Oshimos

So, I'm playing through Genealogy again, and for some reason since hitting Gen 2 I can't perform ingame saves anymore. It's not an issue with my patch, and I've redownloaded the rom to no avail as well. I never had this issue before and could save just fine in gen 1 and in a new file. Has this ever happened to anyone else? It's preventing me from getting Seliph's extra leadership star, so it's kind of annoying.

Muarim wins for me, no contest from the entire rest of the series. Everything about him is prefect. Also, I don't know if it's attractiveness, but there's something about Leonardo's design that just really, really appeals to me.

This, so much. Everyone seems to go on about how great the new sprites in 8 are but most of it is really janky. Even GKs look really awkwardly out of place with their pseudo 3D when literally every other animation is flat, imo. That said, I typically leave the combat animations on in the GBA Fire Emblems, though I like to turn off Dancer and Staff animations and will turn them off if I'm up against an orgy of enemies like in Cog of Destiny, and I typically speed through them on emulator.

Since Fog of Destiny I've been having a super fun glitch where if I restart the rom I become incapable of viewing the select unit or trade screen. I can still access things just fine if I load a save state and continue on without resets, though. It's more of an annoyance than anything since I always make a bunch of save states at the start of the chapter, but it still seems pretty big. Here's my save, if it helps. http://speedy.sh/pmpTe/fe7c1.sgm Also, when I promoted Leila to Dark Druid, she lost around half a Light rank instead of losing it entirely like I thought she was supposed to. It might have been because I had her with a light tome equipped when I promoted her. Also, non-glitch related, but I used Dart since no one seemed to and he's been pretty easily the best unit in my army since around the desert chapter. He's dodgy as balls and Shine is imo the best buyable tome in the game by a pretty large margin. It's like giving a Myrm Killer axes.

I'd say Bishops or Sages, depending on the game. I always liked how your healers could go from defenceless to dodge-juggernauts, plus I've got a weakness for light magic. Sages get the honour in games without bishops because magic units are the best. I also really like the concept of Valkyries (and adore their GBA animations), but I've honestly never really used most of them.

Remember when I said I’d have these last few done quickly? Apparently that was a bald-faced lie. I do plan on having the final chapter and unit recap done tomorrow, though, and then Book 2 will start, with some more exciting changes. [spoiler=Chapter 19] The preamble. Things are finally coming to a close. This looks like the pose someone on America’s Next Top Model would make if they were trying to look “fierce” Another full page crew Here’s a whole bunch of plot shoehorned in at the last minute. I’m not sure whether the Binding Shield bit was just added for 3 or if it was in the other versions too, since it makes sense but isn’t really touched on. Xemcel’s real stats. 18 Attack and 0 AS isn’t really all that threatening. There’s an armoury right at the start; I buy a few Wyrmslayers because dragons are the only threatening enemies left Also this old guy tells me about Aum. Not like I’d let anyone die in the first place, so it’s not really all that important. This sucker didn’t get a chance to transform in time Palla might be in a bit of trouble, though. It’s a good thing all these dragons have 0 AS. She dodged, regardless Tiki has actual defence against other dragons and it makes them kind of pitiful Linde gets a level against one of the few human enemies. Is it ever explained why these guys are working with the genocidal dragons? Is it mind control? I don’t know why they even bothered to make a long way around if you can skip like, half the chapter this way. Everyone is dismounted because Wyrmslayers Booooo Tiki gets to tank the dudes by the boss to make him more manageable Pretty decent levels This guy was causing havoc so I sicced Castor on him This thief is making away with this priceless lategame treasure Just imagine someone trying to be threatening to you while standing there with their hand awkwardly up on their forehead like that. It just doesn’t work. Also he gets his ass handed to him by Palla without so much as scratching her WHEN DRAGONS DIE THEY USE ALL CAPS FOR SOME REASON Elice is good as an extra Physic bot and not much else Might as well test out my sparkly new Falchion. It’s got the same strength as a Wyrmslayer, which was kinda disappointing, tbh And that’s the penultimate chapter done. I know they’re supposed to be red irises on black sclerae, but I can’t see his eyes as anything other than two creepy red LEDs.

So, with only Cardinals being able to use Aureola, will Dart go from "the scrub that no one uses" to "everyone use this guy or else you miss out on a legendary weapon"? Or will someone be switched around to give you another option? (Heath, maybe?)

