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

[Acacia Sgt]

For the record, SRW employed the "runs away below X HP left" approach. Though by next encounter they'd be back to full, and due to level-sense progression, with even more HP as they'd be higher leveled, etc. I think nowadays they ditched that and just went for standard "0 HP means defeated, not dead". Granted, SRW being SRW, means just about everyone is fighting a board a mecha, so it's not hard to sell "they used the escape pod and lived to fight another day".

Still, you could still defeat them before they ran away, and the games would acknowledge it. Usually with just item drops, as part of the condition to unlock secret units, or sometimes that was the optional objective to give you points that either unlocked the true ending or simply to ramp up the difficulty since, well, you are managing to exceed expectations.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

40 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

The Black Knight is properly presented as a menace on the battlefield that will kill you. And even if he doesn't, you can't beat him. It's not like we were beating him multiple times until the last one stuck.

Only played two chapters of Thracia so I can't say this with absolute certainty, but I'm pretty sure I heard that if you manage to kill Galzus early on before you can recruit him, he won't show up again. Otherwise, his stats seem to be high enough so that on a normal playthrough without a lot of luck he's very likely to kill you and you're not likely to kill him early on.

That's kind of my point. The fact that they showed up as recurring enemies, but ones you weren't expected to (or even able to) defeat, made them consistent threats. And Engage was kind of doing this with the Hounds in chapter 11, which I honestly throught was great. Garon in Birthright's Opera Map is another such example. The Death Knight seems like he was intended to be this in chapter 4, but even there, people have trivialized this.

Point is, I think the stronger (narratively) recurring bosses are those that aren't the main boss of their own map, but instead a "hurry up" boss that pressures the player to satisfy the victory condition more quickly.

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Eh, makes them quite fitting to their name if they're gonna Hound you for most of the game.

They were "hounding" us in chapter 11, and it was glorious. Here, though? They're just sitting in the throne room, waiting patiently. Zephia was the only threatening one (and the only one with a story reason to be here), so I'm fine with how she was done. But Marni and Mauvier added nothing to the chapter that generic enemies wouldn't have also brought.

15 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I really liked how the War of the Chosen expansion for XCOM 2 handled recurring boss enemies. There, when you faced them, they had an enormous health bar, and instead of killing them, they would flee from battle once you did enough dmaage to them. Then, next time they showed up, all the damage that you inflicted first time around would still be present, and you'd be able to whittle them down even further. Then once you got them down to 0hp, they were dead for good and wouldn't show up again. It really felt as if you were making progress towards defeating these perpetual thorns in your side, and it was suitably frustrating when they ran before you could do much damage and satisfying when you finally managed to take them down. I can imagine that a similar system could be made to work decently well in Fire Emblem, with a few tweaks.

Interesting, sounds like roaming legendaries in the Pokemon series. Ah, I remember tracking down Entei and putting him to sleep... only for him to run away on me! While sleeping! How does that even work?

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Interesting, sounds like roaming legendaries in the Pokemon series. Ah, I remember tracking down Entei and putting him to sleep... only for him to run away on me! While sleeping! How does that even work?

Sleepwalk?

[Alastor15243]

Engage Day 17: Chapter 15

Alright, time to get ready for the next chapter.

First off, I’m gonna class change Hortensia since she’s level 20 and I’m definitely using her. She and Ivy are my only means of getting magical fliers, who are, how to say, dope as hell.

And in doing so, she becomes the only promoted unit in the entire game to ride a pegasus. Interesting!

Amusingly, when I promoted her, the game reloaded her new model in its original facing, when she had previously turned around to face me and stayed that way after I talked to her.

Also, uh, hey, question about last battle that just occurred to me as I explored the map and got into the fucking hugeass throne room:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the hostage situation happen in this throne room?

…So why did we start the map at the entrance? Which is the direction all of the incoming enemies would have come from? Why weren’t we fighting our way out of the throne room, instead of into it?

But credit where it’s due, this throne room is fucking gorgeous. Especially the huge crystal ball chandelier.

A soldier tells me she was “never a believer before”…

…In the sense of her not worshipping the divine dragon, or in the sense of her somehow thinking the divine dragon is a myth? Elaborate, please! I wanna know what objections people might have to Lythos’s church! Or even what its fucking tenants and commandments are!

Ohp! Here’s Veyle!

And she’s in evil form but about to turn good again by the looks of it.

…Yeah, and it confirms that when Evil Veyle goes to sleep, Good Veyle wakes up.

Um…

…This seems to heavily be implying that neither Dr. Vekyle nor Ms. Veyde know about their other personality. If Evil Veyle knew about Good Veyle, she wouldn’t allow herself to go asleep in random areas where she can run loose and try to undermine Sombron’s plans. And if Good Veyle knew about Evil Veyle, she wouldn’t be confused as to how the fuck she woke up in the middle of a desert when the last thing she remembered was being in Elusia.

How… how could neither one know? How is that physically possible? If Sombron or Zephia are responsible for this split personality, did they just not tell Evil Veyle about it? Are they trying to hide the fact that she’s an artificial personality or something so she doesn’t have an existential crisis and turn against them?

Alright, let’s check out this chapter and see what we have to work with. I’ve heard that Corrin gets the ability to summon those avoid tiles of light like in that Revelation chapter with Gunter as the boss, so I’m guessing this is gonna be Yunaka’s Emblem. For now though, time to check this out.

Oh shit! Looks like Corrin’s “canon” user is our dancer! And just like Yunaka’s the opposite sex of Sothe, this one’s the opposite sex of Azura!

And now, after a long journey, Pepsiman’s finally responding to the line Timerra said at the end of last story scene, asking if he scares easily regarding the temple.

Weirdly, the game’s struggling to get internet connection despite having full bars.

So the cutscene reveals Seadall’s name in advance, but not Corrin’s. I wonder why they only seem to obscure the names of Emblems who haven’t introduced themselves yet.

PFFFFFF

And Seadall thinks Corrin’s a princess trapped in a ring by a curse.

AND HE DOES TAROT READINGS?

…Shit wait.

Please tell me he attacks with reaper cards like in Radiant Dawn.

…No such luck, he’s a qi adept.

…He seems to have an identical personal skill to Azura, just with dancing being the justification rather than song.

That miasma looks like some nasty shit. Better not step there under any circumstances. -20 def/res if I step on it, +20 def/res if the enemy steps on it? That’s a game-changing amount of stats.

I can only bring 9 units to this map unfortunately. Okay, who’s getting the axe here?

Well I’m definitely dropping Bunet for Kagetsu, first of all. And Pandreo was a filler unit, so he’s dropped too. So that just leaves the third one of the previous twelve I’m not bringing…

…Huh. I just noticed, this map has indoor sections we can’t see inside until we open the doors, like in the GBA games. Hopefully there aren’t any nasty surprises hidden behind them, but I’ll keep my guard up just in case.

Oh right! And I have to put Lucina on someone now that Byleth is on Pepsiman. Can’t forget.

…Alright, I think I’ve seen enough to know what to do at the Somniel. Let’s go.

…Oh that’s interesting! It looks like whichever Emblem you have on Pepsiman shows up right at the spawn point in the Somniel.

…And I just realized that other Emblems seem to hang out by whoever’s wearing their ring. Not sure how I didn’t catch onto that until just now. That’s nice!

Sad Sack Alcryst is on cooking duty. Let’s hope he doesn’t set himself up for failure.

He got a D despite me pulling out all the stops with extra ingredients (save for rare fruit, didn’t seem to fit on something savory like pizza even though tomato is a fruit), but hey, at least we got the buff without incident.

100 more SP and Merrin will be able to inherit resolve. Then I’ll probably slap Lucina on her and put Ike on someone else, probably Louis, because Lucina lets Merrin use dagger dual strikes. Which, I’ve heard, poison.

Oh nice, if you have speed+2 equipped and inherit speed+3, it doesn’t unequip speed+2, it replaces it with speed+3. Honestly though, in general, it would be nice if inherited skills were auto-equipped if you had empty slots, and asked you which you wanted to drop if you didn’t.

And Byleth’s the luck Emblem. Most of his skills appear to be shit at this stage, but a luck boost would actually be fairly handy for certain units with less-than-ideal luck.

Now to put Pepsiman in the arena again.

Oh, and I finally found the arena theme! The problem was it apparently also doubles as a boss theme later, so I wasn’t looking in the right spot in the playlist until I went “fuck it” and skimmed through the beginnings of all of them until I found it. It’s apparently called “Keeper of History”, and that makes me suspect that it’s the boss theme for Emblem paralogues.

Now to see what Byleth’s engraving is like. I saw Ike’s earlier, it’s another power boost with ludicrous costs. That one I think is gonna go on Alcryst’s silver bow, which he only keeps with him to have a strong weapon to use for his super.

…Byleth’s is pretty good, actually! A weight increase of two is a bit steep, but in exchange you get 30 hit, 10 crit, 10 avoid and 30 dodge!

…But I’m a bit strapped for bond fragments right now. I’m gonna get more of a nest egg of these before I slap anything on anything.

For now I’m gonna give Lucina to Yunaka until I can give her Corrin at the end of this map. Like I said, chain attacks on dagger users is handy.

So it seems that fracture has way more uses now that it’s in our hands. Cool that it’s better with us, but it’s kinda funny given that Hortensia explicitly has a skill that lets staves last longer. That makes her a great Micaiah candidate, though it would be wasting the whole “let a non-staff-user use staves” part of it.

On that note, one thing I’m tempted to do is give Clanne Micaiah again when we get her back and make him a dark knight with a levin sword. Did it say weapons versus tomes or physical attacks versus magic attacks for the dark knight skill…?

…The latter, alas. Okay, so not as good a fit as I was hoping. I think I’ll just make him a sage then.

