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

[lenticular]

18 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I would say it's good gameplay and story integration, but for entirely different reasons - He's not fighting at his best (compare his stats here to in his prior appearance - on Normal and Lunatic, his strength and defense have dropped; also, I find it odd that for whatever reason, his HP actually DECREASES on Hard compared to Normal); for that matter, Leo was holding back too.

How many people are actually going to remember his stats from 14 chapters previously, though? I know I didn't. I remembered that the last time I saw him he had very high stats compared to where I was at the time but certainly not the absolute values. And besides, if the idea is to have him be deliberately ineffective, why are his stats not lowered on hard? If it's an important part of storytelling, why is it not present on one difficulty level? And the middle difficulty level at that. I'd understand if he had lower stats on normal and hard but then very high stats on lunatic if they wanted to prioritise difficulty on lunatic, but having it be only hard where his stats aren't lowered is really weird.

[Alastor15243]

Birthright Day 21: Chapter 27

Alright.

Here we go.

I've bought 20 HP, strength, speed, defense and resistance tonics, I've made Scarlet a forged +3 iron club called the Hellrocket, something of an inside reference to something I was going to do with Dakota's War Journal, and I re-rolled for a str/spd/def meal. I think that's all I can do at this point. I'm busier today with work than I've been since the pandemic started more than a year ago, so let's get moving while I still have the free time.

I see that I've unlocked Invasion 3, but I really don't care at this point. I wanna finish this game this week because Conquest is next!

Let's go.

Chapter 27.

Garon.

Oh shit. This cutscene.

Honestly, this is the only Garon moment I unironically enjoy. Everything about it is badass. The volcanic crack in the floor with the tap of his axe, the slow rise from his throne, and the deliciously menacing “I'm so glad you made it home!” line are just amazing.

It sucks that in the rest of the story he's so utterly boring and ridiculous, and in the actual gameplay he's a complete and total loser.

Yeah, same old same old, Dakota attacks the big bad, but Yato MKII isn't enough, big bad beats everyone around like rag dolls, big brother's sword reacts with Yato MKII to upgrade it to Yato MKIII, battle prep starts.

Alright, boys and girls.

Final battle time. And as Dakota Waterstone Vendelgate of Nohr would always say:

I am the reaper.

He is my prey.

This is my scythe.

AND YOU'RE IN MY WAY!

BEGIN!

...Actually, looking at these Hard Mode screenshots makes me appreciate just how many more enemies Lunatic added. It's kind of hilarious.

Alright, first, I have Dakota dive in to activate vow of friendship. She needed an HP tonic to survive, but no matter, we're good. Then I have Azura sing for her, and then Kagero shelters Azura to get Azura out of the way of those dangerous enemies, and then Shura takes Azura, sings her to the front, and gets Kagero to move again so she can pair up with Silas.

...Unfortunately, I totally underestimated the strength of these generals, and I can't actually realistically clear them out in one turn, so I have to have Silas and Ryoma go up front while I have Sakura use the last rescue rod use bringing Azura and Sura to safety. We'll have a pretty big player phase next turn, and I'm getting ahead a bit by having Saizo bait in the tomahawk hero after being rallied up by Scarlet.

The remaining enemies aren't quite that aggressive at the start. The ones near the start all charged, but the assorted fliers, riders, berserkers and generals up north have not.

The enemies have finally caught up to my army in level, so I might be able to squeeze in getting Scarlet trample if I use her enough. That would be nice, but honestly at this point she's more of a filler unit, so...

Takumi with the Pursuer is absolutely insane. I'm honestly curious what kind of damage he can do with that to Garon.

I love the music, by the way. Like I've said before, Far Away is a great song.

Alright, yeah, as I expected, enemies are coming in timed waves, and while one wave forced a retreat (probably because I focused too much on player-phase units for fun when it really wasn't even remotely necessary in this game), I'm managing pretty well now.

I'm kind of surprised how well Subaki's turned out. He's easily my worst flier in terms of combat, but he has his niche, and if Hinoka had survived he'd be rocking lancefaire, which would definitely be a boost. He's still doubling enemies even now, despite his terrible speed growth. Probably doesn't hurt that Nohrian enemies are such total slowpokes.

These entrap strategists are annoying, but since she came our way first, I was able to charge forward with Azura's help and have Ryoma take her out and enemy-phase the few enemies around her.

I've got Amaterasu on all of my kinshi knights, but I've got too many filler healers I can bring for it to be as useful as I'd like. Hopefully I can get more out of it in Conquest.

And I got Scarlet trample! Man, is this really the time the game expects you to get your level 15 skills without “overleveling”? Way to suck the fun out of the lategame, Birthright.

Weird, I attacked someone next to Garon and he wasn't in attack stance with them. Speaking of, I kinda wish bosses had attack stance lines and the like. His “Do not fail me” would be great for being someone's attack stance partner.

But yeah, they royally phoned Garon in. He looks like a total loser in combat. Hunched over like a weirdo, his music is just this discordant mess of nonsense, and also, most crucially, Bölverk doesn't fucking have fire powers. No volcanic blasts, despite them having a fucking volcanic fire animation, mind, no, he just throws it! It's a fucking 1-3 range weapon! And he just throws it!

