Jotari

Behold! Cinematography! Something the series has only attempted in engine about three times. Full agreement. The Battle of Barhara is, to put it bluntly, a ballsy ass fucking move. And because we've been in the fandom so long and it's such a "It was his sled" plot twist and some later stuff devaluing the kill%, we probably don't give it the credit it deserves as a plot point, but Kaga definitely deserves the praise for this (assuming it was his idea, I'm a bit wary of giving all the credit to one person in these creative ventures). You say character-centric video game, but, honestly, even outside of video games and in the realms of fiction in general, very few series have the guts to just wipe out an entire cast half way through the story. Even when you get those Star Wars style Order 66 moments where a big tragedy happens, the principal characters still survive. Here though, nope. We get some references to the women surviving, but the only character that actually survives this and continues to influence the story is Lewyn, and by the end it's revealed that's not even true. Life Ring has also been a skill in Heroes since about 2017 or 2018, so it's weird to see it here under a different name. What was the decision to make all these rings bands anyway? They're all just Rings in the Japanese, I'm pretty sure, at least I'm pretty sure the Return Ring is a Ring and not a Band in Japanese. Was it to differentiate between stat boosting rings and skill bestowing rings? I'm not sure that's something particularly confusing. When Seliph confronts Alvis the thing he says is "Why? Why did you betray my father?" And...honestly...it's actually a great question. Why did Alvis betray Sigurd? Sigurd was no threat to him after they took down Reptor together. He would have quietly went back to Chalphy and left Alvis to rule the capital after a frank talk with the king. Deirdre was the reason Sigurd had to die. Without her marriage to Sigurd Alvis very well could have used Sigurd as an ally of his new empire. But without a genuine marriage to Deirdre his legitimacy (and his new life in the sheets) evaporates. So he needs to be sure. It also gives us that wonderfully sickening moment from the completed x number of games intro where we actually see Deirdre healing Alvis after the battle, which is just so fucked up on so many levels. Or he just wanted to kill absolutely everyone with as much standing as he had to ensure no one would threaten his rule and was just showing off his hot wife because he's super proud of himself for netting such a catch.

I am mistaken...though I kind of shouldn't be, right? I mean...Alvis straight up wanted Vaja to die then. And later when Aida is like "JK we were on your side all along" Sigurd isn't like "Really...dude I murdered a bunch of Velthomers when taking that castle. Why didn't anyone say anything?" I know Fanore (that's the correct spelling, everyone but me is wrong, it's a beach in Ireland, trust me) is probably in Velthomer territory in so much as it can be considered part of Grannvale at all...but still, I feel these soldiers probably should have been working for Reptor...was this decision really as simple as Meteor=Velthomer with no consideration of how it means Alvis is basically murdering his own subjects. Well, at least half of them are on plateaus where there is some expectation they won't die (not withstanding a single very thorough pegasus knight). Oh wow. Harry Potter Puppet Pals. That really takes me back. Well...it is later revealed in Thracia he was banging at least one of them. Like father like son, perhaps.

I wonder if Vaja was intended to be the mother of the Gen II mage trio and they just never got around to mentioning it. Same portrait syndrome definitely is a condition infecting the boss cast, but in this case Vaja and the Mage Trio are all in direct service of the head of House Friege. I can rant now or I can rant in Chapter 10 about her disappearance. Beowulf absolutely no doubt goes way back with Eldigan. That means he is also best buds with Quan who is absolutely no doubt best buts with Eldigan. Beowulf is like the Byleth to the Sigurd, Eldigan, Quan Three Houses dynamic! ...is it possible he actually isn't lying and actually was friends with Eldigan and Sigurd is actually the jackass for not recognizing his Neville Longbottom?

Pyrathi erasure >.>

Yeah, I know Warp is B rank, but you only need to use one of them. Give Warp to your B rankers and Return to your C rankers. Apply Arena for extra money where necessary (arena exp is just a bonus).

