Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Alastor15243]

7 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

By the way, I never got your thoughts on this:

 

Lunatic's main problem is the beginning, honestly. I haven't had much difficulty keeping other units trained up along with Alexandria, to my immense surprise. While the avatar utterly breaks the game into a billion pieces, I'm actually feeling confident that I could have managed something without using her.

Still though, the fact that enemy stats are this high and I'm still playing like it's Path of Radiance screams volumes about this game's balance on its own.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Ottservia]

51 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Then again, they justify it with Walhart and Gangrel too, in fairness...

In regards to Walhart they pretty much just justify it with Chrom defeated him a second time so Walhart basically submits to the stronger man. Gangrel’s recruitment is actually extremely well written though and does a lot to showcase Chrom’s character growth.

 

54 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Man, I just do not get how Tharja got popular.

She’s a cute shy mayadere/tsundere that’s sexually obsessed with your avatar. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t popular. 

 

55 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

But Libra reminds me of something... why does everyone say “gods”? What are these “gods”, plural, other than Naga? Who do they worship? Is it ever said? I mean it's a cute touch, especially when we get variations like Severa's exasperated “gawds” (I like to headcanon that Elise says “oh goshes” sometimes), but... like... what are they?

Probably just localization thing as to avoid using god’s name in vain so that any potential christian players(or more likely parents) aren’t offended too much.

 

59 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That line puzzled me for years. I never understood what the fuck she was talking about. If Ottservia is correct, then all that time it meant that she was talking about the Plegians not giving a shit about her speech, and I'm like... well first off, how the fuck could she possibly know from here? We don't see a single model other than Chrom, Emmeryn and Lissa in this scene.

Second... No reaction to what? Do you even remember what you just finished saying? “See now that one selfless act has the power to change the world”? Then dead silence, you just stand there for several seconds talking to yourself in your own head. Ever thought that maybe, just maybe, these invisible, unseen Plegians your superhuman eagle vision can tell aren't reacting...are waiting for you to do the “one selfless act” you just hyped up?

I mean that’s just like questioning how anime characters are able to hear each other even though one of them is literally 50 miles above the other. Or like how sound can exist in space. Complaining about shit like that is honestly nitpicking. It’s just a thing that happens that you have to suspend your disbelief for. Even so it’s just a minor thing to be hung about. These are the kind of criticisms you hear on cinemasins and personally, I don’t think Cinemasins is the best place to learn how to criticize storytelling. As for the only models being that of Chrom, Lissa, and Emmeryn maybe that’s all they had time for. These are pre-rendered after all and require a significant amount of work and money to producer especially considering how good they look. Maybe making a bunch of generic plegian soldier models wasn’t something they could do within the budget or whatever.

Bold: and that’s the point, that’s what they are waiting for that’s why there is no reaction. She hasn’t done anything to back up what she’s saying. This what I mean by the uncanny valley of analysis. Like you understand what’s going and the nuance of it but the problem you’re running into is that you think it’s bad writing for making you think this when that’s the point. You’re supposed to be thinking this way. You’re supposed to think that the Plegians obviously aren’t going to react when she hasn’t done anything to show them that “selfless act”. And it’s only when she does do that, then the Plegians take her words to heart as shown in chapter 10. Like that’s the point. That’s how you’re supposed to feel.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, this is an amazing song. If you haven't listened to it, I highly encourage you to look it up. It's this continuous, sad but absolutely intense music that plays nonstop, with no concept of calm or ablaze, player phase or enemy phase. The atmosphere of this map is just sublime.

I cannot praise this chapter and it’s music enough. “Don’t speak her name” is what I would expect the tragedy of war to sound like. My favorite part of the track is the piano. It has this slow somber feeling to it. It legitimately sounds like rain drops splashing across a corpse ridden battlefield. The stench of blood and corpses plume into the air as the sounds of war echo around you. In this moment you don’t think. You don’t question anything. You don’t even remember why you’re fighting. You just know you have to fight but no matter how many foes you cut down you feel nothing but empty. You stand there in the pouring rain on a pile of corpses as blood drips from the edge of your blade. That’s honestly how this chapter makes me feel and it does it beautifully. 