...Alright, he has something of a nasty crit rate, but I think I can still player-phase him.

...Nope, he's got a crit chance on basically everyone regardless of attack stance bonuses, so I'm gonna have to just cheese him at 2 range with Ryoma.

Thankfully, he went down in two rounds due to astra, so I didn't have to deal with counterattacks or healing.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I love how we got a big epic cutscene for normal Garon, but unlike in Conquest or Revelation, there was no cutscene to introduce the final boss. He just transforms in a flash of light in a story scene after Garon really goofily opens his eyes and points his axe towards the sky.

So Dragon Garon smashes the Blazing Yato to pieces somehow, and...

...Oh god I'm honestly almost grateful to Revelation for not doing this horseshit, if only because it didn't have as many “important” people who died. Dakota gets basically sent half to death and enters an afterlife-ish dream state where... she talks to her fallen loved ones from Nohr.

Oh, but right before that, I have to point out that yet again, as Dakota falls flat on the ground... her ass is just inelegantly on display.

It's not even a good ass! It looks all goofy and weird as a 3DS model!

...Oh god.

Is that a hint of thigh I see... from the front?

So it's not that she's wearing assless pants under her greaves... it's that she isn't wearing pants under her greaves at all? Just that blue banner loin cloth covering her up from the front!?

OH MY GOD GAME I CAN ONLY LAUGH AT YOU SO MUCH.

Right, so Lilith and Flora wake Dakota up, Elise and Xander are there too, and they tell her she has to go back to save her friends, everyone you deployed calls out to her, yada yada yada, let's keep it moving people...

Yeah, yet again, I have to say that Xander seems really gung-ho about Dakota stopping Garon. How long has he come to terms with the fact that his father's evil if he's this ready to talk to Dakota like this? Did he already know this when he chose to duel Dakota to the death?

Fuck this game.

...Okay, I will admit, Kana's crying and saying he'll promise to be a good boy from now on if only Dakota doesn't die... kinda got to me a bit. Nearly all of the rest of them, though, are amazingly generic and based on characters' core gimmicks. It's really annoying.

Ah yes, when Lilith mentions perching on Dakota's shoulder... okay, so, I've heard some people claim, notably on TVTropes, that the “bird” that Dakota found and took care of was a completely different form Lilith took than the fish-dragon we see. Nope. She explicitly says, when she transforms for the first time into that fish-dragon, that Dakota had “seen it before”, and that it was “that strange bird”. How the fuck anyone on the writing team thought it was realistic to make anyone think it looked like a bird is totally beyond me.

Dakota: Thank you, Xander. I finally understand why you made the choices you did.

HOW!? HOW CAN THAT POSSIBLY BE A SENTENCE THAT COMES OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, DAKOTA!?

...Ugh. Okay. Whatever.

 

Day 21 Bonus: Endgame

Oh hell yes. Now “Destiny, Help Us!” plays, and it's time for final battle prep.

Now then... this battle. You have two options.

You can retreat to safety in the rear and then slowly fight your way forward...

...or you can one-turn it.

Considering that I have a shitload of fliers with high DPS, and this map looks like a total mess, and I wanna finish up here as soon as possible since I've got a lot to do today... yeah, I'm one-turning this sumbitch.

Amusingly, Garon's surprisingly fast, so I have to be careful about which specific kinshi knights I put at the front. Saizo and Mozu can't actually double him, only Shigure and Kiragi.

Alright, the general got taken out by Takumi, and Silas took out the maid. Now we're clear for fighting Garon.

...It occurs to me I could probably have gotten way more use out of Azura if I had had Silas and Kagero on shelter duty. Shit. Hope this is still enough.

I wish I had made Kiragi slip into sniper for a bit for certain blow. He wound up missing a crucial attack, but Garon's at 8 HP now. All Ryoma has to do is hit once and we win.

...Actually no, Ryoma's too inaccurate to entrust this to. I don't know why, but Ryoma's skill is pretty mediocre, at 25, and now it's nerfed further with draconic hex. Takumi is definitely the better choice here.

YEP! GOODBYE, GARON!

...I do like the cinematography choice to have the camera pan up to the Anankos ceiling dragon as Garon starts disintegrating, right after saying stuff that implied he was just another pawn in all this.

Ah yes, and now it's time for Azura to die. And unlike in Conquest, it actually happens on-screen. Honestly, Azura is one of my least favorite Fire Emblem characters ever, and it's mostly because of how the story chooses to use her. She's basically a plot device and nothing more, without a remotely interesting personality, and half the shit she does still doesn't make sense even after you've played all three routes.

And holy shit, these moments before the cutscene kick in are so awkward. In principle I don't have much issue with this minimalistic voice acting, but this game just does not know when to use the right sounds!

...Honestly, I don't understand why anyone would ask someone to smile for them as a dying request. Surely any resulting smile would be just pointlessly strained by the understandable agony of the situation, right? I've seen it done in Castlevania too, and that smile was... yeah, we see a CG of it, and it's about what you'd expect.

Ryoma: Before you all leave, I have a few more words for you. With any war comes casualties. But the casualties of this war have been almost too much to bear. I speak, of course, of our beloved Queen Mikoto.

