Eltosian Kadath
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Posts posted by Eltosian Kadath
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3 hours ago, Jotari said:
Gilbert I guess is a bit more complex a romantic lead (ie tonnes of baggage), but for Alois...he very clearly has a family. We're people seriously expecting a romantic ending to that where he becomes an adulterer and Corrin proverbially breaking up a happy family??? I mean...I wouldn't be entirely against Fire Emblem doing something like that purely for the sake of variety, bit I don't think it's something anyone should seriously expect any deeper than a C support.
People came into this game knowing there was going to be a time skip riddled with war, and that there would be more than the single gay character the last few games had. Is it really that unreasonable to think something might happen to Alois's family during the time skip, or on going war, with the loving Byleth there to console the man? There were so few gay ending for Byleth, and the gay male ending are unique in that unlike all other pairing types a vast majority of them were not romantic ending (before the DLC at least, which I know little about because I don't buy DLCs). Perhaps if it were not such an outlier, it would not have been so unexpected.
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1 minute ago, Sidereal Wraith said:
Should have known with all the Shoggoth talk.
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1 minute ago, Sidereal Wraith said:
Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!
Th Whisper in Darkness? I could be wrong about that, it just makes me think of Mi-Go noises
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17 minutes ago, Armagon said:
Bespoke: Ike is asexual
It really is the best take. Add the twist of him being homoromantic, and you can ship him with Soren just fine
5 minutes ago, Sidereal Wraith said:Ygnailh . . . ygnaiih . . . thflth- kh’ngha . . . Yog-Sothoth . . .Y’bthnk . . . h’ehye — n’grkdl’lh....eh-y-ya-ya-yahaah — e’yayayaaaa . . . ngh’aaaaa . . . ngh’aaa ... h’yuh ... h’yuh ... HELP! HELP!... ff— ff — ff — FATHER! FATHER! YOG-SOTHOTH!
Really on a Lovecraft binge with this comment. Rereading the Dunwhich Horror or something?
1 minute ago, Sidereal Wraith said:Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!!!
Or just the Call of Cthulhu I guess.
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7 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:
And Three Houses being pretty casual with it's lesbian representation (At least for Dorothea and Edelgard) but would rather die than have two men kiss.
Fair enough, I almost added a disclaimer about Three Houses, but felt too lazy...and remember how much the game cucked us with its gay men options.
5 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:You have the two token gay characters in Fates, one of which can only be obtained by getting a child soldier of yours married.
One in Conquest, and one in Birthright...Also I love that no one has noted Echoe's Leon, who has the misfortune of not having a player avatar to date, and must instead pine after a straight man.
10 minutes ago, GuardianSing said:So does this imply that the other countries aren't oligarchies ruled by the rich aristocrats?
Mostly monarchies, as opposed to a "Republic" where the rich merchant Oligarchs vote on which of them should rule as Dolge
8 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Jesus Christ Steam takes some seriously crusty screenshots for this game.
Damn, really going after some tragic and unusual events on this run.
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2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:Spoiler
And yet we watch Rajaion's return to sanity, and near immediate death, with no real time in between to do the deed. Additionally, there is no indication even three years after his death, of her being pregnant in Radiant Dawn. Are we supposed to assume years are equivalents to weeks in the gestation time of a dragon or something?
The only thing that implies Ena got pregnant at that time is that we don't have fertility magic in our world, and assume Tellius must work similar to our own in that regard. How Ena got pregnant is left up to the imagination, and most are too lazy to think beyond their expectations.
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On 12/5/2023 at 6:38 PM, GuardianSing said:
He's gay, ma'am
I make my jokes but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if some of the writers and artists of this game were experienced in "yaoi" related media. The influence there feels prominent and I swear it's not just me.
Ah yes Ike's most popular potential husband. Tellius is surprisingly queer, but coy about it at times, with Ike noticeably having paired ending only with men, and with Kyza not being localize properly...
On 12/5/2023 at 6:38 PM, GuardianSing said:Both Telius games are gayer than the games that actually allow gay relationships and I stand by that.So many of them feel so begrudging with their singular gay character.
On 12/5/2023 at 6:38 PM, GuardianSing said:Wait, brother?! I knew about Almedha but who is the-
Ohhhhh...
Oh it all makes sense now
Its so easy to forget about the last minute twist about Rajaion.
On 12/5/2023 at 6:38 PM, GuardianSing said:Enough order and stability makes it easy to forget the troubles of the world. As long as the average person is comfortable with their position they might be terrified of any kind of chaos, even if it means letting those less fortunate suffer under a mountain of apathy.
...At least that's my interpretation of this scene.
I like that interpretation of things, it feels true.
On 12/5/2023 at 6:38 PM, GuardianSing said:
Okay I didn't plan this out properly because only four of these units can reliably fight.
Oops...eh Tibarn is probably strong enough to solo most maps anyway, as long as you are careful about crossbows.
On 12/5/2023 at 6:38 PM, GuardianSing said:
*three
Lol, I am not surprised you missed that she got that added to her skill list quietly between parts. At least you can remove it if you want to, and unless you plane on powerleveling some particularly useless unit, you really do want to remove it.
On 12/6/2023 at 4:07 AM, Saint Rubenio said:I think I'll replay Vestaria soon. It's been long enough and I could use a bit of cozy familiarity as I wait for this absolutely terrible year to finally end. And it gives me an excuse to replay VS2 afterwards!
Ooh, have fun...that reminds me, I don't think I ever got around to finishing that old screenshot LP of a Vestaria 1 ironman. I forget what distract from it...perhaps I will get back to it after this round of TeeHee linked ironman.
21 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:This is missing the other half of the point being made, though - The deaths have zero impact on the characters. They might mourn for like five minutes before being interrupted, but afterwards they're seldom ever mentioned again, their deaths have no impact on the characters and you don't feel the character's presence after their death.
I think the side lords of FE7 in Hector mode are an interesting exception to this. Both have parents that died before the game, and yet they have a bit of a talk about the scars those deaths left on them on the ship, with Lyn admitting that her hatred of Fargus's charming band of pirates stems from her parents (and much of her tribe) having been murdered by bandits, and seeing pirates as basically the same kind of beast. Meanwhile Hector talks about how he felt like he couldn't let other see him grieve, couldn't let other see that weakness in him, even at the funeral, and how torn up he was inside that his efforts worked so well that he couldn't cry even in private, even when he wanted to with all his heart.
17 hours ago, ping said:Although I think "Priam is fucking dumb, so I don't even consider his existence" is still my favourite way to go about it. Canon is a bourgeois concept, etc.pp.
To be fair, all the Spot Pass chapters are very, very stupid from a canon perspective, and unless you consider them non-canon they make everything worse.
15 hours ago, GuardianSing said:Personally I think it's just a lack of imagination because in a world with blood pacts I have no trouble believing that Ike and Soren could have a beautiful love child together.
Lol, I like this magical Mpreg alternative. Let Soren's magic fill Ike with their loving child
14 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:No that can't be, that's not biological. Biology is very important in my escapist fantasy, you see. Fucking cowards shoulda done it
SpoilerJust point out the definitely magic induced canon inclusion of Ena getting impregnated by a long dead Rajaion in her ending.
11 hours ago, GuardianSing said:
Pffft!
I genuinely laughed out loud. I was beyond the point of taking him seriously in the previous game and now it's almost like he's not even of this world or story.
Darth Vader's inclusion in Tellius was a funny decision, but I think he works in Path of Radiance at least. His inclusion in Radiant Dawn feels very odd throughout though.
1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:Okay, so chapter 3 has bugged out. I can get Zayid's prf, but I can't get Sheela's. So Sheela is doomed to uselessness. Until VS2, of course.
...Really not helping your case against your successor here, VS1...
Getting Sheela's personal is difficult in general, due to you being unable to trade the statue...
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4 hours ago, Jotari said:
Does S have any inherent connection to romance though? Like, the S doesn't stand for Snuggling or something I'm pretty sure. It's just the standard rank denoting something higher than A(for some reason, who came up with that?*). They very well could have went with A+ in Awakening and that's what we could call marriage supports nowadays. I guess, one can say Fates established A+ as a "platonic non marriage marriage support", only, A+ supports don't actually have conversations attached to them in Fates, so separating romantic and platonic supports into S and A+ could mistakenly give veteran players the indication that those supports don't have conversations. If they're to be split (which honestly I don't see much need to do, especially in a game without children where it effects nothing mechanically), it should probably be something like R for Romance and F for friend, though F rank sounds kind of bad, so maybe IDK, P for Pal.
*Huh...Japanese schools. That...was not what I was expecting. I work in a Japanese elementary school and there is no rank. In fact it's a bit weird for Japan to even be using Roman characters for grading at all, though I suppose circle double circle and triangle looks a bit juvenile outside of elementary school despite geometry being the one universal set of symbols all humanity (and all intelligent life if it's out there) share.
I think you have solved it with your side note about grading, we should use symbols for the final support: ❤️ for romantic, ♦️ for platonic...
Although using those symbols makes me think back to Homestuck and the quadrants of the trolls, and while♣️ would be a bit complicated to adapt, and would probably be better used to represent a different final relationship type, using ♠️ to represent a consuming lifelong rivalry would an interesting addition for a possible final relationship position for supports.
Edit: In a sense Engage was already transitioning towards symbols for final support with it being labeled💍 instead of S, they just didn't differentiate things beyond that.
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On 12/4/2023 at 5:33 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
It's a different hack actually that just replaces the art
Ah, that makes sense.
On 12/4/2023 at 5:33 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:And tbh, even if it was old Devil Axe, Maria's LCK is sky high
That would just make it funnier when it does finally backfired on her.
On 12/4/2023 at 7:35 AM, Punished Dayni said:Okay, so lunge on the armour. I assume there's reason to give it to an armour that I'm too tired to catch on to.
Two benefit come to mind, first if you need to lunge to break up deadly attack stance formations, an armoured knight can better survive the maneuver, secondly if you are lunging through a wall, or some other terrain that might isolate them from the rest of the army, the tankiness could help them survive.
On 12/4/2023 at 7:35 AM, Punished Dayni said:Ah well, I didn't know it was a thing at the time either.
I only heard about it recently from the Johnstone video about getting all the Black and White 2 medals, and I looked into it a little more.
On 12/4/2023 at 7:35 AM, Punished Dayni said:(They also have 30's in their IVs, would have been worth it for that)
Plus I think they get the double exp for having N's trainer number
On 12/4/2023 at 7:35 AM, Punished Dayni said:....Apparently the monkey has typed hard enough that we get a viable Bunet?
Hard to say yet, but the guy has been lucky.
Time for the chapter where I had my first death on my first ironman of this game. Lets see if I can do better this time...
SpoilerBut first, its time to blow all that cash from the paralogue
By blinging up our troops
I even upgrade TeeHee's divine robes.
I do like the jacket on him, but I might end up changing up the facial accessory, as that ridiculous hair of his is a bit distracting with the glasses.
