Jotari

Alvis once mentions how Azelle is important to him (without even a passing reference later when he orders the group, Azelle included, to be slaughtered) and Azelle admits in an easily missed conversation that he finds Alvis scary. We get some more information from Kaga's notes and stuff, but the game gives us basically nothing between the Azelle and Alvis relationship, the sole two references paints an interesting picture, but it's our own desire to see a complex relationship more so than something that is actually contained in the game. This is one thing in particular I'd like to see expanded upon.

Well Thracia just called it magic.

Downloaded this to just mess about with it, not plans to make a proper hack (yet). Something very worrisome is occurring however, when ever I go to the edit weapons, AVG Antivirus immediately flags the executable as hazardous and quarantines the program. Does anyone know why this is? I could tell AVG not to do that, but I'm not sure I'd feel safe doing so unless I understand why that problem is happening.

I really don't like the idea of the same stat determining magic and strength. I'm okay with it in Heroes where units will only ever have one weapon, but in GBA it just felt like classes were being limited in what they could do with it. While in Gaiden it just seemed weird to have frail priestess dealing massive damage with sword attacks. Or that equipping a sword increased power but doesn't(?) increase magic attacks even though they work of the power stat (to be honest, that'd feel weird either way). I wouldn't like the combined Magic Res stat to be a standard for the series, however, I do find it interesting for an occasional game here in there. Especially in the way you can use Barriers or Holy Water to super charge your mages briefly. It made those items much more desirable when they're usually throw aways.

Binding Blade was probably the reason things shifted away from replacement units too, as it was the one to introduce personalized support conversation for the entire cast, making them all unique. As good as Jugdrals's story is, even some of the plot relevant characters are very underdeveloped making it easier to just have replacement units (Jugdral even literally had replacement characters with the identical characters the game gives you if you didn't breed the first gen mother's).

That's something I actually really like about the Paper Mario series (or at least the first two games). All the stats are really low, so if your facing an enemy with just 1 defense, it really means something.

Fe16 will jarringly end after beating the Zephiel expy, confronting the Idoun expy will be DLC.

I actually used her FE5 pic instead of her standard one in an effort to make it smaller. For some reason the pics on the Fire Emblem wiki where I copied them from have been blown up to the enlarged size.

Just look to Mystery of the Emblem Book 1 for a legit list of characters too boring to get into the game. Of course IS didn't include Wyrs, so what do they know?

I'm not sure. They were standard size when I wrote them up on word, but all but Julius' ones blew up when I copied it over (I then intentionally made his bigger for continuity's sake). In the interests of saving space, I've shrunk all but the ones that are focusing on the character's design. The exact quote is “Lord Narga’s lineage through Saint Heim must not be allowed to perish! I want the two of you to bear a son as soon as possible! If the child inherits the power of Narga, he shall be Prince of Grandbell. And once I pass on he’ll become the King of Grandbell. Lord Alvis, until the boy is old enough to rule, you shall be the provisional king. Do raise him well. I hope you understand all of what I’ve told you. (cough.. Ah…ack..)” He says "If the son inherits the power of Naga" and that Naga's lineage must not perish. That's pretty clear to me that the blood is more important to Azmur at least. Agustria is an entirely different country, so Grandvale has no obligation to follow their rules, and just look at Munster which has four houses of equal standing and only one has Holy Blood. Obviously who can and can't become Emperor comes down to who can convince the most people that they deserve it, and Julius does have a good claim by being the only known living grandchild of Azmur (with Julia being missing and Seliph being a rumor), but going strictly by Azmur's words (which I imagine were recorded or put down in some official way) Julius doesn't have a legitimate claim without Naga blood.