For some reason, female units have their Con subtracted from 20 instead of 25 when calculating their aid. Maybe they're riding smaller female mounts, too? Also it means that enemy peg knights are totally dudes in skirts

Now that I no longer have a monopoly on FE3 LPs, I guess I should step things up a notch. :P [spoiler=Chapter 18] This chapter starts off with this crazy wiggly transition because Marth and co are warping to Thabes. It’s a nice touch. Ancient high-tech cities in medieval settings are really, really cliché, but I guess it gets a pass for being an old game and also not really being plot relevant Like, a third of the enemies on this map are Gharnefs. Also the fakes are really shitty. Not that the real one is very much better, though. Like seriously, 8 RES? Even the clones do better than that. Speaking of shitty, check the stats on Starlight compared to Thoron. It’s just, entirely worse. They could have given it something interesting to make you want to use it outside of that one battle against Imhullu!Gharnef Vyland’s unmounted level 20 stats, because he’s still my special snowflake These guys are fighting this time Maybe instead of waiting, you should have just come and hit me when I couldn’t possibly do anything to you Starting off with some levels I’m just kind of lazily spreading out here. Nothing is really threatening Marth hits the damage cap against a Gharnef More levels Versus… real Gharnef. Fight! …I forgot to switch Maria’s weapon. That’s more like it. We interrupt this final battle with the antagonist for these random levels by some side characters I wish these guys got some unique dialogue. Instead it’s just Gharnef taking potshots Bam, the super powerful dark wizard just got beaten by a twelve-year old. He says a bunch of stuff but it auto-scrolled and I wasn’t expecting it so I only got like, half of it Meteor looks pretty sweet. I like green as a choice instead of the red that pretty much all other games with meteors use. He’s strong enough that nothing really matters anymore Loot Last Gharnef down And that’s the last two enemies Might as well, she’s not getting to 20 in two chapters Promoting from a cool unique sprite to Rena clone #3 Oh man, compared to Maria she’s terrible. I know it’s not really a fair comparison, but I’m pretty sure she should have more than 4 Strength at very least More loot Plus, Marth might as well get at least one stat booster this run Just two more to go Surprise, it’s Marth’s sister! She feels kind of tacked on, imo, but I can’t help but like her. Also, I know it’s a thing that happens all the time in Japanese, but I’m pretty sure no one in English refers to their siblings as “sister” or “brother.” (Or especially not “big bro” <_<) Is it ever explained in this one that only Princesses can use it? Like their dad! Oh wait…

My first game was 7, and I didn't realize that perma-death was a thing even while I was losing characters due to it being Lyn mode. Since they don't actually die, I never clued in to the fact that Florina wasn't supposed to break her arm immediately upon meeting her or that Dorcas was supposed to stay with you instead of escorting Natalie home. I finally clued in when you could buy axes a few chapters later and I had no axe person. Flash forward to CoD and I ended up giving up because Marcus was my only competent unit and I couldn't handle it. Also, the first time I made it to the Dragon my level 7 unpromoted Hector got 1-shotted by a Bolting Sage on the first enemy phase. I was so pissed.

Here’s the fourth last chapter of Book 1. The next few should all be out pretty quickly. [spoiler=Chapter 17] Sounds like a pretty chill place Nothing can ever be easy, can it? All of the enemies are clumped up in this little mountain fort thing. The roofs are impassable for fliers, so it’s pretty manageable Half of these guys are completely extraneous Suddenly Michalis is being portrayed as a sympathetic character or something It must be important because it’s in pretty text Gotoh keepin it real Who needs strategy when you can just stick Vyland into the fray? His first victim Oh shit, Michalis moves Psh, no big So, um… I kinda wasn’t actually expecting that to work. What’s the point in giving me the Iote’s shield this late I the game? Even being overly generous, there can’t be more than ten archers left in the whole game, and that’s not even including dismounting in the picture. Vyland has more Defence than the Pegs can pierce so Ogma’s gonna mop them up instead Levels I visited the village without the orbs and you get this convo. The village doesn’t close after, so you can still go back and give them to him. 20/20 Vyland. Aww yiss, look at those sick stats. #1 best Paladin plz nerf Last sphere level Castor takes them so that he can trade them off to Marth I am the worst at remembering to use shit Sad orbless levels Not that he really needs it any more. Goodbye balls :( Starlight get I was complacent and thought I just had to run Marth to the castle when these guys showed up. :S Last few levels Time to take on Gharnef I had a few more screenshots but imgur refused to upload the last few, and this one works pretty well anyway, so see you next time for Thabes!