Wow, Ryoma, sure goes to show how much Azura was family to you.

HMMMM. How curious that when you pick a female avatar, that makes it so that all of the women are crying at Ryoma's coronation while the men are not.

Well, all of the Hoshidan women. Camilla isn't crying. Ah yes, she and Leo are here, and they reveal that Leo's becoming king, because Camilla doesn't want to be queen despite being the eldest. Good thing too, because she would make a terrible queen.

Oh, now we bring up Azura, hmm?

Ah, and now Takumi cries. I mean, considering she was his wife... that's weirdly fitting.

Okay, I'm starting to think that Dakota just has some mental disorder that makes her think every lake is the same, because Azura's lake is fucking everywhere. Granted, it's in the same general place this time as it was a previous time, but... yeah, uh... now we hear Azura singing, and I wonder what's gonna come of this.

...Dakota has a weird hallucination about Azura, and then...

...ending cutscene.

It's gorgeous, but cheesy as hell, and... yeah, now we're done.

...I think I'm gonna have to leave the battle statistics for tomorrow, you guys. Sorry, I just don't have time today.

...But the gameplay of Birthright is over.

I'll say my final thoughts tomorrow, and then...

...oh goodness me, and fucking then.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Axie]

i don't know why they decided to make the endgame of birthright 1-turnable when conquest and revelation aren't (sure, chapter 27 in revelation is 1-turnable, but endgame isn't). that makes it underwhelming. and chapter 27 is pretty fun too! kind of weird.

congratulations on finishing birthright!

[Shadow Mir]

So... who do you plan to use in Conquest?

10 minutes ago, Axie said:

i don't know why they decided to make the endgame of birthright 1-turnable when conquest and revelation aren't (sure, chapter 27 in revelation is 1-turnable, but endgame isn't). that makes it underwhelming. and chapter 27 is pretty fun too! kind of weird.

congratulations on finishing birthright!

On the flipside, starting out surrounded is not good, and in the event it doesn't work out, you'd have to redo chapter 27 over again. Speaking of, I'd say that chapter 27 in Conquest is easier than the Birthright equivalent, in no small part because of the relative lack of enemies.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Axie said:

i don't know why they decided to make the endgame of birthright 1-turnable when conquest and revelation aren't (sure, chapter 27 in revelation is 1-turnable, but endgame isn't). that makes it underwhelming. and chapter 27 is pretty fun too! kind of weird.

congratulations on finishing birthright!

It is a bit of a shame. Garon even seems to have an interesting gimmick where he pulls a Medeus and eats his own units or something using the dragon veins to "blight" a quarter of the map, but not like it plays any actual role in the battle since he's unlikely to ever even get an enemy phase.

[Eltosian Kadath]

41 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Actually, looking at these Hard Mode screenshots makes me appreciate just how many more enemies Lunatic added. It's kind of hilarious.

It really feels like adding more enemies is what Birthright Lunatic is all about, but on the other hand the Lunatic mode of the other two routes ends up adding enemies two, they just tend to add less than Birthright does (and have other noted things those Lunatic modes add to enemies instead...)

 

31 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

I've got Amaterasu on all of my kinshi knights, but I've got too many filler healers I can bring for it to be as useful as I'd like. Hopefully I can get more out of it in Conquest.

That is a lot of reclassing planned if you are trying to get a force of Kinshi in Conquest. I guess there is some access thanks to Selena, Azura, and possibly Corrin, but those are a lot of hoops to jump through...

 

33 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

And I got Scarlet trample! Man, is this really the time the game expects you to get your level 15 skills without “overleveling”? Way to suck the fun out of the lategame, Birthright.

From what I remember you started getting a couple of them the chapter before...

 

36 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Oh, but right before that, I have to point out that yet again, as Dakota falls flat on the ground... her ass is just inelegantly on display.

It's not even a good ass! It looks all goofy and weird as a 3DS model!

...Oh god.

Is that a hint of thigh I see... from the front?

So it's not that she's wearing assless pants under her greaves... it's that she isn't wearing pants under her greaves at all? Just that blue banner loin cloth covering her up from the front!?

OH MY GOD GAME I CAN ONLY LAUGH AT YOU SO MUCH.

...sigh Fates...

 

37 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Ah yes, when Lilith mentions perching on Dakota's shoulder... okay, so, I've heard some people claim, notably on TVTropes, that the “bird” that Dakota found and took care of was a completely different form Lilith took than the fish-dragon we see. Nope. She explicitly says, when she transforms for the first time into that fish-dragon, that Dakota had “seen it before”, and that it was “that strange bird”. How the fuck anyone on the writing team thought it was realistic to make anyone think it looked like a bird is totally beyond me.

I think this is a case of little kids call all flying things of about the right size birds...

 

47 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Ah yes, and now it's time for Azura to die. And unlike in Conquest, it actually happens on-screen. Honestly, Azura is one of my least favorite Fire Emblem characters ever, and it's mostly because of how the story chooses to use her. She's basically a plot device and nothing more, without a remotely interesting personality, and half the shit she does still doesn't make sense even after you've played all three routes.

