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

[Interdimensional Observer]

Chapter 3 looks like it'd make a good outdoors vacation spot. A great big island with a great big mountain and some forests surrounded by plenty of freshwater to swim in.

 

As for Iote's Shield, this is Macedon, it makes sense it'd be hidden here. But, missing on Iote's Shield isn't too terrible in FE3B2, for you have dismounting, which works just fine for Pegasus Knights. And, the Lightsphere nullifies weaknesses too. There are some chapters where having Iote's pre-Lightsphere would be good, and having two arrow protectors is great, but it isn't so heavily wanted.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Palla’s growth rates, incidentally, are utterly bizarre. I looked them up after she got a lucky defense proc. She’s got amazing skill, great HP, great strength, and mediocre weapon level, but absolutely abysmal speed and luck, at 20% and 10% respectively. Thankfully her speed is 14 and her luck is 9, so that’s not a massive deal, but it is surprising.

This has been Palla's profile from the very beginning if you recheck FE1 and FE2. It's unusual for a Pegasus Knight, but she has always made it work. Proof that good bases can counterbalance (not entirely in FE12 on Maniac/Lunatic) poor growths- Spd, and that good growths can counteract poor bases- Str. Catria has always been "faster, more growths girl" but with weaker bases and Str, and Est has always been an Est.

At least this leads to some distinguishing differences among the Whitewings.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

…It was a fucking hidden treasure. THIS GAME INTRODUCES DESERT TREASURE.

Fortunately, they stop entirely with this nonsense once you get to the desert battle. It isn't like Radiant Dawn where from beginning to end you have to put up with this stuff. Until then, just remember this is an odd practice.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I mean, that’s cool, but… can someone in the thread please explain to me how I was supposed to figure that out from reading village dialogue? Because I looked as hard as I could and I saw jack shit for clues remotely resembling that.

I think it was supposed to be purely a fluke. It isn't like they give you any clues for the Pursuit/Followup Ring in FE4, and that I'd say is even harder to discover. The 16-bit era was one where super-duper secretive stuff existed in gaming, a practice that gradually died out in subsequent ones. I'd place its death in the PS3/Wii era after Tales of Vesperia released, that being the last of this archaic kind.

Considering Julian is recruited here, and that he has a 100% chance of obtaining Iote's, that could provide just the fluke discovery without it being too obscure. The location of Iote's is around the castle, not wholly unreasonable you'd move him there.

[Shadow Mir]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…It was a fucking hidden treasure. THIS GAME INTRODUCES DESERT TREASURE.

 I mean, that’s cool, but… can someone in the thread please explain to me how I was supposed to figure that out from reading village dialogue? Because I looked as hard as I could and I saw jack shit for clues remotely resembling that.

It was around the castle. That being said, dismounting is a thing in this game, so missing it might not matter that much. However... The next game is even worse with this, considering the Brave Axe, the Pursuit Ring and Forseti, all of which require specific units.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[Emperor Hardin]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I think it was supposed to be purely a fluke. It isn't like they give you any clues for the Pursuit/Followup Ring in FE4, and that I'd say is even harder to discover. The 16-bit era was one where super-duper secretive stuff existed in gaming, a practice that gradually died out in subsequent ones. I'd place its death in the PS3/Wii era after Tales of Vesperia released, that being the last of this archaic kind.

Considering Julian is recruited here, and that he has a 100% chance of obtaining Iote's, that could provide just the fluke discovery without it being too obscure. The location of Iote's is around the castle, not wholly unreasonable you'd move him there.

I believe originally stuff like that was done to sell strategy guides and gaming magazines, then later on it just became a tradition for series like Fire Emblem.

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

It was around the castle. That being said, dismounting is a thing in this game, so missing it might not matter that much. However... The next game is even worse with this, considering the Brave Axe and Pursuit Ring, the latter of which you don't get in the second generation.

There's also no hints to getting Forseti, so I missed it the first time.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Emperor Hardin

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 minute ago, Emperor Hardin said:

There's also no hints to getting Forseti, so I missed it the first time.

At the very least, I think the game should on one of the player unit menu pages tell you to bring Lewyn to Silesse Castle after seizing it.