Yeah, I realized that partway through playing this chapter. I think I must have gotten it confused with Mercurius with regards to the effect. [spoiler=chapter 16] I can’t see anything except that similarly shaped island near Crescent in FFV when I look at Grust. These two bros are on the map this time. Camus looks significantly more threatening than anything I’ve faced yet. There are quite a few enemies this time around, and clustered together too. Plus, tons of mountains. Here’s the crew this time . Poor Nyna; everyone knows Camus x Teeta is canon except for her. Turns out I had more stat boosters chilling in my convoy; Maria gets this one. Palla clears this guy out before he can pose a problem I take a defensive formation because my first attempt resulted in a very dead Vyland The Riderbane is pretty brutal; that level, not so much Palla has switched from magic tank to physical tank. 15 Def is kinda crazy Vyland finally makes a break for it Magic feels pretty weak in this game, even with a pimped out caster. This is where I realized that the Starsphere boosts growths and not EXP. That’s everything except Def and HP. There’s something oddly satisfying about beating people up with Maria, since she’s like, 8. Vyland gets another blank level. :\ I like how when Tiki moves, rather than just moving she first shifts into flying mode and makes a zooming noise I didn’t bring a thief, so I’ve got to take the longer way around First level as a dragon girl, and it’s pretty unimpressive Not this time, thief. Nice Holy balls, two for one village! More like three for one with the sword. If you miss this village you’re pretty much SOL. Marth stabs that thief, too Still the best staff baby Here’s Palla, by the way. I couldn’t really show her when she first promoted because she was dismounted, so it wouldn’t have meant much Oh yes Vyland’s 10 move lets him cross mountains while mounted. It’s pretty sweet. About now I decide that most of my army’s not going to be much help and should go plug some forts before I’m drowning in reinforcements Too stronk Maria hands off the Starsphere to Vyland, since Linde won’t be making it through the mountains. Tiki level. Unlike Bantu, she can actually gain stats I kinda forgot about Lorenz. Conveniently, he dodged two 35% critical chances Lorenz is the one on the left; Shiida’s a square off or making it to him. :S When Marth gets too close, they have a spontaneous conversation. Lorenz get. I think he’s the last character? Random single stat levels Vyland’s first Starsphere level is less exciting than I’d hoped it would be. I had to get into Gradivus range to take out his Paladin pals Maria patches him up each time. STARSPHERE BEST ITEM (I also realize around here that my 6 use Riderbane hasn't run out and remember that the Starsphere also stops weapons from deteriorating. My point above still stands.) Here’s a status update on Big V. This is probably the best Vyland anyone has ever had. She keeps getting this level and it never gets any less impressive I poked Camus with Vyland, but then Maria ended up in his range for healing. Don’t mess with stick baby Beautiful I buy some killer shit before I go This chapter feels like it took forever Psh, Camus is fine, stop blubbering.

We’re nearing the climax of book 1, but to be honest this chapter is anything but climactic. In fact, it was almost laughably easy. [spoiler=Chapter 15] Fane: noun. A temple. Thanks, dictionary.com! And by “fierce” they mean “so insignificant that it happened offscreen” I’m pretty sure “A new story is about to unfold” is the tagline for one of the seasons of Digimon. Tiki’s the boss this time. Dat HP. This chapter is just a bunch of closed off rooms with a few enemies interspersed Here’s the crew. Two thieves because this would take forever otherwise, and Bantu for Tiki And by ‘not provoke’ he means ‘mop the floor with’ Pretty much “If you didn’t bring Bantu please reset now” One magical girl transformation later… The first door is not a winner Fortunately the hunter was shit Vyland’s boots let him cover crazy ground Hallway’s clear Second door is a winner Linde has to use Aura to hurt anything because she’s sitting on 1 Srength Finally. Guiding Rings are even more scarce here than in 6. A ton of thieves rushed out and I guess they were supposed to cause havoc by opening all the doors on me, but I kinda beat them all before they could do anything. All except 1, anyway. :S I’ll be taking that, tyvm Loot Stick level Castor remains ludicrously good Gee thanks game, now I know just what it does. (I checked my screenshots to be sure; it’s the one that stops crits.) Vyland gains an actual stat! Aww yiss, doubled EXP Sadly, it doesn’t seem to work on staves. :( More loot Pretty much a perfect level I opened this door thinking it would be a level 5 hunter like in the other two, threw Linde on top of him, then realized that it was actually a sniper. He exactly 1-hits Ricard, too. Best use of Warp in the game “Please wake up” “Okay” One room left to raid I approve of both of these She promoted from Shiida into Minerva One last staff level… Time for a party Those 80s office lady shoulders are fantastic It’s the second coming of Vyland Gharnef doesn’t stand a chance. Time to make like a tree and GTFO Time to trade over the fantastic orbs after not even a whole chapter of having them so that I can get a sub-par spell! Yeah!

