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

[Alastor15243]

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

I forget, did you do the DLC for any previous games?

A little for Awakening, but from what I remember reception was lukewarm in chat and also they weren't that interesting to talk about.

[Acacia Sgt]

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

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

Sadly, no. Only to one. So Hector reacts only to Lyn, and Soren only to Ike. With Hector it's obvious since it's his Blazing Blade persona, so the same likely applies to Soren.

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

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).

No, it's to Panettone.

Panettone - Wikipedia

Which is her Japanese name.

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

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

Certainly the best way to handle it.

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

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?

The game doesn't actually "end". It's more like Awakening where you're sent back in time to before doing the final battle, but the game marks the save file as Cleared. So doing the DLC is possible after finishing the game. Might even be for the best, since it's likely once Wave 4 hits, that's also how we access the Xenologues.

[Alastor15243]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

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

 

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

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

 

I sincerely hope that the eventual Genealogy remake goes that route.

[Acacia Sgt]

4 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I sincerely hope that the eventual Genealogy remake goes that route.

Nope! Prepare yourself for to have the ancient relic of Baldr/Heim/Braggi/Someone that Sigurd conveniently gives to Shannan and Oifey before they depart for Isaach, and thus why it's not used to stop the BBQ.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Nope! Prepare yourself for to have the ancient relic of Baldr/Heim/Braggi/Someone that Sigurd conveniently gives to Shannan and Oifey before they depart for Isaach, and thus why it's not used to stop the BBQ.

I'm just gonna leave this here:

 

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

A little for Awakening, but from what I remember reception was lukewarm in chat and also they weren't that interesting to talk about.

Ah, I see. In that case, I would personally veer away from it. I don't know how fair it would be to rank "Engage, with DLC" against "Fates, without DLC", for instance. Of course, if you did it after deciding on your rankings, then it wouldn't be an issue.

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

No, it's to Panettone.

Panettone - Wikipedia

Which is her Japanese name.

Oh, okay. Good catch. They all seem to have "pan", as in "bread", as a root word. Which also made it into Japanese, through Portuguese traders!

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

The game doesn't actually "end". It's more like Awakening where you're sent back in time to before doing the final battle, but the game marks the save file as Cleared. So doing the DLC is possible after finishing the game. Might even be for the best, since it's likely once Wave 4 hits, that's also how we access the Xenologues.

Ugh. I hate not being able to have a cleared save file. Makes me feel like the Endgame never happened. But it makes sense for a game that takes most of its cues from Fates and Awakening.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

I sincerely hope that the eventual Genealogy remake goes that route.

Yeah, and if they bring back the ranking system, I'd love to see the number of rewinds play a role in that.

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Sadly, no. Only to one. So Hector reacts only to Lyn, and Soren only to Ike. With Hector it's obvious since it's his Blazing Blade persona, so the same likely applies to Soren.

Alas, that's a shame. There's almost no Emblem-to-Emblem interaction in this game, so it would've been nice to see.

[Acacia Sgt]

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

Oh, okay. Good catch. They all seem to have "pan", as in "bread", as a root word. Which also made it into Japanese, through Portuguese traders!

Yep, since both are Romance Languages. Same for us in Spanish, it's also Gohan's daughter Pan.

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

Ugh. I hate not being able to have a cleared save file. Makes me feel like the Endgame never happened. But it makes sense for a game that takes most of its cues from Fates and Awakening.

To be fair, for previous FE's it was due for stuff like Link Arena or an actual post-game like Creature Campaign. It's not too different in essence to do the classic "sent back to before the final battle and stuff unlocks" that many RPG's do.

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

Alas, that's a shame. There's almost no Emblem-to-Emblem interaction in this game, so it would've been nice to see.

Oh yes, feels very wasted. Like, you could take out the spirits and just keep the Rings aspect, and not much would change. Well, one thing would perhaps, which makes me think that's why they did it this way even if Emblem interactions between themselves remained paltry.

[lenticular]

5 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.

This game is really good at having character gimmicks and then just never mentioning them at all. Why is Rosado a crossdresser? Why does Zelkov always *put* emphasis on really strange *words*? Why does Merrin have a tail? I have no idea, and the game hasn't been in a rush to tell me. And yeah, I do agree that it's endearing, in its own way, to think that everyone is just super accepting of everyone as they are and don't even bat an eyelash at any of this. But on the other hand, while I hope that that's deliberate, I'm not sure I really believe that it is.

5 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.

I'd prefer not. I found that the difficulty curve is already a bit of a mess, and I'd prefer to see your take on that in its base form without having all the DLC stuff potentially either fixing it (which seems unlikely) or messing it up even further (which seems more likely).

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

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. 

I like that approach, but also think that Shadows of Valentia was the worst game to put it in. Having map encounters that really discourage you from backtracking in the same game as all the sidequests that really want you to backtrack seemed like such an odd decision to me. When I've played, I've always just skipped all the sidequest, because I wanted to avoid the map encounters.

