Naoko_Akamori
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Posts posted by Naoko_Akamori
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2 hours ago, Edegard1902 said:
I'm probably going to take a break once I finish Azure Moon because while I love the game the first half is kind of hard to get through again once you've played through it multiple times. If it wasn't for the supports I might have already stopped playing for a while. I definitely plan on playing the final route once Wave 3 arrives though.
Yeah. I do like that they add at least a 'little' bit of extra story in the Monastery depending on which House you get, but the repeated maps are a slog. I'll be playing my final route on Maddening though, so that should at least offer a little bit of challenge.
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It's one of my favorites of the ones I've played, which admittedly isn't much of the series. While the graphics aren't great, I do like the interface a lot more - which I know is kind of a very small thing.
Story-wise, I feel like it's one of the better entries in the series, at least as far as lore and worldbuilding go. I do wish we could access a fixed world map outside of the one for the battle screen, to see where everything is in relation to each other, but it actually does feel like the regions have a sense of history before the inevitable imperial invasion.
The characters are also pretty strong, on the whole. There are some quibbles I have with some of them, but I feel like a lot of that is addressed in supports. I would have liked to see more instances of supports having an impact on how characters acted in the main story, though I do like how mealtime conversations do change based on who has supports with who (Shamir and Catherine's being a great example of this). It doesn't happen 'enough' but it does happen.
I'm of two minds about the Monastery stuff. On the one hand, I'm waiting for the next wave of DLC to add a little more stuff to do, to maybe liven the place up a bit because by a certain point it just becomes "Greenhouse, Dining Hall, Choir Practice, Tourney, Gift Spam," but I do feel like it changes in a few ways post- time skip. Classes are war council meetings in the Cardinals' Room (And no one is idling in the classrooms anymore). The Greenhouse and Dining Hall make sense as facilities to use, since you need to cultivate medicinal plants, and also eat. It also kind of makes sense that the overall structure would be left intact. It's a valuable strategic location, so it was intended to be captured, not razed to the ground.
The maps are a definite sore spot for me though. Reusing the same maps for Part I is bad enough, since you make your decision on which House to teach right away - Why not have the Faerghus kids deal with Lonato/Miklan, the Empire kids deal with issues there, and the Alliance kids deal with issues there? But then for the War phase, I'm pretty sure that the three routes I've already played make up most of the maps I'll run into playing Blue Lions.
I'm hoping taking a break, and playing some other games, will help me to deal with a lot of the burnout I'm feeling right now.
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46 minutes ago, This boi uses Nino said:
You are probably better off waiting to get refreshed later, like people say this game has a lot of replayability but I've done only 2 routes and I'm already beggining to feel tired out since 5 chapters before I finished Azure Moon so... yeah wait it out if you feel it's getting redundant, because it kind of is.
Yeah, that's a fair point. Now it's just a matter of deciding to wait until Wave 3 or Wave 4.
Do we have any idea if Wave 4 is supposed to be adding a whole new story, or content to existing ones?
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So, with Crimson Flower, Verdant Wind, and Silver Snow (AKA, Verdant Wind II: Electric Boogaloo) done, my kneejerk reaction is to get right into Azure Moon. But... at the same time, I'm kind of worried that a bit too much of the same-old same-old will kind of ruin the experience for me a little bit.
Would it be better to wait for Wave 3 of the DLC, you think? It's supposed to add more things to do around the Monastery (I'm hoping for another way to build support between two other characters besides eating) and the ability to play with the dogs and cats (!!). The only concern is having to wait until the end of the year, but Wave 2 came out a month earlier than expected, so maybe Wave 3 will as well.
There's also waiting until next April to play the game once Wave 4 hits, but I don't really feel like going half a year without playing. Besides, isn't the additional story content supposed to be separate?
I'm curious to hear what some of you feel the pros and cons are of waiting for Wave 3 before playing my final route? Keeping in mind I have never experienced Azure Moon before.
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29 minutes ago, Edegard1902 said:
I'm loving the game so far and am quite far into my first playthrough of the Golden Deer route and plan on playing through Blue Lions next. I was originally planning on playing the Church route but I've heard it is like the Golden Deer route besides the last map. Is it worth playing for the last map or should I not bother playing it yet?
The Church route is more or less absolutely identical to the Golden Deer route, except Claude's dialogue gets given to Seteth, and it's missing a map (Because you can't program in an extra army, I guess). It does provide some story information that isn't revealed in any other route, but I don't think it's anything that can't be inferred based on stuff you learn elsewhere.
In fact, it's SO similar to the Golden Deer route that it actually creates a logic error.
