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

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Didn't stop Yoder from swinging by Sacae and picking it up, if you went Ilia route.

Swing by? Are you suggesting Yoder didn't have an epic battle with Murgleis!Monke off screen where he managed to take down a legendary weapon using staff trickery! Well, either way Sacae is defeated no matter the route and Murgleis is obtained. It's just on one route it's Roy and friends doing it while in the other route it's coalition forces.

9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Would've been a really cool way to do it! Durban would be a Berserker, I'm sure, but what class would Roland get? Hero? Paladin? Or Eliwood's own Knight Lord class?

I'd be fine with Hero.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Corrin: I had three options that day. My decision meant abandoning two of my possible fates.

She's forgetting she also had the option to join Smash.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So, upon reflection, I don’t think I’m all that much of a fan of the breaking system. Or specifically I don’t like it in the context that you have to land a hit and do damage to break and three of the weapons are weak to something that infamously sucks at doing damage. Kagetsu has waaaaaaay too much defense to be broken by any art user, so he’s basically just immune to the weapon advantage/disadvantage system entirely.

That's really more an issue with Arts than the breaking system. Really they should have made arts average the enemy's defense and resistance instead of the players strength and magic. That would have been a lot more useful.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But they completely ignore the question of what path she chose, which is a bit of an annoying cop-out. Wouldn’t it have been infinitely more interesting if these Emblems had memories of making all of the choices, rather than keeping them from talking about any of them? I mean they aren’t even supposed to be the original heroes, right? Why not give them weird multi-timeline memories?

I'd be down for that. You get a  more melded and memorable take on the characters. Though the only ones it would really have any influence on would be Corrin and Roy, since none of the other characters have any real canonical multi choice scenarios (well I guess Eirika would have some weird memories of doing the exact same things with a bunch of generic knights instead of her playable character friends).

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I give Clanne the arena bouts because he’s a level away from getting his class skill now, and more speed is always nice. The random nature of the thing is starting to annoy me, because in a weird way, the game is actually incentivizing me to kill everyone I don’t want to use, because then the arena will always pick tough opponents for me and I’ll always get more EXP than the pittance I get fighting the guys I benched at the start of the game.

Reminds me of the Drill Grounds in New Mystery where you can pay money to train your units. Did you fight generics in that or your own allies?

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

This map was… better than yesterday’s, though not by much. It wasn’t very deep or interesting, just a simple skirmish with a handful of minor twists in it. I also think it wasn’t fair of the game to make the flames only last on my player phase, given that not all flames behave like that (some are permanent), so it wasn’t really reasonable to expect me to predict they’d vanish by the time the enemies started moving. But hey, now I’ve got Corrin at max power, so that’ll be fun.

That's how the flames work when you use them. Though you can't set entire rivers on fire.

7 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

But then we have to confront the fact that Corrin has, like, a thousand possible appearances. Even Byleth can be either the male or female form. So I interpret the Emblems as a "snapshot" of each character.

Sure, let's make Corrin some kind of horrific amalgamation of a bunch of difference faces XD Seriously though I do think it's a bit disappointing Corrin and Byleth were gender locked. Granted Fem Corrin and Male Byleth are my preffered forms of those two characters, but it's not true representation of who they are.

Edited February 23, 2023 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

She's forgetting she also had the option to join Smash.

That almost isn't a joke. Brawl appears to be canon for Ike.

 

5 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Reminds me of the Drill Grounds in New Mystery where you can pay money to train your units. Did you fight generics in that or your own allies?

Generics.

 

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

That's really more an issue with Arts than the breaking system. Really they should have made arts average the enemy's defense and resistance instead of the players strength and magic. That would have been a lot more useful.

Alternate idea: what if the brave hits had one physical attack and one magical attack?

[Jotari]

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alternate idea: what if the brave hits had one physical attack and one magical attack?

That would be...even weirder. And probably just as useless? I mean, the issue with hybridization is that you're never going to be excellent at both. You'd end up with one attack doing okay damage and one attack doing practically no damage.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

That would be...even weirder. And probably just as useless? I mean, the issue with hybridization is that you're never going to be excellent at both. You'd end up with one attack doing okay damage and one attack doing practically no damage.

Yeah, but then at least one of them would be strong enough to break basically any opponent.

[Ether]

Rather than being an average, arts should probably be weighted towards your higher stat. What level of weighting would be a matter of finding the right balance, but it feels like Framme is the main unit designed for arts. Shoutout to Celine using vajra mushti well enough when she had byleth, but no one else really looked like they would like them much from the units I ended up with. 

[Jotari]

4 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, but then at least one of them would be strong enough to break basically any opponent.

Alternative for that issue, set minimum damage cap Valencia style. That's something I like and think the series should keep around.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

I'd be down for that. You get a  more melded and memorable take on the characters. Though the only ones it would really have any influence on would be Corrin and Roy, since none of the other characters have any real canonical multi choice scenarios (well I guess Eirika would have some weird memories of doing the exact same things with a bunch of generic knights instead of her playable character friends).

Byleth: ...

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Sure, let's make Corrin some kind of horrific amalgamation of a bunch of difference faces XD Seriously though I do think it's a bit disappointing Corrin and Byleth were gender locked. Granted Fem Corrin and Male Byleth are my preffered forms of those two characters, but it's not true representation of who they are.

Best answer is, make each of them ambiguous about their gender, like so:

Alear: "Are you a boy, or a girl?"

Corrin: "I'm a dragon."

Alear: "No, I mean like, sex."

Corrin: "Hold on, first you've gotta S-rank me!"

Alear: *sigh* "No, as in, what's in your pants?"

Corrin: "A Shuriken. Kaze lent it to me!"

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alternate idea: what if the brave hits had one physical attack and one magical attack?

I think we're over-complicating things. They should've just used Strength, and targeted Defense, from the get-go. With a buyable "Aura Knuckles" art that uses Magic, and targets Resistance. Solve the whole "you need to do damage to actually break!" problem by implementing a 1-damage floor for every attack, like Genealogy and Echoes had.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Alternative for that issue, set minimum damage cap Valencia style. That's something I like and think the series should keep around.

And I was beaten to the punch. Literally speaking.

[Eltosian Kadath]

21 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

This reminds me - as much "Fateswakening" DNA as there is in this game, one thing I hugely respect here, relative to those games, is the support options. Namely, that it's not like "every boy has to support every girl", while leaving characters like Saphir and Lindon in the dust as "Alear-sexuals". Instead, we get to see these characters interact with people whom they naturally connect to, or who their personalities lend to interesting connections and contrasts with each other. Imagine that!

I agree with you here, I like that they returned to supports being limited by individual character's preferences, instead of basically everyone x everyone.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

OH! SO THEY JUST SET THE FUCKING RIVER ON FIRE!

I do like that, calling back to the beginning of Fates with a little twist.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Apparently Byleth’s lost and found skill doesn’t actually find you any items, which is a shame. Even if it were just Somniel doodads like ore or fish that would be pretty nice.

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed that actual items weren't involved in some way, but it is still a kinda cute reference to how they basically worked in TH.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

But they completely ignore the question of what path she chose, which is a bit of an annoying cop-out. Wouldn’t it have been infinitely more interesting if these Emblems had memories of making all of the choices, rather than keeping them from talking about any of them? I mean they aren’t even supposed to be the original heroes, right? Why not give them weird multi-timeline memories?

That would have been an interesting take on the avatar characters...

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

The Hiya Papaya Messiah is now just about completely indestructible.

 

I have profoundly mixed feelings about this development.

Yeah, it just adds to how brokenly powerful Corrin is on a covert unit. Plus having that skill be inheritable fells like it defeat the purpose of Chain Attacks existing on the enemy units.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Seriously, this game is so good at understated awkward comedy. I’m having a blast with a lot of these supports.