...Eh, I am not fully satisfied in this outfit choice. Kagetsu is just so hard to dress.
Just added the glasses for now...
And while I haven't been covering supports
For added context, this was said after tasting a Firenese flower...
Bunet seems to be showing some...interest...in Alfred via innuendo.
Lol, Louis gets some speed from the Arena.
And Bunet gets his first levelup, which I am going to call OK
Now onto the map, where we start by meeting
And she has those shining eyes just like her children.
And they are still laying on the lies.
...
Good work calling that sassy lad out before I had to.
Our little UN army is growing by the day.
Solm really is showing up the other nations with this casual solo success
And now she is just rubbing it in.
They lost track of the magic ring...
This has all the vibes of Tom Bombadil tossing the one ring aside.
That is a bit more respectful place for it to be at least.
With the willful heir that is chasing the wind.
...Fair enough, I guess this is just how things are done in Solm.
I seem to remember @Saint Rubenio suggesting we should be able to recruit her
And this just feels like such a missed opportunity. Thanks for ruining things for us all Fogado
...Is she thirsting for Ike?
On to better news, its time to meet the character with the best design in the game
With those entrancing star filled eyes.
I do appreciate the onomatopoeia joke there
It is very weird that they are bandits
When this is a map full of corrupted. There really should have been a reveal like in Awakening, where them being bandits is a bit of a ruse...
Meanwhile Fogado is being a classic brother and lightly bullying his sister, and her friends.
And Timerra makes a good impression by being the first of these Solmic royals not to lie to our face
...I guess all the Solmic ladies are thirsting after Ike. Now we just need Fogado to do so and round out the squad.
Alright, onto the map
And I start with a ring change up, now that I have the deployment slots for Zelkov.
Honestly, its still fairly tight on deployment slots, but I am satisfied with my decisions here.
I do end up promoting Ivy instead of Alfred, simply because she is likely to hit her level cap if I don't.
It is kind of mean to not show the new crews real deployment location. I did mess with my starting placement, and while I am not confident in how it ended up, we might as well get started on this dangerous Fog of War map.
These guys just keep the bird jokes coming.
Honestly, I like the whole trio, so they will probably be a more permanent part of the team...although it is a little ominous to think that two of them died in my last ironman runs. Actually, I am particularly glad to finally have Timerra, as her personal's ability to debuff enemy crit rates is something I have been wishing for on multiple previous maps.
I open by having Princess Mononoke over here perfect damage kill a flier
While Pannette sets up the kill for her stary eyed princess
And in what proves to be a theme of this map, she gets a pointless crit on the kill.
There are also all these breakable terrain on the map...I wont waste too much time mentioning my breaking of these, unless it is particularly relevant.
Ivy's flight lets her sneak this thunder chip in for free from the sea, but no one is close enough to pick up the kill
But TeeHee manages to one shot one we found hiding in the fog to finish off the turn.
With another pointless critical...
And we get to witness the burning of a village. Sadly I do not have the insane amount of resources need to save it.
The enemy are also prioritizing the dowsing of torches, to further limit our sight.
Panette also takes a heavy hit, with no chance to retaliate thanks to the break.
And Zelkov punishes his hubris
I should have seen the chain attack miss coming, but at least Louis can finish things.
Ivy also makes the sea run red with flier blood while she is still out there.
Framme also gets this nice little levelup lighting things up
And discovers a kind of scary looking Sniper, whom Framme really is one of my best ways of dealing with it,
So I delay in breaking through the that layer rubble. Also, I let Louis lure in the next flier, and he chips it enough
For Zelkov to get an easy kill while claiming some terrain for the avoid buff on the next enemy phase...
and while I missed a good image of it, Zelkov gets another pointless crit on the kill..
I feel really dumb about this, but I missed that there were two different breakable bits of terrain here, and while I could have chipped both last turn, I only chipped the wrong one...sigh, this is probably a mistake, but I am waiting another turn before breaking through here.
So there is just not much action this turn, but I am leaving Zelkov back to distract the flier coming in across the sea, and
I did a bit of a blind lure of this little bastard.
This Longbow sniper is the enemy I feel is most responsible for Panette's death in my last ironman. I was a bit more blaze about breaking terrain, and late into the turn had Ivy Illume staff to reveal this thing with its promoted move, and long bow range has been hiding close enough to slaughter its choice of which of flier to kill with that thing, and poor Panette was the only one that could do anything about it...and doing so led to her be eviscerated by some wolves in the fog.
I hope I lured this monster far enough away for this to be safe...
With Merrin claiming the kill on this monster...but delaying the assault in the west has made this more dangerous, so it is time
To call in the doubles to distract the enemies here.
I have waited to long with this group, as if they had not been holding back, they could have reduced the pressure my forces in the middle are facing
Framme one rounds the sniper, and with a miss would at least break him so Anna could pick up the spare...but
Alfred is one damage shy of the kill here, and I think I just have to suffer through the consequences of th-
ONE OF THE CRITS ACTUALLY MATTERED.
This was me just being unreasonably cautious, as this is just in case the flier can sack villages, and while I am fairly certain they can't, I don't think the fliers can actually threaten Louis either.
My army is rather spread out, but I think we are in a fairly good position
And the doubles are just embarrassing the corrupted with a dodge here
And another dodge here, that leaves the poor fellow at 1 HP
But the one that would have literally died on a miss did get its kill.
Meanwhile the one I left behind to trivialize the fliers do their job.
Onto player phase, Ivy grabs a kill past a wall.
Merrin is the most likely to get the kill on this terrain grabbing mage, and she gets her kill, which lets
Panette grabs the one shot on the one that actually hit
Next I have TeeHee get the kill on this high damage foe, but I miss counted their canter range, so they will face a hit from that wolf you can see there in the corner
...and its another pointless crit on the kill.
Finally Timerra finishes off the one healthe one, and the remaining doubles should distract that flier.
Speaking of fliers, Zelkov
Sets up the kill for Louis here nicely.
The wolf hit isn't all that bad when you outspeed them
But another of the doubles dies to that flier.
Lol, I guess those speed levels are making Louis a dodge tank too 😛
I open player phase by using Astra storm on the last turn I can on the ranged wolf
So Merrin can kill without facing a counter.
Alas, I don't think I can kill the rest down here, but Great Aether should be able to hold them off
Once I deal with this flier behind my lines
And use the obstruct staff to keep them from ignoring Timerra.
And now things are looking fairly good on this front.
While Zelkov and Louis repeat their performance from last turn
Only this time Louis gets a very Louis levelup for the effort.
Timerra's Great Aether is holding strong, and she lives the phase
Even if the enemy wolf gets a crit...
Or two. I kind of deserved that after all the crits earlier, and at least these ones were just as useless as the ones I got.
RIP double crit wolf.
But some of those flier are sneaking in closer to my main force, so Panette has to double back to clear one
While Alfred finishes the other enemy Timerra's Aether chipped. That clears this area out a bit, so we need to advance for more enemies
So this purely enemy phase move seems like the perfect time to use this Energy Drop I have been saving just for Merrin from TeeHee's convoy.
Things are going well, and we might make it out of this without deaths.
And that is a lovely enemy phase kill for the furry.
And leads to a vicious levelup on her too.
Next I have no action on the next player phase, and forgot to take an image of what things look like before next enemy phase. I hate how they removed the option to turn off smart end.
And Merrin has a worse enemy phase this time around, but after some healing
She can grab a kill a little further ahead
While Timerra picks up the wolf's leftovers.
I also make sure to grab that last bit of loot in the corner with the little loot goblin.
Framme gets another illume staff levelup, and it is very underwhelming.
And while my vanguard have cleared a path ahead, and after a boring enemy phase
I realize I might have moved my reargaurd a bit prematurely, as they have to double back again to deal with more fli-
How did you miss one of those 96s Panette. Oh well, Zelkov couldn't have gotten the kill on the other one alone
As Louis needs to setup the enemy phase kill on this foolish smasher
While cantering back to a position to better help with the fliers next turn.
Merrin opens the vanguard assault with some heavy chip
Which reveals another enemy in the fog for TeeHee to one round
And canter to cutoff the enemy flier.
This is just to squeeze a little of extra exp
As Timerra can finish this guy all on her own.
Really? Strength Ivy? These Illume staff levelups have just run out of steam on this map.
The enemy flier prove rather ineffective at the start of enemy phase
While the delayed attack of the smash weapon made the kill free for Louis
But the last gets a free heavy hit on Panette with the break.
At least her chain attack lets Louis get the kill in vengeance.
Zelkov can then finish the other flier in the rear.
On the other front, we are cleaning up the last fliers with Bunet setting up the kill
For that sweet Firenes Royalty
...Sigh.
We are getting close to the end here
But the bosses moving before I baited them is going to make the ending here a bit spicy.
But we can open by finishing that lone goober in the middle of the ma-
Losing sight on the bosses is a little uncomfortable, but I need to pull back
And want to pick up those Engage powers on TeeHee and Timerra for safety, and fittingly enough Ivy can use the last illume staff use I have
To get sight on the bosses, and setup some enemy phase action
As my little army, and their meddlesome dog
Get some very free chip to start things off with
So TeeHee can use those Lyn ring powers to get a free kill on the first health bar.
For a very defensive levelup.
And the break last long enough for Ivy to really cripple the ranged boss
But before I finish it off, I want to know if the one with only a brave weapon will be frozen for the turn
And it does, so I don't have to plan around tanking that beast, and just get this kill with Bunet
And Merrin can secure the tome drop from their generic follower.
...Shrug, might as well get this free damage in.
This silly little bandit thinks he is a lord.
We should be able to finish this safely next turn.
And I open that turn with some Merrin chip and debuffing
And Bunet intentionally breaks
So Framme can safely chip
So Timerra can kill the first health bar.
Now Ivy could have gone for the kill right here
But I wanted Alfred to get the kill...
And the chain attack misses, so I let Zelkov get it instead.
For a fantastic levelup on him.
I wont disagree with this assessment, she hit a lot of great perfect kills, and some very useful chip/debuff as well.
You really took the wind out of our sails with that reveal Timerra.
And she is really throwing her lying kin under the bus as well
As it is time for them to come clean...but this reveal was kind of obvious given what Timerra said before the map.
Such unwarranted paranoia from Solm, especially when our foes have all the subtlety of cartoon villains
The Queendom of "Freedom" sounds like a bit of a surveillance state...
They are rather trapped between a rock and hard place without some divine dragon help. I am almost surprised they didn't go after us, instead of waiting for us to come to them.
But I guess they were tied down in their defense plan, which seemed to have worked, with Seforia effectively holding the capital
And Fogado holding the border, screening any attack on the capital
Solm really anticipated a level of deceit that is simply beyond those goobers.
But I still respect the caution of having Timerra hiding away the rings to cover the defeat of the other royals
That would be the more modern power of friendship way of doing thing in Fire Emblem, but guess Solm took the classic trust nobody part to heart.
