Zapp Branniglenn

Some of us have! Hoping that a time traveling Vivica shows up in Drums of War 2

But is that a Big Issue really? The kind you couldn't solve by just moving them close but not too close with the rest of your units? If they're really in trouble, Rescue can disappear them. And it's not an FE6 environment where an untrained/un-Seraph Robed Roy will get OHKOd by an 80-90 accuracy Bolting from the Fog of War.

My general answer for friendliest iron man is FE7. Real nail biter set of opening chapters on Hector Mode, but it you can push through, the game is constantly throwing great units at you. You can really freestyle and not stress your unit selection since they're mostly kind of bad. I can't imagine any early game death would seriously impact your chance of clearing the game. Marcus + Oswin both dying is the only thing close to an emergency, yet incredibly unlikely. I personally hate blind ironmans (because it's more satisfying to succeed when you do know the game and make smart long term plans) but I think FE7 is relatively straightforward without a guide. And if you want one, Mekkah made a chapter by chapter video guide detailing the few things you need to look out for.

Do you think the Falchion was Naga's baby tooth? And it's one of those families where the mum keeps the baby teeth in a bagged collection? I'd be trying to pawn them off too. That would have been a really compelling bit of transfer data for a theoretical Wii/Wii U Tellius game.

Holding out some optimism for the Sega announcements. "Can we please reinvent something that's not Sonic" is a 10+ year old request. We'd be well within our rights to say too little too late. But Sega's back catalog didn't become any less impressive as the years went on. You're never too late for some budget revisits. Or at least, I'm hoping for some less than premium price points. I wasn't expecting them to slap a sixty dollar price tag on the latest Sonic game. And the only one whose visuals stood out to me was Shinobi. 3D Streets of Rage on top of 3D Golden Axe is a bold turn.

I have been dreading thinking about this possibility since I first read about the Michalis business in FE12. 100% certain those same developers would say "Actually, everyone survives the Battle of Belhalla" in FE4. Heck FE4 had its own trouble pulling the trigger with how many characters survived. And as for FE5, the Olwen/Reinhardt relationship is the same brother/sister dynamic as Minerva/Michalis. And the game immediately following FE12 was of course Awakening with its No One Dies in Fire Emblem Spotpass maps. But then again, Echoes is the counter-example. They didn't make Rudolf playable even though he's that game's Camus (well I mean, the archetype. I know Literal Camus is playable in the game). Berkut and Rinea could easily have been written to survive (since they are not adaptations of existing characters) but they followed through on their fate. Echoes had, let's be honest, way too much awful DLC. But none of said DLC is a villains package.

I'm more interested in if the real origin of these images was Yuji Naka violating a non-compete clause to redesign Peach for a game that never saw the light of day. The last thing he was doing before he went to prison was giving us The Dish on various companies. Who's keeping him quiet? 🤔🤔🤔

That getup belongs in Nights before Mario

There's no time limit. You're free to feel any way about today's Actors just like Yesterday's Actors. The reason why historians moved on from Biographies of Great Men was because they gradually discovered conflicting accounts from primary sources. Turns out the Great Men of any era are always controversial figures. Even if for as mundane a reason as People reject Change. History is written by the Victor, as they say. So it engenders us to believe that the Great Men of our past were always in the right. When History moved on to Just the Facts (and just to be clear, we're talking a 19th century shift, not something that happened in our lifetimes) it was focused on a scientific / causational framework. And sometimes when you search for those individual answers (X happened because of Y), the context gets buried. Which brings us to Modern History. By now, most of the timeline of world events has been constructed, so now it's time for us to interpret and contextualize the past in ways that they feel brings nuance to the conversation. So in Kissinger's case, an early historian would tout his accomplishments as an American hero, a 19th century historian wouldn't glamorize, but would be remiss not to mention he was awarded a Nobel Prize for Peace, and a modern historian would dive into Vietnam, Cambodian, etc histories to argue how much of a monster he was. And those hot takes were published while he was still living, mind you. Be prepared for some more now that his death reminds us of his existence.

