so he continue to chip this next one

And he gets a fantastic leveup from that chip.

The water is keeping that royal knight from coming up the skirt, while the smasher ahead of us

Kills itself before he can smash, thanks to that chip from Bunet.

Good work Zelkov.

That is a little unfortunate, as with that obnoxious water still around, I need him to deal with that royal knight, but I partially planned for this, as I left TeeHee close enough

That Framme could grab a Restore from the convoy to fix it.

So Fogado can longbow it, and with a dan-

Or he can just crit, and get it over with immediately.

We are finally starting to advance on the bosses, with Ivy making a pit stop

To visit the village.

I have Anna grab another Engage Gauge for another Great Aether, and while I almost dance her to do it this turn

I wait one more turn, that way

Zelkov can distract Mauvier on the same turn.

I also let TeeHee Instruct here, as if things go to plan, I will be using the Goddess dance in the next few turn to transition the main army from Marnie to Mauvier

As Anna is about to open thing with a Hammer Aether to her armored face.

With Mauvier indefinitely distracted by the fog.

She is clearly showing she isn't the brains of this operation, because a part of the plan was to get our army to chase their boats to their destination.

And this time she tanks it just fine

Especially considering Hortensia is sitting on our bench.

The power of the fog machine at work.

Much to my frustration, the water comes in again, to make this even more annoying, but I think I can still kill her here, as with Anna's chain attack, Ivy breaks one health bar here.

And Anna can deal a lot with the Radiant Bow

And Bunet can get the tiniest bit of chip (and add another chain attack here)

To let Rosado finish her off.

Which comes with a fun little battle quote, where she admits she is willing to die for no-good traitors could this be foreshadowing?

See you next chapter.

Alas, this is the only other attacks I can get in with this obnoxious water in the way.

Fortunately, there is just enough land for Zelkov to keep the invincible fog machine up

I really hate the water on this map.

Alas, the healer lucks into the break

...Sigh. I guess I better wipe all these healers out.

There goes one of them.

And this is where I very stubbornly insisted that I would not let the Lumera be damned water deny me my Goddess Dance, so there is a little chip here,

Get some overkill here, use my dance to give TeeHee one more Sombron be bless point of movement

So TeeHee can do this barely useful Goddess Dance here.

At least TeeHee gets a strength levelup from it.

And lets Ivy get a little bit of Thunder chip.

With Rosado trying to bait that healer into punching itself to death. Also Zelkov is still fogging up whatever he can

Which lets him safely get more chip and debuffs onto Mauvier.

I think the enemy healers here are extremely dumb, with their aggressive attitude.

But the water is finally gone, and while I mostly advance, I try to bait Mauvier into Flame Lancing Ivy

And instead he breaks one of his health bars on Zelkov.

And I decide to finish things with a pair of supers

With one final battle quote to ends things off with.

The irony of Mauvier saying that.

See you tomorrow. Maybe the day after.

I appreciate the strength levelup.

Yeah he probably earned the MVP on this one.

Did we even let the generics pull the "can't die here" bit.

Although I doubt you can outrun. Although Marnie's leading element must have been a little delayed by this little excursion.

Huh, that is an interesting little detail. I know, its a long one to be bedazzled by some exploration comments.

...Sorry, Lets finish off the last bit of story here.

That should really be a red flag Veyle.

Oh she is also feeding you the lies you really want to hear as well.

Poor Veyle, probably too used to Fell Dragon discrimination already.

Poor Veyle is just eating up all these easy lies.

Just to hurt her feelings? This comes across as so incredibly petty, and childish.

That is a vow she ends up breaking...hopefully.

With Veyle so willing to admit her father's objective is to destroy the world, why would these people still be working with him? Unless you have a way out like Sombron does, you are dooming yourself, and everything you could possibly care about or love.

Poor Veyle. She has so thoroughly taken with their honeyed lies that she lets slip her true objective.

Only child left. For now at least.