Um… I was not expecting male sages to go all midriff-baring and…

…Is that a fucking Corrin-esque thigh window!?

 

…Okay, based on the inventory menu pop-up it appears to be outer thigh rather than inner thigh, but… I won’t be completely sure of what I’m going to be subjected to from now on until I’m actually subjected to it in battle, and…

…I mean, good on the game for experimenting on gender-equal fanservice in their outfits… but did we really need to slap this outfit on the religious leader’s underage choir boy? The deranged and unbelievably sick jokes write themselves, and therefore I will not be redundant.

Also, I still don’t have anyone who can teach people tome access, so I’m not gonna promote Framme until I get a tome Emblem and can make her into a high priest when she promotes.

…Ah yes, I have supports now.

Pepsiman unlocked Cs with the three people he fought in the arena, so let’s do those first.

Pepsiman and Panette’s C.

PFFFFFFFFFF

Panette appears to have… a colorful history, if her first assumption, in the middle of a war, for why Pepsiman wanted advice from Panette on brawling… was thinking Pepsiman wanted to beat up someone who owes him money.

…Does Panette have an inherent affinity for arts? Because if not…

…She does not. She has axes and knives. That… what?

Arts are so fucking weird in this game. Genuinely, the fuck.

Pepsiman and Zelkov’s C.

…The fuck is with Zelkov’s verbal tic of emphasizing random words in a sentence?

And he outright admits that he sounds a lot more grandiose and pretentious in his words than he actually intends to be.

Pepsiman and Chloé’s C.

PFFFFFFFF

Chloé apparently has a history of watching Pepsiman sleep. Pepsiman sounded genuinely unnerved when he said “Were you watching me sleep? Again!?”

…She says the reason why is because he’s basically a fairy tale sleeping beauty, so she finds the sight of him asleep to be captivating.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Her “compromise” on how weirded out he is when he wakes up to her watching him sleep… is to just let her keep doing it until he gets used to it.

Woooooooooooooow. That is brazen of her.

Is she… is she hitting on him, or just totally oblivious to what this sounds like when she suggests setting up an extra bed for her in his chamber?

Clanne and Framme’s A.

Okay, let’s see what the damage is with this costume.

…Oh, he’s in his basic character model costume. Not his Somniel casual wear, just his default mage outfit.

…This conversation feels like it’s some sort of message about casual vs hardcore Fire Emblem fans. Framme tells Clanne that being a fan “isn’t about what you do, it’s about how you feel”, and that it doesn’t matter that he didn’t have the nerve to pass out those pamphlets, he’s still a fan through and through. If it is, I like that the follow-up message is not to therefore be satisfied with where you are in terms of capability, because he makes it clear he’s gonna do his best to work up the nerve to do it next time.

PFFFF

Clanne: And the interview needs… more. We didn’t even ask if the Divine Dragon prefers red or blue!

Honestly, obvious issues aside, another complaint I have with Clanne’s new promotion, one that’s become more obvious seeing his old outfit and his new one back to back again, is that he ditches that entire look he had before. I liked the brown plaid scarf that matched Framme’s hat. He had a nice look, and this promotion clearly isn’t based on it in any way.

Timerra is playing a lute or something while being completely unresponsive to me when I try to talk to her. Huh.

And so is Fogado. That’s… curious.

Okay, what the hell, let’s try out this “my room” thing and this “waking up event” thing.

…Okay, so this really is just a weird bit of g-rated fanservice. The sparkling border and slow panning shots really give that impression. Which makes it all the more uncomfortable that it was Framme I woke up to.

…So when you wake up, does whoever woke you up always hang out right outside your door? Or was this just a freak coincidence?

…Also, it seems you can just do this indefinitely to grind for time-based resource spots in the Somniel. Not sure how to feel about that. On one hand, it’s nice that it’s not solely real-time sensitive. On the other, for those who want to grind, I imagine constantly going to bed and seeing wake-up events might get tiresome real fast.

Alright, now let’s check out this battle again.

…Okay, so upon zooming in on Clanne… the pants aren’t quite as bad as they initially looked. They’ve got a diviner-style diamond pattern cut on the outer leg of one, and then this one pant leg that’s just completely cut off in a stripe just above the knee and leads into some sort of long equivalent stocking to create a gap effect and sweet mother of christ okay so maybe I should discuss this.

When it comes to character outfits, I have, like, one rule. It’s a pretty simple rule, I feel. A very reasonable rule, I feel. I call it the Dresser Test. It consists of just one question, and I want the answer to be yes:

“Do I believe this person put their own clothes on?”

I just want to be able to believably picture this character actively, consciously choosing to put on whatever the hell they’re wearing, and being satisfied with their choice. And if I can’t, I want the game to acknowledge that and address why they’re wearing it anyway. If a character’s wearing something overtly sexual, or needlessly complicated, or patently ridiculous, I want that to be because it’s a reflection of their personality in some way. All I ask is that a character’s wardrobe is not something that appears to be magically imposed upon them, something that everyone in the story appears psychically compelled to neither notice nor comment on.

And needless to say, this fails that test. Given that we literally just had a support arc about his crippling social anxiety, I do not for one fuckmothering second believe that Clanne could go through the act of putting on a shirt that’s more midriff window than fabric, three-quarters of a pair of tights, and a matching thighhigh stocking, and not immediately want to crawl in a hole and die.

I get that budget limitations are a thing, and they couldn’t exactly create a character-tailored version of each class’s outfit for each character, and thus there’s inevitably going to be some absurdity with certain characters wearing certain outfits the more outlandish you make each class’s attire. But given that Clanne is the first guy you get who’s likely to promote to this, I think it’s entirely fair that they should have had him foremost in mind when designing this outfit.

They did not, and I am frankly disappointed.

…Okay, I just got back from a thing, and it seems the reason online hasn’t been working is because the game is no longer up to date. I’m going to save and quit and update now.

Okay. I think I’m good to go. I haven’t forgotten about the boots, but I’m still debating who to give them to. I think once I get this dancer and a few more emblems I’ll have a better idea. For now I’m going to save it to conserve my options.

…Oh shit right, Alcryst got to level 10 but the game makes you watch a conversation if you get it normally through combat. I prefer how the arena does it, where if you spend enough to get to level 5 or 10 it just plays the conversation automatically. Let’s see what Alcryst has to say to Lyn now, hm?

…Oh, the update seems to have added new stuff to the Somniel. Let’s see what this “Recreation” is about.

Apparently a character can take part in multiple activities at the Somniel in the same period. Odd, but now that I see Yunaka and Merrin have a support chain, let’s get them some progress on it.

And I got them a support through using these things!

These animations seem kinda lifeless though. They aren’t even looking at each other when they’re hanging out together, just doing separate things in these locations.

Anyway, Yunaka and Merrin’s C.

So apparently Yunaka has a problem with being too violent during sparring matches, and she went right for Merrin’s throat.

Yunaka, in turn, criticizes Merrin for her obsession with chivalrous theatrics and encourages her to get over it before someone who actually wants to kill her takes advantage of it.

Amusingly, despite it flying in the face of a lot of what makes combat fun in this game, I side with Yunaka here that Merrin really shouldn’t get in the habit of treating fighting like it’s in an cartoon where talking is a free action, even in training.

Not only can the same person take part in multiple activities in a row, but the same combination of people can apparently do it too.

Aaaaaaand now what I actually came here for! Alcryst now has the Mani Katti! Unfortunately the B conversation wasn’t as interesting as the C promised.

And I take it that there are levels 11-15 that I need to clear her paralogue to do? Given that there’s still an A rank?

I also cleaned off the rings, kinda forgot about that.

Alright, main event time.

…I just realized this place is called the northern fortress.

As in the same name of that place where Corrin was isolated for years.

Unfortunately I’ll be bringing Hortensia next map. I can’t bring her here.

…I am… concerned.

I just started the map, and the game’s telling me I win if he escapes. This seems… implausibly basic for a map objective given all of the huge space on this map that is irrelevant to it. What’s going on here? Don’t tell me the game’s going to change the victory conditions once I meet it.

I have to say, while it’s nothing compared to what he could do with Micaiah, it’s nice that Clanne can use staves again. Also, his attack animations are fairly cool, even if I don’t like the outfit.

Corrin shows up and does her signature cross-legged pose, and… what’s the objective? Has the objective changed? Why is the game still telling me I can end this map by walking a couple of turns towards an exit with no living guards?

…Aaaaaaand as I was so afraid of, the doors behind us close and the doors in front of us open. Not a fan of the subterfuge. Or the fact that this is a map change that happens mid-turn when you talk to Seadall. Imagine if I hadn’t had the good sense to talk to him first thing.

…Scratch that, I retract the criticism. They made absolutely sure that no enemy could reach the spaces in front of the doors on turn one. No matter how I approached this, my army would have been fine.

…Okay, why have I, so far, received two reaver weapons, both on Emblems, and both of them swords?

I forgot about the massive terrain buffs enemies get on these miasma tiles. It unfortunately means I need to backtrack to get them the hell off of them. Honestly, this sort of makes Corrin’s dragon vein skill a bit of a chore.

I’ve actually found a use for smash weapons! These defensive tiles don’t boost evade, so smash weapons should be effective in getting these guys the hell off of them!

…Unless, of course, Louis misses.

Thankfully I still managed to pull it out of the fire with Yunaka, Merrin, and some clutch help from Pepsiman’s aura and Seadall’s dance!

…Also, dragon vein seems to be infinitely reusable and available even outside of engagement. Which is really cool, given some of the effects I’ve heard it has.

Honestly, this is a pretty lame map. A bunch of segmented mini rooms with no real challenge to them. There was no reason for all of these rooms to be separated. Actually, perhaps fittingly, this feels like a revelation gimmick.