And there is this one line in the opening dialogue:

Lahna:
“Why, I never! Treating me like an old lady… Levin, I have much to tell you. Come to Silesia. Soon. Understood?”

(My bolding)

But, I can totally understand someone missing out on Forseti just the same. It's only one line in a long conversation between mother and son. And who looks at certain menus anyhow? I don't think the game ever tells you can find a list of conversations available at the moment, you just have to fiddle around to find it.

[Emperor Hardin]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

At the very least, I think the game should on one of the player unit menu pages tell you to bring Lewyn to Silesse Castle after seizing it.

And there is this one line in the opening dialogue:

Lahna:
“Why, I never! Treating me like an old lady… Levin, I have much to tell you. Come to Silesia. Soon. Understood?”

(My bolding)

But, I can totally understand someone missing out on Forseti just the same. It's only one line in a long conversation between mother and son. And who looks at certain menus anyhow? I don't think the game ever tells you can find a list of conversations available at the moment, you just have to fiddle around to find it.

You had to enter the castle with Levin/Lewyn/whatever and from my recollection, that wasn't a hint to visit that particular castle, but rather Silesia in general.

[Alastor15243]

Day 20 Bonus: Book 2, Chapter 4

Okay, so apparently Macedonia isn’t just famous for its dragon riders, but also for its “vikings”?

Back to the actual map, I can only assume, from the fact that this thief starts literally 3 spaces away from a village, that we’re starting in that southwest corner. And due to the absurd proximity this other thief has to the other village, I’m just gonna take a shot in the dark and assume we’re getting allies there.

And there’s not much else to do before starting, really! Still don’t have enough units to have to pick and choose, and I don’t have much inventory management to do besides hand out the stuff Gordin bought last map. Let’s begin!

And fun fact: I’m starting to feel like it’ll be more fun to make this ironman. I play better that way, I have more fun that way, and the ironmannability and usability of this game are high enough that I feel comfortable doing it. So let’s do this!

Anyway, I totally forgot Sirius starts out as an enemy! I don’t want to wait to find out if he’ll attack my units or not, so I’m gonna have to recruit him. Unfortunately I can’t do that without diving straight into enemy fire. So I’ll have to be super careful about how I choose to do that.

Important information I need to keep in mind: talking ends your turn in this game. So I’ve gotta trade Sirius’s iron sword to Ogma because his current steel sword gives him just enough attack power to one-round these pirates, and we really don’t want that. He can just barely survive the number of facings I’ve exposed him to.

…Scratch that, I just checked, turns out that none of the pirates are actually in range of Ogma thankfully, just the hunters.

Also, Yumina has a rescue staff, which is awesome, but no actual healing staff, which sucks a frankly unacceptable amount of ass. In fact, NOBODY in this little merry band has any healing items. Which means I’m gonna have to abuse the shit out of Sirius and his fucking 11 base defense in order to take these guys out before they can wear us down.

Yeah, honestly, Sirius is amazing, with awesome base stats in literally everything… but his utterly garbage luck stat of 1. Well, I sure as hell know who’s getting the goddess icons.

Anyway, I’m really hoping the pattern holds and thieves don’t attack when there’s a village they could be making a beeline for, because otherwise Yumina, who got hit by a pirate I forgot could cross water, is gonna die. To make absolutely sure this thief thinks he has better things to do than kill the girl blocking the northeastern village space, a girl he could easily kill with his devil sword, I even pass up on the opportunity to visit the southwestern village this turn with Marth.

THANK. FUCKING. GOODNESS.

Alright, forcing me to lug two archers around through rough terrain has made me realize how utterly garbage archers’ movement is. Not only is it merely 5, but they’re brought to a total fucking standstill by any remotely rough terrain. I’ll be glad to be rid of the fuckers. It’s like they want people to consider hunters objectively better.

Fun fact: I’ve actively been avoiding giving Marth any levels until I have at least two star shards to use on him, because I want to make sure he’s good, given I don’t know what the supply of stat boosters in this game is like and he only has 17 levels to gain, unlike everyone else who can easily wait until they promote to worry about star shard power leveling.