SpoilerIn the GD route, when you first begin discussing taking Fort Merceus, Claude launches into his plan of having some of your troops disguise themselves as Imperial soldiers. In the Church route, no such exchange occurs, but when you start the actual mission it proceeds as if it did.
I really feel like they realized that they couldn't copy/paste Endgame for Golden Deer, otherwise they would have. Because endgame for the Church route, if you care about rationale, is also incredibly contrived. Fun map, though.
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3 minutes ago, Sentinel07 said:
I'm not sure if this really counts but one of my favorite moments in the game is one of the rare times Bernadetta isn't in her room, and is in fact at the cemetery
All the other characters are going about their usual routine for the most part and here is the little recluse actually going out to put some flowers. Honestly, it's one of those moments that put her even higher on my list of favorite characters.
I actually forgot about that moment. It's a really good one! I've got enough Renown that I'm probably going to grab her on every playthrough that I can, even if I can't get the requirements to recruit her.
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So, something that I do like about exploring the Monastery is finding all of the different students/people in the Monastery and seeing what they have to say. Now, we all know about the Gatekeeper, and about Bernadetta never leaving her room ever, but I was curious as to what other little 'in-character' moments you all have witnessed? Not necessarily dialogue even, maybe where students are hanging out and who they're talking with before you speak to them.
Here's some of mine to hopefully explain what I'm asking.
1. During the fishing contest, it seems like all of the Monastery cats have decided to congregate at the pond.
2. Raphael in Part 2 is often in line at the dining hall
3. Marianne is either in the cathedral or visiting Dorte most of the time.
4. Manuela seems to be in the greenhouse quite a bit.
Basically, which little moments throughout the Monastery help to build character without needing a support conversation to do it?
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I might just have to delay my Blue Lions playthrough until then. I mean, maybe it'll come early since we were supposed to have to wait for October until Wave 2. Though, it's kind of funny that I want to wait for a DLC patch to a game to play with virtual dogs and cats... when I have an actual physical cat who's cuddling up to me right now. She's a lazy butt though.
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Did they stealth-change the animations for some of the combat arts or am I just going crazy? It felt like they all had the same/very similar animations before (At least things like Wrath Strike, Tempest Lance, and Smash). Maybe it varies by class?
Also, I noticed a lot more Heroes on my last few auxiliary battle maps, compared to the usual glut of Swordmasters/Assassins. Did they adjust that too? If so... thank god. Still need a decent Lance infantry class after enemies graduate out of Soldier though.
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59 minutes ago, Dragoncat said:
Holst (Hilda's brother, not a parent but I think this should extend to relatives in general): Tall, bulky. Dusty maroon hair, wild and messy, maybe some stubble. Pink eyes. Probably a grappler class, but I'm picturing him in more formal looking outfits. A simple suit normally, he was wearing one when drinking with Nader, man I wish we saw that scene...his shirt came off at some point during that though after Nader's did. Vases and plates broke. Burping and farting happened.
Oh, that's fair! Feel free to take a stab at relatives as well. So that's Maya, Raphael's little sister, as well as Felix's older brother Glenn. Petra's grandfather, of course, since her dad was killed in the Brigid/Adrestia war.
Since I did Bernie's father, I should try to take a stab at her mother, too.
2. It's hard to get an idea of an overall appearance for Lady Varley, but I like to imagine she's where Bernie got a lot of her more gentle features. Handcrafts, drawing, and her love of carnivorous plants are all genuine interests that she has and the first two don't seem like they were motivated by her father's intent to turn her into a perfect wife. So maybe her mother's where a lot of that came from. It'd be cute if she kind of shared Bernie's love of pitcher plants and stuff too.
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This is purely for fun and speculation. Obviously not the ones we've seen, like Duke Aegir or Rodrigue. Specifically think about what they might look like, based on how the students describe them, and maybe a little bit about how they might get along with others in their territory.
For mine...
Based on how Bernadetta describes him, my mental image of Count Varley is of a very tall, thin man - with very narrow cheekbones. I can see a well maintained goatee, and long hair - possibly purple like hers, but exceptionally well-kept. Since he's the Minister of Religious Affairs, I could see him wearing some sort of clerical type outfit, though it's never made clear if he's actually a member of the Church or just a liaison. If the latter's the case, then I can see him wearing expensive suits and absolutely losing it if there's a thread or a button out of place. I'm pretty sure it's stated that he's relatively poor as far as nobles go, so projecting an aura of wealth and status that goes beyond his means is probably REALLY important to him, and physical appearance is a big part of that.