Yeah, I'd say it'd be pretty hard for even the most litigious company to claim copyright infringement if the character has been turned into a qudrapedial pony. Still though there could be merit to an offical partnership for something like this. There seems like there would be enough overlap, and non overlap to snap up a few fans on either side. Then again, Fire Emblem has thrown some Awakening characters in as cameo in several other games that have done very little to get me, a pretty damn major Fire Emblem fan, to play them. I think it's a point of trivia that Heroes is not the first time Fire Emblem characters were in a Gatcha game because sometimes called Dragalia Lost has them.

So, do you reckon this is an partnership or legally distinct enough to not require any permissions? Like I'm guessing the terms Lucina, Fire Emblem or the Brand of Naga never show up.

Anyone with C rank staffs you don't have to worry about levelling up. Using Warp or Return grants a lot of exp. Spam it every turn, especially now with Deirdre before she leaves. It costs money to do so, of course, but probably less than you might expect, especially if you can manage to get the paragon band on your staff spammer without denying it to anyone else doing the arena. If someone has trouble clearing a particular enemy in the arena and has a bow rank, try using a bow instead, as it can sometimes change the actual enemy you're fighting to a weaker one. Though, off the top of my head, the only characters that can do this are Promoted Arden, Johalva and Hannibal.

See if that were me I'd be using it as an excuse to put in Book 2 Ghost Gharnef.

My head canon, supported by Kaga's notes, is that Hezul already had children and a designated heir before the Darna event, and said heir didn't inherit Holy Blood because there simply was no holy blood to inherit at the time, only his youngest child had that opportunity. With the heir then being made king after Hezul's death, establishing Chagall's family while the youngest child who had holy blood established Eldigan's line.

It might exist purely for this Trvant scene too. There would be less of an *ouch* factor if Travant ambushed them in a meadow. The desert also serves as an explanation as to where the Lopt Sect came from. I mean, obviously they came from the Lopt Empire, but how they survived the intervening century of witch hunts. A secret shrine dead centre in the middle of the desert that no one would ever have any reason to stumble upon is a pretty decent place to put a sizeable secret hideout.

