Let's Play Fire Emblem 4

[Balcerzak]

Important Update: NO SPOILERS ALLOWED! Please and thank you. (Mod Approved).

So, while suggested off-hand as kind of a joke in the FE4 thread, I decided to actual follow through with this. This is my first time playing FE4, and it's a decent enough excuse for a Let's Play, and perhaps some interesting discussion. This is my first ever experience with actual FE4, and I'm planning on going through this mostly naturally, letting things happen as they will.

I will not be researching "best pairings" or "item inheritances", though I may look up "how to recruit" if I can't figure it out from context. I may or may not be bothered to look up calculations (for hit/avoid, etc.)

I plan on going in with the vague goal of achieving a decent ranked score, at least insofar as Tactics and Experience go, but I will not go out of my way to game the system. I will not use any save states for any gameplay purposes, relying on the reset function of the emulator and the Autosave (and regular Save) features of the cartridge to get me through this. I will save state between videos, to prevent a total loss if I screw up on a recording run (which has already happened at least once).

I will enjoy any and all comments and criticisms about my commentary style, or my use of tactics in past chapters, but I kindly ask that if you're thinking about discussing events that will occur in future chapters (either plot or gameplay related) that you would please reconsider, refrain, and keep your mouth shut.

I will be maintaining a Youtube playlist. Everytime I post an update here, I will include a link to the playlist autoplay starting on the earliest unlinked video of the set. The first post will collect links to the playlist starting at the beginning of a given chapter. (While this may for the most part be the same as what's posted later in the thread, I may or may not post partial updates for long chapters that I may not finish in a single sitting [this is almost guaranteed for all chapters, I think.])

That said, here we go:

Prologue: 13 turns in 9 videos [1-9] (

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Chapter 1: 30 turns in 24 videos [10-33] (

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Chapter 2: 41 turns in 40 videos [34-73] (

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Chapter 3: 31 turns in 40 videos [74-113] (

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Chapter 4: 36 turns in 41 videos [114-154] (

)

Chapter 5: 30 turns in 34 videos [155-188] (

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(New Playlist for Gen 2, based on Table's tip about allowed number of videos)

Chapter 6: 40 turns in 19 videos [1-19] (

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Chapter 7: 57 turns in 43 videos [20-62] (

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Chapter 8: 27 turns in 38 videos [63-100] (

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Chapter 9: 29 turns in 46 videos [100-145] (

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Chapter 10: 24 turns in 43 videos [146-188] (

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Endgame: 29 turns in 47 videos (

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Total turns: 387

Total gained levels: 872 (First Gen: 365, Second Gen: 507)

Ranks:

Tactics: A

Experience: B

Survival: A

Combat: E

Edited September 9, 2010 by Balcerzak

[Marthur]

To answer some of the questions:

Pursuit allows double attacks if your character is faster than the enemy. (Weapon weight must be taken into account when calculating a unit's battle speed.)

Charge activates another round of combat, which means the enemy will also get a second attack. Its activation is more rare than Pursuit, and it can screw you sometimes.

Village are composed of ten sections. You get 500G for each section that hasn't been destroyed. Also money is personal in this game and the limit is at 50000. So you might want to consider who you are visiting them with.

You can attack/heal then Talk for mounted Units only.

About Talking, I recommend you going to the Unit Menu and going to Page 4, where you'll find a list the list of characters who can talk with each other. It's pretty useful since you'll sometimes get new weapons, stats boosts, love points, and of course some more story elements.

You were lucky in your first videos. Lots of dodging. O.O

Less in the last videos though, but I think you learned that creating blocks with your troops is a good tactic since it prevents enemy units to surround your characters (poor Midayle).

You should also try to retreat sometimes ie. getting in the range of two/three enemies and launching a full attack on your next turn. It's also best to focus on killing enemies rather than damaging a lot of them.

Sigurd and Ethlin being siblings, they might also activate a special Critical when next to each other. You seem to like that a lot.

Yeah, and as I said in your video, you missed the Silver Sword which is one of the best sword in the game.

Also poor Adan who had his kill stolen by Alvis. .__.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Marthur

[Tables]

I'm watching through it now. I'm not sure how much you do/don't want to know about things like mechanics of the game, so I'll leave my comments in spoilers and you can mix and match.

[spoiler=Holy Blood - that weird menu]Various characters have holy Blood of one or two of the holy crusaders. If the dot is a solid colour (e.g. Ethlin) then it raises their weapon rank by one and increases growths slightly. if the dot is glowing, it raises their weapon rank to *, lets them use their holy weapon and gives them twice the growth boost mentioned above.