SWEET! CASTOR’S BACK! I thought I wasn’t gonna get him until much later! Awesome! Honestly, this time, now that I’m under no delusions that anything but his raw offensive power is going to be relevant in the endgame, I’m not gonna bother waiting to promote him. His offensive stats should get close to capping just fine by the time he reaches peak usefulness. His main window of usefulness is when he can do a lot of player phase damage, and when I haven’t made a bunch of magical super soldiers capable of leaping straight into enemy formations unscathed. So yeah, he’s one of the very rare instances where I’m ever going to early-promote someone outside of Valentia. But that depends entirely on when I get an Orion’s Bolt I suppose.

It’s almost like they’re making a running gag out of this guy’s backstory. This poor fucker is STILL hunting for gold to help his sick mom. But on the plus side… this guy starts with pretty dang good bases! 10 Str, 7 skill, 8 speed, 4 luck, 8 weapon level, 6 defense, and 0 resistance by default obviously, all at level 7. Better still, he comes in packing a killer bow, which has an attack power of 8 and a weight of 3, giving him enough AS to double basically every enemy we’ve fought so far except for the dragon riders! Oh, I’m gonna get some use out of this guy.

Yeah, honestly, while it wasn’t nearly as bad as last map, this was yet another map that had small bits of action punctuated by massive gaps of travel time. I don’t get how people didn’t figure out how shitty these maps were in playtesting. But now that Linde’s gotten great enough that she can double 0 AS enemies with Aura, I can take out the boss with ease, and…

…Hey look, Caeda’s here!

What’s that, Caeda? Altea got invaded while Marth’s ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY was off doing random shit for an evil guy, who they then proceeded to piss off? WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE!?

In all seriousness, this is the best plot so far, the low bar that is notwithstanding. And another thing that’s occurring to me right at this moment… is that I probably could have used that rescue staff Yumina comes with to bring someone in to help. I just totally forgot that it would have an infinite range because this is the first time I’ve had rescue in this marathon.

Day 20 Bonus Bonus: Book 2, Chapter 5

Alright, let’s keep going, because it’s the weekend and I can’t think of much else to do at the moment.

Lang's castle is called the “Nest of Vice”, huh? Will I find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy elsewhere?

Well… this is an intimidating map. First off, I have no idea where the fuck my army is going to show up, though I have an educated guess that it’s the southeast corner. Second, Jeorge is here, with the fucking Parthia, and that’s sounds both too ridiculous to have to fight and too ridiculous to be able to recruit, so I’m thinking he’s going to retreat at some point and I’ll be able to talk to him later. Hopefully. I’ll have to make sure to fight these thieves immediately to make sure I don’t have to chase them into Jeorge’s territory. That is, assuming I start where I think I do. And hey, even if I do have to make a mad dash into Jeorge’s range, I can always just rescue that unit!

…Yeah, I seriously doubt they expect me to fight these guys, but they’re SOOOO fucking close to the thieves. Looks like I will have to use the rescue staff to kill all three of them without aggroing them yet.

FUUUUUUUUCK. ONE OF THEM IS RICKARD, AND HE HAS THE FUCKING MEMBER CARD. I CAN’T JUST KILL HIM, I HAVE TO TALK TO HIM WITH SOMEONE, PROBABLY JULIAN!

…Alright. Fuck it. Two uses of rescue it is. It’s worth it to guarantee access to that member card. I rescue Julian to get him closer to Rickard, talk to him out of range of the snipers, and then send Sirius as far northwest as he can go. He should JUUUUUST be able to intercept the thief next turn, at which point I’ll rescue him back with Yumina again if he has to do it from within sniper range.

And the thief was holding a second knight crest! The game is just spoiling me with these things compared to Book 1!

Man, the start is generally the most fun part of any Fire Emblem map, and it’s rare that a map manages to start good and then get even better, but it’s become blindingly obvious that later games figured out a few tricks to making sure that the game stays at least SOMEWHAT intense all the way through, and that even after two games now, Book 2 just has not learned some of these lessons. Still though, like with Gaiden, I feel like I’m actually strategizing here!

Well, I sure as hell hope Yumina gets more rescue staves, because I’ve already used 40% of the charges she has now.