In all honesty, the only way she is interesting is if you assume that she is manipulating Corrin towards her own ends. It fits surprisingly well in Conquest and Revelations...

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

It is a bit of a shame. Garon even seems to have an interesting gimmick where he pulls a Medeus and eats his own units or something using the dragon veins to "blight" a quarter of the map, but not like it plays any actual role in the battle since he's unlikely to ever even get an enemy phase.

That sounds kinda interesting...I may have to attempt this map without one turning it (despite how easy it is to do so...) someday.

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

That is a lot of reclassing planned if you are trying to get a force of Kinshi in Conquest. I guess there is some access thanks to Selena, Azura, and possibly Corrin, but those are a lot of hoops to jump through...

Also Mozu, since she has Archer. And Shigure in general.

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

YEP! GOODBYE, GARON!

Hey, congratulations!

[Shadow Mir]

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I've got Amaterasu on all of my kinshi knights, but I've got too many filler healers I can bring for it to be as useful as I'd like. Hopefully I can get more out of it in Conquest.

Do you really think it's that great? Because I'm not convinced, thanks to the fact that 20% is not a lot. Considering it's a level 15 skill, I consider that rather disappointing.

[DukeC4]

At 40HP that 8HP a turn. Saves a vulnery. 

Could be the difference between a successful player/enemy phase, or gambling on a miss from the AI. 

[lenticular]

Oh gods. This chapter.

First, the whole thing with no saving and no access to merchants between levels? I don't like it. I sort of see what they were going for, but I don't like it.

That said, the level itself. When I played it, I ended up not one-turning it. I was undermanned at that point and wanted to take it carefully. And I have to say that this is probably the worst example in the game of woefully inadequate Dragon Vein descriptions. If the Internet is to be believed, the exact text they show is "Blight area to feed Garon HP each turn". Which tells me almost nothing about what it's going to do. Even after they're triggered, it's still not obvious exactly what the blight does, in terms of how much it heals Garon for.

Long story short, this ended up being simultaneously one of the most fun maps in the game for me but also an exercise in pure frustration. Fun because I had to come up with interesting strategies and tactics to survive some of the crap that the game was throwing at me, but frustrating because none of the difficulty felt fair or earned, but entirely the result of deficient UI. It was the only point in the run that my ironman felt in danger, and if I had got a game over, I probably would have put the game down forever and never picked it up again. I was that frustrated with it, and also had no desire to replay chapter 27 just to get back and try again. Happily, I did manage to beat the chapter in the end, but if there is one chapter in the game that absolutely needs to have all its mechanics and gimmicks clearly explained to the player, it's the chapter that you aren't allowed to save before.

[Shadow Mir]

8 hours ago, DukeC4 said:

At 40HP that 8HP a turn. Saves a vulnery. 

Could be the difference between a successful player/enemy phase, or gambling on a miss from the AI. 

That's less healing than a vulnerary, which would have long been obsolete by that point. If I have a unit that really needs healing that late, I'd get better results out of chugging a Concoction or using a staff.

[Alastor15243]

Birthright Statistics

Alright, let's get this show on the road.

Prologue: 2 turns. Heroes: None.

Chapter 1: 5 turns. Heroes: None.

Chapter 2: 6 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 3: 70 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 4: 19 urns. Heroes: Rinkah and Kaze.

Chapter 5: 13 turns. Heroes: Rinkah and Kaze.

Chapter 6: 2 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Jakob.

Chapter 7: 15 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Kaze.

Paralogue 1: 30 turns. Heroes: Silas and Mozu.

Chapter 8: 15 turns. Heroes: Silas and Mozu.

Chapter 9: 16 turns. Heroes: Saizo and Mozu.

Chapter 10: 18 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Kaze.

Invasion 1: 4 turns. Heroes: Subaki and Hinoka.

Chapter 11: 23 turns. Heroes: Subaki and Hinoka.

Chapter 12: 20 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Chapter 13: 12 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Chapter 14: 16 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Ryoma.

Chapter 15: 16 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Chapter 16: 17 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Ryoma.

Chapter 17: 19 turns. Heroes: Azura and Takumi.

Chapter 18: 16 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Invasion 2: 8 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Chapter 19: 17 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Chapter 20: 7 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Paralogue 9: 4 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Chapter 21: 22 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Chapter 22: 22 turns. Heroes: Subaki and Saizo.

Chapter 23: 14 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Ryoma.

Paralogue 3: 16 turns. Heroes: Subaki and Saizo.

Paralogue 7: 15 turns. Heroes: Saizo and Mozu.

Paralogue 2: 17 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Chapter 24: 9 turns. Heroes: Silas and Kagero.

Paralogue 8: 6 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Ryoma.

Chapter 25: 16 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Ryoma.

Chapter 26: 1 turn. Heroes: Dakota and Ryoma.

Chapter 27: 12 turns. Heroes: Dakota and Ryoma.

Endgame: 1 turn. Heroes: Saizo and Ryoma.

As you can see, Ryoma and Silas did a ton of work for my party. I honestly have no doubt I that once Silas became a master ninja, I could have solo'd most of the game between them with no issue at all, and the rest of my army was kinda just superfluous for shits and giggles with a few exceptions. Now then... Character statistics.