Chapter 17A Oh wow, that's hilarious. When Gustaf chews out Nikolov for losing the last battle, Nikolaf immediately blames it on Kempf breaking rank to try and get his own glory. That is...not what happened. And I don't think it mechancially can happen. Kempf is an unmoving unit who stays within the cover of the Ballista like he was told to throughout the entire battle. Nikolov, who's introductory scene was repremanding Kempf for abandoning his allies, immediately abandons Kempf and blames the guy the one time Kempf actually followed orders and died or was captured for it. That is just, fucking poetic justice gold for everyone involved. Oh wow, that's cool, in this chapter the benched characters are actually fighting Reinhardt off screen. Good luck Robert and Alva and all those other characters I don't use. 5 This is Moore, he doesn't get any dialogue during the intro cutscene, though the characters do mention him and his mug shows up on the intro map. Honestly, I think this guy probably should have just been merged with Linecock, the mage in the forest from B group. The enemy has had plenty of time to know we're coming and with rewarp staffs it would make perfect sense for the Lopt in the forest shrine to move to this position to assist with intercepting us. Instead we have two, practically identical lopt bishops who say next to nothing. Well, at least they gave them different coloured robes. Huh, so, something weird, Saias shows up on turn 10x and orders the Silessian mercenaries to move out...they're all dead at the moment except the captured and sleeping Misha, but that's not the weird thing. The weird thing is that August knows Saias' backstory. Even though it's meant to be a secret from Manfroy. Cohen does later make reference to how Saias has become so influential that even Manfroy can't kill him...but...that can't possibly be true. Like...Alvis, the Emperor himself, is cucked by Manfroy's power. The only possible way Manfroy can't freely assassinate Saias is if Julius doesn't want Saias dead. Which, might be the case as Saias treats Julius, but it's an awful lot of headcanon to get around a bit of a plot hole. The chapter has been mostly smooth sailing until now, but with Saias here it's going to put three of my units out of comission. The game also plays a mean trick of a psudeo ambush spawn by having a bridge appear on enemy phase which an army of armoured knights can immediately cross. But my real big complaint about this chapter is that you can't steal Saias' sleep staff in a chapter where you need to have access to sleep to recruit a unit. You can't capture him and he's sealed off on all sides you can't even warp someone in to use steal on the staff. It's just kind of a middle finger for anyone who came to this chapter without a Sleep Staff or Sword (like me, the first time I played). A few turns later Reinhardt's army shows up, but because it's still too early to blow the Reinhardt load, they're being led by General Mueller. 4 Who is talking to, not Reinhardt, not Cohen, not Barath, not any other boss in the game, he is, of course, talking to Blue Cloak Collar man 6 And, at six appearances he beats out the Largo clones, beats out the Lopt Sect members, beats out guy talking to Hannibal, and Cohen clones, this is the king of Thracia reused portraits. One boss without dialogue and 5 times talking in a cutscene, more if you don't count some who could logically be the same characters. This is what happens when a Generic Soldier takes off the helm. They become Blue Cloak collar man. What!? That army of armoured knights who ambush with a bridge spawn I mentioned earlier, they all have movement stars...why!? Sure, bosses I can get behind, even generic dancers as it makes them more of a necessary target, but a mass of generic eneies should not have movement stars. *sigh* Well, fortunately I was advanced enough in the chapter that it negatively effects them as it means one generic is ahead of the others and easy to pick off. We do get one more appearance of Cohen's face as a bishop who talks about Sara wandering off, which is confusing with A route in perspective. Honestly this is just more reason to have made Moore the same character as Linecock, then he could have specifically brought Sara here instead of her just having some kind of schrodinger's monastery. 5 As for this guy? Is he the same bishop as the route split? The same one who promotes Linoan? I don't know...maybe, probably? They all have warp, but in Lieu of any evidence, I'll have to say no. This one is actually probably a Lopt Sect member if he's hanging out with Serra, right? Well this puts Cohen up there with Ecihmann for the most portraits, at 6. Uh...I finsihed the chapter and Misha didn't join me. I spoke to her with Karin, I captured her, what gives?...Or did I forget to speak to her with Karin this time? Oh man, I'll be so irritated if that's what happened. I must have, as Capturing and Releasing her doesn't work. Sigh, looks like I have to do the chapter again. I wonder if I can blitz it and try to kill Gustaf before Saias shows up, as it's pretty difficult to beat the avoid combination of Throne+Saias Took a bit of save state abuse to make sure everything went perfectly, but I managed to kill Nikolav before Saias shows up. As a result I got to view an alternate scene where Blue Cloak Collar man talked to Saias instead, since Nikolav is dead. Finally, finally, finally I recruited Misha. And with her, I believe, I've recruited every playable character in the Fire Emblem series (well, I'm not going to include every alternate name for a substitute unit in Shadow Dragon or Fates, though I have gotten, but never really used, all of the Fates bosses). I did a run through of the following chapter just to use Misha for a bit. She was pretty out classed by my Karin, but my Karin was also pretty damn OP by that point. I tried the sleep sword method on the Leinster Generals and, yeah, it's way more consistent to just plug Fergus in the door with a sleep sword and convert them one at a time...it does mean every general except the last one or two is guaranteed to die though. I didn't actually get Xavier in this test run for some reason though. I'm pretty sure none of the generals died before being converted, but Xavier just kept targeting Leif with a killer bow instead of talking to him or allowing himself to be talked to. Not too sure why, maybe I just missed a kill or something. But, well, job done. A route and B route both with no staffs, with the exception of one thief staff use to recruit Misha just out of a personal score to settle. B route is definitely the route to go with this challenge though, as Miranda and Shannam will be a lot more useful than impossible to use Sleuf and impossible to get Misha (unless you want to rig Lifis up to 20 con, which actually sounds like a tonne of fun but it is blatantly cheating). I'll tally up all the bosses for you later (I'm sure someone must be interested).

I'll be honest, I wouldn't have noticed if you posted the wrong portrait. I just know that these portraits have differences because I've categorized all the portrait reuse in the NES and SNES games.

