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

[Alastor15243]

13 minutes ago, Seazas said:

"Anyway, Mae seems to be more shaken about putting her magic into practice taking lives than Boey is, which is, uh... news to me, given her sassy battle one-liners"

That's not what I meant by "what are you talking about?". I meant in what way does the support I saw debunk my reading of it?

[Acacia Sgt]

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That's not what I meant by "what are you talking about?". I meant in what way does the support I saw debunk my reading of it?

It's in the B support.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

It's in the B support.

Alright, but I haven't gotten to that yet.

[Seazas]

57 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That's not what I meant by "what are you talking about?". I meant in what way does the support I saw debunk my reading of it?

Nevermind, just keep playing. Their second support debunks Mae feeling heavy about killing people.

[Eltosian Kadath]

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Yeah, uh... for all of the talk in this thread about Alm's major flaw being his reckless following of his conscience and resorting to violence too quickly... Celica's... just charging a goddamned pirate stronghold and ignoring the warnings of everyone around her that this is dangerous (including one very disgruntled mercenary who didn't sign up for this shit).

Also... at least in this scene... Celica has that same quality that I so utterly despised in Eirika: that knack for making incredibly reckless, emotion-fueled, dangerous decisions with little time to think about them, all with the disposition of somebody who's calmly given them a ton of rational thought and calm planning. But make no mistake: Celica is not as bad as Eirika. At least not yet. In Celica's case, unlike with Eirika, I don't get the same feeling that the story would've gone nigh-identically without her.

The way she talks at the port makes it clear she is thinking about clearing Grieth already, and she even hires a mercenary to help. She may not have let Saber or the Captain know that (and keeping her plans from others becomes a bigger issue latter into the game), and I don't think she really values her life as much as she aught to either, but it is a bit different from what is happening with Alm. As for the Eirika comparisons, its not that surprising given all the ideas Sacred Stones has taken from Gaiden...

 

[Alastor15243]

Shadows of Valentia Day 11: The Necrodragon(s)

Alright, so, Celica's already hit the speed benchmark. Good. Those necrodragons are a nightmare if Celica can't one-round them. I'm glad I gave her those speed fountains.

So...

...Ah yes.

The Cantor.

Infinite enemies that give infinite (trickles of) EXP. Constantly summoned in huge numbers, all the time.

This game fucking loves doing this.

Celica: There's only... one of them? What's going on here?

Yeah, uh, that actually brings up a good point: is he really all alone on the ship? If so, how's he sailing it? Does he have like an army of zombies mindlessly rowing belowdeck?

...That would actually be amazing. Just picture it: one of those rowing ships, being mindlessly rowed by zombies, with one zombie up front with the big rhythm-keeping drum, but he's just limp-armedly smacking his head on the drum.

...Apparently this used to be a pirate ship that he took over with his summoning magic, actually. So is the actual explanation that he just... waited here on this aimless abandoned ship for Celica to come by?

The zombie summoning animation is weirdly cute. Like little play-doh men being formed and then going “yay!” when they're done.

The zombies aren't dangerous at all, however. They only have 7 attack, which is pathetic for most of my army at this point. I have four units (counting the one using the shield) who only take one damage from these guys. They serve no purpose other than to die slowly and annoy us.

Celica leveled up from a zombie and got an HPsauce level up. Frustrating, but she's already hit the benchmark I need for her right now, and resetting for good level ups in any game short of FE12 Lunatic or 3H Maddening feels kinda childish. What matters is that she has seraphim now from this level.

The zombies' absurdly high HP makes them really frustrating to deal with, especially since this damned cantor looooooves spamming them like mad. My trick is to push through and wall off as small of an area for him as I can, and then try to slowly whittle him down with magic attacks, namely thunder and some spells from Celica.

Alright, Mae and Celica support, some meaningless casual chatter about “zappin' fools”. The actual meat of this support chain comes later. Really, I find myself wishing for longer support conversations, but then I'm going to get to Three Houses and go “but not like this holy shit please not like this”.