This is part of what I find so strange about Veyle's naivete about Sombron. She clearly remembers her family from the old war

Funny how TeeHee was all about being friends with Veyle, both then, and now.

Think of how morbid it is that having a means of knowing someone is simply alive is such a reassurance. It makes me think about how many of their siblings were falling like flies in the last war...

Poor naive child, why would she think Sombron would be dissuaded by words.

I do wonder just how many children Sombron had in preparation for this war. Many of her comments implies its a lot, this one included.

It does make you wonder a little about the logistics of this. How long does it take for the Fell children to reach fighting age? Did Sombron have to time his war with the maturation of his progeny? Was Veyle a late made accident? The timing of this all seems so strange.

I do think this goes a bit of a ways towards justifying now believing TeeHee is Sombron's child. If you watch someone die, wouldn't it make more sense for someone a thousand years latter simply looking similar.

And you could see from their first meeting she had an odd hunch, now knowing one lived, she is already piecing things together.

That does seem like an odd way to describe their plan to out Veyle's multiple personalities. It sounds like they want to discover something, not disclose something.

Dun Dun DUUUUNNNN.

 

 

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

On 12/15/2023 at 5:17 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

AAAAAAAAAA so early.

Yeah, I probably did this one just a tiny bit too early...

 

On 12/15/2023 at 5:17 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

I would've replaced on of the lancers on the bottom right with a healer, while top left feels to weak to deal with what's coming. Also could've waited until Hurricane Axe to sweep the Wyverns🤔

Fair enough, having a healer to launch some funky staves would probably work too. Also I think I got the Hurricane Axe last chapter, I just didn't think to bring it, as a smash magic weapon is especially niche.

 

On 12/15/2023 at 5:17 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Tbh

I like the "stupid" Ai in this case as not knowing when the enemy would use their ult would turn it too much into a guessing game imo

That is fair. I think simply knowing when they can use it is good enough, but knowing when they HAVE to there did kind of save me.

 

On 12/19/2023 at 4:39 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

I set up stuff for first turn and...

MIRACLE PROC, BABY

*Phew*

What a Miscalculation on turn 1.....Ofc a Hero has more Move than an armor what an idiot i am xD

Oh boy, seeing a miracle proc save things is scary in any ironman...

 

On 12/19/2023 at 4:39 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

I miscalculate while blindly attacking and most likely left Gordin to die...

But how? How did the Sniper survive? He shouldn't have had enough HP to survive this after last turn and no healers nearby (and hence me blindly attacking)...

If this were regular Fates, I would say the solution is use one unit to transfer the back unit out of the pairup, so you can have the cavalry Hardin shelter Gordin, to open up room for the kill, but I don't think this game gave all the cavs shelter...

 

On 12/19/2023 at 4:39 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Oh. All Map fortify ofc....

I feel like I could easily overlook this, as I have a bit of a tendency to skip enemy phases unless I am trying to screenshot something from it.

 

On 12/19/2023 at 4:39 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Tip: Don't play FE while sick, you miss stuff like this and your units die.

This feels like an obvious statement, but I did definitely had a drunken new years eve massacre on my first Thracia 776 ironman, and not ironmanning drunk is a similar level of common sense...

 

On 12/19/2023 at 4:39 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

No more five points

Poor Gordin. At least this death is linked to a unit I wasn't using this run, although it will probably hurt the two Pokemon players. To be fair, she did a really good job on my last run, being a real standout unit, I just wanted to try out Alcryst this time... speaking of which

 

 

On 12/19/2023 at 4:39 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Nice, but still not worth Gordin or Seal Def ;_;

That is a really fun addition to the Fates toolbox...

 

On 12/19/2023 at 4:39 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

thanks for the killer bow

And so the death of Marth's father is avenged, and the cycle of violence continues, as now Sheema has lost a father too.

 

Time to go to the club and steal a smoke machine and dancer from chapter 15

Spoiler

But first we have a fashion update, as I get Kagetsu something better from that costly donations from last update.

