epilepsyduck
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I did not expect this level of Renault apologia. I prefer to think of it as undead and in shambles, but hey! As long as it's still moving. A lot of the FE6 portraits have blinking frames now! I've spotted that in a few other JPN GBA hacks that have FE6 chars, but idk where the sprites come from lol. Chapter 12 is the last chapter I played before starting this LP, and it's probably the biggest one yet. Prepare for surprisingly scary foes, yet more recruitables heaped onto our already-full plates, and the secret to unlocking our team's full potential. Chapter 12 Part 1: Zyne's Revenge -
Still in a bit of a recovery mode from the chaos of the holidays, but if I can't manage a tiny update like this one I may as well not post lol. Let's finish off the Annoying Cave of Wasted Time, meet a familiar face, and hopefully move on to something more exciting. Chapter 11 Part 3: A Bone To Pick
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Thanks for being patient with my turbulent schedule lol. I try to keep things consistent but life seems to have other plans. In the first part of Ch 11, a bunch of annoying walls sprung up to divide my forces and leave Flomi in a terrible situation. Let's see how Saya and co. pull together with maximum speed and efficiency. Chapter 11 Part 2: The Little Thief That Could
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What is a man?
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Old LPs never die. They just get neglected for months on end while the thread creator goes in and out of the hospital. I'm sorry for letting this all fall apart, y'all. I've been in sorry shape recently, but I'm back and I want to at least try and keep us on the rails. I can't really dedicate to more than 1-2 posts a month, but that's about what I was averaging before anyway. Putting all that grim shit behind us, let's see what Chapter 11 has in store for our intrepid-but-useless protagonist. Chapter 11 Part 1: Cask of Amontillado Camilla Edition
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It took me a while to really warm up to Awakening, but over time I've grown quite a bit more fond of it. I consider it my favorite of the 3DS games and probably tied with Blazing Sword and Genealogy for the 2nd favorite spot (RD's spot as my absolute favorite is non-negotiable lol).
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Gray Best boy? Best boy. Certainly, he's the best character from Ram imo, and only a hair behind Lukas for best starting member of Alm's team. Thankfully, he gets a decent amount of screentime, too, and has some nice supports with other folks. His relationship with Clair's cute enough, one of the few bits of romantic interaction in Echoes outside of Mae/Boey that I'm not totally disappointed by. I made him a Mercenary, and he was easily the best one in the game, and an absolute juggernaut I practically never had to worry about. Just with that level of power had made it to his Heroes incarnation lol. Sonya Some people might dismiss Sonya as just a fanservice character. Those people are disgustingly, hideously wrong. It's a real shame the game doesn't give Sonya more supports or story presence, and that some players are just plain going to miss out on her entirely, but at least what we do get is pretty great. She ended up being my best Priestess, hands down, even with her nerfed spell list, and became a real terror with the Ladyblade in her hands. What's with that lame-ass ending, though? A lot of the endings are kinda disappointing, but that one in particular is bullshit and I ignore it. Duma Much like Mila, Duma is conceptually fine but let down by a lack of any real exploration. The game doesn't give him a chance to show much in the way of positive traits that it repeatedly claims he has, because by the time the game starts he's completely out of control. I don't remember if he even has dialogue outside of the Memory Prism he appears in; if he doesn't, that really handicaps his ability to be more than a vague threat on the horizon. So while on paper he's better off than a lot of the other evil dragon antagonists, in the end his role in the story doesn't play out all that differently. A shame.