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, this map really needed to make everyone shut up. No crit quotes. No one-liners. No excitement at a good level up or being bummed out at a bad one. Not even any jingles when you get or break a weapon. Just sheer, dead, piercing silence. Because nothing, fucking nothing ruins this map quite like having Lissa proc a dual strike and having her laugh out “WHAT A LOSER!” as she kills one of these soldiers.

 

I actually like the crit quotes. Or at the very least Chrom’s and a few others. I agree we could do without the victory lines or the level up jingle but there’s something strangely satisfying about Chrom yelling “Now I’m angry!” Or “Your end has come!” For every plegian soldier he cuts down. I think it actually it adds a lot to the atmosphere and tone of the chapter, to be honest.  

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm keeping score. I'm keeping a tally of every time Emmeryn is praised as a hero or saint after her death by the heroes, compared to how many times she is criticized in any way. And right now the score's 1 to 0.

Alexandria: When you fight for your sister's ideals, I'll be by your side. You don't have to become your sister, you know. You can still be true to yourself. You just have to give people hope in whatever way you can.

Chrom: And what if I can't? What if I'm not worthy of her ideals? Alexandria, what if I drag you down with me?

Alexandria: If you aren't worthy, you'll keep at it until you are.

I... fuck... look, let's just call all of that 2. And to be really generous, let's take that “but together, maybe we can be something more” line and make that a .5 for the “against” side, like you can technically read that as Alexandria saying Emmeryn had room for improvement at least. So 2 to 0.5.

I mean she did just, y’know, die. I don’t think the story is trying to say that she was in the right by killing her or at the very least fully in the right. Like here’s the thing the characters don’t criticize Emmeryn(well that’s not true because Chrom and Gangrel kind of do) but the story, itself, definitely does based on what happens in this narrative. Again, I must stress what does her pacifism really get her in the end? It allows Gangrel to run amok and terrorize her country, she nearly gets assassinated(and actually does in the original timeline), she gets captured by Gangrel, and is ordered to be executed which results in her death. Yeah I don’t know about you but considering those string events I don’t think the story is trying to say her pacifism was a virtue. Again, if anything it’s treated more so as a flaw considering how much trouble it causes both her and her country. Again you’re in the uncanny valley of analysis. Yeah her death ultimately leads to good things but that’s only because in her last act she actually did something to correct her flaws. 
 

If the story truly and I mean truly wanted to say that Emmeryn was entirely in the right then we wouldn’t have lines like “No reaction... was I wrong then?”. Chrom wouldn’t go to fight Gangrel either as that would contradict Emmeryn’s pacifism. And if we’re under the assumption that her pacifism was a virtue and not a flaw then the story would be contradicting its own message. But if we work under the assumption that her pacifism is a flaw of her character then the story makes far more sense. Because in taking action against Gangrel, Robin and Chrom are able to be more than Emmeryn as they are able to do what ahe could not. And that’s why they’re able to win the ideological conflict against Gangrel and Emmeryn was not.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

These are pre-rendered after all and require a significant amount of work and money to producer especially considering how good they look. Maybe making a bunch of generic plegian soldier models wasn’t something they could do within the budget or whatever.

They already have generic soldier models for cutscenes. Hell, they even went out of their way to make a female model too. All they had to do was recolor them red.

 

[Ottservia]

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

They already have generic soldier models for cutscenes. Hell, they even went out of their way to make a female model too. All they had to do was recolor them red.

 

Fair enough which makes the fact that they didn’t stick out even more. Hell one of the primary reasons they went with a more anime aesthetic was to make all the characters(npcs included) a lot more expressive which according to them was a lot of work(which is actually how MadHouse of all studios ended up getting involved). Maybe it would’ve disrupted the tone they were going for? You could also argue that the risen archers aren’t in the scene either which is also odd. The only explanations I can really think of is that adding a cut like that would’ve either been too expensive or disrupt the tone they were going for, or even just make the cutscene longer than necessary. Who knows?

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Ottservia said:

Fair enough which makes the fact that they didn’t stick out even more. Hell one of the primary reasons they went with a more anime aesthetic was to make all the characters(npcs included) a lot more expressive which according to them was a lot of work(which is actually how MadHouse of all studios ended up getting involved). Maybe it would’ve disrupted the tone they were going for? You could also argue that the risen archers aren’t in the scene either which is also odd. The only explanations I can really think of is that adding a cut like that would’ve either been too expensive or disrupt the tone they were going for, or even just make the cutscene longer than necessary. Who knows?

