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

[Ottservia]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

The problem with this line of reasoning is that you don't get to completely rewrite canon just because canon is getting in the way of the story you want to tell, unless that's actually the point of the story entirely (IE Elseworlds). How many self-respecting authors can you think of who feel they can just completely change established canon in sequels because they can't think of a way to tell their story while staying faithful to the stories that are supposed to be canon to it?

A few mangaka actually come to mind(Kishimoto). Retcons aren’t inherently a bad thing and sometimes can even make a story better. Like I said before, I will agree that the devs owe fans an explanation for all the weird continuity shifts but those explanations aren’t necessary in awakening itself. Sure it’d be nice for awakening to explain all this stuff but the problem then becomes where they would even put it without bogging down the story with unnecessary exposition. Like Maybe we’ll get it in a potential prequel, remake, artbook, or whatever. They’ll give us an explanation when they decide to give it to us. I mean we finally found out where the hell Grima came from. It took us like 5 years but better late than never. The only reason Grima was given a backstory at all was to fit him better into the lore because otherwise he works just fine as a villain without one. Again, it’s not like they don’t realize the issue because they clearly understand what the problem is otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered putting Grima’s backstory in SoV in the first place.  

 

1 minute ago, Samz707 said:

Awakening basically misses any good opportunities for a future set FE game.

Funny thing really. Awakening was actually originally going to have a sci-fi setting but that didn’t really go through because they thought it would be too drastic of a change for the series.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Ottservia said:

Like I said before, I will agree that the devs owe fans an explanation for all the weird continuity shifts but those explanations aren’t necessary in awakening itself.

Yes they are. If it weren't the job of the people making the retcons to explain them, then everyone would be busy cleaning up somebody else's mess. It's the job of the person who makes the nonsense to explain or justify it, and not leave it to some other writer who doesn't even know what you were thinking when you wrote it.

[Ottservia]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yes they are. If it weren't the job of the people making the retcons to explain them, then everyone would be busy cleaning up somebody else's mess. It's the job of the person who makes the nonsense to explain or justify it, and not leave it to some other writer who doesn't even know what you were thinking when you wrote it.

But again where would you even put it without bogging down the story with exposition that ultimately doesn’t add much to the story being told? A lot of this stuff thematically does not add anything of value to awakening’s story. I get the frustration but I’ll take soft world building over boring info-dumping any day personally. I’d rather stories give a message rather than a history lesson. It’s not like the lack of an explanation takes away from the message the story wants to tell. 

[Samz707]

16 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

 

Funny thing really. Awakening was actually originally going to have a sci-fi setting but that didn’t really go through because they thought it would be too drastic of a change for the series.

It doesn't even need to be scifi, at least do something that actually justifies it being a sequel, like raiding Alm and Celica's tomb and obtaining Alm's Falchion as a unique weapon, while it wouldn't land at the time for westerners that could have been a really good moment, maybe even a bit somber with a worn down statue dedicated to them or something, anything other than seemingly not caring about where Alm's Falchion ended up.

Hell,I'd take using Alm and Marth's Falchions together to defeat Grima over Friendship Plot Armour that saves you even if you choose to die essentially.

Maybe even have Robin, Chrom and Lucina finish off Grima by stabbing him together (Maybe even bring back Nagi's Falchion that exists if you want and give it to Morgan I dunno) and using the combined strength of the swords to finally finish Grima. (And maybe Robin can flow Grima's power through his sword if you wanna keep that.)

 

Edited December 30, 2020 by Samz707

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Ottservia said:

But again where would you even put it without bogging down the story with exposition that ultimately doesn’t add much to the story being told? A lot of this stuff thematically does not add anything of value to awakening’s story. I get the frustration but I’ll take soft world building over boring info-dumping any day personally. I’d rather stories give a message rather than a history lesson. It’s not like the lack of an explanation takes away from the message the story wants to tell. 

Why do you assume that it would have to be a boring info dump? And do you honestly think any of the retcons were necessary to tell the kind of story Awakening wanted to tell? If so, which ones, and how?

[Lightcosmo]

explanations from a story PoV are supposed to happen... through the story? That argument doesnt really make sense, it's not an info dump at all. Otherwise, why ever bother explaining what's going on? You could assume that anything story related is "an info dump" that way.

[Shadow Mir]

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, time for a serious breather. Small map, no reinforcements, and backwards-flying seagulls. Let's do this!

And kitties. Which begs the question, how is it that these cats are unfazed by people fighting nearby?

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ah yes, Cordelia just referenced “Make Him Fall for You in a Fortnight” at the event tile. I think there's a brick joke there where Severa references it too in one of her event tile things?

Ayup. 