5 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.

My first reaction to the Somniel was... let's go with "extremely negative", shall we? Just didn't like it at all. My first thought was, basically "oh, they've kept all the things about Garreg Mach that people hated, but got rid of all the things about it that (mostly a different set of) people liked". And while I did warm up to it a little bit as I played, I do still kinda think that. It feels a little like all the social sim aspects are gone as are all the more character and world-building sort of stuff. Which, yeah, I know you didn't care for any of that stuff, but I've found that for people who did like the monastery, that's what they liked about it. Whereas at the same time, it feels as if it's left behind a lot of the tedium and the busywork. As I ran around the Somniel picking (literal) crap up off the floor, I actually thought, oh shit, I get it now. I understand why a lot of people hate the monastery.

I guess that, ultimately, I'm just not sure who the somniel is supposed to be for. It doesn't seem likely to satisfy the sort of people who liked the storytelling/characterisation/world-building potential of the monastery. But it also doesn't seem likely to be for the sort of people who like the quick and easy no-fuss approach of My Castle. I'm sure that there are some people for whom this is exactly the sweet spot, but I'm not sure who they are.

Like I said, though, I did warm to it a little bit, but that was mostly in the form of figuring out what stuff I could safely skip, and how to get through the rest of everything as fast as I could. Once I stopped actually interacting with a lot of it, I found it a whole lot less annoying.

[Jotari]

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

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.

Hey! My dog whistle!

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I sincerely hope that the eventual Genealogy remake goes that route.

Oh, I highly doubt it. That was just a port where they weren't prepared to actually rewrite the story. For a Genealogy Remake we'll be getting it from the ground up. And based on their precedent...yeah, they're absolutely going to feel the need to implement something. Not sure who or how Sigurd will get it though. Bizarrely the most reasonable candidate to give it to him would be Alvis, due to his early appearance in the prologue. Though maybe they'll just give Sigurd mastery of time from the start.

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

Yeah, and if they bring back the ranking system, I'd love to see the number of rewinds play a role in that.

Oh that would be great. I'm not against rewind, but I do think it shouldn't be something considered such "free use". Even just noting how many times per playthrough you've done it would impart an idea that it's not to be taken lightly.

Though a hypothetical Genealogy Rewind could run into some issues with the map size and the number of turns it takes to complete. Then again, I've had parts of this game where the sheer number of enemies moving hit the cap and stopped me going back more than two turns.

50 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I'd prefer not. I found that the difficulty curve is already a bit of a mess, and I'd prefer to see your take on that in its base form without having all the DLC stuff potentially either fixing it (which seems unlikely) or messing it up even further (which seems more likely).

I think the only thing that really makes the difficulty curve a mess are the Emblem paralogues which, though it varies from Emblem to Emblem, are usually a lot more difficult than the story chapters, but persevering through and finishing them nets you exp you're probably not intended to have and extra ranks for your Emblem that do make a pretty significant difference, which widens the gap and makes story missions all the easier.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

14 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Though a hypothetical Genealogy Rewind could run into some issues with the map size and the number of turns it takes to complete. Then again, I've had parts of this game where the sheer number of enemies moving hit the cap and stopped me going back more than two turns.

Wait, there's a cap?

Anyway, the easy answer is, just let the player reset to the start of a turn (specifically, a player phase). Rather than showing every individual action, it would just show the state of the board where each turn began. Much less to save, record, and show. It would require slightly more backtracking (forward-tracking?), but I don't think redoing the full turn is too much to ask of the player. Finally, this would make it function more like the original FE4's pseudo-auto-save, where it asks you to save at the start of each turn, but without overwriting a prior turn's save.

18 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Oh that would be great. I'm not against rewind, but I do think it shouldn't be something considered such "free use". Even just noting how many times per playthrough you've done it would impart an idea that it's not to be taken lightly.

Echoes had a whole achievement system, but I don't think they gave one for beating the game without any Turnwheel uses. Shame, really. Much as I enjoy it as a tool, I do think players who are successful without it deserve some sort of recognition. It's something to strive for.

20 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Oh, I highly doubt it. That was just a port where they weren't prepared to actually rewrite the story. For a Genealogy Remake we'll be getting it from the ground up. And based on their precedent...yeah, they're absolutely going to feel the need to implement something. Not sure who or how Sigurd will get it though. Bizarrely the most reasonable candidate to give it to him would be Alvis, due to his early appearance in the prologue. Though maybe they'll just give Sigurd mastery of time from the start.

Could be Oifey, since he's present from early on in both generations. 

