screenshot Ike's FE Megathread {15.5}

[Integrity]

i have a question

is that guy's name actually slatesaber

because i know it's something different in awakening and i know it was different in mine but i can't remember exactly what for either

i just wanna know since slatesaber is like

the most stupid and fantastic name so far

slatesaber

it isn't

it's Skasaha/Skasaher, which is probably based on Scathach (iirc) and was named Ulster in awankening

Slatesaber is just a hella cool name that specta came up with like 5 years ago and it is all i will ever call him tyvm

[maybe]

i'm vaguely disappointed but i still love it thanks specta

[Carrion]

I'm disappointed that the canned the MageFighter Class after this game. Was very interesting

[Psych]

Tactician and Oni Fighter from 13 and 14 have the same effect though

[Integrity]

I'm disappointed that the canned the MageFighter Class after this game. Was very interesting

i can think of no situation in fire emblem 4 genealogy of the holy war in which i would rather have a mage fighter than a sage

fire emblem's whole system doesn't work very well for having units mix magic and weapons tbh

[Carrion]

i can think of no situation in fire emblem 4 genealogy of the holy war in which i would rather have a mage fighter than a sage

fire emblem's whole system doesn't work very well for having units mix magic and weapons tbh

I suppose you're right. That pointy hat sprite tho

[Integrity]

mage fighter (m) looks really dumb tho

[Carrion]

mage fighter (m) looks really dumb tho

The Class itself seems kind of redundant with Mage Knight. Felt like just a dismounted Mage Knight like in FE 5

[sirmola]

i can think of no situation in fire emblem 4 genealogy of the holy war in which i would rather have a mage fighter than a sage

fire emblem's whole system doesn't work very well for having units mix magic and weapons tbh

The only time i've benefited from equipping swords is when i wanted Lex!tinny to lose in the arena to activate vantage and wrath. She cleared the arena with all tomes, so i gave her an iron sword, which worked. Otherwise, i see no advantages. Arthur gets decent use out of the hero sword when lex is his dad, and lief ocashionaly gets some use out of tornado, but otherwise, physical characters are best with physical weapons and vice versa. Magic swords tend to be relevant only on high def enemies, or when someone physical has a magic dad (like azel!nana)

Edited June 26, 2016 by sirmola

[Integrity]

Magic swords tend to be relevant only on high def enemies, or when someone physical has a magic dad (like azel!nana)

actually part of the problem is that when you have the decision between magic and physical, and you're relatively balanced in both, the solution is almost always to use magic instead of physical, end of story.

The only time i've benefited from equipping swords is when i wanted Lex!tinny to lose in the arena to activate vantage and wrath.

precisely, the only point to swords on magefighters in most of the cases is deliberately sucking so you can play a super-gamey cheese strat like dropping to wrath health. it's bad.

[Psych]

Yeah Resistance is typically lower so magic is better. Certain bosses have higher resistance than defense but in that case just use a physical unit since they'll have actual strength. Hybrid units just don't really work well in Fire Emblem since your off-stat sucks or both stats are just lower than someone with better focus on a single stat. There's never really a situation where you have a hybrid unit that wouldn't be better off being pure physical or pure magical in terms of offense. If there was some way to use strength for some utility ability like healing then potentially, but the only other thing I can think of is minor physical chipping with bows.

Edited June 27, 2016 by Psych

[Parrhesia]

would be relatively cool and good if they only got fire magic, so had to choose between the big magic hits of fire or the actually-having-speed-to-activate-pursuit of sword

[Miacis]

It stems from the original design decision that mages are trading their survivability for better overall weapons. If hybrids aren't limited to a combination of "one weapon type, one different magic type" (Sword/Fire or say Axe/Wind if Wind wasn't utterly broken), you're only giving the player the choice to use worse weapons for little gain.

Anyways, I just binged on this thread after hearing from it in one of MK404's videos. I'll never not laugh my ass off at Byron's godly resilience and Arden's Dumbening. I'm surprised you managed to write so much about the little that Genealogy offers in terms of narrative, to be honest. Can't wait to see how Thracia will end up.

I might pop in and out to discuss localization, but I'll say Slatesaber is excellent and that your "butchering" of Mustacheman's name is somehow close to his influence's modern Irish spelling, so hey, props for that.

Unregardless

please

please

[Integrity]

after hearing from it in one of MK404's videos.