The best thing about Alear's character is how awkward he is about the awkward situations avatars are always subjected to.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 I also think it wasn’t fair of the game to make the flames only last on my player phase, given that not all flames behave like that (some are permanent), so it wasn’t really reasonable to expect me to predict they’d vanish by the time the enemies started moving. But hey, now I’ve got Corrin at max power, so that’ll be fun.

 

That is basically how terrain summoned by the Dragon Vein skill works though.

 

9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

 Also, gotta love that they give him two weapons that he can't use in his original games.

Its an issue with Leif's whole kit, that a lot of it is based on his Genealogy appearance instead of the game he is an actual lord in, Thracia; with the all weapon types of his promoted Master Knight form from Genealogy; that Adaptability the enemies seem to use in Genealogy combat; Arms Shied representing how Genealogy has the highest impact from weapon triangle (as opposed to Thracia, in which weapon triangle has the smallest impact); even his version of Vantage is more like Genealogy's than the far more dramatic version from Thracia. About the only things from his kit that feel like they are from his actual game are the names of the weapons he wields, as Genealogy had no Killer Axe, the Master Lance is unique to Thracia, and while the Light Brand is in both games it is his personal weapon in Thracia (and it is a nice touch that it gives +10 Luck like in Thracia); and the build bonuses, as Thracia is famous for both introducing the stat to the series, and being one of the few that have a build growth. Its just the casual neglect, and disrespect Thracia fans have come to expect from the fan service offered them in things like FEH, and now Engaged.

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

That's really more an issue with Arts than the breaking system. Really they should have made arts average the enemy's defense and resistance instead of the players strength and magic. That would have been a lot more useful.

If they were going to average the attacking stats, they should have also averaged enemy defensive stats.

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I'd be down for that. You get a  more melded and memorable take on the characters. Though the only ones it would really have any influence on would be Corrin and Roy, since none of the other characters have any real canonical multi choice scenarios (well I guess Eirika would have some weird memories of doing the exact same things with a bunch of generic knights instead of her playable character friends).

It would also significantly impact Byleth as well

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Sure, let's make Corrin some kind of horrific amalgamation of a bunch of difference faces XD Seriously though I do think it's a bit disappointing Corrin and Byleth were gender locked. Granted Fem Corrin and Male Byleth are my preffered forms of those two characters, but it's not true representation of who they are.

To add insult to this minor injury, the Morgan Bond Ring shows both a male, and female Morgan on it.

[Sunwoo]

I wasn't planning on getting Engage anyway, but not being able to change the genders for the avatar characters just makes me super salty.

So, FE apparently insists on shoving in avatars as the protagonist in all future new games, which will inevitably lead to lower quality stories because they want to pander to the players who like projecting themselves onto the avatar so no actual morally gray will be allowed. Basically, sacrificing story and character quality for the avatar. And then in story-heavy spin-off games they choose which gender of avatar we're stuck with, so if you didn't want that gender then you're out of luck (unless you're playing 3 Hopes).

We basically get worse story and characters because of an avatar, and we don't even get to pick which one we get to use in most spin-off materials. Truly the worst of both worlds.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Byleth: ...

The good thing about Byleth is you can say whatever you want about him and he wont talk back!

[lenticular]

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Seriously though I do think it's a bit disappointing Corrin and Byleth were gender locked. Granted Fem Corrin and Male Byleth are my preffered forms of those two characters, but it's not true representation of who they are.

Yeah, it's weird. Despite having played mumble hundred hours of Three Houses, I've never used male Byleth. So when he shows up in Engage, I don't have any sort of connection to the guy. Whenever I see him, it literally takes my brain a second or so to remember "oh, right, that's Byleth". And honestly, Corrin is almost as bad. While I did use female Corrin, none of my incarnations looked remotely like the canon version, so again, I just don't have a connection in the same way that I do for the other returning characters.

I don't know what they really could have done differently, though. Having the player choose would probably have been super clunky. Where would you even put the option? I suppose it could have just been a menu option, but then most people wouldn't even ever see it. And given the extra work and costs involved, I can see why they just did what they did.

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

To add insult to this minor injury, the Morgan Bond Ring shows both a male, and female Morgan on it.

Though, from memory, I believe that the Kris ring doesn't? Which is a weird choice, to acknowledge the choice on one bond ring but not another.

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Alternative for that issue, set minimum damage cap Valencia style. That's something I like and think the series should keep around.

I'm glad they didn't do this. Armor units in Engage are in the best place they've been for a long time, and minimum damage would really hurt them. Not so much for the damage itself, but because it would get rid of the thing where secondary effects only trigger off non-zero damage. Being able to avoid poison and (for great knights) break by having high enough def is a part of what keeps them viable.

[Jotari]

1 minute ago, lenticular said:

Yeah, it's weird. Despite having played mumble hundred hours of Three Houses, I've never used male Byleth. So when he shows up in Engage, I don't have any sort of connection to the guy. Whenever I see him, it literally takes my brain a second or so to remember "oh, right, that's Byleth". And honestly, Corrin is almost as bad. While I did use female Corrin, none of my incarnations looked remotely like the canon version, so again, I just don't have a connection in the same way that I do for the other returning characters.

I don't know what they really could have done differently, though. Having the player choose would probably have been super clunky. Where would you even put the option? I suppose it could have just been a menu option, but then most people wouldn't even ever see it. And given the extra work and costs involved, I can see why they just did what they did.

Warriors managed to do it with extra costumes,  theu coulddo something similar here. Hell it'd be nice in genral ti changr Emblems look even outside if gender. If this is POR Ike then give us Lord Ike!

1 minute ago, lenticular said:

I'm glad they didn't do this. Armor units in Engage are in the best place they've been for a long time, and minimum damage would really hurt them. Not so much for the damage itself, but because it would get rid of the thing where secondary effects only trigger off non-zero damage. Being able to avoid poison and (for great knights) break by having high enough def is a part of what keeps them viable.

Isn't immunity to break an inherent trait of armours to begin with?

[lenticular]

9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Isn't immunity to break an inherent trait of armours to begin with?

Yes, but great knights are cavalry.

[Alastor15243]

Engage Day 31: Sigurd’s Paralogue

Let’s see… how much would it cost to slap Pair Up on Kagetsu? Because obviously that would be a huge weight off my shoulders. But really, in full honesty, while it terrified me, I did like how chain attacks kept literally everyone honest because they were so dangerous if you let them build. The profound irony that Corrin is probably the most balance-upsetting Emblem in the entire game, when one of her original games was Conquest, is kind of upsetting to me.

Corrin says that Kagetsu reminds her of Hoshido, and, like… yeah, makes sense.

SPEAKING OF WHICH

OKAY

I HAVE TO KNOW

One of the things I’m going to just dump bond fragments on if I have to:

Does Lucina and Hortensia’s bond set ever once mention the phrase “pega pony princess”?

Because Hortensia sounds like someone who would say that phrase unironically.

Kagetsu asks Corrin out in the second bond conversation, and she just kinda awkwardly giggles it off. I wonder what Kagetsu’s deal with that is, he says that a lot in arenas and it hasn’t come up in supports yet.

Aaaaand Kagetsu now has the ability to inherit Pair Up. Good, but let’s see how much it costs…

…2,000. Okay, so at least it’s as expensive as speedtaker, and for good reason. Still, we have it on Yunaka inherently, and that’s going to be ridiculous. Alright, let’s see what to do next for paralogues. I’m kinda looking forward to getting to the main story but I don’t want these to get any easier by putting them off.

All that’s left to do is Leif and Sigurd. Sigurd’s the one I’m most interested in getting the results of, so let’s do that one.

