Romance! Intrigue! Honor! And WAR!! Let's Max Rank Fire Emblem 4!!

[Alastor15243]

So for reference, I've been thinking about what's been holding me back from doing another update, despite all the free time I've been having. Part of it is that, for all the satisfaction I get from the end product, the in-between work involves a lot of hours of working in relative solitude, coming up with commentary, jokes, screenshot editing, strategies, and all that. Which is fine; I'm still going to finish this LP one day, and I'm going to do it because I know you all enjoy it.

But in the meantime, I just want you to know; I am perfectly ok with you guys talking about whatever Fire Emblem related things you want, even if it's not in regards to this specific game. Watching people enjoy themself in my threads (whether it's Dragon Quest, 7th Saga, or this one) is the primary reason for why I keep on making updates; otherwise, I'd content myself with just playing them rather than doing any kind of project on them.

So thank you for your support, and feel free to have fun guys; hard work is pointless unless you or someone else takes pleasure in the fruits of it, and I always love reading reading the comments :) . And, if anyone wishes to join as a co-commentator or anything, feel free to ask!

Hear, hear!

Glad to see you haven't abandoned the thread, by the way, I love reading this!

Hm... conversations...

Actually, I have a question for you: What's your opinion on the balance of this game? Do you think this game is the worst balanced game in the series, do you think there are games that are worse in that regard, or do you actually like the balance (I'm kinda doubting that last one honestly)?

[FionordeQuester]

The balance of this game..hmm...that's honestly a tough one. See, this game is one of those games where the story seems to have come before the gameplay, rather than the other way around. So Sigurd's WAY better than everyone because...well, he's Sigurd. Descendant of the Blade Master himself n' all that. Same pretty much goes for Cuan and Levin and all the other guys with super-dragon blood in their veins.

Same goes for the horse vs. foot units; if you EVER see a real life fight between someone who IS on a horse, vs. someone who's NOT on a horse...well, let's not kid ourselves; the one on the horse is probably going to win. So in some ways, it is actually kind of cool the way this game manages to integrate the story into the actual gameplay, especially when you start getting into a lot of late-game fights. The fight between

Celice and Alvis

, for example, feels like a legitimately tense match because of how OP the BOTH of them are.

...

And yet, it's also by far the game's biggest weakness. There's really only two kinds of units in this game; those who start strong and keep getting stronger (Sigurd and Cuan), and those who start weak, and keep getting weaker (Alec and Noish). Obviously there are exceptions to that rule, but not many. I feel that if the designers really wanted to keep on going their "story integration" path, then they should have included some branched promotions. Maybe give Aira, for example, the ability to become a Nomad, with 9 Move and the option to shoot arrows. The arrows themselves wouldn't stack with Meteor Sword (it only works with swords), but it WOULD give her some range. And if that makes her too useful, maybe nerf the stat boosts that she gets from promotion.

Otherwise, there are a lot of units like her, who COULD be interesting, but are messed up because of the game's heavy slant towards 1-2 Range and horses. I'll have more to say later, but for now, I feel like I can appreciate what the game was trying to do; I just wish it had been play tested more thoroughly :P .

[Alastor15243]

That's a fair view. And yet at the same time, there are some things that have no such "realism" or "storytelling" excuse.

I want to meet the person who, oh, say, I don't know, let's just pull something out at random, MADE ALL MAGIC TYPES IDENTICAL EXCEPT THAT SOME ARE LIGHTER THAN OTHERS.

That honestly goes so far off balanced that it honestly gives me the impression that the concept of balance hadn't even been invented yet! It's an affront to all logic and basic human decency!

[FionordeQuester]

Yeah, that one...The only guess I have is that maybe the fire mages they had were OP, so they had to be nerfed? Somehow? Like, maybe my memory is faulty, but it seems like the player ends up fighting fire and thunder types a lot more often than they end up fighting wind types, so mayyyyybe that's the reason? A quick and dirty way of nerfing OP enemies at a time when they were quite literally rushing this game out the door? Clement's Fire Mages, for example, would have been an absolute nightmare if their tomes had weighed 2 WT instead of 12 WT...

