Hrothgar777

#1 - Alear, Divine Dragon (Female) Stats: Build: 11 SP: 1029 Mov: 5 HP: 57 Ph Atk: 49 Hit: 175 Avo: 111 Crit: 19 Ddg: 29 Str: 35 Mag: 10 Dex: 38 Spd: 41 Def: 32 Res: 26 Lck: 29 Rating: 222 Items: -Armorslayer+5 -Liberation+5 -Shielding Art -Steel Sword -Elixir Emblem/Ring: Lucina, Bond 20 (Pact Ringed with Merrin) Skills: -Divinely Inspiring -Divine Spirit -Vantage++ -Avoid+15 -Dual Strike -Dual Assist+ -Dual Support -Bonded Shield -All For One AKA the most goody-goody two shoes protagonist in the franchise's 33 year long history, who was advertised as having an evil psycho side which...turned out to not exist at all. it goes without saying that this metaphoric iron fetter around my leg had to see action and stay competitive. And that she did. I tried to strike a balance between her seeing the action on the front lines but with enough other stuff happening around her so that the hordes of usually corrupted mooks wouldn't pile on her. And in this regard I usually succeeded. All of my mages (with maybe the exception of Clanne) glass cannons who couldn't get that close, so she found her niche 1 hit KO-ing armor bros some of my other units could barely scratch. Overall, no complaints here. Alear, invariably, started the game behind the curve but ended in a strong position. #2 - Merrin, Wolf Knight Stats: Build: 12 SP: 942 Mov: 6 HP: 57 Ph Atk: 43 Hit: 208 Avo: 130 Crit: 49 Ddg: 61 Str: 26 Mag: 18 Dex: 39 Spd: 45 Def: 24 Res: 29 Lck: 31 Rating: 224 Items: -Silver Dagger+5 (engraved w/ Fates effect, which boosted luck & I think dex) -Stiletto -Steel Sword -Vulnerary -Elixir Emblem/Ring: Ryoma S (this came with the ability Bushido, which made me reluctant to swap this for a proper Emblem) Skills: -Knightly Escort -Hobble -Knife Precision 5 -Bushido Merrin did NOT start out as the best member of my party. I initially flirted with the idea of using her because she was somebody who I completely ignored on my first playthrough, which was also distinctly lacking in knife users before Veyle. My experiences with her were frustrating at first because she didn't seem to have a lot of potential. ...Boy was I wrong. As soon as I engraved and then forged that silver dagger, she turned into a mother-effing beast. The only true dodge tank in my party, and my only "crit tank", if that's even a phrase. Her catchphrase is: "That was cool, was it not?", and she did indeed earn the right to call herself cool. #3: Jade, General Stats: Build: 17 SP: 1573 Mov: 4 HP: 71 Ph Atk: 57 Hit: 138 Avo: 38 Crit: 15 Ddg: 13 Str: 41 Mag: 14 Dex: 31 Spd: 16 Def: 50 Res: 17 Lck: 13 Rating: 199 Items: -Silver Axe -Hand Axe -Steel Axe -Poleaxe -Elixir Emblem/Ring: Ike, Bond 20 Skills: -Meditation -Swap -Resolve+ -Demolish -Resolve+ -Reposition -Wrath -Laguz Friend -Great Aether Like with Merrin, my initial relationship with Jade was a troubled one. It took me a while to find her a usable niche. It so turns out that, when there's a surplus of enemies, diverting 5 or 6 away from your vulnerable flank toward Engaged Jade, ready to send half of them to kingdom come next turn with Great Aether (Urvan), was that niche. Like with Merrin she was somebody I passed up my first playthrough, and I didn't regret this investment. #4: Alfred, Avenir Stats: Build: 13 SP: 77 Mov: 6 HP: 63 Ph Atk: 53 Hit: 149 Avo: 71 Crit: 14 Ddg: 47 Str: 35 Mag: 9 Dex: 28 Spd: 29 Def: 38 Res: 18 Lck: 47 Rating: 217 Items: -Spear -Silver Lance+3 -Steel Lance -Javelin -Elixir Emblem/Ring: Byleth, Bond 20 Skills: -Self-Improver -Golden Lotus -Lance Power 3 -Divine Pulse+ -Divine Pulse+ -Mentorship -Lost & Found -Instruct -Goddess Dance Alfred was a so-so unit. He was an offensive underperformer until the last 2 chapters, right before which I forged his Silver Lance and gave him Lance Power 3. His role was to give me a Goddess Dance boost once per battle. Anybody but the mages could've done this, but he did the job well enough. I don't remember him dying very often, meaning he could stay alive long enough for the need to arise, and the fact that he was a cavalry unit the whole game meant I could depend on him to be to the right place when the time came. #5: Louis, Great Knight Stats: Build: 21 SP: 1700 Mov: 7 HP: 74 Ph Atk: 56 Hit: 152 Avo: 49 Crit: 17 Ddg: 18 Str: 40 Mag: 2 Dex: 34 Spd: 20 Def: 56 Res: 20 Lck: 18 Rating: 211 Items: -Spear+4 -Ridersbane+5 -Steel Lance -Elixir Emblem/Ring: Sigurd, Bond 20 Skills: -Admiration -Allied Defense -Resolve -Arms Shield+ -Canter+ -Momentum+ -Headlong Rush -Gallop -Override Louis is tied with Merrin as MVP of my playthrough. I've already heaped praises on this guy in another thread so I'll abstain from repeating myself. I have two complaints/regrets: first, he could sometimes be taken out in certain maps where the enemies piled on the chain attacks in lieu of damaging him the normal way (I believe there is an anti-chain attack ability I could've invested in had I been smarter about this). Second, his own offensive power was kind of lackluster. I can't remember a time when Override actually killed every unit lined up. Anyways, good man. #6: Clanne, Mage Knight Stats: Build: 8 SP: 1498 Mov: 6 HP: 55 Mag Atk: 43 Hit: 137 Avo: 59 Crit: 15 Ddg: 14 Str: 28 Mag: 25 Dex: 30 Spd: 26 Def: 22 Res: 33 Lck: 14 Rating: 186 Items: -Thoron -Bolganone -Elsurge -Elfire Emblem/Ring: Roy, Bond 20 Skills: -Verdant Faith -Chaos Style -Dual Assist -Hold Out+++ -Advance -Rise Above -Blazing Lion I had Clanne in my party from Chapter 1 but didn't pay much notice to him until later, when he established himself as the generally more useful version of Celine. When I got my first Thoron I was quick to give it to him. Emblem-wise, he had it equipped but almost never used it. Overall a decent guy. #7: Fogado, Cupido Stats: Build: 16 SP: 1435 Mov: 6 HP: 61 Mag Atk: 41 Hit: 155 Avo: 86 Crit: 15 Ddg: 16 Str: 23 Mag: 17 Dex: 31 Spd: 39 Def: 24 Res: 29 Lck: 16 Rating: 195 Items: -Radiant Bow+5 -Longbow -Silver Bow -Killer Bow -Elixir Emblem/Ring: Leif, Bond 20 Skills: -Charmer -Back At You -Draconic Hex -Arms Shield++ -Vantage++ -Adaptable -Quadruple Hit Fogado was another "I didn't use him in my first playthrough" picks. Along the way I made the decision to axe Alcryst (from my first playthrough) and replace him with Fogado. He found his niche as soon as I equipped him with the Radiant Bow, whose mechanics I admittedly don't understand but is frigging awesome. I don't know of another bow weapon in the game that'll smash through virtually anything without explanation, and