Radical idea (FE4 spoilers):

Spoiler

In FE4 remake's original timeline, Oifey is present at the Belhalla barbecue, alongside Seliph and Shannan. Before they all perish, though, he reverses time to the start of the map, and speaks with Sigurd. Essentially, telling Sigurd that he's walking to his doom. But when Sigurd learns that Deirdre was there, he insists on going anyway. If there's a chance to save his wife, remote though it may be, he has to try. Still, he sends Oifey off with Shannan and Seliph. In the likely event that he fails, he needs them to keep hope alive for another generation.

I mean, the better idea would be to just have it as an option at the player's control. But if they insist on doing it narratively, I think this would be among the least bad ways of handling it.

28 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I think the only thing that really makes the difficulty curve a mess are the Emblem paralogues which, though it varies from Emblem to Emblem, are usually a lot more difficult than the story chapters, but persevering through and finishing them nets you exp you're probably not intended to have and extra ranks for your Emblem that do make a pretty significant difference, which widens the gap and makes story missions all the easier.

I've beaten four Emblem Paralogues thus far, but not gotten beyond bond level 10 with any of them. I want to keep experimenting with each Emblem on different units, but the game seems to incentivize choosing an Emblem/Unit pairing and sticking with it. It's not "bad" design (I think a personal, rather than general, leveling system would've worked great with battalions in 3H), but it is a frustrating one.

[Alastor15243]

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

Radical idea (FE4 spoilers):

  Reveal hidden contents

In FE4 remake's original timeline, Oifey is present at the Belhalla barbecue, alongside Seliph and Shannan. Before they all perish, though, he reverses time to the start of the map, and speaks with Sigurd. Essentially, telling Sigurd that he's walking to his doom. But when Sigurd learns that Deirdre was there, he insists on going anyway. If there's a chance to save his wife, remote though it may be, he has to try. Still, he sends Oifey off with Shannan and Seliph. In the likely event that he fails, he needs them to keep hope alive for another generation.

I mean, the better idea would be to just have it as an option at the player's control. But if they insist on doing it narratively, I think this would be among the least bad ways of handling it.

Make Oifey the POV character and narrator, and I think this might actually be a cool way to force this in if they felt they had to.

[Acacia Sgt]

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Make Oifey the POV character and narrator, and I think this might actually be a cool way to force this in if they felt they had to.

I now have this funny picture where it's not him rewinding through some power, it's just him writing his memoirs at a very late age, and any "rewind" is him trying to recall what really happened.

"And after Lewyn killed that Wind Mage, then Alec moved to fight the Pegasus Knight and... wait, no no no, Lachesis used the Runesword on the Armor Knight, then Alec fought the Pegasus Knight and..."

Edited February 11, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Alastor15243]

Day 18 Bonus: Maintenance

Tragically, and possibly because I lost the last arena battle to Clanne, Pepsiman is now 5 exp shy of level 20 and I’ll have to waste 95 exp if I want to promote him now. It feels so gross, promoting him literally 5 exp away from level 20. But it also feels gross to make him incapable of leveling after gaining 5 exp next map for no real benefit. Oooof… rock and a hard place.

So, I gave Corrin to Yunaka, and looking at Dreadful Aura makes me realize it’s just an objectively and drastically superior version of hobble.

Also, yeah, I have to conclude the reason swords suck so much is because they’re trivially easy to learn. But was there really any reason to make the wakizashi suck? That’s not a sword that you just need a sword rank for, that’s a sword you need to be in your super mode for! Why couldn’t that be 1-2 range? Why is it only 2 range?

…Whatever, it’s not like Yunaka’s even gonna use anything that isn’t her awesome steel dagger.

Byleth’s back on Pepsiman. Eventually he’s gonna go on Framme once she’s a high priest. I think I’m gonna give Pepsiman Roy when we have him back. I have this sneaking hope that unlocking bond rank 15 gives you the weapons characters are known for. Which would mean that Pepsiman… would get to use the binding blade. And that would be crazy amounts of fun if true.

I’m gonna fragment my way up to bond level 5 on Pepsiman and Byleth. I wanna buy that exp booster skill. Given there’s already incentive to have characters fight adjacent to Pepsiman, it seems a sure fit, and it’s a trivial amount of exp.

…Okay, I have to look up what the fuck Blutgang does, because the attack was so devastating that Pepsiman was still crackling with evil static in his victory pose.

…It doesn’t seem to inflict any sort of status effect. It’s just effective against dragons and cavalry. Was that all it was? Just a hardcore animation for effective damage?

Ohp! I’ve got a lot of supports! Let’s get through them now!

Clanne and Pepsiman’s A.

…I sincerely hope the implication is that Clanne just greeted Pepsiman after waking him up in the morning. Because talking about Clanne getting lots of rest… while in Pepsiman’s bedroom…

…Sorry, I kinda just had no idea what so say about that conversation. It’s not that I found it uneventful, I just… I have somewhat negative views about it that I struggle to put into words. But I suppose what I can say to simplify it is that it’s incredibly predictable from what came before, like basically anyone could have written it using the first two as a prompt.