That's the only logical thing I can presume; Azel's starting stats make a lot more sense if one assumes that Fire was originally supposed to be 2 WT instead of 12. And then maybe that's why Emmile the Thunder Mage (Chapter 1) was given the Speed Ring; who knows?

Edited July 27, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Guess what? A new episode has arrived!

Chapter 3, Part 3: http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=144933

Edited August 6, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

Next update is here! The grudge match with Shagaal is FINALLY happening!

Chapter 3 Part 4: http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=144934

Edited August 6, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[Jotari]

Wow. Never considered just kicking Shagaal's ass before killing Eltshan. Do they all just disappear then? Seems kind of plot breaking.

For a long time now I've found it kind of weird the empire just let Aless wander around with Milstoltin. I think it would have been better if you gained the weapon by personally killing Eltshan (and then Nana could give it to Aless in Gen 2) but it became lost forever if you used the conversation option. This would give the player a pretty good choice between immediate benefits (not having to fight him and getting the Earth Sword) and long term benefits (like getting one of the best weapons in the game several chapters later).

Also wow, regarding that NPC in Part 4. That's something I never caught. She's almost instantly became one of my favourite minor characters in a video game. It's the small things like that that make me really like this Let's Play. I've played this game like three or four times but there's still a lot of minor stuff I never seen.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Jotari

[FionordeQuester]

Wow. Never considered just kicking Shagaal's ass before killing Eltshan. Do they all just disappear then? Seems kind of plot breaking.

For a long time now I've found it kind of weird the empire just let Aless wander around with Milstoltin. I think it would have been better if you gained the weapon by personally killing Eltshan (and then Nana could give it to Aless in Gen 2) but it became lost forever if you used the conversation option. This would give the player a pretty good choice between immediate benefits (not having to fight him and getting the Earth Sword) and long term benefits (like getting one of the best weapons in the game several chapters later).

Also wow, regarding that NPC in Part 4. That's something I never caught. She's almost instantly became one of my favourite minor characters in a video game. It's the small things like that that make me really like this Let's Play. I've played this game like three or four times but there's still a lot of minor stuff I never seen.

Aw, thank you...:). And yeah, if you kick Shagaal's butt first, Eltshan and everyone else just disappear into thin air. Weird, huh? Maybe THAT'S why Eltshan couldn't betray Shagaal?

[ruadath]

Hey, it's back! Very happy to see you posting again, and looking forward to seeing more updates from you in the near future!

[FionordeQuester]

Why thank you Ruadath! Are you still doing your own efficiency runs, or have you moved on to other projects?

[FionordeQuester]

And now, the last Chapter 3 update!

Chapter 3: Part 5 - http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=144935

Look forward to Chapter 4, NEXT TIME!

Edited August 6, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[Jotari]

I could readily believe Reptor's lines were meant to be taken as inner monologue. Kind of like a soliloquy. I mean he's clearly not talking to anyone but himself so it stands to reason he's expousing in a way no one but himself can hear.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Jotari

[FionordeQuester]

I could readily believe Reptor's lines were meant to be taken as inner monologue. Kind of like a soliloquy. I mean he's clearly not talking to anyone but himself so it stands to reason he's expousing in a way no one but himself can hear.

Yeah, that's probably how it was all meant to be taken, if I'm being totally honest with you. But...the game doesn't really give any visual indicator of that. The guy's mouth is moving like it always does; and there's generally supposed to be...

(Some kind of visual indicator, like these parenthesis that I'm putting around this line. And I looked at FF7's Japanese script, and it looks like the Japanese use that parenthesis technique too, just like we do)

Either one of those two things would have saved it, but as things stand...the writer's didn't do a very good job of showing that it was an inner monologue. My very first reaction to this scene was still "W-wait, what? Dude, who the heck are you talking to? Is the game really going to be THAT hamfisted about it?". Cue the 2-5 minutes of me just cracking up in front of the monitor .