Fogado was a worthy wielder of it. I didn't use his emblem very much, but on occasion it offered me a way to fight back when attacked not at range. Overall a solid guy. #8: Framme, High Priest Stats: Build: 4 SP: 712 Mov: 6 HP: 43 Ph Atk: 33 Hit: 148 Avo: 74 Crit: 13 Ddg: 32 Str: 18 Mag: 32 Dex: 26 Spd: 29 Def: 22 Res: 39 Lck: 32 Rating: 202 Items: -Silver-Spirit Art -Steel-Hand Art -Psychic -Elixir -Mend Emblem/Ring: Micaiah, Bond 20 Skills: -Crimson Cheer -Self-Healing -Healing Light -Defense+5 -Cleric++ -Healing Light -Silence Ward -Augment -Great Sacrifice Another repeat unit along with her brother, because she's cute and because she's a healer. But I wonder if there were better picks because she spent the bulk of my playthrough dying easily. I had hopes she would become a tank once Engaged with Micaiah and set up with Nosferatu ahead of the Enemy Phase, but it was not to be. Early on I also had issues with her moving too slow to catch up to the front lines and heal stuff, but that resolved when I acquired Psychic. Overall, Framme was serviceable. #9: Etie, Sniper Stats: Build: 7 SP: 296 Mov: 5 HP: 47 Ph Atk: 46 Hit: 175 Avo: 73 Crit: 21 Ddg: 22 Str: 34 Mag: 1 Dex: 42 Spd: 31 Def: 18 Res: 18 Lck: 22 Rating: 173 Items: -Longbow+5 -Silver Bow -Steel Bow -Vulnerary -Elixir Emblem/Ring: Lyn, Bond 20 Skills: -Energized -No Distractions -Speed+5 -Dexterity+4 -Alacrity++ -Speedtaker -Call Doubles -Astra Storm Though an early game unit, I didn't adopt Etie in my first playthrough, so I thought I would this time. I started out with high hopes for her, especially after equipping her with the first longbow I got. But (surprise surprise) she was a glass cannon who very often didn't survive the first enemy phase, so I ended up relying more on Fogado than her. Despite this I had an odd bias for most of my playthrough of assuming she'd be more important to my upcoming battle than she actually was. I couldn't tell you why. Still, she did fill the niche role of being my "Lyn's special one shot" person. Unlike in my first playthrough, however, this wasn't particularly useful because it almost never 1-hit KO-ed the target. #10: Veyle I'll skip her because this is taking me a frigging long time to write up, and because she was so late game as to be irrelevant anyhow. Glass cannon, not useful, yada-yada. I only took her and Mauvier on because I had 2 more slots to fill in late battles and nobody else would've been reasonably competitive at this point. #11: Mauvier Skip for the same reason. Was a bit more useful than Veyle because of Psychic, but still. #12: Chloe, Griffin Knight Stats: Build: 7 SP: 673 Mov: 6 HP: 55 Ph Atk: 33 Hit: 173 Avo: 98 Crit: 50 Ddg: 61 Str: 26 Mag: 26 Dex: 40 Spd: 40 Def: 18 Res: 26 Lck: 36 Rating: 219 Items: -Killer Lance -Spear -Heal (seldom used despite what you might think) -Elixir Emblem/Ring: -Eirika, Bond 20 Skills: -Fairy-Tale Folk -Clear the Way -Dodge+25 -Night and Day -Lunar Brace+ -Gentility+ -Sacred Twins -Twin Strike Like Etie, an early game addition I didn't use my first time around, who I ran with this time for the heck of it. She actually wasn't that useful and I didn't know if I was really going to keep her...That is, until she picked up Eirika. Then she gained a second wind and started pulling her weight. Eirika's ability, Lunar Brace, is like a less potent but more versatile form of the move Nosferatu, which let Chloe (player phase only) recover HP from whoever she was striking with whatever weapon. I find this pretty useful and Chloe was a good fit for this Emblem. #13: Ivy, Lindwurm Stats: Build: 10 SP: 944 Mov: 6 HP: 70 Mag Atk: 51 Hit: 145 Avo: 52 Crit: 11 Ddg: 8 Str: 15 Mag: 37 Dex: 23 Spd: 24 Def: 26 Res: 35 Lck: 8 Rating: 178 Items: -Elfire+3 -Excalibur -Elsurge -Vulnerary -Elixir Emblem/Ring: Corrin, Bond 20 (almost never used) Skills: -Single-Minded -Grasping Void -Draconic Hex -Dragon Vein -Quality Time+ -Draconic Hex -Pair Up -Dreadful Aura -Torrential Roar Ivy was somebody I brought back from my first playthrough. She was really solid back then but she kind of left me wondering about her viability the second time around. My core motive for keeping her around was to recruit that one character I missed before (Lindon), but after that I ended up keeping her just because. Not much to say about her; she was one of my backup units who didn't appear every battle. Though, like with Fogado she did have a niche use once I equipped her with Draconic Hex. #14: Celine, Vidame Stats: Build: 6 SP: 821 Mov: 5 HP: 47 Mag Atk: 54 Hit: 156 Avo: 68 Crit: 12 Ddg: 37 Str: 27 Mag: 34 Dex: 24 Spd: 25 Def: 19 Res: 31 Lck: 37 Rating: 203 Items: -Bolganone+4 -Thunder+5 -Elfire -Elixir Emblem/Ring: Celica, Bond 20 Skills: -Gentle Flower -Ignis -Holy Stance++ -Magic+2 -Holy Stance++ -Resonance+ -Favorite Food -Echo -Warp Ragnarok In my first playthrough, Celine had the weird status of somebody I used in the first half, then dropped for a long while, then picked her back up. This time I used her consistently from the beginning...and to very little payoff over time. Seriously, she wasn't that good. She was sort of there to do Warp Ragnarok but I didn't even do that often because either it had no particular value or she would certainly die come the next Enemy Phase. So there you have it. After doing this, which has taken me since June, I feel like...I don't know? Like I've (just barely) graduated from being a Fire Emblem noob, or whatnot. The sense of accomplishment hasn't kicked in yet, because I spent the last two hours awkwardly typing up this thread instead of celebrating. Now I'm not sure how I'll go back to spending my late nights since I won't be doing this anymore. But anyhow, at the end of this journey, I can say I think more positively of this game than I do Three Houses; this is not an objective value judgment but more a testament to the sweat and tears I've sunk into mastering this game's mechanics. To be honest my two playthroughs of 3H several years ago were very casual and I didn't study the battle system (I mean, I didn't need to because it was easy). Maybe I would feel differently if I'd taken the effort to challenge myself back then. But since I never did, and since I don't actually own a copy of the game to go back and do that now, it is what it is and my assessment will likely persist. Fire Emblem: Engage was 100% a worthwhile purchase and, despite my initial snobbish attitude, I hope it does ultimately sell as well as 3H and I hope it's remembered just as fondly.