That is some top notch prose despite the absurd situation. What is the series?

It's the more consistent translation of the name. All the other minor Minish characters have names ending in -ari.

A Tavant x Cigyun alternate history is one I had no idea I wanted so much until now. Hypothetical Cigyun!Arione would probably be completely on board with the incest. :0 Oh it's absolutely Silesse, even map aside, Lahna outright refers to it as a Silessian castle that has just been seized. But I guess fans get a bit confused because no snow and snow=Silesse, despite half the country being seen snow free in Chapter 5. Unfortunately Edda have to spend all the money they gain on Valkyrie repairs. Turns out they didn't lose it at all, Claud's mother and/or father buried in some clutter at the Tower of Bragi so they could actually save the money they were earning. The most consistent cultural traits of a Fire Emblem nation is what class they primarily field. And Dozla is mostly axe fighters. So perhaps they have a big lumber industry. Especially if those tickets west of Dozla and south of Friege belongs to them.

I don't feel like that cheapens the massacre. The survivals that cheapens the massacre cheapen it because, Lewyn aside, absolutely nothing is done with them and, especially for Briggid, depends on some major contrivance. House Arrest Azelle makes sense given Alvis's character, and in fact, is warranted in some form compared to what we got, which is Alvis never expressing any opinion at all about even he possibility of killing his own brother. I find Karin very powerful in Thracia. Don't let the ballista spam fool you, fliers are very useful. It's a real how long is a piece of string question. None of them are particularly developed in know what trade and industry or folk songs they have. But, that goes for almost every Fire Emblem country. Despite (probably) being the spiritually important place, I'm on record saying that Edda is the least developed of them, but that's because Claude is literally the only character from there we can point to (Sylvia doesn't count and Rodan isn't a character), and that's how far most Fire Emblem countries are developed. It's the "Oh the place that guy is from" factor. We don't really know what the people of Dozel want or do, but we do know Langbolt, Lex, Dannan, Brian, Johan and Johalva are from there any how it relates to the outer Duchies politically. For the scope of Genealogy's story, that's decently developed. Of them all I'd say Friege is the most developed though. Especially since we have more exposure to it's more minor nobility in Thracia. Holy blood only counts if it can sustain an erection. Looking at my Sigurd choose your own adventure story (which I promise I'll post when we get to the end of Gen 1) it seems I was under the impression it was part of Isaach. Which would have been kind of nice. Sort of finishing things off where they started. It's a bit weird the Grannvale even grabbed it. Like, was that part of Daccar's deal with them? "Help me win this civil war and I'll give you part of the country (please don't use it to invade the rest)". Or did Grannvale only seize it after Lahna came out as the victor of the Silesse conflict? Or did they just grab it against Daccar's wishes and were like "STFU, you want our help or not?" It's not what the game wants us to believe, but it is the only rationale explanation. I headcannon Silesse is actually super green and people in the low regions even get to complain about how humid the climate is. We just have a mistaken view of the whole place because the singular time we see it it's covered in snow.

She does seem to be taking the honour of the family and father she's only just remembered exists very personally. Almost. Vaja has blue eyes, while Eriu and Folta have green and red eyes.

