timon

Going to quote myself again, here's how it works. To answer you two specifically, Lysithea can be recruited like anyone else as a student. In CF you just get one more chance. Lorenz and Ashe can't be recruited post timeskip, but if you recruited them as students you'll have to face them as enemies before getting them to join you again. No other student leaves you in the timeskip, with the exception of Dedue for story reasons. Slight corrections, doesn't matter who gets the kill on Lysithea/Lorenz/Ashe, you can get them anyways (do read carefully please, you can get Lysithea as a new unit, Lorenz and Ashe are only re-recruitments if you got them as students!). To add to this, you can't get Hilda in Black Eagles unless you side with the Church, you can still build support with her, but the option will unlock in chapter 12 after you choose your side (and it's not cheese-able by building B support to have her ask herself, she'll never ask until chapter 12).

Mate you're pushing this way too much, and reading a lot more than necessary into a videogame character. She's a revolutionary, she wants to rebuild what is currently a bad society, and in her own route she doesn't really do anything too questionable. Those are all good reasons to support her, and I don't see how that automatically makes me a soviet or whatever else you wrote there. And what does that whole HFY thing even have to do with her? And why do you think twsitd should be merged with the empire? They share an enemy, last time I checked having a common enemy doesn't mean having the same philosophy, motives or principles.

The first part is arguable, but these paragraphs are just pure hindsight, you can't really judge someone's actions based on the fact that you know how it will play out. I'd say the fact that Edelgard is the only one who actually takes action is even more honourable, the others appear to simply wait for stuff to happen.

But she never intended to invade them in the first place? She declares war specifically to the Church, Kingdom and Alliance (or the ruling part of it at least) choose to side with the Church and fight back. Hell I'd say the fight against the Alliance in CF is completely random and is there just for gameplay and feels reasons. Claude doesn't have many reasons to fight back and Edelgard doesn't have many reasons to fight him, the whole Crimson Flower campaign could've gone by just by fighting Kingdom and Church. Actually I'm pretty sure it would make more sense for him to fight alongside her, he's perfectly aware that the Church is shady, he shares her principles, and he knows the Empire is 99/100 going to crush him. An alliance would make a lot more sense, but I guess it would take away feels and make it more of a "golden route", so they obviously couldn't do it like that. On this one I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, as I don't really see how her reasons aren't good.

Yeah that confirms what was previously suggested, she joins you after that mission because I'm guessing you didn't side with Edelgard. If you did, she wouldn't have been available. If you DID side with Edelgard though, that's a major discovery.

Yes but I can live with an unbalanced game. My problem here is not with balance, but with variety and logic. It's a mess. The whole master tier doesn't make sense, it's sometimes a sidegrade and sometimes an upgrade. It requires higher level, higher skill levels, gives more Mov. Everything points at it being a higher tier, but then you see it and find out that it completely eliminates half the archetypes of the game and it doesn't even improve stats that much (except for a couple of them, again, no consistency). Progression is a complete mess, Pegasi being stuck for a whole tier, Assassins and Swordmaster completely stuck as well as male mages. Riding and Lance is barely considered for 3 tiers and it suddenty becomes a must have for everyone. Then there's stuff like Archers having sword proficiency while Snipers don't and Snipers having shorter range than BKs, it all looks incredibly disconnected and without much of a logic. Honestly, with weapon freedom it's not even that hard since you don't have to worry about filling every niche. Here's a general idea of what I think would be logical (spoiler tag for length)

What? The fact that a mad criminal redeems himself doesn't make him good, what about the people he tortured chasing revenge? Even worse, revenge on someone who has nothing to do with what he's trying to avenge? He wants to "stop the cycle of the strong trampling the weak" and yet he does exactly that, except he doesn't even have a good reason for it. Sure, from a character development point it's very nice, but the story as a whole feels like playing villain to me. Edelgard doesn't admit to be wrong, because she really isn't, at least not in her goals. Her goals are right. What is wrong are her methods (even then, in Crimson Flower she doesn't really do anything questionable), but she does admit to this, stating multiple times that she would do things differently if she could. Her biggest problem is that she doesn't see that she COULD do things differently, at least slightly, and that's a problem shared with Dimitri himself. Those two trust only themselves and their ways without ever looking for alternatives, that's their big flaw. Which is also why Claude feels so refreshing, he always wants the full picture before acting.

