Shadow Mir

The part where you have to build supports with everyone of the same gender as Corrin. Which is impractical as hell. Oh, and needing Friendship seals. Also, speaking of building supports, you need to get an A with Kaze before chapter 15 is completed, else he will die.

Personally, I'd say Amelia, largely because she has Paladin access. Admittedly, though, one does have other Paladin options. Personally, I was thinking more in terms of Ross having promoted at level 10; whilst a later promotion is more favorable to Ross, getting to level 20 before promotion would practically require grinding. To be fair to Julius, aside from being young, Manfroy one-ups him in terms of doing dumb crap that's ruinous to his cause. Case in point: Julia. When she's brought before Julius, he suggests killing her immediately, which would render the Book of Naga - the one thing that can actually harm him - useless. Manfroy, instead, brainwashes her, and sends her at Seliph & co. Of course, this goes to hell when Manfroy is killed and his spell broken, which results in Seliph and friends now having the one person in the world who is Julius's Kryptonite on their side. Indeed, the moment Julia confronts him, Julius knows he's royally fucked and curses Manfroy for screwing up.

In case you're curious, Finn also shows up in the second generation; he serves under Leif (who you will also be seeing in the second generation). And in Thracia 776, which is an interquel to Holy War; Leif is the main character of that game. Ergo, it takes place during the same time frame. Specifically, its events are in the timeframe of Holy War's chapters 6 through 8. Also, Brigid survives Belhalla... but loses her memories. Silvia (the dancer), and Tailtiu also survive... but Silvia disappears, and Tailtiu dies later due to abuse from Hilda, who is one of the most despicable characters in any Fire Emblem, by the way. Erinys also survives, but she dies of illness sometime later, after which her son Ced* starts searching for Lewyn. Quan and Ethlyn didn't die in Belhalla. Instead, they are killed in the Aed Massacre. In fact, the only confirmed dead chacters in Belhalla, aside from Sigurd himself, are Claud and Lewyn (that said, he still shows up in the second generation, but the nature of this is something I won't reveal). *Gameplay wise, someone else CAN be Ced's father, but Thracia makes it canon that Erinys married Lewyn, as Ced shows up in said game using the Forseti tome, which is locked to him in said game. Coincidentally, Ced is also the name of one of the 12 Crusaders, who used the tome in question.

That... Is only the halfway point. There is a second generation in Holy War. The second generation has Seliph - Sigurd's son - take up the fight in his deceased father's stead. And for that matter, the children of most of the first generation characters are playable too. Assuming you took the time to pair them up, that is. Anyways, I'd say that whilst other FE games may not go that far, there are still some tragic events. Like Path of Radiance, for example. Ike starts the game out as a mercenary in training, but is forced to lead his father's mercenary company early in the game for reasons. The scene in question has voice acting too.

I do, and that's where My Castle falls down like a house of cards. Especially with regards to the mess hall since you cannot trade away less useful foodstuffs for ones that give more useful boosts. It's annoying how for most of the game, meals are like, "Let me try... dammit, the wrong units got boosted, try again... crud, it happened again, let's go again.... FUCK, I'm out of food". Or worse, the person manning the mess hall is one of the handful of bad chefs in the game, which is gonna be an issue regardless as at least one of your earlier recruits is such a chef. In all routes (even if I disregard Felicia on account of Corrin's gender, there's Setsuna, Rinkah, Hinoka, Arthur, and Reina; at least one of these joins fairly early in the campaign depending on route). And that's not even getting into how the resource you get from your own castle is randomized, meaning if you get daikon, cabbage, peaches or berries (the former two boost resistance and the latter two magic; both of those stats aren't always going to be useful), the mess hall is going to be almost useless. It sucks to want to cook a meal to make something like Conquest chapter 10 easier, but having berries or cabbage in your castle means you can't get much mileage out of it (or ANY in the case of cabbage, as everything in said chapter is physical, thus boosted resistance is useless). Don't get me started on how these, as well as ores, are also used to bribe captures so you don't have to wait to actually use them. Contrast Three Houses, where I can actually factor in food buffs into my strategy. Do I need +4 speed for unit X to hit crucial benchmarks in the next main map? Not a problem, I just need to get some Bullheads. Bolded: That's the one where Elbert injures him badly enough that he needs to flee, right? He then proceeds to mobilize the Black Fang in response. Anyways... Ross is NOT the best trainee unit in Sacred Stones. I'll grant that his coming early means he doesn't need the Tower of Valni to get up to speed like Amelia and Ewan do, but he doesn't really give anything of note for it, frankly; I see hype for water walking as a Pirate, but that's practically useless, even in the ONE map where it might have proven useful (oh, and said map is on Eirika route). His stats aren't anything special either; after you get him into a real class, he just turns out to be his father, but worse. And if I use the Ocean Seal to make him a Berserker, I get... something that's basically Dozla, who is already pretty lousy, but needed to be raised to get there.

