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

[Alastor15243]

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

The people who make good games, and the people that mandate terrible monetization are rarely the same.

Yeah didn't mean to phrase it like that. I just meant it's weirdly good that if the dread fighter loop had to exist, at least it triumphed over other forces trying to sell the over class DLC.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah didn't mean to phrase it like that. I just meant it's weirdly good that if the dread fighter loop had to exist, at least it triumphed over other forces trying to sell the over class DLC.

Well in the sense that you can use the Dread Fighter loop to also trivialize Thabes, but having what amounts to an instant win strategy by mutating your characters into something that can't be killed doesn't seem like the best game design in general.

[Alastor15243]

Shadows of Valentia Day 5: I'm Not Your Babe, I'm Not Your Babe... Fernand

Another day, another moment of sitting down in front of the computer and remembering I have the shittiest Kliff in human history.

This is what I get for being talked out of showing off the dread fighter loop. You guys did this. This is on you.

All jokes aside, there is genuinely a huge frustration out of playing a Fire Emblem game and getting extremely terrible level ups with a character you enjoy using. Especially in a game with a cast as goddamned tiny as this one, because then it's a huge chunk of your army that suffers. I know technically it has a bigger cast than Sacred Stones thanks to the remake-exclusive units, but it also splits the cast in half and expects you to deploy all of them basically at all times.

Honestly, I feel genuinely tempted to use the DLC now just to fill the hole in my heart from losing Kliff and having to keep playing this game. Because, uh...

...Storywise I haven't been this engaged since the Tellius games.

...Gameplaywise I can already feel my soul dying halfway up my throat.

And the worst part is that it's not really in any way I think I can satisfyingly grade. This game just seems to kill my enthusiasm through a bunch of little things I find frustrating, dated and annoying. I never find myself able to put up with this game unless I meme the shit out of it for the fun of it.

And I don't think it's just the fact that it has to follow up Conquest on this run. Of all the 3DS Fire Emblems, unless you count Revelation, this is by a country goddamned mile the one I've played the least. Which is really weird. Again, I thought really favorably about a lot of the design elements in Gaiden. But I guess the passage of time has just made its numerous flaws (which I couldn't ignore even then) just that much more painful.

Alright, I attempted the fight once, but I fucked up my positioning and lost Gray.

...And the next time I lost Lukas because I forgot how swiftly his speed becomes insufficient.

Yeah, I always remember this particular formation of soldiers and archers being deceptively hard on hard mode. The enemies have surprisingly high stats for this point in the game.

Also, all three times I've tried this, Alm got exactly two stat ups on his level, and every time it was HP and something else. First strength, then speed, then defense.

So this time I decide to play more defensively and retreat more. It seems to be working so far.

Kliff gets speed and luck. This is his fourth luck proc. Seriously, he's supposed to have a high base but a lame growth, and yet luck ties for the most consistent level up he's gotten!

Since this game seems to have reverted to old-fashioned “prioritize maximum individual damage” AI, I decided to exploit that to keep Gray alive by luring enemies away from him with Lukas and others.

Gray got attack and speed, and Tobin got HP, skill and speed. Which buys Tobin more time to keep his attack speed relevant until he gets excalibur.

Silque and Faye get their B support, and I remember this being really obnoxious too.

Silque basically suggests talking about Alm instead of gossiping, and Faye just says talking about Alm is only fun when she's talking to Alm.

And then she leaves.

It's, uh...

...Okay, so, I've seen four different support trees so far.

Three of the four have so far been nothing but trying to talk to people who really don't want to talk and immediately fuck off.

Also I've been getting these alarmingly quickly. The thresholds for getting them seem to be way, way lower than in Fates, and also there doesn't seem to be as much of a limit on how many support points you can get per chapter.

I don't understand how I never noticed how lazy this all was before.

Anyway, I won, and even managed to give Clair a kill or two. Not that I expect it to help much.

And then... Fernand shows up.

