Jotari

What are Cassius' growth rates? I've just leveled up without gaining any stats at all, and the previous level ups weren't too great either. Can't tell if I'm just getting RNG screwed or if he's not meant to develop well.

I know it's a triggering formula. That's exactly my issue with it. If it was a base increase to crit evade, then that'd be a great skill. But the fact that it's a proc skill, and the proc is so monstrously low for something that happens so rarely means it'd never be used. At the very least I'd make it so it's just Skill+Luck, no dividing by three, as that's what really kills it. But given it a flat 50% activation rate too would make it more than useful without being broken. I even think making the user completely immune to crits wouldn't be altogether broken.

Constance froze, rooted to the spot. That voice, it's him, it's Malaphar. He's here! Despite the circumstances, this was the last thing she'd expected. It had been so many years since she last saw the mage, he had slipped into the realm of the intangible. A threat she knew was out there, but could only contain the damage, rather than combat. Now she felt thoroughly under prepared. She had no way of dealing with him. No way or capturing him, or even killing him. Claire had practiced advanced magic to try and learn to defeat him, but Constance, like a fool, refused to ever seriously consider the ramifications of another reunion. She turned her head to the others and placed a finger over the front of the helmet, the universal symbol of silence. Then, she put out the light and left them in darkness.

Princess can use staves and Prince's can't in Genealogy too. Damn sexist game mechanics. Stave wielding Prince!Leif would have been amazing for Thracia.

Are there any non gameboy classes?

When you say FE8 skill system, what does that actually mean? Just the standard Sacred Stones classes, or new classes with skills? Or even just skills on classes that didn't get them in Sacred Stones?

Oh I've had my fair share of bullshit crits, but the skill is only going to have any effect one in twenty times you receive a crit. If you're getting hit with crits that many times to the extent that the skill is statistically useful, then you're playing the game wrong. Rally luck would be a better skill as it flat out reduces the enemy's crit by a full 8%, eliminating it to virtually zero on multiple characters at once. And Rally Luck would probably be voted pretty highly in a worst skill poll. I could see the skill having some use if the proc rate was actually high, but dividing the total by a third means it's going to be in single digits. We've had skills in the series that outright eliminate critical hits without being broken.

Yeah, but it isn't a weak skill, it's a useless one.

Oh yeah, the fact that it's based of luck, yet unnecessary if you have good luck, just furthers its redundancy. Even if the /3 part of the formula was dropped, it still probably wouldn't be worth equipping.

The fact that it's a tier 1, and a level 1 skill at that just makes it massively more useless. An unpromoted level 1 character will have about 6 or 7 skill and luck. So an activation rate will be less than 5% and only proccing when enemies proc a crit, which enemies aren't even going to have any chance of doing until well into the game. That's basically as useful as Sure Strike in Sacred Stones. You'd be better off just giving them a flat 5 or 10% crit evade.

I'm not sure about these specific cases, but it absolutely would be possible for Sony Exclusive characters to appear on the Gameboy Advanced while still being completely Sony Exclusive. Sony didn't have a handheld device of their own at the time, so it wasn't a competing market for them.

Awareness shouldn't be proc based. Or if it is, it should be a flat 50% or something. The chances of it activating are incredibly slim considering enemies are rarely going to be having any more than about 6% crit. And at the formula you have there, it'll only ever get as high as a 10% activation ratio. Meaning you're looking at 10% of 6%, which is nothing.

Oh yeah, it'd still be broken if he retained his original effect. I was being literal when I said slightly broken. Still legitimately broken, but not as massively powerful as the effect is in his own game. Naga at least still feels special given it's Dragon Slaying properties. That's actually pretty rare (at least until Wyrm Slayers come on the scene as an inheritable weapon) and Naga serves as both the only tome and green weapon that does the job. So I have a reason to want a Deirdre or Julia in my army. That's a role only they can play. While Julius is just a res tank, yes, a pretty good res tank, maybe even the best in the game, but not something that seems like a vital niche. It's a plus 3 res. His weapon only nerfs attack during combat. I kind of wish his res was six lower and got boosted in combat by the tomes effect, just so it was doing more (even though that would actually make it weaker, as his Res wouldn't be effected by combat bonuses if he was already receiving a +6 automatically, of course, I'm not sure you'd ever have much reason to boost his Res even further as is, maybe for an Iceberg or something). EDIT: Wait a second, I am completely wrong and your right. I don't even know why I cam to the conclusion that it only applies to physical attacks. I guess I'm still in the regular fire emblem mindset of expecting magic to be a stat. That does boost his res to much higher than I supposed.