The more linear chapters would probably benefit from it; not to mention it would make foot units more useful because they'd be bumped up to the current castle at the start of every new chapter. It would hurt a few of the more convoluted chapters where you're multitasking or have branching paths. Lief and Lewyn's chapters come to mind, but I feel like there were some other spots where the huge maps work better too.

Moving right along, here’s the next one: [spoiler=Chapter 14] Time to kick some housecrashers out The Crew. Xane’s got a bunch of stuff for various scenarios This chapter starts off with a villain monologue. Something about shouting “Regret!” at people seems kind of cool to me, though I’m not sure why. Also he starts off by transforming on the first player phase. It’s not like you could make it to him, since he’s through a door and tons of tiles away. Also, that is some sick spriting, you’ve gotta admit. Two can play at the transforming game, bubs Most of the crew heads over to cut off the thieves, but a few stay back by the door to the boss. Vyland leads the charge with his 10 move. He looks a lot more impressive as a Paladin, even if he’s not actually taking advantage of his promo bonuses while dismounted There’s a dragon up there that would give me trouble otherwise, so I swap this over so he can be taken care of. Marth and Wendell snag much better levels than Vyland’s, on account of them actually having stats in them. “Ensnared” Meanwhile, Castor and Xane have finally moved into position to take care of the guys by the boss. Sure am glad I just promoted and can take advantage of that newfound high move! I did not take this guy into account in my plans Castor’s a bit behind enemy Snipers in Def, but destroys them in attack. Literally. This’ll be nice to have. Sadly, Xane doesn’t gain EXP while transformed. Not that he really needs anything other than HP. Still a jerk No longer a jerk Samson’s proving his worth already, though he’s definitely no Ogma. Hello Feeding kills to Linde Also, I’m still blowing heals every turn with Maria These guys are all getting fed to Linde. I kinda need a decent magic user for Gharnef Levels Also loot. I’m jazzed about the second Warp. Everyone’s on their way More levels The Wyrmslayer is ridiculously strong, jsyk. Progress shots. There was an extremely conspicuous door to nowhere right up here in the chapter that you get the VIP card. HMMMMM… Gasp! I was hoping for Promo Items (I still haven’t gotten a Whip or a Bishop Ring yet) or stat up items, but instead it was just weapons and sticks. I bought some Physics and some Shavers, but the rest (Rapiers, Bolaganones, Barriers, and I think something else, I forgot to cap it) weren’t really worth it. I also sold my extra Hero Crest because Ogma’s the only Hero I need. Apparently you get the Gold that enemies pilfer even though it doesn’t show up in their inventories. I blew a warp in an earlier chapter to stop a thief from getting away with some gold, so it’s good to know. Last item and last level, now I can finally seize. Ya did good, kid. I’m imagining this sounds a lot cooler in Japanese or at least kind of warrants being in green somehow