[spoiler=Money from Villages]All villages give 5K Gold by default, which drops by 500G for each point of damage done. Almost all villages can't be rescued before they take damage.

[spoiler=Weapon triangle]The weapon triangle gives a flat +/- 20% hit for WTA/WTD

[spoiler=Attack Speed & Doubling]Unlike newer FE's, you can't reduce or negate a weapons weight. Your AS is a flat SPD - Wt, and it can go negative (such as on Azel and possibly Lex). To double, all you need is 1 AS more than the opponent and pursuit. This can lead to weird situations against swordmasters and the like where switching from an iron sword to a slim sword makes you go from being doubled to doubling.

[spoiler=The difference between Pursuit, Charge & Continue]Pursuit is just doubling if you have more AS. Continue is basically Adept. Charge is a bit weird - it basically gives you a chance to have two rounds of combat or more (so both you and the opponent get to attack again).

[spoiler=Move costs & Roads]You might have noticed you can move further on roads than on plains. Roads have a slightly weird movement cost of 0.7

[spoiler=Detail on how the AI works]It doesn't.

[spoiler=Lovers standing adjacent]If two lovers stand next to each other, then they can get a critical hit with a 20% chance, even if neither has the critical skill. IIRC, those hearts appear when you get a critical from this.

Finally, comments about the prologue... you were incredibly aggressive - I'm amazed you didn't have problems with Lex and the like dying. You also missed out on Sigurds Silver Sword - Alvis has to talk to Sigurd for it, but you've missed that now, which is a shame. Oh well, Sigurd is awesome anyway (hopefully the 4mt less won't be too much of a hinderance)

Edit: Oh, wow, ninja'd by about an hour ¬_¬. That's what happens when you type as you watch :P.

Edited June 12, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Maou]

I lol'd whenever you referred to midir as a female. =P Don't worry, it catches a lot of people off guard.

You have a nice narration style and a decent sense of humor, keep it up.

[Renall]

Sucks not getting the Silver Sword, but it's the one in Ch1 that's really going to hurt. You'll pretty much never find it blind (and I'm not gonna say).

Just remember to check for Conversation options after every castle and at the start of all maps. Most are story, but some give love points, items, or stats. There are some especially important Cuan/Fin ones.

[Balcerzak]

To answer some of the questions:

<answers>

About Talking, I recommend you going to the Unit Menu and going to Page 4, where you'll find a list the list of characters who can talk with each other. It's pretty useful since you'll sometimes get new weapons, stats boosts, love points, and of course some more story elements.

Thanks. I almost always forget about Unit Menu, but it really is helpful. I am now using it regularly.

Sigurd and Ethlin being siblings, they might also activate a special Critical when next to each other. You seem to like that a lot.

Thanks for the tip. It is completely awesome.

I'm watching through it now. I'm not sure how much you do/don't want to know about things like mechanics of the game, so I'll leave my comments in spoilers and you can mix and match.

<mechanics>

Finally, comments about the prologue... you were incredibly aggressive - I'm amazed you didn't have problems with Lex and the like dying. You also missed out on Sigurds Silver Sword - Alvis has to talk to Sigurd for it, but you've missed that now, which is a shame. Oh well, Sigurd is awesome anyway (hopefully the 4mt less won't be too much of a hinderance)

Mechanics tips are A-Ok. And thanks, that was useful. I think I'm still fishy on Pursuit, but maybe I'm just not paying enough attention to the weapon weights which is causing me to be confused.

Also, I've always tended to be incredibly aggressive, ever since I outgrew my turtling phase and started worrying about GBA rankings. It's almost always a game of trial and error, seeing just how reckless I can be and still get away with it.

I lol'd whenever you referred to midir as a female. =P Don't worry, it catches a lot of people off guard.

You have a nice narration style and a decent sense of humor, keep it up.

Episode 14 will have your sides splitting with laughter as I talk about trying to pair 'her' with Noish or Lex. I had some misgivings, and started to realize my mistake after I found that 'she' would no longer be able to talk to Aideen after I had Azel talk first. But I still wasn't entirely sure about it, so kept having 'her' tag along, and end turns next to them.

Thanks, good to hear. I will probably fail at keeping up consistent "Character A talks with this tone of voice," but it's at least amusing for me to try.