Pepsiman and Merrin’s C.

This is… simultaneously endearing and profoundly uncomfortable. Merrin has a love for animals and “rare critters”, and just flat-out admits that she wants to learn more about the world’s only Divine Dragon. She really comes out the gate with her intentions in a shockingly blunt way.

…It sounds like she’s planning to write the book equivalent of a nature documentary. Which is hilarious but also awkward as all fuck.

Pepsiman and Seadall’s C.

Seadall talks about his… I suppose “religious” beliefs that when people die, they become stars. So he feels he has a massive audience when he dances under the night sky.

…Seadall seems to be profoundly limited by the nature of supports in this game. He’s supposed to be dancing, but all we see is him singing and bobbing his head to his own notes, while Pepsiman comments on how great the dancing we aren’t allowed to see is.

Pepsiman and Diamant’s C.

Pepsiman runs screaming for Diamant’s help with a Corrupted, and after Diamant delivers, he quite rightly asks him what’s up with that. It brings back his “issues” with the Corrupted, and they of course inevitably bring up excuses for why this has absolutely no gameplay effects, much like Lon’qu’s fear of women.

He says as long as he can steel himself and see them coming, he’s good. Well hey, lucky him he’s in a game with no ambush spawns!

…I… just noticed that single streak of brighter red in Diamant’s hair.

Anyway, Pepsiman lets slip at the last moment of the conversation that he seems to think Diamant is perfect. Obviously if we wind up getting another (unlikely since Diamant’s been dropped), that’s going to be a topic of discussion.

Pepsiman and Citrinne’s C.

…It would appear that Citrinne’s gimmick is that she is, indeed, the privileged rich lady archetype, but the difference with her is that there seems to be far less arrogance about it from what I’ve seen, and far more “has absolutely no concept of the value of money and is therefore obscenely, uncomfortably overkill with regards to generosity and repaying favors”.

This is… a bit awkward, but I do like the “spoiled sweet” trope, where a character is extremely oblivious and sheltered due to their upbringing, but is always approaching every social encounter with the purest intentions and kindness.

…Oh dear.

Pepsiman has told Citrinne that if she’s going to insist on a gift, he’d prefer one that money can’t buy. “Gifts that aren’t defined by how much they cost”.

That is just vague enough that I am mathematically certain Citrinne is going to find some comically ridiculous way to interpret it, and I have no idea what the result will be. I almost want to see the B support just to see the result.

Ooh, Clanne and Hortensia have a C! This could be interesting!

…Okay, Hortensia’s over-the-top introduction and Clanne’s awkward response were pretty funny.

…And Hortensia… seems to have gotten it into her head… that Clanne is the president of her fan club. What. How.

Clanne: The fan club I’m the president of is…

(fade to black)

…Why the hell is there a fade to black? There were like three more words left to say!

But anyway,

Hortensia: What!? You’re the president of a fan club of your own liege!?

That really just cuts to the core of what’s weird about it, doesn’t it?

PFFFFFF

Okay, so however Hortensia got the idea into her head that Clanne was the president of her fan club, she clearly wants a fan club, and is trying to order Clanne to make her one. And I love the performance of Clanne’s response of “I don’t work for you!”

And it just fucking ends!

Oh man, I can’t wait to see more of that. I have so many questions.

Yunaka and Merrin’s B.

Merrin is taking care of weapon maintenance… in front of the stables.

So, Yunaka has a fucking weaponry nerdgasm seeing a fancy Solmic scimitar, and Merrin tries to bribe her into letting her monologue during training for it.

…And Yunaka turns her down. And the conversation ends with her being frustrated at the price being too high to pay or something.

I wonder how this will end.

Yunaka and Seadall’s C.

So apparently (and understandably, given her entire persona is by all appearances an elaborate performance), Yunaka’s really good at impressions.

She does an impression of Corrin first, and I think she gets the voice too deep to really be considered correct.

But her Ivy impression is spot-on.

…And now Seadall wants her to “join [him] on stage”.

Apparently he has a stage play and he needs an actor. Yunaka apparently has crippling stage fright or some other issue with performing in front of a huge crowd, but unlike with her support with Merrin, this time she is talked into doing the thing she doesn’t want to do.

Looking forward to seeing more of this, honestly.

Now then…

Alcryst and Seadall’s C.

…It’s… uh… quite weird for Alcryst to be envious of Seadall’s experience as a traveling performer because he “rarely [travels] outside of Brodia”… when, like, he’s been traveling all over the world ever since he joined.

…Granted, Elusia wasn’t really all that fun… but he got to see Solm, and he’s about to see Firene!

The second part seems fair though, him being an introvert who’s jealous of people who can “navigate foreign cultures with ease”.