Heal Rudolf (somebody help!) hurt Jedah. Atlas 20Berkut 21Boey 27Catria 20Celica 23Clair 26Conrad 19Delthea 17Desaix 13Duma 22Faye 29Fernand 19Forsyth 19Genny 21Gray 23Jedah 2Jesse 14Kamui 20Kliff 23Leon 18Lukas 25Luthier 18Mae 25Mathilda 23Mila 21Mycen 21Nomah 20Palla 23Python 26Rinea 20Rudolf 4Saber 21Silque 19Slayde 12Tobin 32Valbar 18Zeke 28

Alvis appears in three chapters of one game. He has only a handful of lines compared to many other characters in the series, yet to this day he stands as one of the most notable villains the franchise. What makes him work so damn well? A multitude of things that I’m going spend way too much of my valuable time analysing (and yes, I’m going to be calling him Alvis and not Arvis, and you should too, because Arvis just sounds silly). First, I’d like to start with his character designs. The first, his younger portrait He has long red hair and dresses in red clothes. This very obviously plays to his fire theming. Fire is something seen as powerful, dangerous and volatile, which is pretty much how his role in the story plays out. A player will get this impression of him from a first glance, even if it’s only subconscious. The more subtle thing about him here however, is his facial expression. His head is tilted up slightly, giving him the impression he’s looking down at people, yet the long bishonen hair and arrogant expression don’t immediately peg him as a villain. His hair has just enough bounce to it, and there’s just something a little two serious about his disdain to indicate he’s the smug monster you’d commonly find with these design traits. Compare and contrast his son, who has the same elements, but comes off as looking much more like an overt dick. Next, we have his post time skip portrait. He’s still rocking the red colour scheme, now adding some awesome bulky red armour that he should totally bring to Heroes some time. He’s quite clearly older, maybe even looking too much older for time skip lasting less than twenty years. It might just be me projecting the writing on to the design, but I think there’s a certain tiredness to him now. His head no longer tilts up and his lips seem to be trying to smile and frown at the same time. His brow is also much more pronounced. And yet despite this stress appearance, he also looks very regal and dignified (the fur trimmed coat he stole from Hardin certainly assists with this). He’s still tough and proud looking, but this design is also more likely to elicit sympathy from the player, unlike say, this grey skinned sourpuss. Now, onto the meat of the subject. The writing and what Alvis actually does on the game. His first lines really set the tone. “His Majesty wants me to check on things… The savages sure aren’t going down easy. Sheesh… Sigurd, you don’t impress me much.” He’s here to help us, but he outright insults our main protagonist, though not to his face. He’s not overly malicious with his insult, in fact, it’d be hard to find a milder way to try and offend someone, but this is immediately making the player form an opinion of him. Next, he’ll (probably) move southwards and roast a bandit. The player is one rounding these bandits, but Alvis is one shotting them, and he’s not even going into a map screen to do it. At this point the player might take a glance at his stat screen and see that he is far beyond anyone currently on the battle field. It’s the player’s first glimpse at a Holy Weapon. Subconsciously, this might make the player feel either nervous or impressed, possibly both. We don’t exactly know his motivations yet, he said he was sent here to help, but he hasn’t displayed any friendship towards Sigurd. Bear in mind, this is also the first time the series has ever had allied units appear on the battle field. It fits in with the core of Alvis’ writing, invoking conflicting feelings from the player. Next, he talks to Sigurd and gives him a sweet Silver Sword. Despite his earlier disregard for Sigurd’s efforts, he’s actually quite cordial and friendly to Sigurd. Giving him a weapon is a very good way of combining gameplay and writing, as the player will appreciate the gesture and put Alvis in their good graces. He also shows concern for one of the player’s units, so right now, any of their concerns or worries about Alvis becoming an enemy have most likely been dissuaded. Alvis doesn’t show up again until Chapter 5, but we later hear his backstory in Chapter 2 (described by an utterly throw away character called Filat. They absolutely should have combined him with Palmark, the guy who protects the children and Tyrfing in chapter 10, that would have worked so well with him first disclosing Alvis’ backstory and Alvis later trusting him with such an important job, but I digress). It’s pretty tragic and monumentally important to the story, his father was a womanizer who couldn’t hack it when his wife, Cigyun, had an affair so he killed himself. Alvis’ mother then abandoned him leaving him to become a duke at the age of seven. It’s never stated in game, but it’s clear by his actions that this gave Alvis some mommy issues. Namely, the fact that his heart was immediately captivated by a woman that looks like his mother. Kaga’s notes also says that young Alvis was fiercely protective about Cigyun’s reputation even going so far as to kill people who openly insulted her. They don’t dwell on the backstory and try to milk the tragedy however, in fact, Alvis barely gets a mention in it. A new player might not even actively connect that this love affair story involved the parents of the guy in the prologue who gave them a sweet sword. This down play is important as Alvis is meant to be a character of contrasts and we don’t want his evil actions being depicted as a Freudian