I like that he looks so young in Heroes, like his original sprite. A lot of his other artwork, particularly his Awakening one, focus too much on the whole evil sorcerer look and make his age more ambiguous leaning slightly older.

Well Snipers can wield crossbows too. I believe Archers can't, but the only playable Archer in the game is Leo and you don't get any crossbows in part 1, meaning that's only really an issue if you completely neglect him, in which case there's no point in trying to give him one because he'll be slaughtered regardless. Of course that's irrelevant to your point. On your point, I wouldn't at all be against Crossbows being their own distinct and separate weapon type with an Arbalist class that specializes in them.

Marksmen could equip crossbows too.

Legitimately sounds like Awaken/Fates quality writing.

Negative six attack on all combat sounds good, but when his defense is sixteen all it really means is that his defense is at the still massively underwhelming 22. And I think that's the crux of my issue. It's a really cool effect, but it's basically useless on him, because he's never going to be a physical tank. It practically doesn't help him at all, any decent physical unit is going to one round him due to the lack of speed too. Hell with defense, speed and HP that low, you could probably retain the original effect of Loptyr and half attack before damage calculation and he'd only be slightly broken (units with 50 attack would be dealing around 10 damage without specials). Over on the Create a Unit Thread, I created a Julius that had the Move Ring as his B skill, so he'd be an infantry that moves like a mounted unit. That could have been interesting.

His weapon doesn't nerf magic attacks though. And given that he barely has double digit defense, 12 less isn't much.

Most games is a bit inaccurate, even if it might technically be true. Wyverns have consistently used axes ever since Path of Radiance, which was the ninth game, and we're now up to fifteen games, discounting Heroes, Warriors, Mirage Session and BS: Fire Emblem. So Wyverns have used axes in approximately half the titles in the series, and the most recent half at that (bearing in mind they don't exist in both Gaiden and Shadows of Valentia).

Oh wow. You got a clip of that? I don't believe there's ever been any reliable evidence to suggest the death penalty has ever been a deterrent on any kind of crime.

Julius is the third final boss we've gotten in Heroes. Grima, the first, is an armored dragon with absolute maxed out attack and Vengeful Fighter guaranteed to kill absolutely anything that can't one round him if he has full health (there's also flying female Grima but I never got her so don't know how impressive she is or isn't, though at least she has the whole colourless Manakete thing to make her special, though I do find Dragonskins effect questionable). Takumi has his cool unique area of effect skill. Julius...he's sort of just another Saias and Alvis. I mean, he's not a bad unit, but I don't really feel like he stands out. The idea behind his tome is cool, but in practice, it doesn't really seem to work due to his meager defenses. Even in his Grand Hero Battle the Dead Lords are way more of a threat than he is. I'm not sure how one could accurately represent Julius, since in his own game he's basically invincible, but I am sort of disappointed. Maybe I just have to play around with him a bit more. What does everyone else think?

I don't think Reinhardt ever once mentions Ishtar during his brief appearance in the game. That's all hearsay from others. The way I always interpreted it, the whole thing was entirely in Julius' head. I'd actually object to a memory prism or any other way to show off Julius' original personality in the game (unless it was accomplishing some other purpose, like showing his murder of Deirdre). I feel the fact that it's underplayed is what makes it so tragic. Julius is so utterly misfortune, not even the narrative tries to elicit sympathy from him. The game doesn't bang you over the head about how unfair it is to the boy to be like this, yet it still let's you know and I like that. One of those instances where unless you really commit to showing, telling is actually better.

Well Julius did start getting possessed as like a seven year old. So that sweet and wonderful love would have been just plain old love of everything that children have.

Haha. That's great. Not sure how you could spin the idea out to three support conversations, or even a decent one, but I absolutely love the idea. I'd be curious about how they'd play Deirdre x Alvis and Deirdre x Sigurd. Her profile says she's lost her memories, so it's presumably a post Sigurd dying Deirdre that appears in Heroes, yet a convo with Sigurd would bound to restore her memories which intrinsically change any conversation with Alvis. You'd either be looking at a lot of lose, dismissive canon, or some epic writing to address all the issues while still making everything independent. Or you know what would be cool, if it was a special linear support situation. Where you can't get a B support between Deirdre and Alvis until you get a C Support with Sigurd. And then you can't get an A support with Sigurd and Deirdre until Sigurd and Alvis come to terms in an A support. Air out all the grievances everyone has in an mini arc for them.