…

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Apparently Hinoka assigned Azama to “a remote post on the very fringe of the kingdom”, presumably because she had finally had enough with his shit. Dude's hilarious, but I wouldn't want to be around the guy either.

Apparently I let Setsuna get a kill. Can't quite remember that.

Izana's ending is hilarious. He apparently was so “traumatized” by war that he never won another “best hair” competition and drowned his sorrows in lavish parties to no avail, which... yeah, honestly, why did this guy think it was a good idea to join a war?

Shura: 2 battles, 1 victory. Okay, this is the first guy to turn up who I can honestly say is worth mentioning. I brought him to the last few battles because a staff bot is a staff bot, right? He was nice to have around, though I can't say he did that much.

Kana: 5 battles, 3 victories. “Dragon Spawn”? Hey, that's my fucking son you're talking about! It was hilarious having a Kana with better stats than my avatar, though this didn't sufficiently translate to being able to do more than use armorslayers and wyrmslayers and rods for random utility. Still glad he was there, though.

...Apparently, reading between the lines, the people Kana rescued in dragon form started worshipping him as a god? What do they mean “the dragon god incarnate”? CAN THIS SERIES MAKE UP ITS MIND ABOUT ITS UNEXPLORED PANTHEON!?

Sakura: 7 battles, 5 victories. Funny, the rallying wasn't nearly as useful in this game as it was last time. Ironically enough, the rally I most found myself using her for was luck, as I didn't have any mages, and my guys were all generally fast enough to double everything in this game, because the speed thresholds were generally trivial for nearly everything when we weren't fighting Hoshidan units.

Kiragi: 10 battles, 8 victories. Did I really use him that little? I mean, granted, I only really had him for two maps, ignoring 26 and counting 27 and endgame as one, but that's honestly shocking. That's all I'm going to say, because I basically made four units that performed the exact same fucking role, so I'm gonna run out of material to say about these guys if I say more than that.

Reina: 22 battles, 20 victories. I think I would've kept her around longer if she had promoted from archer instead of pegasus knight, but I definitely found her useful in that time where I was trying to fill the void in my air force left by Hinoka. Eventually, though, she just couldn't contribute, and couldn't hold a candle to my other kinshi knights.

Shigure: 24 battles, 20 victories. Yeah, in the end he wound up better than either Saizo or Mozu, as he and Kiragi were the only ones capable of hitting the speed thresholds necessary to double DracoGaron. That was mostly because Saizo was too slow and Mozu didn't have darting blow and thus was hobbled by the kinshi knight speed cap. But yeah, in the end I'm glad I had him.

“Records of his life are the only proof that Azura truly existed”.

Okay. Let's see about that. I remember someone saying something that sounds amazingly dumb, let's see if it actually happens...

Jakob: 36 battles, 16 victories. This guy got a lot of use in the early game to do chip damage and debuffs along with healing, but eventually I just had better units available. As Conquest will demonstrate, I definitely had better options to make use of him, but he was just too far behind due to his injury in the pre-split chapters.

Kaze: 50 battles, 27 victories. I planned for this guy to marry Dakota, but then Dakota wound up being trash, so yeah, there wound up being little point in training him further. Ninjas are great, but they need Silas's strength and bulk to truly reach their maximum potential, and Kaze has neither.

Asugi: 64 battles, 41 victories. Apparently, though they don't say how, the Saizo generational name still lives on, but whether he took it up himself in the end, or named his son that, or if Saizo had another son, they don't say. Anyway, he wound up being pretty nice to have around in the end, especially with the sting shuriken and chakram, but he never ascended to the heights of my amazing four kinshi knights and their insane player phase dominance.

Hinoka: 69 battles, 42 victories. RIP. I really, really wish I had kept her around. Having two falcon knights with lancefaire might have been cool, and I certainly had the deployment slots to spare for them. Ah well. Such is the fate of an ironman player.

Scarlet: 77 battles, 65 victories. Honestly, while I was glad I had her from time to time, especially for her bulk in the midgame when I got her, by the end I was mostly finding excuses to use her for things I could have easily used other units for. And that's double true for her, because it was already true for my player-phasers at large 90% of the time.

Subaki: 112 battles, 84 victories. Way, way more useful than I expected him to be, but admittedly my standards were really low. He never really reached endgame one-rounding potential against anything but sorcerers, but still, that was a niche he had. I'm glad I had him around, both for that and to give Saizo darting blow.

Takumi: 128 battles, 110 victories. Words cannot describe how much I wish I could use this guy in Conquest. He would've been an MVP of basically any team I constructed for any run of Conquest, but alas, Birthright is just way, way too easy to enemy-phase cheese for him to truly shine. Still, it's only thanks to him that I was able to salvage my one-turn clear of the endgame, and his Pursuer power was necessary to win the day once or twice, so I'm very glad I trained him in the end.

Azura: 0 battles, 0 victories. I mean, she's a singer. What more do I need to say? Nothing, except that I'm really, really excited to have more shelter units in Conquest.

...Okay, so the game doesn't say she's still alive. I could've sworn I saw someone say that the paired endings forget she died or something.