Seadall seems like a pretty chill and awesome dude, honestly. I like him. I’m glad he’s my dancer, which means I’ll undoubtedly be seeing more of him.

Ivy and Hortensia’s C.

…And Hortensia just drops the fact that she’s only Ivy’s half sister. Different moms, huh?

Hortensia: [I’m glad you think I look like my mom, because] it’s only thanks to her I get to call you my sister in the first place.

…Different dads?

…No, she must have meant something else like that. They explicitly say “my mother” and “your mother” and all that. Curious. Well, Hortensia runs off before any clarification can happen.

It’s weird to think they have different moms. They look more like each other than like their dad.

…So, weirdly, I haven’t been thinking about supports in gameplay nearly as much as in other games. Neither in building them nor exploiting their gameplay effects. I’m not sure why that is.

…Okay, remember when I praised the game for letting you choose what item to send to the convoy while buying items with a character?

And how on another occasion I said I thought it was cool the game didn’t let you send your equipped weapon to the convoy when you get a new item in battle?

Uh…

…Do you see where I’m going with this?

You can’t send your equipped weapon to the convoy even when you’re just fucking buying stuff.

That is… an unfortunate oversight, but at least it’s just mildly annoying and not anything that involves gameplay.

I forged my newly-purchased elwind into a mystery tome that turned out to be Excalibur, so I wound up giving that to Ivy (who can almost carry it with her 8 build compared to the weapon’s 10 weight), and giving the elwind to Hortensia instead.

Alright, time to cook! Alright, we’ve got Yunaka this time and-

…Oh heavens.

Oh mercy.

Oh Genealogy of the Holy Shit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 2/9/2023 at 6:46 PM, Acacia Sgt said:

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So hey, I thought I’d give that whole “waking up event” thing another pass, y’know, just one shot hardly seems fair. Jean woke me up, apparently concerned about my health. Honestly Jean’s an interesting character, but every fiber of my being tells me he belongs in a Layton game, not in a Fire Emblem game.

…Oh and hey, Etie’s on cooking duty! Fancy that! Alright, let’s give this a whirl!

I got a passable str/spd/def boost, and res+1 for all women. That’s fine.

Oh hey, Merrin’s here. Was she already, or did the meal bring her here?

Merrin: There’s a critter nearby… I can sense it. A bird? A mouse? Come on out now… I won’t hurt you!

…

…Lilith is literally sleeping tummy-up two feet away from her.

Can I get Merrin to interact with Lilith in any way? I really, really, really want to.

…But anyway, yeah, I think that’s enough for this prep session. I’ll be able to jump right into the next chapter tomorrow morning. Until then!

Alastor, signing off!

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

This is… simultaneously endearing and profoundly uncomfortable. Merrin has a love for animals and “rare critters”, and just flat-out admits that she wants to learn more about the world’s only Divine Dragon. She really comes out the gate with her intentions in a shockingly blunt way.

…It sounds like she’s planning to write the book equivalent of a nature documentary. Which is hilarious but also awkward as all fuck.

This reminds me, one of Merrin's quotes when Engaging with Tiki is being excited she turned into a dragon, heh.

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Seadall talks about his… I suppose “religious” beliefs that when people die, they become stars. So he feels he has a massive audience when he dances under the night sky.

I see he met Mufasa.

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

…And Hortensia… seems to have gotten it into her head… that Clanne is the president of her fan club. What. How.

Well, fits with the self-centered attitude I guess, heh.

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Oh man, I can’t wait to see more of that. I have so many questions.

Reminds me I still have them at C too. lol

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

So, Yunaka has a fucking weaponry nerdgasm seeing a fancy Solmic scimitar, and Merrin tries to bribe her into letting her monologue during training for it.

Seen those warriors from Solm? They've got curved swords. Curved. Swords!

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

…It’s… uh… quite weird for Alcryst to be envious of Seadall’s experience as a traveling performer because he “rarely [travels] outside of Brodia”… when, like, he’s been traveling all over the world ever since he joined.

I guess it's in the "travel for leisure/entertainment" sense...?

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

…And Hortensia just drops the fact that she’s only Ivy’s half sister. Different moms, huh?

Hortensia: [I’m glad you think I look like my mom, because] it’s only thanks to her I get to call you my sister in the first place.

…Different dads?

…No, she must have meant something else like that. They explicitly say “my mother” and “your mother” and all that. Curious. Well, Hortensia runs off before any clarification can happen.

It’s weird to think they have different moms. They look more like each other than like their dad.

Really? Nothing new to FE... heck, that was Nohr's whole shtick of Garon having pretty much a harem. I guess since this time it's only with just one of the four royal sibling pairs?

Anyway, I think Hortensia was referring to the sense of "since my mother got with our father". As in, that she did something to gain Hyacinth's graces to be chosen as a second wife or mistress. Which implies Hortensia's mother doesn't shy from taking the initiative.

