lenticular

Adding lyrics to an instrumental piece is generally easier than translating from one language to another. When you're writing new lyrics, you have complete free rein over your choice of words, since they can mean whatever you want them to. In a translation, you need to pick words that convey a similar meaning or message to the original and you have to have them fit to the rhythm of the song. Basically, you have all of the difficulties of translation and all the difficulties of lyric writing at the same time, which makes a final task which is much harder than either one. As for whether paid professionals ought to be able to do a better job, regardless of the difficulty... well, maybe? In the ideal circumstances with translators who specialised in translating songs, and who were given enough time to do a good job, etc. then yes, ideally we'd end up with some sort of poetic masterpiece. But game development rarely sees ideal circumstances and often ends up with cut corners and the art of "good enough". So I'm more inclined to suspect a project managment problem than a translation problem. If you want to say that Lost In Thoughts All Alone is sufficiently integral to Fates as a whole that it should have had more resources put into it even at the cost of other parts of the game, then I could get behind that. Or alternatively, that it was a bad idea to have a song be so front and centre in a game that was always planned to be translated from its inception.

Is not having Azura that huge of an impediment to completing the lower half of the map? Replizura isn't particularly useful anyway, since she can't sing. Though I can definitely see that the increased difficulty of the top half might hurt resources (healing items and turns, mainly) enough to not want to touch the lower side. Not that I've ever tried the map on Lunatic or without Azura, mind. Iambic pentameter is a poetic meter that is specifically chosen for works in English because it matches well with the natural rhythm and stress pattern of the English language. Whereas a translation of a Japanese song like Lost In Thoughts All Alone (or The Edge of Dawn, or anything else) is working with the rhythms and stress patterns of Japanese. It's not necessarily impossible to write English lyrics that fit the meter of Lost In Thoughts All Alone, but it is way harder than writing in iambic pentameter.

It depends. Are we talking the hardest to complete at all, the hardest to complete without ever using divine pulse (or resetting), or the hardest to complete all side objectives? What difficulty are we playing on? Side objectives to keep green units alive, like in True Chivalry (Felix), Death Toll (Raphael and Ignatz) or Dividing The World (Cyril and Hilda), have a bigger jump in difficulty going from Hard to Maddening than most other objectives. Foreign Land And Sky (Petra and Bernadetta) is extremely difficulty if you're trying to play without Divine Pulse and you don't already know the gimmick, since the fake map objective is deliberately leading you into a trap. Once you know that the trap is there, I think it's fairly simple, though. Another factor is whether you've actually been using the units whose paralogue it is, or if it's someone who's stuck at level 3 and you're only doing the paralogue for the reward and/or completionism. This is especially the case for paralogues with split deployment like Oil and Water (Hanneman and Manuela), The Face Beneath (Caspar and Mercedes) and Weathervanes of Fódlan (Annette and Gilbert). Unless you know exactly how the AI will move and attack, they can be very tough if your isolated units are underleveled. The one that was hardest for me personally was trying to do The Face Beneath, on Maddening mode, with a very underleveled Mercedes (c. level 6) and a moderately underleveled Caspar (c. level 20), and trying to complete the optional side objective anyway. That's the only instance in all of my time with the game that I've even come close to running out of Divine Pulses charges (I think I had one left at the end) so it was definitely hardest for me, but wihtout the specific circumstances of that run, I don't think it is necessarily the single objectively hardest paralogue.

How much does it bother me? Not much. It's something I always try to factor into my calculations, so I consider it my fault if it ever does happen. How would I solve it? Some way for the player to prevent one of their unit from landing crits, since that's the main way that this sort of death can happen outside the player's control. This could be a tier of weapons that never crits, like bronze weapons in Radiant Dawn or Fates, or it could be a skill. Something that works along the lines of Wary Fighter or Parity and prevents the user from ever giving or receiving critical hits would be viable for a niche like this.

