BrightBow

No, a villager called Nephenee a murderer. The guy that she just hit didn't actually die though. He was still screaming about his leg.

Falco

The music gets completely interrupted for a few seconds. Usually I see this only when entering a different area, so things usually go smoothly once that new area is properly loaded. But it gets pretty obnoxious to hear a few seconds of a new track just for it to suddenly pause. Although I have been playing this game exclusively in Gamepad mode, so maybe that makes a difference. Or maybe it's only this bad on Master Mode for whatever reason. I haven't really played the regular game in months after all.

Just for clarification, those are three different conversations.

Well, I think the lag on the Wii U version has indeed gotten better. But I think the music now cuts off far more often then at release. On top of plenty of other annoyances like items from defeated enemies taking several seconds to spawn. It really would be good to know how the Switch versions runs these days. Back at release they were supposedly pretty much equal, at least in TV mode.

Gotta say, the way they changed those walker Guardians is kinda... trollish. One of their legs now has several times as much HP as the other ones. Fortunately they are still as vulnerable to ancient weapons as always. But it seems like now I have to keep one of those around just to be prepared. Btw, does anyone happen to know some good strategies to deal with them without severing the legs first?

I suppose this actually is a bit of a shame. Spicer was probably the most likeable of the group. It's easy to see this guy as merely Trump's court jester, having to constantly justify Trump's actions just for the man to casually contradict him on a whim. He also didn't seem to enjoy what he was doing, especially if you put him next to Conway who seems to have way to much fun putting on that fake smile of her's while expressing thinly veiled contempt for the people who have to listen to her "alternative facts".

It surprised me to see you get one of the convos between Jill and the generic Wyvern Knights. On my run I wasn't able to trigger any of them, so I assumed they were not actually accessible in the Japanese version. Maybe only specific Wyvern Riders trigger them. There are a whole bunch of those convos after all. Btw, the second half of Mist and Jill's A Support is a little different if you wait until after this chapter to trigger it.

Freedom Planet. It's basically to the Genesis what Shovel Knight is for the NES. Speaking of which, Shovel Knight if you don't already own it on another platform.

Wow. It's quite a surprise to see that these tables can be destroyed considering they never appear in dungeons. But maybe it is possible to see them destroyed during battle. Yeah, attacking just plain doesn't work. At least as far as I can tell from my humble Powersave shenanigans. Which sucks. I wish I could play through the game with Alm and Celica having a different class. I suppose you never actually need to attack but there is just too much stuff hidden behind breakable walls for my liking.

For me I suppose the easy answer would be to make Corrin a villain. I mean, Conquest has plenty of infuriating moments that could easily be fixed. But even so, what would the story even be about? Even ignoring all the things that makes Corrin utterly repulsive, all this does is to leave a story where Corrin is forced to do bad things. He would just be a victim. I think the Hoshidian side of Conquest's story would make for much better drama: The lost son coming back as an enemy. I mean, just look at it from Hinoka's perspective: Your baby sibling gets kidnapped when you are just a child. This event shapes your entire life as you try to gain the strength necessary to bring him back. Then one day your hard earned strength is called upon to protect your country... from the very person you dedicated your life to. The love for your brother vs the responsibilities of your status. The guilt of allowing things to come to this point vs the need of your people. I think that would be good stuff.

I can't imagine they would put a Gold Lynel there. It would be pointless considering the White Lynel is more then enough to kill you in one shot. Anyway, I'm just about to leave the Great Plateau and so far this mode is a bit of a mixed bag. On the other hand the stronger opposition forces you to be more clever since the direct approach doesn't work all that well. But by upgrading all the enemies they are also amplifying a problem from the base game, that the HP of enemies increases at such a rate that a lot of ways to hurt them become quickly worthless. Those blue Boklins at the very start are already so tough that an explosive barrel barely puts a dent into them. Not to mention that by the time you can close the distance between them and you, they will already have healed must of the damage. Not sure what the deal with those floating platforms is. So far they haven't been a threat at all.

Not sure why one would not use them. Even at their worst they are still essentially all of your best units at once. Well technically I did not use Olivia but that's because of Awakening's map design. Like, the Serenes in Radiant Dawn are made of paper mache too. But in Awakening I had no idea how I could possibly cover Olivia's frail butt while still keeping her anywhere close to the front lines. Fortunately this wasn't an issue in Fates at all, at least in Conquest. I still would have preferred if Azura could at least survive a single round of combat though.

I didn't bring that up because Trunks is the last remaining Saiyan alive. There is no Saiyan race left that he could serve so his status as a prince has absolutely zero responsibility attached to it. The thing with Lucina's single ending is that it's the only ending which she has that allows for the mere possibility of her returning to her own time. (Well, besides her Owain pairing but that one puts emphasis on her accompanying Owain on his "quest to stain his sword hand" instead of anything related to saving their people. Besides, these days we know that Prince Owain ended up in Fates and not in his own world.) Her other endings basically confirm that she did no such thing, merely settling down in the past with her husband or traveling the world with them. Considering this, I find it immensely hard to imagine that the Lucina from her single ending would actually return back to her world when so many other versions of herself could not be bothered. So all this ending really does is to confirm that Lucina's future still exists and that she has a country to return to.

Hard Mode has been a rather pleasant difficulty from beginning to end. But I'm sure that now that I know this game so well I could definitely handle a little more.