Edited August 4, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

a small warning to anyone playing along with me. Make SURE that Lachesis beats the first two Arena guys in Chapter 3. So basically, these two losers (who are utterly trivialized by the Prayer Sword)...

I thought all of her expensive items would be enough to Elite Ring + Return Staff spam her to Level 20, but apparently it wasn't. I need the Prayer Sword to get extra money from the Arena...except, the fully repaired Return Staff required selling said Prayer Sword in order to get the Elite Ring + Return Staff in the first place.

This...doesn't ruin anything, but it makes it messier than I would have liked it. Hence, I'm gamesharking an extra 2500G for Lachesis, for the sake of showing what a Chapter 4 run is supposed to look like. This IS, after all, a guide on how to AAAA rank as easily as possible ;) .

[FionordeQuester]

Okey doke, here's the pre-Chapter 4 update, with a war room and video montage!

War Room & Chapter 4 Arena: http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=144961

[Konnor97]

Since you gamesharked Raquesis the 2500 gold from missing the arena, does the missing experience affect much? Or is it negligible because of Warp Staff spam?

[FionordeQuester]

Negliegable due to Warp Staff spam, fortunately. Altering her Gold was more for the sake of the reader than it was for my sake. More Arena finagling with Lachesis means more screenshots, and even more words to bog down a game that's already fairly slow.

Edited August 9, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[FionordeQuester]

And now for....Silesia!

Chapter 4 Part 1: http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=145031

Edited August 18, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[Konnor97]

And now for....Silesia!

Chapter 4 Part 1: http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=145007

"+5 HP for Azel!"

Do you mean for Tiltyu?

Never mind, I remembered the event wrong.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Konnor97

[Jotari]

I never got the impression Manfred was involved with the events going down in Silesia. I always more saw it as the basic state of the world that made Manfred's and Alvis' conniving so easy to accmoplish. But now giving it some actual thought I think its very likely they did have a hand in it some how since they send Androey (and I want to say the...beige ritter) to assist. Maybe Manfred knew of their designs and just arranged things so they'd have maximum damage much like Trabant.

Also for the returning to Leinster is their a variation where Finn and Quan have already retreated and Ethlin is still there?

Also I'm pretty sure I never seen that Sylvia Fury conversation. Amusing.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Jotari

[FionordeQuester]

Also for the returning to Leinster is there a variation where Finn and Quan have already retreated and Ethlin is still there?

Nah. If Cuan or Ethlin "die", their spouse'll go "OH SHOOT! I hate to run out on Sigurd like thise, but we gotta get you home! So it's impossible to have one here but not the other.

Edited August 14, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[Jotari]

Nah. If Cuan or Ethlin "die", their spouse'll go "OH SHOOT! I hate to run out on Sigurd like thise, but we gotta get you home! So it's impossible to have one here but not the other.

Pulling a Pent and Louise before Pent and Louise. Strange I did not know that. I'm the kind the resets whenever anyone dies but people still do die on me. Maybe it's just been too long. I should probably play again in the near future. I have been wanting to try a Sigurd solo and finally check out the replacement units.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Jotari

[FionordeQuester]

A Sigurd solo, eh? IF that's the case, I believe you'll find these videos helpful:

[Tetragrammaton]

Cue Chapter 1, and it's mostly the same...except, now the Dark Sect is a thing, and it turns out those "filthy jungle men" weren't actually the true villains. They were just pawns in a far more sinister scheme. And, get this...Sigurd's having to fight some people who DON'T deserve to die; Aira's nephew is being held hostage, and Jamka's fighting only for the sake of King Imuka. But it's all good! Sigurd worked his way around those issues, and got both those people on his side! No innocent blood was spilled by his hand THAT day! Still, it would have been nice if he had been able to rescue King Imuka, even if he DID otherwise achieve everything he set out to do.

Jamuka's father is Batou.

Imuka was Chagall's father.

[FionordeQuester]

Jamuka's father is Batou.

Imuka was Chagall's father.