I get a tooltip about fast-forwarding through conversations immediately after I accidentally pressed the button to do that. Hilarious.

Alright, so we’ve got fracture and freeze among the enemy staff users. As well as physic and fortify. Wow, a lot of “f” sounds.

…Okay, heading back to the world map, I wanna make some purchases.

I’m getting Hortensia and Clanne as high rank as I can get in Micaiah’s Staff Mastery skill. Improved healing and status staff accuracy would be awesome on these two in particular.

Honestly, Micaiah’s interactions with Hortensia have a dynamic that makes me wish even more that she was the Emblem of Elusia. She’s very sweet and patient with Hortensia’s childishness, and I imagine that if Emblems had free will when used by the enemy, Micaiah and Hortensia could’ve had a very Zuko-and-Iroh-esque relationship, just with less of the obfuscating stupidity.

…I’ve unfortunately really been eating into my bond fragment reserves by doing this, but now that I know about the alternative bond fragment income source, I think I’ll be good for stocking up on more.

Also, I cooked a 2str/1def/1mag/1res meal, which was pretty nice. I really, really wish there existed a way to consistently put better chefs there though. The fact that they have their own strengths and weaknesses with regards to what dishes they make is a nice touch that Fates didn’t have.

Kagetsu appears to have capped defense, unfortunately. At 27 raw, 36 adjusted. The only way he’s getting tougher now is by buying the higher-rank versions of the def boosting skill. And those aren’t even his top priority for new skills.

I wonder how long it will take before his capped defense becomes a problem. If ever. Actually, come to think of it, I wonder what stat caps in this game are even like. All I’ve capped so far are Kagetsu’s def at 27 and Yunaka’s res at 25. Weird that it would be those two, when I only gave Kagetsu one stat booster in that regard and I didn’t give Yunaka any at all. Makes me wonder… do Emblems actually have an impact on growth rates? Because those are both stats that Corrin and Ike boost on Yunaka and Kagetsu, so if it boosted their growths too, that would make sense.

…I snapped and googled it, finding the Serenes Forest page and discovering that apparently no, they aren’t listed among influences on growth rates at all. What I did find, however, that made me feel like a stubborn jackass, was that my playing it safe with promotions had in fact had the opposite of the effect I hoped it would have: promoted classes have superior growth rates to the base ones. So really, by all appearances, between stat boosts, earlier class skills, and increased growth rates, you have every incentive to get out of those base classes and into promoted ones at speed.

…Noted. I will keep that in mind for my maddening playthrough.

So, I’m looking at the map and the little cape that the item’s supposed to be hidden at, and it’s apparent that the best way to get those without having to worry about needing to keep Sigurd alive long enough to sneak past him… is probably going to be to fly my fliers over there. And in case there are wyvern reinforcements that will appear over that vast expanse of water, I’m giving both of the princesses rescue staves so they can get themselves and Rosado safely out of the way at speed, taking advantage of Canter as well.

…Oh fuck, meteor sages and a 13 mov Sigurd. Right. Guess they’ll have to do a little covert sneak-in while the rest of my forces have Sigurd distracted.

…Also, it occurs to me that since Louis isn’t doing nearly as much enemy-phasing as he used to, and he’s mostly a massive player-phase truck… it might be worthwhile to change him to great knight, and trade a little bit of strength and defense and build for 2 more mov… and another 2 more mov when engaged.

…Fuck it, I’ll do it. He’s got mobility problems without Sigurd for this map, so if I’m gonna deploy him, might as well give him that mobility boost now.

Dealing with these guys with silence staves feels like a huge pain, so I’m just gonna use restore staves and just facetank the consequences.

…I see a male and female sage in the bottom left corner of the map, both with multiple HP bars. Are those supposed to be Julius and Ishtar? The male one has more HP bars so that tracks… and I think this is where I fought them in Genealogy…

…And the female one has Thoron, makes sense…

…and the male one has every fuckmothering stat capped yes that is DEFINITELY supposed to be Julius-

…I basically have to take the game on faith that this is some optional objective and they won’t come after me. Can I even take this guy down…? 75 avoid, 20 defense, 44 res…

…Yunaka could bring him down to 26 speed and 16 defense, not to mention a total of -30 avoid between class bonus and the -4 speed and -4 luck…

…Kagetsu can one-round an HP bar after that debuff lets him double…

…Alcryst can also fuck him up with Mulagir…

…I’ll take a heavy beating on counterattacks but I think I can manage it.

…Alright, fuck it, let’s go for it.

Begin.

…Okay, so this seems like a pretty straightforward cover of the final map theme. No medley, just “The Final Holy War”. Well done, but personally I would have much preferred Light and Dark, the song that this map is actually known for, as it’s my favorite map theme in the game.

…One of the sages with a status staff moved without doing anything. Weird.

The other two did use theirs though. One broke Yunaka pointlessly, and one froze Kagetsu.

…Also this map is experiencing some slowdown. Curious, it’s not like they rendered a whole Genealogy map, not sure why this in particular would start making it chug like it’s Three Houses.

Looks like Alcryst just managed to max out his bond with Lyn! They’ll be getting their last bond conversation after this battle! Nice! Though if I’d noticed he was literally just one round of combat away, I probably would’ve just spent the pittance of bond fragments to get it unlocked in advance.

So far the map is pretty straightforward. Yunaka and Kagetsu can handle the enemies with ease.

…Okay, my first impression of meteor’s animation is fairly lame. Still want it though. I still really, really want it.

…Alfred weirdly comes on screen to tell us the bridge is ours after we kill the castle boss, and that we should rest for a minute. The hell? Why him? He’s not even in the battle! And I thought he wasn’t supposed to have any connection to Sigurd?

…Maybe the “rest” is saying I have to stand on the tile to proceed? Or maybe it’ll just happen at the beginning of my next turn to avoid mid-turn map changes.

I wound up using Goddess Dance in that fight, which was unfortunate. Hopefully I have time to disengage and recharge with an energy tile before I face Julius and Ishtar.

And in true Genealogy fashion, a huge number of reinforcements appear from the next castle after “seizing” this one. Incidentally, I never even set foot on the fortress tile, so nothing resembling seizing is truly necessary.

Oh, Rosado got a huge level up, including build! And since I already opened pandora’s box, I figured I might as well check and confirm: no, Rosado’s build growth rate is below-average, but not the lowest.

Since those reinforcements are doubtlessly going to charge us, I’m sending Yunaka over to hold them off, then see if I can fight Julius, who I’m hoping is an optional objective the game doesn’t actually expect me to have to fight if I leave him alone.

THE SAGES WITH METEOR ARE MOVING, REPEAT, THE SAGES WITH METEOR ARE MOVING!

That barely matters of course, because Sigurd’s charging as well, and he’ll make it there first, so we can end this battle immediately if we want to.

…And I think I want to. I’m gonna use Clanne to rewarp some spare units over to try and get the treasure (I have a feeling it’s that weird green-gold spot on the beach), but I don’t want to take a gamble with this huge number of enemies charging and trying to keep Sigurd alive long enough to fight Julius. I have a feeling if I wanted to defeat Julius, I should’ve fought him before seizing the castle.

Sigurd got poisoned by Kagetsu. It’s on. Alright, first, let’s make sure we can kill him.

…Yep, we can kill him. Alright, time to try for the treasure.

…Fuck, I guessed wrong! Waiting on that patch of beach did nothing! And that was my last chance, and the incoming enemies forced me to learn that when you group-rewarp, the game won’t scramble to find spare spaces for allies, it’ll just give up if the corresponding space next to your new location isn’t valid! Damn it! …Okay. Let’s just finish this then.

Weird thing I noticed is that Tyrfing doesn’t have any stat boosts. None. That’s utterly bizarre to think about, given how crazy the legendary weapon stat boosts were in Genealogy. Even when they came back in Awakening they only got nerfed to the series standard of +5 to one stat!