A week later, here’s the next one. Some exciting things happen this time! [spoiler=chapter 13] Umm, that is definitely not what happened Time to take back Marth’s hometown New enemy alert I actually did the thing and made some deployment order changes Marth talks to Nyna before the battle. He mentions Elice too, but I didn’t really care and didn’t cap it Most of my army’s going to head through the building with Xane in it (he’s here, btw), and four guys are heading west to clog some forts and protect the villages from the thief One of these Dragon Knights fared a little better than the other Golly dang, I love the Parthia I 1-hit the other two with Excalibur and a lucky crit from Palla The knights that had left from the main enemy base doubled back because Palla moved onto land, thus making her the closest enemy. The AI is really easy to manipulate in this game. Ogma clears the way to recruit Xane. In SD I always made him into an extra Ballistician, but since Jake and Back got cut I’ll have to make do with a ridiculously squishy extra Vyland Marth had to tank the other Hero in here since Xane wasn’t doing it. Her fares pretty well. I’m abusing the Parthia on garbage promoted enemies because the stupidly easy training is worth the loss of a few heavy shots later, imo. If only they spelled it out for you like that in Binding Blade. More Parthia I’m also still Healing with Maria every turn. Hopefully she gives me a non-awful level one of these days. Vyland and Vyland Jr. head out to tank these cavs That’s 20 for Vyland, and another Strength level to boot Guess who forgot to check their weapons first? This almost went really badly for Xane. Also for Vyland The promised hour has come This would be a lot more epic if it wasn’t identical to Xane’s transformation sequence Mobility down?! The other boosts are pretty sweet, though. Here’s his stats now. His Move actually stayed the same. (He’s competent, I’m so proud!) Crit levels I remember Arran being pretty awful in SD, and I’ve already got a swell Paladin, so Samson get I buy a butt-ton of killer weapons in the Altean village Ogma is super close to 20, so I stick him in the arena and leave the boss crew for Castor Vyland takes a Riderbane to the face from the boss’ friend, then chips him down in Knight-mode Then Castor crits him anyway. It was a Speed level, but I missed it. I buy a bunch of these because while trying to figure out why you’d ever take these over Thunder I realized they’re effective against Fire Dragons. Vyland makes a risky chip Then Castor pulls off a crit. Looks like EXP caps at 99. :( He needed 20 exp to level, so I pulled out the Iron Bow and sicced him on the Bishop Promo time number 2. He’s hella strong. Altean Villages Heal level Ogma finally hits 20 Ogma too stronk This whole time Marth has been running here from Samson’s village. Remember when I thought his 7 Move was huge? Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Wait, Jerme moves? I've only gotten his chapter once in the ~10 times I've played through the game, so I didn't know that. He could have been quite a handful if they'd stuck a Killing Edge into his inventory instead of leaving him with just the god-awful Light Brand.

A bit of a short chapter this time, but here’s Khadein: [spoiler=Chapter 12] Good thing everyone in the entire game has something like 3% Res growth Ooga chaka ooga chaka ooga chaka elfire I’m back to getting to use a full page worth of units again Oh snap. It’s Gharnef, and I don’t have Starlight yet. Good thing he’s monologue-ing about his weakness to nobody in particular I should probably rearrange my units so that people I want in the front actually are, instead of leaving them in recruitment order. Vyland 1-hits mages best char best levels Castor also 1-hits them. 16 HP 2 Def is kind of laughable I just bought a bunch of heals, so I have Maria use them on nothing in particular in an attempt to level her up faster. Things start off slowly as always Oh jeez he moves Pegs have 6 Res, presumably as a class bonus, which means that half of the enemies on the map can’t actually do anything to either of them Everyone else really wants to stay out of their way. Especially with Gharnef on his way here. She tears through the mages; not so much the dragons. She gets a tanky level, though, which is appreciated. I used an Excalibur on this guy because nobody else could really reach him since it’s a desert chapter Gee, thanks dude, I was just gonna throw my guys on him and hope one of them could do something Boah got a 0 stat level, but I missed it yet again Everyone’s pretty much just fleeing from Gharnef Castor too stronk This thief looted this from the room Gharnef starts at. Fortunately, enemies drop all of their held items on defeat in 3, not just their last one. Unfortunately, Gharnef’s a dick. (Actually, this is way preferable to him bum rushing my main force) Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, Vyland to the rescue! …Or not Palla’s a strong, independent woman who don’t need no man anyway I sent Minerva up here to do some shopping and then proceeded to completely forget about her after this turn Thank god. I was starting to think you actually had to do this chapter with this guy just hanging around Some levels With Gharnef gone, Shiida got to take out this guy, too. Shiida left these guys with 4 HP; Palla 1-hits them. YUSSSSSS BEST VYLAND Palla’s levels are a lot less swell than they were last chapter I thought I remembered reading somewhere that the legendary weapons double EXP gain, and it looks like that’s true. Also, Parthia has a cool fire effect that I wasn’t expecting. Ricard loots the other chest Then Vyland pops the book for good measure And that’s the map. Desert chapters aren’t that bad when you don’t need to walk through 70% of them. *Cue the pretty song* Dang Get some balls; show them to an old man. Got it.