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So, I had a question about the Rafail Gem (And the other Hero's Relic accessories). Are ALL of its effects granted to a Crest-bearer, even someone without the Crest of Lamine? I ask, because that one in particular has a pretty ridiculous list of abilities, so if I could make someone like Dmitri or Sylvain immune to crits, with innate Aegis/Pavise, and type-effect null that'd be insane. Keeping in mind this is on an item with zero weight.
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16 hours ago, Anathaco said:
Speaking of language issues, Petra would have super neat writing. Not to mention her grammar while writing would be amazing.
Oh, very much so! I think she even says she can read and write the language much better than she can speak it, and that's consistent with people learning English as a second language.
Which is kind of the opposite of learning it as a first language.
Here's my thoughts on it:
- Cyril can't read and write, so he probably has to have the tests read to him and give his answers verbally, unless Byleth accepts pictures. It's never clarified how good his drawings are, I like to think he's actually really good at doing little comic strip-like things. After he learns to read, he transposes letters every so often, so expect things like 'bappy' instead of 'happy,' and poor sentence structure.
- Ingrid feels like one of those people who uses a ruler to make sure all of her lines are straight. Her handwriting is probably perfect, though it takes her forever to complete assignments.
- Hubert gets extremely flustered because he accidentally turned in one of his death threat letters instead of his Reason thesis.
- I could see Bernadetta actually having some of the best handwriting (When she actually turns things in) because of father related reasons.
Not students, but...
- Manuela probably does the loops and curves and elaborate flourishes thing. Heck, I could see her doing a little winky face after writing something suggestive.
- If Shamir wrote something to anyone it would probably be one sentence. Possibly one word.
- We know Catherine writes letters to Rhea a lot. I like to think she sends four or five pages, double-sided, about what she did that day.
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1 minute ago, Humanoid said:
Based on the game mechanics, any old peasant could learn to cast magic after a day or two of lessons. Based on that logic, any performer would most certainly learn some, if for nothing else but to create special effects during performances. I mean, how much more convenient would it be if actual Hollywood actors could cast Fireballs instead of having to use explosives? Create weather effects on demand?
Besides, the Mittelfrank Opera Company is a battalion you can get, so yeah, at the very least they're trained in charging headlong at enemies. 😛
That's always funny. It's also great when Hanneman charges straight at the enemy and tries to punch them to death when you use a gambit and he's got magic equipped.
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So, there's Dorothea and Manuela, obviously. But then there's one bit of dialogue on the Church route, where Dorothea talks about how she's glad she won't have to face any of her friends from the opera company in battle. That was just kind of bemusing. Are all of the songstresses in the Mittelfrank Opera Company trained in combat or something?
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14 minutes ago, Nobody said:
I just beat the blue lions path. The last 2 chapters were pretty tough. New screen is nice.
Oh nice. So it's more than just a color change?
20 minutes ago, LegendOfLoog said:Uhhh, well, that depends on the point in the game. Ingrid just doesn't have enough base speed to do much at the beginning. If you can manage to get her past that though, she should double at least some enemies during the midgame. Her mediocre Strength growth really hurts though because she probably won't be doubling many fast units with heavier lances, and she'll hit like a wet noodle with lighter lances. Falcon Knight doesn't help her much with that, but if you are worried about her Strength, Wyvern is a potential option to go for. If you're still struggling to double, then I suppose you could give her Speed Carrots. I like giving those to Dimitri more though because he gets much more out of it and comes the closest to soloing the game out of any unit here, imo.
I personally think Sylvain is a better unit than her despite their similar start because he gets Swift Strikes once he reaches an A rank in Lances. A guaranteed Brave effect on any of your lances is pretty nice, and it makes up for his lower Speed in comparison, at least on Player Phase. With Death Blow and Str +2, he hits like an absolute truck and eviscerates enemy Swordmasters who cannot be doubled without using Brave weapons, Combat Arts, or gauntlets. It isn't just useful for them either because many of the units approaching the endgame still have high AS. I've seen Paladins with 30 AS, so that should tell you all that you need to know about how useful Brave weapons are. And as a nice side bonus, both hits from Swift Strikes can proc his Crest, so that's even more potential damage.
30 AS Paladins... Good lord.
Oh, also, I should ask. Are you doing your playthrough on NG or NG+? I might give it an honest college try on NG just to see how far I can go with what I've learned, and not relying on Renown/Statue buffs.