Saizo: 177 battles, 134 victories. Mozu: 182 battles, 143 victories. Okay, so... while I can't really say these guys were as necessary as I would have liked... holy shit were these guys fun to build. Bowfaire kinshi knights are amazing, and I can't wait to see them in action in Conquest. I'm gonna train Mozu, I'm gonna have her befriend Effie, it's gonna be fuckin' great.

Ryoma: 262 battles, 230 victories. Dakota: 151 battles, 61 victories. Damn, that's the worst avatar record I've ever had, but I don't even care. Ryoma and Silas were both amazing thanks to Dakota's help. I'm so happy I got an opportunity to try this strategy out at least once.

Silas: 421 battles, 265 victories. Yes, that's right. Silas won more battles than Ryoma fought in. Honestly, I'd owe a lot of that to Chapter 18 and all of those fucking faceless. But still, Silas was a beast. Vow of friendship is no fucking joke, man, and neither is Silas reclassed to master ninja with sol. I am definitely doing that again in Conquest.

Well that's lame. The particulars of their endings mean that Silas and Kagero apparently wound up serving different countries after the war, bringing new meaning to that whole “the couple got along, but didn't have much time together” thing.

Alright, I'm on the clock. I don't have much time to rank this, so let's hope I can do it quickly. Dang return of normal responsibilities. I may have to post this at night.

BUT FIRST, I WON'T FORGET TO PRESS A ON THE ENDING SCREEN AND SELECT MY EINHERJAR!

Yep, I'm going with Takumi, Silas, Ryoma, Kiragi and Shigure. Sounds like a plan.

OKAY! NOW WE RANK!

 

Final Ranking

Let's do this.

 

Difficulty: I'm a bit disappointed with this. Not because it was bad, but because I was expecting to find it as difficult as, say, Binding Blade. Alas, it was not. It's not bad, though. It may not be what I'd consider above-average, but it's definitely what I'd consider above-median. I mean, there are only three games so far I've given a positive score on this, so yeah, guess my standards are just really high. But I've got this lingering feeling that I may need to replay Binding Blade soon to see if I have to give this game more credit. While it probably would have been more impressive if I hadn't done the paralogues... I mean, that's shitty game design to make the game that much of a cakewalk with “grinding”. Should I put that under balance, then, and raise this game up on a hunch of what it might be if I hadn't done that? I mean, no, obviously not, I can't judge a game on what it might have been like.

+0: Mediocre. Has its moments both tough and boring, or is middle-of-the-road throughout.

Birthright, Thracia 776, Radiant Dawn, Blazing Blade, Mystery of the Emblem Book 2.

 

Ironmannability: Yeah, this game has a few hiccups that keep it from true ironmanning greatness, but I can't stress enough just how many points the Fates games get by having no ambush spawns or fog of war. And it really helps gameplay at large too, by making more fragile combat units far more viable than they would be in most other games, even if the game still runs into trouble with being a bit of an enemy-phase-fest.

+6: The game slips up, but it doesn't slip up much, or it gives you many opportunities to recover.

Birthright, Revelation, Shadow Dragon, Genealogy of the Holy War.

 

Usability: I have no further comments since Revelation, except that I've rephrased the tier title because it's hubristic and naive to imply the UI of the Fates games couldn't be massively improved upon, even if I have serious doubts that it ever will be in a proper Fire Emblem game. It's obviously got some problems, namely the weapon rank and weapon triangle stuff, the lack of a means to check support bonuses, and some dragon veins whose effects could be better-described, but the two-screened system just adds way too much for me to justify not making the 3DS games the top tier.

+9: The best we've got. Always room for improvement, but there has never been less clunk in the way of your strategies than there is here.

Birthright, Revelation, Awakening.

 

Depth: I can definitely appreciate the mechanics of Fates more in this game than in Revelation, as I put together several way more interesting builds than I put together in Revelation. There's a shitton of fun things you can do with your units via class-hopping and supports, to the point that Fates easily has my favorite skill system in the entire series. It's just a shame the game was so allergic to giving enemies skills as anything more than the occasional “gotcha”.

+4: Lots of interesting mechanics, plenty of ways beyond stats to set allies apart.

Birthright, Revelation, Awakening, Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776.

Balance: Right now I'm feeling like this is a neutral tier. The weapon drawbacks aren't as much as a deal-breaker as I initially thought they were, but the forging system still wins the day big time, and a game where enemy-phasing is this viable can only get so high on the list.

+0: Clear bests and worsts abound, but the game's fairly sturdy.

Birthright, New Mystery, Blazing Blade, Gaiden, Mystery of the Emblem Book 1.

 

Pacing: I'll have to remove the perfectionist language in the top tier yet again, because while there were obviously a few hiccups in this game, there's no conceivable way I can justify letting those annoyances keep this game from being a tier above the GBA games, which didn't have fast forward for turn skip or the crisp, speedy modern movement and controls. No fucking way. Dust off the throne, Birthright. It's finally found a rightful master. For now.

+5: Doesn't waste much of your time making anything more tedious than it needs to be.

Birthright.