Alas, this is the only arena levelup we get (Ivy missed her next level by 2 exp...), and it is a mediocre one.

And we get a few new forges in, add to this the Longbow I bought for Anna, and we are rather low on money again.

Time to meet our precious new dancer.

I hope not. I was the goober who lost the dancer last time, and I hope I am not doomed to have that Fate again.

Trying to hide the ring in a haunted castle seems like a terrible idea, considering the popularity of haunted places in our world. It seems like only a matter of time before some teen felt the need to prove their bravery by stealing nick-knacks from the haunted castle, and ends up with a magic ring.

Although having the talking of the Emblem Ring blend with the myths of haunting are a cute touch.

You really should have led with that Timerra.

Although I guess this is a logical reason for your ignorance on the topic.

And that is another cute bit of lampshading.

I guess Corrupted are kind of undead, but haunting usually means more ghosts than zombie equivalents.

It does feel strange to describe two enemies as surrounding you, but it isn't a great position to be in for our greenie.

Oh how naive Corrin is to think that hearing a magical disembodied voice from a magical ring wouldn't draw people in.

Hey, Seadall, Chloe is the one with the fairy tales obsession, not you.

And then you cut her off mid sentence. How rude.

I am deeply disappointed that despite the Fortune Teller feature in this game having a bunch of Emblem based Tarot cards, I can't find this Le Dragon card he speaks of. A sad miss with regard to world building, which could have very easily been a part of the Corrin card for extra irony.

This is kind of an obvious ring change up, if you have been paying attention to my commentary.

After the two sets of perfect sized deployments, being restricted like this again, especially when we are getting only one forced new unit, is rather disappointing, and a bit of a difficult decision overall. In retrospect, I should have found a way to fit Timerra for her personal, but this is what I went with.

Only a tiny bit of fiddling with the starting locations, but the big thing is to have Louis in a position to reposition Zelkov so he can claim some terrain turn one, but first

We get a gentle reminder to save the silly green unit

And it is even a major part of the map objective.

Back to turn one, I get some free player phase chip in, but this is mainly to claim the pillars for enemy phase

As Merrin is the only other unit I am even giving the option for some enemy phasing

The greenie has a fair bit of time, as this is the quality of the enemies that have him "surrounded"

Although one of the foes in this room tries to breaks down a wall to threaten Seadall a little more

And of course the one mytic unit that ignores terrain manages to hit despite the low odds,

And not being able to one round means we have to worry about chain attack damage as well

But one was damaged and dies

And there were never quite enough of them to finish things (perhaps if they attacked in the ideal order, I would have been in more trouble, but instead I am never punished)

But now there are a lot of squishy foes to finish off

And Ivy kills the one uninjured one all on her own.

To get that nice little levelup she just missed from the arena

Half the reason to do this, is to give Louis his canter movement points.

Add to this the healing of Zelkov by Framme, and we have cleared out the opening area

Eh, might as well.

We are pressing in, but we need another turn to get to Seadall

And after another turn of paper cuts, he decides to heal himself on green phase.

And finishing those sad sacks off is very free from range, letting me

Recruit our dancer

They were almost too on the nose with the mysterious Le Dragon card...

You would think the history of the Emblems would be the story that comes to mind, although who knows, maybe ring based curses are more common than I think.

If didn't cut her off before, you might have known already.

Although I do like the flippantness of this line.

Welcome to the team, Zelkov's personal fog machine ring.

Huh, given how awful all the paths she takes in Fates are, that seems an odd thing to say. Is this trying to confirm her as a Revelation Corrin, where she theoretically got the "best" ending.

Yeah, I shouldn't have delayed in getting you.

Is that really how Emblems are remembered? I guess they are on his tarot cards...

Alas, the ring is stuck to Seadall for this map, which is particularly irritating as the terrain changing is kind of critical on this map, and a dancer's action is always in demand.

But as soon as we recruit him, the escape location changes...