The main reason it bothers me is because we literally have no idea where they are, not the slightest hint of any of these onlookers' locations, and yet the fact that so many people in the army witnessed this is a crucial plot point.

[Ottservia]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

The main reason it bothers me is because we literally have no idea where they are, not the slightest hint of any of these onlookers' locations, and yet the fact that so many people in the army witnessed this is a crucial plot point.

It’s just something you have suspend your disbelief over. I mean what else could they have done to showcase that sort of thing? Do that in-engine would’ve been a nightmare. Doing it in the cutscene might’ve worked like maybe have a shot of a bunch of plegian soldiers as she looks out from her perch right when she says “no reaction” but that might’ve disrupted the flow of the scene and the expression on the plegian soldiers would be a reaction so. other than that I personally can’t think of another way for them to show that sort of thing. I get the frustration but with the tools they used, I can’t really see a way to fix it.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Ottservia said:

Doing it in the cutscene might’ve worked like maybe have a shot of a bunch of plegian soldiers as she looks out from her perch right when she says “no reaction” but that might’ve disrupted the flow of the scene and the expression on the plegian soldiers would be a reaction so.

Wait what? If even showing the soldiers' faces would've constituted them reacting, then how can there be no reaction from them?

[Ottservia]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Wait what? If even showing the soldiers' faces would've constituted them reacting, then how can there be no reaction from them?

I dunno man. Look I was just spit-balling reasons as to the reason why they didn’t decide to show that. Like the most I can personally see happening is that you have a shot of her looking a down then a very quick panning shot of generic soldiers with mixed expressions and then cut back to emmeryn but that kind of editing might’ve been a little too jumpy. You could put the panning shot at the beginning of the scene but then you’d lose the shot of Chrom frantically running forward in a vain attempt to save his sister because again that would lead to very choppy editing. So I dunno how you could edit the scene in a way to include something like that.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Ottservia

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Ottservia said:

I dunno man. Look I was just spit-balling reasons as to the reason why they didn’t decide to show that.

Why, though? Why present a defense without thinking it through first to make sure it makes sense? It almost sounds like you were just coming up with arguments in this game's defense for the sake of it.

[Jotari]

3 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

I dunno man. Look I was just spit-balling reasons as to the reason why they didn’t decide to show that. Like the most I can personally see happening is that you have a shot of her looking a down then a very quick panning shot of generic soldiers with mixed expressions and then cut back to emmeryn but that kind of editing might’ve been a little too jumpy. You could put the panning shot at the beginning of the scene but then you’d lose the shot of Chrom frantically running forward in a vain attempt to save his sister because again that would lead to very choppy editing. So I dunno how you could edit the scene in a way to include something like that.

If anything I'd say the reaction of the plegian soldiers is far more important here than a shot of Chrom running. Saying "they couldn't do it without interrupting the editing" is a pretty poor excuse...because they could have. Showing a crowd reaction shot isnt the hardest thing to do. Choppy editing? This is a major budget game from a major company. Edit better.

[Axie]

51 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

Bold: and that’s the point, that’s what they are waiting for that’s why there is no reaction. She hasn’t done anything to back up what she’s saying. This what I mean by the uncanny valley of analysis. Like you understand what’s going and the nuance of it but the problem you’re running into is that you think it’s bad writing for making you think this when that’s the point. You’re supposed to be thinking this way. You’re supposed to think that the Plegians obviously aren’t going to react when she hasn’t done anything to show them that “selfless act”. And it’s only when she does do that, then the Plegians take her words to heart as shown in chapter 10. Like that’s the point. That’s how you’re supposed to feel.

i am sorry but this is a catastrophically empty point and i am usually on the "don't nitpick the script and call it bad writing" camp lmao

emmeryn's line has no point to exist because she is not supposed to even think she is wrong because of a lack of reaction to something she didn't do yet. you can't just take any bad characterisation and say "well that's the point" and call it a day. the line tries to add nuance and depth to emmeryn and instead actively detracts from whatever we have of her character, which already sucks, to be honest. it makes her look dumb(er).

