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

[Alastor15243]

Chapter 11 Continued

…

...Well, shit.

I only now realized that I've completely forgotten about the running gag I was planning on doing starting in Chapter 8, about the one glaring writing problem I had with this game before I started thoroughly scrutinizing it.

Okay.

For those of you who haven't played this game...

I am going to describe a weapon to you.

It is a sword.

It has 18 might, 80 hit, and 5% crit.

It buffs your defense by 5 when equipped.

It has 1-2 range.

It has infinite uses.

In Path of Radiance, it makes you immune to all criticals that aren't the result of the wrath skill.

And its only drawback, which can eventually be negated completely, is its intimidating 20 weight.

This weapon is called Ragnell. It is Ike's personal sword.

It is the most powerful sword ever created in the entire history of this setting, and the most powerful sword anyone will ever gain access to in either of the Tellius games.

And Ike already has it in his possession.

He's had it since the end of Chapter 7.

When the Black Knight threw it to Greil with the hopes of having a proper duel with him... he didn't pick it back up again. Either deliberately or because he had to make a hasty retreat from Caineghis, he left it there.

And Ike took it.

He took it because, as he's going to explain later, he just had this gut feeling that if he kept the weapon with him, he'd run into the Black Knight again someday.

Why isn't he using it?

Fucked if I know.

He just refuses to use it, or to let anyone else use it, or to even let it show up in the army's list of supplies, until the specific moment at which he runs into the Black Knight for their final showdown.

IN THE SECOND HALF OF CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

Even though he's informed of what the weapon can do several chapters earlier.

Now, this is... hilariously frustrating if you think about it too much, because that weapon is so broken that even with its weight of 20, this weapon would have been insanely useful for basically the entirety of the game from the moment Ike got it. And he refuses to use it for literally no stated reason. This isn't some “Jack Sparrow's one-shot pistol” shit where he's carrying a weapon around and he's got this obsessive desire to make sure the Black Knight is the first person he makes bleed with it. Or if it is, they don't say. He just... won't use it. Not just until the chapter he fights the Black Knight in, but in the part of the chapter he fights the Black Knight in!

...I could rant about this for a good while longer, but I think I'm going to let the topic rest until it gets more relevant again. And I had this huge plan where I was going to just randomly, in the middle of every chapter writeup, write:

Friendly reminder #4 that Ike has Ragnell right now.

And then just keep going like nothing happened.

But alas, I can't exactly do that now. The iron has gone four days and a weekend cold.

Anyway...

So, after beginning the fight, I noticed that apparently Daein doesn't recognize the authority of Begnion, because when Nasir offers to provide Begnion papers proving he has no ties with Crimea, and that he's just a Begnion merchant ship, Mackoya, the captain, says “Under Daein rule, such... Begnion papers are nothing more than fishwrap.”

Okay, I'm glad they at least warn you that the Black Knight is here (and of course I'm glad that he's not an ambush spawn), though it would've been nice to actually show the house.

Apparently the Black Knight wasn't in this house until just recently, which makes that thing I commented on earlier with everyone standing outside it... disappointingly less amusing.

Ahhh... so it seems that prison break bit us in the ass. According to Mackoya, That's what alerted the Daein army that we were going to try to pull something here.

And Mackoya assumes that Elincia isn't with us. Curious.

But yeah, I like this scene. Not particularly for what happens in it, but more... well, it's just a well-written scene that makes both the Black Knight and this minor boss feel a little more real.

Ooh, and look! The game adds soldiers to the map when it plans on having Ranulf chase them off in a cutscene. Good to see the game didn't make me think I'd have to fight more enemies than I really would.

That's... weird. There seems to be something wrong with Kieran's ildle animation. It looks... incomplete. Like the animation suddenly hits a wall and reverses rather than smoothly looping. I'm looking at Oscar's at the exact same time, and it looks much better. The horse's swinging tail in particular just goes back and forth much more smoothly, while Kieran's horse's tail looks like it's bouncing off of an invisible wall.

So then Zihark shows up, and...

...Okay, first off, now they use the vigilante's mugshot for this scene, when the unit Zihark's talking to on the map doesn't have one if you check. Second, fun fact, I didn't manage to get Zihark on my first playthrough. In fairness... I don't think I got the extremely subtle hint that this guy joined the vigilante group that hunts laguz... because that would be a good opportunity to find laguz to help. I didn't realize that you have to talk to him with a Laguz to recruit him. I just assumed he was a racist like Jill and I just didn't find the right person to talk to him with and begin his slow and steady character development.

Also, the fact the of all the places he could go to find people who fight Laguz, he went here, to this vigilante group...

...Well, the fact that Ranulf is the one who says the laguz hunts have pretty much stopped happening means we can probably take it as truth, but... it begs the question of what exactly this vigilante group is doing that causes them to frequently fight laguz. Either this is the reason for the “all but” in Ranulf's claim that “The reports of hunts and such other horrors have all but disappeared”... or the laguz are coming to them, and... I'm gonna want to know the circumstances behind why that would happen on a regular enough basis for Zihark to consider this a lead to help laguz.

...But anyway, speaking of quoting shit people say, I just checked what Z does in-game. Nothing. It's just like pressing A. So there's no reason why I shouldn't have access to the text log at all times.

And now to recruit Zihark.

Zihark: Hold on! Please! ...I am not an enemy to laguz.

Lethe: L-laguz...? How do you--

...What exactly was Lethe going to say to finish that sentence? If she was surprised how he even knew that term, then that raises questions about how she reacted to Ike saying he “knew no other name for” them.

Anyway, so then Zihark says “I joined this vigilante group because I knew it would afford me a chance to help you flee.” That... wait...

...Did he know that laguz would be coming here? Did he know about the plan to escort Elincia to safety, and that laguz would be accompanying her? Did he know about the prison break where “sub-humans” were mentioned as having been among the soldiers?

...Wait...

...Zihark is from Daein.

Was he part of the Daein army until now?

Did he hear about the intelligence that Mackoya mentioned, and then immediately go AWOL and hide among the vigilantes here, people he correctly assumed would join the fight on Daein's side, so that he'd have a chance to pretend to be on Daein's side long enough to help the laguz escape, without being scrutinized too closely by his own former allies?

...Because if so... holy shit, that is badass. That is genius.

Also, Lethe called Zihark a human, even after he called her a laguz, and he responds to her statement that she “can't trust the word of a human” by offering to kill as many of the vigilantes as she needs him to earn her trust, which... I mean, I get that they're racists who are disturbingly excited about killing laguz, but... that line still feels... kinda creepy. Like, the way it's written, it's got tones of what a stalker would say. “How many people do I have to kill to impress you? I'll do it! All for you!” That kind of thing.

But that's just a poorly-written line. I like this character. A lot. Especially with how Radiant Dawn expands on his character by contrasting his patriotism to his homeland with his desire to help the laguz, by having those two values come into conflict again in a situation where Daein is under the rule of someone way more sympathetic than Ashnard.

...Ugh. I feel so conflicted about Lethe, and tsunderes in general. She annoys me in so many ways, but... when she stuttered and forced out the word “fr-friends” when describing her allies...

...that was kinda cute.

...Jesus, I've barely even started this chapter.

Well, I suppose I'm making decent progress, even if only three turns have passed, so let's just keep going.

Anyway, I just noticed that despite having two scarf-tails on her collar in official art, in her cat form we can only see one of them in battle.

Alright, the first house we visit has a woman whose brother was murdered by the Daein army, and she gives us a “magic scroll”... by which she means a book. Elwind. Easily Soren's best weapon for the next few maps, but... not by much, due to merely doubled slayer effectiveness in this game.

And here's the lady that I remembered freaking out if a laguz visits, but it turns out that all of them will absolutely freak out if laguz visit. It's kind of disturbing, since a lot of them are on Crimea's side and think that selling you out to Daein is absolutely insane. But anyway, since I had Boyd visit instead, I get a dracoshield. I have an unfortunate tendency to hoard stat boosters, but here there's a good reason for it, as I'll want a good sense of how many I have and how many points in stats various characters need at the end of the game before I use them, since I'm using them for capping assistance for Radiant Dawn transfer bonuses, which... I mean I'm doing Hard Mode. It's gonna be hell, and I'm gonna appreciate the boost.