Ah, thank you Han!

Now then...a user called "theshim" asked for a reminder on my pairings; so for those who also wanted it, here you go!

PAIRINGS:

AIDEEN X JAMKA: This is, admittedly, a slightly weaker pairing than Aideen X Midir as far as Lester goes. Continue will be nice to have, but he'll suffer greatly if he doesn't have the Pursuit Ring (which I may or may not give to him). However, Jamka and Aideen get WAY more benefit out of pairing with each other than Midir and Aideen do. Jamka, Midir, and Aideen all use large amounts of money in repairing their stuff, and none of them have access to the Uber Slim Sword, meaning that getting the Gold needed for the Elite Ring is a constant struggle for them.

Jamka, however, is almost guaranteed to clear every Arena, and get 17,500G, while Midir is so weak, that even Ranks 3 and 4 are a challenge for him! So Midir's only getting like, 4,000G at most without RNG abuse. Plus, Lester is extraordinarily easy to train due to Chapter 9, which is almost exclusively a flyer map. We haven't been introduced to those kinds of units yet, but suffice it to say, bow weapons will automatically activate Critical on flying units. And considering that we'll already have 3 Holy Weapons by then...yeah, babying Lester won't be any problem at all.

Oh yeah, and Jamka X Aideen can abuse the Jealousy system to become partners by the end of Chapter 2, while Midir X Aideen does not have that luxury. So they can get much more done in Chapter 2 than Midir X Aideen can.

There's a fair bit of debate over whether Jamka or Midir is a better father for Lana and Lester. Lana is practically impossible to screw up because she inherits all the staffs she'll ever need and her stats don't matter, and the father only matters if you want her to fulfill some niche role. Claude x Aideen is the best pairing for pure LTC runs, Azel x Aideen is probably the best if you want Lana to fight, but why would you ever want to go to that trouble? If you plan on using both the children, as you must in an AAAA run, Jamka or Midir are your only real choices. In my eyes, it comes down to whether or not you need the pursuit ring on a different child, since Jamka doesn't pass pursuit down to Lester.

AIRA X LEX: Aira's children will be showing up in the very first Chapter of Gen 2, where money will be very scarce for a while. Plus, we don't have a Thief to make donations either, so it's very important that we get either Bargain or Elite on Skahasa and Lakche. Originally I was going to give Dew to Aira, but because of that aforementioned reason, and a new strategy I discovered for how to abuse Ambush + Elite + Meteor Sword + Uber Hero Sword in Chapter 7 (against Jabarro and co.) and the Epilogue (against Burian and co.), I decided to give Lex to Aira instead. So now, not only will the sword twins never have to worry about money, but leveling them will also now be a cinch! So that's pretty grand I think, more than worth giving up Bargain.

I've never been a huge fan of this pairing because I feel that the sword twins have plenty of time to level up anyways and trounce arenas. I prefer Lex on Briggid or Sylvia (to help Patty/Leen respectively), but there are lots of ways to A rank this game, and Lex x Aira is still a great pairing.

Yeah. Personally, I still think Ambush + Elite is a great and convenient way to level up, and Skahasa and Lakche are the only ones who are really able to easily take advantage of that. But we'll see.

LACHESIS X BEOWULF: Unlike Aira, Lachesis's children do not get that much of a benefit out of having Lex or Dew as partners. Delmud and Nanna do NOT start out with Pursuit,and Beo's JUST the guy to fix that! Fin is a close second due to having Pursuit & Prayer, but he can't pass anything down to Delmud. Combine that with Beowulf X Lachesis's ability to exploit the Jealousy system, and a Talk conversation that gives them 100 love points, and there you go. Beowulf X Lachesis is just the way to go ;) !

Fin x Lachesis is pretty good, and if you want to get fancy Azel x Lachesis can be useful for magic sword use, but this pairing is so much easier. Lachesis' children will never be amazing combatants, but with Beowful they can chip in occasionally while charisma botting.