 

Writing: Alright, here's the deal. I'm shifting around the tiers a bit. First off, I'm renaming the top tier, revising the score to +8 rather than +10, and putting Path of Radiance up there. Fates has made me appreciate good writing so much (by lacking it in any conceivable capacity) that as much as I genuinely enjoy Genealogy and Blazing Blade, I can't justify keeping a game with way better and more copious writing and worldbuilding in the same tier as them.

Secondly, I'm renaming the bottom tier, and spoiler alert, all three Fates games are going in it. I can't justify keeping these games in the same tier as Awakening anymore, as much as Awakening pisses me off. The sheer difference in character writing and grasp of what the audience is capable of taking seriously cannot be overstated, even if in the grand scheme of things it's only worth one less of a point with me.

-5: Cannot be taken seriously in any way, and brings no joy except through mockery.

Birthright, Revelation, Dark Dragon, Gaiden.

 

Music: Fates in general has an amazing soundtrack, but Birthright probably has the least of its best stuff on display, sadly. Still worthy of the top tier, but the bottom of it. In particular, I wish the calm version of Alight were better, because it's such a letdown for a final stretch map theme. Overall, I think Awakening had the better soundtrack than what was generally on display in Birthright.

+6: Consistently gorgeous music that flows throughout.

Revelation, Awakening, Birthright.

 

FINAL SCORE

1: Birthright (25)

2: Shadow Dragon (15)

3: Path of Radiance (11)

4: Revelation (6)

5: Genealogy of the Holy War (5)

6: New Mystery (4)

7: Blazing Blade (1)

8: Binding Blade (0)

9: Sacred Stones (-3)

10: Radiant Dawn (-5)

11/12: Awakening / Thracia (-9)

13: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2 (-22)

14: Gaiden (-27)

15: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1 (-31)

16: Dark Dragon (-54)

Jesus Christ it's a slaughter. Make no mistake, it definitely deserves to be high on the list, but maybe not that high. I'm thinking I may have numerically undervalued just how much difficulty matters to my gut feelings. I think I'll be updating that when I have time.

Which isn't fucking now.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone! Because come Monday...

Ohhhhhh, come Monday...

Edited March 12, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

...Fasten your asses, everyone.

It's time.

It's FUCKING TIME.

[lenticular]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Pacing: I'll have to remove the perfectionist language in the top tier yet again, because while there were obviously a few hiccups in this game, there's no conceivable way I can justify letting those annoyances keep this game from being a tier above the GBA games, which didn't have fast forward for turn skip or the crisp, speedy modern movement and controls. No fucking way. Dust off the throne, Birthright. It's finally found a rightful master. For now.

+5: Doesn't waste much of your time making anything more tedious than it needs to be.

Birthright.

It continues to astound me that you aren't giving negative a billion points to a game that ties actual important game mechanics to the passage of real world time. Well, different people have different priorities and different play-styles, I guess.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Writing: Alright, here's the deal. I'm shifting around the tiers a bit. First off, I'm renaming the top tier, revising the score to +8 rather than +10, and putting Path of Radiance up there. Fates has made me appreciate good writing so much (by lacking it in any conceivable capacity) that as much as I genuinely enjoy Genealogy and Blazing Blade, I can't justify keeping a game with way better and more copious writing and worldbuilding in the same tier as them.

Secondly, I'm renaming the bottom tier, and spoiler alert, all three Fates games are going in it. I can't justify keeping these games in the same tier as Awakening anymore, as much as Awakening pisses me off. The sheer difference in character writing and grasp of what the audience is capable of taking seriously cannot be overstated, even if in the grand scheme of things it's only worth one less of a point with me.

-5: Cannot be taken seriously in any way, and brings no joy except through mockery.

Birthright, Revelation, Dark Dragon, Gaiden.

This, on the other hand, makes me happier than it has any right to. This spot is thoroughly deserved.

Anyway, I am looking forward to Conquest. I know you like it way more than I do, and I will probably gripe about several of the things that I don't like, but it's always a joy to see someone write about something they are passionate about.

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Pacing: I'll have to remove the perfectionist language in the top tier yet again, because while there were obviously a few hiccups in this game, there's no conceivable way I can justify letting those annoyances keep this game from being a tier above the GBA games, which didn't have fast forward for turn skip or the crisp, speedy modern movement and controls. No fucking way. Dust off the throne, Birthright. It's finally found a rightful master. For now.

+5: Doesn't waste much of your time making anything more tedious than it needs to be.

Birthright.

TBF, I'd think the fact that some mechanics are tied to real time and social features is egregious enough to deserve penalizing. And this applies for all of Fates.

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

TBF, I'd think the fact that some mechanics are tied to real time and social features is egregious enough to deserve penalizing. And this applies for all of Fates.

 

3 hours ago, lenticular said:

It continues to astound me that you aren't giving negative a billion points to a game that ties actual important game mechanics to the passage of real world time. Well, different people have different priorities and different play-styles, I guess.

This is true, but it's all a bunch of minor and non-essential stuff. I've been doing visits way, way more than I truly need to just for completionist's sake in the hope of getting those dang seals. My Castle stuff still advances when you beat chapters, not just when real life time passes. And none of the wait-sensitive stuff is really all that important to the core experience in any meaningful way. Playing without waiting isn't going to be anywhere near what I'd call unfair, and I'd be happy to do a faster, Wifi-free run of Birthright on my own time to prove it sometime. Probably not right now though, I don't want to get Fates burnout.

