Bylift

Does he remember the Red Canyon? I need an answer.

I never considered using Anna. That could be a decent fit for her. On my OP I really try to acknowledge that Trickster isn't ideally suited for any one specific role. Physically they are outclassed; their magic is cut in half; they can't be primary healers or spike damage dealers, and the 5Mv is a legit problem. But in a game where you have as many as 12 units and often have 1-2 powerhouses and an assorted cast of helpers, I think a trickster (or two) is worth having around. Currently I'm using Yuri in his "cannon" class as Trickster using his relic for the first time, and I'm impressed with how good he's been. He is extremely dodgy (44 speed at level 38 lol) and deals a lot of damage with a Rapier; has Restore, Silence, as well as Deadeye for bow chipping. Really useful in a lot of situations. The relic's innate pavis/aegis effect helps with survivability with his low HP. As for Duelists Blow... yeah. It's fun to use but absolutely not worth an ability slot towards the end of the game, especially for Yuri since he has windsweep at C+ anyway.

Agreed on this. I stopped watching cut scenes and supports a long time ago. The reason I keep coming back and playing routes on Maddening NG or NG+ is entirely because I love the gameplay, and SS provides a different challenge than VW due to absence of Claude.

1- they’re not additive. 2- If you dismount, you do not receive riding/ flying xp. 3- re: early gardening: in your very first explore, check the blue spots north of the dining hall next to some barrels near the armor knight who blocks you from entering the stables. It can yield either Angelica or Nordsalat seeds. Either is 5-star and will produce useful cooking ingredients, more seeds of the same kind, and various other stuff. Angelica gives you a Rocky burdock and Nordsalat gives you speed carrots. This drop in the first explore is one that I will save scum because getting a 5-star gardening seed makes a difference in professor xp and it’s hard to find Angelica or Nordsalat seeds otherwise. What kind of challenge are you thinking of doing?

Same here. He's getting an S-support from me. I was shocked when I read your post and started a new thread about it in serious discussions. The video he posted yesterday is worth a watch. Not sure about 3 hopes but he did say that people are taking over for him on his various projects. It would be hard to listen to another actor voice Ferdinand, knowing what we do about his situation. 😞

Someone on another topic (edit: it was user Fabulously Oliver) pointed out that Billy Kametz recently announced he is suffering from Stage 4 colon cancer. He posted a video describing his situation and I'm sharing it below. It's amazing to me how much I've grown to love and appreciate the voice actors in 3H. This hits pretty hard, and I'm hoping he pulls through. I would encourage you to watch, though it may be difficult, especially if you have gone through something similar yourself or with loved ones. Billy says he's had to stop working on various projects, and asked us to support the folks who are taking over for him in the meantime. He is also shutting down social for a while to focus on himself and family, so all we can do is send positive thoughts, and S-support Ferdinand on every route. Get well soon Billy. We love you too.

SS fan here. It is every bit as fun as the other routes. I don't see why you wouldn't run it if you're going to get back into the game, and you've already done the others. I agree with others though that you should run it to try new strategies, develop units and supports that you haven't seen, and maybe try a higher difficulty (have you beaten maddening NG yet? If not seems like a good time to try) to make the actual gameplay more interesting. Otherwise you're going to spend 50-70+ hours on a run just to see a dozen or two new cut scenes, which you could just watch on YouTube in under an hour. One problem with SS is that your unit choices are more limited in the first half of the game, and as Shanty Pete's 1st Mat says, if you're not training the right units you can get into a jam on Ch.13, though it's nothing too serious. On the other hand, the final map is one of my favorites in the game to rout. The music is gorgeous, and the game throws a lot of tough enemies at you without some of the things that make other final maps so frustrating like terrain and siege turrets/mages. Good luck and let us know how it goes 🙂

Counterpoint: The fog of war music is cool in SS!

This is very impressive. Apparently I greatly underestimated early game grinding(!)

I've S-supported roughly 1/3-1/2 of the cast; I'm careful never to repeat S-supports because there is a chance that one day I get them all (a most dubious feat that honestly I hope I never accomplish). I probably like playing female byleth better for class purposes but typically alternate M/F. I find all the S-supports pretty terrible that I've seen lol. After all of my failed FE3H marriages, I'm gonna go with "no one." 😭