Anyway, I like this map. I like how there's a ton of different things to do, and lots of encouragement to spread out your forces into smaller groups, which I always find lots of fun, because they each have their own separate adventures that you've gotta keep in mind at all times. I've got Zihark, Marcia, Lethe and Mordecai up north, Boyd and Rhys down to the southwest in the aftermath of taking out the enemies around a village, and then Titania's leading the charge to the docks as everyone else follows close behind.

I like how Lethe and Mordecai have basically opposite transformation gauges, allowing them to cover each other when used as a pair, with a brief period where you can use both at once if you're clever. If you're gonna do something as unfortunate as making units you can't use half the time, giving you two that are set up so you can always use at least one isn't a half-bad way to do that terrible, terrible idea.

The script says there should be a fourth house, but I don't see one. I think it might be a text labeling error.

Okay, so, Jill and Haar have just shown up, and...

...I suddenly realized that...

...I'm vaguely reminded of the relationship between Zuko and Iroh in Avatar. The zealous enemy youth buying entirely into the fucked-up culture they were born into, ready to fight to bring honor to themselves and their family... and the weird, quirky authority figure in their lives whose incompetence and weird behavior are (if I'm remembering Haar in this game correctly) at least partially a facade to keep themselves and their young protege from doing anything horrible before the kid grows up and realizes what they're doing is wrong.

...Yeah, I think that's what's going on here. Haar knows this war is wrong, and he's pretending to be even lazier than usual to avoid making Jill think he's an outright traitor, but the second Jill says she's gonna go out and impale catgirls for the glory of Daein, he “wakes up” and tells her that their orders are that they're not to move unless given leave.

...And then Jill appears on the map, making me incredibly nervous, because I know the Black Knight is gonna show up soon, and if I don't move carefully, and any of the northeastern brigade gets trapped between him and Jill's forces, I am in for an exciting new variation of the Jill sandwich that I am not at all eager to try.

I'm hoping I can bait in the boss with Titania using a hand axe at the edge of his range. Take him out, and there's little stopping me from finishing this map very quickly.

Yep! He was baited in! Awesome.

Also, quick aside, the ward staff visual effect is really cool. I especially love that sound effect, which brings to mind the concept of light suddenly being made as solid as steel.

Honestly, the boss is cooler than I'd have thought. Something about his face reminds me of the infamous Septimus from Radiant Dawn, but he's way cooler and more badass than his looks would suggest.

Ooh, and he has dialogue with Ike! And they have a pretty cool exchange. Yeah... Mackoya's attitude makes for a pretty cool villain. Like, if he showed up for more of the story than this? I'd be perfectly happy with that.

...Hell, even in death, this guy plays it cool to the end, calmly chiding himself for misjudging his enemy's skill.

...But this really should be a timed chapter. The lack of serious reinforcements has made this absurdly easy. The boss is dead by turn 6. The Black Knight hasn't even shown up yet.

…

...The Black Knight shows up...

...at the beginning of the enemy phase.

...Is he an ambush spawn?

Is the Black Fucking Knight an ambush spawn!?

YES! HE IS! HE MOVED! HE MOVED ON THE TURN HE SHOWED UP!

HOLY FUCKING FUCK SHIT WHAT THE WHY!?

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME, GAME!?

OF ALL THE REINFORCEMENTS TO MAKE AMBUSH SPAWNS, WHY IN FUCK'S NAME WOULD YOU MAKE IT THE BLACK FUCKING KNIGHT!?

Anyway... he moves three spaces every turn... unless someone is already in his attack range, in which case he moves the full distance. And almost invariably kills anything he fights.

Because he has the exact same stats he's going to have when you fight him at the end of the fucking game.

So yeah, I guess in a sense you can say this is a timed chapter, at least on hard mode. Oh, how this pissed me off as a kid, when I had to restart a map because he just randomly popped out of a house.

But thankfully, I avoided the immediate vicinity of that house like the plague as soon as I could get past it, and now we've won. Mordecai took out the knight guarding the docks, and now we are out of here.

...Curious note: you can actually get onto the boarding plank without stepping on the occupied “arrive” space, which means that amusingly, if the goal were to get onto the ship, you could do it by just moving around the poor guy.

...Okay, this is an amusing rewatch bonus. The Black Knight says that “The mercenaries boarded the ship safely. Now, how to proceed...”

...If you know that this guy isn't loyal to Daein, but to Sephiran... then you can read this as the Black Knight considering this a victory for the grand plan. Especially the use of the word “safely” to describe their success. Though that does bring into question why he, when talking to nobody but himself, acted surprised when the Greil Mercenaries were successful when he first showed up.

Anyway, Ranulf shows up, and his attacks aren't effective against the Black Knight, though to his credit he tanked a crit from the guy and kept trucking.

...This fight does call into question why exactly the laguz nobles, specifically, have the power to pierce blessed armor. Are the laguz royalty simply strong enough to get past the blessing, a feat no beorc can accomplish unaided?

...And then Sephiran shows up, and... I'm not sure how to interpret this scene anymore. If this is supposed to be a show put on to make Sephiran seem more reliable to Gallia, then he picked a very clumsy way of stopping the Black Knight...

...Actually no, I never suspected a thing as a kid when I saw this scene. I just assumed Sephiran had enough power or authority that not even the Black Knight dared touch him.

...But like, was this actually Sephiran giving the Black Knight new orders, or... was this all staged? Why would they want to stage a scene that would call the Black Knight's loyalty to Daein into question?

And now we get a scene of two sycophants unknowingly ratting out their own princess to the Daein army, and Norris, a future boss, takes great glee in punishing them brutally for their traitorous help. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it's a trope called “Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves”. He tells them they just ratted out their own princess to the enemy, and they're in horrified disbelief, probably at least partially due to the fact that they didn't even know a Crimean princess existed.

Anyway, there's a brief scene where Elincia expresses intense relief that Ike is okay, and... yeah... they kind of pushed a bit of ship teasing between Ike and Elincia and just... never, ever followed up on it in Radiant Dawn. That always annoyed me as a kid. I liked their supports together.

Okay, so we get some confirmation that the “elder statesmen” mentioned earlier are all old enough to remember the days when laguz slavery was in its heyday, and if I remember correctly, I think that's confirmation that beast laguz live at least slightly longer than beorc. It's not just dragon laguz that are longer-lived.

Oh yes, that's right. Nasir was intended to be a spy for Ranulf. To report back on Ike's character, I believe, and help convince the Gallian elders that Ike and his mercenary company are to be trusted, if I'm reading this vague conversation correctly.

Ooh! And now we see Ashnard in a dialogue scene for the first time!

...Okay, so this dialogue confirms that Nasir was in fact also a spy for Daein at this time. But the dialogue remains ambiguous as to whether or not this was intentional. I could read it either way as to whether or not Ashnard would have wanted Nasir to trick the Greil Mercenaries and return them to be captured.

It's funny that they mention the “worm” the very same chapter that Nasir joins the group, and yet I never suspected anything as a kid. Not sure how obvious I'd have found it if I played it now, but... I sure didn't notice it then.

...Okay, Ashnard seems to have wanted Ike to get away, judging by the comment of “All is going as planned. Now, we let them swim as they please.”

And then Sephiran is revealed as the prime minister of Begnion.

...And Ashnard seems fairly invested in getting Elincia and the medallion, and... what does he want Elincia for again? I can't remember if this is ever explained.

But anyway, I got some pretty good bonus experience, and... we're done!

Alright then, well...

...That means next time you'll see me, I'll be facing... a boat chapter.

With lots of flying enemies.

...Wish me luck.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Shadow Mir]

17 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Well, shit.

I only now realized that I've completely forgotten about the running gag I was planning on doing starting in Chapter 8, about the one glaring writing problem I had with this game before I started thoroughly scrutinizing it.

Okay.

For those of you who haven't played this game...

I am going to describe a weapon to you.

It is a sword.

It has 18 might, 80 hit, and 5% crit.

It buffs your defense by 5 when equipped.

It has 1-2 range.

