Kngt_Of_Titania
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Posts posted by Kngt_Of_Titania
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It's Sephiroth, you got your FE and FF mixed up :)
Damn typo. Will edit.
(I've been arguing in a Sephiroth Sephiran thread for the last day)
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Symphonia has the "FF7" syndrome because most westerners were introduced to the Tales series with Symphonia and proceeded to declare it the best RPG ever. FF was relatively popular before FF7, but the PS1 and PS2 made gaming popular and the first FF titles on these new systems put FF to the top of the RPG heap during the new gaming boom, especially with Sony themselves pushing the game. ToS received the same treatment from Nintendo and was one of the only Tales series games to get any form of TV advertisement up to that point (though it obviously did not sell nearly as well as FF7, it did sell significantly better than all previous Tales games). They both also mark the first time in the series' history that a game in their series did better in the west than in the east.
In other words, Tales of Symphonia is vastly overrated by its fans.
I guess what I mean is that I've never actually seen the treatment for ToS that I've seen for FF7; the sheer insanity and fanboi-ism for Cloud, Sephiroth, and "One-Winged Angel" is beyond the scope of the English language.
The sad part is that only one of them actually has some form of claim to a title like that
. FF7 was legitimately groundbreaking and easily one of the favorites for the best game of that generation. I don't understand where the "ToS = best game ever" stuff comes from . It was outperformed on its very own console! But maybe that's the Skies of Arcadia fangirl in me talking.
FF7 was not ground-breaking. It merely dumbed down Westernized the series so more people could play it. It's really one of the more mediocre FFs by an objective standard. The gameplay is nothing groundbreaking (besides maybe the materia concept, but even that's gimmicky more than awesome or revolutionary, unlike say, the ATB system).
I don't say ToS is "teh best game evar", but it does have fun gameplay (and some decent comedic scenes). The only part of FF7 I actually enjoyed was Yuffie and her sidequest.
EDIT: I've heard good things about Baten Kaitos.
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Okay then.
Neither is Linde when Etzel does nearly the exact same thing without resources (barring Resire, but that takes a hell of a lot anyway).
Now, can we move on with this?
Except Etzel is doubled by practically everything with his crap SPD. He's really useful for a 6 MOV rescue user (and him being doubled doesn't matter for that purpose in C11, since he OHKO's, or C12, since the only combat he sees is when he either attacks a Levin Sword SM in my strat or finishes off a barbarian in dondon's), don't get me wrong, but he needs a speedwing to not be doubled by the average SPD H3 enemy (and it's really hard to get in C11 w/o costing turns); Linde, in counter, needs a Seraph Robe, but there's slightly less competition for those (Marth needs to have 25 SPD to not get doubled by Medeus, so he may want any Speedwings he can get; also, Sirius might like one), and this puts her in a durability range where most enemies can't ORKO her. Never mind her massive Aura chip or the fact that Etzel makes a craptastic Gharnef killer compared to her because he can't reach the 20 SPD before rainbow pot not to be doubled by Gharnef w/o significant difficulty.
Look, I hate saying this, but in cases like this game, I'd just rather have Malliesia do it. The only possible issue is Speed, and if we're dead worried about that, she can sort of "cheat" with Swordmaster from time to time. No, I'm not completely advocating it, but her Staff rank is guaranteed to be A Rank and an Arms Scroll makes her C Rank tomes guaranteed too.I'll agree with this...Mal would work most of the time, although I think you could get her to 20/8 before Gharnef. I mean, physic use puts her at like 18.50/-- for me at C12 and 19.50/-- for dondon at like C14. That's like 8-10 chapters for 8 levels. (And you could always throw one speedwing at her if she can't make that for some reason).
EDIT: I forgot about the Speedwings that drop in C9. D'oh.
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If characters are being denied access to Unique Utility based on other characters making them obsolete, doesn't Malicia make Yumina and Katarina redundant as well? She has more availability and Hammerne access with slightly better/equal stats (Yumina does have better Spd, but Malicia caps Spd once it should matter anyway).
Yumina being second best staffbot when you want to use two staffbots of some maps is fine. Wendell is like your fourth best staffbot (behind Etzel), and serves no purpose. Yumina, however, does, since you'll be fielding her for double physic use or when utility staves are required.