Although it is a little dumb that those doors are unmovable, when the next objective is to open some other doors.

I appreciate that they emphasize that the miasma is something the corrupted brought with them, as it makes it feel like slightly less of an ass-pull when it returns later

That +/- 20 defenses is ridiculous, so I do have him clear it away with Seadall's first turn.

A bit of a boring ending to the turn.

Next turn I open with some ranged chip

And then dance her to safety, before preparing an enemy phase from this miasma-less terrain I created

So that Framme could use her high resistance to draw in the massive number of mages ahead

Although she does have to finish off the one Ivy chipped first (which also removes the risk of chain attacks)

Also, Framme is getting more of those monster combat levelups.

But she tanks the magic enemies perfectly.

So she can kill one on her own come player phase.

And make the space for Fogado to use TeeHee's buff for the kill here.

So Panette can slaughter the axe that couldn't reach Framme

And she gets a pointless crit just to show off.

Frustratingly one did manage to get into the blasted miasma, so I have TeeHee shuffle around to give Merrin some extra damage

Thus Alfred can finish the damnable thing off. He even pointlessly crits as well, but I missed the shot of it.

I even have the actions left to break the next door

And get some of my units close to the next set of foes.

Next turn, Zelkov is getting ready to draw in the next set of foes.

Zelkov continues his streak of failing to dodge mages

But at least he has enough avoid that the axe can't hit him.

TeeHee's buff means Fogado doesn't have to rely on the chain attack on the uninjured one

While I feed the other kill to Alfred

Clearing out this bit of miasma was rather pointless, but I did it anyway.

As it mostly just keeps me from pressing in too much this turn.

Next turn I draw in the two with Elsurge

As TeeHee has the crit avoid to keep one from being dangerous

While Framme has the resistance to make the other one from being dangerous. Also both can kill the mages on their own.

That just leaves the swordsman for player phase, with Merrin wiping out the one all in the open

But the other is taking full advantage of the avoid from that pillar he is occupying. At least Louis can use this to canter.

I then have Zelkov open the doors to the south, but that does

Setup the chain attack access Lucina is giving him, while Panette can setup another while missing her main hit

She even gets a nice little levelup from the chain attack chip.

Funnily enough, its only the main Longbow attack that hits, with both the more likely chain attacks missing

Which gets Fogado a bit more speed.

Thank Lumera TeeHee is so accurate.

I even have them canter south to draw in some of the axemen we just opened up, after getting the kill.

They are even polite enough to mere cripple it.

I let Panette break open the next door to open the player phase off with.

TeeHee again is polite enough to merely cripple this one, and even with a dual assist, it lives.

That lets me feed the kills to two sweet little princes

While Ivy is drawing in the next set of enemies.

And she sadly draws one into the miasma, which also

adds a chain attack to the others trying to attack her

But she does kill both of them rather effectively

But we are on a bit of a timer now

As a pair of these rather dangerous foes are now advancing from our rear.

But I start the turn by having Alfred grab some loot, while him, and his horse, are in the area.

Although combatwise, I open by using my Dancer to clear out the Miasma I would otherwise have to deal with, using Corrin's super.

Which makes that nuisance from enemy phase easy to deal with.

I have Fogado out range one mage for a kill

Louis gets some chip in to trigger canter

And means I don't have to risk a 1% crit death.

Merrin than finishes the only poor sap that didn't soak the Corrin special with miasma.

And while rather injured, Ivy finishes the last of them.

Things are going rather well so far.

Framme opens next turn with this nice enough little healing levelup

And the freshly healed Ivy thunder dawn the last door

But I end the turn entirely out of enemy range.

And after clearing some miasma on the opening on next turn, I make a bit of a mistake by breaking out this bit of ice

To try and sneak some enemy action in with Louis

And while the boss chip is kind of nice, the enemy takes a page from my book

And breaks some ice to let this hammer bro try for the crit kill here. If I had Timerra with her crt debuffing personal, this might have been entirely safe. In the end I am entirely unpunished by this little mistake.