It has infinite uses.

In Path of Radiance, it makes you immune to all criticals that aren't the result of the wrath skill.

And its only drawback, which can eventually be negated completely, is its intimidating 20 weight.

This weapon is called Ragnell. It is Ike's personal sword.

It is the most powerful sword ever created in the entire history of this setting, and the most powerful sword anyone will ever gain access to in either of the Tellius games.

And Ike already has it in his possession.

He's had it since the end of Chapter 7.

When the Black Knight threw it to Greil with the hopes of having a proper duel with him... he didn't pick it back up again. Either deliberately or because he had to make a hasty retreat from Caineghis, he left it there.

And Ike took it.

He took it because, as he's going to explain later, he just had this gut feeling that if he kept the weapon with him, he'd run into the Black Knight again someday.

Why isn't he using it?

Fucked if I know.

He just refuses to use it, or to let anyone else use it, or to even let it show up in the army's list of supplies, until the specific moment at which he runs into the Black Knight for their final showdown.

IN THE SECOND HALF OF CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

Even though he's informed of what the weapon can do several chapters earlier.

Now, this is... hilariously frustrating if you think about it too much, because that weapon is so broken that even with its weight of 20, this weapon would have been insanely useful for basically the entirety of the game from the moment Ike got it. And he refuses to use it for literally no stated reason. This isn't some “Jack Sparrow's one-shot pistol” shit where he's carrying a weapon around and he's got this obsessive desire to make sure the Black Knight is the first person he makes bleed with it. Or if it is, they don't say. He just... won't use it. Not just until the chapter he fights the Black Knight in, but in the part of the chapter he fights the Black Knight in!

...I could rant about this for a good while longer, but I think I'm going to let the topic rest until it gets more relevant again. And I had this huge plan where I was going to just randomly, in the middle of every chapter writeup, write:

In fairness, if he did actually start using it then, that'd be a serious balance flaw. I'd expect it to be nerfed if it was made usable that early.

[Alastor15243]

13 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

In fairness, if he did actually start using it then, that'd be a serious balance flaw. I'd expect it to be nerfed if it was made usable that early.

Right. My issue is more that they've set up the story so that the fact that we can't use it can canonically be blamed on Ike making an incredibly stupid decision, rather than merely not having it like with most legendary weapons.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Alastor15243

[NinjaMonkey]

On 6/23/2020 at 1:02 AM, Alastor15243 said:

...Wait a fucking minute...

...Does Gallia not have boats?

...They don't, do they! I mean, an entire plot point is that they need to go back into Daein-occupied Crimea in order to get a ship to Begnion, for a boat ride that passes Gallia along the way!

Unless Caineghis has a perfectly reasonable explanation for why he, the king of Gallia, can't provide Elincia a single boat, or at least docks the boat can meet her at without her having to go back into enemy territory, then... I guess Gallians don't have boats.

Why would they build boats if they have no need for them? The Beast Laguz are woodland warriors, not a bunch of roving sea pirates!

[Alastor15243]

22 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Why would they build boats if they have no need for them? The Beast Laguz are woodland warriors, not a bunch of roving sea pirates!

Yeah, that's been called to my attention. I was just trying to grasp at any leads I could get about what laguz society is like and what they do and don't have.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Benice]

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Am I to believe the first person to invent a weapon specifically designed for killing laguz gave a shit about using the polite term for laguz when naming it?

Subhumanslayer doesn't have much of a ring to it, to be fair. Although it is alliterative.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Right, so... here's something I've always found interesting about Nephenee... look at her from the shoulders-up, and she almost looks like some kind of elegant royal knight. Her hair especially doesn't exactly scream “country girl”. It's really only the tattered cloth strips on her arms, and maybe the leather straps holding her armor together, that indicate she's a peasant.

I think that's a nod to the fact that she tries to hide her peasant background. I could be wrong, though!

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, so, I just started the pre-battle cinematic, and holy shit, I'm only just now noticing that a huge number of the Greil Mercenaries are just casually crowded around the front door of the house the Black Knight is in.

He must have been reading your write-ups before realizing that he's supposed to be on the map.

[Icelerate]

On 6/10/2020 at 5:59 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, It's just as I remember. Eirika completely fails to put two and two together that Myrrh's father is dead. Myrrh tells a different lie this time, but Eirika apparently completely fails to pick up on the fact that Myrrh has just been crying, something Ephraim noticed immediately.

 

Okay after revisiting the dialogue, is it true that Myrrh was crying in Eirika route? 

[Alastor15243]

19 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Okay after revisiting the dialogue, is it true that Myrrh was crying in Eirika route? 

Her lines don't have any "sniff"s or anything like that in either route, but the line before the respective twin shows up is pretty much the same, and then in Ephraim Route, Ephraim notices she's crying. I don't see any reason why she'd be strong enough to not cry only in one specific version of this scene.

To be clear, she just has tears in her eyes until she breaks down in Ephraim Route and actually starts full-on crying.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Titania: Soren's a very empathetic young man. The emotions of this place may have proven to be too much for him.

...Uh... I don't think that sounds right, Titania.

Strictly speaking, empathy does not have to equate to "I want to be good towards you". It's understanding, but not understanding that inherently crosses to "I ally/wish I could ally myself with you". Soren can understand them, but hate them because he understands how they are.

-But I get your point, in common parlance, empathy and sympathy are interchangeable, and Titania's wording here regardless reads as "Soren is kind", which he isn't.

 

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...That's interesting. Is this... a time-sensitive support? The subject matter is very topical, not just that it couldn't have happened before (which would be easy to gate), but that it wouldn't make nearly as much sense happening afterwards. They're talking about how to fight the laguz bird tribes, which is going to be relevant pretty soon.

No, it isn't. PoR has few cases of sensitive supports- MistxJill and parts of MakalovxAstrid are the only things to come to mind.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, Ranulf shows up, and his attacks aren't effective against the Black Knight, though to his credit he tanked a crit from the guy and kept trucking.

The "if this wasn't scripted" gameplay numbers, using Ranulf's stats when he joins later:

Spoiler

Black Knight

General

Lv 20

HP 60

Str 30

Mag 17

Skl 30

Spd 27

Lck 11

Def 30+5

Res 22

 

Ranulf

Beast tribe (Cat)

Lv 9

HP 46

19 (25)

4

17 (21)

17 (20)

13 Lck

17 (22)

6 (9)

 

Alondite

–

Mt 18

Hit 80

Crit 5

 

Claw (Cat)

–

Mt 8

Hit 90

Crit 0

 

Since blessed armor is present, I'm not going to calculate Ranulf's damage or chance of hitting, but at base, his 33 Atk can't even penetrate sans the armor with the Alondite. And since there is no dodging involved, I'm leaving out hit calculations. Note however that he has 20 AS. And 13 Dodge.

Black Knight: 18 + 30 = 48 Atk. 30/2 + 5 = 20 Crit. 27 AS.

Chance of the BK's critical hit: 20 - 13 = 7.

The BK's critical hit: 48 - 22 = 26x3 = 78. 

 

So Ranulf put his life on the line with the Black Knight to protect Ike and co. and he should have died from it, he took his full HP and over half extra in damage! The BK got really lucky with a 7% Crit, but that is still normally possible. Ranulf is the one cheater here, he doubled the Black Knight, when the BK should be doubling him. Geez Ranulf is pathetically weak, hope he got better in their RD rematch.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...And then Sephiran shows up, and... I'm not sure how to interpret this scene anymore. If this is supposed to be a show put on to make Sephiran seem more reliable to Gallia, then he picked a very clumsy way of stopping the Black Knight...

If I were to guess, Sephiran after meeting with Ike and Elincia, believed it was time to give his one loyal servant an update on the current situation -not that he could've learned much from the limited exchange they had. Did the BK know Elincia was on the ship prior to Sephiran showing up? Maybe Seph deduced that if she wasn't in Gallia?

For Ranulf's sparing, maybe Sephiran thought that a Laguz who had to have been assisting I&E was more useful alive?

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...This fight does call into question why exactly the laguz nobles, specifically, have the power to pierce blessed armor. Are the laguz royalty simply strong enough to get past the blessing, a feat no beorc can accomplish unaided?