Katarina has more going for her than just a good tome/staff rank at base. She's a reliable backup Gharnef killer when Linde/Merric/Mal/Ellerean (whichever one you chose to raise) get cursed. With Gharnef's 25 RES/SPD, you can't really afford to be cursed in MAG or SPD and beat him. Katarina has high enough bases and MAG/SPD growth that she is rather unlucky to face such a problem -- she only needs to get about 4-7 levels (depending if you use rainbow pot or not) to be sufficient to kill Gharnef, which leaves little room for RNG cursage.
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Now pretend that it was a consumable item. Can you honestly tell me that it takes less thought that way?
The point is that it's NOT CONSUMABLE. You can put +2 SPD on Krom for one chapter and then switch it over to another character the next. If it was consumable, you couldn't do that; the stat bonus would be stuck on one person.
If you give people the option to shuffle stats like that between characters and then tune the game around intelligent use of such a feature, it will make it take more thought, yes. Without a doubt.
Having skills take their own slots takes away the only annoying feature of star shards...they hog the living crap out of your inventory at times.
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The skills are minor things, +5 STR, +5 evade, etc. This is the kind of thing you'd see in Final Fantasy Tactics, where new party members are about as generic as they come. A new class here, a few stat points there, it's all become so much less personalized.
Star shards in FE12 H3 are a big deal strategy-wise, because they can be MOVED from character to character at a whim. They only give like +1 STR/+1 SPD or +2 SPD or +2 DEF...but they can get a unit to double that otherwise wouldn't, or just achieve a ORKO on a boss to shave a turn.
So, you know what? They don't look interesting, but once you start manipulating them to achieve maximum performance, it gets surprisingly involved thought-wise, particularly when you have to start making compromises as to who gets what.
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Auron's plot developments are never used as a plot device though, while Kratos' do multiple times. I will admit I never saw the Auron = Kratos connection, though. Wow, Symphonia ripped that game off more than I realized.
Fair enough, but it's not like Kratos is as integral to the plot as you say. I mean, he's gone half (or more) of the game, unlike Auron. Auron is the reason why Tidus even comes in the first place, which is a HUGE driver of the plot (at least later on down the road), practically guides and leads the group, and carries their asses combat-wise too; he's like God incarnate for 90% of the game, until the writers try to make him have faults with his whole "I couldn't stop Sin single-handedly and I died" -- however, this means that his one fault is that he isn't SO powerful as to stop a 1,000 year old "god" by himself, and the whole "I drove the entire plot after I died" makes him seem even more badass.
What we learn as plot spoilers from Kratos (mostly) is really just explainations of WHY he bretrayed Lloyd & Company, similar to Auron. But Auron, unlike Kratos, is like "Everybody's sucking on my tit to succeed and I'm the only source of backstory most of the time".
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FFX's story is all about how Spira revolves around death and sacrifice though, and Yuna's pilgrimage is only the first part of that. With Symphonia it was pretty much "How many plot twists can we dump on Kratos" He's the badass swordsman traitor and he's 4000 years old and he's actually a good guy and he's the key to getting the super special blade (I forget the name) and he's Lloyd's father. I'd feel sorry for the guy being so badly handled, if he wasn't so damn boring.
And just how many spoilers are dumped on Auron? I'm a hipster badass swordsman who kicks ass with one arm in a sling who's friends with your daddy, who's the shell of Sin. Did I mention I traveled with Yuna's father, rebelled (BETRAYing the tried and true tradition of Sin's sacrifice), DIED, resurrected as a ghost but I actually have a physical form. I also traveled through dimensions into a dream world of a Fayth to retrieve you, Tidus. This sounds...familiar...somehow. Oh right.
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Kratos essentially blurts out his biggest plot twist (he is lloyd's father) in like his first fucking line of dialogue. When I heard "YOU'RE Lloyd?" I couldn't even believe the game did that and spent the entire time hoping it was just fucking with me. "He couldn't really be his dad, right? They wouldn't blow their load that quickly, would they?" and yet they did. This also goes for like every other plot twist.