Two of my favorite bros from Fire Emblem wrapped into one. FE1 Marth and Kelik 'The Fairy King' Zenair. Impressive work!

Nothing substantial. Some events give better rewards based on decisions you make or how well you perform, but the difference is just money, flower points, frog coins, all of which are farmable. The Remake spells out a lot of the hidden mechanics from the original so you're pretty well covered. But here's some juicy bullet points Mario's basic Jump spell gets 1 point more damage every 2 uses. It's not crucial that you power this up - Mario's a powerhouse without it, but it gives you something to work on in the early hours. Mario's Super Jump can be done up to 100 bounces, and the game secretly tracks your highest score. It's difficulty, but try to get at least 30. There's an NPC later that will award you one of the best accessories. He grants the best armor too (that anyone can equip) if you can get 100 but I've never gotten close myself. In The Mushroom Kingdom, there's a new accessory in the remake that notifies you that you're in a room with one of the game's 39 Hidden Treasures. These are all hidden block treasures you reveal by jumping underneath them. It does not track any other type of secret. So I thought I'd clarify what the game is trying to tell you in those rooms.

I studied history in college and this was the first question they hit you with. What is the "duty" of history, how have generations of historians approached it differently. The gradual shift from Biographies of Great Men to "Just the facts" to editorializing and Thesis Statements. Is it the job of the historian to moralize the historic actors? There's no consensus, you just do whatever history you think is appropriate for the subject matter. The truth is that facts don't "speak for themselves". Everything has its own framing regardless of the presence of any bias. Let me add another bullet point: The Industrial Revolution. Just an awful, depressing time in human history. But the result is the cities we live in today. Advancements in technology that would never have been dreamed of. Was their sacrifice worth it? Building societies that are now destroying the planet. In fifty years when a lot of us are underwater and throwing blame around, will they also be villains? Also, let me be the first to wish Henry Kissinger a happy stay in Hell, if we're going to be talking about atrocities.

Fire Emblem: Drums of War Robocop: Rogue City Shining Force 2 Yakuza Kiwami 2 With The Game Awards next week, I'm reminded there's a handful of Big 2023 games I've played but didn't write about, and I should probably do something with the notes I jotted down on them at the time Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon Starfield Street Fighter 6

The best way to repay Sakurai is another year of silence as he plugs away at his cute youtube channel. Wait, he doesn't monetize that shit? Smash will probably hit the NSO. I know Sakurai himself has always been weird on the prospect of re-releasing games he's worked on, but the reality is that he doesn't own Smash. Nintendo can throw those games onto whatever platform they want without his sign off. Especially the first two. Those have the lowest amount of companies that need to be contacted for copyright renewals.

This is the finale. Infantry lance classes have stuck out in the minds of Fire Emblem fans. Makes them a fan-favorite in a weird way when so many of us are asking what happened to them. There's infantry sword specialists, infantry axe specialists, why not lances? Their in-absence is going to lead to some short rankings, but I figured their popularity warranted a discussion anyway Myrmidons / Swordmasters Mercenaries / Heroes Thieves / Assassins Fighter / Warrior Brigand / Pirate / Berserkers Archers / Snipers Nomads / Bow Knights Armor Knights / Generals Cavaliers / Paladins Dancers / Refresh Units Pegasus / Falcoknights Wyverns Lords Troubadours / Valkyries Dark Mages / Druids Clerics / Bishops / infantry healers Mages / Sages Manaketes / Beast Units Here are my rankings, based on games I've played / replayed since 2017. I'm personally choosing to exclude the Soldier class of Gaiden, because it's clearly a precursor to armor knights, and you won't have Soldiers for long, mostly just Act 1.

Gonna be listening hard to audience reactions when we get Shadow's flashback scene of watching Maria getting shot in the face by "The Olive Garden Guy". I want it on the record that I mumbled to myself "No." when I saw the post credits tease.