…Well, at any rate, now Sigurd is fully activated.

It’s interesting that they use the fact that Sigurd shows up after the big Veyle reveal… the reVeyle if you will… as an opportunity to talk about the hollowness of revenge from someone who knows being wronged all too well. I like it.

…Weirdly, there’s a glowing item spot on the post-battle exploration map exactly where the weird green-gold spot I saw and tried was. Hmm…

…Just spices. And the weird green-gold spot itself is nowhere to be found. Weeeeeird. Did I pick the right spot but screw up how to interact with it?

…I wonder what the secret item was.

Alright, now that we’re back, time for supports, starting with Lyn and Alcryst’s bond.

…Thaaaaat’s about as satisfying an end to this “story arc” as I suppose I could hope for. But again, the limitations of bond conversations are palpable.

Looks like all I got today were Clanne and Hortensia. Alright, let’s see that, then do some cleanup and see if that gets us any more.

Clanne and Hortensia’s B.

Clanne asks Hortensia why she wants a fanclub… and she says it’s because she already told everyone she had one. And she’s worried that if she doesn’t get one, it’ll be like she lied. Either she’s profoundly in denial about a habit of compulsive lying, or she blabbed her mouth about her supposed “fan club” while she still thought Clanne was the president of it, and that’s what she’s talking about. Context suggests the latter.

Either way, she has extreme senses of entitlement and is having trouble grasping the idea that praise is earned, and can’t understand why Clanne can’t just be her biggest fan. This is amusing if you think about it, given that Pepsiman didn’t really do anything to earn Clanne’s devotion either. But obviously Hortensia has somehow managed to do still less.

She does give up and see that pushing any further with this would be “sad and desperate” though. And rather predictably, Clanne finds himself actually respecting her more when she apologizes and goes out to accept the egg on her face with dignity.

BUNET’S THE CHEF! BUNET’S THE CHEF! LET’S SEE WHAT WE GOT!

…Tragically, I’m struggling to find a good meal he specializes in that I have the ingredients for. I don’t have any sashimi and I don’t even know where to begin trying to find it at this point.

I decided on classic pizza. Now if only I could find two people who like it who aren’t the already-maxed-out Clanne and Framme. I wish I could choose the food first and then search for people who like it.

Okay, Clanne and Louis it is.

Str/res +2, spd/def +1. Okay, that’s… not as awesome as I was expecting, but it’s still pretty good.

…I genuinely don’t know what the fuck is going on, but Clanne apparently doesn’t double Rosado even when Rosado is wielding an iron greatlance. I don’t get it. He’s using his usual engraved elfire tome and everything! Is the arena screwing with Rosado’s stats? Rosado isn’t that fast!

…Yeah, what the hell? Rosado barely resists being doubled with his reduced-weight hand axe! There’s no way he’d be able to avoid getting doubled while holding a greatlance!

…I… stand corrected?

The thing apparently isn’t heavy at all. Huh.

…Also, I checked what Sigurd has to offer now that he’s upgraded, and it turns out that Sigurd was using some weird weaker version of the real Tyrfing, because the Tyrfing he gives as an engage weapon does boost res by 5.

There’s also apparently an upgraded canter that allows a 3-space move instead of a 2-space one. Good to know, though I’m not sure that’s in the budget of any of the units I’d like that on.

Louis will also later kick the ceiling out of momentum and make it boost past its limit of 10 extra attack. Which wouldn’t have meant anything if I hadn’t made the decision to make him a great knight. Now it means he could potentially be doing even more damage with his new super-boosted move of 14.

I wonder how much the strongest lance power costs…

FIVE THOUSAND SP!?

Seriously, I like these weapon skills better in concept than the weapon skills in Three Houses, but holy shit are none of them worth it in the slightest. Except the staff one. That one’s pretty great.

Yunaka, perhaps predictably, has a trove of unspent SP since she hasn’t bought anything since avoid+10 back when we still had Marth. Honestly I’m probably going to wait until we get Marth back again before spending it on anything, to see if I have enough to get the maxed out version of that skill line to patch up Yunaka’s one lingering weakness.

…Hmm…

…I’ve been ignoring the tempest trials section… that doesn’t seem fair of me on the game. Maybe I should check this out at some point. What do you guys think? Do you guys want me to tackle the tempest trials at some point? Let me know if and when you want me to do them, and I’ll see what I can do.

And with that question, I think I’m done here for the day.

Alastor, signing off!

Edited February 24, 2023 by Alastor15243

[Acacia Sgt]

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Does Lucina and Hortensia’s bond set ever once mention the phrase “pega pony princess”?

Because Hortensia sounds like someone who would say that phrase unironically.

... now I want to know too.

I plan to, since I want Hortensia get Dex +5, for World Tree.

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I’m getting Hortensia and Clanne as high rank as I can get in Micaiah’s Staff Mastery skill. Improved healing and status staff accuracy would be awesome on these two in particular.

Hortensia doesn't need Staff Mastery. Want to know how you can get her to never miss? Give her Divine Pulse+. 50% chance to turn a miss into a hit, the chance increases with Lck on a 1:1 ratio. Hortensia's Sleipnir Lck cap is over 50.

She'll NEVER miss this way. There's a reason she was often paired up with Byleth while as an enemy I suppose.

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, Micaiah’s interactions with Hortensia have a dynamic that makes me wish even more that she was the Emblem of Elusia. She’s very sweet and patient with Hortensia’s childishness, and I imagine that if Emblems had free will when used by the enemy, Micaiah and Hortensia could’ve had a very Zuko-and-Iroh-esque relationship, just with less of the obfuscating stupidity.

Ah, so true.

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Noted. I will keep that in mind for my maddening playthrough.

I still waited until level 20 to promote. It's not like I was rushing. The stats still served me fine, and with unlimited Second Seals and seemingly no Internal Level Cap to worry about (at least on Normal), then I can take it slowly to cap their stats.

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…I wonder what the secret item was.

A Goddess Icon. Shame you didn't got it there. Maybe if you come back during a Skirmish you might get another try.

Due to Sigurd rushing once you take the first castle, I went to fight the Julius and Ishtar stand-ins before that. If my units had Canter, it would've been much easier, as I would just park Hortensia to tank all their attacks thanks to her monstrous Res.

Ultimately they just give gold, but I still beat them for the bragging rights, heh.

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

This is amusing if you think about it, given that Pepsiman didn’t really do anything to earn Clanne’s devotion either.

Well, it's all what they did before their thousand year slumber... and likely the thousand year long PR campaign from Lumera.

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…I’ve been ignoring the tempest trials section… that doesn’t seem fair of me on the game. Maybe I should check this out at some point. What do you guys think? Do you guys want me to tackle the tempest trials at some point? Let me know if and when you want me to do them, and I’ll see what I can do.

Tried them once... but eh, doesn't feel much worth it during the main story.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

18 hours ago, lenticular said:

I'm glad they didn't do this. Armor units in Engage are in the best place they've been for a long time, and minimum damage would really hurt them. Not so much for the damage itself, but because it would get rid of the thing where secondary effects only trigger off non-zero damage. Being able to avoid poison and (for great knights) break by having high enough def is a part of what keeps them viable.

They could just give Armor-type units immunity to Poison as well, to borrow a note from Pokemon. Great Knights would still be affected by it - and by Breaking - but hey, that's the cost of getting 2 more move and an additional Weapon type.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I’ve been ignoring the tempest trials section… that doesn’t seem fair of me on the game. Maybe I should check this out at some point. What do you guys think? Do you guys want me to tackle the tempest trials at some point? Let me know if and when you want me to do them, and I’ll see what I can do.