I agree. Not saying it's impossible, because people are amazing at this game, but watching those videos has me scratching my head at HOW they got so strong so early and achieved stats I've never seen, and I suspect it may have been NG+ for some of the reasons I mentioned above. Possibly some rigging as well. Which is totally fine either way. By no means am I denigrating what they did or accusing anyone of cheesing. I mean, grinding to S+ in the commoner class in a weapon by Chapter 4 is a FEAT. I wouldn't hold it against anyone to just use renown instead and skip all of that. At most you will find 2 of the yellow swirlies that give XP and usually only 1 per battle. They give some XP, but not a lot. Additionaly they randomly restore 1 used gambit, a small handful of spells, some battalion endurance (which maybe you don't even want), or some weapon endurance (bleh). Since as you noted the bonus is RNG based, you are likely to get something you didn't want, so it's probably not much of a factor. I haven't done the math but I think you need several thousand weapon XP to reach S+ in any weapon. With the 99 turn limit, no statutes, and commoner class, you are getting what... 1 or 2 weapon xp per round of combat, and if you're surrounded you're getting max 8xp per turn, so you might get 700 or so if everything goes right. This person had max ranks not only in weapons, but also spells (warp!) for multiple characters by chapter 4, when the first video is posted. It's gotta be either NG+ or some truly next level early game maximization.

I'm wondering if others also find this to be true. In my limited experience using Frozen Lance Lorenz with fiendish blow and Mag+2, he couldn't meet the benchmarks on the last 2-3 maps for OHKO in Paladin. I ended up settling for dark knight so he could at least chip. Some of the enemies get real beefy in the final few chapters.

Hey LoneRecon400 - thanks for the link on aux battle grinding. I only wish the video would have shown how that Bernadetta managed to defeat all of those thieves after the grinding was done with only a rusted lance in her inventory. Pass is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that strategy. Still, it was helpful to see. I have a hard time striking the balance between making the enemies hard to hit and actually being able to defeat them all in the end. I wish that the convoy was available to another unit besides Byleth when Byleth isn't deployed. I also found those videos showing the stage clears on final maps with commoners only, and I am satisfied that what I asked about in the beginning of the post is indeed possible, but... questions remain!

Thanks for the link wissenschaft. It looks like that run either is still in progress or was abandoned at the time skip. The last chapter mission shown was 12, and it looks like it may have been a compilation of videos from a number of runs since it is Blue Lions at one point and Black Eagle/SS on another. The last video posted was in 2021, so it appears abandoned to me. I watched a handful of the videos (they're mostly 3-4min clips in case others are thinking about it). It's hard to tell what the runner was doing exactly because the video descriptions are vague and the comments ask but s/he doesn't give detail in response. The runner is definitely using DLC items, specifically the shoes for Mv +2 on Byleth. I take no issue with it at all just pointing it out. After watching, I'm struggling to understand how they did what they did without NG+. Everyone I could see had full spell lists by Ch.5 and maybe sooner. You just can't grind magic that high that early(?) unless they're an adjutant, and I am not sure if it's common to have professor rank C or higher by then, though I suppose it's possible, but even then you have to grind Aux battles, and how can you grind that many units' magic in time? I also noticed multiple copies of dragon claws on the Ch. 5 mission, which I believe you can only get from the Pagan Altar at that point, and I think it requires pretty high professor rank before it is available for renown purchase. Byleth had S+ gauntlets at chapter 4 (the first video). I am an absolutely shameless grinder and I don't know how you could get that high of a rank that early. I'm not picking at the runner here, just to be clear: I'm impressed if they got there without NG+. I just... can't see how they did it. Regardless of whether it's NG or NG+, the runner has excellent strats and precise unit placement to exploit warp/rescue, as well as battalion vantage/crit shenanigans. I wish they had videos of post-timeskip chapters. If anyone has has a link to a video showing a final map clear of any route using commoner only, please share! --- Edit: found on another playlist from the same runner. I'm done questioning anything about this game. People can find a way to do absolutely anything. 🙂

I love it. Your move, IS!

I didn't view this as a troll at all, though replies do suggest the opinion is "unpopular" which is what the OP wanted to draw out of us. 40 is a lot of characters compared to normal games, but OTOH the game is designed for replay value. While it's possible to recruit nearly everyone in a single run (and maybe even get all supports up to A, though it sounds exhausting), that's certainly not required or even done that often I would imagine. I once recruited everyone that I could just to say I did it, and I didn't find it very fun. Just a lot of clutter. In a normal playthrough I like to keep my roster to 15 units MAX with three of them relegated to guard adjutant duty. And I'm not above killing off units after their paralogue so that my unit selection screen stays nice and tidy (Lorenz, man, I'm so sorry, but your relic is so good). -- As for my own unpopular opinion: Grinding in the tower of Valhni is a perfectly fine thing to do and doesn't taint your run.