With how ineffective the rest of the country have proven in this conflict, that was probably a wise move.
I guess this individuality approach to things does kind of match the freedom claims better than the surveillance and paranoia.
Unless this is all some critique of post 9/11 America with freedoms reduced in the name of protecting the nation, or something.
I guess TeeHee is kind of right, that we just have to work them into our little coalition.
With this being the other country that got the double ring treatment, it makes sense to grab the last unclaimed ring
But we are going to have to go back on the defense, as with Fogado distracted by us instead of holding the border, Seforia got overwhelmed by a surprise Hortensia attack. With how TeeHee feels about parents, this is going to take priority over saving the world...
I am a bit torn on what to do next. Two promotion items just showed up in the shop, but I burned all my money on clothes again...I might go for another paralogue, but the two available are a bit dangerous, and even the story map will get me a fair bit of spending money.
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Not sure how unpopular this one is exactly, but I don't think I have shared it in this thread yet. Engage is a game that is funner to play than it is to talk about, while Three Houses is a game that is funner to talk about than it is to play.
On 12/1/2023 at 8:12 PM, Spiritfox55 said:Eldigan and Ares have the best Father & Son relationship despite never interacting on screen
I would like to hear you elaborate on that point a bit, as I find it a bit surprising.
20 hours ago, SnowFire said:On Echoes: Well, Echoes didn't sell as well as Fates. Not saying it lost money, but effort isn't infinite. If you can assign people to more lucrative or less lucrative projects, pick more lucrative ones; maybe some sort of Fates ripoff would have sold better as 3DS FE game #3.
The other remakes almost killed the franchise, and they didn't learn their lesson for Echoes, why would they have learned from this far lighter setback.
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19 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:
Endgame which becomes a massive issue to complete in the higher difficulties if you don't have an army of Pass peggies. Which is really dumb.
I don't think this is as bad a problem as you think, as I tend to find that being willing to sacrifice units to finish the game works as a solid alternative to the cheese strats most people use in endgame, people just aren't used to, or comfortable with those kind of strategies, and how to get the most out of them. I tend not to mention it much, but I legitimately believe Conquest endgame was designed with unit death in mind.
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4 hours ago, Armagon said:
But it's why I did say this is like the worst game to iron man.
What makes it obnoxious to ironman is the numerous random unit dies death defeat conditions added to maps. Part 4 is where the defeat conditions are at their most sensible, but even then most of those maps have multiple game over units, which is worse than most games having just one. Somewhere between a half to a third of part 1 has the Any Ally Dies defeat conditions, and even when Radiant Dawn gets over that bad habit, characters can kind of randomly be added in as game over conditions even into part 3, worse yet sometimes its suicidal green units as well.
4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:It's nowhere near as bad as Houses softlocking you if you don't use / lose / reclass to the wrong class the starting students, Fates with its super specialized, min-maxed unit building or TRS where you lose half the healers in the game if Attrom dies on turn 1 of his map.
I don't see how Fates is even in the running here. It can be a difficult game, but there are so many ways to replace your units if you want, gives you a lot of options to change up the units you have to fill holes, and I find it rather ironman friendly for its difficulty level. Blazing Blade on the other hand deserves some mention as a game that is distinctly ironman unfriendly for its difficulty level...
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Its a bit obnoxious to dig through, but there is a link to the data-mined spreadsheet at the top of the page you linked to, which might have the information you are looking for in it.
Alternatively you could ask about what information you are looking for here, which forum goers can probably provide.
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3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:
I'm assuming by Gods they mean women.
Funnily enough, the Gods of Tellius are women.
3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:
I was afraid they were going to mix the armies in this part but I imagine they're saving that for the later chapters. I've honestly grown to this multi-party system.
You do get to mix and match them a bit here, but eventually you get to pick of team of the best of the best (or whatever you think is funny to win the game with), for the tower.
3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:
PleasebealoveconfessionPleasebealoveconfessionPleasebealoveconfess-
Fun fact, they do have a paired ending if you get them an A support in the end. Although Ike also has a paired ending with Soren to compete with it...
3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:
Let the favoritism flow
What a mad lad.
6 hours ago, GuardianSing said:
This is what waking up to go work is like
"The only good morning is the one you sleep through" - Me
3 hours ago, GuardianSing said:
Sexy as it is, I feel really bad for Sothe's midriff in this snow.
It is a long running joke that Yune gave Sothe's promotion the prominent midriff for Micaiah's viewing pleasure.
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On 11/27/2023 at 3:49 PM, Punished Dayni said:
(I get a Reaper Cloth out of it, which it turns out's useless unless I had Dream World available to me),
Getting the Dream World (or at least the Game Sync part of it) to work now a days requires some real janky incomplete software, and to setup some port forwarding on your router.
On 11/27/2023 at 3:49 PM, Punished Dayni said:Looking at it's moves it only knows Super Fang for damage so there's that,
Sometimes enemy move sets can be funny like that. Kind of reminds me of the Emerald fight with Aqua Admin Matt, where his Mightyena's only way of dealing damage is Swagger.
On 11/27/2023 at 3:49 PM, Punished Dayni said:then we the sad music as Veardiy recalls the time Plasma robbed his sister's Purrloin and why it's his motive,
I did always find it odd that his motivation is about the capture of his sister's Purrloin, and not his own...
On 11/27/2023 at 3:49 PM, Punished Dayni said:Which means I still have to face a triple battle with heartbreaker Charles.
At least he doesn't leave any of us heartbroken by killing any of your 'mons. Random side note, but I much prefer triple battles to rotation battles...
On 11/27/2023 at 3:49 PM, Punished Dayni said:hear someone say Hornswaggled
That really is a great word.
On 11/27/2023 at 3:49 PM, Punished Dayni said:Then Rood asks us a favour, to take care of a Zorua which I say yes to, but I suppose I can't rename it. Let's refer to N's Zorua as Diamavarre for our purposes.
It would be funny if you managed to luck into any of the other N pokemon...
On 11/28/2023 at 4:47 PM, Punished Dayni said:It takes..... a while, let's put it like that.
The change to the exp formula in Gen 5 can be a bit of a nuisance at times...
On 11/28/2023 at 4:47 PM, Punished Dayni said:then I miss that he got Swagger'd, only to learn when he hits himself in confusion, I then take a roll of the dice, only for him to hit himself again and the Sandile proceeds to finish Boucorst off. Fuck.
My Bouchy Boy...
On 11/28/2023 at 4:47 PM, Punished Dayni said:The strategy is mainly Ogmalfred with the Air Balloon (I've used all my proteins and Muscles Wings on her as well as Swift Wings), but because Clay leads with Intimidate, I have to use something like Hone Claws and hope he doesn't immediately use Crunch and even Torment is problematic for his Sandslash as I don't trust I outspeed his Excadrill.
The safer strat would have been to lead with a pokemon weak to Ground moves (like your Growlithe), that way you bait the AI into using a ground move, so with the Air Balloon it is a free switch into Ogmalfred with the Intimidate debuff gone.
On 11/28/2023 at 4:47 PM, Punished Dayni said:I decide Merrine is the least risky loss on balance, so I switch her in. She takes a hit from Metal Claw, I press Jump Kick and he outspeeds her.
Oof, that is another of the units I promoted. Promoting my units really seems to be the kiss of death for them.
On 11/28/2023 at 4:47 PM, Punished Dayni said:Merrine and Boucorst shouldn't have fallen like that.
Clay can sweep teams with that Excadrill if you aren't careful, so recognizing you needed to sack Merrine was a good play for the position you were in. Although recklessly losing my Bouchy Boy...
On 12/1/2023 at 2:51 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:I decided against promoting maria for now because it's filled with Ballistas.
That makes a lot of sense.
On 12/1/2023 at 2:51 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:Before we start, i give Draug Lunge in case i get into some hairy situations...or for some next level plays
Lunge is such an interesting skill to have around.
On 12/1/2023 at 2:51 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
I see no mages or Armor slayers, and his Def is sky high so it should be fineUsing pairup to skydrop Draug into the deep end like that is kind of funny to see. It also makes me wonder what a Fates style remake of New Mystery would look like (as I find the New Mystery version of this map far more memorable...)
On 12/1/2023 at 2:51 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
A guy with a Hammer appears...I can rescue staff Draug if needed
Its fun to see them anticipate your cheesy play, and at least try to punish it.
On 12/1/2023 at 2:51 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
Bolt Axe incoming
Nice to see you went with Matthis in the end...also it looks like they updated those really janky MSpaint images from before with just FEH art.
On 12/1/2023 at 2:51 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:I wasn't able to recruit Witch Anna 😞
Ouch. Did she have the classic Witch Warp skill to really break things?
2 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
A pic i took after booting up the game.
The model just looks so out of place with the Fates ones. I am surprised they didn't just use one of the Echoes dragon model...
4 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
Before we start ch12, It's finally time to promote Maria
Finally the Maligknight rises
6 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
Not bad, but not Draug
That is a nice skill to have on an armored knight.
8 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
Pair up is disabled for them, so i can't cheese this
Fair enough.
8 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
Redhead squad reporting
That perfect damage is beautiful to see
9 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
To get 5 points
Classic Gordin.
10 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
Aura good....so good it crashes the game so i have to skip animations (game crashed with me on turn 1 before when i tried to use it lol)
Lol, Auras destructive power is too much for even the game itself to handle
12 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
Woah
Nice to see them taking some Thracia inspiration with that weapon
13 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
We seize to finish!
Nice Gaiden get.
13 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
12x Lesssgo
Oh, a double feature!
17 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:
Red sisters continue being awesome. I wanna train up Maria's Axe rank for the one and only DEVIL AXE (and also bolt Axe if it's in the game)
While my first instinct is oh god not the Devil Axe, I seem to remember this version being rather milquetoast.
24 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:Horace also got some stat bonuses because i kept his Squad alive!
That is a cool change.
Time for me to...spin my wheels a bit, and do the Lucina paralogue to get more money to feed my fashion addiction, and figure out who to replace my dead with.
SpoilerWe have some new fashion available, and while I can't buy all the drip I want for our new recruits, I can afford something I have been waiting most of the run for
I am putting all the units killed in a linked death, in a skull mask, which also lets me show off their clothes real quick...although Vander here starts in his best outfit from the start.
Now for poor Chloe, never truly given a chance to fly. I rather like how this simple dress goes with her hair.
Little Jean, who wears this little vest with flower and cravat very well.
Eh, it works well enough for Yunaka, but I might change up her outfit latter on.
Now for the first of my promoted units killed off by others...
... 😞
As for the arena, I tried to get Alred another level, but he just missed the levelup even with all three given to him.
Now it is time to grab just a tiny bit of loot before we continue on by taking on the Luncina paralogue, as all the paralogues offer some dropable money for us.