Edited December 30, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Jotari]

11 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hey, question: What order would you guys want me to do Fates in? Rev-Birthright-Conquest, or Birthright-Conquest-Rev? Or some other order? I'm leaning towards doing Conquest last to see how much of my hatred for Rev was just playing it after Conquest and Birthright, but I wanna know what you guys would find the most interesting.

I think Rev first for similar reasons. Though it was obviously designed to be played last, I think that's to its detriment as it was following up Conquest.

[Ottservia]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Why do you assume that it would have to be a boring info dump? And do you honestly think any of the retcons were necessary to tell the kind of story Awakening wanted to tell? If so, which ones, and how?

1. Given the presentation style of this game how else would they explain all this shit to the player? Like when you ask for an explanation for this stuff, what exactly are you expecting? Again how else would they explain how wyverns got to valentia other than having someone literally explain it. This isn’t three houses where they can stuff it in a book in game for you to read on your own time. They can do that with an artbook but that’s not in the game itself. It would have to be done through dialogue somewhere be it the main story or otherwise. It’s the only way they can deliver detailed exposition to the player. And even then they do kind of hint at events that took place in between where a lot of these explanations exist. Basilio mentions historical events like the schism. They don’t go into detail because it’s irrelevant to awakening’s overall message but it’s at least something to speculate on. 
 

2. well the Fire Emblem and it’s use is the most obvious one as It’s the primary reason Lucina had to time travel in the first place(they couldn’t find all the gemstones in Lucina’s future). Other retcons regarding the manaketes well really the only explanation is that they wanted to have a dragon loli. It’s just a series staple and seeing as how this was going to be last game in the franchise well yeah. And again it’s not like the lack of explanation takes away from awakening’s overall thematic message so again it’s mostly irrelevant. A lot of the explanations for the retcons are just better left in supplementary material. 

[Samz707]

20 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

1. Given the presentation style of this game how else would they explain all this shit to the player? Like when you ask for an explanation for this stuff, what exactly are you expecting? Again how else would they explain how wyverns got to valentia other than having someone literally explain it. This isn’t three houses where they can stuff it in a book in game for you to read on your own time. They can do that with an artbook but that’s not in the game itself. It would have to be done through dialogue somewhere be it the main story or otherwise. It’s the only way they can deliver detailed exposition to the player. And even then they do kind of hint at events that took place in between where a lot of these explanations exist. Basilio mentions historical events like the schism. They don’t go into detail because it’s irrelevant to awakening’s overall message but it’s at least something to speculate on. 
 

2. well the Fire Emblem and it’s use is the most obvious one as It’s the primary reason Lucina had to time travel in the first place(they couldn’t find all the gemstones in Lucina’s future). Other retcons regarding the manaketes well really the only explanation is that they wanted to have a dragon loli. It’s just a series staple and seeing as how this was going to be last game in the franchise well yeah. And again it’s not like the lack of explanation takes away from awakening’s overall thematic message so again it’s mostly irrelevant. A lot of the explanations for the retcons are just better left in supplementary material. 

Robin is a tactician  who reads alot, add a menu /small scenes replacing the GBA Narration where Robin can read history books as part of them trying to remember/get used to the world.

Even something as simple as Robin asking "So why do they call it the Mila Tree?" and that question being answered by another character in the scene could fix potholes.

Have someone who's a historian/member of Naga ask Tiki/tell the others why Tiki is seemingly in the wrong continent.

Have Alm's Falchion be mentioned, at all. (And as I suggested earlier, maybe actually add it as a weapons instead of all the pointless nostalgia bait ones.)

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

16 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hey, question: What order would you guys want me to do Fates in? Rev-Birthright-Conquest, or Birthright-Conquest-Rev? Or some other order? I'm leaning towards doing Conquest last to see how much of my hatred for Rev was just playing it after Conquest and Birthright, but I wanna know what you guys would find the most interesting.

I´d say that depends on your state of mind after Awakening. Rev first if you had fun playing Awakening, Birthright if it was just ok and Conquest if you develop late game Awakening syndrome.

However, what I’d be more interested in knowing would be whether you decide to use and if yes how much you´ll use online features - mainly referring to some of the more exciting weaponry such as the Dual weapons.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Imuabicus

[Eltosian Kadath]

15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Tiki...

...went back the fuck to sleep...

...while Marth was still alive...

...and slept through his death!?

WHILE THE FIRE EMBLEM WAS STILL INTACT AND SHE ABSOLUTELY, CANONICALLY, DEFINITIVELY NEITHER HAD TO NOR WANTED TO!?

 

...Lest we forget. I'd just like to remind you all that by the time this came out in Japan, New Mystery of the Emblem was not even two fucking years old.