Excuse. What is clear however, is that this tragedy happening so young, and then having a lot of power and responsibility thrusted onto him, would definitely have built him into a very serious individual. The next time we see Alvis proper, he’s being depicted as our enemy. This isn’t coming as a plot twist or anything, all of Grandvale sees Sigurd as an enemy by this point in the story. However it is quickly made clear that Alvis is in the know about the truth of Sigurd’s innocence and is a proper antagonist, not just a stooge. What follows is perhaps the worst writing in the game (hell I might even say the entire series) as both Alvis and the King espouse a tonne of really important information about events that happened off screen. This scene is why I really wish Alvis was in Gen 1 more, still, as painful as it is, the massive plot dump does its job of getting us quickly up to speed with where Alvis currently stands. He’s stolen Sigurd’s wife and is now right next to the throne. A short time later we see him with Manfroy (who we know just from looking at him is bad news) and he gives us this line. “Hmph… Manfroy, I’ll say this once and only once, so listen good. I haven’t the slightest intention of rebuilding your Lopt Empire. I have no problem with your Lopt Sect existing, but I’m not leaving the world in the hands of the Dark Lord. You follow!? I don’t care if I have the Lopt Clan’s blood in me. I have Saint Maira’s blood and he fought for the good of the people. The Fire God Fala is also one of my ancestors. I will use my power to create a world which is free of prejudice. One where all peoples can live without fear of repression! Of course, Sigurd knows way too much. Consider him a sacrifice to the greater good.” So the emotional flip flop of audience response to Alvis turns again. First, he appears and insults us, then he gives us a sword, next he appears plotting to destroy us, but then definitely states his intentions to create a world of peace, free of prejudice, but he still wants to destroy us. Manfroy makes failed threats against Alvis, but Alvis is having none of it. Manfroy is not blackmailing Alvis, Alvis is working on his own volition to achieve his own goals. It’s at this point we also discover Alvis has Loptyr blood in him, but we’re also reminded that he has the blood of great heroes who fought against the Lopt Empire too. So at this point the player might be thinking Alvis will be the final boss of this chapter after Reptor is defeated, but Alvis isn’t finished making us question his allegiances. He had his forces backstab Sigurd’s enemies and help take down the most threatening boss in the game thus far. Sigurd is evidently relieved and exhausted, but the player will still be feeling suspicious, and rightfully so. The build up to the Battle of Barhara is masterfully done. The characters all have conversations with their friends and lovers about the ominous feeling they have that things will not go well. We know what they don’t about Alvis’ intentions (dramatic irony). So it’s not surprising when Alvis betrays Sigurd. What is surprising is the magnitude of the betrayal and how devastating it is. I’m going to go outright and say it, from a narrative standpoint, the Battle of Barhara is the best thing in the entire franchise. It’s a ballsy move and it works well. I think Alvis is a great character, but even if this was his only scene, he’d still be one of the most notable villains in the franchise. It’s not only the magnitude of how bad the betrayal is, but Alvis’ character also shifts here as we the audience didn’t expect him to be this much of a dick about it. He said Sigurd was only being disposed of because he was an inconvenience, but then he twists the knife. Once again, opening by being friendly to Sigurd, but then openly sentencing him to death. Parading Sigurd wife around in front of Sigurd, but not letting him get a word in to reveal the truth to her. We know why Alvis does this on retrospect, he wanted to confirm his suspicions that Deirdre was Sigurd’s wife, but it doesn’t make it any less painful for Sigurd and by proxy the player. Among this, we get these lines “Diadora, this is the son of the man who murdered your father. It’s Lord Vylon’s son, Sigurd. Go ahead. Let him know how you feel.” "That’ll be enough from you{Sigurd}. Diadora, take a step back. This man is dangerous. He is guilty of treason and is to be punished.” Once again, it could be me projecting an opinion based on bias, but these lines come across as much gentler than the way he spoke to Sigurd. Yet still firm. It helps that at this moment the music has swapped from the dire peril theme it had before, to Deirdre’s theme, which is softer. Sigurd dies in despair, hating Alvis, but I don’t think the player has feelings of hate at this point. Alvis’ portrayal throughout the story has had too many subtle positive moments, and while the negatives currently far outweigh them, the scale of this event will make the player have feelings more resembling surprise and sorrow (once again the music as the characters obituaries are read helps to convey this tone). So right after Alvis’ greatest act of evil, we jump into Chapter 6 which wastes no time telling us that he achieved his goals. The ends actually did justify the means and Alvis got his golden age of peace and prosperity, albeit, only briefly. It’s not until Chapter 10 does Alvis appear again, by that time we’ve firmly seen the evils of the Lopt cult headed by Manfroy, they become the target of the players ire and blame for the current condition of the world. Alvis is not blameless, but he’s seen more as misguided than evil. His first on screen appearance since killing Sigurd is this exchange with Ishtar. “Ishtar, it’s