For me, it's all "why the fuck does this game practically have to shove online down my throat if I am to get any use out of 99.9% of its features" with regard to Fates. Apparently they forgot it is a goddamn handheld game, which means one can - and most likely will - be playing on the go, and in those cases, as well as if the weather is not good, a lot of features become that much harder to use. Also, the double standard that Garreg Mach gets subjected to pisses me off. Sure, it gets repetitive and tedious, but I'd rather that than have to be forced to go online just to make any real use out of most of the features in a fucking single player game that I can be playing on the go.

So you're both pushing a very aggressive play style here, is that it? Because I don't think that's something that one can get away with easily on Maddening. On Favorite Food: Aside from the fact that Celica has some of the worst availability emblem wise, whether I even get anything out of it is based on luck, as it needs a packed lunch, which one can only ever have one of, and getting one is not a guarantee.

Bold: How? Because the enemy with it is literally in the middle of the map... and Griss goes back to his initial spot at the top of the map after losing a Revival Stone (also, that Entrap is dropped when the enemy with it is defeated). Also, I'd bring up chapter 25, which has two Entrap users set up such that getting tagged by the first brings you right into range of the other... and THAT ONE is in range of the boss, 2 mages, and 2 wyrms. It's crap like that that makes me terminate them with extreme prejudice before they can cause any problems. Corrin also happens to be one of the best emblems in the game, and ALSO happens to be one that she doesn't use that well (this time it's because of her flying subtype, as she gets the healing dragon vein). Long story short, you're saying Ivy needs a lot of contested resources AND to build around her to be even anywhere near as good as you're saying she is (or rather, that's the impression I'm getting); with that in mind, I'd have to say that if she wasn't absolutely phenomenal with all that, it'd be a massive letdown. That requires 2000 SP, and Speedtaker itself requires setup. I wouldn't expect that to happen until near the very end of the game.

I see someone else is familiar with Zeorymer.

Except one, you still get the Brave Sword if you kill Deen, and two, he's infinitely easier than she is.

This sounds too magic poker equation-esque for me. And unrealistic.

For me, it's a case of "do I want what's best for Ivy" versus "do I want what's best for the team as a whole?"... and I prefer something that is better for the team; in this case, killing annoying shit from extremely long range. Like Entrap. Getting one of my units yoinked deep into enemy territory is a Very Bad Thing. In that case, she loses the main thing that makes her unique, namely flight with magic and staves. I didn't mention Ivy's problem with being crit because I gave her the Celica engraving (I dunno that anyone else really needs it). Her speed and accuracy are more pressing issues. Which begs the question, is there an engraving with both dodge and hit?

Honestly, I found Ivy rather underwhelming. Her poor speed means she has issues doubling anything that's not a general, and she tends to have hit problems too. Emblem Lyn can fix the former, but Lyn and Ivy don't exactly go together like PB&J. In fact, Lyn is laughably ill suited for Ivy. It ends up being a Morton's fork deal; do I keep Lyn on Ivy at the cost of Astra Storm being useless or give it to someone else who can actually make use of Astra Storm, but have to deal with Ivy having speed issues? Ironically, Hortensia, despite being more meant for support, outdoes her in combat as a result.