Chapter 16A Going back to it and we're at Chapter 17A, just to take a glance at the A route and so I can finally recruit Misha and Illios. The first face we see is the glorious Kempf talking to Nkialaf 4 Who not only looks like Largo and Truman, but has the exact same palette as them. And what's kind of ironic here is that he chews out Kempf for abandoning his position at Dundrum. Said cowardaice of Kempf also got Largo killed, Niakalaf's identical clone. So there's more or less a direct plot line between those two characters with their identical appearance not being commented on at all. 5 Okay, that's actually hilarious. So, glancing at the map, the boss of this chapter isn't actually Niakalf, it's this guy, Brook, who is just Nikalaf in a purple cloak. And I didn't make a mistake or anything, yellow caped Nikalaf is the guy in the opening cutscene talking to Kempf, Kempf even uses his name, but then he just vanishes and is replaced with someone who looks identical to him with no explanation so we can fight Nikalaf himself next chapter. That is just...a ridiculous decision. You might as well just have a generic enemy guard the castle, since we already have Kempf, Illios and Conomore in this chapter serving as bosses. Speaking of Illios, I just recruited him with Karin. Not only does Olwen need to be inexplicably dead, but you need to recruit him with this specific character he has absolutely no connection to at all. What a stupid recruitment. I have to start again because I killed all Illios' sleep sword minions without realizing it and I need at least one of them to get Misha. Fittingly, Illios is the one to kill Olwen himself on this run. Kill the nobility and steal their title! Hold up...sleep Edge is 20 weight and used by a Cavalier. How the hell am I meant to steal it? I somehow have to have sleep to use sleep. Is getting to Salem before he expends all the uses of his sleep staff literally the only way to recruit Misha? Recruiting Illios without engaging his underlandings doesn't turn them green or do anything that might help me get their stuff...Okay, it looks like recruiting Misha on a no staff challenge is impossible. There's simply no way to get the ability to use sleep on her without a staff. I'm going to break the rules of the challenge to recruit Misha purely because I never recruited her before and want to do so on this run just to see what she's like. And to that end I'm going to use Tina's thief staff to take one of these sleep swords. Fortunately she has one charge of it left after using it on me. I pick up Sleuf, who is one of the best characters in the game for his base A Staff Rank, which, of course, is useless to me. I think the intention here is to send someone along the mountainous and forested southern path to take out the ballista safely from behind, but Karin dismounting and using her Flame Sword accomplishes the same thing much quicker. I put Kempf to sleep and let him live. Despite giving you the ability to be merciful, Thracia's bosses rarely appreciate being spared. Kempf here says "Hmph...I won't forget this! Remember me well, for this is the face of your conqueror!" It would be nice if the game played with that a little bit and had previously spared bosses come back at certain points in the game, rearmed and eager to fight you. That puts capturing them for their equipment less of an optimal thing to do and more something you'd need to consider on a case by case basis. And, perhaps, if you don't release the enemy during the chapter, you can toss them in a prison at the end of the chapter and then recruit them Fates style. I'd actually like that a lot for Thracia. Let me play as Kempf and Ecihmann! Though, given how jacked some of the boss stats are in this game, that might actually be hilariously unbalancing. I think the game expected me to take a lot longer with that, as Conomor doesn't show up as a reinforcement until turn 20 despite being mentioned in the opening and the enemy's stated strategy being to hold out until then. The wiki also mentioned two pegasus riders coming as reinforcements on turn 15, waiting for Conomor to show up revealed way more than two showing up. Conomor is here, and he's talking to green cloak man 4 Again, he's getting more lines than Dvorak. Of course, it's possible this is the same soldier man we saw speaking to Barath and at the prison later, but considering Conomor's battallion is meant to be Ulster knights, I'll say no, they're not. Especially since this particular green cloak soldier fiercely wants to fight for Ulster while the other continues to fight even after Seliph reclaims it. Conomor brings up Miranda as his excuse, which is funny because we never see Miranda in this route and are given absolutely no context for who she is. His desire to fight is also really weak. A few of his soldiers fight Lifis who was left behind at the start of the map, and then they all proceed to flee the map. Given how this is almost purely for narrative, I think it'd be much better if Conomor showed up earlier, like on turn 5 or something. Then we could have an actual story of Conomor basically betraying Brook and Kempf (poetic justice on the latter there) by only making a show of fighting before fleeing.

I don't really see your point, to be honest. There is a route where you can lose her completely and a route where you go with her. What I said is that the entirety of the Black Eagles should be treated the same way, so we don't get a case where they're flipflopping their loyalties.

But they did remove Edelgard permanently (despite her being my designated dancer and having my movement ring T.T)

Manuela should have been the dancer, and you should have been able to choose who the dancer is. Because, imo, they should have had the balls to remove your entire Black Eagles army in Silver Snow and replace it with the Church staff who would be exclusive or semi exclusive to that route.

Curses. Foiled again.