I did it once. It was a high level of time and energy for a nothing-prize. So... good luck, and enjoy!

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Seriously, I like these weapon skills better in concept than the weapon skills in Three Houses, but holy shit are none of them worth it in the slightest. Except the staff one. That one’s pretty great.

Bow Focus from Lyn is solid too. I got Fogado to Rank 5, and he's never missing. Knife Precision from Leif is weak, but at least it's affordable.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The thing apparently isn’t heavy at all. Huh.

Take a look at the Blades, they're obscenely light. I don't get it. I'm sure "you move last and can't double" is meant to represent how heavy they are, but why do it that way when the game has an actual Weight stat?

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

That barely matters of course, because Sigurd’s charging as well, and he’ll make it there first, so we can end this battle immediately if we want to.

I'm not opposed to bosses moving on principle, but it has the side effect of making a good chunk of the map... not really matter. If you're not going for the secret item, you won't actually be crossing into Chalphy territory.

Also, Sigurd commanding the Rotenritter will always make me uncomfortable. 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Fuck it, I’ll do it. He’s got mobility problems without Sigurd for this map, so if I’m gonna deploy him, might as well give him that mobility boost now.

I put Louis into Halberdier after he level-capped General. He's still very bulky, plus slightly more speedy and mobile. Plus, another source of Chain Attacks, even if I must get used to "Louis can get Broken".

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, Micaiah’s interactions with Hortensia have a dynamic that makes me wish even more that she was the Emblem of Elusia. She’s very sweet and patient with Hortensia’s childishness, and I imagine that if Emblems had free will when used by the enemy, Micaiah and Hortensia could’ve had a very Zuko-and-Iroh-esque relationship, just with less of the obfuscating stupidity.

Micaiah: "Hortensia, now is the time to look inward, and start asking yourself the big questions - who am I? What do I want? Which status staves should I bring this time?"

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alfred weirdly comes on screen to tell us the bridge is ours after we kill the castle boss, and that we should rest for a minute. The hell? Why him? He’s not even in the battle! And I thought he wasn’t supposed to have any connection to Sigurd?

This was pretty funny to me, not only because Alfred had been benched, but also because the enemy gives you no time to actually "rest for a minute".

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The other two did use theirs though. One broke Yunaka pointlessly, and one froze Kagetsu.

So I'm not gonna call the Fracture staff "useless". But I don't think there's ever been a case where one of my units got Fractured, and then missed out on a chance to counter. Nor a moment where I've said "sigh, if only my staffbot had the Fracture staff right now!".

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I snapped and googled it, finding the Serenes Forest page and discovering that apparently no, they aren’t listed among influences on growth rates at all. What I did find, however, that made me feel like a stubborn jackass, was that my playing it safe with promotions had in fact had the opposite of the effect I hoped it would have: promoted classes have superior growth rates to the base ones. So really, by all appearances, between stat boosts, earlier class skills, and increased growth rates, you have every incentive to get out of those base classes and into promoted ones at speed.

Yeah, it's basically a "promote and never look back" system. Definitely a shift from 3H, where the mastery skills of some Beginner and Intermediate classes made for an interesting trade-off: do I jump to the next class ASAP for better stats, skills, and growths? Or do I stick around in the weaker class, for a strong skill that will make me stronger in the long-term? Engage could've replicated this, by moving class skills from "Level 5 promoted" to "reach level 20 in first tier, and get a skill you can carry with you". But nah, the only downside of using a Master Seal is that somebody else doesn't get to use it.

[Eltosian Kadath]

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

…Oh fuck, meteor sages and a 13 mov Sigurd. Right. Guess they’ll have to do a little covert sneak-in while the rest of my forces have Sigurd distracted.

Distract him? He is going to suicidally charge into your midst all on his own.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

…I see a male and female sage in the bottom left corner of the map, both with multiple HP bars. Are those supposed to be Julius and Ishtar? The male one has more HP bars so that tracks… and I think this is where I fought them in Genealogy…

…And the female one has Thoron, makes sense…

…and the male one has every fuckmothering stat capped yes that is DEFINITELY supposed to be Julius-

Yep, good luck, they are some tough cookies to deal with for this chapter's supply of pocket money.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

And in true Genealogy fashion, a huge number of reinforcements appear from the next castle after “seizing” this one. Incidentally, I never even set foot on the fortress tile, so nothing resembling seizing is truly necessary.

It is kinda odd how Seize had been entirely removed from this entry, considering how prominent the objective is in many Fire Emblem games. It's a shame, as it is a solid little objective, although some early games did overuse it into the ground.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Since those reinforcements are doubtlessly going to charge us, I’m sending Yunaka over to hold them off, then see if I can fight Julius, who I’m hoping is an optional objective the game doesn’t actually expect me to have to fight if I leave him alone.

THE SAGES WITH METEOR ARE MOVING, REPEAT, THE SAGES WITH METEOR ARE MOVING!

They do, but Sigurd so comically outranges them that you only have to worry about them if you go way out of your way to do so.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

…And I think I want to. I’m gonna use Clanne to rewarp some spare units over to try and get the treasure (I have a feeling it’s that weird green-gold spot on the beach), but I don’t want to take a gamble with this huge number of enemies charging and trying to keep Sigurd alive long enough to fight Julius. I have a feeling if I wanted to defeat Julius, I should’ve fought him before seizing the castle.

Yeah, you kinda need to deal with those two before taking Miletos if you want to deal with them, as Sigurd is particularly difficult to distract. He has ALL of the move, he can overrun past any choke points you set up, he is immune to freeze (which includes the effects of Corrin's Dreadful Aura). I think you would have to do something like use a flyer over yo-yoing over the water to repeatedly bait him form the other side of the map while being the closest enemy to really distract him.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Weird thing I noticed is that Tyrfing doesn’t have any stat boosts. None. That’s utterly bizarre to think about, given how crazy the legendary weapon stat boosts were in Genealogy. Even when they came back in Awakening they only got nerfed them to the series standard of +5 to one stat!

Huh, it certainly has those buffs when it is in your hands. I wonder if that is why their weapons are all grey, to hint to the player that they are different from the ones you will actually use.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

…I’ve been ignoring the tempest trials section… that doesn’t seem fair of me on the game. Maybe I should check this out at some point. What do you guys think? Do you guys want me to tackle the tempest trials at some point? Let me know if and when you want me to do them, and I’ll see what I can do.

And with that question, I think I’m done here for the day.

You probably should try one just to test it out.

 

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I'm not opposed to bosses moving on principle, but it has the side effect of making a good chunk of the map... not really matter. If you're not going for the secret item, you won't actually be crossing into Chalphy territory.

Yeah, It makes half of this map basically irrelevant, without a LOT of effort. Plus, there are quite a few of these paralogues where baiting the boss early makes them extremely trivial.

 

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

So I'm not gonna call the Fracture staff "useless". But I don't think there's ever been a case where one of my units got Fractured, and then missed out on a chance to counter. Nor a moment where I've said "sigh, if only my staffbot had the Fracture staff right now!".

The best use for them I heard of is to break the Wyrms, that way you can deal with them without either burning a super, or taking a counter.

[Jotari]

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

…and the male one has every fuckmothering stat capped yes that is DEFINITELY supposed to be Julius

 

Maddening stats are so goddamned high I didn't even register that guys stars were capped. Itbwas just a matter of freezing with Corrin, and astra storm Pannette alcracity 100% crit, which is my method for dealing with most enemied.

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Weird thing I noticed is that Tyrfing doesn’t have any stat boosts. None. That’s utterly bizarre to think about, given how crazy the legendary weapon stat boosts were in Genealogy. Even when they came back in Awakening they only got nerfed them to the series standard of +5 to one stat!