(Reposted from another thread where this question didn't belong.) Do you guys have any tips for Chapter 26 (Hard)? Chapter 25 was perhaps slightly harder than me "breezing through it". Anyhow I walked away confident of my prospects for clearing the final battle. So, against my better judgment, I decided to just give it a whack on the same night, with no additional level grinding or whatnot (when I finish I'll post a thread detailing my party, their stats, my evaluation of their performance, etc., and I think this'll make it clear I wasn't underleveled going into this). Let me tell you: I was not prepared for the massive out-of-the-blue difficulty spike between 25 and 26. Granted, this feels more like a proper final boss battle and I did sign up for exactly this kind of challenge. But if I downright can't beat it, that'll be a disappointing end to something like a month and a half of my time sunk. For context: Sombron (big cobra form) has a total of 4 bars of health, each with 100 HP. If you don't take out the dark emblem rings, then attacking him is a fool's errand. You'll deal very little damage to him, and he'll take out like half the attacking unit's HP in the process. Whether you're attacking from up close or 2-3 spaces away it makes no difference. And if you're stubborn enough to actually try this? Well, he'll just have healers spawn on the opposite end of the map and effortlessly get him back up to 100. The solution at this point seems obvious, right? Well, the thing is, the dark emblems are scattered on different sides of the map and it's a pain to get to them and take them out. But once you do and the barrier is down, you get to strike Sombron with however many units haven't yet moved on that turn. And that's it, because he'll then proceed to summon more dark emblems. Oh, and have I mentioned he has an attack that instantly turns your Engaged units back to normal? Anyways, some help would be appreciated.