Sucks not getting the Silver Sword, but it's the one in Ch1 that's really going to hurt. You'll pretty much never find it blind (and I'm not gonna say).

Just remember to check for Conversation options after every castle and at the start of all maps. Most are story, but some give love points, items, or stats. There are some especially important Cuan/Fin ones.

If it's having

Sigurd Talk with Eltoshan,

I didn't do that. Too out of the way, and I wasn't even sure it would work. If it's something else entirely, I probably also missed it. My guesses on possible recruitments seemed to pay off though, so I was at least very happy about that.

And yeah, I'm trying to keep a decent job figuring out this things, but... well, we'll see.

Anyway. Chapter 1 has been finished. I'm producing and uploading the videos shortly, will edit in the links when that's all done.

Edited June 13, 2010 by Balcerzak

[Life]

It's not Sigurd talking to Eltoshan. He can't make it (Eltoshan appears the turn after you capture Genoa). Might as well tell you since you already finished Chapter 1.

You can find the Hero Axe for Lex after you capture Marpha on the way to Verdane. You know that little peninsula to the right after the forest? He's got to be at the absolute end of it to get it. The Hero Axe takes away all of Lex's doubling problems since he'll kill his man before the guy gets a shot it. Plus, he's the only person who can use axes.

[Narga_Rocks]

It's not Sigurd talking to Eltoshan. He can't make it (Eltoshan appears the turn after you capture Genoa). Might as well tell you since you already finished Chapter 1.

You can find the Hero Axe for Lex after you capture Marpha on the way to Verdane. You know that little peninsula to the right after the forest? He's got to be at the absolute end of it to get it. The Hero Axe takes away all of Lex's doubling problems since he'll kill his man before the guy gets a shot it. Plus, he's the only person who can use axes.

At least, for a while.

[Balcerzak]

It's not Sigurd talking to Eltoshan. He can't make it (Eltoshan appears the turn after you capture Genoa). Might as well tell you since you already finished Chapter 1.

You can find the Hero Axe for Lex after you capture Marpha on the way to Verdane. You know that little peninsula to the right after the forest? He's got to be at the absolute end of it to get it. The Hero Axe takes away all of Lex's doubling problems since he'll kill his man before the guy gets a shot it. Plus, he's the only person who can use axes.

Oh, I was assuming I needed to use Return or Warp staff or something to get it done, but yeah, fair enough.

That looks hilariously out of the way, how on earth would they expect me to take him there? I gotta admit, a Lex that doubles would have been absolutely awesome, but I guess I'll make due.

At least, for a while.

Yeah, I figured there'll be another one sooner or later.

Oh, and here's the update I was promising. I haven't yet editted most of the video descriptions, but I probably wouldn't be able to add too much more of interest there, but a brief summary of where it happens in the overall course of the chapter.

Chapter 1: 30 turns in 24 videos (

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[Psych]

Good luck by the way...

I kinda don't want to tell you how to pair, except for LevinxFury...

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

I kinda don't want to tell you how to pair, except for LevinxFury...

TitlyuxLevin is a better pairing.

[Life]

TitlyuxLevin is a better pairing.

TiltyuxLevin makes Arthur good. FuryxLevin makes Sety the most broken thing to ever walk this planet.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

TiltyuxLevin makes Arthur good. FuryxLevin makes Sety the most broken thing to ever walk this planet.

Superfluous and in need of the Leg Ring to keep with the mounted units, a problem Arthur doesn't have after promotion in which case, you can give the Leg ring to your dancer for more player phase to your mounted doods or the unmounted.

[_____]

If we're going to tell Bal how Levin's pairings stack up, you should just leave it at this. LevinxTiltyu is better, while LevinxFury is much easier to make, so it's probably better for your first playthrough(hurf durf i'm tiltyu i have 30 hit on wind mages levin come stand next to me the entire chapter and be useless), and LevinxFury is canon.

[Renall]

If he plays normally he should get the mostly standard pairings, which is fine I think. They are all more than competent.

The problem with missing the Hero Axe isn't just the doubling, but also the weight. It's like seriously the only axe not ridiculously heavy, part of the reason I grossly rebalanced weapon weights in my personal patch. It's silly and unfair that axes and lances torpedo evade when they're already worse than swords in selection and availability. Still, if you're playing blind, I have no idea how you're ever supposed to find it. You don't just need to move Lex to an obscure spot on the map, but he must also still have his original Iron Axe in his inventory. If you sold it, welp.