Edited December 24, 2020 by Axie

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Axie said:

i am sorry but this is a catastrophically empty point and i am usually on the "don't nitpick the script and call it bad writing" camp lmao

emmeryn's line has no point to exist because she is not supposed to even think she is wrong because of a lack of reaction to something she didn't do yet. you can't just take any bad characterisation and say "well that's the point" and call it a day. the line tries to add nuance and depth to emmeryn and instead actively detracts from whatever we have of her character, which already sucks, to be honest. it makes her look dumb(er).

Yeah, frankly I was so taken aback by that that I didn't even know how to respond, so I elected to just focus on one point at a time.

[Ottservia]

36 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Why, though? Why present a defense without thinking it through first to make sure it makes sense? It almost sounds like you were just coming up with arguments in this game's defense for the sake of it.

I admit my wording could’ve been a better. I didn’t think through my words. But my larger point was that I think it would’ve interrupted the flow of the scene. It’s like I’m trying to imagine what that would look like in my head and I dunno I just can’t see it working. Then again I’m no animation director so....

 

33 minutes ago, Jotari said:

If anything I'd say the reaction of the plegian soldiers is far more important here than a shot of Chrom running. Saying "they couldn't do it without interrupting the editing" is a pretty poor excuse...because they could have. Showing a crowd reaction shot isnt the hardest thing to do. Choppy editing? This is a major budget game from a major company. Edit better.

I dunno Chrom running towards the cliff also works as an establishing shot as the camera pans up and then cuts to a close up of Emmeryn. We then get a brief panning shot from behind Emmeryn as she looks out towards the horizon and the country of plegia where she narrates “No reaction...was I wrong then?” Then cut to a bird and then back to Emmeryn looking up aat said bird. She smiles, shakes her head and then we cut to behind her to see her fall. The only place I can feesibly see them inserting something like that in the scene is when she looks up at the bird. Like replace that shot with a panning shot of plegian soldiers and there ya go. That might’ve worked but I am no animation director so... yeah... I’d like to see how that would look though if anyone wanted to try it.

 

24 minutes ago, Axie said:

emmeryn's line has no point to exist because she is not supposed to even think she is wrong because of a lack of reaction to something she didn't do yet. you can't just take any bad characterisation and say "well that's the point" and call it a day. the line tries to add nuance and depth to emmeryn and instead actively detracts from whatever we have of her character, which already sucks, to be honest.

I mean how is it bad characterization? That’s the part I don’t understand. She gave a speech and there was no reaction to it. Or at least not the reaction she wanted. The fact that there’s no reaction make her words seem empty and meaningless or you could even say wrong. Like how does it detract from her character? I don’t understand. The only things we know about Emmeryn is that she’s a pacifist, hates war, and is willing to stand with her people even if it means falling into a an obvious trap. How does her thinking that she’s wrong after her big speech garners no reaction in anyway contradictory to that?

like why wouldn’t she think that she’s wrong there? Her speech falls on deaf ears. If I were her I would think my words were pointless that maybe my ideals were flawed in some way. How is it bad characterization? Do you know what characterization means? It is in character for her to think that she’s wrong because she just saw it for herself. Why wouldn’t she think she was wrong? Like you’re not explaining that to me.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Ottservia

[Jotari]

20 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

I admit my wording could’ve been a better. I didn’t think through my words. But my larger point was that I think it would’ve interrupted the flow of the scene. It’s like I’m trying to imagine what that would look like in my head and I dunno I just can’t see it working. Then again I’m no animation director so....

 

I dunno Chrom running towards the cliff also works as an establishing shot as the camera pans up and then cuts to a close up of Emmeryn. We then get a brief panning shot from behind Emmeryn as she looks out towards the horizon and the country of plegia where she narrates “No reaction...was I wrong then?” Then cut to a bird and then back to Emmeryn looking up aat said bird. She smiles, shakes her head and then we cut to behind her to see her fall. The only place I can feesibly see them inserting something like that in the scene is when she looks up at the bird. Like replace that shot with a panning shot of plegian soldiers and there ya go. That might’ve worked but I am no animation director so... yeah... I’d like to see how that would look though if anyone wanted to try it.