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This more or less sums up my experience with him on Normal. He was dead weight who could never/almost never one-shot an opponent. He was never dropping like a fly on the first Enemy Phase, but he didn't...do anything useful either. I don't know why I kept him around when there were far better alternatives. But I learned my lesson and haven't even considered him in my Round 2. I'm sure that I'm not being fair and there is a way to take advantage of him. But he's not good enough by default, and that's a cardinal sin so far as casual players go.

IIRC there was a shelved proposal to put casual or something closely resembling it in FE4. The reason they didn't do so was because, in the 90s, the whole permadeath shtick was what made Fire Emblem different from other RPGs. So I can see the value in Classic, and I can understand why they were hesitant to change the formula. But I don't get the elitist "Humbug, if you're not good enough to clear the game when you're losing half or a third of your party every battle, and you're not patient enough to retry the average level 10 times to make sure you lose no one, then you don't deserve to enjoy the game you paid for" attitude. Games are supposed to be fun, not just for the uber-talented diehards but for the average player. And if not for those average players buying huge numbers of copies, the franchise would simply be cancelled and the diehard minority would get no new content (in a nutshell, imagine if Awakening had no casual and only reaped half the sales because half of all players were deterred at the sight). What I think Nintendo should've done is have both, but specifically reward the player for roughing it out in Classic. Change not just the gameplay but the dialogue and, to an degree, even the story, if you lose certain people and/or successfully keep certain people from dying. I can see why they don't do this, since it'd make developing a given installment take way longer, but I think it would put the controversy to rest. To give my opinion on the question asked, I don't know. When it came to short games from the 90s, the deliberate point was to make it hard so you had to replay it over and over to beat it and get your money's worth. But that was no longer applicable, say, by the time we got to Path of Radiance. I'd say it would've been fine to add Casual to PoR and Shadow Dragon, but I can't speak to earlier than this. (Never played X-COM btw. My only exposure to it was an early Civilization game having an X-COM themed map/scenario, which I played through once more than a decade ago. What is it, exactly?)