Now we’ve got a fork in the road. Given how cramped these hallways are, I think splitting up my forces wouldn’t be a bad idea.

…I’ve got some really, really strong reinforcements coming behind me. Okay, so thankfully there’s an incentive to move forward.

The chest has an energy drop. Awesome. Not sure yet who that’s going on, but I’m glad to have it.

I engaged with Merrin, had Louis use a pure water, and had the two of them form a wall to lure enemies out of this ridiculously miasma-laden room.

And Merrin gets our first class skill! Awesome! So is that another thing she can equip, or is it inherent to her as long as she’s in the class?

…It appears to be the latter! I don’t particularly want to class change her, so unfortunately I can’t test what happens when she leaves the class.

Anyway, hobble is a movement debuff when I attack with a knife on player phase. Not sure what sort of scenario usage it has, but I’ll keep in mind that I have it.

…The d pad was so oversensitive that I accidentally scrolled down four options in the blink of an eye and accidentally selected wait with a character I was trying to heal. Was that OBS lag? The game’s input sensitivity has never been that bad.

I’m gonna test to see if ending a turn on an emblem energy square when you’re about to run out of your engage causes you to automatically use it once your turn is over.

Flying units, it would appear, are immune to miasma too. I had a weird feeling it would be an exception, so good to know!

Experiment results: No. You have to end your turn on an energy square while your engagement is neither full nor activated in order to use the square. It isn’t automatically used if you’re already on it and then your engage dries up.

I just had Merrin use reposition on Seadall. Her wolf fucking backflipped as Seadall zoomed under her. It was hilarious.

…Reinforcements are gaining on us, and they have high speed and killer weapons. Honestly they’re pretty fucking terrifying. Forget about this map being boring, now all of a sudden things are intense. So I’m using my rescue staff to get Seadall to the front right away so we can get this miasma out of the front and prepare to bust through here.

This “quality time” ability Corrin has seems fairly low-key useful. It’s a 5 HP heal complete with support boost to everyone adjacent to the person with the skill every time they perform any action, including wait. Not the most game-changing thing, but shockingly versatile and easy.

Alright, I busted through the main room with the help of Merrin, who just barely survived everything while engaged. I was cutting things more than a little close there. Chain attacks do deceptive amounts of damage.

And Ivy just got Grasping Void, which is another class skill, this time a damage-boosting proc. If these can’t be carried over between classes like I suspect, then that means procstacking is a goner, because I’m pretty sure no Emblem offers a proc.

Last chest is a talisman (totally going on Louis), and now I’m outta here, because those reinforcements are right on my ass!

…Oooooooh dear.

Veyle just showed up.

Oblivious to what she’s done.

And oblivious to the fact that every single person here thinks she’s been lying to them for ages and emotionally traumatized basically all of them.

Cuuuuuuuuue fireworks.

…Okay, so when they call her “Fell Princess”, her reaction is “how did you know!?”

…So exactly how oblivious is she to what’s going on with her?

And we just fucking let her go?

Pepsiman: Let her go. It’s probably a trap.

…I mean in fairness given what she did last time, plausible. But still, they’re not even going to try to fight her while she’s here, surrounded by your best forces?

Anyway, she runs off, crying and confused about why everyone’s yelling at her and accusing her of murdering their loved ones. Pointless drama based on misunderstandings kind of annoys me, honestly.

Anyway, exploration time.

I can’t get this Solmic cat because I forgot to donate now that I have money. Damn.

Anyway, back to world map, and… Veyle appears to believe what people said about her, she just doesn’t understand how the hell it could have happened.

And… she knows… Griss?

She knows Griss, and is still oblivious to everything she’s done?

Griss is confused by Veyle until he figures out she must be “the other one”. But Veyle has no reaction to this, despite it being, like, basically a wham line that explains everything that’s been happening for ages.

She talks about her father trying to get her to do awful stuff all the time… her plausible deniability for being as in the dark as she is is rapidly shrinking.

And Griss… lies to Veyle and says whatever the people told her isn’t true, “they were imagining things”. Can Veyle really be this fucking dense and oblivious to what Griss just said?

And Griss is gonna “help out” clearing up this “misunderstanding” with the group.

This cannot end well, and I’m probably gonna hate it with every bone in my body.

Oh they’re headed to Firene? Does that mean we get to revisit previous lands now with new battles?

Veyle: Firene? Why there?

Griss: ‘Cause that’s where the Divine Dragon is going.

…Uh… did we say something about going back to Firene after getting the ring and I forgot? Because otherwise, how could he know what we’re doing before I know it?

Alright, time to wrap up. I’m gonna grab all the stuff in the Somniel, then leave and see if it respawns when I re-open the game tomorrow morning.

Done. Alright, tomorrow I’ll sort out the rest of prep and see if I can move on to the next chapter afterward.

Alastor, signing off!

[Acacia Sgt]

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

First off, I’m gonna class change Hortensia since she’s level 20 and I’m definitely using her. She and Ivy are my only means of getting magical fliers, who are, how to say, dope as hell.

Both are so good. Hortensia specially on Normal you can rig her promoted class skill with Rewind. It's what makes, in my opinion, maximizing Elusia's donation level worth it.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

And in doing so, she becomes the only promoted unit in the entire game to ride a pegasus. Interesting!

I guess that's why they used Griffons instead... but then didn't extend the same courtesy to Ivy?

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Amusingly, when I promoted her, the game reloaded her new model in its original facing, when she had previously turned around to face me and stayed that way after I talked to her.

Oh, they actually change right there on the maps? I've always promoted at the Somniel, so I never noticed.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, uh, hey, question about last battle that just occurred to me as I explored the map and got into the fucking hugeass throne room:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the hostage situation happen in this throne room?

…So why did we start the map at the entrance? Which is the direction all of the incoming enemies would have come from? Why weren’t we fighting our way out of the throne room, instead of into it?

I thought it was in the entrance. I'm pretty sure the backgrounds were of the entrance... guess I was mistaken...?

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…This seems to heavily be implying that neither Dr. Vekyle nor Ms. Veyde know about their other personality. If Evil Veyle knew about Good Veyle, she wouldn’t allow herself to go asleep in random areas where she can run loose and try to undermine Sombron’s plans. And if Good Veyle knew about Evil Veyle, she wouldn’t be confused as to how the fuck she woke up in the middle of a desert when the last thing she remembered was being in Elusia.

How… how could neither one know? How is that physically possible? If Sombron or Zephia are responsible for this split personality, did they just not tell Evil Veyle about it? Are they trying to hide the fact that she’s an artificial personality or something so she doesn’t have an existential crisis and turn against them?

I think the evil one does know at least, since she always seem to have contempt when she's about to go to sleep. Not to mention, it's the one they'd want to keep informed I'd think. It's just that... well, when it happen might be random, and she can't afford to always be in a convenient place when switching. Like at the beginning. She likely joined the attack to get Firene's rings, hence the Corrupted at Florra Mill, but switched right there without warning or time to retreat, hence being her good self when seen after the chapter.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, let’s check out this chapter and see what we have to work with. I’ve heard that Corrin gets the ability to summon those avoid tiles of light like in that Revelation chapter with Gunter as the boss, so I’m guessing this is gonna be Yunaka’s Emblem. For now though, time to check this out.

It depends on the class type, but yes, Covert gets avoid-boosting effect.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That miasma looks like some nasty shit. Better not step there under any circumstances. -20 def/res if I step on it, +20 def/res if the enemy steps on it? That’s a game-changing amount of stats.

You know, I actually came up with a custom Emblem build, posted over there in the Engage section, where I made use of SoV's Absolve. The Miasma tiles were one thing that made me wonder, "Is it fine if Absolve were to negate Miasma?" A look again at that -20 penalty was like... "Yes, it's totally fine." XD It's not like it'd negate the bonus on enemies anyway...

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Huh. I just noticed, this map has indoor sections we can’t see inside until we open the doors, like in the GBA games. Hopefully there aren’t any nasty surprises hidden behind them, but I’ll keep my guard up just in case.

With the Miasma? Count on it.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

He got a D despite me pulling out all the stops with extra ingredients (save for rare fruit, didn’t seem to fit on something savory like pizza even though tomato is a fruit), but hey, at least we got the buff without incident.

This seems to be a separate factor. Characters actually have their own letters to trigger, and only a few. Bunet is the only one who can proc the max rank of SS, from what I recall. While Yunaka is the only one who can trigger G rank. Yes, there's a G rank.

At least, I think that's how it work. As it stands, it doesn't look like you can get every rank with any character, but usually they have one-two good ranks to reach, and one-two bad ones.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

So it seems that fracture has way more uses now that it’s in our hands. Cool that it’s better with us, but it’s kinda funny given that Hortensia explicitly has a skill that lets staves last longer. That makes her a great Micaiah candidate, though it would be wasting the whole “let a non-staff-user use staves” part of it.

That skill is so good.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…I mean, good on the game for experimenting on gender-equal fanservice in their outfits… but did we really need to slap this outfit on the religious leader’s underage choir boy? The deranged and unbelievably sick jokes write themselves, and therefore I will not be redundant.

To be fair, from his affinities, he's meant to go Mage Knight, not Sage, so...

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, I still don’t have anyone who can teach people tome access, so I’m not gonna promote Framme until I get a tome Emblem and can make her into a high priest when she promotes.

And that's why we're totally getting Soren as DLC.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Panette appears to have… a colorful history, if her first assumption, in the middle of a war, for why Pepsiman wanted advice from Panette on brawling… was thinking Pepsiman wanted to beat up someone who owes him money.

…Does Panette have an inherent affinity for arts? Because if not…

…She does not. She has axes and knives. That… what?

Arts are so fucking weird in this game. Genuinely, the fuck.