???

your "butchering" of Mustacheman's name is somehow close to his influence's modern Irish spelling,

i actually know a little bit of baby irish and took a guess, it wasn't a blind butchering

EDIT:

It stems from the original design decision that mages are trading their survivability for better overall weapons. If hybrids aren't limited to a combination of "one weapon type, one different magic type" (Sword/Fire or say Axe/Wind if Wind wasn't utterly broken), you're only giving the player the choice to use worse weapons for little gain.

very much this, but also combined with the decision to split strength and magic - arthur can make swords work, ignoring that they're strictly worse than using wind magic in almost every situation (and that he needs to gain nineteen levels with a 10% magic growth and magic lock), if he has one of the most physical of dads, but tinny even at her strengthiest is working with a strength growth 10% higher than her mag growth, a far lower base (presuming tiltyu had any levels), lower might, and hitting higher defense. amid and linda never even have a chance.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Integrity

[Miacis]

???

https://youtu.be/T_CZvay5sBY?t=11m14s

It's just a quick plug and a link in the description, but I'm a sucker for LPs that delve more on the literary elements, so here I am.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Miacis

[Integrity]

i'm famous holy shit

[Specta]

i'm vaguely disappointed but i still love it thanks specta

thanks

but I'll say Slatesaber is excellent

thanks

[Mage Knight 404]

i'm famous holy shit

nah m8y but you do provide both the good yucks and the good points so I had to give you some credit.

Also "Slatesaber" is the good shit.

[Tryhard]

Unregardless

please

please

he does it on purpose, the twat

[Moblin Major General]

he does it on purpose, the twat

Watch your language, you c***. Anyway, next is Manster, which is much better than it will be in the next installment, by miles.

[Specta]

Also "Slatesaber" is the good shit.

thanks to you too

[Integrity]

Welcome to positivity! Loosely, I think this is the chapter that best conveys Genealogy’s narrative.

Welcome to negativity! Loosely, I think this is the chapter that worst conveys Genealogy’s gameplay strengths.

Woop, chapter 7.

Chapter 7 starts out on the wrong foot, with the classic Genealogy screenshot. One of these units is recruitable; is it Man Without Eyes, Sharp Lipsticked Lady, Balding Man Nearly Without Eyes, or Anime Girl? Balding Man Nearly Without Eyes, incidentally, is Reptor’s son, and we’re going to murder the loving shit out of him between this chapter and next, because everyone in front of us is necessarily evil. At least this chapter tries to challenge that, which is what makes this the best narrative chapter in Genealogy.

Honestly, next chapter and the following are also decent storytelling with a few missteps, but they’re more comical than offensive, so I tend to give them a pass. This chapter is the good one, though. This chapter, I will give a pass for being The Good Storytelling In Genealogy Of The Holy War.

This chapter takes place during chapter 20 of Thracia 776, a game I will be replaying sooner than I want, but later than I expected. You realize it’s almost EDIT: July, fuck me, this LP is killing me, and I was like “if this is still going by my birthday…” holy shit I expected to get through EIGHT Fire Emblem games in that time?

Anyway, welcome to New Character Zone, featuring Leif, one of the most improved translations from the Awakening DLCs. Also one of the foxiest new character arts. I mean, damn. Leif is Seliph, but with more fire, more anger. In a clever, question mark?, twist, he’s kind of the Sigurd to Seliph’s Ethlyn. He’s also not plot irrelevant, the first (besides Julia, I guess) such to join us in this generation, so he’ll pop up a little bit. Not much, honestly – his relevance is largely relegated to his sister – but more than anyone else so far. Finn’s opposite him, sporting a much longer and more masculine face to accentuate the fact that he’s like 35 now.

We’ve also now got Jeanne! She was in Super Thracia. That’s her entire claim to fame. Also, we killed her dad.

Tristan: “Yes! I found you! I’m Tristan, your brother!”

Janne: “Huh? You’re kidding, right?”

Tristan: “No, I’m not! Our father was a knight of the Nodion Kingdom. He died in battle during the upheaval in Agustria. You and I were still pretty young then. Sir Sigurd’s army ended up taking us in, but we lost track of you while fleeing to Isaac.”

I guess it’s not explicit, but I like to imagine her dad was one of the Cross Knights we slaughtered for no real reason in chapter 3, even though it’s really just “Nanna with the serial numbers filed off”. This kind of leads to a huge characterization boff that I’ll cover more next chapter with regards to the subs, but for now enjoy Jeanne. She’s cuter than Nanna and in my extensive library of Genealogy headcanon she and Fee settle down after the war.

Our final boss of this map, Balding Man Nearly Without Eyes, makes his appearance. Blume is largely irrelevant except to be killed by us in this chapter and the next, and allegedly he’s involved in some fucked up backstory for Tinny and her mom. It’s not really well-explored in the game – we’ll talk more about what I know when we actually recruit her. I’m trying to trim down the start-of-chapter talking at least a little bit.

Incidentally, Finn tells Leif that the three of them are all that’s left of Leinster’s defense now, and General tells Blume that they’re having issues breaking the Leinsterian lines? Is he lying or incompetent? I’ll let you decide. I like to think Leif built a bunch of scarecrows and General thinks they’re more soldiers.

Patches shows up too. By the way, we still have two more characters to introduce before the chapter actually begins. It’s a really stupid text dump opening this chapter – actually, in retrospect, everything that takes place in the top-left one-third of this chapter is total fucking garbage, but everything else is cool.

