BrightBow

Freaking sweet. I was worried they would use the DLC artwork since I couldn't imagine them using the old Falchion. Since I am a cynic, I just love being wrong.

I would say it goes far past "mediocre". I definitely like cheesy friendship speeches like the one Sora got at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3D. But even from that level, the problem is that the game is less "I am nothing without my friends" and more "My friends are nothing without me". Sure, Grima keeps going on about why Robin won't join him. But Robin never gives an answer to that. It's only every else cheering him. And then everyone sheds tears about him, as if not a zillion other people died just as noble deaths in order to protect the world from Grima. As if they had nothing else in there life that mattered and was lost in the war. Even if we only count PCs, a lot of them might have even lost their partners and children. But those lives are apparently meaningless in the radiance of Robin. Or alternatively if the Avatar decides to merely banish Grima for a while, every single character seems to believe that Robin is more important then the future. That the inevitable reappearance of the world devouring dragon and the countless lives that will be lost, are somebody else's problem.

I can't imagine that dynamic growths exist in this game. Especially since my Stahl promoted with only 8 Speed at level 15.

Btw, Hellsing Abridged Episode 4 is out too. Personally I kinda had trouble understanding the minions most of the time. ...but then again, I guess I am the last person that gets to blame others for not speaking clearly. Anyway, I am really glad this movie was made since I considered Garlic Jr's performance in the main series to be a bit of a waste. It was nice to see more of him.

Yeah, I can't believe that the pathetic marketing gag is a match for any of the above. Considering that the presence of a masked Marth was a big mystery or the audience, I would have expected that people would be more bothered by the lack of an actual payoff. There was nothing but a few embarrassing attempts at justifying her costume and mask. And there was literally no explanation for her attacking Chrom. But dammit, we need scenes for the trailer to fool the audience. But then again, trying to kill her parents seems to be her answer for anything anyway. Plus, you are not getting to blame fate for supposedly preventing changes in history when you make barely any effort to change events in the first place. Her excuse, that she wants to avoid making huge changes to the timeline, is completely stupid because any actions she could possible take to prevent that are dwarfed by the desired result. Because no matter how small the changes leading to it are, the prevention of the dragon apocalypse is hardly a small change in history.

Rally mother murder, I guess.

Come to think of it, Gharnef actually is a lot more dangerous here then he is in the original game. He has pretty much the same stats but the changed weight mechanics mean that he has a whopping 16 Agility while the old one had merely 9.

Even so, the level shouldn't be too hard. All you gotta do is to find a way to slow down Garnef for a few rounds until he leaves. It might be a good idea to open a can of Pure Water for once.

I don't think that enemies on Normal ever get significantly stronger, considering that even late in the game new recruits have little more then their class bases. Like how Midia is effectively base Jagen but with growths. One way or another, the arena is never necessary. Neither for gold or exp.

Best: Greil Mercenaries Worst: Chrom's Shepherds The mercs have the advantage of being treated like main characters for the entire first part of the game. And with the addition of info conversations, they are all nicely developed over the course of the game. Mia and Gatrie are an exception, though. I really wish Mia wouldn't have stayed with them since she sticks out like a sore thumb, due to her lack of character development. It's also nice to see how Greil treats all of them like family, just for Ike to take these lessons to heart and treats everyone he fights with, regardless of heritage, race or social standing, just like family. Scenes like his final speech in PoR to several armies really shows why Ike is the hero of Tellius. So the Shepheard's. Talk about a badly developed group. It's far from clear what they actually are. Given how Chrom and Frederick talk in the first chapter. ("They have us, Shepherds to protect the sheep"), one could assume that they are a part of the Ylissean army or even the entire army. Yet, when we actually get to their headquarters, the whole atmosphere seems to suggest that the Shepherds are just a small group of people where everyone is best friends with everyone. Pretty much like the mercs, just dumber. The thing is that these people are no mercenaries. They have to take care of an entire country. But such a small group of people wouldn't be of much help for the "sheep". They would be incapable to have a significant affect on just about anything. Plus, the whole group pretty much consists of a bunch of bloodthirsty psychopaths. Chrom is the worst. Not only did he do jack in order to maintain order in Plegia after overthrowing the countries' king, he also couldn't even be bothered to give a shit when he learned that his irresponsible behavior lead to the population being sacrificed to Grima (as opposed to Fire Emblem's usual "being killed by bandits" routine). And as a bonus, in two years he apparently didn't bother to take the crown since afterwards he still refers to himself as "Prince Chrom".