If only something like this was an actual requirement for the promotion, since it gains Arts use and all. So having Alear being taught to use them instead of just randomly gain them would've been neat.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Pepsiman and Chloé’s C.

PFFFFFFFF

Chloé apparently has a history of watching Pepsiman sleep. Pepsiman sounded genuinely unnerved when he said “Were you watching me sleep? Again!?”

…She says the reason why is because he’s basically a fairy tale sleeping beauty, so she finds the sight of him asleep to be captivating.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Her “compromise” on how weirded out he is when he wakes up to her watching him sleep… is to just let her keep doing it until he gets used to it.

Woooooooooooooow. That is brazen of her.

Is she… is she hitting on him, or just totally oblivious to what this sounds like when she suggests setting up an extra bed for her in his chamber?

If I were Chloé, I wouldn't worry on how Alear would take it, but in regards to a certain other...

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Oh, he’s in his basic character model costume. Not his Somniel casual wear, just his default mage outfit.

This inconsistency with the outfits is just so baffling, I tell ya...

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Timerra is playing a lute or something while being completely unresponsive to me when I try to talk to her. Huh.

And so is Fogado. That’s… curious.

Oh yeah, not just them, but others (though I think I've only seen Pandreo so far aside from the two Solmic royals) also play an instrument and can't be talked to.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, so this really is just a weird bit of g-rated fanservice. The sparkling border and slow panning shots really give that impression. Which makes it all the more uncomfortable that it was Framme I woke up to.

It's tame because Ring Polishing took the rest.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Also, it seems you can just do this indefinitely to grind for time-based resource spots in the Somniel. Not sure how to feel about that. On one hand, it’s nice that it’s not solely real-time sensitive. On the other, for those who want to grind, I imagine constantly going to bed and seeing wake-up events might get tiresome real fast.

Wake-Up events are once after each battle, like the other activities on the Somniel.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

And I got them a support through using these things!

These new addition give a lot of points, apparently. Even A ranks require only 2-3 activity sessions.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

And I take it that there are levels 11-15 that I need to clear her paralogue to do? Given that there’s still an A rank?

Yes, that's what the Paralogues are for. And in a way, to gate you from getting to max level with the first Emblems so quickly, hence why the Paralogues only show up after Chapter 11.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…I’ve got some really, really strong reinforcements coming behind me. Okay, so thankfully there’s an incentive to move forward.

Wait, what difficulty are you again? Because I don't remember having to worry about the rear.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…It appears to be the latter! I don’t particularly want to class change her, so unfortunately I can’t test what happens when she leaves the class.

Class skill are restricted to the class, you can't inherit them or anything.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, hobble is a movement debuff when I attack with a knife on player phase. Not sure what sort of scenario usage it has, but I’ll keep in mind that I have it.

Anything that reduces move after an attack has been quite the life-saver for me. Specially since it leaves them vulnerable to range attacks without fearing being attacked on Enemy Phase.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Experiment results: No. You have to end your turn on an energy square while your engagement is neither full nor activated in order to use the square. It isn’t automatically used if you’re already on it and then your engage dries up.

I was disappointed about that.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, she runs off, crying and confused about why everyone’s yelling at her and accusing her of murdering their loved ones. Pointless drama based on misunderstandings kind of annoys me, honestly.

Can't. Agree. More.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

And Griss… lies to Veyle and says whatever the people told her isn’t true, “they were imagining things”. Can Veyle really be this fucking dense and oblivious to what Griss just said?

And Griss is gonna “help out” clearing up this “misunderstanding” with the group.

This cannot end well, and I’m probably gonna hate it with every bone in my body.

The only thing I'm glad of... is that, well, you might soon see. But that only makes me dislike that same thing because of a different reason.

[Alastor15243]

12 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Wait, what difficulty are you again? Because I don't remember having to worry about the rear.

Hard classic. Big killer axe guys with 40 attack and 60 HP charged at me from the first room we opened up. They spawned around when I opened the forked doors.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hard classic. Big killer axe guys with 40 attack and 60 HP charged at me from the first room we opened up. They spawned around when I opened the forked doors.

Okay, yeah, those don't show up on Normal. Once you leave a room, that's it. No sense of urgency of always heading forward.

[Alastor15243]

38 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

To be fair, from his affinities, he's meant to go Mage Knight, not Sage, so...

Is that the one he has a custom outfit for then?

[Acacia Sgt]

5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Is that the one he has a custom outfit for then?

Best I know, there are no custom outfits. I meant more that, without Emblems, Clanne already has proficiency in swords and tomes. Which, combined with his surprisingly low personal Mag growth, seems to hint you are not meant to make him a pure spellcaster at least.

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Positive side would be getting more characterization, and a sense of dread and rivalry. I don't hear anyone complaining about Galzus or the Black Knight getting multiple enemy appearances. 

So yeah, I don't count that as the same ballpark. Technically you can beat Galzus by cheesing the game, and that's cool, but you're not intended to. It's not the same thing as beating Hubert 20 times a playthrough. That's why I have no issue with the hounds (or Veyle) in Chapter 11.

The Death Knight is the one who blurs the line on that front. As you're not expected to beat him, but then you kind of are as a challenge, only most casual players won't, but then he keeps appearing without growing any more threatening until you eventually do end up kicking his ass a bunch of times anyway.

5 hours ago, lenticular said:

I really liked how the War of the Chosen expansion for XCOM 2 handled recurring boss enemies. There, when you faced them, they had an enormous health bar, and instead of killing them, they would flee from battle once you did enough dmaage to them. Then, next time they showed up, all the damage that you inflicted first time around would still be present, and you'd be able to whittle them down even further. Then once you got them down to 0hp, they were dead for good and wouldn't show up again. It really felt as if you were making progress towards defeating these perpetual thorns in your side, and it was suitably frustrating when they ran before you could do much damage and satisfying when you finally managed to take them down. I can imagine that a similar system could be made to work decently well in Fire Emblem, with a few tweaks.

Edit: As I'm thinking back, I'm starting to doubt my own memory on this one. I'm not sure if it was actually War of the Chosen that did this, but it was definitely somewhere in XCOM. Which makes no real difference to my point, I just wanted to be as accurate as possible.

Xenoblade Chronicles, at least the first one (can't remember if they pulled it for the others) did something similar. They didn't retain the health lost between battles, because, well, if the character runs away they can rest and recover, but for any plot encounter with a boss that is not yet ready to die, the fight ends when their HP reaches half of its max (or approximately there of). And yeah, even though it's purely just an interface thing, it did kind of work on a pscyological level. On the other hand, it led to some cases where it feels like forever for the boss to die, only for the battle to end suddenly, at least on an initial playthrough before you grow used to it.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh shit! Looks like Corrin’s “canon” user is our dancer! And just like Yunaka’s the opposite sex of Sothe, this one’s the opposite sex of Azura!

It's a bit weird how it's taken them almost 30 years to give us a male dancer character. We've had male refreshers ever since Elfin, and consistently so. We've even had male characters who could class change to dancers in Three Heroes, and before that a dancer alt for Inigo in Heroes. But Seadall is somehow the first man actually conceived and designed to be a dancer. I wonder if we'll ever get a female bard. I guess, bard=singer and that's Azura, but I mean someone holding an instrument.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

When it comes to character outfits, I have, like, one rule. It’s a pretty simple rule, I feel. A very reasonable rule, I feel. I call it the Dresser Test. It consists of just one question, and I want the answer to be yes:

 

“Do I believe this person put their own clothes on?”

 

I just want to be able to believably picture this character actively, consciously choosing to put on whatever the hell they’re wearing, and being satisfied with their choice. And if I can’t, I want the game to acknowledge that and address why they’re wearing it anyway. If a character’s wearing something overtly sexual, or needlessly complicated, or patently ridiculous, I want that to be because it’s a reflection of their personality in some way. All I ask is that a character’s wardrobe is not something that appears to be magically imposed upon them, something that everyone in the story appears psychically compelled to neither notice nor comment on.

Anyone here see the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once? The villain in that wears such ridiculously silly and outrageous outfits that it should not work, but the characterization and, for want of a better word, magic system, of the movie makes it 100% believable that the character is choosing and desires to look that way which just makes it work.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I’ve actually found a use for smash weapons! These defensive tiles don’t boost evade, so smash weapons should be effective in getting these guys the hell off of them!

 

…Unless, of course, Louis misses.

I know it doesn't make sense for them to be accurate as slow, lumbering strikes, but Smash weapons would be so much more useful if they had high accuracy. I guess you could argue an attack from a smash weapon is almost like a suicide strike. You're rushing in and just shrugging off the enemy blows to make sure you get a solid hit. The enemy attacking first is what puts them in your range to make them accurate. So, yeah, I can logically make it work for me, and in gameplay they definitely need a boost. So accurate Smash weapons should be a thing. Giving the enemy vantage is enough of a trade off for these things to be really good.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Also, dragon vein seems to be infinitely reusable and available even outside of engagement. Which is really cool, given some of the effects I’ve heard it has.

And this is one of the reasons I permanently welded Corrin's Engage Ring to Alear as soon as I got it. The effects of dragons let you use all of the Dragon Vein effects. Not at once, but at any given time. This gives Alear massive control of the battlefield. And coupled with some frankly insane avoid from engravements and skills, he's become some kind of ghost terra former, jumping into crowds of enemies and setting them on fire or shrouding them in mist. And if they do somehow manage to hit him, he can just pop down some healing tiles to make up for it. Corrin has some other stuff going for her, but IMO, she's probably the best Emblem in the game.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…The d pad was so oversensitive that I accidentally scrolled down four options in the blink of an eye and accidentally selected wait with a character I was trying to heal. Was that OBS lag? The game’s input sensitivity has never been that bad.