After another awkwardly long pause, here’s another chapter: [spoiler=Chapter 11] Jerks These guys are coming along this time. Boah is taking Wendell’s place since he’s equal or better in every stat. Jiol’s not taking the Vyland Gang seriously. Marth? Marth who? These guys are chilling on the map right by the start Also this Sniper. He’s kind of a dick. First thing’s first, Castor brushes up on his bow skills, so he can use Parthia now. I play it safe and keep most of my army out of his range. Marth had the Levin Sword so that he could actually do something while still heading towards his goal I was so focused on the Sniper that I totally forgot about this guy. Neither Minerva nor Marth could talk to the Peg sisters, and they didn’t attack, so I guess they’re gonna recruit themselves Marth heads off to the village Thief utility. I’m thinking lowering bridges probably happens more in this game than in 4 when it only happens that one random time Astram get Little does she know she’s headed straight for the bench as soon as this chapter’s done WHY WAS HE SO DAMN TANKY If there’s a village talking about the Silver Card, that can only mean one thing… I forgot to unequip the Levin Sword from Marth, and he ripped through the archers in the building he’s got to skirt to get at the village. Astram proves his worth already. I’m glad at least some of the myriad new units are useable from the get go. I was right, they pull a Clarine and just talk to Marth themselves Ogma gets a level off of an Armour Progress report: pretty slow going Guess what just got looted This guy was guarding the Silver Card room, so I had Vyland and his 10 dismounted move take care of him. Camus was in the village. He has a pretty sweet theme that plays while he’s talking, too. (It was Arcsage, number 21 here, if you want to take a listen. I guess it isn't really his theme after all, but it's still pretty.) I know Catria’s a bit better with training, but I just personally like Palla better, so I unload Catria’s stuff onto her and send her off to start gaining EXP. Sorry Shiida, you’re peg number 2 now. I wanted to avoid using it, but I had to rely on Operation Ogma Warp yet again to stop the Thief from making off with my card since the other one was blocking Vyland. Minerva heads down to take the card off Ogma’s hands Meanwhile the fighting squad is almost at the main castle Suddenly Pegasus reinforcements They’re mostly just easy EXP for Palla and Castor Unfortunately Marth doesn’t fare as well Vyland takes out the last threatening enemy on the map 800g Silver Lances. I love the Silver card. I finish off the enemies in the boss room with Linde and Palla and Castor take out all of the reinforcements until they stop spawning. Maria gets a stealthy shit level in the middle. I want to raise Linde, so I have her chip at Jiol while the above are beating down Pegs Eventually, he falls. Is the Sheema line in the NES version? This chapter feels kind of like it went on forever Off to magic town. And a desert, iirc. :\

Pre-chapter non sequitur: I tried Vyland on Akinator and he failed. I was disappointed. He came up with Kent, Seth, and Sain, instead. (Also, he failed at Muarim despite beelining to "Does he have green hair/is he a tiger". Mordy's hair is blue, dammit!) [spoiler=Chapter 10] I have no shots before these guys, so I guess either the opening was boring or there wasn’t one since it would pretty much have been “Marth and co. enter the castle that he just seized”. Also, tubby little Generals are adorable. Here’s the gang this time. For the first time since starting I didn’t get to bring everyone I wanted. Probably because this gang of losers gets forced on me at the start of the map Here they are, in all their splendour. I seem to recall reading before that Macellan is up there for worst character in the series, too, but that might have just been in 1. I don’t really remember, and I’m avoiding looking things up until I’m finished, but needless to say none of these guys will be getting much screentime, save maybe Boah. Also, this is totally how you do attacking defenceless hostages in a cage. None of that archer who gives up garbage with Lilina in 6. This is the optimal defensive formation, imo. Meanwhile, the attack force heads out. This hallway is 1 tile wide. :S The hostages come under attack. Midia fares a little less well than the knights. Vyland has become moderately competent I move Midia out of the way and thankfully she gets ignored for the rest of the map Ogma continues to be really, really good Slowly coming to the rescue Turns out Manaketes get a sweet new portrait when they transform, too. Ogma was going to save Team Worst Knights, but a thief was going after my treasure, so I figured they could wait. Linde gets her first level. She had one with Strength and Skill in it too at first, but then Castor died to a 2% Thunder crit. :I Magic looks pretty impressive despite its simplicity in this game. He’s 16 now, btw. He’s been getting a lot of 4 stat levels, so you can’t really see. Gotta love infinite range Physic. It almost makes up for healers having the lowest move in the game. Marth is gonna have to rescue them himself And by that, I mean Castor’s going to bait them all. This is 10 for him. Treasure part 1 Turns out door opening and chest opening are both free actions, so I could do both on one turn. Very slightly rigged double crit by Vyland. Ricard was exactly 1-hit by the Sniper, so he kinda had to die, and I didn’t want to give it to Ogma again. Healer level The only stat booster that Vyland doesn’t care about I threw Vyland into combat with this guy to see what would happen and he kind just wrecked him. I am definitely not going anywhere near that dragon This one will be going to Vyland, despite him not really needing it. :I There are some soldiers guarding a chest in a courtyard to the east, so I have big V take them out !!!!!!! Told you so Holy wow, boots already. Damn, those are some ugly shoes. Wait No Stop Hand plz It’s not too late Nooooooo END OF CHAPTER This feels really early for legendary weapons. I like that they just kinda left Parthia behind. Time to give Castor that Manual, I guess.