…

...The most insulting part about this is if they simply said she went back to sleep after the orbs of the Fire Emblem were removed after the Exalt's defeat of Grima, this would have fit the old canon just fine.

 

19 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hey, question: What order would you guys want me to do Fates in? Rev-Birthright-Conquest, or Birthright-Conquest-Rev? Or some other order? I'm leaning towards doing Conquest last to see how much of my hatred for Rev was just playing it after Conquest and Birthright, but I wanna know what you guys would find the most interesting.

My main piece of advise would be to do Conquest and Birthright in the opposite order that you did on your first time playing through Fates.

 

7 hours ago, Ottservia said:

1. Given the presentation style of this game how else would they explain all this shit to the player?

They have a whole subplot about rebels in Valentia, if a part of their rebellion is about Walhart suppressing their religion, the game suddenly makes it relevant enough to be a plot point worth discussing. If adding some thematic relevance to the rebels is too much for the Awakening storytellers, just adding in a couple of Say'ri supports, like they did with Tiki, where she talks about the importance of Valentian religion, would have been an easy way to address this.

 

7 hours ago, Ottservia said:

Again how else would they explain how wyverns got to valentia other than having someone literally explain it.

This felt like such a natural topic of discussion for a Miriel and Cherche support, that I had to double check...it wasn't, but it felt like it could be fit into that support as a part of Miriel's investigation into wyverns if they wanted to...

 

[Axie]

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Why do you assume that it would have to be a boring info dump? And do you honestly think any of the retcons were necessary to tell the kind of story Awakening wanted to tell? If so, which ones, and how?

also the story awakening tells is stupid and nonsensical and would be better if it respected the building of the world it was set on even without any info dumping, so there

[Jotari]

11 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

For the most part yeah. Walhart trying to establish a new world order, doing away with the reliance on gods and his contrast to Chrom makes Walhart a lot more interesting then jester king Gangrel or Cthulhu dragon Grima could ever hope to be. Combine that with him being a staunch vegetarian and incredibly bombastic and you got a neat, multi facited character.   

Walhart has two problems that keep him down. One is that Walhart needed an entire game or at least a long arc to actually make use of the interesting concept and fun personality behind him. Instead Walhart gets about five chapters with him only really being present in three of them. Walhart and Chrom have a very interesting clash of ideals in their battle conversation but its the only clash their ideals have. Walhart's invasion of Ylisse lasts a single chapter and Chrom easily dismantles Walhart's entire empire in a few chapters. I suspect he was always intended to get a full game to himself as the main villain but then Awakening turned out to be the last Fire Emblem ever. 

The other problem is the incredibly lacking worldbuilding of Ylisse and Valm. There is nothing to suggest that any of the things Walhart wants to overthrow are actual problems. We don't even know if those things he seeks to overthrow actually exist. Ylisse may be a theocracy but the Naga religion doesn't seem influential at all. Are the people reliant on the gods? I've never seen it. And Ylisse also isn't established as a society like Begnion where birth trumps strength every time. In fact the Shepherds seem a very meritocratic organisation. Meanwhile the Dynasts turning on Walhart at the first opportunity is fitting for a conqueror who only ruled by strength but this becomes less meaningful since the Dynasts are complete non entities. 

With his imposing design, accomplishments, ideology and the failings of that ideology Walhart could easily have been among the great Fire Emblem villains. There just wasn't the time to actually get him to that point. 

Walhart is a terrible villain, but a fantastic character. Pretty much everything I like about him comes from him comes from the lines he has as a playable character. As a villain he's really quite cliché and one note because they hold off on actually letting him appear on screen until the last five minutes of the arc by which point all his words are basically empty platitudes given they're once again pulling the "Enemy King confidently fights until the last man no matter how hopeless their situation is" trope. Spotpass was an absolute saving throw for him. Without it I think he would be viewed as the most bland and boring of the Awakening villains.

10 hours ago, Samz707 said:

Awakening basically misses any good opportunities for a future set FE game,

As I told a friend, Imagine if Alm's Falchion wasn't forgotten about and while you were in Valm, you could actually go out of your way in a side-chapter to get his Falchion, as my friend suggested "His tomb is the Deliverance hideout from early on in echoes, he rests in an undecorated coffin lain alongside those of the commoners of his empire, a testament to his ideals" (no idea if that tomb area had the whole "commoners' graves lie next to those of nobles and even Zofian royalty.” bit in the original Gaiden admittingly.)

Or maybe even see a memorial statue dedicated to him and and Celica while you do your tomb raiding to find the Falchion.

Alm's Falchion (since it isn't restricted to a bloodline I think? at least not mentioned in-game) could be basically the Falchion but useable by any sword-user instead of locked to Chrom and Lucina, it'd probably be slightly OP but I doubt as much as Nosferatu currently is.

