Forging Bonds: The Sworn Oath

[Thane]

My thoughts on the Forging Bonds story: 

Spoiler

This has got to be the worst one yet. I was at least mildly entertained by Owain and Kliff clashing last time, and they were characters I actually had a connection to from the main series, but this? A prequel to the story we just played, where our conversations happen in dreams the characters mostly don't remember? What in the actual hell? 

"My sisters, war is coming."

"Oh no, my brother."

"What should we do, my sisters and brother?"

"We should train, my sister."

"War is bad, my sister."

"Yes indeed, my brother."

"Fear not, for I had a dream, my brother and sisters."

"What was it of, my sister?"

"I dreamed of an awesome dude, my sister."

"How was he awesome, my sister?

"He was warm like the sun, my sister."

"I have also dreamed of this awesome dude, but I can't remember anything of the conversation my sister."

"Maybe he can help us end the war, my sisters."

"Maybe so, my brother."

"War is bad, my sisters."

"Yes, my brother."

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Thane

[Vaximillian]

Gunnthrá’s C got my hopes up that these will all be the siblings talking to each other.

Instead it was only Fjorm who didn’t talk to just us, and even then it was a bit empty.

Hríd: I need to be strong. Do you know I have to be strong? Now you know I have to be strong.
Ylgr: I’m a kid. Do you know I’m a kid? Now you know I’m a kid.
Gunnthrá: I talked to you in the story. Do you remember I talked to you in the story? Now you remember I talked to you in the story.

Sadness.

[Diovani Bressan]

19 minutes ago, Thane said:

My thoughts on the Forging Bonds story: 

  Hide contents

This has got to be the worst one yet. I was at least mildly entertained by Owain and Kliff clashing last time, and they were characters I actually had a connection to from the main series, but this? A prequel to the story we just played, where our conversations happen in dreams the characters mostly don't remember? What in the actual hell? 

"My sisters, war is coming."

"Oh no, my brother."

"What should we do, my sisters and brother?"

"We should train, my sister."

"War is bad, my sister."

"Yes indeed, my brother."

"Fear not, for I had a dream, my brother and sisters."

"What was it of, my sister?"

"I dreamed of an awesome dude, my sister."

"How was he awesome, my sister?

"He was warm like the sun, my sister."

"I have also dreamed of this awesome dude, but I can't remember anything of the conversation my sister."

"Maybe he can help us end the war, my sisters."

"Maybe so, my brother."

"War is bad, my sisters."

"Yes, my brother."

 

5 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

Gunnthrá’s C got my hopes up that these will all be the siblings talking to each other.

Instead it was only Fjorm who didn’t talk to just us, and even then it was a bit empty.

Hríd: I need to be strong. Do you know I have to be strong? Now you know I have to be strong.
Ylgr: I’m a kid. Do you know I’m a kid? Now you know I’m a kid.
Gunnthrá: I talked to you in the story. Do you remember I talked to you in the story? Now you remember I talked to you in the story.

Sadness.

I only saw the B-Conversations, but what you did was perfect reviews about this Forging Bonds.

It had too much potential to be something different from the last Forging Bonds, but manage to be a generic and useless experience...

Also, I believe Fjorm doesn't talk to us that much because we was a main character in Book II, while the others only did some appearances.

At least the accessories are cool. Although, I would prefer to have Gunnthrá's hat...

[Sentinel07]

I honestly liked the story in this. It was neat to get a little context to the things we knew about before, plus little extra things like how Fjorm got Leiptr.

It's nothing mind-blowing, but getting context like this does make me like the story a little more.

[Etrurian emperor]

The story is decent when it focuses on the siblings but the avatar conversations are very weak. 

Snow Loli offering to sleep with Fjorm because she feels bad about her big sis having nightmares is pretty cute or Fjorm getting praised by her big bro. But most avatar supports are incredibly brief and consists only of the ice siblings saying they might one day meet this dream person and that they can tell he's going to be really nice. 

[Jingle Jangle]

I maxed out all of the forging bonds rewards thank you 2x multiplier. Overall I thought the ice siblings interactions were the best part. I wish it toned down the foreshadowing since we know what will happen to them.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Jingle Bells

[Vaximillian]

Once again, the best part of the event is the matching shinies I can put on the queen and her king:

[RexBolt]

Overall the scenes together were good, but the avatar supports were boring, just a lot of praising us for existing and foreshadowing things we saw in the game proper. 

They could have used this to make the siblings feel like actual characters, but nope, let's waste all support time talking about how the summoner is like the sun and how they want to meet them for real and explaining again and again and again how the Rite of Dreams works.