Corrupted Alfred, w/ Boucheron, Chapter 23, "The Four Hounds" Alfred: Boucheron. As big a crybaby as ever, it seems. You can save the tears, by the way. I can't remember the last time I've felt this good. Boucheron: Prince Alfred...it breaks my heart to see you like this. Alfred: Funny you should mention hearts. See, I'll let you in on a little secret. Mine was defective from birth. I spent my entire life petrified by fear, worrying that the ticker inside me would stop ticking at any time. I'd lie awake at night with my hand over my chest, wondering if that was gonna be the moment it all ended. *laughs* But wouldn't you know it, Boucheron? My heart's not beating anymore, and I feel just fine! Here, come closer and I'll let you feel it for yourself. Boucheron: Indeed, your heart no longer beats, my Prince. Then let us be done with this farce. Corrupted Alfred w/Etie, Chapter 23, "The Four Hounds" Etie: Prince Alfred...there's so much I wish I'd said to you while I had the chance. I wish more than anything that we could go back to our morning runs. Lifting our workout teacups, making a toast to fitness. Alfred: And why would I want to do that? I hate exercise. Etie: ...! Alfred: It's true. Exercise is unpleasant. It makes you hot. It makes you tired, sweaty, and gross. I never enjoyed it even once. Oh, I tried to convince myself that I did, but that was just a coping mechanism. The only thing motivating me to work out was fear that my heart would stop if I didn't. But now that I'm dead anyway, I guess I can be honest: I hated all of it. And I hated you, Etie. Etie: No...This is not my Alfred talking. These are the words of a stranger. And I won't let you make a mockery of him any longer. I'll cut you down here and now! Corrupted Alfred w/ Celine, Chapter 23, "The Four Hounds" Alfred: Celine. I was hoping I'd run into you again. Celine: So, this is what you've become. Sombron has made you fight against your own country. You're nothing more than a puppet dancing on strings, pretending to be my brother. Alfred: What are you talking about? I'm freer now than I've ever been. Celine: Quit lying. Alfred: Oh, I'm not lying. See, my whole life was determined by circumstances beyond my control. Nobody asked me if I wanted to be prince. Nobody asked me if I wanted to inherit a life-threatening heart condition. But now? *laughs* I'm off the hook, Celine! I'm free, and it feels amazing. If you want to put me back in that coffin, then you're just gonna have to kill me again. Celine: *pained gasp* ...No. I will do what I must, for the sake of my people. So be it. I accept your challenge, Alfred...or whoever you are.

Corrupted Framme, w/ Clanne, Chapter 11, "Retreat" Clanne: *gasps* Framme...?! No, you're not... Framme: *giggles* Heya, Clanne, it's been a little while, hasn't it? Didja know? Dying is really, really scary. Everything went black, and I kept calling out your name, but you never answered me. And it hurt, so unbelievably bad... *giggles* it's okay, though. Lord Sombron fixed me right up, and I don't feel anything anymore. Clanne: Please, I can't take this. I already buried my sister. Just stop... Framme: Doesn't that just sound wonderful, Clanne? The two of us can be together again. We won't have to be sad, we won't ever have to feel pain. And all you have to do...is come a little closer! Corrupted Framme, w/ Alear, Chapter 11, "Retreat" Alear: Framme?! Framme: Hey, Divine One. Looks like I didn't make it, huh. Alear: Framme, I don't want to fight you! Please lower your weapon! Framme: Sorry. I wish I could, but this body of mine just won't do as I ask. Seems the only reason I'm still here...is to kill you!

So I'm currently in the middle of my second Engage playthrough, and my interest in this game is at its absolute peak at the moment. With that in mind I had a morbid thought: What if, in Classic Mode, your fallen allies were resurrected in later chapters as corrupted shells of their former selves in the service of Sombron's undead armies? Optional sub-bosses appearing on maps where the main objective is to defeat somebody else or escape, they would have combat dialogues with a few people they formerly knew. For example, dead Ivy with Hortensia or dead Alcryst with Lapis. This thread is intended to be a collaborative fanfiction. Anyone can contribute; I plan to do some, but to be honest my motivation is flaky at best. So go ahead and knock yourselves out, if there are interactions between cast members you'd want to write. Rules: 1. Use line breaks properly. Don't make the whole thing one big paragraph. 2. To add immersion to this, please include the chapter where the interaction happens. Suffice to say do not pick a chapter preceding when you recruit one or both characters. 3. Let's have a minimum length of three sentences. Preferably both characters should talk. 4. This isn't a requirement so much as a recommendation; I suggest reading/watching the supports to get some characterization before you begin writing. 5. Do as you please with their personalities, so long as you don't veer into the patently ridiculous. For example, making corrupted Vander meow like a cat just for the heck of it. Anything that would deliberately break immersion is a no-no.