 

Oh no, no, no. If they were going to have Alm's Falchion than Whalhart absolutely would need to be wielding it. The parallel between him and Chrom would be far more epic if they're both wielding the same sword and are both descendants of seperate legendary heroes. This is, in my opinion, is the biggest missed opportunity of Awakening. And it's one that would take bascially no effort to implement.

9 hours ago, Ottservia said:

But again where would you even put it without bogging down the story with exposition that ultimately doesn’t add much to the story being told? A lot of this stuff thematically does not add anything of value to awakening’s story. I get the frustration but I’ll take soft world building over boring info-dumping any day personally. I’d rather stories give a message rather than a history lesson. It’s not like the lack of an explanation takes away from the message the story wants to tell. 

The obvious answer is to not make Awakening part of Archanean continuity at all. It's obviously doesn't need to be in the slightest for Awakening's own story as all Archanean references are superficial (at best). Awakening being part of Archanea was a marketing gimmick, not an inspired story choice. It's not all these inconsistencies make for bad writing, it's that they make for bad fanservice. Which for those of us who care if pretty grating since singular purpose of these references is for fanservice. In otherwords, if you're going to shove a lot of fanservice into your game, make it good fanservice.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Jotari

[Etrurian emperor]

13 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Pretty much everything I like about him comes from him comes from the lines he has as a playable character.

''An Item? Bwahaha! Kneel before your new master!''

''Well, a conqueror bathes alone. If you even dip a finger in my bathwater...you will lose that finger, and with it, a whole lot more...”

''You want me to waste my talents on YOU? A schoolyard bully with a stick could dream up greater ambitions!''

He's strangely adorable post recruitment. 

[Samz707]

25 minutes ago, Jotari said:

 

Oh no, no, no. If they were going to have Alm's Falchion than Whalhart absolutely would need to be wielding it. The parallel between him and Chrom would be far more epic if they're both wielding the same sword and are both descendants of seperate legendary heroes. This is, in my opinion, is the biggest missed opportunity of Awakening. And it's one that would take bascially no effort to implement.

 

Yeah I was kinda trying to fit it into the "Everyone seemingly forgot it existed" bit, that too would have also been an actual recognition of Gaiden that feels like they actually put thought into it. (Then again it'd probably have gotten a terrible re-design like Marth's Falchion.)

[Alastor15243]

Awakening Day 13: Chapter 17

Oh thank goodness. An indoor map. Games with ambush spawns give me agoraphobia. It's a relief to have a map where I actually know where the ambush spawns are capable of coming from. Especially since there's basically no middle ground, I just have units who can handle anything that those ambush spawns could be, and I have units that can handle almost nothing of what those ambush spawns can be. So I only have to watch where I place some units.

It's crazy how this game has been far less stressful than New Mystery ironically because it's got an inferior game to put its ambush spawns in. Make no mistake, if Awakening somehow winds up above New Mystery on this list, it is not going to be because I actually liked it better. It's gonna be some annoying witchcraft regarding its superior music, usability and presentation and the like.

It's just amazing how easy this game is to smash to pieces, to the point that it barely even qualifies as a game. It makes my complaints about Genealogy's balance seem amazingly petty, to the point that I want to add like 5 dummy spaces on the list just to stick between the two to avoid being disrespectful. Oh, and you wanna talk “shitty unit balance” like I talked about in Radiant Dawn? Aha. AHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

So, we're still at the Mila Tree when Say'ri reports the news that the Resistance is already mobilizing due to Tiki's... telepathic call or whatever. The news has gotten back to us? Did we stay there for multiple days? Surely they must know that Cervantes escaped with his life, and surely he would alert the rest of the empire? But no, apparently not. We in fact will be taking the fight to them, which makes absolutely no sense.

Apparently Walhart's army is only in three main divisions, stationed in a single building each. Is... is that normal? That seems like way too few buildings to station such a massive army, and far too much localization for the forces of what's supposed to be an empire.

Right, so our unseen NPC army is going to go to the north and south as a diversion and unbeknownst to us get slaughtered offscreen while the “elite force” that is our actual controllable army does the actual mission of disrupting the central of the three divisions with the hopes of breaking down communications, sowing the seeds of panic, and making their army “collapse under its own weight”.

Speaking of Say'ri though... I can't help but wonder if Kamui's redesign in Echoes to be distinctly Asian was an attempt to allude to the Valentian people who inhabited what would eventually become Chon'sin. For reference, this is what he looked like originally in Gaiden:

https://fireemblemwiki.org/w/images/thumb/1/1c/FEG_Kamui.png/170px-FEG_Kamui.png

...So yeah, I can't help but wonder. Man, Echoes really put in a lot of effort to try to cover for their unbelievably shitty new canon-roommate. Makes you wonder what they're gonna do if they ever tell another story about Marth.