Everything except Patches here. She’s not actually relevant or anything, but her lines are inoffensive and sometimes good, and she’s hella cute. She’s absolutely head over heels in admiration for

Shanan's evolved form, Sasuke Uchiha. Shanan is still pretty great in the second generation, but I think he loses a good bit of his first generation charm. And all of his first generation relevance. He doesn’t speak again after this chapter until an optional conversation with Seliph in chapter 10. Compare to Patches, who has conversations with somebody in every single chapter from here on out.

Man On Left is, uh, “Cutozof” which is only in my notes as “????,” shorthand for “what the fuck is this name supposed to be.” He has zero personality, much like the entire Loptyr cult, but I bring it up because what he’s saying here is actually relevant! Fenrir is a long-ranged tome and he doesn’t start out with it – if he isn’t dead by a certain turn, Henchman’s goons manage to find it and give it to Cutozof and then he has Fenrir. It’s a nice touch.

It’s also largely pointless because Shanan can shit all over the entire castle in like four turns but eh.

Finally,

shut the fuck up oh my God

Actually this time there’s something to talk about, and Lewyn doesn’t drop all that much text on us.

Levin: “That’s right. And with the Yied Shrine falling under the Loputo Sect’s jurisdiction, the desert is crawling with dark mages who’ll attack without any provocation. It’s no wonder people now refer to the Yied Desert as the desert of death.”

Celice: “That’s got to make it tough for travelers. There must be some way to capture Yied Shrine…”

Levin: “Hmph… I thought you’d say that. There is a way, but it’ll involve some great sacrifices.”

This isn’t ever brought up again. What sacrifices? Who knows. And apparently, because the Loptyr cult wasn’t evil enough, its lads just hang out in this desert and kill whoever they please, end of story. Genealogy is not a subtle game, even though it really, maddeningly, frustratingly tries to be. You’ll see if we ever escape the black hole of the intro to chapter 7.

On cue, almost as though I planned it, we’re done with talking for a few screenshots. Johalva clears the arena, getting four consecutive 36% hits.

This has a one-point-seven percent chance of happening. Praise Worm.

Let’s actually start the chapter. Chapter 7 is interesting because it starts you off with three fronts, narrows you down to two, brings you back up to three, and then locks all your lads together for a crushing assault on Blume. Leif, Finn, and Jeanne start a bit south of you, over a river – the only person you can send to help is Fee.

Patches and Shanan start in the northwest by Yied, and you start moving southwest and smashing through a bunch of cultists. It’s a very good chapter if you ignore the desert part.

Unfortunately, you can’t ignore the desert necessarily. Take a look at the next few screenshots and then formulate a guess as to how long it takes Seliph, moving at maximum speed (without promoting or the movement ring), to reach Yied.

Got your guess locked in?

[spoiler=the answer]Sixteen turns.

How’d you do?

This leads to a funny thing about Seliph – there’s so much raw walking in this chapter that you can conceivably, without any particularly cheesy powergaming, have every single fight in the chapter done before he can mathematically get there. The chapter is decently designed, actually quite good, if you stop at some point after Yied to let Seliph catch up and then move on the rest of the map in sequence. My particular brand of cheesy powergaming for this chapter holds stuff up a little bit so he can participate a little and results in …spectacular things. You’ll see.

Not that we’re really free from the talking just yet – Patches has to give Shanan his super sword and let him eat the top part of the map, after all…

Patty: “Hey! You’re not Prince Shanan of Isaac, are ya?”

Shanan: “…Yes, I am.”

Patty: “Whoa! Really!? Oh my gosh… I can’t believe it!”

Shanan: “…”

Patty: “I have been an admirer for so long! I always dreamed of meeting you, but never did I…”

Shanan: “Ahem…”

Patty: “I just can’t believe it! I must be dreaming!”

Shanan: “…Alright already. The sword, please.”

Let’s pretend this conversation didn’t happen. Genealogy isn’t just tone-deaf, it’s oblivious to the concept of tone.

Moving on, Fatfuck here is Bramsel. Believe it or not – I dunno if you guys can tell just by looking at him – he’s evil, decadent, and creepy. Who’d think? He’s the boss of the second castle geographically, which is the third strategically.

Immediately, we get two characters who are really obviously related to people we knew. Ares, right, is Eldigan, but slightly less offensive. Leen, left, is Sylvia, but significantly less offensive. I mean both to their utmost. Ares is literally Eldigan.

Aless: “If war breaks out, I will go. All mercenaries will. Besides, I heard that Sigurd’s son is commanding the rebels. Sigurd was the sworn enemy of my father. His boy is as good as dead if I get my hands on him.”