I find it interesting that they both describe this engage energy fueling this place as a magical power, and that TeeHee already recognizes that it is there.
Arena Ferox is a surprisingly good choice for the first/easiest paralogue. It is a stupidly simple map, and small map, but still one with a lot of story, and personal significance to Lucina.
I wonder if they were trying for a kind of Roman Empire feel with this East and West split, on top of the obvious Mongol empire implications of calling them Khans.
Although this is an objectively stupid way to determine who should rule a country.
A surprisingly fitting way to bond with TeeHee given how this game ends.
There is a strange resonance, in how TeeHee never had the opportunity to see another side to the mother that train them, and with Lucina only getting the oppotunity through time shenanigans.
Is TeeHee perhaps sensing the power of that distant Lucina, the true ones from Awakening?
I guess there always has to be an excuse for a map.
Another small deployment limit, but as you can all see, after the linked deaths, and with a resume of a vital crit on the last map, I have decided to let Bunet join the squad.
Did a little fiddling with the initial unit placement
To support the gentle enemy phase gambit
And Bunet opens with a dodge and hit.
While TeeHee fails to dodge a 17...
I can finally give Alfred that level with a kill
Not bad, glad I waited for the promotion a little now.
I then have Ivy intentionally heal TeeHee from a space she could get the thunder counter on one of the
That way she can get some enemy phase chip in, and Framme can Chain Guard her to avoid any uncomfortable cr-
That complicates things slightly, Louis missed an 83, so
Framme has to pickup the kill, so Ivy has to face a crit death...
But she just dodges the whole attack instead.
On the next turn Bunet gets the on shot on one mage
And Alfred doesn't have as embarrassingly bad crit avoid, so he can safely (but painfully) get the kill on the other
And this time when Ivy heals from enemy range, Framme can Chain Guard her
And then I bungled crit rates again, and I didn't realize that said 14 instead of 4, until it was too late...
At least this went better expected, with Ivy dodging so Framme doesn't take any chip
And Louis does dodge the crit, so never punished again.
I was just way too greedy with the enemy phasing this map, and my most dangerous moves were essentially pointless like this.
Although this bit of enemy phasing was a bit better thought out
Far safer, and dealing damage
That at least makes a difference.
Honestly, Bunet has done a good enough job so far.
Framme also gets this nice little level while healing
And for once I wait a turn before enemy phasing the boss
By having TeeHee Engage his way into using a bow
With a chain guard for safety
Poor Lucina's never heard of enemy phasing...
She isn't that dodgy TeeHee.
Don't worry, I will throw everything I have to finish you...come player phase
That was a fair bit of damage to get things started
And while a bunch of reinforcements came when she spawned, I only have 6 actions to finish this, so most will live. But I am getting ahead of myself, time for another battle quote as we break the first health bar.
Why would that be like Fate? What a strange way to describe things, especially given a later quote of Alfed's
I guess this is slightly less stupid than the Khans fighting eachother, but it does seem to defeat the implied purpose of getting the "stronger" khan as leader. Although getting the khan better able to attract stronger allies is theoretically what they are going for. Still a very stupid way to decide a ruler, but we have had plenty of very stupid ways to decides rulers throughout history.
If Alfred knew this arena was fake, why did he think it was fate?
Damn, another great little levelup from Alfred
I do have just enough actions to get away with killing one of the new adds. Poor Bunet here, despite doing a solid job, hasn't gotten his first level yet...
But we will sadly not get to see it yet.
OK maybe I was a bit dismissive of Lucina's avoid from TeeHee's performance
But we get all these shaky hits for the kill, with TeeHee and thus an Astra Storm in reserve.
That is a solid little levelup from Iv-
Level 19...sigh, maybe I should use that promotion items on her first.
Not whom I would name MVP, but he had a good showing none the less.
Honestly, I don't think TeeHee has really grown that much since we got Lucina, they were a bit of a beast already at that point.
Which is why we all build an army and trust nobody (and pretend the Jeigan can't solo like half of these game)
Don't be selling yourself too short now, you are one of the best units in this army.
That is a rather morbid sentiment, but I suppose if any Emblem had gotten used to death already it would be this apocalyptic time traveler.
Sadly true, with the risk of linked death and everything.
But those links make all of us stronger.
Hopefully I get the next chapter out a bit sooner, as it is starting to feel like I am falling a bit behind with all this sudden activity.
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14 hours ago, GuardianSing said:
"Write a more dynamic and interesting reason for the conflict!"
An very simple alternative I have always thought would work is simply that Begnion offered Pelleas resources Daein desperately needed to get back on its feet in exchange for joining the war...
14 hours ago, GuardianSing said:For the character that was more or less a prop in part one I'm only thinking now how interesting of a life this guy probably led before he became King. I wonder what Pelleas was doing during the Mad King War or where he was taken to by his mother and why. She was obviously from the dragon tribe I knew that from the beginning and I'm sure we'll hear more about it then but he didn't seem to know that, nor did he know he was mixed race like Micaiah.
There are some events only possible on a second playthrough, with some extremely specific requirements, including specific Path of Radiance support transfer requirements to even see, which frame a lot of things in a different light here. When you are done with the game, it might be worth looking it up, or letting some of us veterans spoil it for you.
14 hours ago, GuardianSing said:Part of me wonders if a character was robbed here because of the Death Pact and him exiting the story before we got to learn much about him while he was still alive, but on the other hand his death and his willingness to die almost is what makes him interesting to me. Now that he's dead and can't share his secrets I can't help but wonder what exactly was going through his head before and after becoming King. He knew he wasn't ready, we know that much.
You do get to learn a little more posthumously, and on a second playthrough you have the option to let him live (and recruit him), to see a bit more.
14 hours ago, GuardianSing said:Unlike many parental deaths in this series, I find this one more emotional than all of them just because it was the other way around and I didn't expect it. Pelleas was not a forced to be likable mentor figure that was practically mechanized in the narrative to die at a specific point early on to be specifically motivate the main character who would forget about them 2 seconds later, he was a kid who didn't know what he was doing and was just trying to help his people. His death is late into the game at this point he was a well established character. I feel more for this side character in losing her son than I do for pretty much all avatars in Fire Emblem whose parents were axed early on, especially since he didn't need to die, at least not this early.
That is a solid point. It is a bit undercut by secret second playthrough secret reveals, but there is something compelling about him offering his life for his people, only for it to come to naught, with his mother morning the tragedy of outliving their child. I guess that is a morbid part of it too, that eventually most children outlive their parents, with parents outliving the child having that extra tinge of tragedy due to it being more unlikely.
14 hours ago, GuardianSing said:
Welp, we're in it for the long haul
Part 4 isn't very long, but it is kind of interesting, especially with the Tear Ring Saga style army split at the beginning.
7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:I mean, this particular tidbit is often described as one of the story's weakest points, so...
Personally, I find Ike's role in the story a lot worse, but that's because I'm the only person in the world who doesn't worship Ike as the specialest little boy.Radiant Dawn utterly ruined Ike because they didn't know what to do with him after the clean completed arc they gave him in the first game.
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Now for the rare classes whose main purpose is the novelty of being able to use the Fire Emblem games equivalent of the Goomba...
S Tier: One of the Best Classes in the Game
A Tier: A Good Class
Fates: This class feels like the only tanky class in Birthright, and I feel that game is desperate for a few tanky units, so its getting my A tier ranking at least. It feels slightly biased to give it this ranking, especially with so little to say about the class, but being kind of boring beyond the novelty is the hallmark of these classes in general.
Three Houses: It feels odd to rank what is only a beginner class (as the only other real lance focused infantry classes are Lord exclusive classes), but its a good choice for the beginner tier. Reposition is a great utility art to be working towards, and the boost to lance helps units reach certification for better mounted classes in the future.
B Tier: An OK Class
Engage: Its a perfectly serviceable backup class. The pincer attack skill is interesting on paper, but in practice is far more situational
C Tier: A Subpar ClassEchoes, Shadows of Valentia: This is literally the same class line as Armored Knight in this game, so I don't see them getting a different tier. Admittedly it is the early game where they shine most...
Path of Radiance: Infantry only class with nothing too special going for it in a horse emblem game sounds like an easy recipe for C tier. At least it has more reliable 1-2 range to keep it from joining the Sword Masters in D tier
Radiant Dawn: Not terribly much has changed for the Halberdier between sequels, and while I could talk about changes in the games environments (like the nerfs to normal cavs), this class has manages to stay just as unremarkable, barring the novelty of using what in earlier games would be an enemy exclusive mook class. This might be a bit harsh on it, and I could see someone talking me into putting it a bit higher, but this is where it falls for now.
D Tier: A Bad Class
Sacred Stones: I talked myself into including poor Amelia's class for Sacred Stones, and it obviously reaches D tier. None of the Recruits fair particularly well, but the other two have something interesting about them (Ross's early arrival and Pirate access; and Ewan's Summoner access, or full magic triangle with Super Trainee), whereas even if you go through the effort of training Amelia's version of Recruit, it gets you nothing special, either the awful Armored Knight line, or the massively over-saturated Cav line. Its not worth the effort of training, or using.
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This was an odd one to rank.
S Tier: One of the Best Classes in the Game
Radiant Dawn: The Laguz in this game do vary a lot, but there are enough absolutely broken Laguz units that you get access to at varying parts of the game that I can't deny them the S tier. Starting in part one, you get the solid Voloug, who helps a lot in part one, and while he falls off a bit in the DB maps of Part three, you even get to use the utterly broken Wolf Queen for a few maps of part one, and even the blink and you miss her Vika has some special utility as the only flier in the swamp map. The Laguz of part 2 are fairly forgettable, but Part 3 brings back some solid entries with the Birds, and even the forgettable Lyre and Kyza are mostly so due to the far better Ranulf, and nearly identical but objectively superior Mordecai and Lethe showing up at about the same time. All of this talk is burying the lead, as Part 4 lets you use the Royal Laguz in earnest, and even some semi-Royal Laguz that are almost as good, and all of them are easy S tiers, and I would even say not bringing a Royal Laguz to the tower is a challenge run for this game.
A Tier: A Good Class
B Tier: An OK Class
Awakening: I almost gave this class A tier, as the Manakete class has a lot going for it, and is definitely a debatable contender for A tier on its own. It doesn't break the game wide open, but the high defense, and 1-2 range make for a potent combo, but I do have a distinct memory of it taking a fair bit of effort to get them as good as those tools should make them...and I am burying the lead about the Taguel being at least one tier below this one if looked at alone.
Sacred Stones: You wouldn't expect a low level growth unit to really work with as late as Myrrh arrives, but with Myrrh having effective damage against monsters, and how easy Sacred Stones tends to be, you can get some good work out of her. She also gets flight to give her slightly better movement capabilities. Being only one range definitely keeps her out of A tier, despite what she has going for her.Shadow Dragon: The two things Manaketes are most famous for, are Bantu being objectively the worst unit in this game, and for suiciding and reviving one being the best way to deal with Medeus on the highest difficulties. I will even give them credit for having some solid effective damage against enemy Manaketes, but by the time those are on a map, you should be warp skipping them to the end. Being the best method of dealing with an otherwise difficult final boss is something I feel I am giving them fair credit for here with this ranking.