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18 minutes ago, LegendOfLoog said:
Looks good. The one thing I'd recommend is giving Ingrid a sword early so she isn't always doubled. In Sylvain's case, he generally gains enough bulk in the early game that he narrowly avoids being one rounded by some enemies, but Ingrid pretty much just dies, so I'd slap a Training Sword on her ASAP and pick up Speed +2 from the Myrmidon line so she can put her speed growth to good use.
Wow. Am I ever going to be able to double anything?
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26 minutes ago, LegendOfLoog said:
Yeah, and that's what I went for. In Hard, enemies were weak enough that you could realistically go Pegasus Knight to get Darting Blow on the way, but that isn't true here. I recommend pumping Annette's Authority to C+ as quickly as possible, and then focusing on Axes and Flying. Fiendish Blow helps her damage a lot if she needs to attack, and Bolt Axe+ gives her 3 range. And yes, she can Canto after Rallying which is really awesome, and with a Dancer, she can give two units 4-5 more AS and 4 more Str each turn. Even if you still wanted to make her a Dark Knight, I'd still go Wyvern Rider at least because 4 Movement stings and Warlock doesn't give anything useful besides the Magic growth.
Edit: I also want to add in my Dimitri's skill levels for reference. I'm at Chapter 19, and right now, he has an S in Lances, A+ in Authority, and an A+ in Riding. I think in a way, it's easier to reach S+ in this game mode because you're incentivized to bench the bad units in the early game.
Alright! So far, my team's looking like:
Great Lord Dmitri, Enlightened One Byleth, Fortress Knight (By way of War Master) Dedue, Bow Knight Felix, Wyvern Lord Annette, Wyvern Lord Sylvain, Bishop Mercedes, Dancer Marianne, Falcon Knight Ingrid, and Dark Knight Lysithea (AKA - We took the living nuclear bomb and put her on a horse).
I'm not going for Marianne right away (I want to let the AI get a few levels into her), so I'm going to be low-manning it (Ashe isn't gonna cut it) until I pick her up. Annette's going to stay Adjunct to Felix until she gets a few levels.
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16 minutes ago, LegendOfLoog said:
I don't think it's worth it because Dimitri has the tools to kill things without Death Blow. He has an insane Strength stat, and with Battalion Wrath, Battalion Vantage, and a Killer weapon, he breaks the game on Enemy Phase. All he needs is Retribution, and in BL, you unlock a D rank battalion in the 11th or 12th month with that Gambit. I'm about 3/4ths of the way in now, so what I did was keep his goals on Authority and Lances. He reaches the important skills a lot quicker than if you spend time in Brigand. If you go Riding to A+, Authority to A, and Lances to A+, you already have Lance Prowess, Battalion Wrath and Vantage, and Movement +1. That one empty skill slot can be replaced by many other skills, and I don't think Death Blow is particularly important on an Enemy Phase unit. Not to say he would turn out bad, but I just don't think Death Blow is necessary, and you can spend that time as a Cavalier instead to pick up Desperation if you want. It's a pretty solid skill on Maddening because the game is much more difficult in general.
Alright. Whew, that's... a load off my mind, really.
What do you recommend doing for Annette? Lysithea kind of makes her redundant as a mage, so I was thinking sticking her on a Wyvern to maximize Rally capabilities (She CAN Canto after Rallying, right?)
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I'm about to start a NG+ playthrough in Maddening, and it'll be my first time playing the BL route. I've got most of the BL units some classes mastered, so they'll be good to go, but I don't have any for Dmitri and Dedue. Brigand is easy enough on Dedue, not so much on Dmitri, and I feel like Deathblow is kind of super important.
With my current statue buffs, I can get Dmitri up to +7 skill rank per instruct (So, at least 40 experience per week assuming no Greats or Perfects). I think this equals out to ~10 weeks to get D+ (Which lets me attempt the exam with a 2/3 chance of success at least). Is this worth doing in the early game, or is the three chapters or so of EXP I lose for something he's actually proficient in not worth it?
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8 minutes ago, Dargon said:
Been playing a maddening classic run (BE) off and on, but it is getting frustrating to the point that it isn't very fun; hyper turtling every map since letting more than two units be in attack distance of your army during enemy phase is asking for somebody to die is getting old. Ch5 isn't helping matters since at this point I am having to let Gilbert die since if I save him, he inevitably wanders into the archers in the boss' room attack ranges and ends up causing them to not only start heading down, but aggro everything on else on the way causing a swarm of 20+ units to engage me. Byleth and sometimes Petra are the only units who sometimes can avoid being doubled with iron weapons; Edelgard / Sylv / Ferd can MAYBE avoid a double with a training weapon, but the latter two end up doing barely any damage with it equipped. Maybe it will get better with a mid game lull that happened in Fates and iirc Awakening, but so far I'm having much less fun than I did when I played Birthright / Revelation Lunatic.