The only difference is that Ares does eventually learn things, a thing Eldigan never figured out how to do in the course of the entire first generation. The way in which he does it is, um, we’ll hold that for later, but he does and that’s what’s important. Much like most men in the second generation, this chapter is the only time we’ll hear Ares spek, except he speaks to ONLY Nanna (not Jeanne) in chapter 8, and ONLY Nanna (not Jeanne) in the final chapter. Since we have Jeanne, Ares will never again become relevant. Ever. I’ll still cover his conversations as they come up as though they had Jeanne, but this dude just got totally fucked over.

On the other hand, his last conversation with Nanna is …it’s something else. I hadn’t ever read it before this project.

Leen is like Sylvia except she actually understands the gravity of the situations she gets into and acts appropriately.

She will also not talk again after this chapter except to her brother precisely one time, unless Lewyn is her father, in which case she gets one conversation. She doesn’t even recruit her brother – she just has a talk with him afterwards that gets him +1 to Luck. Are you noticing a trend with a lot of second generation characters?

This is turn, like, 6, by the way. Shanan has cleared up everything around Yied, the rest of my units are running into the border to Darna, and Seliph is still walking towards Yied with nothing else to be done about it.

This is the hella MLG pro strat for dealing with Leinster if you don’t care too much about Leif/Finn: send Fee down to deal with it. Lock Jeanne to her for healing in safety and you’re golden. Expect most screenshots involving Fee from here on out to also have Jeanne in them.

Spoilers: I have her eat everything Blume sends north to Leinster. She’s ready to promote by the time the chapter ends.

Eventually, Seliph nicks Yied, leading to… one of the less-good scenes in this game. Man, didn’t I say this game was pretty good for narrative? It gets better, I swear. The top third is just really bad.

Levin: “For ages, descendants of the Loputo Empire lived in hiding underneath the shrine. They had no choice. They would’ve been persecuted and burned at the stake otherwise. I doubt they differed much from you or I at first, but over time the ways of evil took root.”

Celice: “It’s like they’re being punished just because their ancestors were a part of the empire! And people are always calling them the ‘family of the devil’ and whatnot. …is this is a child’s handwriting on this wall? It’s a prayer for the Dark Lord’s revival… …Is Loputousu the only god they have?”

Levin: “Yeah… You have to be careful when placing labels on good and evil, Celice. Never waste your anger on individuals. Always focus it on the evil within all of us.”

Here’s the thing, Genealogy: you can’t just say this shit. This is the only time in the game the Loptyr cult is portrayed as anything less than wholly evil. Lewyn’s last conversation was telling us that members of the Loptyr cult just hang out in the desert and murder people for no real reason. We’ve been told enough times by now that the Loptyr cult organizes hunts for children because ??? and probably kills them. This is like when the narrative in the first generation was telling us that Sigurd was afraid he’d be thought an aggressor or whatever: not only does nothing in the entire gameplay support it, but the rest of the narrative directly contradicts it. It’s an awful attempt to pretend there’s ambiguity in this game, when it’s actually a seriously unsubtle story through and through.

Bonus points for the “never waste your anger on individuals” bit because Lewyn’s about to tell us that certain individuals are the enemy and must be crushed mercilessly. Also because this entire game is about evil men doing evil things because they are evil. Hail Hydra.

The amazingly neckbearded guy on the right is the reason Ares is against us right now – he raised Ares from whenever you murdered Eldigan and raised him to believe that Sigurd and Eldigan were sworn enemies for some reason. Ares doesn’t really like him, but he feels like he owes him a debt for being raised by him so he won’t leave. Fortunately, Ares is not Eldigan and actually changes his mind about one thing in his whole development, all four conversations of it.

Despite looking like the Most Anime, Ishtor isn’t a bad dude. He and Sharp Lady are in love and they stand against you for Ishtor’s dad, who is Blume and ergo a massive evil villain.

Ishtor: “Yeah, anything to keep them out of Alster. Liza, can I have you command the troops into battle?”

Liza: “Yes, of course!”

Ishtor: “Forgive me, Liza. I’d keep you from danger if I could, but you’re the only one I can trust.”

Liza: “Ishtor, I’ll be fine. I consider it an honour to go. I just want you to be safe. Farewell, Ishtor. Okay, troops! Take your positions!”

They’re both decent people and this is approximately half the lines written for them in the entire game. There really isn’t anything to say about them, except that Ishtor’s murder by us will be brought up next chapter in a really funny way.

Also, their formation is exquisite even if they really fuck up using it. Mm-mm, good shit.

The border guys just teleport over here. This chapter is the only time the second generation uses border guards, which is good because they’re really fucking stupid. “Yied fell, open the border, Seliph won’t suspect a thing!” and he doesn’t.

Aaaand finally, before we go back to more talking, this ramp opens up, mercifully, to let Seliph walk straight south to Darna. There’s still desert there, and it will be about seven turns before he’s actually in range of any enemies, but at least it’s not more.

Leen knows this dude’s creepy as shit.