There are varying degrees of blessings, RD says as much. Where the BK armor got its blessings from is unsaid, but it shouldn't be Mantle strength (and I don't think Ragnell/Dragons/Royals pierce it if you hack PoR?). Strong enough to deflect all unblessed weapons, not strong enough to withstand peak Laguz, and it gets stripped by falling castles. 

 

 

As for Ragnell, would it have been better if the BK reclaimed it on Greil's death and tossed it to Ike during/after Battle Reunion? Repeating what he had done before Gawain after his first set of deflected strikes? 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

As for Ragnell, would it have been better if the BK reclaimed it on Greil's death and tossed it to Ike during/after Battle Reunion? Repeating what he had done before Gawain after his first set of deflected strikes? 

Is Battle Reuinion the chapter where BK explains why he can't be hurt? Yeah, if he tossed it to Ike before warping away, and they just changed it so he can use the weapon from that point on... something like that would probably work. It does raise questions of why he would want to though, since he doesn't show much interest in Ike as an opponent until he learns that Greil crippled himself (and I don't even know when in the Japanese version where they had him claim Ike only beat his fucking ghost).

Honestly, I would add an extra chapter where they have to raid a building where the sword is said to be kept, so that getting his hands on it is actually an achievement of Ike's and not dependent on BK wanting a fair fight.

[Jotari]

11 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, she's the first playable soldier in the series too, so... it's weird that I always wanted to be able to use one in the GBA games, and yet the second they're available in this game... I never used her.

You make Lucas and Forysth cry.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Is Battle Reuinion the chapter where BK explains why he can't be hurt? Yeah, if he tossed it to Ike before warping away, and they just changed it so he can use the weapon from that point on... something like that would probably work. It does raise questions of why he would want to though, since he doesn't show much interest in Ike as an opponent until he learns that Greil crippled himself (and I don't even know when in the Japanese version where they had him claim Ike only beat his fucking ghost).

Honestly, I would add an extra chapter where they have to raid a building where the sword is said to be kept, so that getting his hands on it is actually an achievement of Ike's and not dependent on BK wanting a fair fight.

The Black Knight has some interest in Ike. After all he's the one that reminds Ike that Ike has Ragnell and explains the nature of the blessing to him. So it would be absolutely in character for him to hand the sword to Ike in the Renning chapter. Though actually having it be something Ike has to earn for himself is preferable. What they did is like the worst thing they could have done. They retcon it back into Ike's possession. If they even had it available to look at in your inventory then it would be frustrating, but at least it would build up to the moment where Ike whips it out. Instead the only rationale reaction from the player is "You had that the entire time! You're an idiot!" Another option would be to make it Ike locked but make it S ranked so Ike could theoretically use it, but doesn't have the skill to until after promoting. This would make beating the black knight something you have to earn more in gameplay, even though as a really good sword lock unit the chances of Ike not S ranking by that point is pretty much non existent, it'd still feel more like you've trained up Ike for this moment.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

You make Lucas and Forysth cry.

I think I never registered them in my head as examples because they just promote to knights.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I think I never registered them in my head as examples because they just promote to knights.

I can't hear your excuses over the sound of their tears.

[Alastor15243]

Path of Radiance Day 9: Chapter 12

So, the narration says that the voyage to Begnion will take roughly 2 months. Given that you can get halfway across the length of Crimea on foot in 3 days, if Eltosian is right that the distance Soren traveled was 55-90 miles...

...Old ships (well, I found data for 19^th and 20^th century wooden ships at least) apparently went somewhere around 5-10 miles per hour...

...This ship should be able to go the distance Soren traveled over 3 days... in around 5-18 hours.

So the ship is traveling that distance somewhere between 14 and 4 times faster than Soren did.

Given that this trip is going to take us 20 times longer than Soren's trek from the castle...

...I think we can safely say that unless there's some shit I don't know about slowing them them down that goes well beyond merely sleeping if they don't have people alternating watch to keep sailing overnight, or ship technology being slower in the medieval period as opposed to the 19^th century... this trip should not be taking two months if Soren's trip took him three days. I recognize the ship's going a longer distance, but not 80 to 280 times longer.

...And here's another thing. The game makes it sound like half of the trip passed without incident, and that we're already a month in when this chapter, and crucially, any info conversations within it, begin.

...This is going to become a problem in a second.

But back to the current topic, the two bird tribe nations are described as being infamous for their pirates that rob beorc ships “for supplies and wealth”. And I know that both Tibarn and Naesala have a direct, deliberate hand in this, unless I'm mis-remembering the dialogue here with Tibarn.

So we've got two countries where a huge part of their economy is based on piracy. Where they have a ton of shit stolen from beorc ships and either given out or sold to their people.

Gee, I really wish we could see what those places look like, because that sounds fascinating. But we see more of Goldoa than we see of Phoenicis and Kilvas combined.

Anyway, Ike talks a bit about what I mentioned before: how everyone in Toha was so nice and decent... to everyone who wasn't a laguz. And that this really hammered in to Ike how strong the prejudice must be. Then Mist talks about how she was scared of them at first, because she was terrified of what they could do, and it wasn't until she spent more time around them that she got used to them.

So, Mist expresses surprise that Nasir's a laguz, because “I don't see a tail or anything”. But rather than explain to Mist that dragon laguz don't have any features like that beyond pointy ears (which I can't help but notice Nasir is not fucking hiding), Nasir says that he's done various things like change his clothing and feeding habits to avoid being discovered as a laguz, which always suggested to me that he did have some laguz features that were just being hidden (aside from those pointy fucking ears). But no, this is... just a weird answer.

And now Nasir tells Ike that in ages past, it was the laguz who persecuted the Beorc. Now, I'm really curious about the timeline of that, because... that must have been before the great flood, given that the Begnion Empire, going by the timeline IntOb posted, was already going strong and at least ruled by a beorc, immediately after Yune's defeat.

That also implies that since I'm pretty sure Begnion's religion doesn't acknowledge that the great flood, their goddess's great big fuck-up, ever happened...

...this thing about laguz-on-beorc oppression is knowledge that only the laguz, or maybe even only the dragons, still remember. So it makes sense why Nasir's the one to say it.

Anyway, after a slight pause, Ike says that that's no excuse. And honestly, since the beorc don't even remember it, it isn't even influencing their behavior at all.

But that means that when the beorc and laguz started the big race war that caused the great flood in the first place... it was the laguz who were in the wrong.

…Which suggests some interesting things that could explain some stuff about Lehran's motivations I never thought about before, but that's a discussion for another time.

Moving on...

Hahahaha! After Nasir says some stuff about how Ike's beliefs and convictions will be tested by the world, and that he hopes Ike won't give into despair, Ike just says, and I quote: “Talking to you is hard work.”

This is part of why I love Ike. For all of his stern seriousness, he's got some really funny lines.

Alright, we're at the base now, and... okay, here's that thing I mentioned was going to be a problem.

We have been at sea for a month now, and...

...Actually, almost none of what happens before this battle makes sense if this chapter starts a whole month in. That entire conversation between Nasir, Ike and Mist would have happened much sooner. ...As would Soren's report about the “last battle”.

“You've been moping about ever since we came aboard,” quoth Mist.

Ike has been moping about, dwelling over what happened in Toha, for an entire month?

And now I'm expected to believe that Sothe has been stowing away on our ship, for a fucking month, without once getting caught despite needing to sneak around to get food?

...I mean, granted, okay, he is a thief, but he's also a level 1 thief. He's like 14. And he'd need to know a hell of a lot about the habits of the ship's crew and passengers in order to sneak around to get food without getting caught for a whole month, and this is some shit he decided to do basically in a split-second decision in the middle of an active skirmish.

I don't buy it.

Anyway, on the bright side, this means we get our second thief now. I'm kind of annoyed that both of the thieves in this game are optional, and the game gives you the choice to not recruit either of them, back to back. When there's absolutely no advantage to doing so, that feels like a massive dick move.

...Also, come to think of it, I don't think there was even an “ask for advice” option this time.

But speaking of thieves on ships... here's one of my favorite info conversations in the game. The one with Volke.