Following up with what everyone's saying about MMBN, I think the most intuitive way to do this would be as a mobile app. Picture this: running the game, your phone checks all the nearby Wi-Fi networks. It wouldn't have to literally hack into them or whatnot, but it'd read enough data to maybe get a fix on what it is. Like an IoT device (e.g. coffee maker or refrigerator), or a home router, restaurant or coffee shop wi-fi, etc. Then the game presents this as a site for you to "jack in", and then you can bust viruses while supposedly inside the network.

Just like it says on the tin. I know some kind of device-to-device multiplayer was around since at least the GBA days. My family, which at different times owned a SNES, N64, Wii, and Switch, never had a GameCube so I don't know to what degree Path of Radiance was compatible with online play if at all, but I would assume everything DS and Wii up sported the feature. But before this, did any of them have a crude "hotseat" multiplayer? Next, there's the actual content of said mode. I'm assuming we've never been allowed to trade units Pokemon-style, but what about items? Did the earliest examples have a variety of maps you could fight on? Were there ever consequences to these battles?

When I started this game, I don't think I could've anticipated how much it'd grow on me. I shelved Engage for something like 1-2 months after I first got it, and here I am now, still playing it every single night long after first beating it. I thought this would be a pale shadow of Three House's glory but I was wrong. It's just as worthy in its own right, albeit in a different way. I'm hooked on the sense of achievement after whiplashing from "total despair because this is physically impossible and I've been unlucky too many times" to the sudden sight of Louis or Alear being displayed as the battle's MVP. It pleases me to see how far I've improved from being unable to do Normal Mode skirmishes to doing like 2 a night on Hard Mode. I never fell in love with the battles in Three Houses. It was part of the experience, but there was no way I could make that the centrality of my playthrough and be satisfied. And now, after having sat through the same lackluster story twice, I'm not 100% sure that I won't try again for Maddening when I finish (I'll probably beat Chapter 17 tonight). Maybe not because it'd be an even longer investment of time than my Hard Mode run, and because I don't know if I'll be able to do it if they just ignore my armor guy, but what I will say is that I'm not already fatigued. It is something that I'm half considering. I frigging love Fire Emblem. Even their "disappointing anniversary game" feels like a technical marvel that I don't know how they fit onto such a low-powered console.

Louis is the GOAT. This shut-eyed man (a pervert in the original Japanese, and "people watcher" in the English localization) on horseback, wrapped in gleaming armor, equipped with a Ridersbane+5 and a Spear+3, is a sight to behold. He is the glue keeping my Hard Mode playthrough from completely unraveling. Lately (I'm on Chapter 15 now) he's been somewhat less useful because the enemy is diversifying and has more mages on hand for when they swarm me, and because an excess of ranged units compels me to equip him with the less powerful Spear. That being said, I also haven't been using Pure Water at all. Maybe now would be a good time to start, and maybe this one trick will give him a second wind for the second half of the journey. Thankfully he now has a buddy in Jade, the other rising star of my party, who admittedly didn't start off strong at all and took me a lot of frustration to get to where she is now. Unfortunately I can't rate him according to the guidelines of this thread. I don't have all the information needed to do so, and I've been level grinding up a storm through this playthrough (with Louis as the main beneficiary of these efforts). I'm just taking this chance to share my casual thoughts on the character.

I watched the Veyle supports on YouTube the other night, looking to see if at least one of the Lythosians would hate her for killing Lumera. And instead I got "Hey Veyle this is a tasty pickle, innit". She literally murdered the god/mother of god of their religion and they're all like "Hello little girl you're so precious and adorable." So, yeah; I think it's fair to say Fire Emblem doesn't know how to write this kind of scenario. If it were realistic she wouldn't be safe spending even 2 minutes in the Somniel surrounded by devotees of the Divine Dragon.