 

I mean how is it bad characterization? That’s the part I don’t understand. She gave a speech and there was no reaction to it. Or at least not the reaction she wanted. The fact that there’s no reaction make her words seem empty and meaningless or you could even say wrong. Like how does it detract from her character? I don’t understand. The only things we know about Emmeryn is that she’s a pacifist, hates war, and is willing to stand with her people even if it means falling into a an obvious trap. How does her thinking that she’s wrong after her big speech garners no reaction in anyway contradictory to that?

like why wouldn’t she think that she’s wrong there? Her speech falls on deaf ears. If I were her I would think my words were pointless that maybe my ideals were flawed in some way. How is it bad characterization? Do you know what characterization means? It is in character for her to think that she’s wrong because she just saw it for herself. Why wouldn’t she think she was wrong? Like you’re not explaining that to me.

Or we have a panning shot up from a crowd of soldiers instead of Chrom. But regardless of the exact mechanics of the scene, giving a crowd reaction shot is absolutely something that can be done in the realm of animation. It is eminently possible. They just didn't think it was necessary despite this scene, at its heart, being entirely about the plegian soldiers. The fact that you can't think of any way to input it just shows that they made no attempt. From the start they didn't story board any room for soldiers in it. Which leaves Emmeryn's line infuriatingly vague.

[Samz707]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...

Man, I just do not get how Tharja got popular.

While I don't like her as a character, a mage that somehow can get over 20 defense without even second-sealing is great. 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

When you get a new skill, but don't have any skill slots free... the game actually lets you choose which one to give up, like moves in Pokemon, rather than dropping the new skill automatically and making you pray you remember you got it next time you get a chance to swap skills around.

Wait your Robin actually got skills? I promoted her after she reached level 20 and she still has no skills, are they random? Libra, Lissa and Vaike all got their rally skills while Robin just got some combat focused one once.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Lemme know your thoughts on DLC.

 

 

Do them if you want, I can't really say much on them as I know very little about them.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

So, Mustafa shows up and offers us Mercy, because he's this game's Camus. Probably the most sympathetic, because he's not actually really loyal to the king at all, he's just doing his job out of concern for his family, who Gangrel will have killed if he defies him. He offers them mercy if they surrender, but... yeah, they're not trusting him, and even if they did, they can't take chances that they can actually protect him.

Honestly I saw the thing as BS contrivance, if he wants to show the Shepards Mercy, he could just stand aside and let them run past.

So yeah I didn't exactly feel bad about taking him out. 

 

I really like how in Emmeryn's death scene we can't move in to save her because we're surrounded by archers, that promptly vanish when the CGI cutscene showing Chrom running to her starts (And shows Lissa seemingly OUTSIDE of the town that we're supposed to be surrounded in) and then when the cutscene ends he's back where he started.

They really didn't even try to make these two things sync up at all.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Samz707

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Samz707 said:

Wait your Robin actually got skills? I promoted her after she reached level 20 and she still has no skills, are they random? Libra, Lissa and Vaike all got their rally skills while Robin just got some combat focused one once.

Units gain two skills per class. For unpromoted classes they gain a skill immediately upon becoming the class and then upon reaching level 10. For promoted classes they gain a skill at level 5 and then another at level 15. For special classes, the ones that cap at level 30, it's 1 skill immediately upon becoming the class and another upon hitting level 15. Your Robin should have 2 skills right now, veteran and solidarity. Where are you looking for skills?

[Ottservia]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Or we have a panning shot up from a crowd of soldiers instead of Chrom. But regardless of the exact mechanics of the scene, giving a crowd reaction shot is absolutely something that can be done in the realm of animation. It is eminently possible. They just didn't think it was necessary despite this scene, at its heart, being entirely about the plegian soldiers. The fact that you can't think of any way to input it just shows that they made no attempt. From the start they didn't story board any room for soldiers in it. Which leaves Emmeryn's line infuriatingly vague.

But without the shot of Chrom running forward we wouldn’t have that ending shot of his look of horror as he looks down as at his sister’s bloody corpse and to its credit that is a really well done shot. Like you would have to change how the scene ends if you changed the establishing shot. Like including a shot like that in this scene is easier said than done without having having to change the scene completely thus means you have to change the context surrounding it as well. There’s just a lot to consider here.