So Ike basically complains to Volke that he never shows himself basically ever, even for mealtime, causing Mist to think that he's dying of hunger on the ship somewhere.

Volke: Did we ever eat together while we were on land?

Ike: All right, listen. Land? Big. Ship? Small. It's not the same thing!

And then Ike says he doesn't want Mist roaming the ship with a plate of food anymore, which always gave me this absolutely adorable mental image of Mist wandering around with that plate of food and calling out Volke's name like she's searching for an antisocial cat.

And then Volke says that if Ike wants him to eat one meal a day with them, it'll be 100 gold.

Ike: You're going to charge me? To make you eat? And that's more than you charge to pick a lock! Why?

Volke: I don't like large groups. Bye. Call me if you decide it's worth it.

(Volke exits)

Ike: Maybe I should just tell Mist he's dead...

Alright, so, next is Zihark, and he says he “joined the Toha vigilantes solely for the purpose of saving laguz.”

Zihark: I'm not from Crimea, but when I heard she had joined with Gallia, I envisioned my perfect world. One in which the laguz could live normal lives, free of oppression. However, when I came to Crimea, I found hings were no different there than in any other beorc nation.

...Damn it, that sounds like my theory from last time about why Zihark was with the vigilantes isn't true. He wasn't part of the Daein army, he came to Crimea earlier in the hopes of finding a pro-laguz utopia and failed to find one. Damn it, that “Daein army” explanation would have worked so well! But it's not true, which means we once again have to ask:

If the laguz hunts have stopped happening, why would Zihark join the vigilantes in the hopes of saving laguz from them? What is happening in Toha that is giving these vigilantes a way to fight laguz frequently enough to get Zihark's attention, that doesn't qualify as a laguz hunt? Wouldn't that imply that the vigilantes wouldn't be the aggressors here? Is that really what this is implying? Are there laguz who regularly cross the Gallian-Crimean border and attack the nearest beorc town? Maybe laguz bandits (it wouldn't be the only time we'd see such a thing), or maybe some bands of laguz really hyped up on anti-beorc sentiment and bloodlust? But Zihark doesn't strike me as the sort of person so dedicated to the cause of helping the laguz that he'd see even them as blameless victims who need to be saved. Sure, I imagine he'd want to prevent bloodshed if he could, but this doesn't seem like it would be his priority for finding the laguz most in need of saving.

...And then Ike brings up the fact Ike was born in Gallia and acts as if he genuinely thinks that this had any influence on his attitude toward Laguz, and asks if there's “a similar reason guiding [Zihark]” that makes him “defend the laguz”.

That... that... what!?

...Ugh. Okay, here's the thing...

In spite of all the elements of this story that annoy me, and all the shit I don't understand about what's going on, this is still easily, hands-down, the best writing in the marathon so far. Blazing Blade and Genealogy are the closest competitors, and this game surpasses them both. But I remembered it being so much better than this. I didn't notice basically any of these bizarre, unexplained oddities before, and they're frustrating me to no end now that I'm actually playing this game with a keyboard on my lap.

Basically, for all the shit you keep hearing me talk about this game, I'm still loving the story. I just wish I could love it so much more.

...Moving on to the last conversation, with Ilyana...

...Yeah, this feels... significantly different from how she's portrayed in Radiant Dawn. I remember in Radiant Dawn that she was basically constantly deadpan, even when expressing things she was clearly emotional about, like getting “vengeance” on the prison guards who deprived her of good food. Here, she giggled happily when Ike complimented her magic skills, and we had an entire conversation where food wasn't mentioned until the very, very end of it. I'll have to check out her supports sometime, but I'm feeling pretty confident this is a case of flanderization.

...Moving on though, I've given Marcia as many levels as I can before this battle, getting her up to level 16, because Jill, while eventually she'll be amazing, is going to be drastically underleveled for this map, and I want to make sure I have someone who can fight some of the crows on their own turf to avoid getting swarmed. Because this boat map could go very poorly for me if I let myself get swarmed. I still left most of a level of bonus experience behind, because I want to make sure that the bonus experience I get from now on goes to Jill until she's up to snuff, an if I can't give Marcia a level with the rest of it, I'll leave it and hope it's enough to add on another level to Jill when this chapter's bonus exp is added.

So, after leaving the base, we're attacked by Kilvas sky pirates, which... makes no sense. The minor thing is that it raises questions about how the hell far these laguz can fly without getting tired, but if we're right by the shores of Goldoa, then that means that we're still on the side that Phoenicis is closer to us on. Meaning we're headed in Kilvas's general direction, at least with regards to east-west.

So why are the pirates coming from behind? Why is it a matter of “outrunning” them?

...Well, in fairness, as things develop, you could easily argue that that behavior was supposed to be suspicious. Because apparently the crows “pursuing” our ship were actually intended to lure the ship into the reef we crashed into.

But that only raises the question of how the fuck far away from home these guys can fly without rest. Because note: Nasir, an experienced sailor who's traveled through these treacherous waters before, seemed confident he could outpace these raven laguz in his ship. A ship that takes 60 days to get from Toha to Begnion, while, we have to assume, raven laguz escaping slavery in Begnion were capable of making the flight at least from the shores of Begnion to the shores of Kilvas without passing out due to lack of sleep. I don't see how both of these things could be true at the same time, especially given how far away from home they're flying now.

...And note, this is a conversation where laguz are speaking to other laguz, and they're still speaking in the beorc tongue, and not their own language.

...Also, the description of the... ravens? I thought they were called crows just now. ...Whatever. The description of the ravens says they possess “great wisdom and peerless speed”. Great wisdom? Is that, like... ever mentioned anywhere except this flavor text?

...speaking of flavor text, the flavor text for the laguzslayer says it's “a sword designed for use against demihumans. It does increased damage against laguz.”

…

...Is demihuman a slur? If sub-human is a slur, demihuman sounds like it would be a slur by the same reasoning.

...But the band that lets laguz stay in animal form indefinitely with stat penalties is called the “demi band”. Is that what the laguz actually call those things? Who's writing these descriptions and giving these items their names?

Okay, I've just gotten back from going on a walk as I'm writing this, and something occurred to me about the world of Tellius while I was on that walk:

...Why do we have different nations for the different laguz tribes at all?

Why do we not hear of a single bird laguz living in Gallia, or a single cat laguz living in Phoenicis or Kilvas? Or hell, why do we have two separate bird tribe countries where damned near the only thing we know about them is the species of bird that lives there?

It's curious, isn't it? According to the timeline IntOb posted, none of these races are actually historically native to those regions. With the exception of Goldoa, those nations were founded a good while after almost everyone, beorc and laguz, had been living in Begnion for a while. So the cat, hawk and raven laguz all fled from Begnion to escape oppression... and just naturally formed themselves into three separate ethnostates when they did it?

Now, you could argue that the drastically different biological features of these species have different lifestyle demands, but like... between hawks and ravens? Why would those have to have their own distinct societies to accommodate their ways of life?

...And giving that timeline another look to double-check... yeah... originally Phoenicis was home to both bird tribes, but due to “differences within the bird tribes”, the ravens all left Phoenicis, in a mass racial exodus, to form Kilvas.

...Is...

...Is there laguz-on-laguz racism going on behind the scenes that we never directly hear about? The leaders of these nations all seem to be on relatively friendly terms with each other, but then, the same could be said of the leaders of Gallia and Crimea, and we can see just how far that friendship stretches down the social ladder. And if that's not the case, if the only case of geographic separation and biological differences that has inspired distrust, fear or hatred was specifically the one between beorc and all forms of Laguz... then why the laguz ethnostates?

...Is that why there aren't any wolves in Tellius proper? Because, I mean, every other race of laguz is represented in the descendants of the survivors of the great flood in the main part of Tellius, except for wolf laguz. Did there used to be a population of wolf laguz in Tellius that survived the great flood, but was driven to extinction due to persecution from beorc and the other tribes of laguz alike?