First off, thanks for taking the time to go and check the differences between the map on Hard and Lunatic. Honestly, based on that, I'm happy to concede that it's not an inherent map design problem but rather a "why were you on Lunatic?" problem. That said, I've been thinking some more about that exact question and what it actually was that motivated me to choose Lunatic in the first place, and I think there are two big reasons there other than just "lenticular is a ridiculous human being who makes bad decisions". First is that while Conquest is a game in itself, it is also a route within Fates or even a DLC for Birthright. And for any new game (Fire Emblem or otherwise), there are two parts to learning the game: the mechanics and the levels. Going from Birthright to Conquest is less like going from Path of Radiance to Radiant Dawn and more like going from Eirika's Route to Ephraim's route, or from Azure Moon to Crimson Flower. You already know the game mechanics at that point, and the only surprises will be from individual level design. In that circumstance, I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder whether moving up a difficulty level is a good idea. The second is something that I've complained about before, which is how Fates lets you change difficulty level downwards but not upwards. For anyone who has any doubt at all about which difficulty level is right for them, they absolutely should choose the harder one initially. If they choose too hard, they can rectify the mistake; if they choose to easy, they can't. (Admitedly, this is better than most FE games where you can't change either way.) So, yeah. Overall, I still think that I was reacting reasonably to what the game gave me. The problem with this is that most side objectives are more along the lines of "get a reward for playing the level in a more difficult way". It is usually harder to reach the village, stop the thief or save the npc than it is to just ignore them. It's been reinforced in me over the years that if I'm having difficulty in a Fire Emblem map, I can make it easier on myself by ignoring side objectives. I don't think it was unreasonable for me to interpret the level as "it's a defend map, so you can take the easier option and just defend the choke points, or you can do the difficult option where you go on the offensive past the choke points, and get the reward from the visits". Basically, they ended up discouraging me instead of encouraging me.

Nope! And I've no idea why I decided to try it that way, honestly.

More or less what I said. Now, somewhat in the games defence, I was trying to play on Lunatic for my first playthrough, which was almost certainly a bad idea and I probably would have had a less frustrating time if I'd stuck to hard and saved Lunatic for potential replays (hello hubris, my old friend...). Also, I wasn't ironmanning, but was doing reset-when-anyone-dies. So take everything here with those things in mind. Also, my memory is awful so this is all to the best of my recollection. Which means it probably has inaccuracies and holes. But it is the best I can manage. Basically, I started the level, looked at the units I had, looked at how thinly they'd be spread trying to defend all the possible entrances to my position, and wasn't sure how the hell it was even going to be possible. But I split them up as best I could and set about doing the level. And I was basically right. My units wouldn' have beent enough to complete the level, except that Camilla and friends showed up on turn 3. So I started trying to reposition everyone to best make use of my reinforcements, but the way I'd deployed initially meant I was always going to be screwed. I can't remember for sure, but I think that maybe I'd let the north east get overrun and the enemy had reached that balista. Regardless. Someone got killed, I reset, and I was left with the feeling that it wasn't my fault. (It probably was at least partially my fault. I'm sure my play wasn't perfect. But playing with incomplete knowledge was definitely a big contributing factor.) So, I started again, formulated a new plan that I actually thought might work this time... and then died again. But that one was totally my fault. Which was fine. I expected that I'd have a fair few resets due to my own errors and wouldn't have picked Lunatic for my first time through if I wasn't OK with that. So I started again. And my tactic was basically to Have Effie and Camilla stand in the two gaps in the barricade south of the starting position. They were tanking for me (each in guard stance with a pair-up partner though I forget who), and everyone else's job was to deal with the two flanks and with any fliers who could bypass the choke point. And it was working decently well up until the point when Takumi uses the Dragon Vein, all the units that had been piling up at the choke point had a path to come and swarm me, and that was reset number 3 and the second one that didn't feel as if it was my fault. For attempt four, I had to completely change up my approach and be more aggressive, but again, I made some sort of mistake and got someone killed and I reset. And normally, I'd say, "that's fine, my fault, I don't mind resetting". Except that by that point, I had completely lost patience with the chapter, wasn't having fun any more, and changed difficulty down to hard. My logic was that if the game was going to throw unfair situations, then a. an easier difficulty level would mean I'd have more chance of dealing with them, and b. if I was having fewer fair deaths alongside them, it'd be easier to keep my patience with them. I have a theory (which I might get around to writing up in full one day) about good deaths and bad deaths in Fire Emblem. Basically (in the context of a resetting run; an ironman run would obviously define things differently), a good death is one where, when it happens, you're excited to start the level over and try to do it again, to improve your strategy, to learn from your mistakes. A bad death is one that leaves you deflated at the prospect of having to do the level again. Unfair deaths are generally bad deaths, since there's nothing to improve or to learn from other than "this time I will expect the thing I couldn't possibly have expected". Deaths due to carelessness are also typically bad deaths, since they mostly lead to "I'll do exactly the same thing as I did before but then not make the one boneheaded blunder at the end". Deaths due to underlying errors of strategy and tactics are good deaths. They're the ones where you genuinely are encourage to try something new or to tighten up your play. And honestly, these sorts of death can be among the most rewarding experiences in Fire Emblem. But the problem with good deaths is that they can be tainted by bad deaths. For me at least, if I'm frustrated by bad deaths, then I'm not going to be in the right mindset to appreciate the good deaths when they happen. Which is what frustrates me about this level. It's a good level that absolutely did not need the surprise element to be both interesting and challenging. As evidenced by your experience here when you knew exactly what was going to happen and prepared very heavily for it. All the surprise really does is risk screwing people over. Not everyone is going to be screwed over, of course. Some people will have chosen an initial strategy that can easily be adapted to the changing circumstances. But that's not going to apply to everyone. So yeah. For me, it was a frustrating level. It should have been a fun level, but it wasn't.