A new addition to the cast in the remake, and... he's a classist prick. And he is royally pissed off that Lukas came back with Mycen's grandson rather than Mycen himself.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to pay attention to his lines. See, Fernand is something TV Tropes calls a “tragic bigot”, a character who's a bigoted ass against a certain demographic as a result of immense trauma they've experienced at the hands of members of that demographic. Essentially, the character's failure to handle grief properly has manifested as irrational hatred.

In Fernand's case, from what I remember, his entire family was killed by an angry mob of his own... “subjects”, I guess. The people who live in his noble house's domain. So I'm going to have to pay attention to what he says and see if it's consistent with “peasants are a bunch of rabid, ignorant animals who should never be trusted with power when they're already capable of so much harm when they barely have any at all”.

...Yeah, okay, and Fernand swiftly goes beyond that when he starts pulling rank on Lukas and essentially calling him the bottom of the barrel of what counts as nobility, and that he “should be kissing the Knights of Zofia's feet”.

Tobin says he's never met someone so rude, and uh... nah, I think Slayde was slightly ruder.

Yeah let's keep going, I have plenty of time.

Huge, wide-open map with eight cavalry.

Yeah, uh...

While it's heartening to know that it was most likely love, rather than laziness, that caused them to change so little about map and unit design...

...Seriously. What the fuck. A little awareness of what parts of the game haven't aged well would go a hell of a long way.

Clair gets speed and strength, which is quite encouraging.

This map is mostly just having Alm bait everyone in and having the others finish them off.

But another thing I'll say for the presentation: the sound-effects for hitting with attacks are really satisfying. Especially those visceral SMACKS for when magic hits.

Speaking of which, I misjudged the level Tobin gets excalibur at yet again (it isn't 5 either), but Tobin gets another point of speed.

Alm gets the best level up I've seen in this playthrough so far. HP, attack, skill, speed and defense. Fitting, since he's the only one with growth rates even vaguely resembling a modern character's.

I accidentally awarded Kliff the boss kill with a crit when I was just trying to feed him chip damage so he could get the steel bow combat art sooner...

...and he gets HP and skill for his level 6 level up.

Why does the game hate this precious boi?

Faye meanwhile is now up to nine speed at level 5. I'm just having her and Silque trade healing until the cavalier who fled decides to come back.

Silque reaches level 5 too, but only gets skill. No matter. I need her for her spells, not her stats. As soon as she gets warp, she'll be an invaluable asset to the team.

Gray gets another point of speed.

...Alright, so, the thing is, the next part is a dungeon. And I'd like to get all of that done in one part, which I don't think I can do today. So I'm gonna cut it short here. Sorry for the short update, everyone!

Come Monday we'll tackle the Deliverance hideout. Which is inside of a crypt full of the walking dead.

Stay safe, everyone.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Venger_06]

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Another day, another moment of sitting down in front of the computer and remembering I have the shittiest Kliff in human history.

This is what I get for being talked out of showing off the dread fighter loop. You guys did this. This is on you.

Hey, my Archer Kliff turned out good, it's not my fault if RNGesus hates you.

[Acacia Sgt]

I still think the game just ain't gonna take his comments lying down.

[Samz707]

47 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shadows of Valentia Day 5: I'm Not Your Babe, I'm Not Your Babe... Fernand

Another day, another moment of sitting down in front of the computer and remembering I have the shittiest Kliff in human history.

This is what I get for being talked out of showing off the dread fighter loop. You guys did this. This is on you.

All jokes aside, there is genuinely a huge frustration out of playing a Fire Emblem game and getting extremely terrible level ups with a character you enjoy using. Especially in a game with a cast as goddamned tiny as this one, because then it's a huge chunk of your army that suffers. I know technically it has a bigger cast than Sacred Stones thanks to the remake-exclusive units, but it also splits the cast in half and expects you to deploy all of them basically at all times.

Why does the game hate this precious boi?