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Silque Not necessarily the most interesting or rounded character here, but she's fine. I like her very lovely design and her mature voice, very fitting for her all in all. I do wish she got supports that weren't just Faye, though, even though I actually kinda like said support chain. Her prior connection with Jesse would've been perfect for some sort of postgame-only support, or maybe even for letting her join Celica's group the way Faye and Kliff can. As far as Cleric utility goes, Warp is obviously helpful, her Invoke ability is the best of the bunch even if it eats right through her HP pool, and in general she was useful to have around even after Tatiana came in and almost totally eclipsed her. Plus I handed her the Dracoshield I got off Desaix, which made her hilariously durable even late into the game. Deen I didn't pick him up, so I don't have much to say about him. People have made fun his vaguely Squidward-esque voice and edgelord design plenty already. I can't really comment on his performance either, obviously, and I haven't read what limited dialogue he gets if you choose him. I might give him a whirl on some later playthrough, though since he's mutually exclusive with one of my favorite characters, he might never make the cut. Mila I think Mila's pretty interesting, at least conceptually. The idea of a supposedly "good" god not being all they're cracked up to be isn't necessarily original, but it can be pretty cool if explored properly. Unfortunately, the game doesn't really go there with Mila, so she's kinda left in an awkward place where the game says she's some opposite-but-equally-terrible problem with Duma but then never really shows us that outside of one cutscene; and even then, her reaction to what's happening in that cutscene isn't that bad, given who she's dealing with. So honestly, I'm just kinda eh on her for being an interesting idea that just doesn't get followed through on.
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Archeology is a type of science and you don't just study generic "science" anyway I love what GC did for Lancers. They were just indescribably awful in the base game, but I found them pretty useful here. Still pretty niche, but at least they function well within that niche unlike vanilla VC.
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Lukas What a great dude. Lukas is easily my favorite member of the starting party, no competition. He's got a really nice voice in particular, I think, though in a vocal cast as great as Echoes that doesn't necessarily mean much. It's a shame that the Soldier/Knight/Baron class is so bad in Echoes, though, because it didn't take long for him to stop being all that helpful. He never hit Valbar levels of terrible, but he struggled nonetheless. Catria My favorite Whitewing, hands down. I don't relate to the whole "middle child" thing or whatever, but I love her voice and great new design, boobplate be damned. I guess I'm a sucker for dedicated knight ladies. And while she's obviously Unrequited Crush Girl Prime, she at least doesn't constantly endlessly talk about it, so it's not a problem. She didn't quite equal Est or Clair in terms of sheer power, but she held her own decently by endgame, so she was pretty helpful to have along. Jedah There is a nugget of a good villain in Jedah, a character who could've worked at least on paper. He does actually have some motivation beyond just constant evil cackling, and some talent for schemes without dipping into Manfroy's literally-not-a-single-mistake-for-20-years level of scheming. But with that said, he's not really compelling in practice, and he's the main reason Celica's plotline derails so severely towards the end, as well as eroding all her agency and reducing her to "Alm's wife" once all is said and done. So I'm not terribly inclined to be generous to him, and I don't like his ugly blue design much either.
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Can you stop quoting me every single time I post in this topic?
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There's like a DLC episode where you play Selvaria and co. for, like, four battles. I never touched it but it's a neat thing to have. I've got issues with the original VC, but I really like the Gallian Crossfire mod, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye on your long, no doubt painful journey through all it has to offer. And I promise I won't make fun of Welkin too much.
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Clive Clive's personality basically begins and ends at "just some guy", which I guess explains why the writers seemed to favor him so much over all the cool ladies they created by mistake. His interactions with other, better characters at best make him seem boring and at worst make him seem completely out of touch. He's not even fun to hate like Berkut, he's just teeth-grindingly terrible and the fact the game spends so much time trying to make him seem cooler than he really is just plain sucks. Certainly, that isn't helped by him being such a dreadful unit, especially compared to Mathilda. Fuck this dude, give his role to literally anyone else and leave him in the trash where he belongs. Jesse Part 3 of 4 of Tiddy Emblem, so I was inclined to like him when we first met. I'm not overly fond of flirty-bordering-on-lecherous dudes like Sain or Inigo, though, which knocks him down a peg compared to his fellow boob buddies. He also didn't do super great for me until he hit Dread Fighter, and while he was pretty good after that last promotion he still didn't measure up to Kamui. Oh well, at least he's hot I guess. Rudolf Not winning any father of the year awards, that's for sure. I know his plan was pretty much the same in Gaiden, but I think Echoes could've benefited from jettisoning it because it's pretty convoluted and silly and just comes the fuck out of nowhere (though I'll admit I'm not sure what they'd have to replace it with). At least he ditched that terrible mustache.