Halberdier. Oh wait, I thought this game had a good class system. That said, of the ones we have, I have fun with Bow Knights because you can cheese so much stuff with stupid range, and I do really like that they use Lances instead of Swords, makes much more sense and doesn't push sword (which got boring a while ago). Gremory (and Warlock) are another favourite, just because I love magic nukes. Paladins are fun, and it's a shame many people don't view them as endgame classes, when they're superior to GK, and 8 Mov at lv.20 is actually very nice. Not much else, classes seem to have been thought out by a 5 year old this time around, which is a shame since the weapon freedom is a huge step forward imo.

I don't know if she's not funny because her situation is not funny or just because she doesn't have ANY comic relief worthy of this name, but I'm sure she isn't funny. I usually can laugh at pretty much anything really, so it's not that her situation is too dark or anything else, she's just not a fun character at all. Every single one of her lines feels forced, every single one of her lines wants to make you laugh and instead you cringe. Add in the terrible voice with the absurd screeching and you've got the full picture of an annoying one-sided character that completely missed the mark. And it's a shame, because the concept was an interesting start, but if you go the funny road you have to make it funny, otherwise go serious (though I guess that side of the spectrum was already covered by Marianne, which is a good example on how to write stuff like that). That said, there's one thing to consider, if I remember right not everything comes from her abuse. Not sure if that makes you feel better on laughing about it, but I'm pretty sure she mentions that she's always been kind of a loner, and that triggered her father to do what he did which in turn triggered her to become even more recluse.

It's probably a matter of which side you're on, but I'll never get how Dimitri's actions are any better than Edelgard's. Imo (stressing the "imo"), she's actually a lot and I mean a lot more justified than he is. Hell, they both take big part in various bloodshed, they're willing to do questionable things for a goal and it all comes down to this. She wants to end the control of Church and nobility, he wants to take gruesome revenge on people that he didn't even bother to verifiy if they were responsible of what he's claiming to revenge. Honestly, Azure Moon is a great character driven story, but I don't see how it can be viewed as a "good side" story, Dimitri is quite literally a mad king, he acts on impulse, and the impulse is based on COMPLETELY wrong information. Sure, Edelgard does questionable stuff, can come off as cold, and she as well doesn't have the full picture of the story, but at least her goals are honorable. Maybe it just depends on which route you play first or idk what, but I had the opposite problem in trying to see his PoV. At some point while playing BL I just gave up on trying to mentally side with him, and just went to consider it a nice spinoff for character development. On Claude, he's obviously the least controversial leader out of the 3(4) and yet he doesn't always sit right with me. Sure his principles are nice, but I was truly hoping he was going to be a more politically driven character. The Alliance is quite clearly the most advanced nation of the continent in terms of ruling system, even though it's a very early form of it, I'd still say it's something akin to democracy. I was hoping his route was not only to seek truth, but also to progress Fodlan into a system of free people. His anti racism motives are obviously relatable, but his goal of being king threw me off, and I'm not a fan of the Almyrian focus of his route, I was very interested in understanding and leading the alliance. It would've made for an amazing scenario, having to command a nation (and an army) that doesn't necessarily have to follow your orders if their nobles don't agree with them.