I just spent a frankly ridiculous amount of money on tonics, but it's fine, we're getting to the point where money ceases to be a problem thanks to increased funds incoming and reliable use of Leif's blade.

Hahahaha. Say'ri's one of those people who misuses “I” because it sounds more proper than “me”. She says “That should create an opening for a smaller team led by Chrom and I”, but that would be like saying “a smaller team led by I”.

I can only assume that Tiki's telepathy can both send and receive, because they seem to have communicated the plan to other Resistance groups in the time it took to make it here. That would also explain my previous issue too, but I wish they made that clear. Of course that just begs the question of how long it took them to get here and how quickly they were turncoated.

Alright, battle prep. There actually is some this time, because our army starts out in separate parts of the map, at each of the... three entrances this building inexplicably has.

I remembered that I'm swimming in master seals and so I gave Gregor one so he can give better stat bonuses to Miriel. He's stopped equipping weapons because that gets in the way of Miriel's capacity to heal up, so there's no reason to worry about stunting his growth by promoting him early.

We're officially in “all promoted” enemy territory now. It's gonna get even harder for my other guys to contribute, but I'm still gonna try, especially now that the dangerous ambush spawns are in front of us, rather than behind us, meaning there's no need to rush. Once Sumia and Cordelia get galeforce, it is going to be sooooooo much easier for them to contribute on player-phase.

Alright, I'll have Morgan and Lucina take the east gate and rush for the thief. Morgan's the tankier of the two, and can easily give Alexandria a run for her money when it comes to surviving enemy phases at this point. He's actually tougher than dark flier Alexandria, fun fact, at least when it comes to physical defense. So naturally he'll be the one ending the turns on the really dangerous enemy phases, but I still want Lucina to keep up so I'll be having here end turns otherwise.

In the center will be Alexandria and Miriel. Miriel will try to do as much fighting as she can, though her speed is kinda cutting it close for some of these enemies. I may need to do an emergency early promotion depending on what her bonus from hero Gregor is.

On the right side I've got Cordelia and Sumia. They're going to have the slowest time, but since they can afford to take their time and do kiting tactics, fuck it, I'll go for it.

Everyone but Alexandria is of course tonic'd up the ass to hell and back... and then we begin.

Morgan is 5 luck away from being able to 100% armsthrift in the front row, and only 8 away from being able to do it in back, without Lucina's pair up bonuses. Yeah. These kids are broken.

Honestly, and a little annoyingly, I think the tactician outfit is cooler than the grandmaster outfit. It's just got a nicer, cleaner design to it without all that shiny added plates on it.

…Still no sign of the ambush reinforcements. I could probably actually beat this map before they show up if I hurry, but... I mean, that'd waste the treasure. I will admit I am curious what happens if you beat this before the reveal that most of the rebellion has been turned against you by blackmail.

Okay, so it's cool of the game to warn me about footsteps from the floors below and that they might be reinforcements, and they don't trick me into thinking help's gonna come and I don't have to worry. At any rate, I've got everyone prepared. Morgan and Lucina are sitting on a column for some extra defense, and everyone else is well, well away from the stairs.

...But man, they gave me a lot of warning. Several turns have gone by with nothing happening. They really want to give me every opportunity to get balls deep in the map before flooding it with reinforcements. That's really, really dickish.

HERE they are. Alright. And of course they show up green, only for the cutscene to reveal, while also introducing Excellus (who incidentally is played in English by the original anime voice actor of Marth apparently), that all of these troops have gone turncoat due to... I think blackmail? Let's see what they say.

...Maaaaaaan Excellus is ugly. And... far more effeminate than I remember him being. I've... got questions about what they were going for with this guy design-wise.

Also, Excellus can apparently teleport at will. The fuck?

Anyway, they don't go into the specifics of what Excellus has on them, but it's made clear that even other members of the empire despise this sack of shit.

...This blackmail operation feels... dumb. Especially since these guys aren't even characters. They're just NPCs that, like with the Hierarch, betrayed us mere moments after being introduced. They're just a plot device both introduced and resolved offscreen.

But I do like how the music changes to match the change in story tone, even if that change in story tone falls flat.

Anyway, a couple of chapters have a chest key or two. Really, they're never enough to get all the treasure, so I just bring a thief and save the keys for the one or two maps towards the end of the game that have treasure but where bringing a thief is completely unsafe.

Maaaaan these reinforcements. They keep coming for waaaaaay too long.