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I was kidding because some of his lines can be construed as flirting, though they're really more like light teasing. He isn't like canon gay or anything lol.
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Python Fire Emblem sure does have a thing for gay/bi archers, huh? Python is far more hilarious than he has any right to be. Another unit that could've done with some more supports (though he at least has the situation remedied with DLC, so it's not all bad), what little time we do get with him is memorable and fun. I do wish he was a bit better as a unit, though; while all the Archers are useful, Python has a really rough start and only came into his own fairly close to the end for me. Maybe I was just spoiled by Atlas by that point. Mae Absolutely, indisputably the game's best character. Cherami Leigh's performance is fantastic, but unlike Berkdork who's mostly memorable because of a similarly great performance, Mae would actually still be great even without it. I love her optimism and seemingly endless energy, I love her interactions with Celica and Boey, and I love that she's actually got some minor degree of plot importance and sticks around in cutscenes. That she, along with Boey, are some of the only people in Valentia who don't treat Celica like some Irrational Woman stereotype helps immensely. Sonya ended up showing her up in the unit department, sadly, but she still helped out here and there with Thunder-sniping and occasionally use of the Brave Sword I gave her. Nuibaba Alright, I suppose. I do actually appreciate a villain who's ultimately not a huge player but nonetheless appears for more than one scene. She's maybe a bit too much of the Sexy Token Female Villain, and I'm not sure whether she's supposed to be a witch or an arcanist since the game flip flops on that, but Nuibaba's mostly fine in my book. Her chapter is one of the only really infamous ones that I actually didn't struggle with, but I'll chalk that up to extraordinary luck and heavy grinding.
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Kliff More smug mage boys? Echoes, you're spoiling me. Though I suppose Kliff doesn't strictly have to be a mage, but that's what I made him, and I didn't regret it a bit. He does, however, have very little screentime compared to everyone else from Ram; even Faye gets two supports. At least the one support he does have is available right from the start and with a character who isn't completely optional, but it still isn't enough of Kliff for my taste. Palla More Whitewings goodness. I really like her voice actress's performance and her new design! She, like her sisters, could've benefited from some interactions that weren't each other, but that's a minor quibble. Unfortunately, for me she tapered off the harshest of all the Whitewings, and it soon became a struggle to keep her alive. She eventually just became a way to fire off Triangle Attacks. Grieth His chapter is pretty rough, as are most of the chapters leading up to it, I'm not gonna lie, but I dig his design and he's delightfully hammy, so I'll forgive him.
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Zeke He's an okay dude, overall. For combat, Mathilda ended up outstripping him, but he was hardly useless and he did okay with the Duma Lance once Clair stole his true weapon. I don't really have a strong opinion on this guy I guess. He comes a little too late for me to have much of an opinion, and unlike Tatiana he didn't fill a niche I didn't already have to help him stand out. Saber Part 1 of 4 of Tiddy Emblem, so he was off to a good start. Certainly, he's a useful unit, as all the Mercs are, though for me he was the weakest of the bunch come Part 4. I also think he's just plain hot, which earns him a couple extra points. His occasionally condescending attitude towards Celica annoys me into not really liking him outside of his attractive design, though. Said attitude isn't necessarily a problem in and of itself (I'd argue it makes some degree of sense in-character, and he still has enough respect for Celica to follow her without slapping her around), but it's part of a pattern in the game's treatment of her and it irritates me. Still, hardly a least favorite of mine, and his voice is pretty cool. Desaix Meh. He's not exactly compelling and maybe a little too mustache-twirling, but he doesn't really bother me. At the very least, the game is well aware of what a creep he is. He kinda sucks but he's ultimately inoffensive in my eyes.