Okay, so one of a kind was inaccurate. But yeah, you mostly get it only once in a game. While we're talking about this, I'm still surprised that Nosferatu was literally all Fates got for dark magic. One could argue that it was a knee-jerk reaction to dark magic (mostly Nosferatu) and the classes that used it being too good in Awakening, but culling all the dark magic except one is still a bit much.

I'm not seeing it. By this logic, I'd have to accept Gilliam as better than Oswin, which is a VERY tough sell because Oswin actually starts good, unlike Gilliam. Honestly, I'd say that Gilliam is only better than Meg, as well as Holy War and Binding Blade's armors... which is an extremely low bar to clear. Italicized: How in the seven hells is Corrin soloing chapter 10? Because I ain't seeing it. Enemies come from 4 directions, and Corrin can only be in one place, and then there's the sky knights who ignore combat to beeline the objective. Hell, I don't think even goddamn Camilla can solo it. Oh, and I have seen people lose Ryoma, which is another point for "Fates is not a good game for dodgetanking". Underlined: That's subjective, not objective. Second, that ignores way too much for that to be an acceptable metric. Like, for example, how good is this unit starting out? Which is another problem for Gilliam; compared to Oswin, he has worse bases across the board except for resistance. Also, as stated earlier, some games are flat out unsoloable, like Radiant Dawn for example. Last I checked, Knight has the same growth in both, and similar or better bases in both as well. Berserker's edge in both relative to General is very marginal. Also, debuffs don't discriminate; it ain't like a fighter suffers less from debuffs than a knight. If anything, a defense debuff would be WORSE for a fighter or berserker because they have much lower defense to begin with. They're not even good at soaking damage either; look at Charlotte. She has massive HP, yes, BUT... Poison Strike and Grisly Wound still make that HP pool disappear in a hurry, as does any attack in general, really, because her defenses are garbage. It was true in damn near every other Fire Emblem game and Fates does jackshit to change that (in fact, Awakening exploits that by giving Warriors Counter; tellingly, it was useless for the player, and so good for the enemy, it got nerfed in Fates). Also, effective weapons are not nearly as common as you are trying to make it sound, unless they're bows. More to the point, I don't see the need for a berserker when other units and classes can hit hard as well without being made of glass. That only proves my point; 3 HP and 2 strength is not a lot to gain for giving up 9 defense. Anyhow, I didn't bring out the numbers because Effie doesn't have Fighter innately; she must get it from a Partner Seal... by which point she'd have gotten some levels as a Knight, which would complicate things. Speaking of not backing stuff up, you yourself said Fates was one of the best games for dodgetanking despite posts saying to the contrary... and you didn't bother to back it up! Bold: Unfortunately, a full armor team isn't really possible, because only 4 characters in Fates have Knight access before Partner/Friendship seal shenanigans... and one of those is Birthright exclusive due to a technicality. Or maybe it is, but I'd have to go completely out of my way to set it up, with one of those being a child unit, and one of the ones that you do NOT want to wait to play their paralogue at that. Either way, I don't see the need to agree to an outlandish demand like that; I don't need to challenge someone to clear the game with archers only to know that archers are better in Fates than they are in most other games. Personally, I find Great Aether to be one of, if not the worst Engage attack in the game. The whole "wait a turn" business makes it very unwieldy (and nigh useless if you get smashed out of position). And on Maddening, enemies won't take the bait if they attack for zero. I'm not sure I'd agree; Gilliam is not that good, and Amelia is better as a Cavalier.

Again, magic ignores terrain boosts to evade. Also, only the archers and some revenants (some are summoned in the cell) can attack her. By the by, killing a cantor gets rid of all their summons too. What have ya done on Celica's end? You will have to fight one of two characters later, Deen or Sonya. The former is ten billion percent easier.