I think a situation like that is fair use to break your no rewinds rule.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Experiment results: No. You have to end your turn on an energy square while your engagement is neither full nor activated in order to use the square. It isn’t automatically used if you’re already on it and then your engage dries up.

What might have been cool would be if you're already used your "Once Per Engagement" ability and stood on an energy square it would return your ability to use that ability. I think you could do some really crazy shenanigans with energy tiles if they worked that way. Getting to them would also be a lot less situational.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…I mean in fairness given what she did last time, plausible. But still, they’re not even going to try to fight her while she’s here, surrounded by your best forces?

Game doesn't really bring it up, but you have just stepped outside of the building, right? Those super strong corrupted with killing axes should still be right behind you!

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I think a situation like that is fair use to break your no rewinds rule.

Thankfully it wasn't a big deal. Also I misspoke, I meant a character I was trying to make heal someone else. I had other options due to my three healers now.

9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I know it doesn't make sense for them to be accurate as slow, lumbering strikes, but Smash weapons would be so much more useful if they had high accuracy. I guess you could argue an attack from a smash weapon is almost like a suicide strike. You're rushing in and just shrugging off the enemy blows to make sure you get a solid hit. The enemy attacking first is what puts them in your range to make them accurate. So, yeah, I can logically make it work for me, and in gameplay they definitely need a boost. So accurate Smash weapons should be a thing. Giving the enemy vantage is enough of a trade off for these things to be really good.

Yeah, I would entirely believe they're accurate given the amount of time the user has taken to ready the strike. And they would be soooooo much better if they could do their damned job of knocking enemies off of particularly messy terrain.

9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

And this is one of the reasons I permanently welded Corrin's Engage Ring to Alear as soon as I got it. The effects of dragons let you use all of the Dragon Vein effects. Not at once, but at any given time. This gives Alear massive control of the battlefield. And coupled with some frankly insane avoid from engravements and skills, he's become some kind of ghost terra former, jumping into crowds of enemies and setting them on fire or shrouding them in mist. And if they do somehow manage to hit him, he can just pop down some healing tiles to make up for it. Corrin has some other stuff going for her, but IMO, she's probably the best Emblem in the game.

That is outrageous and I am sorely tempted.

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Alastor15243

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Alright, let’s check out this chapter and see what we have to work with. I’ve heard that Corrin gets the ability to summon those avoid tiles of light like in that Revelation chapter with Gunter as the boss, so I’m guessing this is gonna be Yunaka’s Emblem. For now though, time to check this out.

I love this Emblem for thieves, as it lets them summon avoid boosting terrain on their square (really the 3x3 square centered on them, so it helps enemies attacking them a little too) so they can just avoid-tank a section of a map all on their own.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

AND HE DOES TAROT READINGS?

 

…Shit wait.

 

Please tell me he attacks with reaper cards like in Radiant Dawn.

Alas that is too deep a dive, even for engage.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

And Byleth’s the luck Emblem. Most of his skills appear to be shit at this stage, but a luck boost would actually be fairly handy for certain units with less-than-ideal luck.

Really Byleth's main use is his super dance, which I will emphasize can dance your regular dancer...

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Then I’ll probably slap Lucina on her and put Ike on someone else, probably Louis, because Lucina lets Merrin use dagger dual strikes. Which, I’ve heard, poison.

Huh, that bit about poison dual strike sounds like an interesting use of the Lucina's otherwise underwhelming abilities.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…I mean, good on the game for experimenting on gender-equal fanservice in their outfits… but did we really need to slap this outfit on the religious leader’s underage choir boy? The deranged and unbelievably sick jokes write themselves, and therefore I will not be redundant.

Yikes...

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Chloé apparently has a history of watching Pepsiman sleep. Pepsiman sounded genuinely unnerved when he said “Were you watching me sleep? Again!?”

 

…She says the reason why is because he’s basically a fairy tale sleeping beauty, so she finds the sight of him asleep to be captivating.

 

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

 

Her “compromise” on how weirded out he is when he wakes up to her watching him sleep… is to just let her keep doing it until he gets used to it.

 

Woooooooooooooow. That is brazen of her.

 

Is she… is she hitting on him, or just totally oblivious to what this sounds like when she suggests setting up an extra bed for her in his chamber?

Its scenes like this that make me feel real uncomfortable with Alear being able to romance characters in this game. It gives the same slimy vibes of a cult leader having a harem of worshipers...

[Sunwoo]

30 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Its scenes like this that make me feel real uncomfortable with Alear being able to romance characters in this game. It gives the same slimy vibes of a cult leader having a harem of worshipers...

I mean

I feel like the audience FE is going for are the people who actually unironically enjoy this

[joevar]

14 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

It's not something I've been hugely focused on. Usually with bosses I just focus on killing them. But yeah it sometimes happens.

i would suggest you should. it adds more to many units characterizations. and its mostly easy to guess who can trigger it

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Corrin has some other stuff going for her, but IMO, she's probably the best Emblem in the game.

hard agree. her skill skill like Pair up and Draconic Hex is one among the most useful too. heck, even Quality time is good.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

In the sense of her not worshipping the divine dragon, or in the sense of her somehow thinking the divine dragon is a myth? Elaborate, please! I wanna know what objections people might have to Lythos’s church! Or even what its fucking tenants and commandments are!

Perhaps they acknowledged the Divine Dragon's existence, but didn't think of them as a substantial force for good? Kind of like you might not "believe" in a particular politician.

15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

That miasma looks like some nasty shit. Better not step there under any circumstances. -20 def/res if I step on it, +20 def/res if the enemy steps on it? That’s a game-changing amount of stats.

I originally read it as +/-20%, not +/-20. Sounded like a minor inconvenience, but one I could deal with. Truth is, not so much. Also, really curious if the miasma was designed to resemble the "invisible soldiers" from V*lla?

15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

For now I’m gonna give Lucina to Yunaka until I can give her Corrin at the end of this map. Like I said, chain attacks on dagger users is handy.

I've been using Lucina!Zelkov, and it's great. A shame that there doesn't appear to be an inheritable skill that would let him do Chain Attacks on his own.

15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Her “compromise” on how weirded out he is when he wakes up to her watching him sleep… is to just let her keep doing it until he gets used to it.

Perhaps, with Marth gone, having someone watching him sleep will be a comfort to Pepsiman?

15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The latter, alas. Okay, so not as good a fit as I was hoping. I think I’ll just make him a sage then.

 

Um… I was not expecting male sages to go all midriff-baring and…

 

…Is that a fucking Corrin-esque thigh window!?

Yeah, this felt gross. Then I played a Relay Trial where somebody made Sage Anna... I'm gonna need to take a shower after that.

16 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Aaaaaaand as I was so afraid of, the doors behind us close and the doors in front of us open. Not a fan of the subterfuge. Or the fact that this is a map change that happens mid-turn when you talk to Seadall. Imagine if I hadn’t had the good sense to talk to him first thing.

I was really hoping this would be a "choose your path" kind of chapter. You could escape at the starting point... or you could break into the various rooms. The former is easier and safer, but the latter would net you more experience and treasure. Could mirror the fact that Corrin, too, had to make a pivotal choice.

Of course, the game inexplicably decided that, not only did the starting doors close, but they're also not the kind of doors that we can break down.

16 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, this is a pretty lame map. A bunch of segmented mini rooms with no real challenge to them. There was no reason for all of these rooms to be separated. Actually, perhaps fittingly, this feels like a revelation gimmick.

I really liked this one (aside from the premise issue I just mentioned), which tracks with me being something of an apologist for Rev's gameplay.

16 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, so when they call her “Fell Princess”, her reaction is “how did you know!?”

 

…So exactly how oblivious is she to what’s going on with her?

My interpretation is that good Veyle knows she's the daughter of Sombron, the Fell Dragon, but doesn't known about evil Veyle. So she thinks Pepsiman and company are judging her for who her father is.

16 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Griss: ‘Cause that’s where the Divine Dragon is going.

 

…Uh… did we say something about going back to Firene after getting the ring and I forgot? Because otherwise, how could he know what we’re doing before I know it?

Narratively, it makes sense. Sombron demands "sovereign blood", and the only surviving sovereigns are Solgaleo (I forgot her name already) and Queen Evv. We've done all we can for Sephora, so it makes sense we'd head to Firene to warn slash protect the Queen.

15 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

guess that's why they used Griffons instead... but then didn't extend the same courtesy to Ivy?

Would've been cool if Ivy got a black Pegasus, as a reference to the Dark Flier class.

15 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Okay, yeah, those don't show up on Normal. Once you leave a room, that's it. No sense of urgency of always heading forward.

Interesting, good to know about these differences, as someone who kicked it off with Hard.

13 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, I would entirely believe they're accurate given the amount of time the user has taken to ready the strike. And they would be soooooo much better if they could do their damned job of knocking enemies off of particularly messy terrain.

Smash weapons are great candidates for Hit-boosting Engravings. They can usually afford losing a couple points of Might, and heightened Weight rarely matters on them.

[Alastor15243]

Engage Day 18: Chapter 16

Alright, once again, time to check out the next map and see what sorts of preparations will be necessary.

Something just occurred to me…

…Did Fogado and Timerra even get a scene with Seforia actually saying they’re going to be traveling with Pepsiman? I mean, it might be a deliberate continued part of the whole “these people do not give a single shit” joke, and if so, hilarious.

Okay, just loaded in, and it seems that time does not, in fact, pass normally in the Somniel when you leave the game and come back in. Noted! So this isn’t like Fates.