Thank you very much. Next time I boot it up, I'll be sure to follow up on this. I guess up until now I've been playing Engage without the benefit of inherited skills, which would help explain why I was struggling so much even on Normal. This next question is completely trivial but it's something I've been wondering about since last night, when I played through the chapter 10 battle again.

The English dub for Engage is not of inferior quality to the Japanese dub. There. I said it. What's more, the theme song feels like it was first composed in English and then awkwardly translated into Japanese.

Personally, I think next console will be backward-compatible with the Switch, so there'll be no need to port or remaster anything for it during the 2020s decade. If you get the new console and then throw out your rusting old Switch from 2017, and then you feel nostalgic for Three Houses, all you'd need to do is blow the dust off your cartridge and insert it. I do, however, think there's at least 30% chance the next proper installment will be set in Fodlan. The franchise pre-Awakening was pretty good about tying games together, with Sacred Stones being the only one 100% unconnected to any other title IIRC. And even Fates was a quasi-sequel to Awakening, in that a lot of Awakening's cast inexplicably migrated to the world of Hoshido and Nohr. Two games being either on the same console or one being backward-compatible with the other is a big factor, I think, because it makes it easy to go back and play the original game that the new one succeeds and references if you haven't already. A factor which, again, will probably come into play here. There was a 5-year (or 4 1/2 year) gap between FE Warriors 1 and 2. Assuming a repeat of this for FE Warriors 3, we won't see anything before 2026 or 2027. By this time, there should be a new FE title to spin off, and New Genealogy will be old news. ...Assuming its sales look more like Engage than 3H, anyway. Which I think will be the case; what people are forgetting in all the FE4 remake hype is that the original sold "only" 498K units, which was far less than Mystery. When Mystery was remade for the DS it sold only 250K; granted, it was a Japan-only release, but if it had an international sales pattern which resembled Blazing Blade, this still would've been 1 million units or less. Even combining this with the sales of Shadow Dragon we're only talking about 1.6 million, or a return slightly above 2x the original game. I can't see New Genealogy clearing 2 million.

Genealogy: Yes, and I'll go so far as to predict it's going to be announced in the September 2023 Nintendo Direct. And no, I'm not "coping" as I ultimately concluded it probably wouldn't be announced in the June Direct. A new console means heightened quality expectations, which is more work, so I think Nintendo's going to shoot for the last leg of the Switch's life span to keep new console hype from making the final product seem like a disappointment, which means they won't wait much longer before announcing it. My guess is, there's a better than 50% chance we'll have it sometime next year. Thracia: Yes, I think it'll be shoehorned in with Genealogy either as something playable from the moment you first boot up the main menu, as unlockable side content when you progress enough in Genealogy, or as a purchasable DLC. The story is too tied in with Genealogy for, say, a 5-year wait between FE4 remake and a FE5 remake. By then people would have forgotten what the FE4 remake was about, so they wouldn't be able to effectively market it unless the two are packaged together. Three GBA games: Probably not a remake. I suspect one day they'll be sold in a bundle together like the MMBN Legacy Collection, with little if any change to the original code. Granted, the fact that one's already been made available online throws this into question. Though I guess they could still justify this by throwing in some bonus content, like a "Maddening" mode, online play, special artwork, etc. Anything beyond that: It's much too early to say. There's extremely little precedent when it comes to remaking games from the 3D era.

So I decided to replay it, this time on Hard Mode, and I just started Chapter 9. I've been pleasantly surprised by how manageable this is (so far, at least), considering the frustrations I had on my first playthrough. I expected this to be a lot rougher but now I'm on Chapter 9 and I have no reason to think I won't be able to keep going. I'm paying more attention to stuff like bond rings, using emblem rings for quicker level grinding, forging, etc., and that should probably make a difference. But anyways, my question: Is it true that a unit can only have two inherited skills? It looks like there's only two slots, so I've been cautious and I haven't let anyone inherit yet (I plan to before the Chapter 10 fight). In my first playthrough I had units like Alear inherit way more than two, and the game didn't stop me, so I'm a little confused. How does this work?

Didn't Japan have the most notable feudal system outside of Europe? Like, "a samurai with a new sword is allowed to randomly decapitate a passing civilian to test its sharpness" kind of feudalism? Did Fire Emblem unironically use the word tithe?