Saber gets defense yet again. He's at 7 now. I think if he gets any more he'll actually be above the myrmidon bases, which would be cool.

Hey, so, while I was doing this really monotonous task of wearing down this cantor, I thought about Clair and Gray's support conversation and then went on a mental tangent over the whole “Casanova wannabe” archetype, and something occurred to me. I may just be having a massive memory lapse, but I can't think of any examples in fiction of the opposite: an attractive female character constantly pulling off some kind of disingenuous “femme fatale” or “ara ara” routine, only for literally all the guys she tries to hit on to react with annoyance and disdain. I mean there are similar things, obviously; anime is full of guys who react to seduction attempts with blushing, awkward terror and run the fuck away, and of course there's the whole “abhorrent admirer” trope, but I can't think of any examples where the default male response to an attractive woman's shallow flirting is annoyed, unimpressed contempt. Closest thing I can think of at the moment is actually Aimee, but I'm not sure she quite counts, since she's implied to be something like ten years older than the men and boys she generally hits on (and really for the most part she's fixated on one person).

I have my theories as to why that might be, but I'm not quite sure how to properly phrase them. But it honestly makes me pretty curious how a hypothetical Fire Emblem Rule 63 project would, say, turn “Inigo” into “Violet”.

But yeah, back on topic, you kinda have to just count on the fact that this cantor will never attack on his turn. If he did, this fight would be beyond dangerous.

Okay, so, this is something I've noticed... it seems like a lot of level up quotes are referring to specific ways in which they've gotten better. But they aren't actually tied to any specific stats as far as I can tell. They can talk about feeling stronger without gaining attack, or talk about being more evasive without gaining speed or luck, or talk about being more accurate without getting skill. Like here, Boey just got HP, attack and skill, and he's all “Evading attacks is easy when you can see what's coming”, and I saw Saber get HP and defense and go “Ha! Leave the heavy lifting to me.”

I wound up taking out the cantor between Celica and Mae, with Leon luckily getting the final blow. So then... on to fight the necrodragons, and then I think I'll end it there and leave the dungeon for tomorrow.

I love how Kamui flips the fuck out when you go to the Seabound Shrine, he's basically like “BITCH WERE YOU EVEN LISTENING!?

And no. Apparently her response was that she wasn't listening. Celica's like “I'm sorry, did we discuss that? I must've been preoccupied.”

IT WAS DURING HIS RECRUITMENT CONVERSATION! THIS WAS THE FIRST CONVERSATION YOU EVER HAD WITH THIS MAN WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. I'm hardly one to talk, I can have some serious attention lapses too, especially when I'm bored, but wooooow.

It's pretty damned funny though.

But yeah, it's kinda dumb how Celica acts like being scared of necrodragons is a personal problem of Kamui's that she's being patronizingly “sympathetic” to. If this was meant to make Celica come across as a badass, it uh... doesn't. It makes her come across as an idiot asshole. Thankfully I've gone to great pains to make sure that she can actually survive this.

Her attack isn't quite good enough to one-round these guys with Seraphim, but she can do enough that others can finish the job.

...Yep, they're scary, but not when you can take out one per turn. That was pretty straightforward, almost disappointingly so. Maybe it would've been harder if I didn't get Celica fast enough to double.

Boey got the finishing blow due to a lucky crit, and got HP, attack, skill and speed. Excellent level, Boey!

And we got a blessed ring! Awesome! Rings are kickass, especially for mages, since on top of any other insane effects they might provide, they give a +5 HP regen effect every turn that really helps make sure mages don't run out of magic and, more importantly, healers don't run out of healing. So naturally, that goes on Genny right away.

Aaaand I think that's all I have time for today. Which means tomorrow we explore the seabound shrine itself! And all of the treasures and terrors it holds.

Stay safe, everyone!