Also, it's super lazy how the animations used here are the same as all the previous Forging Bonds, because while in them it made sense even if being generic, here it makes no sense at all. Well, not like it made sense with the Kiran-kidnapping too after all.

[Diovani Bressan]

1 minute ago, Vaximillian said:

Once again, the best part of the event is the matching shinies I can put on the queen and her king:

They look so cute! I liked the wings on the Crown of Nifl EX, and it looks that Marth's hair is covering the rest of the crown.

[Vaximillian]

1 minute ago, Diovani Bressan said:

They look so cute! I liked the wings on the Crown of Nifl EX, and it looks that Marth's hair is covering the rest of the crown.

Same! I like the wings a lot; they fit perfectly any flier… or Cecilia (because she’s a valkyrie), and anyone with bangs long enough (like Marth) can wear the crown the intended way indeed.

I still wish we got Gunnthrá’s hat instead of just the flowers from it, but the flowers are very nice this time. The only trinkets that make me scratch my head a little are Ylgr’s pair. They are so tiny and I barely know where to fit them. Oh well.

[Diovani Bressan]

2 minutes ago, Vaximillian said:

Same! I like the wings a lot; they fit perfectly any flier… or Cecilia (because she’s a valkyrie), and anyone with bangs long enough (like Marth) can wear the crown the intended way indeed.

I still wish we got Gunnthrá’s hat instead of just the flowers from it, but the flowers are very nice this time. The only trinkets that make me scratch my head a little are Ylgr’s pair. They are so tiny and I barely know where to fit them. Oh well.

For now, I gave Young Azura the Crown of Nifl, and I gave Brave Veronica  the Chilly Tiara. I still don't have the EX versions.

[Vaximillian]

4 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

For now, I gave Young Azura the Crown of Nifl, and I gave Brave Veronica  the Chilly Tiara. I still don't have the EX versions.

I gave the tiaras to Celica and Ishtar:

[Sunwoo]

The EX version of Fjorm's tiara doesn't go very well on Eirika. The color of the jewels are almost the same color as her hair, and you have to kind of strain your eyes to see them.

[DefyingFates]

On 11/28/2018 at 9:52 AM, Sunwoo said:

My character's name is Sun.

This makes the comparisons Ylgr (and any other Nifl siblings) make to the sun really weird.

Mine is Sunlight, so I feel the same xD

On topic, I'm loving this Forging Bonds more than any other. While I also think these characters should have been developed in Book 2 proper, I'm really enjoying all the little interactions they have here, even during individual Support conversations. It's surprising how much taking Kiran out of the equation gives the characters room to grow. It's the only time in this mode that I'm actually excited to see the next main story beat, I didn't think I'd ever be this invested!

It's nothing major - the conversations are actually incredibly simple - I know all that, but I still like seeing everyone interact, if that makes sense. It's really sweet~!

Edited November 29, 2018 by DefyingFates

[Stercus]

I honestly don't really know what I was expecting from the event, but I know it's more than what we got. I was expecting something, anything about Gunnthra's passing, for one. They could've did something like the Geneology Tempest Trial, where the other three siblings try to put Gunnthra's spirit to rest, or they could actually deal with the issues that come from "oh it's an alternate universe version of X" for once, but they didn't.

But at least I got to learn that the summoner's hands are warm. That's the deeplore I've been waiting for.

EDIT: @Vaximillian That Caeda and Marth are absolutely adorable and I love them!

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Stercus

[Thane]

1 hour ago, Stercus said:

But at least I got to learn that the summoner's hands are warm. That's the deeplore I've been waiting for.

Don't you mean our hands? 

[Stercus]

20 minutes ago, Thane said:

Don't you mean our hands? 

Honestly, I have so many memories of my mom grabbing my hands with her perpetually frigid meathooks while cooing "your hands are so warm!" at me while I was a kid that the degree of separation between me and the summoner was even thinner than usual during that conversation.

I hated it. Get your icy paws off me, snow child.

[colossus86]

This was fucking lame. Kiran feels like the absolute worst part of this game from a writing standpoint at times, and this is one of them. All of the forging bonds events have the misfortune of being framed around Kiran, but the decision to do so here is baffling.

People in Fire Emblem are largely characterised by their relations to other characters. Ike is paired with the cynical Soren and Idealistic Titania, and their interactions do alot to establish and endear us to their characters. You can say the same thing about Hector/Eliwood, Chrom/Robin etc. Alot of why we like characters is how they play off of each other. So why, in the one event that I have to belive exists to endear us to these characters, do they refuse to put their interactions at the forefront. And instead just make them air their insecurities to a wall and have them leave feeling better about themselves.