Come Monday we'll tackle the Deliverance hideout. Which is inside of a crypt full of the walking dead.

 

I remember playing FE6 and deciding to power level Lilina so she could kill Narcian and maybe Zephiel since Narcian killed her dad.

Didn't quite pan out that way despite me managing to get her to max level. (Not counting promotion though.)

Honestly, considering how weak the Hideout zombies are, I like to imagine they're so rotted they don't even have teeth, so you just wake up to the equivalent of an infant without teeth trying to bite you, they're so weak I just imagine the cast waking up to them trying and failing to bite them.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Samz707

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Samz707 said:

Honestly, considering how weak the Hideout zombies are, I like to imagine they're so rotted they don't even have teeth, so you just wake up to the equivalent of an infant without teeth trying to bite you, they're so weak I just imagine the cast waking up to them trying and failing to bite them.

This applies early, but not so much later on, where they can be surprisingly dangerous, in part because they can cause status effects on hit. Shoutout to poison for actually being dangerous (10 hp damage a turn).

Edited May 28, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Samz707]

8 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

This applies early, but not so much later on, where they can be surprisingly dangerous, in part because they can cause status effects on hit. Shoutout to poison for actually being dangerous (10 hp damage a turn).

Oh yeah don't get me wrong, late-game they do get incredibly tough.

I pretty much actually had to turnwheel the first time that happened, since I was incredibly overconfident due to being used to the crappy terrors.

[Seazas]

On 5/27/2021 at 4:54 PM, Jotari said:

I don't follow the logic. Putting a lock on supports would have no difference whether they were accessed from the battlefield or from the post battle menu.

I mean they gave more thought (not much thought but still more), also... it does make a difference because all supports that take place in other games are usually in a base and the supports take full advantage of that. Echoes was limited by that alone.

[Jotari]

11 hours ago, Seazas said:

I mean they gave more thought (not much thought but still more), also... it does make a difference because all supports that take place in other games are usually in a base and the supports take full advantage of that. Echoes was limited by that alone.

That doesn't really have much of anything to do with locking supports behind a time barrier though. Whether it's on the field or from a base, a support can just as easily be locked off until a certain point in the game.

Here's another thinking point for the Gray/Tobin support, is Clair a retreat character? Because it's weird that they'd be fighting over a girl they haven't met yet, but somehow even weirder if they're fighting over a girl who is already dead.

[Seazas]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

That doesn't really have much of anything to do with locking supports behind a time barrier though. Whether it's on the field or from a base, a support can just as easily be locked off until a certain point in the game.

Here's another thinking point for the Gray/Tobin support, is Clair a retreat character? Because it's weird that they'd be fighting over a girl they haven't met yet, but somehow even weirder if they're fighting over a girl who is already dead.

Yeah, you're right. Just saying that some of the stuff wasn't given enough time and thought as Echoes is nothing but a side project.

[Shadow Mir]

I don't really think that this has anything to do with SoV, but is anyone bothered when a weapon, etc. gets a a lot of storyline hype but doesn't live up to it in actual gameplay? Because that's one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to games.

[Samz707]

25 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I don't really think that this has anything to do with SoV, but is anyone bothered when a weapon, etc. gets a a lot of storyline hype but doesn't live up to it in actual gameplay? Because that's one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to games.

Sword of the Creator big time.

Sure it's got utility against Divine Beasts but stat-wise a regular upgraded Iron lance is better than it.

 

[Shadow Mir]

14 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

Sword of the Creator big time.

Sure it's got utility against Divine Beasts but stat-wise a regular upgraded Iron lance is better than it.

Well, the weapon in question gets its true power later on. Personally, I think other Heroes' Relics are just as, if not even more guilty of being overhyped and under-delivering - ESPECIALLY the Crusher.

[Samz707]

1 minute ago, Shadow Mir said:

Well, the weapon in question gets its true power later on. Personally, I think other Heroes' Relics are just as, if not even more guilty of being overhyped and under-delivering - ESPECIALLY the Crusher.