Hey um where's Peter Weller's Robocop for Best Performance? Yeah I realize it's not the first time he reprised this role (Hello Mortal Kombat 11 DLC), but he is the definitive Robocop performance. It elevates the game that he's here, 35 years later

Keighley always comes down the chimney with some World Premieres. I know he said that would be less of a focus for this year, but that's just to throw us off! But also be prepared for things that were technically "announced" years ago in a financial report and we're finally seeing a trailer for. Like that Fallout show. Or the third Sonic movie. Actually with the strikes ending a couple weeks ago, there's a big backlog of film stuff that's been waiting to be announced and re-advertised, not just the video game-related film stuff. I guess I'm just hoping to see The Outer Worlds 2. Starfield's alright, but I couldn't get out of my mind how much neater it would be if the RPG stuff was championed harder than the Simulation aspects.

Yeah I really like how good and unique these dragons can be without overshadowing the rest. I always find myself gravitating to units with extremely potent strengths and weaknesses. Units with a rewarding learning curve and intended niche. One of your bullet points I want to echo is Book 2's Star Shards. That's a very key mechanic to that game that Bantu just doesn't get to take advantage of anywhere near as much as other units. The only stats he takes with him into battle are Skill and HP (up to 26, any additional point wouldn't matter). Book 2 units have huge rifts in stats that might make FE6 blush, but Star Shards are the great equalizer that let you make any awful creature into a star, provided that they don't join after the point of the game where you give them up. And then in the remake Star Shards are flat stat boosts that only widen those rifts between units. It's like you say. Dragons can't ORKO enemies, and I think that keeps them from making the game boring, rather than just being a shrewd balancing decision. But here we are, Bantering about Bantu, and most Fire Emblem fans are like "...I have...no recollection of using Bantu...". He doesn't feel like he belongs anymore in FE11. And it doesn't help that FE11 (and maybe FE12? Don't remember) is the only Archanea game that fails to tell you a manakete's actual stats. In-game or through the help of the player's manual. I dusted off my DS game case to investigate that. That uncertainty behind everything he can and cannot do makes the player too wary to use him.

Dragons n' other animals. I decided to combine the two into one thread for the purposes of casting a wider net and having more games to talk about for more people. I do acknowledge this creates a funky situation for Awakening and Fates that have both in the same game. Although in Fates' case, some of you might abstain on Corrin by virtue of him already being talked about in the Lord discussion. But you can talk about whoever you feel is appropriate. Here are our previous topics: Myrmidons / Swordmasters Mercenaries / Heroes Thieves / Assassins Fighter / Warrior Brigand / Pirate / Berserkers Archers / Snipers Nomads / Bow Knights Armor Knights / Generals Cavaliers / Paladins Dancers / Refresh Units Pegasus / Falcoknights Wyverns Lords Troubadours / Valkyries Dark Mages / Druids Clerics / Bishops / infantry healers Mages / Sages Here are my thoughts, looking at the games I've played / replayed since 2017 Apologies for being late this week. Although if I had been on time, I'm not sure too many people would find the time to turn in their post on holiday. Next week is our last topic, throwing a bone to the always a bridesmaid never a bride units. Yes you guessed it. Soldiers / Halberdiers / lance infantry.

All correct, but let's not forget the context. Three Houses is four years old now, and hearing It's Optional again tells me we've learned a whole lot of Nothing from critiquing that game. The Monastery wasn't just a bunch of Extra mechanics and fluff. It was a core part of the experience that you are expected to engage with on a regular basis to clear the game. Yes I've seen No Monastery runs and they should inform us of just how much a playthrough depends on them, not vindicate the 2019-2020 counter argument: It's Optional. Put another way, the existence of 0% growths runs does not tell us level ups don't matter. You don't have to be good at Fire Emblem to understand it's a game that runs on Numbers, therefore the Numbers matter. Somniel isn't in Engage by accident. It found its way there at the direct expense (development time, resources, voice acting, animation, and writing budgets) of the Fire Emblem parts. Three Houses was delayed so much because of the unexpected strain that the Monastery had on finishing the game's three four routes. We can't really speculate how it impacted Engage because that was developed so incognito that the game was content complete before our first trailer. I do not posses a copy of Engage, no. I made an easy bet my sixty dollars would be better spent on Pikmin 4. Hey, quick clarification. No one said "Cringe", or at least I haven't. Incidentally yeah I don't like the game's aesthetics. I believe my first verbal utterance to my friend sitting next to me was "oh, maybe it's another mobile game". When I had more time to digest the trailer and jump on these forums, I pointed out the downgrade in battle scenes. That jerky camera work that cuts, instead of Echoes/Three houses' smooth use of panning. Also I'm sure I would miss character portraits, but I understand removing them in dialogue scenes due to the redundancy of seeing a person's face twice in-frame like we did in Three Houses. These are surface level issues. If I was confronted with Bad Gameplay and Bad Art, the Bad Art is almost assuredly something I'd get over across a game's 40 hour run time.