SYLVIA X DEW: Good news Dew! Turns out there IS someone young enough for you to marry! Her name is Sylvia, the 14 year old dancer! Hehehe...he...he......

Well anyways, it's good that things worked out that way; Bargain is just too good NOT give to someone. And who better than Leen, one of the weakest Gen 2 characters? Dancers tend to have that problem, but Bargain will help her by giving her essentially unlimited money; she can buy Elite whenever she wants, she can buy and sell the Defense Ring + Defense Sword (+7 to Defense) to easily manipulate Prayer (because yeah, she gets that), she can more easily repair the Sleep Sword (more on that later)...Bargain's quite nice on her.

But, Lex X Sylvia does give Leen Ambush, which is amazing when combined with the Sleep Sword in the Arena. On the other hand, Leen can also eventually get the Pursuit Ring, and any other stat rings she wants, so...it remains to be seen whether Dew!Leen is better than Lex!Leen or not. Either way, Leen needs one of those two fathers if you want her to level up efficiently. Otherwise, she just takes forever to get anywhere quickly. As for her brother, he's a staff bot, so he's good regardless.

Unfortunately, this pairing is one of the few that cannot abuse the Jealousy system...but oh well, they don't really need each other that urgently anyway.

A good pairing for the aforementioned reasons. I don't have anything more to say.

FURY X CLAUDE: Three words. "Fricken Valkyrie Staff"! It can revive dead units! Of course, it breaks after one use, and costs 30,000G to repair; but still! Plus, Claude has Blaggi blood, which increases the potency of the staves that can be used by Sety and Fee. Both of them will be Staff Botting, and with Blaggi blood, Fee will be able to spam the Warp Staff rather than the Return Staff. And who knows what fun death warping tactics we can pull off with this? I already know of at least one...

This pairing can also abuse the Jealousy system. So that's fun, though not really necessary.

Fury's second best pairing, but Levin is already taken for good reasons so...good choice.

Aw, thank you Marty :3.

BRIGGID X HOLYN: This seems like a weird pairing due to how slow it is to make; but this is THE best pairing for Patty, especially with the way I'll be playing. Holyn has minor Odo blood, which gives Patty B Swords. Supplement that with a Bargain Ring, and whatever other gifts Holyn feels like giving her (perhaps I might even throw in a Pursuit Ring), and Patty will come right out of the gates as someone who can clear the Arena's via the Uber Hero Sword! She can even dispense large sums of cash to all the other paupers who can't afford the Elite Ring! And Faval's got Ichival, so he's set no matter what.

Unfortunately, no Jealousy system exploits are possible with these two, but whatever.

Faval gets ridiculous amounts of HP in this pairing. B swords is useful to use magic weapons to safely nab gold from enemies. In unreliable runs b swords isn't really a necessity because the sleep sword can be abused so easily, but for the purposes of this run I can see why it would be useful.

TILTYU X LEVIN: Arthur immediately gets Holsety, on CHAPTER 6 no less; so there's that! Plus, Levin's Holsety blood makes both children better with the best magic type in the game, and increases their AS to ludicrous levels. Oh, and since Tiltyu gives Wrath, nothing should ever live past two attacks anyway. So if anything, Continue is actually BETTER for them than Pursuit, since that gives them the chance to just kill an opponent outright with Wrath.

But again, no Jealousy system :( …

Why not pass down Holsety, and Arthur has more trouble in the arena than Sety. This is the right pairing.

Indeed; now one more thing. Some may be wondering "what happens if your female characters die before falling in love?" Well, if they don't manage to have some kids before Gen 1 ends, their children will instead be replaced by "Substitute Characters", who are basically just inferior versions of their counterparts. So instead of having the amazing Lakche and Skahasa, you will instead have the lackluster Radney and Roddlevan. They don't get Meteor Sword or Awareness, their growth rates are lower, and they don't inherit any weapons or items from anyone. So in other words, pair ALL of your females up! There are technically a few substitute characters that can be worth something...but none of them can ever make up for the lack of Inheritance.

Edited August 16, 2016 by FionordeQuester