Edited June 8, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Venger_06]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hey, so, while I was doing this really monotonous task of wearing down this cantor, I thought about Clair and Gray's support conversation and then went on a mental tangent over the whole “Casanova wannabe” archetype, and something occurred to me. I may just be having a massive memory lapse, but I can't think of any examples in fiction of the opposite: an attractive female character constantly pulling off some kind of disingenuous “femme fatale” or “ara ara” routine, only for literally all the guys she tries to hit on to react with annoyance and disdain. I mean there are similar things, obviously; anime is full of guys who react to seduction attempts with blushing, awkward terror and run the fuck away, and of course there's the whole “abhorrent admirer” trope, but I can't think of any examples where the default male response to an attractive woman's shallow flirting is annoyed, unimpressed contempt. Closest thing I can think of at the moment is actually Aimee, but I'm not sure she quite counts, since she's implied to be something like ten years older than the men and boys she generally hits on (and really for the most part she's fixated on one person).

I have my theories as to why that might be, but I'm not quite sure how to properly phrase them. But it honestly makes me pretty curious how a hypothetical Fire Emblem Rule 63 project would, say, turn “Inigo” into “Violet”.

That's why.

[Samz707]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Hey, so, while I was doing this really monotonous task of wearing down this cantor, I thought about Clair and Gray's support conversation and then went on a mental tangent over the whole “Casanova wannabe” archetype, and something occurred to me. I may just be having a massive memory lapse, but I can't think of any examples in fiction of the opposite: an attractive female character constantly pulling off some kind of disingenuous “femme fatale” or “ara ara” routine, only for literally all the guys she tries to hit on to react with annoyance and disdain. I mean there are similar things, obviously; anime is full of guys who react to seduction attempts with blushing, awkward terror and run the fuck away, and of course there's the whole “abhorrent admirer” trope, but I can't think of any examples where the default male response to an attractive woman's shallow flirting is annoyed, unimpressed contempt. Closest thing I can think of at the moment is actually Aimee, but I'm not sure she quite counts, since she's implied to be something like ten years older than the men and boys she generally hits on (and really for the most part she's fixated on one person).

 

Would Manuela count? she's not quite full Ara Ara, though I guess in that case it's more her room that puts off the guys as I've not gotten all of her supports so I'm not sure if most people brush off her flirting or if it's just her room full of discarded Bara mags.

I guess also Darkness from Konosuba? maybe? she's a masochist but it  just massively puts off every Male in Konosuba.

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Samz707

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hey, so, while I was doing this really monotonous task of wearing down this cantor, I thought about Clair and Gray's support conversation and then went on a mental tangent over the whole “Casanova wannabe” archetype, and something occurred to me. I may just be having a massive memory lapse, but I can't think of any examples in fiction of the opposite: an attractive female character constantly pulling off some kind of disingenuous “femme fatale” or “ara ara” routine, only for literally all the guys she tries to hit on to react with annoyance and disdain. I mean there are similar things, obviously; anime is full of guys who react to seduction attempts with blushing, awkward terror and run the fuck away, and of course there's the whole “abhorrent admirer” trope, but I can't think of any examples where the default male response to an attractive woman's shallow flirting is annoyed, unimpressed contempt. Closest thing I can think of at the moment is actually Aimee, but I'm not sure she quite counts, since she's implied to be something like ten years older than the men and boys she generally hits on (and really for the most part she's fixated on one person).

I have my theories as to why that might be, but I'm not quite sure how to properly phrase them. But it honestly makes me pretty curious how a hypothetical Fire Emblem Rule 63 project would, say, turn “Inigo” into “Violet”.

 

Doesn't Soleil largely work that way? Well, maybe, I'm not sure. Been a long time since I bothered to read Fates supports let alone 2nd Gen Fates supports.

Quote

 

I wound up taking out the cantor between Celica and Mae, with Leon luckily getting the final blow. So then... on to fight the necrodragons, and then I think I'll end it there and leave the dungeon for tomorrow.