It becomes more relevant later on in the support chain, basically.

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, time to cook! Alright, we’ve got Yunaka this time and-

…Oh heavens.

Oh mercy.

Oh Genealogy of the Holy Shit.

Ahahaha, you got it!? XD

Turns out, the chart in the Serenes database hadn't finished updated. Seems it's more than just Yunaka who can proc it after all.

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Can I get Merrin to interact with Lilith in any way? I really, really, really want to.

Best you can do is dress her in that Sommie costume from the DLC.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Ahahaha, you got it!? XD

Nope! Backed the hell out and slept to reshuffle. Maybe I should have done it but I didn't want to endanger the resources.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Wait, there's a cap?

Yeah, in all the games,  I think. Grinding for the regelia in Grima's map long enough led me to a scene where Alm actually comments on the turnwheel acting funny.

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Anyway, the easy answer is, just let the player reset to the start of a turn (specifically, a player phase). Rather than showing every individual action, it would just show the state of the board where each turn began. Much less to save, record, and show. It would require slightly more backtracking (forward-tracking?), but I don't think redoing the full turn is too much to ask of the player. Finally, this would make it function more like the original FE4's pseudo-auto-save, where it asks you to save at the start of each turn, but without overwriting a prior turn's save.

This is honestly how I usueally use rewind. Unless it's a very unfortunate miss on player phase I rewind, there are usually several things I want to go back and fix about a turn, not just one. It's usually just one critical mistake, but with further context of how the enemy will act, there's always a little bit more positional and trading stuff that could be a bit better. Thankfully Engage lets you go to a specific turn by pressing left and right on the rewind.

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Echoes had a whole achievement system, but I don't think they gave one for beating the game without any Turnwheel uses. Shame, really. Much as I enjoy it as a tool, I do think players who are successful without it deserve some sort of recognition. It's something to strive for.

Do Turnwheel rewinds count towards the Blitzkreig Achievement?

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Could be Oifey, since he's present from early on in both generations. 

Radical idea (FE4 spoilers):

  Reveal hidden contents

In FE4 remake's original timeline, Oifey is present at the Belhalla barbecue, alongside Seliph and Shannan. Before they all perish, though, he reverses time to the start of the map, and speaks with Sigurd. Essentially, telling Sigurd that he's walking to his doom. But when Sigurd learns that Deirdre was there, he insists on going anyway. If there's a chance to save his wife, remote though it may be, he has to try. Still, he sends Oifey off with Shannan and Seliph. In the likely event that he fails, he needs them to keep hope alive for another generation.

I mean, the better idea would be to just have it as an option at the player's control. But if they insist on doing it narratively, I think this would be among the least bad ways of handling it.

I've beaten four Emblem Paralogues thus far, but not gotten beyond bond level 10 with any of them. I want to keep experimenting with each Emblem on different units, but the game seems to incentivize choosing an Emblem/Unit pairing and sticking with it. It's not "bad" design (I think a personal, rather than general, leveling system would've worked great with battalions in 3H), but it is a frustrating one.

How about going a completely different route and making Oifey the narrator and rewinds being like gameovers in Pmthe first Prince of Persia, where Oifey essentially says "wait thats not what happened" and the rewind is interfaced by turning back pages on a book.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I now have this funny picture where it's not him rewinding through some power, it's just him writing his memoirs at a very late age, and any "rewind" is him trying to recall what really happened.

"And after Lewyn killed that Wind Mage, then Alec moved to fight the Pegasus Knight and... wait, no no no, Lachesis used the Runesword on the Armor Knight, then Alec fought the Pegasus Knight and..."

Ah! My originality. You stumbled on the same idea. I think its good though, it makes it digetic without making it plot breaking. And some sort of memoir framing device would work well for Genealogy. A Genealogy is a list afterall isn't it? It's not just your ancestry, its the record if your ancestery. And there is a theme of taking vack history in the second gen. This would also allow for a nom contruved way to put the rewund mechanic in Thracia remake too. As if its tied to an item then you need to somehow get that item to Leif whike Seliph is using it or have a differebt time breaking power (lets ignore for the moment how Thracia already copies Lootyr and Naga tomes whole sale with the Lopt and Blaggi swords).

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

…Seadall seems to be profoundly limited by the nature of supports in this game. He’s supposed to be dancing, but all we see is him singing and bobbing his head to his own notes, while Pepsiman comments on how great the dancing we aren’t allowed to see is.

He has a dancing animation in the game already. Seriously it would not ve difficult to implement it into supports. This goes beyond laziness. Its an putright stylistic choice to fully render but not animated these conversations.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

So hey, I thought I’d give that whole “waking up event” thing another pass, y’know, just one shot hardly seems fair. Jean woke me up, apparently concerned about my health. Honestly Jean’s an interesting character, but every fiber of my being tells me he belongs in a Layton game, not in a Fire Emblem game.