good to see you. How are things?” “Your Majesty! What brings you here?” “Ishtar… I know you can do better than this. Now release the children.” “But I have orders from Prince Yurius…” “I’ll inform Yurius myself. Don’t you worry about him.” “But…” “That’s an order, Ishtar! Do you have a problem taking orders from me!?” We see two things here. One, that he’s against the child hunts, the most heinous thing we’ve seen in the game, once again, putting him in our good graces after time enough has passed for his betrayal to be mitigated somewhat. Two, we also see that he’s quick to anger. This is very unlike the pretime skip Alvis. Even when it looked like Sigurd would be able to disclose the truth to Deirdre, he didn’t shout like this, instead, curtly succeeding to send Deirdre away. I said in the opening that Alvis represented fire in his role in the story, but his personality has never been what one would describe as fiery. Instead, he was more cold and pragmatic, willing to do whatever he needs to in order to achieve his ambitions. This sudden change tells us that he’s a very different man to the one we seen before. His evil son Julius shows up and we discover Alvis tried to banish Julius, but Julius didn’t listen to him. This references is brief, but I think it implies a lot. Alvis is a dowager emperor, his power comes from Julius, but Alvis is still ostensibly the one on charge. The people were also once on Alvis’ side, so it seems that in all likelihood, Alvis could have started a civil war against Julius (Julius also has no legal right to the throne until he manifests a mark of Naga on his body, which he never will), but when Julius put it to him, and refused to leave the Kingdom on Alvis’ orders, Alvis backed down and let Julius do as he please. Because the only alternative would be to kill his son. Alvis never loses the title of emperor, and even after he’s dead, Julius still holds the title of Dark Prince. Alvis had power, but he couldn’t use it. Alvis in this chapter is someone who has both been utterly defeated, yet also refuses to give in. He opposes Julius at every opportunity, yet he still obeys and fights Seliph nonetheless. His next scene is with his daughter, Julia. It’s very brief, but we see how much Alvis loves Julia, he is concerned for her safety and admits what a fool he’s been. Manfroy takes Julia away and threatens her for good measure to ensure Alvis stays in line. It’s quite clear that Alvis now has regrets. He hates how things have turned out and hates himself because of it. Alvis gets someone to give Tyfring to Seliph (a weapon that gives Seliph a tonne of resistance and Alvis uses a magic weapon) and faces Seliph in battle. His battle quote against Seliph is much like first line of the game. “Emperor Alvis! Why did you kill my father…” “Celice… So you made it. I commend your bravery. But you will, nonetheless, be incinerated by my fire. You’re just as pathetic as your father was…” He praises Seliph, but then also insults him. A final juxtaposition before his death quote. “Diadora… …Yuria…” This death quote doesn’t end him squarely on the side of good guy. Love is certainly a redeeming feature, but it’s also selfish. The ones he cared about on his death bed were his own family, he doesn’t voice regrets about killing Sigurd or ruining the continent, although he almost certainly does regret these things, it’s just that’s not what’s most important to him. If you look at things from a wide scope, Alvis’ actions in the game involve giving the player a sword, mercilessly slaughtering a bunch of people he knows are innocent, and then fighting to the death rather than doing what is right and stopping his evil son. This should put him squarely in the monstrous villain camp, but what makes him work so well is that he has subtlety. It’s clear he once had good intentions and even in his final days opposed the child hunts, but it’s the manner in which he’s written that makes him so good. In every appearance, in every conversation, the story never once abandons the idea that Alvis is both fundamentally a good person, and a bad person. He embodies both the traits to their core. Have you ever considered, did he really even need to kill Sigurd? The truth that Sigurd knew too much about were that Langbolt and Reptor were traitors, this wouldn’t have actually affected Alvis standing as future emperor (Sigurd being Deirdre’s husband certainly would have but Alvis didn’t know that). Killing Sigurd was a shrewd move, but from Alvis’ perspective, it also should have been avoidable. He’s not simply a good man who acted badly; or someone who has good intentions, but horrible methods. He’s a good man who acts goodly and a bad man who acts badly. He is a man of contrasts. Nobody calls Alvis a Camus, as no one ever expected him to join Seliph, yet at the same time, no one ever derides him as a monster. Alvis is remembered for two reasons, because his impact on Genealogy of the Holy war is massive, and because there’s really no other character like him in the series. We have sympathetic villains who do evil things, like Lehran. We have evil villains who do nice things, like Zephiel’s treatment of Guinevere. But no villain that I can recall before or since, has straddled the line between good and bad so closely. When you kill him in Chapter 10, you probably don’t feel good about yourself (in fact, Sigurd’s ghost outright tells Seliph not to celebrate it), but nor will you feel particularly bad. I don't think that conclusion will be much of a revelation for people, but I did want to show how the game conveys those ideas in a nuanced way. I hope you enjoyed this three thousand word break down of a character who probably doesn’t even speak that many words.