 

I love how Kamui flips the fuck out when you go to the Seabound Shrine, he's basically like “BITCH WERE YOU EVEN LISTENING!?

And no. Apparently her response was that she wasn't listening. Celica's like “I'm sorry, did we discuss that? I must've been preoccupied.”

IT WAS DURING HIS RECRUITMENT CONVERSATION! THIS WAS THE FIRST CONVERSATION YOU EVER HAD WITH THIS MAN WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. I'm hardly one to talk, I can have some serious attention lapses too, especially when I'm bored, but wooooow.

It's pretty damned funny though.

But yeah, it's kinda dumb how Celica acts like being scared of necrodragons is a personal problem of Kamui's that she's being patronizingly “sympathetic” to. If this was meant to make Celica come across as a badass, it uh... doesn't. It makes her come across as an idiot asshole. Thankfully I've gone to great pains to make sure that she can actually survive this.

Her attack isn't quite good enough to one-round these guys with Seraphim, but she can do enough that others can finish the job.

...Yep, they're scary, but not when you can take out one per turn. That was pretty straightforward, almost disappointingly so. Maybe it would've been harder if I didn't get Celica fast enough to double.

 

I do like how the Necro Dragon(s) works here. It's a trivially simple map, but by giving you just one (or two) enemy(ies) to fight it kind of feels like a final boss level only in the early game. Of course even if you don't have Sephraim the battle devolves down to standing on all sides of the necro dragon(s) and whaling on them until they're dead, so functionally it's not the best way to do it, but in terms of atmosphere and what the map makes me feel, I like it. Could have been better with some of the boss ideas they later use in Three Houses, but overall, for a bad map, I think it works pretty well.

 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

5 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Doesn't Soleil largely work that way? Well, maybe, I'm not sure. Been a long time since I bothered to read Fates supports let alone 2nd Gen Fates supports.

She doesn't, actually. The only one who is uncomfortable with her antics, best I recall, is Ophelia.

[Eltosian Kadath]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

But yeah, it's kinda dumb how Celica acts like being scared of necrodragons is a personal problem of Kamui's that she's being patronizingly “sympathetic” to. If this was meant to make Celica come across as a badass, it uh... doesn't. It makes her come across as an idiot asshole. Thankfully I've gone to great pains to make sure that she can actually survive this.

There really should have been alternate dialogue if she had Seraphim, as you/she gets a heads up in a villager conversation about Seraphim being the way to deal with the Necrodragons...

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Yep, they're scary, but not when you can take out one per turn. That was pretty straightforward, almost disappointingly so. Maybe it would've been harder if I didn't get Celica fast enough to double.

Even if she can't double,  if Genny has invoke those distraction keep it from being too dangerous (as long as you have Seraphim to keep it from taking too long for Genny's hp pool).

 

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

She doesn't, actually. The only one who is uncomfortable with her antics, best I recall, is Ophelia.

Its not as pronounced as people's reactions to her father, but I remember most of her supports make the people she is talking to uncomfortable. To be fair I haven't read through that many, and Ophelia's support is by far the most extreme...

 

 

[Ottservia]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hey, so, while I was doing this really monotonous task of wearing down this cantor, I thought about Clair and Gray's support conversation and then went on a mental tangent over the whole “Casanova wannabe” archetype, and something occurred to me. I may just be having a massive memory lapse, but I can't think of any examples in fiction of the opposite: an attractive female character constantly pulling off some kind of disingenuous “femme fatale” or “ara ara” routine, only for literally all the guys she tries to hit on to react with annoyance and disdain. I mean there are similar things, obviously; anime is full of guys who react to seduction attempts with blushing, awkward terror and run the fuck away, and of course there's the whole “abhorrent admirer” trope, but I can't think of any examples where the default male response to an attractive woman's shallow flirting is annoyed, unimpressed contempt. Closest thing I can think of at the moment is actually Aimee, but I'm not sure she quite counts, since she's implied to be something like ten years older than the men and boys she generally hits on (and really for the most part she's fixated on one person).