...Yeah, while I'm just barely managing to train up Cordelia, her biggest issue right now is the fact that she has by far the worst dual strike partner. Vaike has yet to hit double digits in a single non-HP stat, and can't do any damage to these guys with any weapon he's capable of using, and barely hits even if he could. Meanwhile Alexandria has Chrom, who's seen enough combat through Alexandria's ridiculous EXP dumping that he can still at least do some damage with the good weapons he's capable of using, Miriel has Gregor, who's at least promoted and is providing really good pair up bonuses (and has 8 more strength than Vaike and could probably do a bit of chip damage anyway if I gave him a weapon), Sumia has Frederick, who provides awesome pair-up bonuses and still reasonably-powerful dual strikes with silver weapons, and Morgan and Lucina... have Lucina and Morgan.

...Okay, I think I've finished up with the reinforcemnets. Man, did this really take 2 hours? But I've only written like 2 pages! ...Ugh. Yeah, this, uh...

...I think this is just going to become more of a pattern the later in the game it gets. Nothing that happens in these maps is interesting or worth discussing.

Thanks to some pair-up chaining to ferry Anna across the map in one turn, it only takes a couple of turns to loot the chests. We got a seraph robe, a master seal, a large bullion, and most importantly... boots. Those are definitely going on Alexandria. No reason not to put them on her. 10 range galeforce flying is going to be nuts.

Morgan and Lucina take Pheros down in a single paired attack. Pity I couldn't have Chrom fight her. They have some cool dialogue if I remember correctly, but I guess I can just read it online. One sec...

...So Pheros makes mention of once worshipping Naga and “the Earth Mother” that I have to assume is Mila. So what, people still actively worship Mila but let a temple to another goddess be built in a tree that was at bare minimum (at the time) named after her?

Aaaanyway, yeah, so, Chrom and Pheros have a discussion about Pheros deciding that Walhart is superior to religion, and it's made blatantly clear from her choice of words that she's just jumped from one cult to another. She even openly admits that her actions have absolutely nothing to do with “thinking”.

And yeah, unfortunately this falls flat because we've seen absolutely no evidence of Walhart having any noble or sympathetic goals so far. Like others have said, it's only his bullshit spotpass resurrection that makes him an even remotely interesting character at all, ironically. It's only there that he's fleshed out and explored in any tangible capacity. Right now we're just hearing patently ridiculous things about what he's done and some blatantly contradictory claims about what he wants.

So yeah, according to Say'ri... the entire Resistance has turned against us. Why did this happen specifically now? They later reveal that Excellus's blackmail only worked because Yen'fay was backing it up, but he's been on Walhart's side for ages and the resistance hasn't been crushed until now?

Ah yes, and just like I remembered, a soldier runs in to tell us that all of the hundreds of thousands of our other forces have been obliterated or turncoated offscreen. Yeah, uh... this game just does not know how to tell a war story that feels like an actual war is going on. Nothing has the weight or gravitas that it should.

And weren't these guys supposed to be running interference rather than actually trying to fight?

Anyway, Alexandria brings up the point that if they're going to escape, they need to do so now, even though they're surrounded, since their current opponents are the turncoats who follow Walhart only out of fear and won't really put up that much of a fight. Though that begs the question of how they got that fucking many genuinely zealous and loyal soldiers from the countries he's destroyed and enslaved.

But now they're talking about a second diversionary tactic, as if the last one that got everyone killed was not also supposed to be a diversionary tactic. Alexandria phrases it like it's somehow a different plan this time.

Also, when Basilio offers to lead this diversionary squad... that just makes me realize... who the fuck was leading those two other armies if it wasn't Chrom, Alexandria, Say'ri, Flavia or Basilio!?

Aaanyway, Lucina comes in and reveals that this is how Basilio dies, which sets him up to fake his death for the big end-of-game twist gambit, because apparently Alexandria is well aware that Plegia has spies watching them at all times and so she made Basilio, somebody they'd think was dead and thus wouldn't watch, switch out the stones on the Fire Emblem in secret some time after this.

Which makes absolutely no fucking sense because if they had spies following everyone they thought was alive, then the only way they wouldn't see the Fire Emblem being switched out...

...would be if Chrom and Alexandria left the Fire Emblem completely unguarded.

Also, while I'm at it, all he had to do for this plan was give Flavia a fake version of the Gemstone he has. No need to go anywhere near the apparently-unguarded Fire Emblem and switch it if he gave a fake from the get-go. Maybe if we knew anything about that conversation Alexandria and Basilio secretly had offscreen we'd know if that was when Alexandria gave him the fake ones to switch with, or if it was some complicated pass-off later where her side of the exchange was somehow completely un-suspicious.

And Basilio says that destiny can “kiss [his] big brown Feroxi arse”... which I think, I think might be the first verbal reference to a character's skin color in any Fire Emblem game ever.