Well, at least you can let Gilbert die on Chapter 5 and not lose anything, as far as I know. Which is good, because he'll happily wander into the final boss's murder radius after the cutscene.
Though... honestly, I'm getting a lot of practice in turtling with my Silver Snow Speed Screwed Squad. Sylvain getting doubled by Pegasus Knights who can do 44 damage per round is no bueno. I can only imagine what that's like on Maddening.
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12 minutes ago, starburst said:
Technoweirdo already gave you a nice summary of Conquest. It is not about what Conquest did on Lunatic, but about how it was conceived from the very beginning.
The changes from Hard and Lunatic are actually small. The enemy statistics are the same (and if there were differences, I never noticed them in over a dozen campaigns) and you are not suddenly flood by waves of enemies. The main difference is the enemy skill set. And, trust me, you will die if you do not check enemy skills first. Some enemies will have an extra weapon, while others will be placed in different locations to make you come up with new approaches. And I only remember one map change (the location of a "door" that causes negative status effects when you cross it.) Lunatic is difficult but it is also fair and respects every principle that you learned to use on Hard (until you reach Endgame, which is just cheap. Ha!)
The core gameplay remains the same in Hard and Lunatic precisely because the game has a better design. The maps are already entertaining, the difficulty modes only make it more challenging.
You are wasting your time, mate. No matter what you say, he will just deny it and say another negative thing.
First off, I love that the setup here clears pre-quoted text whenever I quote someone. Nice to not have to edit it myself.
Second, yeah. I'm not sure if Blue Lions has any significantly different maps, but the fact that all of the maps so far have been rout-fests has really kind of gotten old.
Story-wise, it's been great though.
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So, since Maddening is kind of absurd without NG+, but leaning on NG+ early kind of trivializes it, I decided on a little self-imposed challenge, just to kind of keep things from going too far in the opposite direction.
1. No Battalion abuse: No Lord Battalions from the other routes, and I can only use unique Battalions after I complete the corresponding Paralogue. Also, only Battalions associated with the specific route I'm playing/the Knights of Seiros (Except for the BE route unless I headcanon that Edelgard just held them hostage or something).
2. Class Masteries only when the unit reaches the appropriate level. So, no starting with Deathblow at Level 1.
3. No buying 'main' weapon proficiencies, though purchasing things like Riding and Heavy Armor is okay, as well as a C-rank in something to qualify for a Master Class.
4. Avoid abusing early access to Concoctions, Elixirs, and Silver weapons (Though the Armory will probably be moot since I won't be buying primary weapon proficiencies).
Does this sound like it'll balance the difficulty at least a little bit? The only other things I'd really have are the Saint Statues, though I've spread my points fairly evenly among them (Only one I've maxed is Cichol, the others are all just before the extra Divine Pulse), and A+ Professor ranking (But with the EXP penalty, and limited battle slots, the biggest benefit to that is extra chances to grind supports).
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2 minutes ago, Technoweirdo said:
Conquest's enemies do not become (much) stronger as difficuly levels rise.
Stat-wise, they're balanced in a way that just about all of your units feel viable unlike 3H where most feel barely usable (if at all).Instead, Conquest's enemies rely on tighter formations, greater numbers, and...creativity.
You know how in 3H every thief, every archer, every fighter you fight feels like the one you fought before just with more stats? How you feel like you're just sticking to a routine?
In Conquest, enemies and their skills are more curated, designed with the maps and their mechanics in mind.
If you thought you had everything including the kitchen sink thrown at you by Ch. 10 (to be fair, that might've been half the Hoshidan army), you'll find out that was really just the front door.
There are very few straightforward fights past that point; almost every chapter will force you to adapt to new mechanics, skills, and formations designed to kill you in ways you didn't die to before.
And in turn, you'll have to fight in ways you didn't before.There are ways to break Conquest, but if you don't find the ways (or choose to ignore them), you'll be in for a crazy ride.
Oh wow, that actually sounds like a lot of fun.
Any advice for Abyss Chapter 6? [Spoilers]
in Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Posted
How the heck am I supposed to do this? Something like five Bolting users and the boss with Meteor, four characters to protect (all poisoned), intermittent 10 damage map-nukes...
The best thing I can think to do is to devote everyone to cleaning up the right hand side, since Hapi and Constance need the most help not-dying, and just hope Balthus and Yuri can handle themselves.
Has anyone come up with a better strategy? Most of my guys are around level 30.