I thought that part of the point of this project was that playing back to back could give a better like-for-like comparison between games without having to rely on memory? It's your project, though, so you do you. Regardless. Chapter 10. I like this chapter. It's fun. I also hate this chapter. Because... ...I completely disagree with this. Being given a turn to react is better thannot being given that turn, but it can also be completely inadequate and irrelevant. Depending on where your units are, it's very easy to be in a position where one turn to react just isn't enough time to salvage the utter disaster that the game has dropped on top of you. Giving the player time to react can mitigate bullshit, but it isn't a get out of bullshit free card. In the specific case of this map, if you approach it very defensively, rely heavily on the choke points and don't care about thinning down enemy numbers -- which seems like a completely viable strategy -- then the surprise dragon vein will get you swarmed and I have no clue how it's possible to survive it without very heavy casualties, if at all. It also doesn't help that the dragon vein is the second time that this map completely changes the rules on you mid-map. Before you even get to the dragon vein, you've already had to deal with the big game changer that is having Selena, Beruka and especially Camilla show up on turn 3. Knowing in advance that they're going to show up makes a big difference to how you deploy for and approach the whole map. I'd probably forgive that if it were the only surprise on the map, but it's not, so I don't. Oh, and the other thing that bugs me is how completely nonsensical it is from a story standpoint for Takumi to just stand around for a few turns, just watching as his men get funneled into convenient choke points and slaughtered and not bothering to activate the dragon vein that he's standing on top of. That he might have complete reckless disregard for human life at this point is believable; that he would have equal disregard for actually completing the mission efficiently is not. What I wish they did instead is have Takumi start on the other side of the map from the Dragon Vein, move towards it and then activate it when he reaches it. Not only would that get rid of the nasty surprise, but it would also make him seem less like a blithering idiot who should never be put in charge of a lemon, let alone other humans.

Do you think that your extensive knowledge of the game and especially all of the prep work that you are currently doing is going to impede your ability to rank it objectively? Obviously, complete objectivity is a platonic ideal that none of us can ever actually reach since we are all coloured by our own experiences, but it does seem as if your experience here is going to be pretty far from that of an average player. This isn't your fault, of course; it's not as if you can just suddenly un-know everything that you know about the game. But even so. How do you think all of this is going to influence your ratings, particularly for difficulty and ironmanability?

Remove Sylvain, add Reyson, revive Clair.

Begone, Eirika! Welcome, Clair!

If that's what works for you, then I'm not going to stop you, but your experience is far from universal here. Many people can and do play it without her, and I don't think it was helpful to the original poster to imply that she is necessary or that he did anything wrong.

I strongly disagree. His recruitment is fine. Lysithea is a perfectly reasonable unit, but not so good that it's a mistake not to recruit her. If he needs someone with Warp, he has both Linhardt and Manuela. Unless you're in a heavily optimised situation like a LTC or speedrun the only relevant questions are whether you have enough characters to fill out a complete roster in the endgame (he does) and whether you're using characters that you like (which I'm guessing he also does).

Mermaid? Narwhal Rider? Walrus Laguz? Seriously, though, as others have said, purely aquatic units would probably be a mess. The only way they'd actually work would be if the game was designed from its inception to be able to feature them. If we had an archipelago setting and a maritime theme and a lot of the maps were on boats at sea and even the land maps were all on the coast and there were specific mechanics in place for marine units... then maybe. Maybe. I'm not even 100% convinced that it would work then, but it might. Except that it would also be a huge divergence from standard Fire Emblem fare, so isn't something we're likely to ever see.

Remove Bernadetta, add L'Arachel. Attempt to revive Catherine despite recognising the abject futility of the act.

Cyril isn't really pro-Church as much as he's pro-Rhea. He outright states that he isn't actually a believer in one of his supports with Byleth: Byleth: Are you a believer? Cyril: Nah, not really. And Lady Rhea told me it's OK if I don't show an interest unless I feel like it, and I haven't so far, but... I just want to take good care of the things she cares about.