About 5 seconds after learning Yuna was going on a "pilgrimage" to defeat Sin, I'm thinking "She's totally going to sacrifice herself." And I sit there through the game thinking "There's no fucking way they'd do something that obvious. No way. NOOOOO way." But then the writers trolled me when they managed to wrap THAT cliche in with the whole "religion establishment is evil" cliche. It's like getting dumped only to find out somebody did a hit-and-run with your car.
I feel your pain. But worse.
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You could say the exact same thing about Symphonia for those first two. Hell, I could go much further but that would obviously be spoilers.
SPOILERS IF YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY TOS
Fair enough on first point.
Kratos isn't actually a villain. He's more of a "I'm doing this my way and using Colette as a tool to an end." Unlike with Seymour (who's characterization is three annoying boss battles, one of which is actually somewhat difficult, and the whole "Death is salvation" mantra), Kratos actually has some depth and reasoning to his actions.
END SPOILERS
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To each their own, but FFX was way better than Tales of Symphonia in the plot department. Tales games suffer from this thing of "trying to hard to be in your face about the fact that they fuck standard cliches in the ass," whereas Final Fantasy is a lot more subtle and emotional about it. And FFX vs Tales of Symphonia is pretty much indicative of the difference.
The first thirds of Tales and the first half or two-thirds of FFX were very similar in structure, except the romance was touched upon in much better detail (and pretty much became a major contributor to the plot- I'm 99% sure that the events in the game were planned by the Fayth and Auron, in fact) and FFX felt more realistic (in emotion) and sorrowful as a result. Tales of Symphonia is just filled with "Racism is wrong" and "everyone should have free will" constantly being jammed down your throat after this nonsense about "WORLD REGENERATION!!!!!" And the way FFX builds up and as a whole tells its story is far superior to Tales of Symphonia.
The battle system's fun though. Gotta give it that.
I'm not saying that ToS had a great plot (although I think the characterization was decent enough), it's just that FFX is SO bad in the plot department that ToS manages to win. At least with ToS, I couldn't predict everything that was going to happen.
- Oh hey, awkward silence when Tidus mentions returning. Yuna's obviously a human sacrifice.
- Oh hey, Seymour! Obviously the villain here with the whole weirdness and creepy face. He's helping? Bullshit, he's probably going to backstab them. What's this? They all died? Derp.
- Oh hey, cutscene with Fayth with big Tidus reveal? This obviously means Tidus is going to sacrifice himself for Yuna since he obviously loves her, which means she's not going to die. But we kind of figured that.
Etc.
It's like FFX took the bible and made some weird sci-fi/fantasy hybrid of it, and the plot SUCKED. I hated it, but at least the gameplay wasn't also terrible like FVIII's. At least (most of) ToS's cliches aren't over 2,000 years old.
So saying ToS's plot is better isn't saying it's good; it's more like saying getting slapped in the face is better than getting kicked in the balls and then beat within an inch of your life.
EDIT: At least ToS's romance is meant to be taken with some comedy (esp. after Sheena's arrival brings the whole love triangle dynamic into play), whereas I think FFX is supposed to be all serious about YunaxTidus, which was just...sad, somehow. It felt like an after-school special relationship rather than genuine (I can't explain why, it just came off that way to me).
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Tales of Symphonia is just a fun game, imo. Not without flaws, but you have a very easy mode, a normal mode, and a very hard mode; as for the story, it's like FFX's without the suck and over-the-top allegory.
The best part of Tales of Symphonia is like the special Lloyd soulmate cutscene towards the end of the game. It determines who dies at the end of the game, how Lloyd is saved from a trap (very minor spoiler), and they're some of the best cutscenes I've ever seen. Zelos' cutscene is just a combination of shock value and pure sadness, Sheena's is cute, Colette's is annoying, Genus' is enlightening, and so on...
It's just one of those games you should pick up ASAP and be glad you found.
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Symphonia suffers from FF7 Syndrome as well.
When? Where? WHAT?!
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No. Just no.