And I open the turn by killing him for the brief crit scare.

Merrin wipes out another all on her own. She is really turning out well this run...

Ivy then wipes out another

Before Seadall dancer her in a way to setup my big Goddess Dance for the chapter

And while I could try for the counterless kill here, using the high crit avoid weapon makes it certain she can't be crit killed here, in exchange for more certain damage on her.

And with that Goddess Dance in place, this chapter is basically over.

I really appreciate the strength on that levelup.

I even canter TeeHee to give Panette a bit of extra damage here

But it was a bit unnecessary as Fogado gets the kill.

Zelkov then finishes off another one

Those really aren't the stats you need man.

Merrin than kills off the last enemy in the area

What a killing machine.

We are getting rather close to the end here, but I end up using one more turn to grab the loot

And Seadall gets his first dancing levelup

While grabbing this talisman

And this could be the last turn. I considered taking a bit of time to ambush the high states foes that are acting as our timer, but

I decide to play it safe instead...although I wonder what Seadall means by our paths diverging, as the two of them permanently join us here.

 I don't even think Fogado was in the running for who I would give MVP to this chapter.

Entrance? Did we circle around to see them?

I guess she is in the habit of hunting corrupted in her off time.

Now I feel a little bad that I didn't go through the effort of at least trying to wipe out every last one of them.

Alas, TeeHee hasn't figured out about Dr JekVeyle, and Mr HyVeyle, and has assumed a very Solmic paranoia about her appearance here.

You would think TeeHee the amnesiac would relate to her holey memory, but they are just too wary to try and empathize with her.

Although I guess even Veyle herself hasn't figured it out, despite a fair bit of evidence that these people have interacted with her in the empty space of her memories.

They are laying the blame of a lot of parental death on her, even though she is more tangentially related to both of these Sombron meals, and preparing for a far bit of vengeance against her for it as well.

And you are kind of looking at them...sorta.

It is interesting how willing she is to entertain the notion, but I guess when you have holes in your mind, that seems a bit more reasonable.

That one is definitely on Veyle though... then again there was that whole thing about Lumera running out of power being her cause of death, which was mostly self inflicted.

Oof, with how lonely she is, that is going to hurt her, like threatening to hurt a parent does TeeHee.

I do appreciate this brief bit of lampshading here, as it was kind of needed, and is rather believable given their previous interaction.

She is so close to figuring it out.

But then Griss finds her before she can piece it all together.

And while he knows (and let's be honest, almost let slip the truth of Dr JekVeyle, and Mr. HyVeyle)

Poor girl was so ready to be a family with her monster of a father. She really doesn't remember what he was like in the old war. Was she really that young back then?

Did she really have orders to kill TeeHee when she met them? Or perhaps she meant Lumera with that comment. Either way, it makes her friendship with TeeHee all the funnier.

So many people pretend not to be evil, but when met with the same situation, embrace the evil people believe in them...

It is a funny situation isn't it. Too bad this masochist will try to take the joke too far by outing her evil side to everyone.

But first he wants to tell her a gentle lie

That she is so desperate to believe.

And while this would normally be a good point, with the numerous, massive holes in this girl's memeory, where she can fall asleep in one nation, and wake up in another, this is not a safe assumption to make.

Its odd that her story is so convoluted, that the basic thing that ruins most contrived plot drama, is going to cause some.

You definitely didn't, he just fed you cruelly honeyed lies.

It does seem completely random that they go after Firene again. They should have just dropped a line somewhere about them wanting to feed Eve to Sombron to explain it or something...

Because this is a very literal lie, we chase them into Firenen, not the other way around.

But at least his cruel plan to out her evil side to both her, and TeeHee will blow up in all the hound's faces.

Next I get Rosado, and a corpse, and hopefully I can keep the best of boys alive on this run.

 

[What is your unpopular video game opinion?]