...Or were there originally way more species of laguz than just cat, wolf, hawk, raven and dragon? Were there snakes, and ferrets, and monkeys and bears, but when the Great Flood happened and most of the landmass was forever swallowed under the sea, all of the land-dwelling laguz living there just drowned, leaving only the dragons and birds to fly to safety and the cat and wolf laguz to survive by sheer luck of where they natively lived, on opposite sides of a nearly-impassable desert? But if so, if that's the reason, then wouldn't that mean that even before the Great Flood, these tribes still didn't like to mix with each other and all lived in geographically disparate places?

And also, if that's true, and there were a much wider array of laguz types before the Great Flood, and we're looking at only the ones who managed to escape by luck or power... you'd think there'd be a good chance we'd be seeing some sea-dwelling laguz absolutely thriving right now.

Where are my dolphin laguz, Intelligent Systems?

...But I digress. Whatever weird questions the wolf laguz bring up, they weren't a thing when this game was written, and thus any problems they cause are the sequel's fault, not the original. So I get back to my real point:

What's the reason why laguz only live in segregated nations? People keep talking about this dream of a world where beorc and laguz can live in harmony, with beasts, birds and breathers of flame all living alongside the beorc, but... it's pretty transparently obvious that the beorc-laguz relations are not the only thing keeping that utopia from happening here. Whether it's due to racism or not, there's still clearly some reason that the different tribes of laguz can't or won't live together. So what would this beorc-laguz utopia even look like, even if the beorc-laguz racism problem were to be solved?

...Fuck it, I've got a chapter to do.

I'll post this and get right on that, so stay tuned.

 

[Alastor15243]

Chapter 12 Continued

…

So I went back to base, and had Titania and Boyd support. I just realized that there's no point in leaving those supports unused, since I'll be using both of them, and Titania's light affinity should provide some useful accuracy bonuses, especially against these dodgy raven laguz. Not much to say about the support itself. Just Titania chiding Boyd for not taking his training seriously when he has the potential to be better than her.

Choosing who to bring was tough. I had to make some sacrifices, but ultimately I've decided that I'll only bring one healer, Mist. Because Rhys's defensive stats are... terrible. Like holy cow. Level 8, and he has 24 HP, 6 speed, and 1 defense. Mist is tougher, and can actually avoid being doubled by... half of them. She's still fucked if anyone who can double her attacks her, but at least now I only have one truly squishy unit to defend, instead of two. That should be manageable.

I've made sure to give Soren his elwind and Ike his laguzslayer, so I think we're good to go.

Okay, so, so far, so good. I'm really glad I brought Lethe and Mordecai, because Lethe's awesome physical stats are really useful for putting a dent in those birds without taking too much damage in return.

And now Jill shows up! And she's a green unit this time, because her determination to hunt down the enemies of Daein is surpassed only by her hatred of the half-breed scum, and she's making her way to Ike to ever-so-graciously call a truce.

...This is going to be quite amusing, as I'll talk about in a bit.

...But anyway, the initial wave was pretty easy to deal with, and the reinforcements are coming in pretty slowly. However... those reinforcements are ambush spawns. Which doesn't matter to anyone stuck on the ship... but it could have completely fucked over Marcia if I hadn't been more cautious with her.

Anyway, Jill recruits herself, and the following conversation is... black comedy gold. While the grand, heroic recruitment theme is blaring in the background, Jill proudly announces that “I cannot sit by and allow a human vessel to be attacked by sub-human degenerates! I will fight with you!”

She's issuing what, to her, in a world where the laguz are always-chaotic-evil satanspawn, is the absolute summit of heroic chivalry. This is her attempt at being Leon from Langrisser II, or Rubicante from Final Fantasy 4, a paragon of honor who will save even her worst enemy from a fate too horrible for any human being to deserve.

Meanwhile, back in reality, Ike's just staring dumbfounded at this deranged, overzealous, militaristic, racist teenage girl spouting s-bombs like she's handing out candy, before flatly telling her that she can fuck off, and that they'll handle this on their own without accepting help from some psycho with a murder-boner for his friends. To which she responds like he's lost his mind and just joins the fight on his side anyway, shouting racist battle cries.

But the best part is that as ridiculous as Jill's behavior is to the audience, it makes perfect sense to her. Can you imagine what this must look like from Jill's perspective? With what she thinks about what laguz are? She's offering to save Ike and her fellow criminal scum in their darkest hour, and she's getting told to fuck off by some kid who's the same age as her, because he takes offense at her beliefs about the people trying to rip out his intestines.

Ike sees some psycho teenage white nationalist LARPing as a paladin, while Jill sees that fucking hologram lady from Doom Eternal, chiding people to refer to demons as “mortally challenged” while the city melts to slag behind her.

The absurdity is what makes it hilarious, but it's not wanton absurdity for the sake of it, it's absurdity that makes sense in-character.

And now we've got Jill, as well as the laguzguard and the wyvern band. One thing I find annoying about the former is that while it says it reduces damage taken from laguz by half... it doesn't actually show that on the pre-combat screen, which, when you're doing an ironman after not playing it for a while, can make you think that it's bugged and doesn't actually do what it says it does, just like the beorcguard doesn't do what it says it does. But at any rate, I'm giving the laguzguard to Marcia, because Jill really needs the boost from that wyvern band in order to cap strength and defense with minimal help from stat boosters. This is... a problem, because it means I'll have to be careful about how often I use the incredibly-useful full guard item on her.

Interesting... according to the arrow redirection when I select spaces, stairs are spaces that actually can't be accessed from certain directions. I didn't realize any of the games in the series actually coded stuff like that in! So maybe I was wrong about the plank in the last map!

...Interestingly, I don't see these ravens using their leftover movement. That seems to suggest that I remember correctly that flying laguz can't canto in this game.

I don't get why the leader is moving on the map way more slowly than the minion ravens. That seems weird for a unit that's supposed to be better.

I give Jill the boss kill, and I'm a little disappointed that she has nothing to say to him.

Now I'm hoping that that was the last reinforcement, because I really want the juicy bonus experience, and every time it seems like we can kill everyone in a turn, another one shows up to make it take just one turn longer.

Thankfully, that was the last one, or at least we got one turn of respite before reinforcements start up again, a turn that's all we need to win the map. And I actually misread! We're getting all 300 bonus experience, because this gives us 9 turns, not 7.

So, now we get the post-battle scene where we have a run-in with the Goldoans, who are... sociopathically committed to non-interference with the outside world, to the point where they won't even help a stranded ship and will force them to starve to death on board or else be set on fire.

Lovely.

Also, I can't help but notice that these people, who aren't interacting with the beorc at all, happen to have metal belt buckles, so I have to assume that these guys have some metalwork of their own going on. Makes sense. Making metal's gotta be easy when you can breathe fire and withstand intense heat.

But Prince Kurthnaga shows up to scold them for being such callous bastards, and then we get some more of Ike's signature bluntness in the face of royalty. Though he does apologize this time.

I also notice that Gareth is here. It's funny how a guy who shows up in one scene becomes a playable character in the next game, even if just barely. But this feels planned. They put way too much effort into his character design for him to just be a one-scene character. But then again... they put some decent effort into the vigilante man, I suppose... maybe this game just goes the extra mile.

Okay, that's interesting... this CG suggests that the game map is understating the dragons' size, as opposed to slightly overstating the size of units like most of the game does.

Yeah, I like Kurthnaga. I'm glad he got a bigger role in Radiant Dawn, because this scene paints a really nice picture of him that deserved to be expanded on.

Speaking of, while I've spoken a bit about some plotholes I suspect Radiant Dawn will introduce that I'm not blaming Path of Radiance for, it's actually pretty cool how much this game is clearly setting things up for Radiant Dawn payoffs, and pretty effectively, at that. You can tell that Sothe, for example, was introduced here with the full intention that he'd become a bigger deal later.

Yep, and the game outright states that there's no trade between Goldoa and other nations, so yes, whatever the Goldoans have, they make themselves. Now, in real life, there's a lot of evidence to suggest that isolating yourself like this would cause massive technological backsliding, but more importantly... how often are these guys updating their beorc dictionaries? No one goes in, almost no one goes out, and yet they're all flawlessly fluent and up-to-date in the language of a people that none of them have basically ever interacted with. Reality check here: these guys' idea of beorc language should be, like, centuries out of date, given that the only one of them who talks with any speaker of it outside of their own country is Dheginsea, on like the blue moons where he talks with the other laguz royalty. Shouldn't these guys be speaking in extremelye olde beorce, withe a tendencie to putten wierde extra letters at ye ende of everie worde that will taken them?