I might misremember things, but I don't think Arundel ever explicitly reveals himself. It's very heavily implied in Crimson Flower as Hubert freely interchanges his name when talking about him, but I don't think anyone ever says "this guy is Arundel/Edelgard's uncle". Then again, it's quite an easy guess? I don't know, I figured that one out quite early, and yet had no idea Edelgard was the Flame Emperor while many people guessed that from like chapter 1. I guess it depends on you and what you pick up from the story. That said, what is never states or clarified is if he's in disguise as well, or if he's the og. I remember that BL hints at a sudden change in Lord Arundel's doings, around the time of the tragedy, so I guess it's probably a substitute. But that would be A LOT of time in disguise, if we consider that he was the one to experiment on Edelgard (as a child) and the promoter of the nobles' rebellion in the Empire (which IIRC is 10 years before the story or something like that). I mean it's not impossible, but it's a bit weird that no one would notice the disguise in 10 years or more. And it also makes TWSITD even more underwhelming, they have a master plan that's been going on for more than a decade and yet they can't be relevant.

It was more of a joke complaint, but okay. That said "if it happened again it's fate" is still a bit random, it's just that phrase by Sothis that bothers me. I know very well that Jeralt had to die goddamn, it's obviously a joke.

Which to this day still bothers me btw. Mate you're in chapter 9, you have at least 10 divine pulses, ragequitting at the second becase "fate" doesn't exactly make sense.

It's very well thought out, but it's probably too intricate to be realistical, at least in part 2. To simplify it, I think in this story it would make sense to have the 3 lords playable at the timeskip, as each one loses control of their nation. The whole timeskip would then be regaining control of Church, Empire, Kingdom and Alliance before moving on to the slitherers. That said my hopes for a golden path (which is confirmed to not be in DLC btw) are simply 2: - Playable Jeralt, either as "retainer" from day 1 or simply he joins instead of dying - Dimitri not going ham randomly and understanding that Edelgard is not the responsible On that note I can see an arc of Dimitri still going blood crazed, but against TWSITD, and Edelgard tries to recover her childhood friend. Honestly I'd just love a path where Edelgard and Dimitri find each other again and work together. Their goals are basically the same after all, and their backstory is too sweet to always end in tragedy.

I'll admit he's quite a returning problem I have with this game. It's not even about the unit, it's just that (in my opinion) he's incredibly out of place in this game. He's one of those "extreme and annoying gimmick" characters from Fates copypasted in 3H. But with 3H overall better writing he's completely off. And his gimmick is so, so very annoying, along with his voice. I'll try not to bring him up more, can't guarantee anything though. That said I do really feel for Randolph (and Fleche), honestly having to deal with them is more painful than having to deal with ex students, it's such a sad story. And contrary to students you can't even avoid it by recruiting.

Ladislava. They teased us with her backstory, I wanted the full picture. Also she looks nice. In general though, those timeskip NPCs look like amazing characters from the little we know, I managed to get attached to the imperial ones just from explore conversations and was really hyped to play with them. Needless to say my disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined when I found out they were NPCs. Randolph is such a better Bergliez than Caspar, what were they thinking killing him off like that. I was willing to sacrifice that blue haired brat at will, they didn't need to take good boi Randolph, poor Fleche 😞

Yes but that's just the nature of the though boss, in "regular" gameplay the hitting stuff problem is not there. Even when you start getting into crazy range later on with bows, with prowess skills and battallions, even the dodgiest enemies just never dodge. In general though I agree that the game needs class balance more than character balance. We're missing so many roles, and some are so overpowered that they completely exclude everything else. tbh I think the principle behind Master class is just a bad implementation. You can't have a whole tier for "sidegrades", especially if some of them are actually straight up upgrade and everyone gets more Mov by going Master. Also the requirements surely feel like an upgrade not a sidegrade.

I mean you just got screwed, he obviously should be able to tank hits with much more effectivness than Hilda and Leonie, even if doubled. If yours doesn't you just got RNG screwed, it happens, no need to keep the anti-Raphael campaign going... Don't get me wrong he's not exactly a good unit, but he does tank well. And axes are really not that bad, in a game where hitrate is NEVER an issue, and with weight being fairly irrelevant to him (he's not doubling anyways) the sheer power of axes is perfect for Raphael.