I'm sorry, every single one of Seph's actions has the effect of indirectly starting or prolonging the war between laguz and beorc, with the possible exception of Senaki; claiming that he is merely a shocked bystander is silly, since he is the mastermind (and Zelgius is the hand) that started the wars in both PoR and RD, and there's plenty of evidence in both games supporting this. The whole affair with Senaki, as I said, is the only one that I'm not sure of, simply because the evidence is so slim to support any theory. It's possible he may have loved Senaki as a great-great-great-great-great....-granddaughter (isn't it heavily implied that he, as Lehran, started the Begnion bloodline, explaining Micky's branded status as Senaki's older sister?), but that doesn't mean he didn't use her. After all, he loved Zelgius as a son, but still used him as a tool for his mechanations (although Zelgius, agreeing with Sephiran's endgame, was in on Seph's plans; Senaki, who would never agree to such a malicious plan, was kept in the dark).
Simply put, there is almost no reason for the Senate to assassinate Senaki when they had the support of the people and could arrange an overthrow of her rule by the people from the shadows. If Senaki was assassinated when it was obvious the Senate was making a power grab, it would be way too obvious who did it and why, resulting in a chance that the wrath of the citizens of largest known nation in the world would be focused on them. The Senate may be greedy, but these are the same people that used Jarod's brutality to spawn a Daein revolution, instilled a worm in that revolution, and used the worm to create a puppet ruler using the power of a little known "blood pact"; they're not THAT stupid.
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Alright, I promised. I must discuss in detail about why Sain is so great. First (which can't be counted in the rank, sadly) there's the fact that Sain (along with Serra) IS the comedy in Fire Emblem 7. Nearly every funny scene that doesn't have Serra in it is Sain's personality clashing with somebody else's, usually Lyn or one of the pretty girls he sets his eyes on (read: Every one old enough to have undergone puberty, even promoted Nino; the sole exception is Prissy, who even Sain realizes is trying to get in Raven's pants).
But just as good as his comedic talents are his stats. With a little luck, he'll hit his first tier STR cap before 20/-- (and has 1-shot Kishuna on HHM with a random silver lance crit
) and he's one of the only characters in the game who will hit second tier cap on average by the level he'll end HM in, which is awesome. You know what else is awesome? The fact that he takes Kent's useless SKL and replaces it with awesome green hair STR while keeping roughly the same SPD (and more than enough to double practically everything in the game). OK, that's almost the same thing, but whatever. Oh yeah, he also has one of the best availabilities of any character in FE7 and has a horse in a game with plenty of flat terrain and almost no horseslayers. Even his CON is nice considering his weaponry and rescuing capabilities.What's not so awesome? His DEF, which I find rears its ugly head in Kinship's Bond, and is the only time Lowen is actually better than him at something. The horror! No, seriously, his DEF sucks. Like Prissy-Poo on Raven's...anyways, it's not THAT big of a deal most of the time, since he has an actual health pool (unlike casters) and doesn't die to everything with a bow (Florina and Fiora). Oh yeah, I'm missing something...ah, right!
Rating: 8.5/10
Current ranks (in order):
Bartre-2.8
Rebecca-3.13 (...the irony)
Dorcas-4.1
Eliwood-5.34
Guy-5.63
Erk-6.05
Lyn-6.12
Matthew-6.3
Serra-6.3
Oswin-6.7
Lowen-6.75
Kent-8.17
Hector-8.3
Priscilla-8.3
Florina-8.43
Marcus-9.29
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Top Pick:
Tales of Symphonia. Enjoy facing Maniac Mode Abyssion.
Honorable Mentions:
FF9
FF10
FF7 (just to see how overrated it is)
FF13-2 when it comes out later this month? (I'll be trying it since I liked FF13's gameplay)
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GIGANTIC ASS SPOILERS AHEAD
1. Sephiran sent the Black Knight to allow the Dawn Brigade to succeed in taking over Daein (the BK literally came at the last second to save Micky's life); this has two seperate effects.
- Allows for the set up of a puppet dictator via the use of a blood pact (the Senate did the actual blood pact, but Sephiran obviously knew what was planned).
- Ensures the survival of Rafiel, who communicates the information that the Senate ordered the extermination of the herons and sparked the great war. I suspect that Sephiran surmised that Rafiel would eventually commincate this to the laguz; it being pure coincidence seems unusual to me (at the very least, Sephiran took full advantage of a massive stroke of luck).