Bramsel: “Heh, heh… I like them feisty, but her obstinacy I can do without. Bring her to me!”

Leen: “L..let go of me! You freaks!!”

Aless: “Stop right there! Take your hands off her right now!”

Bramsel: “Who the hell are you!? You worthless mercenary… How dare you challenge me!”

Aless: “No one lays a hand on her. You got it?”

Bramsel: “How dare you speak to me like that! Somebody, get him!!”

Aless: “Who of you doesn’t recognise this sword? I must warn you the Mistolteen craves blood! So who wants to be its first victim?”

Bramsel: “That’s… the Demon Mistolteen? You’re Aless, the Black Knight!?”

Aless: “Yeah, that’s me.”

Bramsel: “Ulp… forgive me! I was merely having a little fun! Look, I’ll never lay a hand on her again!”

Aless: “Leen, you okay?”

Leen: “Yeah, I guess so. Thanks, Aless…”

Bramsel: “Grr! They’re going to wish they were never born!”

In traditional Eldigan form, Ares will still leave her alone with him, but at least he puts a show of threatening them. In traditional Genealogy form, the villain reminds us that he is evil before the scene ends. You notice yet how many potentially ambiguous scenes in this game end that way? Somebody threatens, surprises, or otherwise takes the villain off-guard, and the scene ends with just the villain being all like “don’t forget that it is I who is evil, and will make them pay for this!”

Food for thought.

Scene’s still fine, though, it establishes Ares as a character and makes sure we’re aware of his only two character traits (angry, Mystletainn). This is where the narrative picks up, relatively, and it stays picked up (relatively) for a few chapters.

So, naturally, it’s time for the narrative to take a breather for gameplay chatter. I really like this fight, and really do not like the fight afterwards. Also, incidentally, I really like that I can talk about Genealogy in terms of discrete engagements.

These guys sort of get fucked up by the ridge nearby. The AI in this case plays into the narrative – they’re a little overconfident and a little rigid in their tactics, so by the time you fully engage them…

A bit of careful positioning lets you sweep one of their flanks off the map.

Then, with a quick SLATESABER GANK, the other.

You’ll notice there are four enemies left from this pile and Seliph hasn’t made it down into frame yet. Patches, with a turn head start, is just now arriving. Everyone north of Ishtor was dead before he made it there. I hung around for a while to wait for him to arrive before engaging Ishtor. Why? Three reasons.

First, there’s a few ballistae there with Ishtor for BM. How is it BM? Ishtor himself has a siege tome. Ten range. Ten range and high damage, he’ll do over half any unit’s health in one go. Second, since my only screenshot of this happening to poor Slate is really horribly timed and you can’t even tell, Ishtor has Continue. “I haven’t played Genealogy, Ike, what’s Continue?” You probably know it as Adept. As in, randomly, with no respect to absolutely anything, Ishtor can occasionally throw a second siege tome shot and one-round a unit with decent hit. Hope you’ve been saving! :)

Third, check out this battle forecast. This is WITH 10 extra hit from Seliph, the boss, being nearby. Ishtor marks the point where bosses’ design becomes, about 50% of the time, incredibly bad, because the bosses have to be hard enough to challenge the fact that the game just gave you Shanan, who is incredible, and is about to give you Ares, who hits really fucking hard. Not to mention the potential for you to have Forseti and Seliph getting Tyrfing back in a few chapters. There isn’t stat inflation that can let the subs or less-than-optimized kids deal with that; you very rapidly come to the point starting now where most of your army cannot even contribute on boss fights, because they all use magic for 1-2 range and one-shot/one-round about 60% of your army. And, starting with Blume, a lot of them have Big Shield as well. The second generation’s boss design is really fucking bad.

So, natch, I use Knight Ring Lana to jump in and out and just kill the dude in three rounds with Slatesaber.

Seliph invites Lewyn to talk more! I love talking about Lewyn conversations, don’t I?

Celice: “Levin, is this war ever going to end? I have a hard time believing Prince Ishtor or his general were bad people…”

Levin: “Yeah, but don’t forget that they both supported a ruthless tyrannical leader. They were without a doubt the enemy in this scenario. Celice, this is war! It’s not just about hatred or resentment.”

Nah, these guys were the enemy ergo they deserved to die.

It’s really unfortunate that the whole Fenrir book thing was so cool, because there was potential for it right here too. Doesn’t matter if you hang around for fifty turns after killing Ishtor, Bramsel will just immediately lament that he didn’t act quickly enough. It could have been so neat – Bramsel moves when you get close to Ishtor instead of after seizing Melgen. The second generation is kind of full of wasted potential, especially considering the trend of Seliph showing up places ahead of schedule and fucking plans up.

Leen: “Why do you have to go, Aless? Please don’t… I’m beggin’ you!”

Aless: “I have to go. Jabarro basically raised me from day one. I owe him that.”