Alrighty, here’s another chapter. I tried to put this up earlier, but imgur’s been up and down all afternoon, so things weren’t really cooperating. Fortunately, I went ahead and played the next chapter during the time I wanted to be typing this, so it shouldn’t take too long to put out. [spoiler=Chapter 9] Home again, home again, jiggity-jig. Holy balls, someone forgot to take their ugly pills this morning. Speaking of taking, though, I’ll be looking forward to taking that ring from him. New to this stage are these ridiculously shoddy looking Ballistae. Seriously, that’s like, 4 logs and a hinge. Also in this chapter is this village of death. Here’s the crew this time. Still tons of filler units. I should probably just not use all my deployment slots. Marth has a conversation with his imaginary friend Nyna. I start things off by deciding that Vyland could use more Luck. Here’s the enemy base. Oddly enough the boss is chilling around back while a generic Ballista holds the gate. Shiida flies off to try and pick off some of those Mercs; Ogma follows behind. Everyone else heads around the mountains Shiida kind of wrecks them. So much for being threatening. I like how they didn’t bother animating long distance healing despite giving Physic infinite range This was supposed to be a Maria level, but I pushed the A button too early because I was expecting stats to follow the level message. They didn’t. More Shiida being awesome. If only she could somehow get a boost to her strength to let her do this with cheaper weapons, maybe by using some sort of convenient item or something. Marth was one tile off of the village, so he hit up this house instead. Yussss, Armourslayers for sale Castor is just so, so good Has anyone ever seriously used the word “evildoers” completely unironically? This is Hardin lol Vyland actually doubles things now, it’s kind of exciting Sure, why not? Marth does not approve of this plan Oh look, it’s a weird kid. That weird pink hat had me totally fooled Surprise, it was Linde! What a shocker, who’d have expected her to show up the chapter after Nyna randomly brings her up? Then she throws off her clothes Team Rocket style, revealing a pink dress and hair ornaments and the like I decide to throw her into the arena since she’s never going to reach the vanguard from way down here with her 6 move. I do like that she’s got a pretty sprite, complete with Blonde hair which is possibly a colour only used on her? The only problem is I keep thinking she's the enemy because every other one of my units are generic blue guys and she's bright red instead More free units! Jorge is just kinda here. He’s kinda nice, but he’s no Castor. Ballistae look a fair bit more useful in combat than in their unit portrait things. It’s kinda hilarious watching them throw tiny rocks three feet ahead of them, though. Vyland pulls off another stellar level Now that’s how you do a level, Maria. Pretty much the two best stats. I think he’s maybe a little crazy nope And a meh level on the counter Wyrmslayers are fantastic Suck it, Shiida I’m just gonna leave these here for comparison’s sake Booooo One day you’ll gain a real stat, I just know it. And seize I wonder where we possibly could be?