I can name a few actually. There’s actually an archetype(well okay there are two that come to mind but you can call them two different variances of the same archetype) for it. I don’t know the specific name for it but it exists. But in the case of female characters it’s mostly just an obsession with marriage. If you’re looking for specific examples you have Sawako Yamanaka from K-on, Boa Hancock from One Piece(though in her case it’s one guy),Mjolnir from soul eater, Baby 5 from One Piece, The Mizukage from Naruto, and Elphelt Valentine from guilty gear

[Alastor15243]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Doesn't Soleil largely work that way? Well, maybe, I'm not sure. Been a long time since I bothered to read Fates supports let alone 2nd Gen Fates supports.

 Nah. While others have pointed out that she's mostly successful, the other thing is she's still doing it towards women. I was thinking more a complete reversal, a woman who's a chronic failed flirt towards men.

[Shadow Mir]

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 Nah. While others have pointed out that she's mostly successful, the other thing is she's still doing it towards women. I was thinking more a complete reversal, a woman who's a chronic failed flirt towards men.

Manuela is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. At least two of Byleth's supports have her poor luck with men mentioned, or at least referenced.

[UNLEASH IT]

No one seems to be too keen on Charlotte's antics. Also Felix "I studied the blade" Fraldarius seemed to treat Dorothea's advances with disdain before he knew she could sing.

[Etrurian emperor]

3 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

She doesn't, actually. The only one who is uncomfortable with her antics, best I recall, is Ophelia.

In the Japanese version she also has to chase down an unwilling Forrest. 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, uh, that actually brings up a good point: is he really all alone on the ship? If so, how's he sailing it? Does he have like an army of zombies mindlessly rowing belowdeck?

...That would actually be amazing. Just picture it: one of those rowing ships, being mindlessly rowed by zombies, with one zombie up front with the big rhythm-keeping drum, but he's just limp-armedly smacking his head on the drum.

Loving this. New headcanon.

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Like here, Boey just got HP, attack and skill, and he's all “Evading attacks is easy when you can see what's coming”,

Uh, what formulas are you looking at here, Boey? Skill is the closest analogue to vision, and it has no impact on evasion. You've just gotta go fast, and maybe find a tree or gravestone to help.

11 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

an attractive female character constantly pulling off some kind of disingenuous “femme fatale” or “ara ara” routine, only for literally all the guys she tries to hit on to react with annoyance and disdain

Serra is vaguely reminiscent of this, considering how Erk and Matthew react to her. Granted, she's not coming on to them, so much as trying to boss them around.

11 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I wound up taking out the cantor between Celica and Mae, with Leon luckily getting the final blow. So then... on to fight the necrodragons, and then I think I'll end it there and leave the dungeon for tomorrow.

Very minor point, but I'm a big fan of the name "Necrodragons". Definitely preferable to the "Dracozombies" of Sacred Stones. Not so much a fan of the absurd movement range they get, though.

[Alastor15243]

20 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Very minor point, but I'm a big fan of the name "Necrodragons". Definitely preferable to the "Dracozombies" of Sacred Stones. Not so much a fan of the absurd movement range they get, though.

Same. Big improvement, and I can't really think of any way to improve on it further.

20 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Loving this. New headcanon.

I'm glad someone enjoyed that!

Edited June 9, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Acacia Sgt]

It even makes sense. Since necromancy is pretty much widespread in knowledge if not use thanks to the Cantors, of course the undead dragons will be designated as such as well.

[Jotari]

 

On 5/26/2021 at 11:05 PM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Right, so we rescue the captive woman, a cleric named Silque. She's apparently from a place called Novis. Is that... is that Celica's location? I'll have to check. I'm pretty sure it is.

Yep, sounds like Silque knows Celica.

 

Just to confirm this, Celica does indeed know Silque. If you don't recruit Silque with Alm they can have a conversation with each other in the thieves Shrine, though Celica can't recruit Silque.