Honestly, I think my ideal image of the “home base” concept would be a fusion of the Somniel and My Castle. My Castle was absolutely perfect in terms of expedience and having everything basically within arm’s reach of you at all times. But it had some issues with resource management depending on online functionality and not really being balanced with any sense of proportion. Meanwhile the Somniel’s method of resource management, where you get things per battle with it generally not refreshing unless you grind, while also not demanding any ludicrously time-consuming chores in order to make the most of your between-battle boons like 3H did, is a much better system than Fates’ “you get one fruit and one ore, now either find the others at random or ore swap for them and then bet in the arena until you have more” system.

So yeah, I actually like the Somniel decently enough, I just wish it were a little less time consuming. Being way, way, way better than Three Houses in this regard still isn’t that high of a bar to clear. But a passing grade, I’d say.

Alright, checking out Chapter 16.

So, Pepsiman remarks that now all of the rings are in the hands of either them or Sombron, which makes me wonder how the DLC talks about these rings.

Honestly, since I’m probably gonna get the DLC anyway, maybe I should actually talk about this:

Do you guys want me to do the DLC during this playthrough? Lemme know your thoughts on the matter and I’ll take them into consideration.

Anyway…

…This is interesting… the team is actually… discussing strategy for how to proceed. They talk about how they have to confront the enemy army directly if they expect to get any further with gathering all 12 Emblem rings, and when the prospect of invading Elusia is brought up, Ivy says that “would be a mistake” if they did it at this time. Why?

“They have a clear advantage: seven emblems to our five.”

…True… but the bad guys have only ever once actually deployed more than one ring at the same time, and that was after they stole all of ours. And they only managed to get those due to the draconic time crystal. Which can apparently stop time or some other bullshit that let Veyle steal all those rings in the first place, and Pepsiman really should be considering the practical applications of that thing for getting more rings.

I genuinely do not get why these games insist on making these time powers canon. It can just be a game mechanic, you know. And as long as these powers are canon, and as long as the powers constitute actual, literal at-will time manipulation, no story you tell in these settings is ever going to make a lick of sense.

Incidentally, has anyone here seen Madvocate’s video series “The Flash is Insufferably Inconsistent”? If not, I highly recommend watching it. It really goes into the sheer absurd bullshit writers have to come up with when heroes have powers that let them play havoc with the flow of time.

…But of course, before they can actually work their way out of this dilemma and decide a strategy… fate decides a strategy for them. Vander comes in and reports a bunch of warships being spotted at the port of Solm, setting sail toward Firene.

…Is…

…Okay, seriously…

Last chapter. Griss said he knew for a fact that they’d be heading to Firene next. So this is an obvious attempt to bait us into following.

The problem… is that we have not only unfettered mastery over time… but also unfettered mastery over space. We can teleport to the Somniel and then back to any point we have ever visited. Which would include Firene. But why do I get the feeling that the game is never, ever going to acknowledge that now that it’s finished using the story to establish it as a gameplay mechanic?

Two soldiers deserted the Elusian fleet, huh? Why do I have a feeling their names rhyme with Old Berry and Bravado?

AND THEY TOOK AN EMBLEM RING!?

I LOVE YOU TWO!

Apparently they took the ring of the Azure Twins, the one the previous conversation explicitly reminded us exists. So we’re getting all of the rest of the rings before we get any of our old friends back. Nice approach, gameplaywise. Storywise too, except that this story is kind of unsalvageably cheesy.

And yep, I guessed right, Goldmary and Rosado.

Gotta ask: Why are they still in the armed forces when the princess they’re loyal to is with the enemy? Why would the enemy be so stupid to actually use them as anything but hostages?

Marni: I thought those two were behaving themselves lately.

WHAT ELDRITCH MADNESS COULD POSSIBLY POSSESS YOU TO THINK THAT.

So, one curious thing I’ve noticed: it seems like the country with the second-largest population of dark-skinned people after Solm… is Elusia. I’ve noticed a high number of dark-skinned generics among their armies, something like 30 to 40%. Interesting. I wonder what the story is behind that. But who am I kidding? I seriously doubt I’ll get an answer.

I wonder which of these two will actually be chosen for the ring this time. I hope they’re actually a good fit for it. I think one of the most annoying parts of this game for me is that literally none of the rings are actually initially put on someone I’d actually like to have use them, except Marth and Lucina on Pepsiman, and even then mostly because of how few options I had when I initially got them.

…Unfortunately, the break they took to rest was long enough for the enemy to catch up to them, because they didn’t hide. Cue battle, I guess!

…Was I seeing things, or were their unit circles yellow when Rosado and Goldmary flew over to us?

…Rosado… seems to still be under the impression that Hortensia and the Divine Dragon are enemies. Okay, so at least some effort was made to keep them in the dark about reasons why they should join the Divine Dragon… but then why did they flee the Elusian army to give Hortensia a ring? What did they think Hortensia was doing away from the army if not joining Pepsiman?

Rosado: Psst! If you’re being held against your will, blink three times.

PFFFFFFFFFF

Okay that was great.

Though Hortensia is blinking an awful lot in that conversation. At least it’s not being done in rapid succession though.

So Rosado gave Pepsiman the Eirika and Ephraim ring. Please tell me this means I get to choose who it goes on.

…But probably not because that would require us to have it now, mid-cutscene, like the ultimate Yato for each route in Fates, and I’m not sure this game does that.

…That…

…Only Eirika showed up. I thought this was supposed to be the Emblem of the Azure Twins.

…I notice that Pepsiman… does not bat a single eye to the reveal that Rosado is a “he”. Not one. Not even slightly. Maybe he’s just used to all the weird bullshit his allies subject him to by this point, so the concept of crossdressing seems entirely ordinary by comparison? At any rate it’s kind of endearing.

…I wonder if Rosado gets to wear the female amiibo outfits…

Anyway, Rosado gets the ring, and…

…Wha… Wha…?

…It seems like Eirika and Ephraim can be switched between… and they provide some kind of map-wide ally buff each, judging by these descriptions. That… that is crazy, but either we haven’t unlocked it yet, or it only shows up on allies and we don’t count yet since they’re green.

Oh! That’s why they were yellow! They weren’t yet even slightly on our side narratively speaking! That’s a cute touch!

Anyway, let’s see how many I can bring today…

Ten, not counting Goldmary and Rosado. Alright, awesome! That means no cuts compared to yesterday! And I can bring Hortensia!

…Provided I drop Seadall. Damn it.

Okay, I’ll work something out. Back to base.

First off, Emblem maintenance.

I’ve decided that Pepsiman is getting Corrin, at least for this map. Since dragons get access to all the dragon veins, that gives me an idea of which of them are most worth using. And if I want to use a lot of them, great, I’ll keep it on him. If not? I’ll pick the one I find most useful and let a unit of that type use it.

As for Byleth, I’m giving him to Clanne to try out this whole Thyrsus thing.

I’m noticing I’m getting way, way more SP these days than I used to, which is awesome and fortunate. Merrin has more than enough to get resolve now, which means I can give her Lucina now and let Louis have Ike for a while.

…On the other hand…

Merrin just got to B with Ike…

…Yeah, these Emblem weapons are waaaaaaaay too heavy for Merrin to be comfortable with. I will, indeed, be giving Ike to Louis, who not only could use those defensive skills in the long run, but can make way better use of those heavy weapons.

Armored units apparently get an additional 5 defense from using Great Aether! That’s cool!

Yunaka’s getting my S rank Arden ring for now, and Ivy my S rank Delthea ring that Clanne just left free. Hortensia’s getting Sanaki because that boosts magic. Alright, now let’s get Hortensia decked out.

I gave her wind, surge, heal, physic and warp. That should be good for now.

Now then, for meals…

…Jean’s cooking today, and upon seeing his adorably dorky appearance I realize this is the first time I’ve ever seen him hanging around the Somniel. Where’s he been all this time? How is this the first time I’ve noticed him…?

…I got a rank A dish. All of my younger units, which I’m expecting/hoping includes Clanne, Framme and Hortensia, got doubled bonuses and an additional point of res. Sweet!

…Yep, it seems Clanne, Framme and Hortensia all qualify for the bonus!

…As does Chloe…

…And Etie…

Not Boucheron…

Not Vander, obviously…

Lapis counts as younger…

As does Citrinne…

Amber doesn’t, nor Jade, nor Zelkov or Diamant, nor Alfred… but Fogado, Panette, Céline and Anna all do…

And Timerra as well… this particular older sister doesn’t seem to be older enough…

Pandreo, Bunet, Kagetsu, Ivy and Seadall are too old for the boost, but Merrin’s young enough…

Alcryst is young enough, Yunaka is not…

Louis is too old…

…And, comically implausibly, the absolute last person I’d ever expect to be considered “young enough” for something… Pepsiman himself gets the boost.

That is hilarious. What the fuck is this going on, exactly, with these bonuses?

…If it weren’t for the fact that people have been visiting the sleeping Pepsiman for ages even in living memory, I’d suspect this was a hint to a twist that Pepsiman is way, way, way younger than people are saying he is.

Alright, arena time.

And while I remember, I’m putting the boots on Pepsiman to increase his mobility options while he stays in his pedestrian dragon class that’s such a huge part of what makes him good.

So unfortunately Pepsiman stopped just shy of hitting level 19 with arena training. I was gonna slap a master seal on him to see if promotion was possible by actually using the item mid-map… and I discovered that seals don’t even appear to be conventional Fire Emblem items anymore. They’re storehouse items. So I guess that answers that question.

Alright, I’ll promote him next map then.

As I said I would, I reclassed Merrin from sword wolf knight to axe wolf knight. Thankfully, this did not cost her hobble even though it set her class level below 5. Good to know. That means I can loop Yunaka through thief eventually and she still won’t lose pass.