C Tier: A Subpar Class
New Mystery of the Emblem: Bantu is still objectively the worst unit in the game, and with Divine Dragon stones losing its effective damage against Medeus, the class's greatest niche was lost, but the Secret Dragon Stone Shop gave it another. The Mage Dragon stone giving them immunity to all Magic damage (even the resistance ignoring spell...) is something useful the divine dragons can do, the Flying Dragon stone lets them hit speed tiers they otherwise couldn't (although the worst stat bonuses that comes with that are harsh), and the divine dragon stone has some nice stat bonuses, and effective damage against all other dragon...but you get the first divine dragon right after the major dragon arc where that would have really been most useful. I am giving this class a lot of praise for a C tier class, but you aren't able to access the Secret Dragon Stone shop on Lunatic, and Lunatic reverse difficulties, and if I am being honest, the only way you will know about this secret shop that is inaccessible without the warp staff (so it also cost a use of what would otherwise let you warp skip a chapter) is by looking it up. That is just a few too many caveats to get it into even the middle tier...although I must admit it is a close call, I am still considering letting them slip their way into B tier anyway.
Path of Radiance: Theoretically you could make use of the Laguz, but they are not great. I definitely get just enough use out of their pushing (and smiting) capabilities to avoid the D tier...plus Ena is an out for a stat cursed Ike, if you read your luck early enough, and saved some good things to give Ena (to be fair, with Wrath-Resolve, and a few stat boosters she can pull off the minimum turn kill on him, but those are some of the best resources to use on a unit, and it takes some real shenanigans with equipping and unequipped the Laguz band to pull it off as well). I could see someone talking me into bringing them up to B tier due to that Ena utility, but it is simply so common for people to train up Ike for the Ashnard kill instead.
Fates: I have already ranked Corrin and kid's class back in the Lord's section, so I will not be ranking them here (for those wondering they just barely eked their way into S tier, and would have definitely been driven down a tier if tied to these anchors). The Wolf and Fox classes are the only promoted classes that are locked to a single range, 1 range, which is a notable detriment to them. Personally I like the interplay between the tanky -rune, and the speedier and deadlier -stones, but in practice the class ends up rather underwhelming.
Binding Blade: Fah has some funny utility with the stone buffs making her a rather good staff sponge, a deployment slot dedicated to her in the last map (although it is free for anyone to use if she dies), plus effective damage against Manaketes is a nice plus. In practice she acts a lot like Myrrh does in Sacred Stones, but in a game difficult enough to make training her harder, with less opportunity to use her effective damage, and without terrain ignoring flight.
D Tier: A Bad Class
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First off, after she uses her DV, you can counter it with one of your own to cancel the effect of hers, and still get the full effect of your own, which is debuffing the move of all flier, but increase the move of non-fliers. The buff of her DV should also effect your own fliers, so you can use it to your advantage at times as well, for instance if you are having trouble reaching the next DV due to the move debuff, having a flier available for a DV user to pair with and use the move buff to reach the DV, and then switch over to then activate is useful. Admittedly you do have to be a bit careful with this strat, as both Setsuna, and Azama have an infantry force with them that can get the move buff as well, but I find that more manageable than the high move fliers. You can also use the flyer move buff to jump Azama before he can hex your units, but if the one you send to assassinate him can't deal with the infantries allies around him, this might be a place where you have to pull out the Rescue staff. Admittedly its less vital below Lunatic, but keeping at least one Rescue use on each of the two Rescue staff you get is useful for endgame.
Another piece of advise for getting the damage you need is to get the most out of the effective damage bows deal against fliers by using attack stance. Bows have very high base might, so when tripled they deal a lot of damage, and even when that damage is halved by being used in an attack stance, it is still a LOT of damage on them. Attack stance also has the advantage of giving at minimum +10 accuracy to the main attacker if you are having trouble hitting, and depending on supports can add even more (or other buffs like avoid, crit, and crit avoid).
18 hours ago, Samz707 said:The one time I managed to last more than a few turns, I still got screwed when it turns out one more flier spawns on the right when you start fighting enemies near the middle and enemies at this point basically outstat everyone not named Leo, Camilla or Xander extremely and take a ton of damage to kill while easily one-rounded my units and for me to even get that far, I needed several units to dodge 60% attacks that would have killed them.
That is a little worrying, and makes me think you really overused your prepromotes earlier in the game. Fates actually has a rather steep experience penalty for overleveled units, which gets harsher with higher difficulties (and even has stop gaps against boss abusing, as chip exp starts diminishing if you keep getting it off the same enemy, but I digress a bit). I am not an expert in how the exp curve works in Normal mode, but seeing some units reaching 20/15 by chapter 24 is a normal enough number off the top of my head for higher difficulties.
It can be difficult to arrange at times, but there are a lot of positional buffs you can use to make you units a lot tankier, your Troubadours/Strategists/Maids should get a skill that reduces the damage all opposite gendered allies within two spaces of them take by 2; Strategist's level 15 skill (which you might be reaching by now) is Inspiration which stacks with that and adds 2 more damage reduction on top of that by the same range; Elise's personal gives 3 damage reduction to any ally adjacent to her (so if you got her to a level 15 strategist, that is potentially +7 Def and Res by being next to her); add to that the level 5 skills of Defense rally (on Wyvern Lord), and Resistance Rally (Strategist again), for 4 more potential bulk; Corrin can add 3 Damage resistance to allies that either use his attack stance, or his pairup with at least a C rank support with them (which it wouldn't surprise me if everyone has by now), admittedly that last one can be a bit tricky to proc on enemy phase if you are using attack stance to do so, as if there are more than one ally adjacent on enemy phase, it picks the unit with the highest support points to use as attack stance partner; Corrin also gets a similar buff from Felicia or can use a 3 damage reduction version from Jakob, also the defense gains for having a Dragon Stone equipped are solid (+4 Defense and +3 Resistance for the basic one, and +9 Defense and +7 Resistance for the Dragonstone+) , although the speed penalties might make them more dangerous if you aren't careful with them (-2 and -4 speed respectively); Camilla also has the low yield +1 damage resistance to adjacent allies from her Rose's Thorns skill; and finally you have the two most difficult to position buffs, as they are dependent on enemy positioning, the level 25 dancer skill, that reduces the damage enemies can deal if they are within 2 spaces of her, and Izana's similar personal, which reduces the damage all units within 2 of him deal (which is a double edged swords as it effects your units too). Phew, that was a lot, but I generally find it fairly reasonable to 8-14 effective damage reduction using these skills when I need it, and could potentially get even higher if you need to.
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7 hours ago, Samz707 said:
After getting to chapter 24 so far.
I'm just gonna be blunt, I consider Conquest the worst Fire Emblem I've played.So much of the "difficulty" comes from untelegraphed high stat enemy spawns or unfun map gimmicks. (In Chapter 24 alone I had to reset after turn 1 due to the map gimmick putting me in a spot where units would die without warning.)
7 hours ago, Samz707 said:I'm only on Normal and the game has basically turned into just trial/error of abusing the most powerful units to get by.
I am honestly baffled people consider this game to have the best gameplay because I haven't seen it at all in my playthrough, it's honestly been the most miserable and devoid of any enjoyment game I've played in a long while.
Sorry you aren't enjoying Conquest, as once it really clicks, it can be a real blast. A lot of the fun of Conquest is in the interplay between when to be in the more defensive, but tactically restrictive and rigid pairup/Guard stance, and when to be in the more offensive, and flexible separated/Attack stance (admittedly I am more a fan of attack stance, which might be bleeding into my descriptions here). Baiting enemies in with a strong pairup, to then carefully chain together attack stances to wipe the enemy group out is a joy, especially when you get to play with the mobility added by your option to have separated units pairup within a turn, where you can do things like pairup with a closer/higher move ally to reach where you need to, switch over to them, and then transfer them over to an unpaired adjacent ally to get the attack stance hit you need for your kill, and later in the turn using another units action to transfer and separate the unit you transferred onto an ally to maintain your flexibility for next turn (or leave them as is for a more defensive option against some upcoming enemies, or perhaps you needed that unit's attack too, so you transferred and then switched to them to give them an attack as well).
Skills are also a part of the game that people have a hard time really grokking how important they can be, as you need to watch out for them on enemies (on Hard and Lunatic at least, I started with Conquest on Hard, and while it pressed my abilities as a player to their absolute limit at the time, I never really looked back at Normal), but there are a lot of way you can use them to your advantage too. Personally I love how bulky you can make your units using positional buffs, things like Elise's Lily's Poise (which reduces damage to adjacent allies by 3, and increases the damage they deal by 1), Demoiselle/Gentilholme (Male/Female allies within 2 spaces take 2 less damage), Inspiration (allies within 2 take 2 less damage and deal 2 more) Corrin's Supportive skill (allies with at least C rank support with Corrin, using Corrin as an attack stance partner, or pairup partner takes 2 less damage, deals 2 more damage, and gets +10 accuracy), etc., which all stack (although multiple instances of the same skill don't), which can make for some remarkably tanky units (or more aggressive units, many of these skills have offensive counterparts, like Camilla's Rose's Thorns to Elise's Lily's Poise) with the right positioning. The mobility skills of Lunge and Shelter are really interesting in the players hands, although finding way to defang enemy Lunge traps can be difficult. Shelter has a lot of surprising utility, the more simple uses are to protect an unpaired unit by pushing them behind the user, or in creating the space you need to get the next attack (or get the right attack stance hit you need), but you can also use it as a pseudo-dance by Sheltering someone that already acted, and then have another unit transfer and switch to that unit to give them another action. Lunge is less flashy in the players hand, but surprisingly useful, it can break up an enemy formation so you don't have to deal with their attack stances while you are attacking them, get a kill to then leave the space you attacked from open for other allies to use, move a unit you chipped closer in to give a further out ally the kill, or even cross a wall using a ranged lunge. Rallies can be vital for reaching key benchmarks, and still effect at 2 range in this game, which is nice. Breaker skills are a fun one as well, where you can do things like block off the enemy mage reinforcements on chapter 24 by Felicia/Jakob on the bridge with the Tome Breaker the got from reaching level 15 Maid/Butler, to save you from some dangerous foes, or help deal with bosses with things like Sword Breaker and Dual Club (which you given back in Chapter 10) to counter the dodgy sword blows of Ryouma, although they are all level 15 promoted skills, so tend to be for late game (I generally consider chapter 23 the earliest you are likely to see them on someone other than Felicia, Jakob, or Gunter).