...And then immediately afterwards we see Basilio's “death scene”, and our introduction to Walhart in person.

Oh man, I love the crescent gust visual effect surrounding Walhart as he just takes out everyone around him at once.

And Basilio is... terrible. Woooooow, he's one HP of being completely bodied by Walhart.

And just like I said before, Basilio apparently lied and had the Gemstone with him all along... for no conceivable reason. Despite conspiring beforehand with Alexandria in secret... without the “spies” seeing... and...

...Yeah this is all just amazingly dumb.

...But that's all I've got time for today, unfortunately.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Ottservia]

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Aaaanyway, yeah, so, Chrom and Pheros have a discussion about Pheros deciding that Walhart is superior to religion, and it's made blatantly clear from her choice of words that she's just jumped from one cult to another. She even openly admits that her actions have absolutely nothing to do with “thinking”.

That’s the point though. It’s supposed to be a contradiction in Walhart’s ideals. He says humans should be able to think for themselves. However, his followers don’t do that. They blindly follow him like some kind of cult. The fact that they don’t think for themselves shows a clear contradiction in Walhart’s own ideals. He’s not supposed to be sympathetic. He’s a conqueror who rules with fear and strength. He’s the direct opposite of Emmeryn. All strength and ambition with nothing to truly strive for.

[Benice]

34 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Maaaaaaan Excellus is ugly. And... far more effeminate than I remember him being. I've... got questions about what they were going for with this guy design-wise.

Fun fact: Excellus' English VA is the same guy who voiced Marth in the FE anime!

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Benice said:

Fun fact: Excellus' English VA is the same guy who voiced Marth in the FE anime!

Yep, I said as much!

[Interdimensional Observer]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Maaaaaaan Excellus is ugly. And... far more effeminate than I remember him being. I've... got questions about what they were going for with this guy design-wise.

First, look up his Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE design.😛

Second, apparently, he is an Okama, in Japanese tropes. It can mean gay, queer, or transgender, but the trope is undoubtedly very discriminatory, barring any efforts Japanese LGBTQ advocates may be making to reclaim and redefine the word. -Provided they want to keep it, instead of finding or inventing better terms for their community. I don’t follow Japanese queer activism, so I don’t know.

 

17 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...So Pheros makes mention of once worshipping Naga and “the Earth Mother” that I have to assume is Mila. So what, people still actively worship Mila but let a temple to another goddess be built in a tree that was at bare minimum (at the time) named after her?

Syncretism was a thing IRL. Be it the conversion of the Celtic goddess Brigid into a Christian saint, or Gautama Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu, or the hyphenated fusion the two greatest Egyptian gods into the one Amun-Ra. 
 

25 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ah yes, and just like I remembered, a soldier runs in to tell us that all of the hundreds of thousands of our other forces have been obliterated or turncoated offscreen. Yeah, uh... this game just does not know how to tell a war story that feels like an actual war is going on. Nothing has the weight or gravitas that it should.

Is this where it is said that Walmart has a million-man army? Because, although it’s a bit of a dead horse, no commentary should go without mentioning how IRL unrealistic this is for the time period. Yes, fliers do alleviate some communication issues, and Walhart has an entire big continent to conscript from, but it sounds a wee bit not feasible.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grande Armee he sent to die in Russia in 1813 was an astounding 600+ thousand, with possibly enough soldiers kept elsewhere to reach 1 million. But, Napoleon is long after Medieval. Though, surprisingly, more than 400k of the 600k were French.

 

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Is this where it is said that Walmart has a million-man army?

Nope, that was Chapter 15. It seemed suspect to me but I had no idea if I was right so I didn't strike on that point like I probably should have.

[Samz707]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

It's just amazing how easy this game is to smash to pieces, to the point that it barely even qualifies as a game. It makes my complaints about Genealogy's balance seem amazingly petty, to the point that I want to add like 5 dummy spaces on the list just to stick between the two to avoid being disrespectful. Oh, and you wanna talk “shitty unit balance” like I talked about in Radiant Dawn? Aha. AHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

So, we're still at the Mila Tree when Say'ri reports the news that the Resistance is already mobilizing due to Tiki's... telepathic call or whatever. The news has gotten back to us? Did we stay there for multiple days? Surely they must know that Cervantes escaped with his life, and surely he would alert the rest of the empire? But no, apparently not. We in fact will be taking the fight to them, which makes absolutely no sense.

Speaking of Say'ri though... I can't help but wonder if Kamui's redesign in Echoes to be distinctly Asian was an attempt to allude to the Valentian people who inhabited what would eventually become Chon'sin. For reference, this is what he looked like originally in Gaiden:

...So yeah, I can't help but wonder. Man, Echoes really put in a lot of effort to try to cover for their unbelievably shitty new canon-roommate. Makes you wonder what they're gonna do if they ever tell another story about Marth.