I'd say thats mostly just the accent.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Re Yunaka cooking

Whats this? I dont think I've gotten it.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Nope! Backed the hell out and slept to reshuffle. Maybe I should have done it but I didn't want to endanger the resources.

Well, there's an achievement for each rank, so there is worth in allowing it at least once.

Then again, there are further achievements for getting the ranks five times as well. And perhaps even beyond that.

15 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Ah! My originality. You stumbled on the same idea. I think its good though, it makes it digetic without making it plot breaking. And some sort of memoir framing device would work well for Genealogy. A Genealogy is a list afterall isn't it? It's not just your ancestry, its the record if your ancestery. And there is a theme of taking vack history in the second gen. This would also allow for a nom contruved way to put the rewund mechanic in Thracia remake too. As if its tied to an item then you need to somehow get that item to Leif whike Seliph is using it or have a differebt time breaking power (lets ignore for the moment how Thracia already copies Lootyr and Naga tomes whole sale with the Lopt and Blaggi swords).

You just reminded me. Considering Naga has Falchion and the Naga Tome, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide in a remake that the Loptr Sword is his own Kingsfang.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

You just reminded me. Considering Naga has Falchion and the Naga Tome, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide in a remake that the Loptr Sword is his own Kingsfang.

If only they kept up the Falchion's immunity to non-dragon melee attacks, that might explain a lot regarding the powers the Loptian Fang has.

[Jotari]

19 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, there's an achievement for each rank, so there is worth in allowing it at least once.

Then again, there are further achievements for getting the ranks five times as well. And perhaps even beyond that.

You just reminded me. Considering Naga has Falchion and the Naga Tome, I wouldn't be surprised if they decide in a remake that the Loptr Sword is his own Kingsfang.

That would actually be kind of cool. Still a bit silly and story breaking to have this whole other weapon that's so powerful yet so unimportant to the plot. Why even give it to Raydrik? Even if he can barely hold it, Manfroy should be holding onto that himself for the protective benefits! The parallel to falchion would be nice and its kind of a lost cause at being a ddcent plot point anyway, without rewriting a large part of the lore.

[Alastor15243]

Incidentally, I just started a new file to show the game off to a friend, on Maddening (with a female avatar named Colgette). Rewatching the scene again, I can confirm that at no point was Framme disarmed in that cutscene, just Clanne. She did just flat-out forget that she has kung fu powers to fight back with.

[Acacia Sgt]

Well, how else can ALEUR-CHAN-SAN-SAMA-SENPAI-SAN-SAMA-SAN-CHAN-SAN-SEMPAI-CHAN heroically save them and validate their fanatism?

Just look at that face. XD

Edited February 11, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Eltosian Kadath]

9 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 answer would be to pencil in no, in part because I generally don't buy/use DLC. The only time I bought DLC was for the Fates alternate paths, as they were clearly full Fire Emblem games, and not really DLCs. I have also heard some of them are real busted, like Tiki giving you access to revival bead on your allies, and getting Raging Storm from the Students. Plus it messes with the feel of some of the most interesting chapters in the game, like chapters 11 and 17...

 

9 hours 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 might have just told the two of them we killed Hortensia, just like Hortensia was told happened to Ivy, and figured revenge was enough to ensure their loyalty.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

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.

Eh, I think Celine was a solid choice for Celica (at least for who you had at the time).

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…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.

Despite them mentioning it, you need to increase your bond level to get it.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

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.

Just out of curiosity, did you get those S rank ring from raw gatcha draws, upgraded them to S rank, or test out the RNG abuse strats to get them.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…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…?

Its random which of your undeployed troops are hanging out in the Somniel, and sleeping rerolls that.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…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?

Its based on the internal age (below 20 it looks like), and it looks like they are taking notes from the Tellius games, where the Laguz age different, and so they listed the age they were designed to look like in all the art books and such.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…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?

Yeah, that Silver Dagger is such a potent weapon, and is almost all she needs.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…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.

I was wondering if you were going to just skip them the way you are going.

 

9 hours 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.

That would have been a really cool reference.

 

9 hours 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!

I have heard a lot of complaints about them, as they are too intense to seriously train your underleveled troops on.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

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.

I am glad you tested out the skirmishes at least once, even if it isn't the most interesting content, as it feels like an important part of the game to see for the purpose of ranking.

 

8 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

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.

I do think adding them in would negatively impact chapter 17 as well...

 

46 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

I have this sneaking hope that unlocking bond rank 15 gives you the weapons characters are known for. Which would mean that Pepsiman… would get to use the binding blade. And that would be crazy amounts of fun if true.

Good guess, as that seems to be the trend I am noticing with them.