 

[Alastor15243]

24 minutes ago, Jotari said:

 

Just to confirm this, Celica does indeed know Silque. If you don't recruit Silque with Alm they can have a conversation with each other in the thieves Shrine, though Celica can't recruit Silque.

 

That's kinda hilarious.

 

 

Shadows of Valentia Day 12: Seabound Shrine

So we enter, after I give Leon his bow back (I took it off to stop the necrodragons from doubling him), and we see Celica's first journey into a dungeon. Instead of lighting a lantern like Alm, she summons this little floating fireball to follow her around, which is pretty cool.

But yeah, so, there's this really obnoxious fetch quest revolving around a coral ring, which is a really cool item, but to get it you have to chop the coral around here until you get a bunch of coral pieces. It's damned near impossible to do in one trip through the Seabound Shrine, so on a no-grind run, it's basically out of the question. I'm actually kinda pissed off at the amount of grind-y side-content they added to this game that you simply cannot touch if you want to be challenged at all, because even when you ignore the turnwheel and push through the game with minimal random battles, Intelligent Systems hasn't released a game whose hardest difficulty was this easy in more than a goddamned decade.

Leon is officially faster than Kliff before he even becomes a sniper. After one single speed proc.

Saber's finally mastered the golden dagger skills, which kinda snuck up on me because I never noticed him unlocking the first one. But yeah, now he has a skill that lets him get food from enemies he kills, which is handy, especially since some food is useful for quests.

Celica got HP, strength, speed and defense. Awesome level up, let's hope nothing goes horribly wrong in the next room I forgot about so we can save.

Saber's definitely gonna be able to promote by the end of the dungeon, but I don't know about anyone else. I'll sure as hell try though.

Man, the controls for attacking are pretty awkward, and that becomes fairly obvious once you have to do a lot of it to cut down grass. If this were an actual game with actual real-time combat, these controls would be a literal deal-breaker. Especially when you try to attack multiple times while moving. It's this freaky, barely-controllable berserk back-and-forth that I struggle to put into words. It has to be done rather than heard about.

I broke every piece of coral I could find, and the result was a single coral fragment. Yaaaaay.

Hahaha, there's a man dying of hunger, he begs for food, I give him fish, and he's all “uh, sorry, I was thinking something a bit more meaty.” First off, talk about choosing beggars, and secondly, the hell is this idea that fish isn't meat? But yeah, he's looking specifically for the dried meat item we have.

We got 30 silver from that, and then searching around netted us a mana herb and... a memory prism! Sadly I don't think I can examine that here, so I'll have to do it on the map. Hopefully I don't forget.

Oh no wait I can do it here!

Ah, this is one with Mycen! Cool!

Aw, this is pretty sweet. Babby Celica crying about waking up to her bedroom on fire is pretty heartbreaking.

Ahhhhh, and Conrad's name is finally dropped. I had forgotten what his name was.

Well, that's over. Moving on...

...Ah yes, basically the most worthless fountain in the game: water of skill, and water of HP. In fact, it's SO worthless I'm not even gonna use it until on the way out, just in case it spoils one of the better fountains I think is deeper in.

Boey got attack, speed and defense, which is a pretty dang good level up. Maybe it'll actually let him start doubling something?

...Ah yes. The damned Gargoyles. I can attack them now... but I think I want to wait until I have the blessed sword to help.

I ran past them and hilariously this triggered their aggro. Thankfully I managed to make it to the blessed sword and equip it before they arrived, and then I managed to take out one of them on turn one with Celica and her insane speed.

Celica got a res level up! Rare and appreciated! She also learned thunder! Also, that speed level up Boey got means he can double these bonewalkers with fire!

...Guess I was wrong about there being another fountain here. Okay, then... I guess I'll just dump the skill on Celica to slightly boost her crit rate.