[Samz707]

11 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Units gain two skills per class. For unpromoted classes they gain a skill immediately upon becoming the class and then upon reaching level 10. For promoted classes they gain a skill at level 5 and then another at level 15. For special classes, the ones that cap at level 30, it's 1 skill immediately upon becoming the class and another upon hitting level 15. Your Robin should have 2 skills right now, veteran and solidarity. Where are you looking for skills?

Yeah Veteran and Solidarity, It's just weird to me how the "Tactician" gets the buffs later than other characters.

Robin feels more like a Commando fighter than a Tactician in terms of gameplay.

 

10 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

But without the shot of Chrom running forward we wouldn’t have that ending shot of his look of horror as he looks down as at his sister’s bloody corpse and to its credit that is a really well done shot. Like you would have to change how the scene ends if you changed the establishing shot. Like including a shot like that in this scene is easier said than done without having having to change the scene completely thus means you have to change the context surrounding it as well. There’s just a lot to consider here.

Except Chrom's ment to have Risen Archers holding him at arrow point and he's just suddenly back in the same spot after the cutscene, it actively takes away from the scene as it's really obvious.

The CGI cutscene feels entirely disjointed from everything around it.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Samz707

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Ottservia said:

But without the shot of Chrom running forward we wouldn’t have that ending shot of his look of horror as he looks down as at his sister’s bloody corpse and to its credit that is a really well done shot. Like you would have to change how the scene ends if you changed the establishing shot. Like including a shot like that in this scene is easier said than done without having having to change the scene completely thus means you have to change the context surrounding it as well. There’s just a lot to consider here.

You have a tendency of feeling extremely confident that things in this game couldn't have been done better than they were, that any attempt to fix obvious issues would have made the scene lesser in some way. Just thought I'd point this out, because I've been noticing that as a trend a lot in your arguments. Like you frequently seem confident that every shortcoming in the writing and presentation was deliberate and necessary in the name of some broader goal.

[Ottservia]

28 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

Except Chrom's ment to have Risen Archers holding him at arrow point and he's just suddenly back in the same spot after the cutscene.

 

Well that can just be chalked up to the animators not wanting to create an entirely unique risen model for just a single cutscene. That’s something that would be easier done with 2D animation.

 

28 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

You have a tendency of feeling extremely confident that things in this game couldn't have been done better than they were, that any attempt to fix obvious issues would have made the scene lesser in some way. Just thought I'd point this out, because I've been noticing that as a trend a lot in your arguments. Like you frequently seem confident that every shortcoming in the writing and presentation was deliberate and necessary in the name of some broader goal.

It’s not that I think that poor writing is deliberate. It’s just that when you look at it from the broader scope of the narrative. One small change make a bigger difference than ya think. Again if you get rid of the shot of Chrom running then you have to get either get rid of or change the ending shot. Why? because that’s just sloppy editing because in our mind he was originally stationary far away from where Emmeryn fell. To suddenly then cut to him right next to her dead body would be jarring to say the least. It only works because of the opening establishing shot. It’s also just a matter of maybe they wanted to include a shot like that but it would only to serve to interupt the flow of the scene. 

There are plenty of times in my own writing projects where I’ve wanted to include an idea or scene but when I try to implement it just doesn’t turn out how I want. Like Y’know it might’ve made the scene better and enhanced what I was going for but it just didn’t work out. So I had to cut it for the sake of the story overall flowing better. Like one small change to a plot point or story beat can and will radically change others. Because all these things are connected whether you realize it or not. It’s like the butterfly effect. Cause changing how one character acts will change how other characters react which will inevitably snowball and lead to entirely different plot points far from what you originally intended. Sometimes that can be good but not always. It’s important to understand what the author was going for with this scene if you’re going to fix it. Every fix should also take other plot points into account as well as how they would be effected by said change. Cause again even minor can end up changing the entire story into something wholly different and far divorced from the original story you wanted to tell.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Ottservia

[Samz707]

Just now, Ottservia said:

Well that can just be chalked up to the animators not wanting to create an entirely unique risen model for just a single cutscene. That’s something that would be easier done with 2D animation.
There are plenty of times in my own writing projects where I’ve wanted to include an idea or scene but when I try to implement it just doesn’t turn out how I want. Like Y’know it might’ve made the scene better and enhanced what I was going for but it just didn’t work out. So I had to cut it for the sake of the story overall flowing better. Like one small change to a plot point or story beat can and will radically change others. Because all these things are connected whether you. It’s like the butterfly effect. Cause changing how one character acts will change how other characters react which can lead to entirely different plot points far from what you originally intended. Sometimes that can be good but not always. It’s important to understand what the author was going for with this scene if you’re going to fix it. Every fix should also take other plot points into account as well as how they would be effected by said change. Cause again even minor can end up changing the entire story into something wholly different and far divorced from the original story you wanted to tell.