Also... doesn't Kurthnaga know Nasir? Titania just name-drops him in front of Kurthnaga, to no reaction.

Huh.

...It occurs to me, as Kurthnaga says his friendly well-wishes of “Farewell, beorc”, how hilariously awkward that line would sound if you replaced it with literally any real-life demographic.

“Farewell, black people!”

“Farewell, Mexicans!”

“Farewell, white people!”

Just thought that was an amusing thing to point out.

...Sadly, this chapter is finished off with some utterly childish philosophy about how “there are good and bad laguz, just like there are good and bad beorc”, and it seems kind of silly that Ike even needs to make this observation. Elincia brings up a slightly more interesting point about how, with the dragons treating them kindly and the ravens trying to kill them, with such distinct appearances associated with these two races, “It is tempting to assume each race is, as a whole, intrinsically good or evil.”

...While that could have been an interesting observation if framed in the context of the terrible reputation the ravens must make for themselves with all their murder and piracy, using the dragons as a counter-example is... kind of dumb, since the dragons nearly forced Ike's party to starve themselves at flamebreath-point before Kurth showed up.

Also, “and the birds of Kilvas and Phoenicis seem so cruel.”

Bitch, Ike, when the fuck have you had a run-in with anyone from Phoenicis?

...And then Ike says something hilariously dumb about all Crimeans being good and all Daeinians being evil, before immediately correcting himself like a child realizing 1+1 = 2 when he remembers the people at Toha, and... wow. I think this might be the worst-written scene in the game.

So Nasir says he's “uncomfortable around dragons”, which sounds like an excuse to avoid being seen by them, but like... why? Am I mistaken that Kurthnaga knew who Nasir was? Would there have been consequences for him if he were found traveling with beorc?

...But more interestingly, Soren disappeared belowdecks too. Is that foreshadowing that he's specifically a dragon branded?

...Also, I just realized...

...Can't laguz smell branded? I can't remember if that was brought up in this game or if it was something added to the lore in Radiant Dawn, but like...

...Soren and Lethe were arguing and dropping slurs at each other when they first met. Surely Lethe would have wanted to say something then if she knew he was “filthy branded scum”? Am I expected to believe she's racist against beorc but socially-conscious about branded, who both beorc and laguz are supposed to treat worst of all?

At any rate, this scene is capped off by yet another moment of ship-teasing between Elincia and Ike.

...Strangely, I didn't get the 100 exp baseline clear bonus for clearing this map that SF says I should get. Just the 200 from beating it in 9 turns. Disappointing. What is the clear bonus then? Is it a minimum you're allowed to get, or am I just mis-reading it being available in hard mode?

...Well, at any rate, the map is over. Tomorrow we'll be doing the map that made me lose my first “life” on my first ironman run of this game a few years back, as well as getting one of the most broken items in the game.

Stay safe, everyone!

Edited July 11, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Eltosian Kadath]

Once again I am rather late in replying

On 6/22/2020 at 5:02 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Hey, Eltosian, remember when you said how far Soren could travel in 3 days depended on how much gear Soren was carrying? Well apparently Soren travels light. Ike comments on it, using those exact words, “travel light”, while describing his gear as basically “only a few robes and musty books”. Then again, I guess in this case he's counting on someone other than himself to carry the food, so...

That is making me think something closer to the upper range, like 75

 

 

On 6/22/2020 at 5:02 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Second, how the hell do you, using nothing but growls and gestures, without fingers mind you, convey the complex thoughts these people are clearly capable of having?

As Morose code shows, with linguistic abstraction its possible to convey all the complex thoughts people have with only two sounds, and growls and gestures certainly have more range than that low bar.

 

On 6/22/2020 at 5:02 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Of course, as Mordecai is about to explain, there are other uses for knowing the beorc language even if you hate beorc. But even so, just... the idea of them using beorc language to speak with other laguz races feels like it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of the more... shall we say... politically exuberant on this topic.

I think this is just a case of people using the Beorc Language as a Lingua Franca (a language used to facilitate trade), or World Language, which is basically a language that is commonly learned as a second language, and often used by diplomats to have a single common language to learn (instead of having to learn the numerous unique languages of all the nations they might have need to communicate with), kinda like English in the modern day, or French in 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

On 6/22/2020 at 5:02 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Tibarn.

Ranulf.

Skrimir.

All of them, possibly more, are laguz who are voiced in cutscenes, and none of them speak beorc as their first language. And yet they all speak it in a flawless “beorc” (read: American) accent.

I think it makes sense for Ranulf, they sorta set him up to be a budding diplomat (or "Friend of Nations" as the ending names him)

 

On 6/22/2020 at 5:02 PM, Alastor15243 said:

...Aren't laguz, like... the shittiest piracy targets of all time?

They don't have nearly as much nice stuff to steal, since they're not very materialistic and all... there isn't a single one of them who isn't armed with deadly natural weapons... and, like... isn't Gallian culture heavily strength-focused? It sounds to me like there's no such thing as a “defenseless civilian” to pick on here. Much more effort for much less reward. Do they do it because at least this way... none of their victims... can swim... after... them...?

Gallian civilians are a great target if those pirates are looking to take them as slaves...

 

On 6/22/2020 at 5:39 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

She's obviously got some problems, namely starting off at level 1 and relying on nothing but staff exp and bonus exp to gain levels, but I just can't help but train her. If you want to get the good, “canon” ending where Ike triumphs against the Black Knight? You want to train her.

Are you thinking of risking the ironman on that entirely RNG battle?

 

On 6/22/2020 at 8:01 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

...My point is if you lay it on realistically, which means thicker, some people will hate it because their brains will struggle too much to understand a basic conversation. Though a separate audience is sure to exist that would appreciate it.

I am clearly part of the audience that would appreciate it.

 

On 6/24/2020 at 8:53 AM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Anyway, yeah, Ranulf confirms that he knew Nasir would be here, willing to take them to Begnion. Nasir's... also a spy for Daein, in order to protect and assist Ena. Which makes me wonder when that spying and turncoat behavior starts, because surely if it's during or before this boat ride, he should have been told to turn them over to Daein on the voyage over, right? Or to just “fail” to set sail?

My guess is that Nasir's Daein contact/handler either hasn't put two and two together yet, and realized his passengers include the escaped princess, or they don't want to lose their deep cover mole, that might prove useful against Gallia.

 

On 6/24/2020 at 8:53 AM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Am I to believe the first person to invent a weapon specifically designed for killing laguz gave a shit about using the polite term for laguz when naming it?

I think it just shows that Laguzslayers were named before Beorc took on the name human for themselves (I seem to remember the shared timeline has a specific date for when the Beorc stated declaring themselves human.

 

On 6/24/2020 at 8:53 AM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Yeah, she's the first playable soldier in the series too, so... it's weird that I always wanted to be able to use one in the GBA games, and yet the second they're available in this game... I never used her. She's just too under-leveled, and I never felt the desire to train her up, just like Brom and Kiera...n...

...No, Kieran's better than I remember him being. He's level twelve, which is about the average of my army, and is pretty much on par with Oscar except he can use axes. I might actually use him this time, if I have room!

Kieran is really good if you use him.

 

On 6/24/2020 at 1:51 PM, Alastor15243 said:

…

...The Black Knight shows up...

...at the beginning of the enemy phase.

...Is he an ambush spawn?

Is the Black Fucking Knight an ambush spawn!?

YES! HE IS! HE MOVED! HE MOVED ON THE TURN HE SHOWED UP!

HOLY FUCKING FUCK SHIT WHAT THE WHY!?

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME, GAME!?

OF ALL THE REINFORCEMENTS TO MAKE AMBUSH SPAWNS, WHY IN FUCK'S NAME WOULD YOU MAKE IT THE BLACK FUCKING KNIGHT!?

Anyway... he moves three spaces every turn... unless someone is already in his attack range, in which case he moves the full distance. And almost invariably kills anything he fights.