[AnonymousSpeed]

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Fasten your asses, everyone.

Use him.

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Use him.

Thinking about the whole decision around there got me to realise: Man, if only Azura could befriend a female outlaw. It would be awesome to give her movement +1.

[AnonymousSpeed]

58 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Thinking about the whole decision around there got me to realise: Man, if only Azura could befriend a female outlaw. It would be awesome to give her movement +1.

Naw man, even better-

Azura x Shura

They even rhyme.

It's more cruel than picking the boots but it would be kind of neat in gameplay.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Naw man, even better-

Azura x Shura

They even rhyme.

It's more cruel than picking the boots but it would be kind of neat in gameplay.

I mean she can still marry Niles, but alas, I've already got a husband in mind for her.

Does this mean we can expect to hear from you again? If so, looking forward to it!

[AnonymousSpeed]

Perhaps. I like Conquest as a game and hate it as a piece of media, so there should be interesting discussions to be had. I'm looking forward to seeing your team and reclasses.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Perhaps. I like Conquest as a game and hate it as a piece of media, so there should be interesting discussions to be had. I'm looking forward to seeing your team and reclasses.

As a piece of media? Why do I get the sense from reading that that you aren't talking about just the story when you say that? Interesting... verrrrry interesting...

[AnonymousSpeed]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

As a piece of media? Why do I get the sense from reading that that you aren't talking about just the story when you say that? Interesting... verrrrry interesting...

Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry much indeed.

[Jotari]

13 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

That's less healing than a vulnerary, which would have long been obsolete by that point. If I have a unit that really needs healing that late, I'd get better results out of chugging a Concoction or using a staff.

It's passive though. Using a staff or vulnerary takes up someone's turn. It also occurs every turn and can hit multiple units at once. It's not the best skill in the world, hell I wouldn't even say it's worth a level 15 skill. Air Superiority is probably better (though that particularly skill is actually better if you move off Kinshi Knight since Knishi Knights will probably be making short work of flying foes with or without the need for it). But it is useful. It's not like you're likely to have a healer for every unit on the map, so topping up allies health at the start of your turn helps.

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

This is true, but it's all a bunch of minor and non-essential stuff. I've been doing visits way, way more than I truly need to just for completionist's sake in the hope of getting those dang seals. My Castle stuff still advances when you beat chapters, not just when real life time passes. And none of the wait-sensitive stuff is really all that important to the core experience in any meaningful way. Playing without waiting isn't going to be anywhere near what I'd call unfair, and I'd be happy to do a faster, Wifi-free run of Birthright on my own time to prove it sometime. Probably not right now though, I don't want to get Fates burnout.

As someone who never bothered to visit castles at all until my most recent playthrough, I have to be in agreement. The benefits of the social features, while tangible, are not large enough to be considered a loss if they do suddenly vanish. I have more ire for Shadow Dragon locking the Falcon Knight and Brave Weapons behind an arbitrary online shop. Because not only is that something that eventually become unavailable (well without hacking), but the difficulty getting DS connected to wifi meant I didn't even get to experience those things even when they existed through legitimate means. Stuff like brave weapons and an extra class I value a lot more than the few extra ears of corn that visiting other castles or waiting a few hours provides.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Thinking about the whole decision around there got me to realise: Man, if only Azura could befriend a female outlaw. It would be awesome to give her movement +1.

Just get Azura three levels as a Witch and her movement becomes completely irrelevant, as she can just warp to the side of any ally you want to refresh.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Jotari

[lenticular]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

This is true, but it's all a bunch of minor and non-essential stuff. I've been doing visits way, way more than I truly need to just for completionist's sake in the hope of getting those dang seals. My Castle stuff still advances when you beat chapters, not just when real life time passes. And none of the wait-sensitive stuff is really all that important to the core experience in any meaningful way. Playing without waiting isn't going to be anywhere near what I'd call unfair, and I'd be happy to do a faster, Wifi-free run of Birthright on my own time to prove it sometime. Probably not right now though, I don't want to get Fates burnout.

The biggest loss is ore, and to a lesser extent food. If you play fast (I'm thinking taking about a week to ten days here, which is pretty quick, but not speedrun-quick or monomaniacal-obsession-quick) and don't do any online stuff, then you will be short of ore and you will be limited on how many forges you can do. The mine and the food gathering spot are restricted to once every four maps or once every real world day, which doesn't give you many harvests over the course of a quick play. And yeah, there's random drops from My Castle conversations, and there's the arena, but those are only going to take you so far. You also aren't going to have access to the Chef's Hat, Smithy Shield or Arena Shield, which is a further impediment.

Of course, you absolutely can play and complete the game without any of this stuff. You can beat the game without even building the smithy or the mess hall. And if it was just the mess hall, then I wouldn't think of it as that big a loss. But forging? Being limited on forging sucks. Both because it's been a core game mechanic in the series since Path of Radiance and because of how important forged weapons are in a game where most of the supposedly high-end weapons come with substantial drawbacks. It's not absolutely vital, but I'd definitely say that it is meaningful.