Yeah haven't got as far as any of those yet.

I'd really rather have them be near-impossible/impossible to repair but actually be effective. (like FE6, where Critger busting out Durundal to kill a boss is practically calling down a nuke on him.) 

[Shadow Mir]

3 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

Yeah haven't got as far as any of those yet.

I'd really rather have them be near-impossible/impossible to repair but actually be effective. (like FE6, where Critger busting out Durundal to kill a boss is practically calling down a nuke on him.) 

How far are you in the game then? Because the chapter after the one where you get the Sword of the Creator has another relic weapon - this time being used by an enemy.

[Acacia Sgt]

49 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I don't really think that this has anything to do with SoV, but is anyone bothered when a weapon, etc. gets a a lot of storyline hype but doesn't live up to it in actual gameplay? Because that's one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to games.

Honestly, not really.

[Samz707]

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

How far are you in the game then? Because the chapter after the one where you get the Sword of the Creator has another relic weapon - this time being used by an enemy.

Chapter 9, honestly forgot about the Lance of Ruin, Milkan didn't even get a chance to use it and I've never felt the need to have anyone use it yet.

[Shadow Mir]

8 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

Chapter 9, honestly forgot about the Lance of Ruin, Milkan didn't even get a chance to use it and I've never felt the need to have anyone use it yet.

Which house are you leading?

[eclipse]

I think we're still on Echoes?  As funny as a Fodlan invasion would be, it's a little irrelevant!

[Jotari]

Well while we're talking about legendary weapons and trying to steer it back to Shadows of Valentia, I think it sort of sucks that Falchion didn't get Double Lion. Which I'd rate as a better skill than Scendscale. I guess it makes the Royal Sword still somewhat useful after obtaining Falchion, still though, sort of sucks. Course Alm's ultimate weapon is obviously the Killer Bow.

[Alastor15243]

Shadows of Valentia Day 6: “He's Bringing All the Dead People Back to Life, and They've Put The Deliverance Hideout in a Crypt! With All the Dead People!”

So Python, our soon-to-be-new archer, apparently pretends to be a bandit to fuck with Alm, talking all prohibition-era-thug-like.

“Lukas, you ginger stud. You still draw breath.”

...I do not remember that line being a thing.

Anyway, apparently terrors get more common the closer to get to the center of Mila's power. Interesting.

Okay, I don't yet have enough units to have to pick and choose who to send in.

Gray and Tobin need two levels each to hit level 7 by the end of this dungeon. Kliff needs one. They'll be my priorities for experience, obviously. Though I'll obviously feed exp to anyone near the bonus cap, so it isn't wasted.

Let's go. There's basically nothing of value I can do with unit order right now, and nothing much else of value I can do to prepare.

So far, all I've found are revenants. Terrible stats in everything but HP. Working out how to feed kills to Tobin and Gray and the like is a bit tricky, but not too much.

Lukas gets HP and skill for his sixth level. I might actually be able to promote him to knight, funny enough, and hopefully that gives him some good stat boosts. Because his levels... have not been great.

Tobin tragically missed two fire shots on the zombie I was trying to get him to kill. So I had Clair sweep in.

She got HP, skill and luck. Of course she did.

It's curious that the iron lance looks like a halberd in this game.

I found an iron bow and gave it to Kliff. Better for him. A bit more speed and 10 more hit for one less might.

A terror was apparently wandering in the halls. I managed to get the first strike in with only a moment's warning, which was pretty nice.

Gray also got HP, skill and luck, but also got speed. Seriously, this game seems to hate me.

Tobin, however, is still getting pretty nice levels. He got HP, attack, skill and defense just now. And now he's learned excalibur. Alright. That actually means he's reduced priority because he's not promoting at level 7. I had a brain fart earlier. Mages only have one promotion ignoring overclasses, and it's like level 12 or level 14.