…But upon reflection, a bit too late, I realize this may have ultimately been pointless. Daggers are just way too good of a weapon type to justify using much of anything else. And even the axes she can carry can only barely hold a candle to her silver dagger in attack power, and if I want to have them continue to keep up, I need to invest forges and engravings in an axe along with a silver dagger, and why the fuck would I spend resources doing that?

Speaking of which, I finally figured out what that thing I could transform a steel dagger into was. It was just a silver dagger. Lame. But that explains why it was worse than my ultra-forged steel dagger in every way statistically. Figured I’d check though, in case it was a brave dagger or something else, and its effects would make up for it once I could see what they were.

Okay, I think I’m pretty much ready to go, may buy some more staves, but first… I wanna check what skills Corrin gives later.

…I have to wonder… is the reason why swords still seem to suck compared to axes and lances… because sword proficiency is just about inevitably the most bitch-basic weapon proficiency you can get from an Emblem? I literally don’t have a single fucking Emblem that won’t teach you how to use swords.

Okay, now I’m a bit concerned. I just bought the remaining stock of three physics, only to suddenly realize I’ve lost nearly all of the money I got not even two chapters ago. Down to my last 11k.

…And I still haven’t even donated to Solm, fuck, hold on-

…I can already donate to Elusia?

How?

We have literally no diplomatic relations with Elusia! It’s under the control of a satanic cult!

…Oh yeah, one sec, lemme check to see what the amiibo gazebo has to offer in terms of tunes now…

The Devoted, End of All (Below) and Fodlan Winds.

…Fuck it, you know what? That reminds me. Change of plans today. Time to do that obligatory sidequest battle and see what these things have to offer. Specifically if they have their own unique music or if it’s just the area music.

…The fuck is that enemy sprite I see in the Tullah Desert? It looks like some sort of Final Fantasy Esque villain. Like, over-armored-Exdeath-era villain, not pretty-boy-Sephiroth-era villain. Is that what Corrupted general sprites look like?

Only one way to find out!

There appears to be a Gold Corrupted here. Wonder what that’s about.

 

Day 18 Change Of Plans: Skirmish!

Alright, let’s do this. These enemies are reasonably tough, but with the exception of the thieves they seem pretty slow.

It would appear that yes, that thing I saw was what a Corrupted general looks like.

Yeah this seems pretty straightforward. I’ll just get on with it and not waste any more time.

…It seems that music is area-specific. Alright. Noted.

…Words cannot conceivably express how badly I want either the amiibo theme or, preferably, the paralogue theme of the twins to be Truth, Despair and Hope.

In fact, levels permitting, their paralogue will be the first one I do, and I’ll do it immediately after getting the twins in my army proper.

Guess I’ll find out then.

Aaaand every single enemy is charging us immediately! Okay! I do actually like this kind of sheer, simple mindless chaos sometimes. It’s surprisingly effective for how brainless an AI command it is.

Ivy is a fucking menace, and it’s mind-boggling how crazy her magic stat is. I somehow didn’t notice before. She’s utterly obliterating most of these foes now that she’s fast enough to double them. Hortensia, meanwhile, has a magic stat of 14, an entire 10 less than her sister. Woooooow. Good thing she’s only competing with Ivy for her niche, and good thing she can use s rank staves. If only we could get some of those.

Okay, these terrain options with Dragon Vein seem pretty damned cool. I have some guesses as to who gets which, but… I have to see if the covert one is the reference I think it is…

…Okay, not quite. I was hoping the covert one would look like those glowing avoid tiles that Mikoto and Arete gave to Corrin and Azura from beyond the grave in the battle against Gunter. Would’ve been a cool detail.

…Frustratingly, apparently fog has a terrain movement penalty, which completely fucks up my attempt to use it to buff Yunaka while she fights a thief. Thiiiiiis makes me think I might be tempted to just put Corrin on Yunaka, because using it to set up convenient terrain for her isn’t going to be nearly as handy if anyone but her actually erects it.

…You know what just occurred to me?

I wanna get Ivy some bonds with Corrin.

I wanna see what they talk about.

I’m assuming they’re going to make Revelation canon, but still I have to wonder if Corrin has anything to say to Ivy about how she turned her back on the evil empire she called home in the name of doing what’s right.

Oh that’s interesting! I didn’t realize it until now, but yes, those stat boosts Emblems give… do apply automatically! They just aren’t listed as skills, just as stat boosts. I just thought higher bonds with Emblems gave better stat boosts, since they didn’t say anything about skill redundancy when equipping the stat boosters.

Victory in 6 turns.

Yeah, skirmishes in Fire Emblem aren’t exactly complicated, but a lot of the time they can be good lighthearted fun. And I have a pretty good impression of them by doing this one. Well done!

…Panna Camel.

…is that a pun on the Panama Canal?

Anyway, apparently I have a pet camel now!

Alright, I still have a bit of time left. Time to check out Ivy and Corrin’s conversation before I forget. I’ve got the bond fragments to spare now.

…They say basically nothing at this point.

…Well, the second I can afford to toss 1,500 damned bond fragments around, I think I’m gonna try that again.

Alright, I guess that’s it for today. Sorry for the anticlimactic change of plans, but this is probably for the best. I’ve got a thing later today, so getting this over with quickly was my best chance to get something out in a timely fashion.

Alastor, signing off!

[Jotari]

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, I think my ideal image of the “home base” concept would be a fusion of the Somniel and My Castle. My Castle was absolutely perfect in terms of expedience and having everything basically within arm’s reach of you at all times. But it had some issues with resource management depending on online functionality and not really being balanced with any sense of proportion. Meanwhile the Somniel’s method of resource management, where you get things per battle with it generally not refreshing unless you grind, while also not demanding any ludicrously time-consuming chores in order to make the most of your between-battle boons like 3H did, is a much better system than Fates’ “you get one fruit and one ore, now either find the others at random or ore swap for them and then bet in the arena until you have more” system.

Fates expedience made the Personal Quarters intolerable to me. My cost benefit analysis just did not find the support points gained from it worth the time it took to sit through a slow cutscene of absolutely nothing happening.

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Do you guys want me to do the DLC during this playthrough? Lemme know your thoughts on the matter and I’ll take them into consideration.

I think the game is decently a balanced without the DLC.

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I genuinely do not get why these games insist on making these time powers canon. It can just be a game mechanic, you know. And as long as these powers are canon, and as long as the powers constitute actual, literal at-will time manipulation, no story you tell in these settings is ever going to make a lick of sense.

And that's what makes the Shadow Dragon NES translation the best Fire Emblem to come out in the last five years XD

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Marni: I thought those two were behaving themselves lately.

 

WHAT ELDRITCH MADNESS COULD POSSIBLY POSSESS YOU TO THINK THAT.

Maybe Goldmary and Rosado when off and slaughtered a village of innocents to turn them into corrupted to stay on the villains good side and have just tactfully never mentioned it to the good guys.

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

And Timerra as well… this particular older sister doesn’t seem to be older enough…

I don't think she's older. She's just the heir because of sexism.

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

We have literally no diplomatic relations with Elusia! It’s under the control of a satanic cult!

Well you do have it's entire remaining royal family on your side.

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…The fuck is that enemy sprite I see in the Tullah Desert? It looks like some sort of Final Fantasy Esque villain. Like, over-armored-Exdeath-era villain, not pretty-boy-Sephiroth-era villain. Is that what Corrupted general sprites look like?

Exdeath's armour is practically light weight compared to how over-armoured Fire Emblem generals tend to be.

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, not quite. I was hoping the covert one would look like those glowing avoid tiles that Mikoto and Arete gave to Corrin and Azura from beyond the grave in the battle against Gunter. Would’ve been a cool detail.

Wow, I entirely forgot that moment...And I think maybe for the second time, as I think I expressed surprise at it when you brought it up in your Revelation palythrough too.

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I’m assuming they’re going to make Revelation canon, but still I have to wonder if Corrin has anything to say to Ivy about how she turned her back on the evil empire she called home in the name of doing what’s right.

You could just arena grind to max level and then save scum to get your bond fragments back if narrative is all you're after.

[Acacia Sgt]

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

So yeah, I actually like the Somniel decently enough, I just wish it were a little less time consuming. Being way, way, way better than Three Houses in this regard still isn’t that high of a bar to clear. But a passing grade, I’d say.

Admittedly, it's the only home base I've played through so far, but I do feel the Somniel is gonna be my most favorite. Though yeah, if you want to do everything each time, it will take a little while.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

So, Pepsiman remarks that now all of the rings are in the hands of either them or Sombron, which makes me wonder how the DLC talks about these rings.

For the main story? They might as well not exist. But they will have relevancy... in the DLC itself.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, since I’m probably gonna get the DLC anyway, maybe I should actually talk about this:

Do you guys want me to do the DLC during this playthrough? Lemme know your thoughts on the matter and I’ll take them into consideration.

You've passed the point where it would be a bit jarring (Chapter 10-11), so... feel free to. They won't have story importance until the Wave 4 Xenologues, anyway.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…True… but the bad guys have only ever once actually deployed more than one ring at the same time, and that was after they stole all of ours. And they only managed to get those due to the draconic time crystal. Which can apparently stop time or some other bullshit that let Veyle steal all those rings in the first place, and Pepsiman really should be considering the practical applications of that thing for getting more rings.

I can only buy this that Veyle would know how to use its full power since it was hers to begin with (and due to one other reason I won't say for now due to spoilers), while Alear just winged it and called it a day after finding the Rewind feature... but now that we know it can also go ZA WARUDO, why not actually use that too?

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I genuinely do not get why these games insist on making these time powers canon. It can just be a game mechanic, you know. And as long as these powers are canon, and as long as the powers constitute actual, literal at-will time manipulation, no story you tell in these settings is ever going to make a lick of sense.

Which, yeah, at this point why even insist of having the Rewind feature exist in-universe if it will lead to these issues?