The similarities with Trunks kinda stop there though, seeing how Trunks actually went back to his own time and saved his world instead of leaving it to rot like Lucina does. This is particularly notable as Trunks isn't even royalty like Lucina is, so he had no particular responsibility to do so. He just did it because unlike Lucina his kindness extends to people outside his own social circle. Not that I can't relate to that or would it hold against her as a person. But as a supposed hero and Lord in this franchise she is kind of a disgrace, even more so considering she is cosplaying as Marth of all people. Like, Marth did not spend the rest of his life living peacefully in Talis with his waifu. He collected allies, liberated his homeland and served it as it's king. As the man said: "I am a prince before I am a son or a brother." Anyway, in my case it would probably be Ephraim. Part of the recipe for a good drama is to put a character into a situation that they cannot deal with their natural inhibitions and this is something that Sacred Stones really nails. Ephraim is an utter ace on the battlefield, a fantastic soldier and great commander... but not really a good prince or king. Usually Fire Emblem protagonists live up to the responsibilities of their social status rather easily. Ephraim... does not. He would rather just dump the country onto his sister's feet and travel the world to hone his combat skills. He is still very likeable since he isn't irresponsible at all. He fully understands and cares about his responsibilities. He is just not happy having to shoulder that burden, which is very understandable and relatable. Eirika and Lyon make him probably feel rather inadequate in that regard too, since so many things just come easier to them. And of course his conflict with Lyon goes really under my skin. Ephraim admires Lyon for his compassion, commitment and sense of responsibility, qualities that he no doubt believes are necessary for a good ruler, qualities that he himself is somewhat lacking. So for him to find himself having to actually fight him... well, it's not a surprise that the revelation that Lyon was not actually controlled by the Demon King ended up breaking him. This is probably the hardest situation a Fire Emblem protagonist ever faced and it's just so tragic for the relationship between two people who greatly admire each other to end up at that point.

You know how there is an in-engine cutscene at the beginning of Part 3 where Clive faces of against Fernand? Does anyone know what happens in that scene if you reclass Clive to a class that doesn't have a horse? On a vaguely related note, if you reclass Alm or Celica using hacks, do they still function properly in dungeons? It does not. The Mage Ring only boosts the range of Black Magic.

I suppose it's less of a matter of practicality and more of a matter of what's fun and interesting. For example I like to use Luka in TRS because I enjoy using an Archer with the Charge skill, even though he is pretty terrible by any objective standard. In the same game I would really love to use Kate but using her would inevitably result in her being overshadowed by just about every other unit. It would be more a matter of keeping her around as opposed to actually using her. So I suppose favoritism is not much of a factor as long as there aren't any characters that are completely unbearable like Camilla or the entire cast of Awakening. Too bad you can't drop Corrin though. I would drop this guy from my team so hard that the bench would break under him. And then I would club him with the fragments of the bench until they break too.

Well, Thracia does have several unused portraits for FE4 replacement characters (and Arthur for some reason), so chances are they were meant to play roles that would eventually go to original characters. Like, it would not take a lot of imagination to imagine Femina and/or Arthur ending up in a dungeon in Manster in their search for Sety/Tinnny respectively.

Wow, I can't believe I never noticed that. And here I wanted to ask you to explore that area and take a look into that one room to the right that you can see on the map.

I had the slight hope that the 0% drop rate for the Blessed Bow was a mistake from the forum staff. That's unfortunate. I was wondering if there are traces of a cooking mechanic since so many provisions in the game seem to be more like ingredients as opposed to something that is meant to be eat raw, like garlic, raw meat and of course the ever popular bag of flour. But it seems like there is no such thing.

I get that you gave Grima the ability to kill Duma but did you also give him the ability to resist Oculus or is he naturally immune to that? Is HP got reduced to 25, so it should have been triggered.

It's so strange that the boss takes effective damage from bows of all things. Sure, you can just wear him down with Trance Shot but give a strong bow to a powerful archer like Alm and they will completely destroy him. It's all kinds of silly that Alm deals more damage against this guy with an Iron Bow then he does with the Falchion.

Tanith's Lv.1 Falcon Knight. Those stats are just insane, especially on Maniac Mode. Alternatively every member of Sennet's group in Tear Ring Saga that never becomes playable: Katrina, Temzien, Silva and Reshe. Not counting Neyfa because she doesn't really do anything and not counting Richard because fuck that guy. Seeing them rushing through what seemed like an overwhelming enemy force is quite a sight to behold. Makes you feel like you are suddenly playing an Asterix game. Well, a hypothetical good Asterix game.

Geez, didn't Titania already get a perfect levelup somewhere in the last two chapters? I know she is amazing but good god. Btw Deltre, if you are still following this topic, what skills do you plan to give to Ike? From what I understand you don't want to give him Aether. If it's Resolve, Resolve would only be available at the very end of the game. Also, you seem to be lacking in Vulneraries surprisingly often. I mean every character got 4 item slots, so there should be little reason not to carry a whole bunch of them. I love that subtle characterization for Naesala here. Having him emphasize to his subordinate to make sure that none of the Kilvas will report to Petrine is a nice way of showing you that he looks out for his men without beating you over the head with it. Meanwhile the plot had Soren act like a bit of an idiot here. Confronting a suspect by yourself is not a good idea. He even confirmed to Nasir that he hadn't actually told Ike about his suspicions yet. That boy is lucky that he is still breathing.