Surprised I'm the first to say this, but Ingrid needs some strength boys. The likes of Ashe and Ignatz are okay with their absimal strength because they're archers anyways, so you just use them (okay Ignatz maybe not since you have Leonie and Claude, but still, he's not bad, he's just not as good). My god that girl can't kill ANYTHING, she doubles everyone sure, for 4 damage. Also Linhardt is weak. He needs more Mag, because right now there's not a single reason to use him over Hubert or Dorothea (unless you're going LTC and really need Warp). His bro Caspar needs help too, he's definitely missing something. A good personality that is, but also some stats.

That said, I'd like to see playable Jeralt more than Sothis, give me a DLC where it's somehow explained that he's somehow alive, I don't care if it doesn't hold up. But do grow some 'stache dad, fuck's sake.

I think you're way overestimating Hubert and Edelgard's involvment within TWSITD. They're the one in the position of power, they're the one in control, not Hubert and Edelgard. You can see it very clearly even in her interactions as Flame Emperor, she's clearly limited by their will, states clearly that wants to eradicate them and yet can't take action. Kronya is the biggest hint of this, it's quite obvious that she's there to keep an eye (and you can tell by the fact that Hubert wants to keep her away). Actually I'd say that Hubert hates TWSITD even more than Edelgard, or at least he shows a lot more distaste. His phrases like all of his threats are more of a character thing really, like Bernadetta screaming at her own shadow.

Also, since Byleth is an avatar a bit of customisation would have been nice. imo they should've given him default Sword and Authority, I can accept the Faith talent since it makes some sense story wise, but allow me to pick at least a strength and a weakness, why not? And a bit of influence over growths would've been nice too (Robin did it, I'm pretty sure Corrin too). They really missed the mark with the avatar gameplay wise, at least for me. And it's a shame because I do really like Byleth in every other aspect of the game, but forcing me into Swords (why is it always swords? so boring) or physical in general is just annoying. Ideal scenario: complete blank slate, pick 2 strengths and 1 weakness, pick a strong stat and a weak one, and then my dream: pick your personal weapon type (less of a problem in 3H, but man I really liked Malig Knight and nope, you gotta use the OP sword). And on spell list, instead of making that initial demon/ghost/human a pointless question, make it so it decides which spells you're going to get in reason (idk, ghost gets wind focus, human gets fire focus, demon gets dark, something like that).

I assume you've gone Church. Probably a B is enough, it's just locked out until you choose your side. Shame really, I've already said this a couple times, but it really doesn't make any sense to lock out Hilda of all people. Seems like an excuse to not make you play the same paralogue 2 times.

Byleth's age is unknown because neither he or his father know it. Yes later on you can figure it out, but on those characters "reports" it stays unknown. Same with Manuela, you can guess it quite early but it stays "secret".

Hubert and Petra, I love my trolly boy, but the fact that he goes a bit out of character and treats her well and actually admires her amazes me. They're cute. Dimitri and Marianne, everyone has already explained this one, I don't even like Dimitri that much, and yet this feels just right. Linhardt in general has very sweet supports, the one with Marianne stood out to me. Dorothea and Ferdinand, not a fan of the ending (I was hoping for something more adventurous), but I love their supports and shared story. Also when you recruit only one of the two and end up slaughtering the other it's very touching. As for Dorothea, she also has an amazing (imo) ending with Felix, but their C and B ranks are a bit weird (she tries way too hard). I was disappointed by Doro with Sylvain though, I really don't know why since it should be perfect (and it is), and yet it doesn't click with me. Also I liked Leonie and Shamir, yes it's so dumb, and yet I love it. It also makes sense when you think about it, they're similar in ambition but different in attitude, perfect work partners. Though best ending is still Lorenz alone. If you can't manage to kill him off after snagging up his relic that is.