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Gotta ask: Why are they still in the armed forces when the princess they’re loyal to is with the enemy? Why would the enemy be so stupid to actually use them as anything but hostages?

Marni: I thought those two were behaving themselves lately.

WHAT ELDRITCH MADNESS COULD POSSIBLY POSSESS YOU TO THINK THAT.

They probably began to monitor them closely after what happened with Hortensia. So they couldn't just give them the slip. Only when they were in the fleet did they found a good chance to escape.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Only Eirika showed up. I thought this was supposed to be the Emblem of the Azure Twins.

Ephraim is just window dressing, I'm afraid. Makes you wonder why they even bothered.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…I wonder if Rosado gets to wear the female amiibo outfits…

To say right off the bat, yes, he can wear the female clothes, not just amiibo ones.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Yep, it seems Clanne, Framme and Hortensia all qualify for the bonus!

…As does Chloe…

…And Etie…

Not Boucheron…

Not Vander, obviously…

Lapis counts as younger…

As does Citrinne…

Amber doesn’t, nor Jade, nor Zelkov or Diamant, nor Alfred… but Fogado, Panette, Céline and Anna all do…

And Timerra as well… this particular older sister doesn’t seem to be older enough…

Pandreo, Bunet, Kagetsu, Ivy and Seadall are too old for the boost, but Merrin’s young enough…

Alcryst is young enough, Yunaka is not…

Louis is too old…

…And, comically implausibly, the absolute last person I’d ever expect to be considered “young enough” for something… Pepsiman himself gets the boost.

That is hilarious. What the fuck is this going on, exactly, with these bonuses?

Characters have ages in the internal data. Judging from the character choices, it seems "Young" counts everyone under 20. Since the game, despite releasing this year, was just about done back in 2021, before Japan changed their Age of Adulthood laws from 20 down to 18 to be in line with most of the rest of the world. This happened in April 2022.

That's my guess at least. It'd match, since Ivy is 20 but doesn't get the boost, while Merrin is 19 and does get it.

For the record, Alear is 17 in the data. Despite... yeah.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…And I still haven’t even donated to Solm, fuck, hold on-

…I can already donate to Elusia?

How?

We have literally no diplomatic relations with Elusia! It’s under the control of a satanic cult!

Gameplay purposes, mostly. You could since like Chapter 12 or so.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I’m assuming they’re going to make Revelation canon, but still I have to wonder if Corrin has anything to say to Ivy about how she turned her back on the evil empire she called home in the name of doing what’s right.

Interesting. I've yet to do that myself.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, skirmishes in Fire Emblem aren’t exactly complicated, but a lot of the time they can be good lighthearted fun. And I have a pretty good impression of them by doing this one. Well done!

Ultimately, Skirmishes aren't that efficient. Gold Skirmishes are meant to be money sources, but they give so little. I'm pretty sure Training Skirmishes actually give you more gold, since their scale to donation level is higher than the one for Gold Skirmishes. At least, I know a Training Skirmish gave me more gold than the actual Gold Skirmishes have done. At least, without exploiting Anna's personal skill, don't expect a windfall every time.

Silver Skirmishes are for EXP and SP, and at least those do speed up the process of SP grinding. Still, you gonna need a few to get the more expensive skills.

[Ether]

I definitely think that Yunaka(or Zelkov if he's your preferred thief flavour, but I think Yunaka is a better pick with investment) is the best holder of the Corrin ring. While Alear can use every terrain, I think Fog on a covert is consistently the most useful option anyway. Besides, Alear gets a bonus with every emblem, so it isn't like it's unique to Corrin. With the skills Corrin unlocks down the line, along with the stat spread favouring mitigating magic damage, which is the only thing that cuts through fog, it really just seems tailor-made for thieves. 

As for the DLC, I think it's fine to cover it. Worst case, if you feel like you don't want the DLC items/Emblems, just don't use them, and let yourself dive into the maps themselves. If you're worried about experience you could always cover them at the end of the run. Granted, I think that using the DLC stuff is fine regardless, but everyone has differing thoughts on that matter. I haven't actually gotten to play around with the wave 2 emblems yet, so hearing thoughts on them could be interesting.

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, Ether said:

I definitely think that Yunaka(or Zelkov if he's your preferred thief flavour, but I think Yunaka is a better pick with investment) is the best holder of the Corrin ring. While Alear can use every terrain, I think Fog on a covert is consistently the most useful option anyway. Besides, Alear gets a bonus with every emblem, so it isn't like it's unique to Corrin. With the skills Corrin unlocks down the line, along with the stat spread favouring mitigating magic damage, which is the only thing that cuts through fog, it really just seems tailor-made for thieves. 

Yeah that's around my impression too. Yunaka not needing to depend on terrain or allies to reach full power will cover basically her only weakness, and her dagger's engraved with enough accuracy that boosting enemies too barely matters.

6 minutes ago, Ether said:

As for the DLC, I think it's fine to cover it. Worst case, if you feel like you don't want the DLC items/Emblems, just don't use them, and let yourself dive into the maps themselves. If you're worried about experience you could always cover them at the end of the run. Granted, I think that using the DLC stuff is fine regardless, but everyone has differing thoughts on that matter. I haven't actually gotten to play around with the wave 2 emblems yet, so hearing thoughts on them could be interesting.

Noted! Thanks for commenting! Hope you've been enjoying the playlog!

Edited February 10, 2023 by Alastor15243

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Noted! Thanks for commenting! Hope you've been enjoying the playlog!

If you do delve into the DLC, a note.

The DLC Emblems have small convos with the characters from the same game they are when you play the Paralogue. By the point where you are it's not a problem... except you might miss out on Tiki's since it requires Marth to be present. Not a big loss if you go without, but thought it was worth to point out.

[Ether]

It's always enjoyable to read since I've never really played with an Ironman mindset, it just doesn't really appeal to me personally. So the contrast to how I view some things is pretty interesting. I've been mostly following along, I fell off the train around late fates just because I fell behind and it was difficult to find time to catch up, but with a hiatus and a new game, it was an easy time to hop back in.

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Ether said:

I've been mostly following along, I fell off the train around late fates just because I fell behind and it was difficult to find time to catch up

Oh goodness do I know that feeling. Hope you wind up finishing the Fates entries at least eventually! Conquest was a fun time.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

The DLC Emblems have small convos with the characters from the same game they are when you play the Paralogue. By the point where you are it's not a problem... except you might miss out on Tiki's since it requires Marth to be present. Not a big loss if you go without, but thought it was worth to point out.

Interesting. Any idea if the same applies to Ike and Micaiah, or Roy and Lyn?

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

To say right off the bat, yes, he can wear the female clothes, not just amiibo ones.

When I discovered this, I was glad not to have a repeat of "Forrest can't become a Maid". I wanted to check how he looks in other classes, but there doesn't appear to be a way to "preview" classes without actually burning a Second Seal.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Panna Camel.

 

…is that a pun on the Panama Canal?

I think it's a play on "Panna Cotta". Other Solmian characters have Italian-influenced names, and Panette in particular is short for panetteria (bakery).

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Words cannot conceivably express how badly I want either the amiibo theme or, preferably, the paralogue theme of the twins to be Truth, Despair and Hope.

That would be wonderful. One of the best tracks of the GBA era.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

We have literally no diplomatic relations with Elusia! It’s under the control of a satanic cult!

Perhaps you're donating yto Ivy in particular? With Hyacinth's death, she's technically the Queen of Elusia. Sombron and the gang are just... interlopers. Barbarous filth.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I notice that Pepsiman… does not bat a single eye to the reveal that Rosado is a “he”. Not one. Not even slightly. Maybe he’s just used to all the weird bullshit his allies subject him to by this point, so the concept of crossdressing seems entirely ordinary by comparison? At any rate it’s kind of endearing.

I definitely prefer this to the "Need a C-support for Lucius or Libra? Have his conversation partner think he's a girl!" Narratively speaking, it's possible Alear heard Rosado speak (they fought in chapters 7 and 10), and assumed his gender (yeah, yeah, the onejoke TM hss arrived) based on his voice.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The problem… is that we have not only unfettered mastery over time… but also unfettered mastery over space. We can teleport to the Somniel and then back to any point we have ever visited. Which would include Firene. But why do I get the feeling that the game is never, ever going to acknowledge that now that it’s finished using the story to establish it as a gameplay mechanic?

It's a problem with world map games in general. I do think Echoes handled it the best. Not only were map encounters unskippable (designed as obstacles, not for grinding), but every move you made added a day in the corner. Really emphasized that, no, you can't just move your army around instantaneously. 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Rosado: Psst! If you’re being held against your will, blink three times.

 

PFFFFFFFFFF

 

Okay that was great.

He is perfect and deserves nothing but the best. I just wish I had space to deploy him...

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

genuinely do not get why these games insist on making these time powers canon. It can just be a game mechanic, you know. And as long as these powers are canon, and as long as the powers constitute actual, literal at-will time manipulation, no story you tell in these settings is ever going to make a lick of sense.

FE1's Switch release unironically handled rewinding the best, by making it infinite and totally untethered from the narrative.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So yeah, I actually like the Somniel decently enough, I just wish it were a little less time consuming. Being way, way, way better than Three Houses in this regard still isn’t that high of a bar to clear. But a passing grade, I’d say.

Somniel still takes too long, but it's also my own damn fault for needing to grab every little glowy thing on the map. Also, I have to spend time to let Sommie catch up to me.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Do you guys want me to do the DLC during this playthrough? Lemme know your thoughts on the matter and I’ll take them into consideration.

My personal approach is, not to do DLC content on the first playthrough. But in the case of this project, the first playthrough is the only playthrough. So... maybe? I forget, did you do the DLC for any previous games?