Huh, wonder why they don't let him boos res in combat. Is it possible he had another weapon equipped at the time and it just didn't show?

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

There’s also apparently an upgraded canter that allows a 3-space move instead of a 2-space one. Good to know, though I’m not sure that’s in the budget of any of the units I’d like that on.

Might as well throw it on Seadall if he has the SP.

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

…I’ve been ignoring the tempest trials section… that doesn’t seem fair of me on the game. Maybe I should check this out at some point. What do you guys think? Do you guys want me to tackle the tempest trials at some point? Let me know if and when you want me to do them, and I’ll see what I can do.

I'd rather see you get on with the story and paralogues. There's not really much interesting in Tempest Trials. The maps are pretty basic and vary from super easy because none of the enemies group aggro to ridiculous because you're swarmed from the very start and its safer to just deploy your dodge tank alone.

2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

The best use for them I heard of is to break the Wyrms, that way you can deal with them without either burning a super, or taking a counter.

My Panette just ones rounds dragons single handedly. She's ridiculously good with Lyn and a full forged killing axe.

Overall Break falls into that unfortunate "FE:Heroes Guard niche" of "pretty good, but not good enough for an inventory slot". If you had it you for free all the time like some sort of emblem ability you'd probably make a lot more use of it a lot more. But when it has competition with Freeze and Obstruct, or even Mend, yeah, it's just not worth it. I wish the AI was a bit better at using it though and actually used it on your units about to be attacked and not some sort of random algorithm focusing exclusively on units outside of enemy rangr.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Jotari

[lenticular]

9 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Yeah, it's basically a "promote and never look back" system. Definitely a shift from 3H, where the mastery skills of some Beginner and Intermediate classes made for an interesting trade-off: do I jump to the next class ASAP for better stats, skills, and growths? Or do I stick around in the weaker class, for a strong skill that will make me stronger in the long-term? Engage could've replicated this, by moving class skills from "Level 5 promoted" to "reach level 20 in first tier, and get a skill you can carry with you". But nah, the only downside of using a Master Seal is that somebody else doesn't get to use it.

I still can't entirely make my mind up about the class system overall. On the one hand, it definitely has a lot less depth than the systems of Three Houses or Fates, with a lot fewer interesting decisions to make. But on the other hand, sometimes, I kind of like that. It can be nice to just worry about beating the map rather than having to factor in support points or class xp or whatever else. But on the gripping hand, if they wanted to just make a really simple system, they probably should have simplified further. There are just too many points of friction for it to feel like it has any sort of elegance. Reclassing before promoting being a trap, the way learning weapon proficiencies is tied to Emblems, having recommended levels for each chapter be completely meaningless numbers. It just doesn't come together properly.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Overall Break falls into that unfortunate "FE:Heroes Guard niche" of "pretty good, but not good enough for an inventory slot". If you had it you for free all the time like some sort of emblem ability you'd probably make a lot more use of it a lot more. But when it has competition with Freeze and Obstruct, or even Mend, yeah, it's just not worth it. I wish the AI was a bit better at using it though and actually used it on your units about to be attacked and not some sort of random algorithm focusing exclusively on units outside of enemy rangr.

In my current game I'm running Alear as a staff-bot with convoy access, and even when I don't have to worry about inventory slots, I still haven't had cause to use a Fracture staff yet (though I do like the idea of using it against the wyrms). It's not just competing for an inventory slot but also for the use of a turn. And a lot of the time, there's no functional difference between "Fracture and then attack" and "attack, take damage, then heal it back with Mend". Except that you have to hope Fracture hits, and you don't get the chance of the enemy missing, etc. Sure, the exact circumstances could come up sometimes, but only rarely.

It also doesn't help that Maddening bosses are immune to being broken. As enemies who take multiple hits to kill and can dish out a lot of damage in return, they'd be prime targets to hit with Fracture, but the game doesn't allow that.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

4 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

The best use for them I heard of is to break the Wyrms, that way you can deal with them without either burning a super, or taking a counter.

That makes sense, but I have a few units who only face like 30% Hit from the Fat Dragons. Even in 1RN, I'm usually comfortable taking those odds when the hit would be sub-lethal. My staffbot could Fracture to prevent the counter-attack... or they could Mend if the counter-attack lands.

If the "Break" condition lasted for the rest of the phase - like when you shatter a monster's armor - it would be pretty strong. Or if they added a debuff effect (either with Fracture in particular, or Break in general), like when you get gambited. Of course, that's not what they went with.

1 hour ago, lenticular said:

It also doesn't help that Maddening bosses are immune to being broken. As enemies who take multiple hits to kill and can dish out a lot of damage in return, they'd be prime targets to hit with Fracture, but the game doesn't allow that.

Jeez, I didn't know this. The game has been pretty good about bosses "playing fair", and using multiple health bars to make them tougher to deal with. "Immunity to break" isn't necessarily unfair if it's stated, but it does feel like they're just bypassing a mechanic freely. Like when magical bosses in 3H had the "Immune to Silence" skill.

Spoiler

still can't entirely make my mind up about the class system overall. On the one hand, it definitely has a lot less depth than the systems of Three Houses or Fates, with a lot fewer interesting decisions to make. But on the other hand, sometimes, I kind of like that. It can be nice to just worry about beating the map rather than having to factor in support points or class xp or whatever else. But on the gripping hand, if they wanted to just make a really simple system, they probably should have simplified further. There are just too many points of friction for it to feel like it has any sort of elegance. Reclassing before promoting being a trap, the way learning weapon proficiencies is tied to Emblems, having recommended levels for each chapter be completely meaningless numbers. It just doesn't come together properly

Rather than "recommended level", chapters should've used a "recommended rating", based on the "Rating" that sums up a unit's other stats. What's the point of having a "Rating" if it's not used as shorthand for general strength level?

Anyone, the system feels more like a "one-tier" system, or maybe "one-and-a-half-tier" system, than a proper "two-tier" one. There's no benefit to staying in the first tier when promoting is possible, and outside of a challenge run, there's literally no reason to send a promoted unit back to first tier. But hey, at least they can get proficiencies to change what they promote into, right? Not really, no - if I want to make Clanne a Sniper, then I need to get the Bow proficiency, promote to Sage or Mage Knight, then reclass to Sniper. Or switch over to Archer, spend 9 levels there, then promote to Sniper. It's gonna cost two Seals either way. Even here, using the Master Seal first is better, since I can follow it up with an instant reclass, regardless of level.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
Added details.

[Alastor15243]

Engage Day 32: Leif’s Paralogue

Nobody’s expressed much interest in me doing the Tempest Trials, so I suppose I’ll check them out some other time when I’m not playlogging.

Alright, the last available paralogue, the one that apparently lives up to Thracia.

Let’s check this out.

…River Thracia, huh?

…Oh shit, is this where we fought Reinhardt!?

We faced Saias here apparently, which we definitely also did at that time, so signs point to yes!

…I am incredibly grateful that Thrud isn’t pronounced like thud with an r.

…This is also the most surprised and confused Pepsiman has ever been when he hears the word trial.

Given that I picked this one for last of TEN…

…

…

…

…

…

PFFFFFFFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

YEP!

THIS IS THRACIA ALRIGHT!

Siege weapons up the ass? Check.

Status staff users fucking everywhere? Check.

The placement of the yellow death tiles clearly indicating that the bridge is still trapped? Check and fucking mate.

Okay, so, quite obviously the silver bow ballistae are a problem. This game’s infuriating decision to not tell you enemy weapon might and make you do the math yourself means that if I try to get any of my fliers to tank a ballistae hit, the odds of me miscalculating and getting someone killed are intense. Plus, there is a shitload of silence staves here that will probably be very frustrating to deal with.

So let’s see… in the spirit of Thracia…

…how can I cheese this?