So I wound up managing to get not just Saber, but also Kamui and Leon to level 7. The myrmidon class boosts are pretty damned kickass. Both Kamui and Saber wound up getting above the nice defense base, but still, that 30 HP is pretty awesome and appreciated. Now they just need to get to level 10 again and they'll be... dread fighters.

The sniper class boosts are much less nice, but still, an extra point of movement and attack range is great.

I get... way luckier with coral fragments this time and get three of them in swift succession from like a quarter of the coral from the entrance as I take my leave. Could it be I might actually get all the coral in one trip???

Alright, now for Mae and Celica's B support. So Mae basically all but explicitly says she has a crush on Boey and thinks he doesn't feel the same way because he doesn't even think of Mae as a woman, and is wondering if that means she has to change in order to get with him. Celica figures it out pretty quick and reassures her that she's doing just fine. Hm... I wonder if she already realizes that Boey likes her back? Also, it's kinda hilarious that this can happen after Mae and Boey's A support. So Mae really is “such a dope that [she] can't figure it out”!

Alright, now Kamui and Leon get a talk...

Apparently Leon's line of “If it isn't Kamui” was supposed to be dismissive. The way I heard it, it sounded almost flirtatious.

...Well! Whaddya know! Another support conversation between two people where one really doesn't seem to be in the mood to talk to the other! How original!

So, Kamui has one more defense than Saber, but six less luck, and since that leaves his luck at a measly two, that's... actually kinda concerning. I gotta hope I get him a good support that boosts crit evade.

And now Leon gets a talk with Valbar. It's uh... it sounds like Valbar is kinda oblivious to the fact that Leon is both gay and obsessed with him, and doesn't understand why he isn't even trying to get a girlfriend when he could probably manage getting several if he didn't constantly run his mouth. I know by the A support he's finally figured it out, but given that Leon does absolutely everything short of literally saying “I'm gay”, it's kinda amazing he doesn't already know.

Mae got attack, skill, speed and yet another point of defense. She's at 5 now. That's... impressive.

Infuriatingly, after that huge, teasing burst of luck at the beginning, I only have four coral fragments, and I think I need five. Damn it.

Well, I think that's it for today. Sorry for the short update text-wise, but it took longer to do than it took to write, and I've got some stuff I need to do today. So tomorrow we'll handle these next ships, and we'll finish Act 2 either tomorrow or Friday.

Stay safe, everyone!

[Samz707]

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

But yeah, so, there's this really obnoxious fetch quest revolving around a coral ring, which is a really cool item, but to get it you have to chop the coral around here until you get a bunch of coral pieces. It's damned near impossible to do in one trip through the Seabound Shrine, so on a no-grind run, it's basically out of the question. I'm actually kinda pissed off at the amount of grind-y side-content they added to this game that you simply cannot touch if you want to be challenged at all, because even when you ignore the turnwheel and push through the game with minimal random battles, Intelligent Systems hasn't released a game whose hardest difficulty was this easy in more than a goddamned decade.

Man, the controls for attacking are pretty awkward, and that becomes fairly obvious once you have to do a lot of it to cut down grass. If this were an actual game with actual real-time combat, these controls would be a literal deal-breaker. Especially when you try to attack multiple times while moving. It's this freaky, barely-controllable berserk back-and-forth that I struggle to put into words. It has to be done rather than heard about.

Hahaha, there's a man dying of hunger, he begs for food, I give him fish, and he's all “uh, sorry, I was thinking something a bit more meaty.” First off, talk about choosing beggars, and secondly, the hell is this idea that fish isn't meat? But yeah, he's looking specifically for the dried meat item we have.

Aw, this is pretty sweet. Babby Celica crying about waking up to her bedroom on fire is pretty heartbreaking.

Ahhhhh, and Conrad's name is finally dropped. I had forgotten what his name was.

So I wound up managing to get not just Saber, but also Kamui and Leon to level 7. The myrmidon class boosts are pretty damned kickass. Both Kamui and Saber wound up getting above the nice defense base, but still, that 30 HP is pretty awesome and appreciated. Now they just need to get to level 10 again and they'll be... dread fighters.