I will also add that Conquest doesn't have ambush spawns, so unless you have really overcommitted to pairups, you almost always have the time to backup, and reassess how to deal with reinforcements, or simply get the jump on them yourself. Also, while it does give you some units to carry you if you are struggling in the form of units like Camilla, and Xander, you can beat it on even the highest difficulties without them, as it is a very flexible game.
2 hours ago, SnowFire said:That said, for a gimmick to mean something, it needs to make the player engage with it. Fates has this whole idea of Dragon Veins changing the way battle works. For this to feel appropriately powerful to match the plot hype, it needs to, well, mean something, which means failing or declining to engage with the gimmick should result in a tough experience, and using it properly should make you feel like a tactical badass. They're kind of inherently linked; if you have a gimmick that doesn't matter because playing normally works, then why have the gimmick at all? Anyway, C24's gimmick of flyers with super-range is scary, yes, but you have your own Dragon Veins on that map. What the designer "wants" you to do is to keep aggressively moving forward and activating your own Dragon Veins to reduce flyer movement, letting you safely pick them off. And if you don't do that, then yeah, it's gonna be backup strats time. It's unfortunate you weren't a fan, but I also think that there was no other option here - making it cool for players who liked interacting with the gimmick as a change of pace inherently means a rough ride if you don't interact with it.
That is a rather fun gimmick, especially with how you can use it against her if you have your own flyers, using the extra move she gives you to do things like assassinate the otherwise hexing Azama without leaving a unit in staff range, or simply ferrying a unit over to the next DV you need with the now more mobile flyer you have, to then counter her use of it. Leapfrogging from DV to DV is a lot of fun on that map, with how it pushes you onward with it.
12 minutes ago, Jotari said:You said you played on hard, right? It's even worse on lunatic, all the Hexing Rod Maids have staff savant, giving them infinite durability. So you can't even burn through their uses with a designated backpack unit. Meaning the only way to deal with them is to just rush forward and hope they miss. It gives the enemy a rather crazy area of control where there's just a large section of the map you simply can't enter until you're ready to rush the enemy. And, especially in the Conquest End Game, that's not easy to do even if you have cleared the area of enemies, since the maids are in range of other enemies that can probably gang up and kill the unit you've chosen to assassinate the maid.
First off, earlier in the thread they said they were playing normal mode, secondly, there are only three units in the entire game that have that (and with how Iago works, he probably shouldn't count), and all of them are after the chapter 24.
7 hours ago, MeteorPhoenix said:Three Houses gameplay is indistinguishable from Engage's in the modes that matter; normal and hard. I know there's long essays on how Maddening Engage is a perfect game, but as sales have shown, the vast majority of us don't touch Maddening. The people that have kept Fire Emblem selling at Awakening levels and not Gaiden levels are casuals, and for most casuals, 3H gameplay is not that different from Engage's.
This take reminds me of how my mom would call every videogame console a Nintendo.
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Took me a while to get to this one, and it was a tough one for me to judge overall.
S Tier: One of the Best Classes in the Game
Thracia 776: As much as I could jokingly say Staff are king, hence S tier, but that would be taking away too much credit from how useful, and vital magic is in Thracia. Thrones and Gates (your bog standard seize points...) give +10 defense, and immunity to status effects, and good magic damage tends to be the best way to deal with that. Some chapters go from fairly normal, to brutal if you don't have access to a mage, like Gomes's monstrous reputation was built on people not having the magic to deal with him. Your mage is always the boss killer you send in for the warp skip, and they deserve the S rank credit for that. Also, they get staff access, just to ensure they get into that S tier.
Three Houses: I thought about putting this just in A tier, but what pushed it over for me, is that everyone and their mother is passing through this class line for Fiendish Blow, on top of it having good classes to be in anyway. With magic being the only weapons locked to class, classes that get them have this inherent advantage to them, and with all magic open to any mage, you get good combat together with the utility of White Magic. Gremory is a great final class for any magically inclined females with those double all magic skills, and Dark Knight is great for the males, with two really solid endgame options on top of some solid options along the way.
A Tier: A Good Class
Binding Blade: One of the biggest weaknesses of this class is that every single member is a project. Despite that this class has so much stuff going for it that it earns its way to A tier anyway. Getting an effective damage attack that targets the weaker resistance of wyverns in this game is really good. They get the most accurate 1-2 range options, and the most viable siege magic, which are nice as well. Getting staff access after promotion is useful, and if you are willing to grind a LOT of staff rank, they get some of the best staff ranges, which is really good if you take that massive amount of effort...if only Sages got their own prepromote like the other magic classes this would be an easy S tier.
Echoes, Shadows of Valentia: In a game where being indoors gives people +20 avoid, and some terrain gives +60, having your primary weapon type ignore terrain is really useful. They also get further ranges, especially with the amazing mage ring, but with enemy phase always defaulting to their weakest spell, that makes it far weaker than Bows, and while there are a fair number of enemy types with resistance, those that don't take a lot of damage from mages. I don't think the flaws of being worse than the best classes in the game are enough to drop it below A tier.
New Mystery of the Emblem: I have been waffling a bit back and forth over whether this should get A tier, or B tier, but I think I am letting it into A tier for now. First off, it gets a new flyer effective tome on top of Exalibur, all ready for the monstrously brutal Flying Dragon Desert map, female mages get access to the amazingly potent Nosferatu (one of the few ways to be tanky in a game where you are lucky to have a unit survive two hits), and its 1-2 range is some useful versatility for how rigid this game tends to be. Unfortunately it doesn't really get the speed stats you need for lategame, but people tend to use them late game anyway, as you kind of need at least one to kill Garnef, 1-2 range lets you get in some player phase work by avoiding counters, and forging up a high crit tome to rig suicidal crits targeting on Medius weaker defense is the scuffed version of using Naga against him from Shadow Dragon. This one is a close call, but I think it squeaked its way in here for me.
B Tier: An OK Class
Blazing Sword: I am tempted to give this the A rank for Pent alone, but was tempered by this being more about classes. Alas the old assessment of the three mages ending up about the same holds true, with the basic Mage's only edge over the other version being that more of them are available.
Engage: It is a solid option in the early game, but slowly gets overshadowed by newer and better things as the game goes on. I don't think they ever get bad enough that I went without one, but I never find them to be one of the classes that really shines, as they slowly get relegated to your slow moving backup healer. If Ivy, or Hortensia's classes weren't exclusive to them this class would almost certainly be in a lower tier.
Genealogy of the Holy War: This class can absolutely run the gamut of quality here, with some stuck as infantry after promotion, some gaining that beloved horse, and with almost exclusive Holsety access (Holsety Corple is a joke) that can swing anyone that touches it's value up at least one, if not two tiers, with inheritable Wrath as a fun bit of spice on the side. I just don't know how to tier this one, as the class's value in the second generation is so wildly variable by parentage, but this is about where I think it ends up in first generation, with the one that gets a horse on promotion being a bit mediocre due to how long it takes him to get going, with the infantry versions both getting something particularly valuable to them to keep them better than most infantry units.
Fates: This class has a lot going for it, the stat buffs on Hoshidan Scrolls makes for interesting plays, but Horse Spirit is so good that it tends to overshadow the rest of them, staff access after promotion, and some nice promoted skills. I just never found Birthright to be a good environment for the class, Revelations is designed in very silly ways, and there are too many hoops to really use it much in Conquest (especially since Izana clearly reached Onmyoji from the healer side of things). I guess I should mention Basra as well, and in my experience, going the Basara route mostly just makes you agonize over whether you should have Horse Spirit, or Guard Naginata equipped, and other equally gimmicky, and silly options. Not completely useless, but definitely a meme build, especially if you start leaning into some Quixotic proc skill builds that take til endgame to become functional.
Sacred Stones: I am very, very tempted to drop this into C tier, as the other magic type class just get so much better tools to work with, but if you do bother to use a mage, they end up fine. I guess the higher move of Mage Knight is something, but still pales in comparison to summoning and slayer.
C Tier: A Subpar ClassShadow Dragon: Despite enemies having embarrassing resistance, forged effective damage so thoroughly overshadows it, and the only effective magic can't be forged. They do have staff access after promotion (but worse rank than Bishop), and magic isn't useless, so it avoids the D tier, and is even kind of close to B tier.
Awakening: This class gets really overshadowed latter into the game, but it does have some minor early game utility as a magic user, and if you are willing to grind them up, a lot, they do get some skills that are useful to have when in a better classes.Path of Radiance: This ones placement is complicated by the Japanese version of the game (which has to be used to access the highest difficulty setting of this game), having a bug which lets you underflow the crit rate of forged Thunder tomes so that they have 100 crit against all enemies. I am ranking them without that boon in mind, but I could see an argument of them potentially even reaching S tier with an argument of giving one vantage and 100 criting enemies to death on enemy phase. They are slow moving, and physically squishy, but they do get good 1-2 range, can be promoted into staff users, and potentially doing a little dodge tanking. I am tempted to let them slide into D tier, but I have used Soren with an Ike support enough to know they are slightly better than in Radiant Dawn.
D Tier: A Bad Class
Radiant Dawn: I have brought too many mages into the tower for a run where I decided to field all the max rank weapons, and it really emphasized just how bad mages are in this game. Despite all the magics getting effective damage against different enemy types, they just don't get the stats (and stat caps) to capitalize on it. Ilyana even has the highest availability in the nonsense availability of this game, and it is simply not enough to make people consider her good, that is how bad the class line is.
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On 11/14/2023 at 4:20 PM, BrightBow said:
It's surprising to me that the Gargoyle Axe is not categorized as a Great Axe. It has such a long reach.
Plenty of poise too. Silver Knights can't even fight back against two-handed hits because they just get stunlocked by every single hit.
It's a pretty silly weapon, honestly. A massive weapon that handles like a light weapon.
Only downside is that it looks really worn-out. Large chunks of it's blade are broken off. As if it was more likely to kill enemies through infection rather than cutting through them.Wait, are you talking about the goofy tail axe, which still swings like a tail when you strike with it?
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On 10/26/2023 at 5:02 PM, Punished Dayni said:
then explains hidden grottos, brings us to one and then lets us decide if we want to face the Minccino that's waiting for us. Said Minccino will have Skill Link, which makes multi-hit moves hit the full amount. This is useful with moves it can learn and is a good option for bulky opponents. So I go for it.
Sometimes its a benefit to be a little wrong in your game knowledge, and Skill Link Minccino is a nice enough Pokemon to get.
On 10/26/2023 at 5:02 PM, Punished Dayni said:She misses Hypnosis 3 times in a row before the Minccino puts her to sleep first try so I say screw it, throw a ball and it's first try.
The luck giveth, and taketh.
On 10/26/2023 at 5:02 PM, Punished Dayni said:which will be Combee.
Oof, male Combee is about as bad as it gets.
On 10/26/2023 at 5:02 PM, Punished Dayni said:then catch first try and name the Venipede Juliaka.