Here's hoping you didn't miss the other Hero weapons, though other than the Axe they aren't really substantial upgrades to the people who can use them. Just really, really nice ones. Fortunately they're much harder to miss.

[Narga_Rocks]

That looks hilariously out of the way, how on earth would they expect me to take him there? I gotta admit, a Lex that doubles would have been absolutely awesome, but I guess I'll make due.

You and probably thousands of Japanese people (when fe4 first came out) before the internet got flooded with faqs for video games to tell people how to get absurdly hidden stuff like that.

[CT075]

I wanna know who decided that "oh, I'm gonna move Lex all the way over here just for kicks," and got a ridiculously awesome Lex?

[SuperTroll Maxim Lapierre]

I wanna know who decided that "oh, I'm gonna move Lex all the way over here just for kicks," and got a ridiculously awesome Lex?

Just hoping that folks would play the game more like an RPG and explore every inch of the map or just to give more incentive to people to buy the official strategy guide?

[Tables]

Some more things:

[spoiler=Arena glitch]There's a glitch with how the game produces RNs that can emerge when using the arena - basically, if a unit levels up after a long(ish) arena battle, they'll get worse growths than normal. I don't know how to avoid it though, asides from avoiding leveling up in the arena :P

[spoiler=Money]As you might have noticed, money is worth a lot less in this game than other FEs. I'd say that 5-10G in this is about the same as 1G in other FEs. So don't be afraid to splash money out, particularly on things like healing (which might as well have been free)

Anyway, comments on Chapter 1... You should have sent Ayra with the main army, in my opinion - she shouldn't have struggled to keep up (she has the same move in the forest and only a little less on the roads) and she's pretty great. Asides from that, you got some really mediocre level ups in the first half of the chapter, but your strategy with Dew was clever (and makes me think I should have done that ). Also, note that the Slim sword is actually stronger than an Iron sword, and that perhaps Sigurd should sell some of his rings (at the very least, the magic ring) for others to take?

Edited June 18, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[PuffPuff]

[spoiler=Money]So don't be afraid to splash money out, particularly on things like healing (which might as well have been free)

I find that intriging having to pay for services at the church. Not exactly saintly. =[

About the pairings of Levin, you could also pair Fury with Claude to have the best healer in the game.

[Salad Utensil]

Some more things:

[spoiler=Arena glitch]There's a glitch with how the game produces RNs that can emerge when using the arena - basically, if a unit levels up after a long(ish) arena battle, they'll get worse growths than normal. I don't know how to avoid it though, asides from avoiding leveling up in the arena :P

[spoiler=Money]As you might have noticed, money is worth a lot less in this game than other FEs. I'd say that 5-10G in this is about the same as 1G in other FEs. So don't be afraid to splash money out, particularly on things like healing (which might as well have been free)

Anyway, comments on Chapter 1... You should have sent Ayra with the main army, in my opinion - she shouldn't have struggled to keep up (she has the same move in the forest and only a little less on the roads) and she's pretty great. Asides from that, you got some really mediocre level ups in the first half of the chapter, but your strategy with Dew was clever (and makes me think I should have done that ). Also, note that the Slim sword is actually stronger than an Iron sword, and that perhaps Sigurd should sell some of his rings (at the very least, the magic ring) for others to take?

The arena glitch can be solved by canceling the battle just before you kill knock unconscious? the combatant. When the guy prompts you continue or not, select continue and the RN string will not be used up and your level up won't fail.

[Balcerzak]

Chapter 2 is complete. See the videos (at your leisure)

! Completion time is 41 turns.

Highlights:

Accidentally getting Lachesis killed as a green unit, thinking better of it.

Deciding I can't possibly be arsed to remember Midir is a man. In my Fanon she's female, and will be continued to be referred to as such.

Not having enough money on Sigurd to recruit Beowulf. Dew came by with the lucky save.

Frantic race vs time to get Levin to Evans.

Warping other people around randomly trying to get all those conversations in.

Several instances of hax dodging.

Pairings:

Azel and Aideen hook up.

Working on my AyraxHolyn and BeowulfxLachesis. They seem practical/cute.

Cannot decide between AlecxSlyvia or LevinxSlyvia. It will probably come down to accident.

No idea for Fury at the moment.