...Maaaaaaan Excellus is ugly. And... far more effeminate than I remember him being. I've... got questions about what they were going for with this guy design-wise.

Maaaaan these reinforcements. They keep coming for waaaaaay too long.

...Yeah, while I'm just barely managing to train up Cordelia, her biggest issue right now is the fact that she has by far the worst dual strike partner. Vaike has yet to hit double digits in a single non-HP stat, and can't do any damage to these guys with any weapon he's capable of using, and barely hits even if he could. Meanwhile Alexandria has Chrom, who's seen enough combat through Alexandria's ridiculous EXP dumping that he can still at least do some damage with the good weapons he's capable of using, Miriel has Gregor, who's at least promoted and is providing really good pair up bonuses (and has 8 more strength than Vaike and could probably do a bit of chip damage anyway if I gave him a weapon), Sumia has Frederick, who provides awesome pair-up bonuses and still reasonably-powerful dual strikes with silver weapons, and Morgan and Lucina... have Lucina and Morgan.

And Basilio is... terrible. Woooooow, he's one HP of being completely bodied by Walhart.

And just like I said before, Basilio apparently lied and had the Gemstone with him all along... for no conceivable reason. Despite conspiring beforehand with Alexandria in secret... without the “spies” seeing... and...

...Yeah this is all just amazingly dumb.

...But that's all I've got time for today, unfortunately.

Since I've never heard mention of it before, is Tiki's telepathy yet another thing Awakening pulls out if it's ass?

Yeah I got sick of the ambush spawns by this point so 80 precent of the kills on this map was Tharja with Nosferatu, I'd also basically given up on using most units generally other htan for a handful of kills because enemies averaging 20's in most stats is fair and balanced good design.  

I retroactively have gained massive respect for the other FE games where there isn't massive stat-inflation for actually displaying restraint and realizing that bigger numbers isn't a good thing.

Isn't Kamui not from Valentia? unless I completely miss-remembered, isn't Valbar, Leon and Kamui all foreigners to Valentia? (Maybe Kamui got really busy with the Tavern maids.)

Yeah apparently Exellus is visually a really derogatory sterotype of trans people or something, I'm not too well versed to fully comment, I just know I've heard that said about him.

Not to mention both Walhart and Basillio magically get zero percent chance crits.

Like, the entire reason that worked in at least FE7 was that it made Jaffar look like a deadly adversary but here, why do I care? Walhart looks outright weak when he doesn't even have a crit-chance, Tharja could probably just kill him like she's done with everything. (and Robin is only still a Grandmaster so I can get rally Spectrum despite it probably being terrible and not worth it.)

Edited December 30, 2020 by Samz707

[Alastor15243]

7 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

Since I've never heard mention of it before, is Tiki's telepathy yet another thing Awakening pulls out if it's ass?

I mean technically not? Gotoh is a divine dragon too and he learned similar magic for communicating long distances, but we never see what the hell she's doing on-screen, so hell if I know.

As for Excellus... yeah, he seems in really bad taste. I mean it goes well beyond making your only trans character a villain. Like, they don't even bother making Excellus entertaining or fun, he's just... deliberately designed to be despised by literally everyone and be as hideous, snakelike, cowardly, and all-around unappealing as humanly possible. I want to know what was going through the character designer's head. And the script writers.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Emperor Hardin]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

HERE they are. Alright. And of course they show up green, only for the cutscene to reveal, while also introducing Excellus (who incidentally is played in English by the original anime voice actor of Marth apparently), that all of these troops have gone turncoat due to... I think blackmail? Let's see what they say.

...Maaaaaaan Excellus is ugly. And... far more effeminate than I remember him being. I've... got questions about what they were going for with this guy design-wise.

Also, Excellus can apparently teleport at will. The fuck?

Excellus is an okama, a Japanese term meaning either a man attracted to other men or a transwoman, the two are conflated as the same thing. As such, Excellus uses female speaking patterns and resembles the stereotypical depiction of an aging "okama." The character applies to other stereotypes too, such as seemingly hating and being jealous of cis women.

Spoiler

This is why Excellus has breasts in Tokyo Mirage Sessions.

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

As for Excellus... yeah, he seems in really bad taste. I mean it goes well beyond making your only trans character a villain. Like, they don't even bother making Excellus entertaining or fun, he's just... deliberately designed to be despised by literally everyone and be as hideous, snakelike, cowardly, and all-around unappealing as humanly possible. I want to know what was going through the character designer's head. And the script writers.

I've heard the Japanese version of the Hubba tester reacts negatively to same sex results as well.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Emperor Hardin