2. Sephiran sent the Black Knight (under his other guise, Zelgius) to ensure that the laguz would not succeed in defeating Begnion after Ike and his mercs are instrumental in crushing the incompetent generals that Begnion originally had guarding the border. This, of course, prolonged the war, allowing Sephiran to manipulate the Senate into pulling the strings of their new puppet regime (one that had the support of Daein as defenders of freedom, in all its great irony) and eventually causing Ashera to awaken and start her apocalypse (Sephiran, of course, is here to proclaim to her about just how violent all people are, conveniently forgetting to explain how he started it all).
3. Possibly is behind the assassination attempt of Senaki. I wasn't exactly clear about this one -- in plain sight, his servant Zelgius is there to save her life, and it seems like Sephiran supports her. However, this seems odd considering his plans; it alienates him against the Senate, who he needs to be buddy-buddy with in order to manipulate them. It may be that he drummed up a plan with the Senate for them to pretend to try to assassinate her, have him swoop in and "save" her, making her trust him completely.
The Senate is probably thinking that they could use Sephiran to then control Senaki and use the war to gain absolute power (Senaki's pro-Laguz standpoint is obviously unpopular when Begnion citizens -- who already have prejudices against Laguz -- are in constant fear for being torn to shreds by the "savages"). Sephiran, in reality, is using the situation to control Senaki in addition to the Senate, giving HIM total control of a superpower without anybody actually knowing it, which is brilliant.
4. The obvious things past Part 4.
GIGANTIC ASS SPOILERS OVER
...So what didn't he do? It's not like he's some one-dimensional idiotic villain that goes out and says "OH HAI THERE GUIZ THIS IZ WHAT I DO TO DESTROY THE WOOOORRRRLLLLDDDD". He's far more subtle, using the Black Knight/Zelgius to do what he cannot as High Chancellor.
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How come Florina is not on the chart?
Because I'm tallying the scores as we speak.
She will be in 5 minutes.
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He's kind of like Sain, but crappier in practice.
Sain and Kent both rank higher than Lowen in my books because of LHM alone, but Kent's stat distribution makes him worse in the main story (most HHM playthroughs) than his green counterpart (and they're both about equal in LHM). I went in detail about Lowen and I will go in detail about how awesome Sain is, but unfortunately Kent will not get the same treatment. I decided to make the justification for my ranking much like Kent's personality: serious, bland, uninteresting, lacking in depth, and more than a tad bit irritating.
Ranking: 7.5/10
EDIT: Nobody's offered to make me a Wil avatar yet.
Current ranks (in order):
Bartre-2.8
Rebecca-3.13 (...the irony)
Dorcas-4.1
Eliwood-5.34
Guy-5.63
Erk-6.05
Lyn-6.12
Matthew-6.3
Serra-6.3
Oswin-6.7
Lowen-6.75
Hector-8.3
Priscilla-8.3
Florina-8.43
Marcus-9.29
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Florina, what can I say? She's possibly your best flier in the game, and fliers are in huge demand in FE7 for ferrying.
Her growths are almost identical to Rebecca, although her crappy CON and weighty lances mean her AS is a bit shaky even with a high SPD base/growth, and she has a weakness to arrows (and, more importantly, ballistae) and crappy DEF in general (which is less forgivable since she can't 2 range like Beccy can). All in all, her combat isn't that hot.
But you don't bring Florina for her combat. No, you bring her to shave like 20 turns in LHM and quite a few in HHM, and she's irreplacable until Fiora (who, unless she's sorely underleveled, will outlevel and thus outclass) comes around; you NEED her for the lowest turn counts possible.
So, for being irreplacable, 9/10, but no 10/10 just because it's a pain in the ass to keep her alive at times.
Current ranks (in order):
Bartre-2.8
Rebecca-3.13 (...the irony)
Dorcas-4.1
Eliwood-5.34
Guy-5.63
Erk-6.05
Lyn-6.12
Matthew-6.3
Serra-6.3
Oswin-6.7
Lowen-6.75
Hector-8.3
Priscilla-8.3
Marcus-9.29
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Lyn? Florina was next because F is before L sigh.
My need to write a terrible joke overruled my not knowing we were doing Alphabetical Order where more than one person is recruited on the same chapter.