Leen: “He’s just usin’ you. I… I just hate him so much!”

Aless: “Leen, you have to understand that…”

Leen: “I don’t care anymore! Don’t talk to me. You just do whatever you please! Just forget we ever met!”

Aless: “Leen…”

Meanwhile, on the one hand we have Leen acting …bleh. It’s something I’ve long had trouble putting words to, maybe you guys can help – it came into effect particularly watching The Flash, a Bad Television Show, where one character just started acting like something I can’t figure out a way to think of but “comic book female.” Leen slips into it here a bit, and I don’t know how to describe it beyond “comic book female” – it’s this vague feeling of the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons going “heh, you know how irrational females are,” and the character just acts like that impression. Puts a really sour taste in my mouth, like a woman’s version of toxic machismo.

Genealogy wastes literally no time, I mean this is the next line after Aless: “Leen…”, even before you regain control or see the map, reminding us that Bramsel is evil.

Genealogy has mage sisters to compete with the pegasisters. We’ll kill them pretty soon. They have no personality whatsoever.

However, an anime is also on Blume’s side!

Blume: “I’m counting on you girls! Tinny, you’ll fight for me, won’t you?”

Tinny: “…If that’s what you wish.”

Blume: “Hmph… And to think I raised you as my own when your mother passed away. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten all I’ve done for you!”

Tinny: “Of course not, sir.”

Blume: “Then get going. Those horrible people killed both my son and his sweetheart Liza. YOU are to avenge their deaths!”

(Enemy Phase)

Blume: “The rest of you, get out there and fight! I want them all dead!!”

(Vampa’s army)

Vampa: “Fetra and Eliu, we need to work together, so stay close. Celice is ours. We can’t let Tinny‘s unit show us up!”

Tinny: “The villagers all think they’re an army of liberators, but why did they have to kill Ishtor? Oh, I don’t know what to do. Mother… I wish you were here…”

Once again, echoing Eldigan, “I don’t know what to do” about somebody whose only interactions with her on screen have been straight-up abusive. This is our introduction to Tinny! Tinny’s story makes a whole lot more sense compared to Eldigan’s, though, because her relationship with Blume is straight-up abusive. Blume raised her after her mother died of ambiguous reasons, and if he’s this abusive to her normally, it still makes sense that she’d do what he says because it’s all she knows. Eldigan doesn’t have that excuse.

Genealogy is not a subtle game, nor does it give you any time to ruminate on ambiguous behavior before reminding you that its villains are evil.

Bramsel: “You did a fine job of making me look like a fool the other day!”

Leen: “So what’re you gonna do about it? Look at you acting so tough now that Aless isn’t around! You sick old man! You’d better just stay away from me!”

Bramsel: “You insolent little bitch! You will regret this day… Throw her in the dungeon!”

Leen: “No! Aless…”

Yep.

What does Ares do about this?

Jabarro: “Stay out of relationships, Aless. You can have your fun with them, but leave it at that!”

Aless: “I see I’ve greatly misjudged you… I’m going back to Darna to get Leen!”

Jabarro: “I don’t think so, Aless. You know I don’t take kindly to those who disobey my orders. And that goes for you, too!”

Aless: “I know we’ve been through a lot together, Jabarro, but I’m cutting our ties here and now! Anyone who tries to stop me can make acquaintance with the Mistolteen!”

Jabarro: “You little ingrate! Don’t push me, Aless!!”

Credit to the dude, he instantly turns blue. He’s ready to kill the guy who raised him. Ares is if Eldigan had any believability to his character, and it’s pretty good. You know, for this chapter. Before he disappears.

His gimmick is that he hits really fucking hard. You’ll also notice from this screenshot that the enemy horsedude formation is immediately, the turn it leaves the castle, messed up from the ridge that’s right next to the castle. Genealogy of the Holy War.

The thing with this part is that you’re just taking Melgen and these dudes show up north of you, behind you, and roll in to screw you. From the east, Blume just woke up and sent VAMPA FETRA ELIU to come eat you. Two front fighting!

Problem is, I fucked up and Tinny and VAMPA FETRA ELIU went north to fight Fee instead of west to fight me, prompting me to run Arthur across the rest of the game map as fast as possible, escorted by Shanan, so Fee didn’t kill Tinny by accident. I’m a good tactician.

Otherwise, dealing with Ares’ ex-squad is pretty pedestrian. None of them are particularly tough, and it’s really easy to position a tough lad (like Slate) in position of only five or six of them to wipe them out on a clean enemy phase before swarming the rest with your units. Ares and Ares’ Not Dad have a special conversation if they fight. Ares is livid.

Ares also has a special conversation with Bramsel. Genealogy really does not want you to forget he’s evil.

Oh, yeah, Seliph and Ares have a conversation in this chapter. It’s the best conversation in Genealogy, full stop.

Aless: “I’m the Black Knight, Aless. But you might know me better as the son of Eltshan.”