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I'm not sure what this in reference to. If you mean the Fern man, my main issue with the dude is entirely with the framing of his behavior and not necessarily that he's such a douche to start with.
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Well, it didn't take me a month this time! We're getting through everything I should've included in the last post, as well as finally discovering that important time pressure element I've been hyping up all this time. Chapter 10 Part 3: Flier Emporium
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I didn't mean I wanted Clive and Mathilda to swap roles so much as I meant I wanted Mathilda to have story importance, and I wouldn't exactly be heartbroken if that came at the expense of Clive's. At the very least I'd like her to keep appearing in cutscenes after her rescue and maybe support someone who isn't Clive without me having to buy DLC. In my dream version of Echoes Clive would not exist at all, Mathilda would be sitting in his seat as head of the Deliverance, and she wouldn't come across as such a wishy-washy mediocre waste of space like her hubby does. But my dream version of Echoes would look pretty different from the finished product overall lol.
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Fernand BLEH. Unlike Berkbitch who at least had a second or two where he seemed possibly interesting, Ferny burned that bridge basically immediately. He was an entitled douche from moment one, and never came across as sympathetically as the game apparently expected him to. That he gets namedropped of all people in the final chapter but Rinea doesn't is peak bullshit, because Fernand actively earned and deserved what eventually befell him. And sure, people say the DLC added more to him, but when you need to add paid content to make a character less unbearable, you've already got a problem. Mathilda Excellent/10. I love lady paladins, and I love powerhouse ladies, and Mathilda provides both in one package. She was easily my top Gold Knight when all was said and done (not like her competition was much to look at anyway), and I even Villager Forked her and looped her back to Gold Knight so she'd have an easier time handling Thabes. An effectively 120 Level Mathilda with the Rhompaia is a beautiful thing to see. I gotta say, though, the narrative's treatment of her is utterly lame. She deserves far better than to be an accessory to her boring husband, and in fact I'd argue she deserved to take his story role entirely. But that's just IntSys and their perennial sexism I guess. Genny Really, really deserved better. She's one of Celica's friends, setting out with her on her adventure from the very start, so she really deserved to have supports with someone other than an optional character (no matter how fantastic that optional character is). It's all part of how Echoes diminishes anyone who respects Celica in favor of just filling her party with dudes who treat her like ass tbh. At least she's got a cute design, and she's a pretty decent Cleric with a good spell list, even if her HP pool gets taxed from being the only Cleric on Celica's team unless you drop Shade into her party.
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Clair If Mae wasn't in the game, Clair would easily be the best of the bunch, especially with that new design of hers. I love the likes of Serra and Maribelle, so that should come as no surprise. The fact she's pretty much the only woman Alm recruits who has any real screentime or story importance to speak of helps her, but even if she didn't I would've loved her anyway. She also ended up being pretty impressive in my run, and got the Gradivus by the end for even more power. A shame she's such a package deal with her bland-ass brother. Leon Yet more proof that archery is an inherently gay form of combat. But seriously, I love this guy. He's got a sharp sense of humor and a really appealing design. And hey, even if he's a smidge on the stereotypical side, it's nice to have a gay dude in the game. I love Niles and Rhajat too, and I think they get a bad rap, but their implementation had a few issues that Leon mostly avoids. Using him was a bit of a struggle, sadly, especially once Atlas started stealing his thunder, but at least he could chip from a safe distance, so he was never an outright liability. A shame the game didn't let him and Kamui date, they'd be Valentia's power couple for sure. Massena I legit did not remember who this was until I looked it up. He's whatever, I guess.