Faye just got a lucksauce level, but also got physic, which is fucking fantastic.

So.

Many.

Fucking.

Skill.

And.

Luck.

Procs.

At least Clair got speed too.

Silque leveled up with a revenant kill to get her over the bonus exp wall she was about to hit, and she got attack, and...

...guess what fucking else.

Correct. Skill and luck.

Okay, now I'm fighting two groups at once, I'm assuming because they were bunched together being attracted due to sounds I made in the chambers smashing stuff. And Kliff levels up... and actually fucking gets defense. Of course, the price of getting something as psychotically unreasonable as a single proc in defense at a 40-35% rate in more than ten levels... is that he gets literally nothing else for now.

These revenants apparently have a crit rate on Silque that only her support with Faye is allowing her to resist. It looks like it's something between 5 and 10 points. They have 2 skill and 0 luck.

...That's... weird.

Okay, so out of curiosity I moved Faye away. But suddenly the non-negligible chunk of the enemy's crit rate that the combat window said Faye was negating... was suddenly just gone entirely. The revenant now has a 0 crit rate. Does the game show how much of a chunk of an enemy's combat stats a defensive support is taking off... even when the character's existing stats are sufficient to completely eliminate the danger?

Alright, I've opened the door to the exit from behind, so time to check out the rest of this place before moving on.

Okay, looks like I just barely get another zombie fight with which to level Gray and Lukas. Also, I get a Clair support with Alm.

…

...So Clair refers to Alm as “our fearless leader”, when Lukas is still at least nominally in charge of our little group, and Clive hasn't made Alm leader yet.

...Yeah, this game isn't very good about making sure its supports don't reference things that aren't guaranteed to have happened yet. That can be a tricky hurdle sometimes, to be fair. One of my favorite ways I've seen the games get around it would have to be what they did with Henry in Awakening. He's the only male character who joins after the timeskip, meaning that they could use him to have Lissa open up to someone about Emmeryn's death, and have Cordelia talk to someone about the fact that Chrom's already married to someone else.

But anyway, the support is about Alm finding Clair's manner of speech amusing, and Clair (who obviously has a crush on him) will roll with this in the next support. But it ends really abruptly, like a New Mystery support. Man, what is it with FE remakes of games without supports... and the supports being so underwhelming?

Alright, Gray got HP and strength and can now class change. Now I'll have Lukas solo everything else in this dungeon in the hopes of getting him to level 7.

Yep, he's level 7 now. HP and skill. But now he gets promotion gains. So now I'll feed the rest to Clair.

It's strange how they opted to call the basic healing spell in this game “recover”, when that's usually the ultimate one-range single-target healing ability. Also, physic is... amazing. It's got a range of your attack stat, not half of it like other games. Faye can basically cover this entire (tiny) battlefield.

Anyway, Clair's fatigued, so I give her soup. And SoV makes it explicitly clear where this game stands on the legendary “is soup a food or a drink” debate. They tell you to drink it, not to eat it.

I like that the new 3DS secondary nub joystick is usable to adjust the camera, and not just the D pad. Mostly because the nub is far more convenient to use while moving.

I got another battle, but since everyone relevant has reached their class change threshold, I decide to give this easy exp to Clair in the hopes that I can make her useful. Faye levels up physicing her, and gets attack, luck and defense.

Silque in turn levels up healing Faye, and gets skill, speed and defense. Nice! But even more importantly, she finally gets warp. This is gonna be awesome. Especially when Faye gets rescue. I can basically use warp and rescue cheese strats with abandon, which is the most reliable way I remember to defeat a certain late-game boss.

Seeing that Alm was nearly at 100, I sent him to help out Clair, and he got attack, skill and defense. Excellent.

And with that, it's finally time for the story scene with Clive and the promotions.

Clive's... always been... kinda amusingly off-putting to me. Something about his appearance just... keeps him from being as cool as everyone makes him out to be. I think his hair might have something to do with it. It's practically a goddamned bowl cut.