I generally don't play games I expect to dislike. I can only think of one game that massively exceeded my expectations, and that's Virtue's Last Reward. I can't even remember buying it, not a single person ever recommended it to me, and I didn't even discover it was a sequel to 999 until half way through it (999 being a game that wasn't even released in Europe so I only had vague knowledge that it existed and nothing regarding what it was about). I think I got it on some kind of buy one get one free deal or something. In any regard, my expectations were more non existent than low, and it took me a few weeks to even get passed the first few puzzles, but then, at some point the game kicked into overdrive and I found myself playing it for twelve hours a day just to get to the end.

Still in the game buddy! Heal Rudolf, hurt Burkut. Atlas 20Berkut 20Boey 27Catria 20Celica 22Clair 26Conrad 19Delthea 17Desaix 13Duma 22Emma 2Faye 29Fernand 19Forsyth 19Genny 21Gray 23Jedah 6Jesse 16Kamui 20Kliff 22Leon 18Lukas 27Luthier 18Mae 25Mathilda 22Mila 21Mycen 21Nomah 20Palla 23Python 26Rinea 20Rudolf 5Saber 21Silque 19Slayde 12Tobin 33Valbar 18Zeke 27

Sword wielding Mage Knights came first. Gameboy Advance and its dumb combining of strength and magic is the one to blame for making things confusing.