Not today. My interest is too piqued by this for that. So I will ask something else... how much trouble did enemy dual strikes cause?

Really? When? Because Aura, far as I remember, was generally one-of-a-kind.

The thing is, in most games, vulneraries heal for 10, and I'd find it aggravating for them to be wasted healing something like 3 or 4 damage hits. I have not played FFT, so... I wouldn't have known that. Maybe you can fill me in? ...or maybe you already did.

Personally, I think of Final Fantasy and Auto-Potion instead. It isn't so much an issue for the latter, but it's especially likely to come up in Radiant Dawn as vulneraries got buffed to heal 20 HP and also have 8 uses. You would have to increase their uses for an Auto-Potion effect to actually be useful imho. 3 uses ain't a lot. Besides that, I think it would be more of a hindrance than a help.

I hate fixed mode. As much as the randomness of level ups can be aggravating, I have pretty much embraced it. Fixed mode just doesn't feel like Fire Emblem at all. It does NOT help that it is a NIGHTMARE to figure out how it works.

You're missing the point. By this logic, any - and pretty much every - class is better in Sacred Stones. You might as well be arguing about how difficult the games are instead. That's funny. A lot of the time I can rely on dodgetanking in Fates, it's with a breaker skill, which don't come until near the end of the game for pretty much everyone, OR with something like Hana or Ryoma using a Sunrise Katana against green weapons, which they have WTA over. Those are very specific - and selective - situations. By the way, if you're using pair up, higher supports don't make THAT much of a difference compared to Awakening, where units got various boosts according to the support levels of nearby allies and their pair up partner, if any. This is ass-backwards logic, man. Fighters and Berserkers have very little going for them besides strength, so what possesses you to think they can wall much of anything when they take massive damage from ANYTHING??? Also, Berserkers getting Rally Strength doesn't help much when they'd rather be receiving it than giving it. I agree that low movement is a problem for knights, but that's trivial compared to lacking in damn near everything. And I ask again, how does this game discourage walling? On Effie: Fighter doesn't even help her durability, as it makes her lose 4 defense. Compared to General, Berserker loses 7 defense for a measly 2 HP. Yeah, no. She's not "much better as a Fighter". She is more like "an easily killed glass cannon that takes massive damage from everything". Bold: Unfortunately, Chain attacks do fixed damage anyway; only Pair Up from Corrin can negate them. I know this because I saw someone learn this lesson the hard way... by getting Louis killed by the enemy using chain attacks. Oh, and his attackers did zero damage otherwise.

Huh. I may not necessarily get it (mainly because imho Awakening Lunatic triples down on the mistakes of SD and New Mystery), but I can respect that. Godspeed, mate. Anyway, how much of the DS games had you played?

Related to this, magic ignores the evade boosts from terrain. This makes it perfect for any enemies parked on supplies. Edit: Having Alm learn Subdue from the Royal Sword will make the last battle in act 3 easier. One of the enemies on that map is Delthea, a mage. You do NOT want to kill her; she is brainwashed. Instead, you need to kill the boss in that chapter. Subdue will keep her alive, and hopefully will leave her with low enough health she cannot attack anyone (her only spell is Aura, which has a big 6 HP cost; spells in this game cost HP to cast). Box her in with other units, then send an archer (snipers and bow knights have 5 range) at the boss, as the boss uses Death, a powerful spell. Killing him makes her leave the map. Fun fact: Delthea has an alt in FEH depicting this.

Arcanists are pretty bulky mofos. Same for Cantors, who are even worse. I find both to be some of the biggest pains in the butt in the game. It doesn't help that they often use magic with 1-3 range, which means a lot of the time, snipers and bow knights are the only units who can attack them safely. Witches, mercifully, are your stereotypical squishy wizards. Just beware, as their teleportation can be a pain in the butt.