Okay, thank goodness, for a second I thought Jeorge and his silver bow snipers were gonna charge me. But no, the game very helpfully explains they’re going to wait for someone to come in range. Which means for now we’re reasonably in the clear and might be able to beat this level without even needing to go anywhere near them.

Alright, I’ve dealt with the initial wave. Now to get Marth safely to that village, deal with the meager forces around the castle, and if possible, sweep any likely locations I can find for secret shops.

Unfortunately it seems to be completely impossible to sneak past the snipers, and I have to go the long way around to get to the village, through the mountains to the west. FUCK.

Anyway, It occurs to me that Palla’s reached level 20. I think this is the earliest in any playthrough that I’ve capped one of my units’ levels. It takes ages for this to happen to my late-promoting lords, and I train them plenty. Guess that’s what happens when you start at level 10 and have a crazy exp system.

Well, now that I have two star shards, we’re officially in a place where we can do crazy things with training.

Also, given we’re clearly about to have an indoor map, I think it’s likely the secret shop is waiting in there and I just got the member card a little early. So I’ll just grab that village, feed those dragon riders to a sharded Linde, and call it a day.

A thief ambush-spawned out of nowhere in the middle of the map, but then proceeded to do fuck all, so… not sure what to think about that. Bright side, they kept coming, so that’s more fodder for Linde, who’s started gaining some defense thanks to the +25 in growths she’s getting there!

So… apparently Malliesia is Lena’s pupil and can use Hammerne! Awesome! Getting something this great this early… I’d be happier about it if it had been gated behind a challenge rather than tedium.

But with that, we end this map, and also the bonus episodes for today. I plan on playing a lot of this game this weekend, mostly because this time I don’t have that much else to do. It’s a weird mix of kind of enjoying this game and wanting to be done with it as soon as possible that’s making me want to do a bunch of it at once. It’s really hard to explain. I'm just really, really excited for the games that come next. Basically all of them. This may be a step up from Book 1, but I know that it's after this game that the series really starts hitting its stride.

But anyway, until tomorrow!

Edited October 19, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

It’s almost like they’re making a running gag about of this guy’s backstory. This poor fucker is STILL hunting for gold to help his sick mom.

This is never explained in-game, not even FE12, but backstory notes say more:

Spoiler

Q8: How did Castor end up becoming a swindler?

Comments: Castor is about three years older than Shiida. He has seven younger brothers and sisters. After his mother gave birth to her ninth child, she fell dangerously ill. Their father had left for Gallder and they hadn’t heard from him for a long time. So Castor had to leave to support his ill mother and his younger siblings. After the War of Shadows, Castor quickly rushed to buy the clothes he promised as a present to his younger sister, Leen. However he was too late. While he was away, Leen sold herself to a slave merchant to earn gold for the family. Eventually he found her at a sleazy bar at Warren, where her cold and dying body lay. Around the time of War of Heroes, Castor made himself known as a swindler, but he only did it to earn gold for his family, so as to prevent Leen’s tragedy from repeating.

 

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I play better that way, I have more fun that way, and the ironmannability and usability of this game are high enough that I feel comfortable doing it. So let’s do this!

Just remember to keep a certain quartet alive! Or Yumina.

 

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Well, I sure as hell hope Yumina gets more rescue staves, because I’ve already used 40% of the charges she has now.

I recommend saving them. I won't say why, but I mean it.

 

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, thank goodness, for a second I thought Jeorge and his silver bow snipers were gonna charge me. But no, the game very helpfully explains they’re going to wait for someone to come in range. Which means for now we’re reasonably in the clear and might be able to beat this level without even needing to go anywhere near them.

This tripped me up, with made visiting the village take longer than it should have, just as you did. I tried too hard to stay away from Jeorge's crew.

You can safely pursue the thieves and have Marth go north, and Jeorge's crew won't attack you. I don't know how close is too close, but the distant edge of their range is not close enough to aggro them. I confirmed this in FE12.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This is never explained in-game, not even FE12, but backstory notes say more:

  Hide contents

Q8: How did Castor end up becoming a swindler?