I’ve heard it can be one-turned… but how…?

…Oh that’s lovely. The enemies have hacked versions of status staves that give them drastically longer ranges than they’re supposed to have. I suppose that makes it feel more like Thracia, and I’m not opposed to enemies getting better tools than me to compensate for my possession of a human brain… but y’know for a second I thought those were the actual ranges, and that I hadn’t been giving the status staves a fair shake! And that’s more than a bit of a letdown.

Okay, let’s work backwards on this.

Question One: Who do I want to be teleported to Leif to assassinate him?

Alcryst, Pepsiman, Yunaka, Kagetsu and Seadall. Pepsiman to Goddess Dance, Yunaka, Alcryst and Kagetsu for doing high amounts of damage while bypassing Leif’s weapon triangle damage reduction fuckery, and Seadall for getting to use whoever does the best job twice. Clanne will be using warp to beam them all in, obviously, though depending on what range gets boosted or what the origin point is I may have to be economical and have Clanne rewarp them all in himself. We’ll see.

…Okay. Question Two: Can they actually do the job?

Once I use my first set of attacks to clear out two or three of the mage knights in front of Leif, then have Yunaka draconic hex the guy, he’ll be down four in every stat and we’ll be up three with Goddess Dance. With that, Kagetsu can clear an HP bar, Alcryst can do it if Leif’s already poisoned and Alcryst is next to Pepsiman when he takes the shot, and Yunaka might be able to do it under those same conditions depending on how poison stacks. Taking into account that Leif will already have had most of an HP bar taken away by Yunaka’s initial hexing attack…

…Yes, yes, I absolutely can kill this guy with a single warped-in squadron.

…Okay. Question Three: How far away from Leif can I afford to warp them in?

…The ideal place for Pepsiman to be able to end up when he uses Goddess Dance would be a knight’s move long down and short right of Leif (all four adjacent spaces to which would be free once two of the mage knights are killed on player phase), which would enable Pepsiman to boost the power of the attackers’... attacks. Then I’d want Yunaka to end up to the left or upwards of him (because she’d have used her first move to hex Leif), then Alcryst to the other of those two sides (because he could then use the Pepsiman-boosted attacking space with Mulagir and then move away to make room for Kagetsu), then Kagetsu and Seadall on the further back two.

So, in order to get there… I’d have to have the center of the group as close as three left and four down from Leif. Preferably two left and four down if I can mange it.

Okay. Where can I warp them there from?

…Nowhere close enough. Okay, let’s re-assess the necessity of that far-away space. This would be a lot less complicated if I got Pepsiman Canter. Can I get him Canter?

…I can practically get him Canter+. Okay, score. Let’s do that and see if that changes the calculus. Cuz with Canter, it means the space he Goddess Dances from and the space he ends his turn on to provide aura boosts don’t have to be the same spot, and that means the spot closer to Leif on the left side is valid even though one of the sides around it is blocked by a rock.

…Also, while I’m here, might as well polish the rings.

Okay. So now that Pepsiman has Canter…

Okay, so now the closest optimal spot for Pepsiman to Goddess Dance is one left and three down from Leif. So, how close can I get him to a spot I can warp him from…?

Five left and four down from Leif. Super conveniently, a purple spirit is there to mark the spot for me to remember.

…But it’s still not close enough… unless…

…Okay, what if I give Micaiah to Hortensia for a bit? When I use ranged fuckery on warp… does the warp boost apply both to how far away someone can be when I warp them, and how far I can warp them? And also… does the second distance originate from where the units originally are… or from where the caster is?

Because if the first is true and the second is the latter case…

…Hortensia can totally get them there when engaged with Micaiah. She can fly over the river a little bit, warp my plus-shaped group the required distance, then Canter back to shore and out of enemy Ballista range. Or possibly not even that, considering the whole “this will be over by the end of that turn” thing.

…Okay, I’m going to postpone this. I want to warp skip this, and in order to best do that, I need more information, and a tiny bit more SP. I want to get Pepsiman Canter+ in order to maximize my positioning potential, and know exactly how warp works when you engage with Micaiah, before I attempt this. If I’m wrong and I commit to it anyway, things could get overly complicated.

Which means…

…It’s time for another mainline chapter.

Day 32 Change of Plans: Chapter 20

Here we are. Elusia Castle.

I doubt I’ll have time to do the whole chapter today. I’ve got like 2 hours of free time left. But let’s at least analyze the story and plan for the chapter so we can get started easily tomorrow.

Zephia’s single word of “What” reminds me what happened last time in the eons-past beforetimes of the plot.

…Yeah, we’ve been gone for a while.

So yeah, Marni’s comically, childishly oblivious to how badly she’s fucked up… until Zephia just fucking slaps her.

…Zephia deflects blame for losing Sigurd because she was “Following Lady Veyle’s orders”, and thus if Sigurd’s ring loss is anyone’s fault it would be hers, and I’m like “bitch her fucking eyes change and you were too oblivious to notice!”

…And Zephia… apparently “already cast the spell” on Veyle… despite promising to wait until they got back… and saying to Griss she intended to keep her word… and not learning of Mauvier’s role in Marni’s fuckup until literally just now.

Zephia says she had no choice but to do the spell immediately because “the defect” awoke.

…DID ZEPHIA JUST INCINERATE MARNI!?

…The absurd irony of Griss commenting that Marni and Mauvier are both “out cold” after being immolated… not since “Warmth is Gone” playing during Flora’s death.

So she just leaves them unconscious on the ground.

…The illustration of Elusia Castle looks a hell of a lot like Hogwarts, it’s kind of hilarious.

…They’re theorizing that the royal guard was turned into Corrupted. I wonder what the canonical downsides of Corrupted are, because gameplaywise they seem just as competent as normal soldiers, just weak to holy. If Sombron has no reason not to turn all the rank and file soldiers into Corrupted, I wonder what the story is behind the gradual obsolescence of the Elusian army. Imagine if we saw more of this behind the scenes, perhaps with scenes of Rosado and Goldmary before they joined us, and maybe Abyme showed up a third time as a Corrupted just to drive the point home.

…It’s… a fog of war map.

With a boss who can teleport at will and attack us.

…No… wait…

…a boss who can attack us… and teleport at will?

…He doesn’t have Warp Ragnarok here.

He has Ragnarok Warp. The opposite. Attack, then warp away. Is that something that Celica actually lets you do at advanced levels, or is it just an enemy-only reworking to keep it from being fucking ridiculous in fog of war?

…At any rate, I really, really, really miss the old version of the torch staff. Well, I guess the middle version of the torch staff, cuz it went from just being a torch in staff form, to a ranged staff that let you shoot a flare at a distant spot on the map… back to just being a torch in staff form.

I really liked that flare-shooting one. It would’ve gone a long way to making these fog of war maps less outrageously frustrating.

Speaking of frustration, there’s an entrap staff! And it’s droppable if we can make it to them in time! And by “in time”, I of course mean immediately, because there’s no way in hell I’m letting that fucker breathe long enough to use that thing in a fog of war map.

…Oh yes. I definitely know what I’m testing warp on. I’m warping Kagetsu over, killing that high priest, and then rescuing him back.

…Okay no, I can just use Astra Storm and save the staff uses. But I’ll still be testing if I could have done it with warp, because again, working out how that works is critical to flawlessly cheesing Leif’s paralogue.

…This, uh…

…This looks like it’ll be pretty terrifying. The existence of entrap staves has made me aware of the one weakness in Yunaka’s seemingly-flawless defense: if someone uses conventional-evasion-ignoring staves to yank her off of her defensive terrain. And for all I know, this map could be shitty enough to be hiding other entrap staff users besides that one in the dark.