Besides, from an in universe perspective, his act was probably a lot saner. Narratively, he has an actual army (well, "a small force of knights") while Eirika has only a few companions. Anyway, he didn't know that Renais' palace had already fallen. But he also knew that it's time was running short. So the lives of family were in danger. In such a bad position, it was fairy reasonable to be a little reckless to archive the bigger goal of causing enough trouble for Grado to allow his family to escape from the capital. His real screw up was to move his forces to Grado, which he later regretfully admits to have done for mere personal glory.

Hard to believe Ishtar managed to turn the whole thing around. Poor Titania. Btw, how is today's question supposed to be interpreted? Anyway, let's look at today's candidates. Unfortunately, there isn't much to Palla besides her crush on Abel and that the characterization of later Pegasus sisters implies that she is supposed to be the motherly one. She is pretty boss, though. Severa is an unmodified Tsundere template. And aren't those the best kind of characters? "I am an abusive prick to people I supposedly like and everyone thinks that makes me cute." Genius! Absolutely brilliant! The only thing that kind of surprises me about her, is that IS resisted the urge to add a fang to her on top of her pigtails. Innes is a supreme badass. The guy effectively won the war against Grado. And he does a nice job balancing out his less desirable traits. However, I think Ephraim got them beat. He goes through some pretty nice character development for a Lord. From someone who would just like to put his sister on the throne while he is off being a mercenary to someone who not only takes responsibility for one but two countries. Yeah, he became a pretty awesome guy.

True. But the reason I brought this up, is that re-classing isn't all that useful for the sake of the new class but simply serves as an excuse to climb the level letter yet again to farm skills. It would be a different matter if these skills were actually limited to the classes. You know, more stuff like how you have to be a Dark Mage in order to use dark tomes. That is such wasted potential.

If that alone is a reason for belittling LoS, then why doesn't this reason also apply to SotN and it's successors. Aren't those "shameless" Metroid clones? And if nothing else, LoS got better story and atmosphere. Not that there is much competition from the previous Castlevanias.

I'd say Butterfinger. I never eaten them but they are Nappa approved. So they have have to be good.

In which context did I say that? Was it even related to this game? Anyway, my point is that classes are even less serving different purposes in the team then usual. Like, take BS Fire Emblem Episode 1 as a contrast. You got among others Midia as a level 1 Paladin and Macellan/Dolph as low level knights. However despite her massive level lead, Midia will die in like 4 hits. In contrast, Dolph and Magellan barely get scratched and can easily take the double amount of hits, as long as you keep them away from Mages. Yet, Midia isn't weaker then them. She is just different. She is an offensive powerhouse that can actually kill things and she can shrug of the attacks of the mages due to her Resistance. So these differences change fundamentally what role they are going to play. And the difference between those roles is way larger then a simple: The General's higher Def might sometimes allow him to take a single hit more then the Paladin. From my limited knowledge about Pokemon, I probably wouldn't claim that. Pokemons show way more difference then most Fire Emblem classes. Their entire move pool and passive skills are different. Not to mention that the Rock Paper scissor aspect is way larger. So the difference that just the Types present in the team have is absolutely massive, even before nature, stats and moves begin to factor in. And those aspects matter way more then the meager difference between having access to a Silver Sword or a Silver Axe. Not to mention that Pokemon has an actual world with exploration, traveling and stuff. So having hundreds upon hundreds off Pokemon actually makes sense, since the world benefits from having all that fluff. Even when some of these Pokemon are hardly different or completely useless. And most important of all: Pokemon can't even Reclass anyway. Well, for the most part. Even if they could (and I am forgetting about certain mechanics, like variable evolution paths), the presence of competitive play allows for an actual pay-off for all the tedious farming besides shiny, green numbers.

Yeah, I mean Gangrel screwed himself over by provoking Regna Ferox and allowing Ylesia time to form an alliance, when he could have just steamrolled the capital and the Ylesian main army off-screen between chapters. Kinda like he did in the end anyway. Just with the element of surprise and the absence of a more powerful nation to crush him afterwards. However, while Ashnard might be kind of cunning, he does things like repeatedly crippling his own army on purpose just to test Ike's army or telling Bryce he killed his father. Of course unlike Gangrel, he is genuine insane. He is so insane, he could touch the Fire Emblem and it didn't change his personality. Gangrel is just being an idiot. The guy doesn't deserve the title "Mad King".