At least you don't have to take the Combee
On 10/26/2023 at 5:02 PM, Punished Dayni said:gets Iron Defence, a good time for noting that Baton Pass and Agility are in it's level up moveset (If it could learn Work Up we had a nigh perfect baton passer there.... but it learns Swords Dance 😈..... which like U-Turn is BP locked. I might just call for a cheat and trade over to my White Save for these TMs.)
And it sounds like a solid Baton Pass mon there.
On 10/26/2023 at 5:02 PM, Punished Dayni said:Well, that depends on if I have an Air Balloon, or if she survives to then.
Fairly certain you are given an Air Balloon in Clay's city somewhere.
On 10/27/2023 at 4:24 AM, Punished Dayni said:trigger one of the phonecalls from Yancy,
It always did seem strange to give the player character of a Pokemon game, a love interest old enough to go on international business trips.
On 10/27/2023 at 4:24 AM, Punished Dayni said:fight the Combee that I expected to be male, only for it to be female (wow),
Now the luck is just taunting you, as you never get female Combee in a Nuzlock.
On 10/27/2023 at 4:24 AM, Punished Dayni said:She outspeeds and uses Flame Charge, while Ogmalfred goes for Dig. This works just fine, Ogmalfred 1-shots with Dig and gets a level, which I choose not to evolve.
Good work with the unevolved Drilbur sweep, surviving what would be a super effective hit in its final form.
On 10/29/2023 at 5:24 PM, Newtype06 said:Smashing a rock to cross route 111 (RIP desert encounter) we find a Geodude, who I nickname Rocky
Ah too bad, but if you need to go back and forth to the pokecenter enough, you usually get stuck with the rock smash encounter.
On 10/29/2023 at 5:24 PM, Newtype06 said:On route 113 I have another Ralts moment and get a Skarmory. Ikaros was the hardest to capture so far, breaking almost 10 pokeballs
Wow, this is a bit of a lucky run in other was.
On 10/29/2023 at 5:24 PM, Newtype06 said:. Archie was more annoying than difficult, his Sharpedo froze my two electric pokemon.
And then you get this random bit of awful luck to balance the scales a bit.
On 10/29/2023 at 5:24 PM, Newtype06 said:Finishing all this, time for the Gym. Flannery was even easier than Wattson and fell to Theresa's Bulldoze. Here's the "team" that beat her.
Crushing sweep with the Gyarados, classic nuzlock strat there.
On 10/31/2023 at 3:03 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:We are all set to continue, right?
Yep, sorry about the brief delay
On 10/31/2023 at 3:44 PM, Punished Dayni said:I should think so, but I'm going to be honest I probably don't touch it for at least the next 2 if not 3 weeks depending on how things go.
That makes me feel a little better about taking a week and a half off playing some DS 3...
Now for chapter 12 of Engage
SpoilerWhen we return to the Somniel, thanks to TeeHee already being promoted
We have unlocked the weird wyvern minigame. Not a big deal, but I know the requirement for being promoted makes the timing for unlocking this option in the Somniel unusual.
We also have two more promotions ready to be sold in the shop in preparation for next chapter, but I will wait on using them until I look at the map. Plus we have more important thing to consider
Like new people to dress up, with new clothes to accessorize them in. That long green scarf looks nice on him.
I might end up changing her out of this outfit later, but for now, the Elusians have a bit of a green theme to them. I am waiting on changing anything about Kagetsu... and I am still not sure if I want to even use the fellow either.
I also change up Louis outfit to a different one with a cravat
We do have another three level round of arena action, opening with this very defensive levelup on Citrinne
and my Bouchy Boy misses strength again
LOL, more Res.
Alright, time for some more Engage story
Yeah, the way the icy snow kingdom and hot desert kingdom are right next door is rather jarring.
At least the desert is protecting them like winter does Russia.
Alfred, that is beyond tactless...
But at least she took it in the best light possible.
Sigh, even in Engage Ike is given undue importance.
Good on Ivy for pointing out a real question here, of why the other nobles are as clueless as TeeHee and Ivy
...Eh, I guess I can give it a pass, but a kind of lazy explanation
But Alfred's excuse makes perfect sense.
You don't have to rub it in Fogado, we know.
And avoiding the fact that you are a Solmic prince in this explanation is just plain deceptive.
Ah, the old Divine shock of discovering who TeeHee is.
And I like how casual he is about TeeHee being casual.
...
...
...Sorry, the eyes on the Solmic siblings is just entrancing.
Well we needed to have a Fire Emblem map somehow. Although I do like the framing of it as more of an errand than a real map.
Ah, look at those meandering goobers we are about to take out
Naw, I doubt I will bother to use you Pandreo, but I don't want you to die out here, and kill off anyone important with the linked folk
*cue laugh track*
This is getting into Fatewakening levels of gimmick character writing with Bunet, the food one.
...Alright I do kind of like that casual telling off he gets for it.
Then I look over the miserable 7 deployment slots available, and start making the difficult decision of who to bring, and who to promote
These have been long overdue really. Ivy and Alfred could use a promotion too, but we will get them in due time.
I do also switch up my Emblems. Not the best option for either really, but with only 7 deployment slots, I felt rather limited in my options.
Here are the 7 I am bringing. These were tough choices, I almost brought Zelkov, but there is no terrain he can really use, and Lapis for a 20 range Astra storm, but I decide to bring my promotes, and almost promoted in the end.
I did also fiddle with my deployment locations a little as well
And we do have some lemming to protect on this map as well.
And I open by testing something I only vaguely remember, which might be important
and like I remembered, the sands do prevent you from cantering.
RIP first enemy
And then enemy number 2
Boucheron takes on the next intentionally from range, and while he could canter back, I have him stay where he is to grab an effective damage kill on enemy phase
And the showoff gets the most pointless crit possible here, where Framme still has to heal him.
And with this last kill, we have a nice opening play, as I don't plan on using the other three much.
Although we might need to use that sweet warp staff.
Just Louis things
Things are all going according to keikaku
And next turn Louis opens by killing his way out a desert, while cantering over into baiting an enemy wolf knight into one, with the Jav counter already setup for it.
Citrinne sets up a kill for Framme
so she doesn't have to face a hard hitting counter.
I also try to setup another enemy phase, but I have made a serious mistake here, but a subtle one.
This was riskier than it had to be
But overall the enemy phase setups worked perfectly
Although Louis did miss his counter, but Framme managed one hit for the break at least
And Alfred gets the lower accuracy kill with the free break hit
While Ivy finishes the other chipped one,
And Boucheron can wipe out the killer sword safely from range, but
The enemies are finally in range of attacking the greenies, and while this one will be just fine
I simply couldn't reach this Levin Sword one in time. I needed to Astra Storm him, but TeeHee was positioned in the worst possible place they could be last turn, as they could only be warped into a desert to get closer to it. Perhaps if I had brought Lapis for the 20 range Astra Storm...
Sigh, whelp RIP the Master Seal for Alfred I guess.
Time for a little revenge against the foes threatening our remaining greenies, although that Levin Sworder is still out of range in the bottom left hand corner...
And we have some reinforcements to deal with
And I just proc the "super" hit just for the perfect accuracy. I really haven't used Lucina all that well, as I should be using her to block hits more.Citrinne is baiting in the Levin Sword
And she does a good job at it, but otherwise we have reinforcements threatening us from all sides.
So we open by slaughtering a flier with a bow
TeeHee only chips this one, and canters back
To protect Ivy after she secures the Thunder kill
Huh, just build...what an odd levelup for her
Elsurge earns us a reliable kill on the Levin sworder
For a fabulous little levelup on Citrinne
And while we are a bit spread out, we are well enough positioned for the enemies that are here
With TeeHee getting a nice free enemy phase kill thanks to smash weapons sucking.
and Alfred get a nice dodge
...and crit to match his bestie right next to him
For a stongth levelup
We don't have all that much action this turn
Mostly just grabbing this enemy healer kill
As the rest of the survivors are lingering in the corners
...That complicates things. This group is perfectly positioned to slaughter the lemmings,
And I can only just barely take them out, even using the new un-
Bunet, you have just saved me a host of troubles with that crit. That puts me in a far more comfortable position
As that takes care of the other wolfie
So that TeeHee can just kill the late of them in that direction.
Finally Louis kills a mage,
And prepares for a little enemy phase action
Together with Alfred.
With no new reinforcements this should be that last turn, as Bouchy Boy
Levels on the chip, but still misses that strength proc.
That lets TeeHee eat the kill.
Ivy grab one for herself
Sadly Alfred misses the kill on the one he chipped
So Louis has to clean it up
For an 8 turn clear.
Oh thank TeeHee we only missed out on a useless elixir when the lemming died.
If only this game had Three Houses style paralogue to explore places like this...Oh who am I kidding, they would pull the same tease they did with Brigid.
Celine, you have the best of ideas at times.
Keep it up then, as we could all use the shade, your gloomy shade provides.
But enough goofing around in the sands, onto one last bit of story
With the mysterious "reclusiveness" of the Solmic siblings
Or I guess the casual nature of Solmic royalty.
Those two are always out on the town, too busy for boring formal occasions.
Says the prince who is hundreds of miles from his castle.
Too true TeeHee, there is nothing shy about those two.
Ah the comedy routine returns with Fogado's reveal.
More of an intentional lie, than an accident, but its your sister that lets slip with that one.
The royal reveal for real.
...Diamant is right there Alfred.
Back to Veyle being the most villainous player of FEH ever.
And conniving in a way where we have no choice but to fall for her plan.
Now there is the masochistic Griss we all know.
It is interesting how they foreshadow Mauvier's opinion of evil Veyle here
...but that is enough story nonsense, see you all next chapter.
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On 11/10/2023 at 1:55 AM, Jotari said:
(and Leif's inability to get hit by status effects very useful).
Sorry to get a bit nit-picky here, but Leif isn't immune to status staves, its just that like many later games deployment order is a part of enemy staff targeting priority, and with how deployment order works, Leif is always the lowest priority target for enemy staff. If for some reason he is the only valid target, status staves can effect him, it is just rare to be in that position.
Phew, I feel like I am a bit late getting to this one, but it was an interesting one, as this ranking tends to be very tied to the value of staves...
Now I am not including the light magic using base classes in this (so FE4 Shaman, FE5's Bard and Sister class, FE7 and FE8's Monk class), as I do see them as very distinctly different classes, filling VERY different niches, but I suspect we wont get a ranking for so rare a class, so I will talk about them quickly here at the top.
FE4 Shaman I am tempted to give A tier, mostly because Julius is rather hard to deal without Julia. To be fair, their exclusive access to Nosferatu, both being scripted to never be killed, only captured, and returned at the seizing of next castle, and even Deirdre has a scripted moment to shine with her Silence Staff in Chapter 1. Admittedly that might still be too high for a mere infantry unit, but Julius is very difficult to deal with, without Julia, and utterly trivial with her.