Comments: Castor is about three years older than Shiida. He has seven younger brothers and sisters. After his mother gave birth to her ninth child, she fell dangerously ill. Their father had left for Gallder and they hadn’t heard from him for a long time. So Castor had to leave to support his ill mother and his younger siblings. After the War of Shadows, Castor quickly rushed to buy the clothes he promised as a present to his younger sister, Leen. However he was too late. While he was away, Leen sold herself to a slave merchant to earn gold for the family. Eventually he found her at a sleazy bar at Warren, where her cold and dying body lay. Around the time of War of Heroes, Castor made himself known as a swindler, but he only did it to earn gold for his family, so as to prevent Leen’s tragedy from repeating.

 

Jeeeeeeeeesus. Poor fucking guy! Do they go into this in his FE12 supports with Kris?

Edit: Re-read and noticed the "not even in FE12". That is a massive shame.

Also, thanks for the tip about Jeorge. At any rate, no way in hell I was going to risk trying that. Shame I had to waste those rescue charges to be sure though.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Jeeeeeeeeesus. Poor fucking guy! Do they go into this in his FE12 supports with Kris?

I just checked, nope. It's only about Kris trying to get Castor to swear an oath of fealty to Marth over three conversations. Why when this sounds like a good backstory is beyond me. Did IS forget this story existed?

And this reminds me, Leen? The same name they gave Silvia's dancer daughter in the next game. Coincidence? -Depends on what the Japanese characters being used are.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Interdimensional Observer said:

I just checked, nope. It's only about Kris trying to get Castor to swear an oath of fealty to Marth over three conversations. Why when this sounds like a good backstory is beyond me. Did IS forget this story existed?

Wooooooooow. Shame. Honestly, I think Castor's become one of my favorite shadow dragon characters, largely due to how much fun I've had using him FE3. Learning this about him makes me want to use him even more.

[Emperor Hardin]

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Jeeeeeeeeesus. Poor fucking guy! Do they go into this in his FE12 supports with Kris?

Edit: Re-read and noticed the "not even in FE12". That is a massive shame.

Also, thanks for the tip about Jeorge. At any rate, no way in hell I was going to risk trying that. Shame I had to waste those rescue charges to be sure though.

While there are exceptions, a lot of FE12's Kris supports are a missed opportunity, I think.

By the way, wanna hear an interesting thing I just found out about FE3's engine.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Emperor Hardin said:

While there are exceptions, a lot of FE12's Kris supports are a missed opportunity, I think.

By the way, wanna hear an interesting thing I just found out about FE3's engine.

What kind of thing are we talking about here?

[Emperor Hardin]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

What kind of thing are we talking about here?

Its about the game engine.

It seems while the enemy can hold 4 weapon slots just like player units, its hard to get their AI to use anything but the first weapon slot, this might explain all the Bishops with only healing staves and nothing else. Like Dragonstones, enemies hold staves in their weapon slot. Like if I give Gazzak a hand-axe in his second weapon slot, he won't use it. Same with healing bishops and an attack tome.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Its about the game engine.

It seems while the enemy can hold 4 weapon slots just like player units, its hard to get their AI to use anything but the first weapon slot, this might explain all the Bishops with only healing staves and nothing else. Like Dragonstones, enemies hold staves in their weapon slot. Like if I give Gazzak a hand-axe in his second weapon slot, he won't use it. Same with healing bishops and an attack tome.

That would explain why there were so many unarmed sages. But then I wonder why they were sages. If I had to guess, this was before they were comfortable letting the player kill women, and they didn't have a male healer sprite made.

[Emperor Hardin]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

That would explain why there were so many unarmed sages. But then I wonder why they were sages. If I had to guess, this was before they were comfortable letting the player kill women, and they didn't have a male healer sprite made.

Have I shown the old interview on female enemies and discussed Fire Emblem's general reluctance to depict women as evil even today?

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Emperor Hardin said:

Have I shown the old interview on female enemies and discussed Fire Emblem's general reluctance to depict women as evil even today?

If you did, I can't quite remember.

[Emperor Hardin]

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

If you did, I can't quite remember.

I just remembered, I didn't show it to you.

Spoiler

Tsukamoto: Another thing that caught me by surprise this time round was the presence of women in the enemy ranks. I think this was the most refreshing part of the game to me, actually. Till now, any female enemies you saw were usually recruitable units, but women that stay as antagonists throughout is a first.