And also, just not knowing what’s ahead in the dark could be really dangerous for Kagetsu, because his defenses can only go so far, and he has a cavalry weakness, and…

…Christ, yeah, I guessed right, this is not the day to do this.

We’ll pick this up tomorrow.

Alastor, signing off.

 

 

 

PS: Given that Dire Thunder is apparently a thing in this game judging by what people in the thread have been saying, I'm really surprised I didn't see any of the mage knights equipped with it.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Alastor15243

[Acacia Sgt]

30 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Which means…

…It’s time for another mainline chapter.

Ahahaha, I would've wanted to see how you would've done it.

I can say what I did already. If you wish some pointers...

Spoiler

Using Warp, I had Ivy finish off the guy manning the ballista nearest to Leif. Then, I had her fly behind the castle. There's tiles back there but only fliers can reach them. This triggers Leif and the forces near him to move, and destroys the western bridge. So what did I did? After clearing the enemies on my side of the river (using Sigurd to rush to the guy manning the south ballista), I simply parked my units at the riverbank where the bridge used to be and... let the enemies come to me. Thanks to the shoals, they were handicapped in both move and avoid. So I basically did Doga proud. I CHOKE THE POINT.

Meanwhile, from behind the castle, Ivy could Elthunder (no Thoron yet since I did this fresh from Chapter 17) the Cowen stand-in. Then, to avoid Leif moving over to where the rest of my team was, I had her fly back out and fight the few enemies that stayed put, including the Saias stand-in. This would make Leif run back to the castle. Then when he had come close enough, I had Ivy fly back behind the castle, making him go back towards my main party. So I had Leif running back and forth while the rest of his army suicided against mine on the shoals. I did this until reinforcements ran out. After that, I just had Ivy solo Leif. Since I had Lyn equipped on her, I could have her use the ballista as well.

Overall... this was one heck of ride, heh. I pretty much cheesed it... but it was so much fun! XD

 

30 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Yeah, we’ve been gone for a while.

Well, you never went to the castle itself back then.

30 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Zephia deflects blame for losing Sigurd because she was “Following Lady Veyle’s orders”, and thus if Sigurd’s ring loss is anyone’s fault it would be hers, and I’m like “bitch her fucking eyes change and you were too oblivious to notice!”

I wonder if that actually happens or is just to our benefit. No one in Alear's group noticed either, after all.

Alternatively, Veyle also had her eyes closed when asking for the Ring?

30 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…They’re theorizing that the royal guard was turned into Corrupted. I wonder what the canonical downsides of Corrupted are, because gameplaywise they seem just as competent as normal soldiers, just weak to holy. If Sombron has no reason not to turn all the rank and file soldiers into Corrupted, I wonder what the story is behind the gradual obsolescence of the Elusian army. Imagine if we saw more of this behind the scenes, perhaps with scenes of Rosado and Goldmary before they joined us, and maybe Abyme showed up a third time as a Corrupted just to drive the point home.

Well, there is one... but it's kinda relevant so I won't say more for now.

30 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

He has Ragnarok Warp. The opposite. Attack, then warp away. Is that something that Celica actually lets you do at advanced levels, or is it just an enemy-only reworking to keep it from being fucking ridiculous in fog of war?

Enemy only.

30 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Speaking of frustration, there’s an entrap staff! And it’s droppable if we can make it to them in time! And by “in time”, I of course mean immediately, because there’s no way in hell I’m letting that fucker breathe long enough to use that thing in a fog of war map.

I had the misfortune of allowing him to use it once.

And that's where the misfortune ended because he used it on Ivy who proceeded to murder four other guys during Enemy Phase. LOL

"Trapped here with me" indeed...

30 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

PS: Given that Dire Thunder is apparently a thing in this game judging by what people in the thread have been saying, I'm really surprised I didn't see any of the mage knights equipped with it.

It's not an actual weapon, it's the skill of Olwen's Bond Ring at S Rank. Which only affects regular Thunder Tomes to attack twice. It's great for early game, but its effectiveness falls off.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[lenticular]

30 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Zephia deflects blame for losing Sigurd because she was “Following Lady Veyle’s orders”, and thus if Sigurd’s ring loss is anyone’s fault it would be hers, and I’m like “bitch her fucking eyes change and you were too oblivious to notice!”

Even aside from that, even if her eyes and her voice didn't both change, it still makes them all look like a bunch of incompetents. They know that Veyle can potentially have a sudden shift in personality at any moment, and yet for some reason they haven't taken even the most basic precaution against it. Given that the two Veyles don't share memory, it would be trivially easy to have some sort of passcode as confirmation for unusual orders, but apparently Veyle went to the school of idiot supervillains that demands immediate unquestioning loyalty above operational security or good sense.

[Acacia Sgt]

11 minutes ago, lenticular said:

Even aside from that, even if her eyes and her voice didn't both change, it still makes them all look like a bunch of incompetents. They know that Veyle can potentially have a sudden shift in personality at any moment, and yet for some reason they haven't taken even the most basic precaution against it. Given that the two Veyles don't share memory, it would be trivially easy to have some sort of passcode as confirmation for unusual orders, but apparently Veyle went to the school of idiot supervillains that demands immediate unquestioning loyalty above operational security or good sense.

I would think it was because it tends to be obviously telegraphed. All those time Veyle mentioned needing to sleep, and sometimes I think there were also pangs of pain as well, it referred the personality change was imminent. Except this time Evil!Veyle was knocked out cold from the battle waking up the Good!Veyle once again, something that apparently had never happened before. Thus, by deepening her voice and maybe keeping her eyes closed when facing them, Veyle could fool them, if only for the one time.

If anything, what bothers me most of that scene is not that Veyle fooled them, but just how contrived the whole "can't recover Marth just yet so we'll give you Sigurd instead" is. That or Veyle believes in Move superiority, pft.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

PFFFFFFFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

YEP!

 

THIS IS THRACIA ALRIGHT!

 

Siege weapons up the ass? Check.

 

Status staff users fucking everywhere? Check.

 

The placement of the yellow death tiles clearly indicating that the bridge is still trapped? Check and fucking mate.

In a lot of ways they captured the feel of this map. Side note, did you see the funny little reference to Cohen they had in his proxy's inventory?

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

So let’s see… in the spirit of Thracia…

 

…how can I cheese this?

Much as I liked playing the map straight, cheesing it is truer to Thracia, and probably safer in an ironman. Although if you can afford to, it might be worth it to Astra Storm the one that drops the Speedwings.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, I’m going to postpone this. I want to warp skip this, and in order to best do that, I need more information, and a tiny bit more SP. I want to get Pepsiman Canter+ in order to maximize my positioning potential, and know exactly how warp works when you engage with Micaiah, before I attempt this. If I’m wrong and I commit to it anyway, things could get overly complicated.

I respect that level of cautious experimentation for the sake of the ironman.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…No… wait…

 

…a boss who can attack us… and teleport at will?

 

…He doesn’t have Warp Ragnarok here.

 

He has Ragnarok Warp. The opposite. Attack, then warp away. Is that something that Celica actually lets you do at advanced levels, or is it just an enemy-only reworking to keep it from being fucking ridiculous in fog of war?

Good catch with that careful reading there. I didn't notice till the full horror of the map gimmick was revealed.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…This looks like it’ll be pretty terrifying. The existence of entrap staves has made me aware of the one weakness in Yunaka’s seemingly-flawless defense: if someone uses conventional-evasion-ignoring staves to yank her off of her defensive terrain. And for all I know, this map could be shitty enough to be hiding other entrap staff users besides that one in the dark.

That is assuming a lot more intelligence from enemy staff wielders than I have seen.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…Christ, yeah, I guessed right, this is not the day to do this.

 

We’ll pick this up tomorrow.

Fair enough, Fog of War maps are not to be taken lightly in an ironman run.