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So I think Lyn gets a bit of a unfair shake (her crappy personality and her piss poor memory concerning bandits aside...). She's actually a pretty good unit, and she's a good candidate for the Angelic Robe in LHM, which brings her from fragile to a respectable durability (training her in LHM certainly helps too). Her only other issue if this is done is the possibility of STR screwage, although this goes both ways (she's even better with it blessed). She's definitely a better candidate for the Heaven Seal than Eliwood, and bows does give her some anti-flier utility -- she's a rather good unit throughout the game, both in early-game and end-game. And I completely forgot the Mani Katti, which of course is Rapier++ (and since she can actually double, it's icing on the cake).
However, it's not all sunshine and puppies and bubbles and ponies and rainbows. Angelic Robe, even though it IS in LHM, still is a somewhat necessary investment (especially if you want her to dominate much of 17x and get a few free levels), and Heaven Seal is worth 20k, making you think twice about promoting her in S rank runs (although HHM has rather lenient Funds ranking compared to, say, EHM, and promoting Lyn won't break your bank).
Rating: 7/10. She has a lot of good points, and she's a solid character, but her high-maintainance to get her to kickass status is a bit high for FE7; she can't hold as high a rating as those who can kick ass without investment.
Current ranks (in order):
Bartre-2.8
Rebecca-3.13 (...the irony)
Dorcas-4.1
Eliwood-5.34
Guy-5.63
Erk-6.05
Matthew-6.3
Serra-6.3
Oswin-6.7
Lowen-6.75
Hector-8.3
Priscilla-8.3
Marcus-9.29
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Well, it's been 2 days since this has been up, so I'll make a new one.
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Neither am I, I'm basically supporting you here. As for the Seraph robe thing, Wendell actually needs that Seraph Robe to survive. Even Rainbow potion doesn't helpe him I think( unless it gives +2 to HP too? I dont exactly have Wifi access)
No, he's saying that it's stupid to use the Angelic Robe with Wendell when you can just do it with Etzel OR use a combination of Rainbow Potion/Shards on Wendell. But I argue that Etzel dosn't need help and thus you can save a Rainbow Potion use and put shards on more useful units that chapter by just not fielding Wendell at all.
Its just I find the thing for against Gharnef pointless. You can use any other magic user bar prepromotes and Wrys and they'll do well. Even Cecil reclassed would do fine with such growths.Average Gharnef Killer X (Linde/Merric/Ellerean/Mal) might be able to kill him, but what if they're cursed (Linde if she's MAG cursed, Merric if he's either MAG or SPD cursed)? Why give up a run when you can pick up Katarina (you'll know if your Gharnef killer is unsalvagable by the time she joins) and use her as a staffbot/chip to get her enough levels to kill him? She's not optimal, but her high base stats/level make her RNG-proof, which is really nice when growths don't go your way. That's what I'm arguing -- that she has that ON TOP OF her tome/staff rank.
Wendell does about as much as Etzel does but with worser bases and growths.Ding, ding, ding! Etzel competes for the same role (the 6 MOV rescue user) that Wendell does but actually has good enough stats to have combat use in applicable chapters without wasting valuable resources. Wendell is made useless because of Etzel's existence; if Etzel didn't exist, Wendell would have a slot in "unique utility", but Etzel obviously DOES exist, so it's meaningless conjecture.
Because if he can't make it, I don't see why Wrys makes it to unique utility when he's important in like only two prologue chapters.Alright. Etzel or Sage!Arran (C8) can do what Wendell does in every chapter that Wendell is available. Who can I replace Wrys with in prologue and still have the healing I need? If you can name ONE other character, I'll concede my argument to keep him in unique utility.
What did Sephiran do?
in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Posted · Edited by Kngt_Of_Titania
Sephiran: "Senaki[...]To fulfill my ambition of destroying all beings, I had to use you... I had to betray you."
He's basically saying RIGHT THERE that he did use her (and thus capitalized on her trust). Plus, Sephiran could have said it because he liked Senaki (I honestly think he did, quite a bit) and didn't think they could kill him (and even if they did, he never imagined that they would "defeat" Ashera). I think he had such a personal connection to Senaki that he wanted to be honest to her before the end of all life by Ashera.
Sephiran staging a fake assassination attempt would make sense, because his job was to destroy all humanity, by any means possible -- and to do that, he needed the war to go on for the goddess to awaken, which meant he needed the trust of both the Senate and Senaki by being two-faced and playing both sides.