Alright, now Kamui and Leon get a talk...

Apparently Leon's line of “If it isn't Kamui” was supposed to be dismissive. The way I heard it, it sounded almost flirtatious.

...Well! Whaddya know! Another support conversation between two people where one really doesn't seem to be in the mood to talk to the other! How original!

And now Leon gets a talk with Valbar. It's uh... it sounds like Valbar is kinda oblivious to the fact that Leon is both gay and obsessed with him, and doesn't understand why he isn't even trying to get a girlfriend when he could probably manage getting several if he didn't constantly run his mouth. I know by the A support he's finally figured it out, but given that Leon does absolutely everything short of literally saying “I'm gay”, it's kinda amazing he doesn't already know.

Yeah it's easy but I'd rather have a mostly fair easy  (not completely braindead though) experience than a unfair hard one.  *Cough*AmbushSpawns*Cough*

Saber stops the Famine!

So does this mean we're eating like really moldy meat/bread the Undead were buried with? Just tuck into a lovely piece of "Meat" you got from a Zombie.

Yeah it's a bit awkward, thankfully you're not asked to do much attacking so it doesn't bother me that much. 

Yeah that Memory Prism is good.

Ah yes, Balanced Class, Dread Fighter.

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by Samz707

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

But yeah, so, there's this really obnoxious fetch quest revolving around a coral ring, which is a really cool item, but to get it you have to chop the coral around here until you get a bunch of coral pieces. It's damned near impossible to do in one trip through the Seabound Shrine, so on a no-grind run, it's basically out of the question.

I always remember it as you getting exactly enough in one trip, but that could just be me getting lucky...

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Infuriatingly, after that huge, teasing burst of luck at the beginning, I only have four coral fragments, and I think I need five. Damn it.

Don't worry, you find a free one at Zophia Harbor, so you should get exactly enough.

[Acacia Sgt]

Last (and still so far first) I played, I had to do several trips since I got only one coral per dungeon run.

Edited June 9, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

That's kinda hilarious.

 

 

Shadows of Valentia Day 12: Seabound Shrine

So we enter, after I give Leon his bow back (I took it off to stop the necrodragons from doubling him), and we see Celica's first journey into a dungeon. Instead of lighting a lantern like Alm, she summons this little floating fireball to follow her around, which is pretty cool.

But yeah, so, there's this really obnoxious fetch quest revolving around a coral ring, which is a really cool item, but to get it you have to chop the coral around here until you get a bunch of coral pieces. It's damned near impossible to do in one trip through the Seabound Shrine, so on a no-grind run, it's basically out of the question. I'm actually kinda pissed off at the amount of grind-y side-content they added to this game that you simply cannot touch if you want to be challenged at all, because even when you ignore the turnwheel and push through the game with minimal random battles, Intelligent Systems hasn't released a game whose hardest difficulty was this easy in more than a goddamned decade.

 

Yeah, it's a bit of a shame. I actually love Shadows of Valentia's gameplay. It really works for me on several design fronts, but it's a shame there's just no higher level of difficutly to actually use with it wherein actually properly playing the game and not nerfing yourself can lead to a substantial challenge. I convinced one of my friends to play Shadows of Valentia who had never played a Fire Emblem game at all and he complained that it was a bit on the easy side. Which is a very rare complaint for a new Fire Emblem player, as Fire Emblem usually kicks newbies asses until they figure out how the game works.

Quote

 

...Guess I was wrong about there being another fountain here. Okay, then... I guess I'll just dump the skill on Celica to slightly boost her crit rate.

 

You weren't wrong. There's a fountain of EXP and a fountain of RES in there. It's to the sides behind broken walls. RES is obviously the better choice as you'll barely ever get it leveling up, though you could leave the fountain of exp until later in the game when some characters are struggling to reach third tier promotion levels.

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by Jotari