Except it still contradicts gameplay, why not just let us see Chrom helpless to actually move as bows (Since I'm pretty sure there are bows) are trained on him, pretty sure you can get away with only showing an arm or two.

Maybe frankly cutting the cutscene down to just Emmeryn jumping would have been better IMO.

Also Awakening had 6 writers, which I think is worth keeping in mind.

[Jotari]

33 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

But without the shot of Chrom running forward we wouldn’t have that ending shot of his look of horror as he looks down as at his sister’s bloody corpse and to its credit that is a really well done shot. Like you would have to change how the scene ends if you changed the establishing shot. Like including a shot like that in this scene is easier said than done without having having to change the scene completely thus means you have to change the context surrounding it as well. There’s just a lot to consider here.

And again, if we accept that it's absolutely impossible to have both Chrom and the plegian soldiers in this scene (which it definitely isn't, showing both is very much in the realm of a possibility), the plegian soldiers reaction is far more important for the story than Chrom's.

 

[Ottservia]

12 minutes ago, Jotari said:

And again, if we accept that it's absolutely impossible to have both Chrom and the plegian soldiers in this scene (which it definitely isn't, showing both is very much in the realm of a possibility), the plegian soldiers reaction is far more important for the story than Chrom's.

 

Yeah but you still want Chrom in the scene reacting to what’s happening. His sister is pretty much committing suicide after all. Excluding him from the scene would arguably make it worse especially because it’s also a big character moment for him. It’s really dependent on what aspect you value more. They clearly valued Chrom’s character development and arc more than showing the plegian soldiers and decided it would just be better to retroactively exposit that information in the next chapter. I guess maybe what they could’ve done is have a throw away line by Lissa or Basilio or someone say that there are more plegians on their way so they best make a decision fast but that’s the only way I can really see it working.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Ottservia

[Ottservia]

30 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

are trained on him, pretty sure you can get away with only showing an arm or two.

They actually did this with a heroes cutscene and it was goofy as all hell

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, Phila and her flier allies are instantly struck down,

Why didn't she get a survival/reanimation/parallel self wanders through Paralogue?🤨

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

because apparently the rules that let Flavia throw a hand axe halfway across the map are in effect once more, and these archers can just shoot Emmeryn down from their place on the ground

Putting a little serious thought into it, I don't remember the scene itself, but the height of the tower seems impossibly high for any arrows from ground level to reach her. Not sure if thats actually the case.

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, so... right, without any further ado... let's do Chapter 9.

...Right, it opens with Aversa cold-bloodedly executing a soldier with a sword when he failed his task.

Speaking of which, there was a little mistake here. If you read... I forget if it was Aversa's or Gangrel's... name info while on the battle prep menu for this chapter, the description matches their playable version's, which differs from when they're a boss. Was it Gangrel's called him the "former King of Plegia"?

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Or we could go to the paralogue that just opened up on the opposite side of the continent, and recruit that cute shopkeeper lady like literally nothing just happened.

To add insult to this injury of very bad timing, notice that Anna got a pep talk quip after the rainy retreat. It's like they actually expected you to break from the narrative and do it. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of this game's faults, but it is a simple and easily fixable incongruence caused by freedom of the map that a game should try to avoid.

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Tomorrow... well... all I really know is that Gangrel is going down tomorrow. Beyond that? No fucking clue what I'll wind up doing.

You could take 🎄off. But as for the maps themselves, enemy power levels shouldn't spike just yet. You're in "mostly unpromoted, some promoted" territory right now, it's not until the fort in Valm that things go to entirely promoted (outside of Paralogues). Maybe you can waltz through things as you currently have up to that point.