Kaga’s comment: I didn’t do that on purpose, I just didn’t like the idea of completely irredeemable women…but I guess no one does (laughs). I didn’t want to make a female character that was completely evil, but then I also wouldn’t be surprised to find that women like Hilda exist in this world. But it feels so overly unpleasant that I don’t really like doing it. Among the enemies in this game, many of whom have their own circumstances and some of whom even have their likeable points, Hilda is the very definition of villainous. She’s like an evil witch; you’d want to kill her if she were your enemy. I like real world history, which is why I base my works on it, but the killing of women is something that doesn’t happen so much even in real life. That’s why I don’t really like to include it.

This interview is on FE4 which contains the most female enemies in the series.

Also related, what genuinely evil females can you think of in Fire Emblem?

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Also related, what genuinely evil females can you think of in Fire Emblem?

That woman with the ridiculously huge tits and the incredibly low-cut dress from Faerghus? I haven't played the whole game, only all of Crimson Flower and half of Verdant Wind, but from what I saw she seemed like a piece of shit. And Kronya too unless they reveal something about her post-death.

There's also Peri, and no one on earth will tell me otherwise. She's tragic, but she's also completely beyond anything resembling redemption.

Sonia for sure is a sack of garbage, definitely irredeemable, then Hilda as they said. Nuibaba too, who's female at least in Echoes.

Ashera's also an unfeeling psychopath, even if it's hard to call her evil because her thought process is just so inhumanly alien and not really malicious.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

[Emperor Hardin]

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

There's also Peri, and no one on earth will tell me otherwise. She's tragic, but she's also completely beyond anything resembling redemption.

Game wants you to see her as tragic and a victim of circumstance against her control.

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Sonia for sure is a sack of garbage, definitely irredeemable

Agreed, one of the few irredeemable female villains in FE.

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Nuibaba too, who's female at least in Echoes.

That isn't the case; the Art book gives her a long tragic backstory of how she was a victim who only became evil because her fiancé abused her and tried to murder her, leading to her getting revived and corrupted by an evil spirit.

Basically its the same deal as Aversa; she's female so she has to be attractive, and because of those two she can't be truly evil and responsible for her actions.

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ashera's also an unfeeling psychopath, even if it's hard to call her evil because her thought process is just so inhumanly alien and not really malicious.

Exactly its established she's more of a force of nature.

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ashera's also an unfeeling psychopath, even if it's hard to call her evil because her thought process is just so inhumanly alien and not really malicious.

There's just: Hilda, Sonia, Petrine, and possibly Kronya.

Thats only four in a series in a sea of characters, especially villains.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Emperor Hardin

[Jotari]

What I find more surprising about them dropping the axe users and making Silver Axes basically gems, is that they bothered to keep the axe users in book 1.

So youissed Iote's Shield then? I said secret treasure, I guess if I said hidden treasure it would have been more obvious. It's actually put in a somewhat sensible place as its where Michalis was. Guess he dropped it.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Emperor Hardin said:

There's just: Hilda, Sonia, Petrine, and possibly Kronya

Forgot her, but isn't she sympathetic in the sense that she's a branded and thus has all of the baggage that implies?

 

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

What I find more surprising about them dropping the axe users and making Silver Axes basically gems, is that they bothered to keep the axe users in book 1.

So youissed Iote's Shield then? I said secret treasure, I guess if I said hidden treasure it would have been more obvious. It's actually put in a somewhat sensible place as its where Michalis was. Guess he dropped it.

I don't get how you felt it "wouldn't take a genius" to find the thing with the information I'd been given, man. That's just sheer easter egg level luck.

[Emperor Hardin]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Forgot her, but isn't she sympathetic in the sense that she's a branded and thus has all of the baggage that implies?I 

I hadn't thought of that, guess its only just Hilda, Sonia and maybe Kronya then? 

Oh and FE4's minor female bosses, the only game with multiple minor female bosses.

Your thoughts on the reluctance of Fire Emblem to depict women as evil and/or unattractive, as well as the phoned in Nuibaba backstory? 

[Jotari]

56 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This is never explained in-game, not even FE12, but backstory notes say more:

  Hide contents

Q8: How did Castor end up becoming a swindler?