That's actually one of my biggest gripes with the story. This game exists because we love fire emblem characters, so why are none of them allowed to do anything other than show up as disposable fodder for the villan.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Fjorm claims that she had never bested Hrid before. Yeesh, I thought I tended to overreact to power creep. 

[RexBolt]

9 hours ago, colossus86 said:

This was fucking lame. Kiran feels like the absolute worst part of this game from a writing standpoint at times, and this is one of them. All of the forging bonds events have the misfortune of being framed around Kiran, but the decision to do so here is baffling.

People in Fire Emblem are largely characterised by their relations to other characters. Ike is paired with the cynical Soren and Idealistic Titania, and their interactions do alot to establish and endear us to their characters. You can say the same thing about Hector/Eliwood, Chrom/Robin etc. Alot of why we like characters is how they play off of each other. So why, in the one event that I have to belive exists to endear us to these characters, do they refuse to put their interactions at the forefront. And instead just make them air their insecurities to a wall and have them leave feeling better about themselves.

That's actually one of my biggest gripes with the story. This game exists because we love fire emblem characters, so why are none of them allowed to do anything other than show up as disposable fodder for the villan.

Yes, that's also my biggest issue with Forging Bonds in general.

It's why the only convos that were actually nice in this event were Fjorm's and the group ones. They may not give the siblings much more personality, bit at least we see them interacting with each other.

[Diovani Bressan]

8 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

Fjorm claims that she had never bested Hrid before. Yeesh, I thought I tended to overreact to power creep. 

I simulated a battle between Hríd and Fjorm:

If Hríd starts combat:

Spoiler

• Hríd attacks. Weapon triangle disadvantage reduces attack by 20%. 15 damage dealt. Fjorm's HP: 39 → 24
• Fjorm counterattacks. Weapon triangle advantage boosts attack by 20%. 19 damage dealt. Hríd's HP: 41 → 22
• Hríd attacks again. Weapon triangle disadvantage reduces attack by 20%. Combat is resolved as if opponent suffered a 30% defense/resistance reduction [Moonbow]. 24 damage dealt. Fjorm's HP: 24 → 0
• Hríd wins!

If Fjorm starts combat:

Spoiler

• Fjorm attacks. Weapon triangle advantage boosts attack by 20%. 19 damage dealt. Hríd's HP: 41 → 22
• Hríd counterattacks. Weapon triangle disadvantage reduces attack by 20%. Combat is resolved as if opponent suffered a 30% defense/resistance reduction [Moonbow]. 24 damage dealt.Fjorm's HP: 39 → 15
• Hríd counterattacks again. Weapon triangle disadvantage reduces attack by 20%. 15 damage dealt. Fjorm's of Ice HP: 15 → 0
• Hríd wins!

 

[Arcphoenix]

7 hours ago, Diovani Bressan said:

I simulated a battle between Hríd and Fjorm:

If Hríd starts combat:

  Hide contents

• Hríd attacks. Weapon triangle disadvantage reduces attack by 20%. 15 damage dealt. Fjorm's HP: 39 → 24
• Fjorm counterattacks. Weapon triangle advantage boosts attack by 20%. 19 damage dealt. Hríd's HP: 41 → 22
• Hríd attacks again. Weapon triangle disadvantage reduces attack by 20%. Combat is resolved as if opponent suffered a 30% defense/resistance reduction [Moonbow]. 24 damage dealt. Fjorm's HP: 24 → 0
• Hríd wins!

If Fjorm starts combat:

  Hide contents

• Fjorm attacks. Weapon triangle advantage boosts attack by 20%. 19 damage dealt. Hríd's HP: 41 → 22
• Hríd counterattacks. Weapon triangle disadvantage reduces attack by 20%. Combat is resolved as if opponent suffered a 30% defense/resistance reduction [Moonbow]. 24 damage dealt.Fjorm's HP: 39 → 15
• Hríd counterattacks again. Weapon triangle disadvantage reduces attack by 20%. 15 damage dealt. Fjorm's of Ice HP: 15 → 0
• Hríd wins!

 

When gameplay and lore match up. I love it XD

[EricaofRenais]

The supports were rather blah for me, but I liked the story part a lot since I like seeing siblings getting along in stories.  I cleared everything the first day so I am now just getting the 2 orbs a day.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Weird to think Kiran had been creeping on the Nifl royal family for weeks in their sleep.

[Ice Dragon]

On 11/30/2018 at 4:41 AM, Diovani Bressan said:

I simulated a battle between Hríd and Fjorm:

I mean, Gjoll and Freezing Seal pretty much destroy everything except one-hit-kill nukes and the tankiest of melee tanks in singles combat, so it's hardly a surprise.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Ice Dragon