 

48 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…Sorry, I kinda just had no idea what so say about that conversation. It’s not that I found it uneventful, I just… I have somewhat negative views about it that I struggle to put into words. But I suppose what I can say to simplify it is that it’s incredibly predictable from what came before, like basically anyone could have written it using the first two as a prompt.

Yeah, there are a lot of Alear supports that just feel very uncomfortable.

 

54 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Do Turnwheel rewinds count towards the Blitzkreig Achievement?

I don't know...I used a lot of them when I got it on a Hard run, but I also had something like 200 spare turns or so...

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Eh, I think Celine was a solid choice for Celica (at least for who you had at the time).

Oh shit right, forgot about her. Yeah she was fine.

4 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

They might have just told the two of them we killed Hortensia, just like Hortensia was told happened to Ivy, and figured revenge was enough to ensure their loyalty.

Well they ran off to get a ring to her, so I doubt it.

5 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Just out of curiosity, did you get those S rank ring from raw gatcha draws, upgraded them to S rank, or test out the RNG abuse strats to get them.

Sheer luck got me two of them. I stopped getting new ones some point before Chapter 11 and haven't made them since. Mostly getting by with the ones I have.

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

18 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Make Oifey the POV character and narrator, and I think this might actually be a cool way to force this in if they felt they had to.

 

17 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I now have this funny picture where it's not him rewinding through some power, it's just him writing his memoirs at a very late age, and any "rewind" is him trying to recall what really happened.

"And after Lewyn killed that Wind Mage, then Alec moved to fight the Pegasus Knight and... wait, no no no, Lachesis used the Runesword on the Armor Knight, then Alec fought the Pegasus Knight and..."

 

16 hours ago, Jotari said:

How about going a completely different route and making Oifey the narrator and rewinds being like gameovers in Pmthe first Prince of Persia, where Oifey essentially says "wait thats not what happened" and the rewind is interfaced by turning back pages on a book.

Lotta good ideas here. I definitely think that the team remaking Genealogy have a tall task at hand. How to please the longtime fans who've played the original, without alienating newcomers who have come to expect certain features? I can't imagine they'll come up with something that leaves everyone satisfied. 

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, yeah, I have to conclude the reason swords suck so much is because they’re trivially easy to learn. But was there really any reason to make the wakizashi suck? That’s not a sword that you just need a sword rank for, that’s a sword you need to be in your super mode for! Why couldn’t that be 1-2 range? Why is it only 2 range?

Presumably, because it was only 2-range back in Fates. That said, the fact that Corrin's two first weapons are both katanas (and I assume her last one is gonna be the Yato) kinda really bugs me. No Art that mimics her draconic form? No Staff or Tome to represent her promotion options? It's just disappointing. 

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

You can’t send your equipped weapon to the convoy even when you’re just fucking buying stuff.

 

That is… an unfortunate oversight, but at least it’s just mildly annoying and not anything that involves gameplay.

Interesting, and weird. I usually just buy items straight to the Convoy, so I've not encountered this.

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So, Yunaka has a fucking weaponry nerdgasm seeing a fancy Solmic scimitar, and Merrin tries to bribe her into letting her monologue during training for it.

They didn't name it, did they? It would've been very cool to get weapons/tomes/staves associated with certain countries, rather than just "standard historic FE inventory". Like, as much crap as Fates gets for its worldbuilding, at least each major country has their own weapon culture - something we hardly see elsewhere. 

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hortensia: [I’m glad you think I look like my mom, because] it’s only thanks to her I get to call you my sister in the first place.

 

…Different dads?

 

…No, she must have meant something else like that. They explicitly say “my mother” and “your mother” and all that. Curious. Well, Hortensia runs off before any clarification can happen.

Maybe Hortensia was born before her mother married King Hyacinth? That way, she'd only be Ivy's sister bevause her mom married Ivy's dad. Whatever, I'm just guessing. I'm using Hortendia, but not Ivy, so I've not gotten to see this.

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, so however Hortensia got the idea into her head that Clanne was the president of her fan club, she clearly wants a fan club, and is trying to order Clanne to make her one. And I love the performance of Clanne’s response of “I don’t work for you!”

I don't know why, but Clanne's delivery  sounds exactly like something Strong Sad, from Homestar Runner, would say.

16 hours ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, in all the games,  I think. Grinding for the regelia in Grima's map long enough led me to a scene where Alm actually comments on the turnwheel acting funny.

Interesting, good to know.

15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Incidentally, I just started a new file to show the game off to a friend, on Maddening (with a female avatar named Colgette). Rewatching the scene again, I can confirm that at no point was Framme disarmed in that cutscene, just Clanne. She did just flat-out forget that she has kung fu powers to fight back with.

Supremely chosen name, I must say. But once I learned that the Divine Dragon's name exists in dialogue, but is not actually voiced, I named mine the unpronounceable >_<.