Celice: “What? You’re the son of King Eltshan!?”

Aless: “That’s right! The very Eltshan that your father murdered! My mother went to her grave with that over her head! How does that make you feel!?”

Celice: “Really… But I thought our fathers were friends. I know things ended horribly, but I don’t think our fathers ever resented each other.”

Aless: “That can’t be… How could I have grown up believing the exact opposite to be true!”

Celice: “Aless, we need some time to work this out. Why don’t you come with us for a little while? Please consider it. Look, I hold King Eltshan in the same high regard as my father did.”

Aless: “…Well, I suppose I could tag along for a while and see where things go. But if I find out you’ve been lying to me, I will gladly take your life in place of Sigurd’s! You follow me, Celice!?”

Celice: “You do how you please. You just don’t understand how ecstatic our fathers would be at us meeting like this!”

Ares is a total Eldiganian dick to Seliph and Seliph just doesn’t give a single fuck. He’s dismissive as hell towards Ares. He doesn’t even see him as a threat. Seliph rules. To actually get Leen, you have to send Ares into Darna after you seize it-

Levin: “Yeah, this was the location of the liberation army’s fortress during the Holy War. The empire’s military was crushing the liberation army on all fronts. The few soldiers that remained barricaded themselves in the fortress to tend their wounds. As they regrouped for what they believed was to be their last battle, a miracle occurred. Gods decended from the heavens and granted miraculous weapons and powers upon 12 young soldiers. The soldiers came to be known as the 12 Crusaders as they led the liberation army back into battle.”

Celice: “That was the Miracle of Darna Fortress, wasn’t it?”

Levin: “Yep, that’s right. And now another miracle is taking place, Celice. The Crusaders are once again beginning to emerge in the face of Loputousu’s revival.”

Celice: “…Huh?”

Levin: “Hahaha… You’ll know what I mean someday.”

shut the fuck up lewyn. Remember that thing I groused about some time ago, when the narrative tells the hero something they should already know, just because you the player do not know it? Jesus.

Leen: “Aless…”

Aless: “Leen, are you alright?”

Leen: “…I wish I could say so. Fortunately someone from the liberation army rescued me.”

Aless: “Forgive me. I… this is all my fault. I should’ve listened to you.”

Leen: “…Forget about it. I’m just glad you came back, Aless.”

Aless: “I promise it won’t happen again.”

Leen: “…And I promise to keep my mouth shut when I get angry. Don’t ever leave me!”

Leen learns the absolute wrong lesson from all this, to be quite honest (I just won’t tell you when I’m angry!), but the thing that always gets me about Leen’s whole introduction is how gratuitous it all is. Is this ever explored again? No. Is Leen affected by this? No. This is just straight-up “uppity dancer was provocatively dressed, lipped off to the creepy rapey dude, and got thrown in the dungeon and probably assaulted.” She’s broke up about it now. After literally now, it might as well have not happened. This is something that should be treated with serious gravity; instead, it’s thrown in as this gratuitous scene and then never referenced again by anybody, in part because this is the last time Ares and Leen will ever interact, including optional conversations. Genealogy of the Holy War.

On the gameplay side of things, we’re 46 turns in, I’m not an incompetent tactician, and there’s still one castle to go. In fact, as you can see, Blume has Eight men under his command right now, including Tinny. It will be ten more turns until we’re done.

In fact, Slate is busy clearing up the rest of Blume’s guards. In true second generation boss fashion, Blume cannot be engaged by Slate. Blume oneshots him from full health with 100% accuracy. Remember how Slate is, like, our elite (non-super-weaponed) dude right now, besides Fee, who wouldn’t even penetrate his defenses.

Tinny’s recruited. There’s not much to say about their conversation, but it’s notable in that Linda and Amid’s conversation is identical. Their unnamed sub mother apparently had the same last few years of her life Tiltyu did.

[spoiler=arthur recruits tinny] Arthur: “Hold up a second. Where’d you get that pendant?”

Tinny: “This? It was my mother’s.”

Arthur: “You’re Tinny! I’ve finally found you!”

Tinny: “Huh? Who are you?”

Arthur: “Look, I have a pendant just like yours. I’ve been wearing it my whole life!”

Tinny: “Wow, they are the same… What is this all about?”

Arthur: “Well, my mother fought with the liberation army. After the war we all fled to Silesia. But my mother and baby sister were taken from me, and this pendant is all I have left of her. I found out just recently that it was King Blume who took them from me. I also found out that my mother had passed away but that my sister was still alive! YOU are my sister! I’ve come all the way from Silesia for you!”

Tinny: “Blume did all that!? I had no idea. I don’t remember much of my mother. But I do remember that she always seemed so sad… You really are my brother, huh… This is all too much!”

Arthur: “Tinny, would you care to join our side? There’s so much we need to talk about.”