-It goes without saying you ought to upgrade your weapons from time to time. HOWEVER, this doesn't always mean you should throw out what you'd equipped a unit with before. I've been surprised by how often a "weaker" weapon ended up doing more damage. For this reason it might be helpful to equip several at a time so you have options when going into a battle. See which one will do the most damage, has the best accuracy, best chance of a critical hit, etc. Likewise, if you have the spare room it doesn't hurt to give your lancer or axeman a ranged weapon. -For difficult skirmishes, hunker down in favorable terrain with all your units huddled together. Don't try to advance to the other end of the map, because it'll be hard to keep formation and the enemy will pick off your most vulnerable people one at a time. When this happens, you lose their valuable skillset and the hardness of the already hard battle will steadily compound; for example, you might need Clanne or Celine to knock out an armored unit who Alfred only deals 4 damage to, but you've lost both of them to attacks from martial arts users. If you have somebody who can take a lot of hits, position them in the front and at points of restricted movement (e.g. bridges) where the enemy can't just go around them to attack the rest of your party. If you have archers or mages, put them behind this line. Prioritize keeping your healers alive and use them to sustain your party until you've finished killing the enemy. Note that this won't work in most chapter battles, because you're required to advance. Not only that but late chapters will actually penalize you for not advancing quickly enough. What I'm describing works for the optional battles on maps you've already completed. It also helped me survive Alear's paralogue. But in both skirmishes and chapter battles, if a turn passes where you've lost one person too many, I strongly recommend that you rewind and try doing something differently. Maybe you kill one fewer enemy in that turn as a result, but the math more than checks out if, over the remaining course of the battle, that unit is able to kill another 5 or 6 enemies. -Don't forget to collect "Achievements" in the Cafe Terrace, because that's a source of free Bond Fragments. Above that is the "Donations", which increases the possible reward from doing skirmishes. I've heard Firene's is not worth boosting more than once, if even that. That's because money is a valuable commodity that you don't get easily, so think before you splurge on something you're not sure of. -If a unit increases their Bond Level with an Emblem, and it says you have a new ability, that does NOT mean the ability is automatically yours. This may be true while you're engaged for 3 turns, but not otherwise. For that, your unit needs to "Inherit Skill".

It seems this fandom got its hopes up and then took the L. My guess is, this Direct was in June because it replaced E3. If they normally had an E3 announcement separate from Nintendo Direct then there was nothing out of the ordinary about today. I wouldn't have minded not getting Fire Emblem if they announced a Mystery Dungeon instead, since we're literally 8 years overdue for a new one, or a new Donkey Kong release in the style of DK64 or Diddy's Kong Quest, but why would Nintendo do that when they could give us an umpteenth 2D Mario scroller game instead? /s

^Frick. This feels strangely prophetic. The "SNES Classic" could definitely be that one Mario RPG from the '90s.

An unspoken rule of remaking games: There's no point doing so if there's not a dramatic graphical leap between it and the original. I think there's good reason why, say, with the Pokemon remakes Nintendo has been gradually slowing down. Once the originals hit 3D there was a kind of diminishing return for remaking them, so they started waiting longer to let hardware/software advances factor in, or at the bare minimum to allow enough time for nostalgia take hold among the fanbase. Brilliant Diamond was sort of dumpy, and SoV's maps appeared low-budget, suggesting a new FE remake won't look as nice as Engage. When the original was for the Super Nintendo this doesn't really matter, but a product of the Wii era? Nah.

I think it goes without saying what everyone here wants (*cough* "HADOOOOKEN!" *cough*). Reasons why I think this is going to be a big nothing-burger: 1. It's June. Engage's from-announcement-to-release window was insanely short (4 months), but that was probably a fluke; for Three Houses, we received 13 months of advanced notice. For a release beyond 6 months later, it'll spill over into 2024, which goes beyond the scope of this video. 2. Nintendo will want to avoid IP fatigue from announcing too many games for the same series in a short time. It's only been 5 months since Engage. Furthermore they also announced very recently that an old FE title was getting ported for the Switch. 3. 40 minutes isn't a whole lot of time. They'll probably waste half or a third of the video not talking about any specific game, and each announcement will take like 4 or 5 minutes. On the other hand: 1. The past few years, most Nintendo Directs have come out in either February or September. This one's in June, which is irregular and suggests there might not be a big lineup to announce, clearing up more potential space to talk about that. So long as they don't talk about Pikmin for 20 frigging minutes. 2. IIRC two different studios did 3H and Engage, and the 3H studio has put out nothing new since 2019. If so, we've already been overdue for an announcement for quite some time.

Interestingly, back in 2005 the official trailers spoiled more or less the whole plot of the movie. George Lucas was like "everyone already knows. Whatever. They'll come watch it anyway because it's just that awesome."