Definitely Radiant Dawn. While there are a few characters that look kind of... off (Astrid and Soren come to mind off the top of my head), most were done extremely well. The animations were nice, the locations were pretty, it was overall a very pleasing aesthetic. The only thing that really hurts it in my mind are the Wolf animations, which really bother me for some reason. Also, I seem to be the only one who didn't care for Sacred Stones' art style. I've always thought it was a major step down from 7. Everything feels too washed out compared to the vibrant games that came before it, and a lot of the new classes felt really bad to me. Like, Rangers run around for way longer than they need to, Rogues jank upward at the end of their dodge like they're missing an animation frame, Summoners look super awkward healing, and despite GKs having the whole cool 3D look to them, it feels out of place compared to every other class. None of the character designs really stuck out to me either, but I think that's more of a personal thing.

I'd definitely agree with item fusing, my convoy's always cluttered with ~4 use items by the end of a playthrough of any of the older games. Also, using items during preparations. Sometimes it can be hard to find a turn of downtime for a unit that wants a stat booster or a promotion item, or they might want the inventory slots, and quite honestly once a chapter gets going I tend to forget about them and will have a unit hold onto a Talisman for three chapters before they finally use it.

Alrighty, here’s another chapter. Hopefully there aren't tons of typos, it's 1 in the morning where I am ATM and I'm kind of 3/4ths asleep after writing this. [spoiler=Chapter 8] Rescue mission time It couldn’t possibly be a trap, she has boobs! Only dudes can be evil, obviously. New enemies. Sadly, Snipers get pants upon promotion. And here’s the boss. There’s some phat loot to be gotten this chapter. The crew. I took Ricard over Julian because everybody uses Julian. She’s definitely not going to betray him Suddenly, generic enemy man brings dire news A little horsebirdie told them. This thief starts right by these chests and my dudes are like, four turns from making it there. Operation Ogma is a go yet again. Not today, thief! Barely caught the cap. I was expecting it to scroll and show HP too. The rest of my guys plod ahead as quickly as they’re capable. The Killing Edge fails to live up to its name Man, what a helpful village. Apparently whether it’s indoors or outdoors is decided for the whole map instead of just based on the tiles like in Thracia. That’s convenient. I apparently never capped it, but there’s a legion of fliers coming at me and Bantu’s 5 old man move and paper thin defences just aren’t gonna cut it Everyone else rushes into the prison for safety Bantu’s fantastic, it’s a real shame what they did to him in the remakes Also he has conveniently just enough move to block the entrance. Meanwhile I bum rush the sniper, but he survives the round Bantu shrugs off enemy crits like they’re nothing, then roasts puny ponymen for breakfast Also, super conveniently, Minerva doesn’t attack. I was really worried she was going to suicide herself on me. Ogma gets a chip level on the sniper Then Vyland finishes him off with an exact damage crit and gets another one of his famous shit levels. Super nifty Bantu got two levels this enemy phase and this was the only stat point he got between them. Abel unlocks Maria’s cell. I left Wendell in range and this peg decided he was a nicer target than Bantu’s certain death would have been. Then this Bishop blows a Fortify healing off the 6 Damage Wendell did for some reason. Holy balls Castor’s good. He even proc-ed Resistance, which I didn’t think was actually a thing in this game. Bantu’s transformation lasted the perfect amount of time Maria get. Guess who’s getting the bench? Here’s her stats; she’s got equal or better stats than Lena in everything except Speed and Skill, where she’s easily trumped. Minerva seems to want to make it to Marth, so I make a nice little path for her. Also, more loot. Nerva get Next goal: Ricard opens the door and it’s time to rush that Hero. Why do I even bother with Javelins they’re garbage Killing Edge chip Another super convenient exact damage crit for Vyland …And I accidentally healed the wrong guy, which you can do in this game. At least she still gets the EXP. Oh jeez, I was not expecting those guys. Time to hurry up. I fly Nerva over to the shops, but the only thing I buy her is a Silver Lance, since I’m still pretty set. Vyland picks off another defenceless holy man Maria tries to help but she’s pretty much stuck in these Pillars Worldbuilding village Marth vs the boss does not go as well as I’d hoped it would Those reinforcements made it to my army. Conveniently, Castor’s still fantastic. Vyland finishes off the Bishop Meanwhile an actually competent unit wrecks the boss Some of them, anyway One last thing before I leave for the next chapter… Aww yiss, Vyland best ponyboy. And that’s that. Uhh, I’m pretty sure Aura’s female only. Or maybe it’s Linde only in this one? That would make more sense, lore-wise. Oh yes, “Sad” is definitely the proper emotion in that circumstance.