Tinny: “Sure. I didn’t really want to fight any of you anyway.”

And when I say the conversation is “identical,” I mean strikeout Arthur and write Amid, strikeout Tinny and write Linda. The words are all the same. I’ll talk more about the problems with the subs next chapter, like I said five thousand words ago, when a particular event comes up to spark the talking point.

Meanwhile, even Shanan’s odds agains Blume aren’t so great. What’s to be done about it?

You’ve always got more and slightly more overpowered holy weapon users in the second generation: throw Ares at it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

He crits and oneshots Blume. Boss design!

Sixty-ish turns, hoo. At least I used them productively while Seliph was running about like a loon.

GET THE FUCK IN

Edited July 2, 2016 by Integrity

[solrocknroll]

wait is Lewyn x Sylvia what happened in your game

if so i beg you to use Forseti Crumple

[Integrity]

i didn't even get forseti

[Julius Nepos]

Levin: “For ages, descendants of the Loputo Empire lived in hiding underneath the shrine. They had no choice. They would’ve been persecuted and burned at the stake otherwise. I doubt they differed much from you or I at first, but over time the ways of evil took root.”

Celice: “It’s like they’re being punished just because their ancestors were a part of the empire! And people are always calling them the ‘family of the devil’ and whatnot. …is this is a child’s handwriting on this wall? It’s a prayer for the Dark Lord’s revival… …Is Loputousu the only god they have?”

Levin: “Yeah… You have to be careful when placing labels on good and evil, Celice. Never waste your anger on individuals. Always focus it on the evil within all of us.”

Here’s the thing, Genealogy: you can’t just say this shit. This is the only time in the game the Loptyr cult is portrayed as anything less than wholly evil. Lewyn’s last conversation was telling us that members of the Loptyr cult just hang out in the desert and murder people for no real reason. We’ve been told enough times by now that the Loptyr cult organizes hunts for children because ??? and probably kills them. This is like when the narrative in the first generation was telling us that Sigurd was afraid he’d be thought an aggressor or whatever: not only does nothing in the entire gameplay support it, but the rest of the narrative directly contradicts it. It’s an awful attempt to pretend there’s ambiguity in this game, when it’s actually a seriously unsubtle story through and through.

Bonus points for the “never waste your anger on individuals” bit because Lewyn’s about to tell us that certain individuals are the enemy and must be crushed mercilessly. Also because this entire game is about evil men doing evil things because they are evil. Hail Hydra.

I actually like this part in the narrative. It shows the reason why the Loptyr cult exists and why it has followers: it's a terrorist organisation based on religious extremism. It's basically the Islamic State of Jugdral.

Let's look at the Islamic State. It originated in Iraq, where we had Saddam Hussain. Hussain was an oppressive dictator, so a lot of people's lives in Iraq were crappy, but he did keep the country together. Then the US-led Multi-National Force comes barging in with a war (and wars make people's lives even crappier) and removes Hussain - they remove the oppressive dictator, but he was the only thing keeping the country together, so chaos ensues (and chaos makes people's lives even crappier). So a lot of people's lives in Iraq are really really crappy now, their future is bleak and hopeless, and in their eyes America is to blame. America brought war, America brought chaos. That means America is the enemy. Then some fanatical peeps come along and start preaching that fighting America will bring about God's paradise or something and naturally, people are hooked. I mean, fighting America (=the enemy) and being promised God's paradise? To rational thinking people, this sounds absurd and impossible, but to people whose lives are this crappy, whose future is this bleak and hopeless, it's the only thing that could give them hope. It sounds ideal to them.

The Loptyr cult is no different. Most of these people are being persecuted and burned at the stake because their ancestors participated in the cult, some join because they live in absolute poverty and this is the only hope for change they can think of. For over a century, Jugdral's states have been persecuting the cultists and burning them at the stake. Overthrowing Jugdral's states and bringing about Loptyr's paradise is the only hope they have. It sounds ideal to them.

Berd's death quote in FE5 really shows the suicide terrorist mentality that dominates the cult, as it comes down to: "I may fall now, but it's all for the glory of Loptyr!"

And how do people usually talk about the Islamic State in real life? Usually it's just regarded as evil and scary. Which is logical, because these people attack, destroy, kill and oppress. Only very rarely, when we really start thinking about things, does someone say: "Oh, you know, they're humans too, what they're doing is absolutely wrong and abominable, but it's understandable why they do it, given the situation they're in; don't be too quick to call people evil." The fact that Genealogy displays the Loptyr cult as evil throughout the entire game and only once brings up nuance, is a pretty accurate reflection of how terrorism is viewed in real life.

That said, the complete change of Lewyn's tone from post-Yied to post-Melgen is staggering. He goes from: "Well, these people aren't all that evil; don't be too quick to call people evil," to: "Yeah, they weren't evil per se, but they were supporting a tyrant, so they were definitely the enemy and had to die."