Fun fact his ambush spawn is the cause of the only deaths (so far) from the Path of Radiance Ironman I start (speaking of which I should get back to that at some point...), I had smited Ilyana into the exact edge of his range before he spawn, and he killed her, and then left Mordecai unable to escape his range, so that was two Black Knight deaths right there.

 

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

But that only raises the question of how the fuck far away from home these guys can fly without rest. Because note: Nasir, an experienced sailor who's traveled through these treacherous waters before, seemed confident he could outpace these raven laguz in his ship. A ship that takes 60 days to get from Toha to Begnion, while, we have to assume, raven laguz escaping slavery in Begnion were capable of making the flight at least from the shores of Begnion to the shores of Kilvas without passing out due to lack of sleep. I don't see how both of these things could be true at the same time, especially given how far away from home they're flying now.

My guess is they have some safe havens on some of the smaller islands between there and Kilvas (like the little one at the edge of the battle) which they can island hop back home through, and Nasir knows he just has to get out of the Raven's comfortable laden flying range (for they are going to have to fly whatever pirated loot they get back) from what ever tiny island they are camped on to escape.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

And now Jill shows up! And she's a green unit this time, because her determination to hunt down the enemies of Daein is surpassed only by her hatred of the half-breed scum, and she's making her way to Ike to ever-so-graciously call a truce.

I am surprised you didn't mention how silly it is that Jill has somehow been on a month long Wyvern ride to chase down their boat, but I guess you might be saving that for the baffling base conversation she has next chapter, that makes said month long chase feel even sillier.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Now I'm hoping that that was the last reinforcement, because I really want the juicy bonus experience, and every time it seems like we can kill everyone in a turn, another one shows up to make it take just one turn longer.

Did you wait long enough for the reinforcement with a droppable Seraph Robe to spawn?

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Yep, and the game outright states that there's no trade between Goldoa and other nations, so yes, whatever the Goldoans have, they make themselves. Now, in real life, there's a lot of evidence to suggest that isolating yourself like this would cause massive technological backsliding, but more importantly... how often are these guys updating their beorc dictionaries? No one goes in, almost no one goes out, and yet they're all flawlessly fluent and up-to-date in the language of a people that none of them have basically ever interacted with. Reality check here: these guys' idea of beorc language should be, like, centuries out of date, given that the only one of them who talks with any speaker of it outside of their own country is Dheginsea, on like the blue moons where he talks with the other laguz royalty. Shouldn't these guys be speaking in extremelye olde beorce, withe a tendencie to putten wierde extra letters at ye ende of everie worde that will taken them?

I mean, Ena, Nasir, Rajaion, and Almedha's breaking of the isolation shows that despite it they are still getting information from the outside world, and that is even ignoring the signs that they still have some contact with other Laguz, with Dehginsea even joining that Laguz meeting. I think Gareth is the only named Dragon Laguz we don't see breaking that isolation before the second game's judgement...

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Can't laguz smell branded? I can't remember if that was brought up in this game or if it was something added to the lore in Radiant Dawn, but like...

...Soren and Lethe were arguing and dropping slurs at each other when they first met. Surely Lethe would have wanted to say something then if she knew he was “filthy branded scum”? Am I expected to believe she's racist against beorc but socially-conscious about branded, who both beorc and laguz are supposed to treat worst of all?

I don't think that was a thing in Path of Radiance, otherwise Mordecai's support with Stephan would be even weirder than it already is...

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Strangely, I didn't get the 100 exp baseline clear bonus for clearing this map that SF says I should get. Just the 200 from beating it in 9 turns. Disappointing. What is the clear bonus then? Is it a minimum you're allowed to get, or am I just mis-reading it being available in hard mode?

There is a note at the top of the Bonus EXP table that says that you don't get the Clear Bonus EXP on hard mode.

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Well, at any rate, the map is over. Tomorrow we'll be doing the map that made me lose my first “life” on my first ironman run of this game a few years back, as well as getting one of the most broken items in the game.

Did you get tricked by the crow AI into letting them seize the defend point?

[Alastor15243]

12 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I am surprised you didn't mention how silly it is that Jill has somehow been on a month long Wyvern ride to chase down their boat, but I guess you might be saving that for the baffling base conversation she has next chapter, that makes said month long chase feel even sillier.

Nope, I completely forgot about that! By the time that happened I was focused on the battle, and the subject of "a fucking month has passed" had dropped from my focus. But holy shit, that makes this even more hilarious. Honestly, pre-character-development Jill is a riot. It would've been great if she had more screen time with Haar before that massive dose of reality. I wasn't kidding when I said she reminded me of Book 1 Zuko.

12 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Are you thinking of risking the ironman on that entirely RNG battle?

I'll know when to fold 'em. I'm pretty sure if you're careful you can do that without ever risking death. But I wanna try for an aether proc, because c'mon, it's canon, and I'm playing both games in a row.

12 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Did you wait long enough for the reinforcement with a droppable Seraph Robe to spawn?

...If that's after turn 9, then no. didn't even occur to me that extra reinforcements would still have nice treasures. Well, capping HP isn't a huge priority for me anyway.

12 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Did you get tricked by the crow AI into letting them seize the defend point?

That I did. And then on the retry, the boss arbitrarily decided to start moving and killed Boyd, so he was my first (and I think only) casualty.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Icelerate]

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...I think we can safely say that unless there's some shit I don't know about slowing them them down that goes well beyond merely sleeping if they don't have people alternating watch to keep sailing overnight, or ship technology being slower in the medieval period as opposed to the 19^th century... this trip should not be taking two months if Soren's trip took him three days. I recognize the ship's going a longer distance, but not 80 to 280 times longer.

 

Are you comparing the speed of Soren to the speed of a regular human? Because I see no reason why someone on foot can't travel a much longer distance than a ship in a fantasy setting. 

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Are you comparing the speed of Soren to the speed of a regular human? Because I see no reason why someone on foot can't travel a much longer distance than a ship in a fantasy setting. 

How much slower than a regular human do you imagine Soren to be? I'm assuming you aren't implying he's faster.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Icelerate]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

How much slower than a regular human do you imagine Soren to be? I'm assuming you aren't implying he's faster.

When did I say or imply he's slower? You're saying the ship is taking too long considering Soren traveled in three days while the ship is taking months. But that only makes sense if you compare some person in the real world on foot travelling with ships. 

Also, where did Eltosian come to the conclusion that the distance Soren traveled was 55-90 miles? 

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

When did I say or imply he's slower?

You didn't, but I just wanted to make sure, because Soren's a mage, and not exactly the most physically fit individual, so I don't know what your basis would have been for assuming he's significantly faster.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Icelerate]

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

You didn't, but I just wanted to make sure, because Soren's a mage, and not exactly the most physically fit individual, so I don't know what your basis would have been for assuming he's significantly faster.

He'd be faster than ordinary humans in the real world due to anime physics as well as the ability to dodge attacks that are impossible for ordinary humans to dodge along with scaling from RD!Ike. 

Soren not being physically fit doesn't matter because he can take damage that ordinary humans in the real world would die from. 

Edited June 26, 2020 by Icelerate

[Alastor15243]

On 6/25/2020 at 10:37 PM, Icelerate said:

He'd be faster than ordinary humans in the real world due to anime physics as well as the ability to dodge attacks that are impossible for ordinary humans to dodge along with scaling from RD!Ike. 

Is your argument that there is no plothole here, because Soren can move faster than a ship, explaining the weird inconsistency in travel times?

Edited July 11, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Icelerate]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

is your argument that there is no plothole here, because Soren can move faster than a ship, explaining the weird inconsistency in travel times?

Yes. Do you think RD!Ike travelling dozens of metres in the amount of time Lucia dropped a few cm a plot hole because no human can travel anywhere near that distance? Not saying Soren is as fast as RD!Ike but there's no reason why RD!Ike would be so much faster than everyone else while everyone else is on par with average human speed. 

[Jotari]

The Zihark question could be resolved by assuming he joined the milita before Laguz hunts were outlawed, and then once they were he just stuck around with them because hey, it's still a paycheque. Either that or he wanted to make sure the milita weren't doing any illegal hunts.