I'm not sure barrier would have helped all that much given she was doubling most of my units with enough damage to kill them in one hit, let alone two. The only one who could really survive one hit and deal good damage aside from Keena would be Janessa, and spur speed wouldn't have helped her much given her speed is only 14 (she was doubling Keena who had 18 speed, which is the same as what Spur Speed would give Janessa). She's also facing 75% hit rates. The actual boss of the chapter wasn't much better too, his evade is monstrous (50% was basically the best I could do) and he had at least 10% crit chance against all my units. I got really lucky, hitting a crit whit Keena at 50% hit. But unlike this one, at least he doesn't move and the game gives you some warning he's a big deal. Keena and Beyrett have become my MVPs by a pretty large mile. Basically no one else can stand up against these units.

Alright, some of these bosses definitely need to be rebalanced. It's not just RNG screwed, this guy can kill any of my units in one hit and he doubles them. Footage is shit quality, haven't used Visual Boy to record since like 2011 (oh god that was seven years ago) so I just went with all the default settings. All the numbers are visible though. I mean, I found a way eventually, but it depended on a two 86% hits and a 67% all succeeding. Course I ended up criting in the end anyway, but I didn't want to gamble on that, even though it'd probably be better odds with the Killing Edge, I thought I could kill him with more reliability after the two long bow attacks. But the point is, the reliability there is pretty bad. I guess I'm probably meant to use the Brave Lance one of the paladins drop (but I threw it into the convoy because the unit that killed him doesn't use lances), but even then, I doubt any of my lance wielders could have killed him with the Brave Lance without facing an absolutely devastating counter attack.

Using courage?

Or they should give Dark Knights dark magic and bring back og Mage Knights.

Fighting against the tide, Heal Rudolf, hurt Emma. Atlas 20Berkut 22Boey 27Catria 20Celica 25Clair 25Conrad 19Delthea 17Desaix 15Duma 22Emma 10Faye 28Fernand 19Forsyth 19Genny 21Gray 22Jedah 10Jesse 18Kamui 20Kliff 22Leon 18Lukas 25Luthier 18Mae 25Mathilda 22Mila 21Mycen 21Nomah 20Palla 23Python 26Rinea 20Rudolf 3Saber 21Silque 19Slayde 12 Tobin 31Valbar 18Zeke 27

Ireland, the training ground for colonialism, in video games, and real life!

The reinforcements were just a few Falcon Knights and Drgaon Lords (are they even promoted?) that I didn't have much trouble dealing with. They start off so far away from the main action, it's pretty simple to set up someone to bait them and take them out in one turn. Weakness to bows and Dragonpike makes them little to worry about. Was there meant to be more land reinforcements coming from the south that I just didn't trigger for some reason?

Well Ryoma's appeared as one, I feel for the sake of symmetry they'll probably make Xander one too.

I like this one, and also like the idea that he could potentially be right.

I think I'm on Chapter 13 now, and I have to say the past few chapters have had a major drop in difficulty. Chapter 11 only has a somewhat difficult opening, and then you're basically free to walk around the chapter unopposed, while Chapter 12 all the really tough enemies can't even move while NPC's distract the weaker ones that can. Only hitting the boss (who I put to sleep like every other unit so far, bought three more sleep staves in Chapter 11) provided any difficulty, but map control was so easy I was basically free to do so unmolested. Maybe there was meant to be more waves of monsters? I think there was only two. Either way, the past two chapters were rather easy (maybe that was intentional as the plot sort of seems to support the idea that they're easier battles).