FE5 Sister gets full S rank for having good starting staff rank, and gaining a rank on promotion. They also get access to Nosferatu, which leads to fun Wrath Nosferatu strats, although that does either require you to grind a light magic rank and promote Sara, which is only possible after by Hammerneing the only Lightning tome you get early game twice, or buy two more in chapter 22, or far more likely, use the Wrath Manuel for Linoan. As for Homeros, the bard, he behaves like a mage, until he promotes and gets both Nosferatu access, and D rank staff, which is made easier by him having Paragon.
FE 7 gets B tier for its monk. The monk ends up very similar to the one Shaman the game gets for a clear B tier, with the higher staff rank on promotion, as its niche distinguishing it from the other magic classes.
FE 8 has a more solid version of A tier for the very simple reason that the Bishop's slayer skill is really useful in the extremely monster infested late game of Sacred Stones, trading the better early staff utility of the Cleric for better early combat from the Monk.
S Tier: One of the Best Classes in the Game
Thracia 776: Staff are king in Thracia, and this class is the best at accessing staff. Easiest S tier decision yet...I could probably leave it at that, but seeing me miss all this Thracia discussion led me to elaborate a little. Getting Safy to A rank staff for chapter 12 is vital for most playthrough, and usually means she is the first unit you promote for the +1 staff rank to get there. As many people know as a fun fact, but rarely interact with enough to really understand is that staff can miss in Thracia, but there are a few important things to note here; first it reaches 100% as soon as your staff unit reaches 10 skill, and by chapter 6 you can get the Od Scroll that increases the holder's Skill growth by 30, and is one of the least in demand scrolls for other classes, so it doesn't take long to get; second is that weapon experience for staff only is dependent on staff rank, with personal staff giving a whopping 10, and you get full experience and weapon experience without spending a use when a staff misses, so getting a staff miss can be optimal at times, with LTCs sometimes rigging one intentionally, and even on a more casual playthrough accidentally getting one with a high rank staff I consider a lucky boon. This class also has the two units that get personal staff, which tend to be very good.
I may just keep repeating that staff are king, but I do think its important to talk about how powerful they are. Warp, rescue, and rewarp are all infinite range, and with stealing/capturing, rather available (you even get a warp in chapter 7). Status staves are infinite range, last until healed (either by restore staff, sitting on a throne/gate, ending the map, or another status overriding it), and only require the staff wielder have a higher magic than the target to effect them, which also increases the value of the Restore staff even more. The Barrier staff increases the magic stat by 7 (as this is like gen 1 pokemon with Magic playing double duty as Resistance as well), which can let you status staff things you shouldn't, or get some extreme kills with your mages. There are also the excellent personal staves, like Tina's thief staff, which allows you to steal any weapon/staff/item from a foe that has lower magic than Tina (who can be Barriered up for that +7 Magic before using it...), Tina's unlock staff, which opens any door or chest on the map (in a game famous for nearly soft locking you if you run out of means to unlock doors), and of course Safy's hammerne staff to fully fix any weapon/staff you want, which is especially good with how many great personal weapons, or just amazing staff you get. Beyond those simple descriptions, the maps Thracia throws at you makes these effects especially useful, from things like Berserking Reinhardt to watch one of the most terrifying bosses in the game eviscerate one of the most difficult maps for you, to warping close to trigger potent event, not mention letting you blitz enemy staff units, that will gladly inflict your army with these terrifying effects themselves (some of whom you even recruit, with those staff still functioning if you are fast enough), or simply doing a traditional warp skip of a difficult seize map.
Shadow Dragon: Getting unreasonably many infinite range warp staff in a game where every objective is seize is a recipe for making the most basic staff units to be top tier. Plus the classic warp Nagi, Aum her corpse back up to then warp her again for the one turn kill is a classic way to one turn Medius even on the highest difficulties.
New Mystery of the Emblem: I considered putting this in merely A tier, in large part due to the Warp being far more limited in this game, and even inaccessible in Lunatic and above difficulties, but the many utility staffs added swayed me to move it back up to S tier. The most prominent staff added has to be the Again staff, an infinite range staff that gives one unit an extra turn, which is amazing, but you only get three uses per staff. The Rescue staff also arrives very early game, and with only E rank requirement, and tends to play the part of a faux warp staff, which is still very useful, if not as useful as its Shadow Dragon Warp counterpart, but with such a low rank, tends to get pawned off on the Sages later into the game. The dramatic maps wide Silence staff that effects both armies is a delicate, but very powerful staff as well, able to cripple some maps (chapter 23 comes immediately to mind), but is a double edged sword if you use it wrong. The infinite range staff that can open chests is a nice one to mention as well, but more of a convenience than anything all that amazing. That being said, the extra staff rank this class gets is a clear reason to reclass into it even after promotion, over Sage and Sorcerer in both DS games, despite all three getting tomes and staff, made even more valuable by these being games where arms scrolls don't work on staff rank
Echoes, Shadows of Valentia: I must admit, I have been swayed a little by popular opinion to put this class into S tier instead of A tier. While Warp is not as useful in a rout focused game like this, getting the Warp and Rescue combo with Silque and Fae on Alm's route is nice. Invoke is really good, and while it is frustratingly random, Expel is a godsend on some maps with Canters. Add to that some endgame Fortify spam with Tatiana, and it makes for a nice class to have around. Healing in general is very useful, and the way magic work in this game, you really want to double up on healers. I will note, that I have never managed to get Anew on any run before the post game, and thus don't consider it for these rankings.
A Tier: A Good Class
Three Houses: These tend to be the most useful classes to be in for a white magic user, with Priest giving extra heal uses on top of healing more with those uses, and Bishop doubling your white magic uses with even more extra healing. For their tiers, they are the best classes to be in for your white magic users, and Bishop is even viable for the final class of a male white magic user. With things like Warp, and Rescue usable every map (and whose uses can be doubled in Bishop), being good with white magic is rather useful, but there is the awkward competition with any more combat oriented magic classes also getting access to white magic, which keeps them out of S tier.
Sacred Stones: This just barely gets bumped up here due to Bishop getting the slayer skill to help with the monster infested late game. I do also find the torch staff, and restore staff as nice added utility for the class earlier in the game, both helping with the only chapters that even resemble being difficult in this game, and Warp can help getting the early win with chapter 19 as well. It does also have an especially long early game monopoly on staff utility, with the Troubadour coming particularly late (and being particularly bad) in this game.
B Tier: An OK Class
Engage: My first instinct was to put this in A tier, but that was mainly due to lucking in to an S tier Deirdre ring on my first round of ring making on Maddening, and with the passive healing that ring gives, this class can use Chain Guard with impunity, which makes it much better. In more normal playthoughs, Chain Guard is far more obnoxious to use (especially with HP levelups breaking you ability to use it), and it is the big unique utility of the class line. Staff are fairly good in this game, but there are enough good promoted classes with staff access, that they only really monopolize that utility in the early game. Also punching is good, its just hard to get the stats to make it work right with this class, so you might even promote someone into this class for the punches. Admittedly in the linked ironman running I am doing right now, I lucked into a Framme with rather good combat stats, that can actually make those punches work, but I suspect that isn't exactly a common occurrence. I am still tempted to put it into A tier, but you just need some luck to get this class to really shine (which I have randomly stumbled into in different ways, on different runs...).
Binding Blade: This is mainly due to this class tending to get the best ability to use the warp staff, due to stats (over the Troubadour), and ease of getting the staff rank (over Sages/Druid). Also the early game healing monopoly, although stats aren't as important for that, so Troubadours, get a bit of an edge there when they start arriving, and Sages can take over some healing duty after promotion territory as well. Speaking of promotion, they kind of have the combat issue of only using light magic, starting at E rank, and is unavailable before chapter 11, so you don't get much out of promoting one earlier than that. I will also add that Yoder is a solid late game prepromote, which helps buoying up the value of this class in the later game.
Fates: Now I am mainly talking about the Birthright class here, as I already discussed Butler/Maid as part of the Troubador line (although they didn't have a major impact on my ranking there, seeing them more as an interesting side-grade to the already excellent Strategist class). This class is a bit too much of a mixed bag to really cement the A tier, or drop down to C tier. Staff utility is useful, but the Birthright class give a lot of promoted classes staff access, so that is more of an early game value, and I don't find utility staff as useful in Birthright, as they are in Conquest, so they tend to drop off after your team starts promoting. On the weapon side of things, Bows are great in this game, but do force the female side to use their strength to attack (as the Shining Bow is a Conquest weapon, which doesn't drop in Birthright), while the male side getting Lances means they get access to Guard Naginata tankiness, or the far more available Bolt Naginata to use magic to attack, although I am burying the lead a little, as you can also promote into the sage equivalent of Onmyoji for better magic utility. It does also get Luck rally, which is only really useful on an ironman, and if they go the Onmyoji route, they get a double rally with Magic, which is far more useful.
C Tier: A Subpar ClassAwakening: Healing falls off a fair bit later in this game, but this class gets the skills to make them the best at it for that early game where it is useful. Buyable rescues are also nice, but this is another E tier staff that is easy for promoted classes that get staff utility to use. Really this class is only really useful early game, as better classes can take over staff duty after promotion. I am a bit torn as to whether this should eek its way into B tier for its early game value...
Blazing Sword: They get worse move, and stats than the Troubadour, and the utility staff that give them a niche after promoting your Druids and Sages, are both far later game, gutted by Pent being a staff wielding beast, and not as useful due to the maps remaining. Additionally, very enemy phase games like this are where using items to heal is more viable, as losing your player phase isn't as big a deal when you get most of your work done on enemy phase.
Genealogy of the Holy War: While healing is useful in this game, this class line gets the move of armored knights, and can't even keep up with the infantry...
Path of Radiance: Staff utility is less useful on more enemy phase games like this, but even if less useful, it is still useful enough to keep all of them out of D tier. Rhys does fine, easier to use than Mist, and your prepromoted sages don't get staff, so they don't have as much competition.
Radiant Dawn: If only you got some of the amazing staff your opponents get access to, this class might be higher up. Healing is still useful, but there are some funky competition for this class, for instance over 2/3 of part 4 have another staff unit force deployed, Rhys always competes with Mist for a slot in part 3, and Micaiah's Sacrifice ability complicates the question of healing/restoring monopoly the class has in part 1. Add to that how much staff acting like weapons screws over any combat you can pretend these units have, and healing items being particularly good in this game, and it is itching to get into D tier. The main thing keeping them out of it, is that this is the kind of game where healing with a staff is particularly useful, as it is too player phase oriented for items to really replace a healer's utility, so deploying a few spare healers in empty slots isn't a terrible idea.
D Tier: A Bad Class
Sol vs Luna
in General Fire Emblem
Posted
Luna is almost always better for one simple reason, Luna is something you can include in your strategies because failing to proc Luna is a minor setback, while failing to proc Sol is a dead character. Luna is lower risk, and higher reward than Sol is. The main time Sol really helps is when you have already found a way to break that game.