Comments: Castor is about three years older than Shiida. He has seven younger brothers and sisters. After his mother gave birth to her ninth child, she fell dangerously ill. Their father had left for Gallder and they hadn’t heard from him for a long time. So Castor had to leave to support his ill mother and his younger siblings. After the War of Shadows, Castor quickly rushed to buy the clothes he promised as a present to his younger sister, Leen. However he was too late. While he was away, Leen sold herself to a slave merchant to earn gold for the family. Eventually he found her at a sleazy bar at Warren, where her cold and dying body lay. Around the time of War of Heroes, Castor made himself known as a swindler, but he only did it to earn gold for his family, so as to prevent Leen’s tragedy from repeating.

 

Just remember to keep a certain quartet alive! Or Yumina.

 

I recommend saving them. I won't say why, but I mean it.

 

This tripped me up, with made visiting the village take longer than it should have, just as you did. I tried too hard to stay away from Jeorge's crew.

You can safely pursue the thieves and have Marth go north, and Jeorge's crew won't attack you. I don't know how close is too close, but the distant edge of their range is not close enough to aggro them. I confirmed this in FE12.

Oh wow. That's like Jugdral levels of shit to go through.

50 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I just checked, nope. It's only about Kris trying to get Castor to swear an oath of fealty to Marth over three conversations. Why when this sounds like a good backstory is beyond me. Did IS forget this story existed?

And this reminds me, Leen? The same name they gave Silvia's dancer daughter in the next game. Coincidence? -Depends on what the Japanese characters being used are.

Well since this is FE12 it's the character they named fifteen years ago, not in the next game.

19 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Game wants you to see her as tragic and a victim of circumstance.

Agreed, one of the few irredeemable female villains in FE.

That isn't the case, the Art book gives her a long tragic backstory of how she was a victim who only became evil because her fiancé abused her and tried to murder her, leading to her getting revived and corrupted by an evil spirit.

Basically its the same deal as Aversa; she's female so she has to be attractive, and because of those two she can't be truly evil and responsible for her actions.

Exactly its established she's more of a force of nature.

There's just: Hilda, Sonia, Petrine, and possibly Kronya.

Thats only four in a series filled with characters.

I'd put Petrine more down as a maybe than Kronya. She's just fighting for her country after all. She also has a sympathetic death quote. From Tellius there's also that random disciplie of order who talks pretty psychotically. Lamia, I think her name is, from Genealogy and her band of all female mercenaries is depicted as straight up unredeemed if I remember correctly.

15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Forgot her, but isn't she sympathetic in the sense that she's a branded and thus has all of the baggage that implies?

 

I don't get how you felt it "wouldn't take a genius" to find the thing with the information I'd been given, man. That's just sheer easter egg level luck.

I think if you knew and were actively hunting for hidden treasure (which I thought I had made clear was the case) you would have been able to rationalize it out as where Michalis was.

Edited October 19, 2019 by Jotari

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Well since this is FE12 it's the character they named fifteen years ago, not in the next game.

The backstory notes, where Leen Castor's sister is mentioned, is only from FE3. 

I can see how me commenting on the backstory name in a subsequent post would make you think i meant FE12 though. Dancers ~= slavery in Jugdral, so Leen Castor's sister selling herself into slavery has some connection that could possibly make it more than a coincidence.

[Seazas]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I just checked, nope. It's only about Kris trying to get Castor to swear an oath of fealty to Marth over three conversations. Why when this sounds like a good backstory is beyond me. Did IS forget this story existed?

And this reminds me, Leen? The same name they gave Silvia's dancer daughter in the next game. Coincidence? -Depends on what the Japanese characters being used are.

Well they did forget about Draug and Norne's relationship along with never giving Cain and Catria a proper interaction despite the the duos having support bonuses. Shadow Dragon brought forth interesting ideas that were forgotten about unfairly. Marth having a personal arc and being more realistic, Marth not needing to be spoonfed exposition because he says himself that he's the prince of his own country, Draug getting a love interest adding more to his pool of relations, etc. 

FE12 dropped a lot of things and fucked over/forgot good and established content. Castor's backstory is one out of many.

Thank god Echoes didn't have to suffer what Archanea had to deal with. Fuck Kris, lousy support hog.