It's been years since I read Song of Ice and Fire novels, but are you sure he had chapters narrating in the first person? I can recall the narrator describing things from the perspective of different characters at times, but I thought it was always in the 3rd person. Regarding the OP's question (and hopefully this isn't coming too late) I would suggest not jarring the reader's expectations halfway through by suddenly using first person for other people. Just my opinion though - I hope your project is coming along well 🙂

I agree with this. I really appreciate games that have atypical features that emphasize the game's strengths. One example and I hope this is OK to mention, is Ori and the Blind Forest where boss "battles" are completely replaced with intense escape sequences that revolve around platforming. It was a nice change from the usual 'defeat boss and its multiple health bars' and I really respect the developers from going off-script in that genre. Applying that to FE series, I could definitely see defense/hold out maps as a final chapter being fun. Or siege maps where you must capture a position that is heavily fortified, maybe by disabling reinforcement points or switching off some kind of invincibility mechanic first. I think I just described the final map of Verdant Wind 😄. Taking it a step further, I could even see a "defend the boss" final map being a fun challenge. Imagine if on SS you were protecting Rhea instead of killing her, which I always found weird on that route anyway. Or as suggested, you had the *option* to kill or defend her. They could also make it so that there are multiple factions battling/competing a la Battle of Eagle and Lion which could result in viable strategies of letting the enemies weaken each other before you clean up. Lots of stuff they could do other than "push forward and kill boss."

I've never gone into fortress for the stats alone, at least not on NG. It seemed pretty far out of the way. But maybe I'll give it a shot. I have certified all my units (even mages and Bernadetta) in armor knight a couple times on NG for the bases in defense and HP and I think it's a pretty reasonable strategy, but like Dark Holy Elf and Shadow Mir have said it certainly delays your magic users getting some important spells. Still, I would recommend the strategy for folks new to maddening NG as it really increases survivability of squishier units and makes the early/mid game more forgiving.

The March Ring! Nooooooo 😭 Been there man. Those thieves mean business. Loving these updates.

I also forgot to add about Seteth: This is of course just my opinion; I feel like he does have a nice character arc. In the beginning he comes across as strict, standoffish, suspicious of Byleth, overbearing towards Flayn and others (Hilda is terrified of him lol), and I didn't much like him in Part 1 my first playthrough. In Part 2, he works through his helicopter dad tendencies with Flayn and sees things from her side. He even apologizes to her. He shows himself to be a kind and encouraging father figure to his supports. For example he gently encourages Cyril* to be himself and live his own life instead of being a Rhea thrall. He sees Hilda's talent for illustration and encourages her to do something constructive for a change. Overall he develops into much less of a drill sergeant and more of a Guidance Counselor. He also shows his humility and adaptability by acknowledging that the students have much to teach him about fishing, his own stories, etc. This is in sharp contrast to his personality in Part 1. I do acknowledge however, that I'm talking about support conversations and not mandatory story scenes. Still, I believe he has a great character arc. I also think that story-wise, for as much as he officially relinquishes control of the church (and thus the plot) to Byleth in SS, most "decisions" seem to be simple agreement with Seteth's plans. I never got the impression that Seteth wasn't the real leader of the Church, despite Byleth's title. While he is available on other routes, I view Seteth as the unofficial Lord(tm) of SS, and I agree that removing him from SS would detract a lot from that route. *I should also say here that Cyril's supports are probably my favorite in the whole game; especially with Lysithea, Hilda, and Manuela.

This is a badass challenge. Looking forward to hearing about the next few chapters. AND… I never knew you could shop at the beginning either 😳. Thanks for sharing that bit of info.

Hey Jotari, finally got around to watching this video. I really enjoyed the imagination and hard work you put in to creating it. Well done! I absolutely love the intro scene to 3H when Rhea gets her revenge on Nemesis. It’s the only scene I never skip no matter what. But watching that scene and seeing the exact same Paladins and Pegasus Knights and soldiers as… 1000 years later… also had me scratching my head. I like your idea of explaining this a little by showing Rhea to have suppressed advancement of technology. I also thought it was awkward how Dimitri flips a switch and becomes a nice guy all of a sudden in the game. And to me, the most moving part of his route where a change should have been most apparent is not when Flèche kills Rodrigue, but rather when Dedue returns to him alive. I would be 100% OK if right then and there Dimitri flipped a switch. Dedue had always been his ally and protector. I always inferred that the thought of having lost Dedue was a substantial factor of what sent him off the deep end. IDK. I ship those two I guess lol. We don’t Deserve Dedue. He’s the best. Anyway thanks for sharing your entertaining take on the plot. 👍

All good points. As I'm thinking about this: I wonder how soon you could get to the abilities you mention like Alert Stance+/Weight -5/Move+1 without being able get flying/armor/riding skill points from combat. Would take a lot of training weeks. I'm just estimating here but I fear it could take you beyond the time skip. I suppose it's still possible on AM to use BV/BW Dimitri with a Killer Lance+ and retribution/stride to clear out non-monster maps. Imagine just how stat-screwed you could end up with no class certification base adjustments.