Ah yes, and then the infamous “Shut up, Tobin” after Tobin asks Gray why someone as allegedly badass as Clive is losing the war.

Yep, and now Clive asks Alm to become the new leader of the Deliverance.

Fernand: Clive! Have you taken leave of your senses?

Yeah, honestly, I'm inclined to agree with the classist asshat (the classhat, if you will). Clive hasn't even seen a single thing this man has done, or received any report about him from anyone except Fernand, who hates his guts. All he knows is that he rescued his sister and made it here alive. Why...?

...Oh.

...Oh I see.

This is more about emotionally rallying the soldiers. This is basically the “main character appointed to be a people-rallying figurehead” trope again, with Clive and his lieutenants doing all of the stuff Alm obviously isn't prepared to do. And Lukas backs up the idea and vouches for Alm's skill.

Ah yes, and then everyone's favorite exchange:

Fernand: I'll rip that traitorous tongue from your throat!

Lukas: Then you'll finally have the truth in your grasp!

But yeah, after Alm accepts, Fernand completely reaches his breaking point, slams Clive against the wall in anger, and announces his departure in disgust at Clive essentially trampling over everything Fernand values as our resident classhat.

Honestly, I wish they did more to paint Fernand as someone who looks at the peasant class with anger and fear rather than arrogance and disdain. While it would be just as wrong, given his backstory it would be a lot more believable and sympathetic, and would make it far easier to believe a good and decent man was in there once.

Alright, now then, time to talk to everyone, reclass, visit the fountains, and get the hell out of here.

Ah yes, one of the generic soldiers talks about Berkut, not by name though. We'll be meeting him shortly.

Also we recruit Forsyth, and hear about Mathilda. Clive has apparently not given in to Desaix's threats and attempted hostage negotiation, which makes me absolutely amazed that Mathilda is still alive.

It's interesting how the generic who talks with sympathy about Fernand's classism and reveals that peasants on his land stormed his manor and killed his family... is the lowest-class-looking NPC in the room.

Lukas becomes a knight and gets 8 HP, 5 attack and 7 defense. Pretty damned good deal!

Kliff gets 4 HP, 2 attack, 1 skill, 2 defense and 1 mov. That at least shores up his shitty growths a bit, but seriously, he needs to start hitting those damned speed procs.

Gray apparently got enough speed to not gain any from promotion. Just 2 HP, 2 skill, 3 defense and 1 move. Wow, lucky him.

Oh sweet! Fountain of defense!

Guess what I'm doing with this!

Yep, giving it all to Kliff to make up for his atrocious level ups so far. Now that he has a relatively clean slate statistically (except for speed), hopefully the RNG won't shit all over it.

Okay, so... Clive, rather infuriatingly, starts off one level shy of promotion. So I'm going to do the “on the way out” fights, then go back in here, promote Clive, and then leave without fighting anyone else.

Forsythe, I think, might be a lost cause. Level 4 soldier right after we've gotten everyone else promoted. Really shit timing.

Warp apparently doesn't give you any exp. That's a shame.

Alright, I got Clive promoted on his first battle, so now I can focus on maybe salvaging Forsythe. I honestly don't know why though. I never use him.

Yeah, honestly, fuck it. Let's train Clair instead.

And I'm rewarded for this decision with speed, defense, and (you guessed it) skill and luck.

I got a support between Gray and Clair, and... wow, Clair's a bit of a shit here. “A shame you are not Alm. A visit from him would have lifted my spirits”.

And then Gray responds by cheaply hitting on her.

Honestly, I don't really like Gray and Clair's relationship. Or their supports. I don't really get much of a sense, like, at all, that they'd be happy together from what I remember of them. Personally I think Clair would make a far cuter couple with Alm, and unlike with Faye, I actually feel bad for Clair that she's somehow going to fail to romantically compete with a woman that, for most of the game, Alm hasn't even spent an hour with post-puberty.