Well. I am not even close to choose any of them as favorite. I mean, in my case it would probably be about the following order: 1. Legacy of Darkness 2. Castlevania 64 (maybe that counts as cheating) 3. Rondo of Blood 4. Castlevania (NES) 5. Castlevania 3 6. The Adventure Rebirth 7. Dracula X (SNES) 8. Super Castlevania 9. Order of Ecclesia 10. Circle of the Moon 11. Mirror of Fate 12. Symphony of the Night 13. Aria of Sorrow 14. Dawn of Sorrow 15. Harmony of Dissonance 16. Portrait of Ruin 17. The Adventure (just "omg, this game doesn't work") Anyway, about Legacy of Darkness. The game masterfully combines fun platforming with 3D graphics that really makes one appreciate what a scary, threatening place Dracula's castle is. So the castle looks absolutely beautiful. And the soundtrack does an awesome job at being both memorable and atmospheric. Something that I think no other game in the series really pulled off. The game also uses it's soundtrack in a cinematic manner during cutscenes. So it always goes along with what's on the screen. The characters are great and I think they easily surpass the cast of the other games. Quite frankly, I would also vote Actrise as my favorite villain in the franchise because of her design, her chemistry with Carry and simply being the worst pile of crap in the series. And given the competition of Dracula and freaking Death, that's saying something. While I don't particular like Dracula's personality in this game, I like that the game is more concrete about the stuff he actually does. In this case, burning down villages and kidnapping children as sacrifices. Speaking of Carry, I also like her a lot because she totally didn't meet my expectations. Knowing Rondo Maria, Shanoa and Charlotte, I was expecting her to be either a goofy moeblob or maybe even to be creepily sexualized. But she wasn't either of these thing, And I definitely wasn't expecting her to be a genuine badass. She still loves her adoptive mother and is kind to kids but she is also beautifully straightforward when dealing with the forces of darkness. The demon trader was also a really cool idea. Though, not executed in the best fashion. You pretty much have to deliberately spend a lot of money in order for him to come and claim your soul. I also love the controls. Like, I think this is the only game besides Super Castlevania where you can crawl. (Completly useless here but it gives a really nice sense of control over the character). And I absolutely love that the character will automatically grab ledges when holding the A button, even when having the back turned to it. Sure, it doesn't make any sense but it allows all kinds of cool maneuvers or to rescue yourself from falling. I wonder why more games don't do that. I think climbing feels really good that way. Oh, and this game actually has vampires as regular enemies. They are pretty cool, too. Capable of jumping high, grabbling you and drinking your blood to restore their health (and induce vampirism) and turning into a bat. Of course, the game does have issues. There are to many areas that aren't linear and you have to run around a lot figuring out where to go. With Castle Center being the worst. I actually think the Nitro part is the best part of the level. I mean, at least you have a straightforward objective there. And there is tons of other stuff that maeks this level particular painful. Thank god, the Clock Tower afterwards makes more then up for that. It doesn't help that most of them are near the beginning of the game. It can really drain one's motivation. The Gardener was cool, tough. Cornell's gameplay is also really badly executed. And dodge jumps just don't work anywhere near as good as in OoT.

Quite frankly, classes in Fire Emblem are barely different anyway. For the most part, they just have a few more points in that stat and a few less in another one. And in Awakening, this few differences pretty much lost all meaning because of the stat inflation. Like, Generals are supposed to be great at tanking hits. But attack scales to such absurd levels that their defense lead becomes so meager, it allows them to take one more blow at best. So they end up being used just like any other melee ground unit. For my part, I consider reclassing little more but an excuse to make people waste time with repetitive grinding for skills.

...Ashnard's motive wasn't even conquest but the release of the Dark God for the purpose of overthrowing the current world order.

We definitely wouldn't have lost the war.

Last time Ashnard was married, he organized a magical plague that killed thousands of people and wiped out Daein's entire royal family. So, no. Nothing would have changed if he was married to Micaiah. It's not a lack of love that makes him a horrible person.

For one thing, every other country on the continent. Also Ashnard himself. In the man's own words: "I AM Daein. If I am to be destroyed, then let Daein be destroyed with me."

I think the complaint is about having to start a new level without any of the remaining lives, forcing one to either kill yourself a few times, farm, or simply not gain very far in the level. And that is quite frankly nothing short of tedium that has nothing to do with difficulty. This made sense in the old days, when there were either limited continues or a score to loose. Today, this system is outdated. There is no reason that the game shouldn't automatically raise your tries to the default amount after finishing a stage. Now, Sonic still has a score. But it's utterly ruined by dying anywhere at the stage. So when playing for score, the lifes simply don't mean anything to begin with.

I find it difficulty to criticize Sothe's combat effectiveness, given that he is such a valuable asset during the game. The guy got legit 20/1 stats with help of a growth boasting skill, while just about everyone else in the party seems to be made of wet tissues. He is pretty amazing at keeping everyone alive. And he takes care of thieving needs too.