Mfers still saying "ItS oPtIoNaL" in 2023. I wasn't expecting otherwise. You gotta troll pretty hard to do it worse than Three Houses. I was Out when I saw it in the trailer. And the Post-Release discourse that I've overheard here wasn't enticing either. Everybody that likes the game prefaces it with either "I like it ironically" or "Well it didn't bother me" handwaving of issues. Fates all over again. I'm okay with a divisive game like Engage existing, but I won't be burned on another 40+ hour game that plays exactly as dull as it looked. At least Three Houses took a risk on a new story with all new mechanics. Engage is selling us "Marth From Smash Bros" as if there aren't already half a dozen low effort crossover titles in this series already. Safe. Boring. Interesting points all, but rule #1 of Fire Emblem is Build an Army. Rule #2 is Trust Nobody. Fire Emblem for the Game Boy Advance.

I'm no casual, but it's the surface level similarities to Three Houses that repelled me from picking up Engage. The big Monastery full of homework between maps? No thanks, I've had my fill of "optional" gameplay systems that play several crucial roles in terms of balance and resource economy. And also your Emblems get taken away at some point? So there's a time limit on getting the most out of those things - like Three Houses calendar system forcing you to engage with Monastery on a regular basis or else lose out on that opportunity altogether. You could try to convince me Engage does the Monastery "better" for this or that reason. But it wouldn't make a difference to me because I feel like I shouldn't have to spend half my play time on the between-mission grind in the first place. That was a key part of the appeal of Fire Emblem among SRPGs, no expectations for the player to grind.

Yeah if you have ready access to the original, then I think the best argument for this version is it's playable on a handheld system. And it's more pick up and play than ever with it autosaving on every screen transition. But I'm pleased with the idea of people experiencing SMRPG first on this version. Couldn't say that about modern Nintendo or Square remakes. I skimmed the changes with the pixel remasters and it was a lot of unnecessary gutting and homogenizing of the original games' systems. Leave the bugs alone, they add character. Or at least keep them in as a separate "Original" mode.

Okay so the Remake is pretty straightforward in its recreation of the original game. The game was retranslated yet includes all the Woolseyisms we know and love. It's mostly the enemy names that were updated. Koopas are now called koopas. Shyster was changed to not sound like a 1930s slur. The main area in which the remake improves upon is Conveyance. I think many veteran players are going to "discover" a lot of things that were always the case in the original. For instance, the perfect block. If your guard timing is perfect, as opposed to "good enough", all damage is reduced down to 0 no matter how strong it was. This is on every attack, unless it's designated to not be guardable. Which brings us to conveyance update #2, moves that can't be guarded will tell you by saying (Can't Block) underneath their name. Hitting an elemental weakness also tells you in big bolded letters. Mallow's Thought Peek (called "Psycopath in the original) will newly reveal the enemy's elemental and status weaknesses. In the original game, these details were all something you needed to "feel out" for yourself like most RPGs of its era. I would know Mario's Jump does a lot of damage to an enemy, but not whether they were simply Weak to the "Jump" Element, or if they just have no magic defense. Now I do know. It's also apparent whether a status ailment (like Bowser's Terrorize) worked on an enemy.