On 12/9/2023 at 2:48 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I think it's that, by its very nature, a review system that churns out a "mean score" favors giving an extreme value. The more extreme a user's review is, the more impact it has on the mean score: ergo, the more powerful and influential it is. I don't really have a "fix" to this, admittedly, even though I try to moderate my reviews, as a matter of personal honor.

You kind of solved the problem by describing it, just don't base it on the mean, use a measure of the center that mitigates extrema. Median is a classic way, but some weighting of the average would probably work too.

 

13 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

 

It also doesn't help that, in their absence, there's now this growing perception that only the 3D Zelda games should be considered mainline games. Ever since Tears of the Kingdom, I've been in a lot of conversations with fans where I've brought up a 2D game like Spirit Tracks, only for someone to reply with, "We're talking about the mainline games", and, when the 2D games aren't being dismissed as spinoffs, they're just outright being forgotten.

To be fair, the DS ones were a bit of odd ducks in general, thanks to the weird touch controls, not simply because they were 2D.

 

1 hour ago, lenticular said:

Personally, I'd like to see more names on covers, not fewer. I like to watch movies made by people who made other movies that I liked and read books written by people who wrote other books that I liked. But for some reason (spoiler: the reason is money) video game companies want to make it hard for me to know which people made the games I play so it's harder to follow individuals.

As a point of comparison: if I look at my blu-ray of Interstellar, there are five names on the front of the box and an additional fourteen names on the back of the box. Meanwhile, if I look at my copy of Super Mario Odyssey, there are zero names on the front and an additional zero names on the back. Because the powers that be at Nintendo want us to imagine that games are just protruded out of the magical Nintendo factories without any actual people being involved.

(I've no opinion about Kojima specifically, though. I've never played any of his games. They just don't seem like my sort of thing.)

Now that is a good take. Lets see more names on games and get a better gauge on who is making them.

[Custom Avatar Names]

I would be happy with that, but it would be a clear move away from the idea of the Avatar that has been dominant, and popular in FE since New Mystery, which I doubt IS would do. As someone who usually plays without audio, the voice acting isn't a big deal for me, but I do think moving away from an avatar would have other benefits, like moving away from our army having to be all local singles in the avatars area, less avatar worship, not to mention the way customization options clash with cutscenes, etc.

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

All right. My dad will be fine. They've done that test on him and he's clean. The cancer was pushing the limit before his prostate was removed, so he'll need to be watched carefully, but for the nonce it appears he's home free.

...Then there were complications with the test that aren't worth getting into, because the poor man has no luck. But even that wasn't enough to sully his good mood at the happy news.

Glad to hear he is doing well.

 

17 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

AHAHAHAHAHA

The funnymen are out in full force today huh. I won't complain.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's got to be the funniest level up I've seen in my life.

You're too much, Barzelphen.

Oh my, multiple mobility levelups, sounds like you will have an interesting run of VS2 on your hands.

 

[Serenes Forest's Teehee Thread]

6 hours ago, GuardianSing said:

Well now I have to play Genealogy just to figure out what this is about.

Lol, the FE4 Thread was the old chat thread, before the Tee Hee thread basically supplanted it, and with tags like that, I am guessing it was a lot like this place is back in its heyday. I legitimately don't know how Tee Hee transitioned from a more normal forum game into the chat thread it is today...

But it is going to be fun seeing you stumble through all the oddities and quirks of FE4, together with its far more political story.

[Who are Eibel, Willow and Nehring?]

19 hours ago, Jotari said:

So in light of the fact that we close insight to Archanea in the previous game and we know the countries upper echelon was purged, who are Eibel, Willow and Nehring, where did they come from and where were they in the previous game? Why are they so fiercely loyal to Hardin even more so than the Wolf Guard in Nehring's case?

Taking the two things I bolded into account, I feel the most likely answer is that they were people Hardin elevated to the upper echelons to both fill out holes in the decimated  nobility, and ensure he would have loyal sycophants in the positions of power he felt the need to most control.