Remove Lorenz. Add the other Lorenz. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) And revive Dorothea.

Four boons really isn't all that unusual. If I've counted right, there are 15 characters who have at least four boons, and then a further 8 who have three boons and a budding talent, which is almost as good. Which is about half of all characters. Cyril and Seteth both have five boons, and Balthus has a borderline-ridiculous five boons and a budding talent. I don't think four boons is even a little bit excessive. There are a fair few characters (eg Ferdinand, Leonie, Gilbert) who are neutral in both faith and reason who have no business going anywhere near magic builds. Just having garbage for magic growths and/or spell lists is more than enough to keep them as purely physical fighters. In this particular case, starting as level 30 with no weapon ranks in Reason or Faith would also be a strong reason to stay away from magic builds. Not that it's really harmful to add in a bane (though I'd still prefer a Reason bane) but I don't think it's necessary.

I dunno. Part of the charm of Smash Bros is that it's a very casual-friendly game that anyone can pick up quickly and easily. Sure, the skill ceiling is high, but the barrier for entry is very low. Switching from a three button control scheme to a four button control scheme isn't going to make it that much harder to pick up, but even fairly small increases in complexity are going to be enough to drive some people away. It's not that they couldn't still get inot the game if they tried, but it could easily be enough to give some people a bad first impression and make them not really want to try. Keeping the entry level as simple as possible is important for a game like Smash Bros.

I'm not going to address any of your proposed story changes because some of what I would have to say would get dangerously close to Edelgard vs Rhea debate and I have zero desire to relitigate any of that nonsense. As such, I'll limit my feedback to this: This breaks several existing conventions, and while it is possible to break convention, it's generally best to only do so when there's a good reason. Specifically, for everyone else, having a strength in a weapon skill is tied to learning combat arts in that skill. Nobody else learns combat arts for weapons they aren't strong in (and conversely, nobody is strong in a weapon they don't learn combat arts for). As such, Judith should either have a strength in axes or lose those axe combat arts. Next, for Faith spells, literally every other character in the game learns Heal at D and Nosferatu at D+ and then has at least one more Faith spell past that (commonly recover at C). I don't see any reason why Judith should not follow this pattern. This one is slightly less of a hard and fast rule, but I also don't think she should come with a bane in Faith. Almost universally, a bane in Faith is for characters with a good storyline reaspm to have it. It's for characters who aren't from Fódlan or who have a strong antipathy to the Church. There is one exception to this rule (Hilda), so I can't say it's something you absolutely need to follow, but Judith never struck me as particularly impious, so I don't think it's appropriate for her. Also, unrelatedly, I cannot get behind any change that would get rid of God Shattering Star entirely. I just can't. I love that track.

What is with Fates and continually trying to push Azura as some sort of a combat unit. No. Bad Fates. Stop that. Anyway, my memory of the level is fuzzy and I am not feeling well today, so this is a genuine question asked because I don't remember the answer. Is there any indication in the dialogue that the chest has a brass naginata and that this is the intended strategy, or is it just something you're magically supposed to know? Or guess?

Oof. Of all the possible units to lose, the dancer (or singer, whatever) has got to be one of the worst. Still, on the plus side, at least it wasn't your lord this time, which is definitely even worse. I have to ask, though, what were you even doing moving Azura about in the first place? Isn't she perfectly safe if you just keep her in her starting location and let the patrolling guard continually miss her? Or am I misremembering that? As for the level itself, I'm not a fan. The very cramped geography combined with all of the debuffs encourages turtling and slow play and wasn't any fun to play. Past that, the reinforcements are among the worst reinforcements in Conquest. They aren't ambush spawns, at least, but the spawn condition is not at all obvious, there are a lot of them arriving in a single turn, and depending on where your units are when they spawn, it's quite easy to get caught up in a way that you can't realistically escape from.

You know, that's a fair point. I don't personally value wrath/vantage builds at all so I don't include them as part of my calculus, but if you are trying to use them (or any of the Defiant skills) then Goodie Basket is definitely worse.

I just had a random idea and I'm not sure whether I like it or hate it. They could have differentiated Silver Snow by having it feature the return of Sothis. Not in corporeal form, just coming back as the voice in Byleth's head again. As an idea of how it could have worked, Seteth could have told Byleth all the secrets that Rhea had been keeping from her, and in return Byleth tells him everything she knows about Sothis. The two of them then realise that a seed of Sothis's consciousness still remains and work on restoring it. Yeah, it would need work to develop it into something fleshed out, but I literally jsut had the thought.