Faye gets attack and defense again, along with luck. Damn she is one iron woman of the cloth.

Clair got attack, speed, and (you guessed it) luck.

Found some garlic. I wonder what that's for. It feels like it would also be a quest item.

Silque got luck and defense. Wow, two defense in a row, huh?

Clair got speed, defense and (you guessed it) luck. Why do I get so much damned luck in this game?

But yeah, by this point she's level 9. I might actually be able to use her this time, if I can get her enough kills to promote her by the next shrine we hit.

Alright, Clive's a paladin now, and he got... one in HP, speed, defense and movement. That's... anticlimactic. Why not just make him start out as a level 1 paladin with those stats?

And that's it for the deliverance hideout. All that's left is to recruit Python on the way out.

Kliff can thankfully take solace in the fact that, however stat screwed he is, he managed to get much better stats than Python by this point.

Okay. So. All that's left to Act 1 is the final battle in the castle.

...Which I think I'll leave for tomorrow. This seems like a good bit of progress to end on for today.

Stay safe, everyone.

[lenticular]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Gray and Tobin need two levels each to hit level 7 by the end of this dungeon. Kliff needs one. They'll be my priorities for experience, obviously. Though I'll obviously feed exp to anyone near the bonus cap, so it isn't wasted.

The bonus cap is honestly one of the things that annoyed me most about Shadows of Valentia. I don't really see any harm that would have come from letting people level up through bonus exp, and the "make sure nobody finishes a level at ninety-something xp" dance was a lot of annoying micro.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, I don't really like Gray and Clair's relationship. Or their supports. I don't really get much of a sense, like, at all, that they'd be happy together from what I remember of them.

Completely agree with this. Clair is probably my favourite character in the entire SoV cast, and I just don't see any chemistry between these two, nor any indication that they're well suited for each other.

[Samz707]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Oh I see.

This is more about emotionally rallying the soldiers. This is basically the “main character appointed to be a people-rallying figurehead” trope again, with Clive and his lieutenants doing all of the stuff Alm obviously isn't prepared to do. And Lukas backs up the idea and vouches for Alm's skill.

Ah yes, and then everyone's favorite exchange:

Fernand: I'll rip that traitorous tongue from your throat!

Lukas: Then you'll finally have the truth in your grasp!

But yeah, after Alm accepts, Fernand completely reaches his breaking point, slams Clive against the wall in anger, and announces his departure in disgust at Clive essentially trampling over everything Fernand values as our resident classhat.

Honestly, I wish they did more to paint Fernand as someone who looks at the peasant class with anger and fear rather than arrogance and disdain. While it would be just as wrong, given his backstory it would be a lot more believable and sympathetic, and would make it far easier to believe a good and decent man was in there once.

 

The DLC kinda expands on this event a bit but I'm not going to spoil it incase you do play it.

[Jotari]

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Also we recruit Forsyth, and hear about Mathilda. Clive has apparently not given in to Desaix's threats and attempted hostage negotiation, which makes me absolutely amazed that Mathilda is still alive.

 

That's a pretty good point. Might have been better if they'd introduced Mathilda here, but gave her some vital off screen mission to lead that resulted in her getting captured. Fun fact, in the manga Clive outright argues against saving Mathilda as it'd put other people's lives at risk, so him refusing to balk at Desaix's threats is in keeping with that characterization for him, even if it seems a little suspect with Desaix's characterization.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, I don't really like Gray and Clair's relationship. Or their supports. I don't really get much of a sense, like, at all, that they'd be happy together from what I remember of them. Personally I think Clair would make a far cuter couple with Alm, and unlike with Faye, I actually feel bad for Clair that she's somehow going to fail to romantically compete with a woman that, for most of the game, Alm hasn't even spent an hour with post-puberty.

Yeah, the star crossed lovers aspect of Alm and Celica doesn't really jive for me given how little time they've actually spent with each other.