[spoiler=Stats at beginning of Ch3]

Name: Lv.XP MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
Sigurd:  18.15 51 18  5 21 20 14 12  9
Noish:   11.54 40 14  0 10  9  5 12  0
Alec:     9.55 36 11  0 10 11  5 12  1
Ardan:    5.32 38 15  0  5  4  4 13  0
Azel:     6.76 33  1 13  8 10  4  3  6
Lex:     16.88 43 14  0 13 16 10 16  0
Cuan:    15.81 45 22  0 14 17  6 17  4
Fin:     15.24 43 19  2 15 11 18 14  0
Ethlin:  15.06 35  9 10 17 18 13  8  9
Midir:   11.72 37 11  0 10 12  5 12  1
Aideen:  10.00 34  1 14  8 10 14  2 10
Dew:      4.50 29  4  1  7 15 14  2  0
Aira:    11.30 36 12  0 19 19  4  9  2
Jamka:   13.00 42 14  0 14 18  5 15  0
Deirdre:  8.91 28  1 18 10 12  6  3 20
Holyn:   14.55 42 16  0 19 17  1 11  1
Lachesis: 7.43 30 11  8 11 14 10  9 10
Levin:    9.74 37  1 12 13 18  7  7  9
Sylvie:   2.70 28  3  0  4 12  6  1  5
Beowulf: 16.00 45 18  0 14 15  5 11  0
Fury:     7.46 32 11  1 12 18  8  9  9

I'm also midway through Ch 3 at this point, but haven't finished producing or uploaded videos, so you'll have to wait to see more epic dodges, daring strategies, and a couple of tactical "Oops, that might not have been the best plan" moments.

If he plays normally he should get the mostly standard pairings, which is fine I think. They are all more than competent.

Thank you. *plugs ears and ignores pairings discussions*

Yell at me about how I made stupid pairings after I make them, but please, don't suggest me things.

Here's hoping you didn't miss the other Hero weapons, though other than the Axe they aren't really substantial upgrades to the people who can use them. Just really, really nice ones. Fortunately they're much harder to miss.

So far, I've found the Hero Lance, and Hero Sword. They make me happy in many many ways.

Some more things:

[spoiler=Arena glitch]There's a glitch with how the game produces RNs that can emerge when using the arena - basically, if a unit levels up after a long(ish) arena battle, they'll get worse growths than normal. I don't know how to avoid it though, asides from avoiding leveling up in the arena :P

[spoiler=Money]As you might have noticed, money is worth a lot less in this game than other FEs. I'd say that 5-10G in this is about the same as 1G in other FEs. So don't be afraid to splash money out, particularly on things like healing (which might as well have been free)

Anyway, comments on Chapter 1... You should have sent Ayra with the main army, in my opinion - she shouldn't have struggled to keep up (she has the same move in the forest and only a little less on the roads) and she's pretty great. Asides from that, you got some really mediocre level ups in the first half of the chapter, but your strategy with Dew was clever (and makes me think I should have done that ). Also, note that the Slim sword is actually stronger than an Iron sword, and that perhaps Sigurd should sell some of his rings (at the very least, the magic ring) for others to take?

Arena glitch: ...This explains so much.

Money: Staves are so expensive, as are the rings. I tried to move some rings off of Sigurd, but few people have the kind of cash to afford them. And Sigurd has capped money (again), and has nothing to do with it. But yeah, I stop by Churches no problem, and usually repair everything I can.

Ch1 comments:

You're probably quite right about Ayra. At the time, I thought maybe things would pop out of nowhere and attack the castle, she was wounded, and I didn't realize how badly bogged down I'd end up getting in the forests there.

I did start noticing that about the Slim Sword. It's one of the first comments I make in my Ch2 videos, which I uploaded Sunday, but needed to check to make sure that everything went okay with them before linking.

The arena glitch can be solved by canceling the battle just before you kill knock unconscious? the combatant. When the guy prompts you continue or not, select continue and the RN string will not be used up and your level up won't fail.

Oh, man. I can cancel out of Arena battles mid-battle? I bet I don't lose money for that either, since I don't lose when I fail, do I...

[Marthur]

Oh, man. I can cancel out of Arena battles mid-battle? I bet I don't lose money for that either, since I don't lose when I fail, do I...

Yes, by pressing the B button, you're given the choices to either switch weapons and resume the battle or quit it. This might prove quite useful if you don't know what enemy you'll be facing and later in the game when you'll get the sleep sword.

You don't lose money even if you lose, except from the cost for repairing the weapons you used.

[Narga_Rocks]

Did you bother keeping Lachesis' friends alive?

[Balcerzak]

Did you bother keeping Lachesis' friends alive?

I could only save two out of three of them, sadly. They followed her around the whole map though, which was pretty neat.