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Tobin Well, one can never claim that Tobin isn't consistent. Unfortunately, what he's consistent in is being mediocre. I struggle to really remember anything he says or does in the plot that couldn't have easily been handled by just about anyone else, and of the Ram villagers he feels the blandest and least interesting; even Faye, as one-note as she is, feels more distinct than this kid. He's also just kind of okay as a unit, never truly becoming dead weight but also never really shining in any meaningful way either. I really wish Kliff had inherited his (admittedly minimal) story importance and screentime. Conrad Kind of a dick tbqh. I'm not happy about disliking Conrad, but he plays a huge part in how Echoes strips Celica of her agency and competence, and he gets to work early on that front too, long before shit like Jedah's constant pop-ins or her making the world's dumbest deal. Sure, he seems sweet enough, but the moment he slapped Celica was the moment he killed any real interest I could've held in him, and that was already waning by the third time he popped out of nowhere to help her in some bullshit way. It doesn't help that, to be perfectly honest, Celica's team doesn't need a Cavalier, and he struggles to accomplish much of anything in those swamp levels she has to deal with. Bleh. Slayde I'm actually kinda fond of this fucker. He's a massive prick, for sure, but still, he's a memorable one at least. He certainly made an impression in the prologue, and I at least in theory appreciate an antagonist with a prior score to settle with the hero, even if that doesn't really mean much for his minor role in the story. I'm sure some people will point out that he's fairly flat and doesn't strictly add much... but let's be real, not every character in a story can or even needs to be dynamic or rounded, especially not minor antagonists. Certainly, he's more fun to have around that Berkdouche.
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Delthea Adorable bratty magic kids are another character type I'm fond of, and Delthea provides plenty of that. She bounces pretty well off her brother Luthier in their limited screentime together, I feel. She's also very powerful, especially once she hits Priestess and can get some good swords to equip. I just wish she didn't have both Aura and Ragnarok, since once she learns the latter there's rarely any reason to cast the former anymore. A Thunder or Saggitae spell would've been nice to have instead, but maybe that would've made her spell list a little too good. Est I didn't give a fuck about the Whitewings before Echoes came around, but I'm glad it did because now I see what I've been missing out on all this time. Est is actually probably my least favorite of the three, but I still appreciate her as part of the trio and she did ultimately become the strongest of the bunch, and only a hair behind Clair for strongest Pegasus Knight overall. Plus it gives me someone around Genny's age to ship Genny with, instead of shipping her with a literal grown man like some nasty folks seem obsessed with doing. Halcyon I nearly forgot who this guy even was. You may as well call him "Alm's promotion" and be done with it. He's got potentially interesting backstory stuff to work with, but since the game never really explores any of that it goes to waste. Yet another NPC who would've been right at home as a playable unit, and yet another waste of potential.
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Mycen Well, he's better than Nomah, on account of having a better voice actor, being around longer, and having more to do in the plot. With that said, I'm not really a big fan of Mycen. He's part of the silly reveals that come out like a spray of bullets towards the end of the game, and while he's around longer than Nomah he's still absent for a really long time, which makes it hard to get attached to him. At least he's a pretty solid unit overall. Boey He's not a redhead, but he is a (slightly) smug mage boy, so I like him anyway. It helps he's considered part of a duo with indisputably-best-character-in-the-game Mae, and that he genuinely respects Celica in a way most of the dudes who eventually take bigger speaking roles than him really don't. As a unit, Excalibur is pretty much always a guarantee of unit viability, especially for Sages, and while he started to taper off a bit towards the end he never felt truly useless like some units did. Rinea Deserved writers who gave a fuck about her, tbh. As it is in Echoes she's Berkybore's accessory who he mistreats the whole game but who we're supposed to assume he loves and cherishes in some way. Her eventual fate is capital-B Bullshit, made even worse by her completely absolving Berknut of his actions and the game basically forgetting what a shitheel he was. I don't hate her, but her existence just bring a bunch of dumb bullshit into the mix and the game would've really benefited from her not being there.
