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

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Looks like Lumera’s dying with a few moments of lucidity, just like Hyacinth and Morion did.

Morion had a moment of lucidity before redying? I don't remember that. Hayacinth obviously did because he had been brought back that way from the start, but I thought Morion just stayed as zombie dad. Personally I found it a bit convenient that Lumeria would be able to, idk get over the evil intentions of her frankenstein existence just to reassure Alear.  I would have made it so she just goes and dies evil, but then Veyle brings her back for just a few moments as a pure corrupted so we can hear the real thoughts of real Lumeria (and then Veyle confirms she's use the last of her corrupted powers and can't do it again, because otherwise she should be acting like a living Aum staff for the party).

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Actually, come to think of it: at no point in that battle did Lumera enter her dragon form. It’s kind of comical how utterly pointless that form wound up being. It feels like it solely existed to justify the Divine Dragons being called dragons when the devs had no interest in that being a game mechanic.

And a lot of fans would probably have responded positively if Lumeria and Sombron were referred to as demons or snake people or something. As people feel dragons are over done in the series (which is silly, you can never overdo dragons).

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…What’s the game’s explanation for what happens in Chapter 10/11 if you didn’t put one of your rings on someone? Are they implying that the ring wouldn’t stay at the Somniel, and that you’d bring it with you completely unused?

Well the cutscene shows Vander about to Engage at that point, when I think we'd all dropped him three chapters ago by that point, so chalk it up to gameplay story segregation.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I have to say, I have a bit of a complaint about the game’s late-game recruits.

 

So, the last proper replacement unit you get is in Chapter 19, with Saphir.

 

I say that because Mauvier and Veyle aren’t “replacement” units. They join simultaneously with a commensurate increase in the size of your deployment slots. And if anyone dies after that, you’re shit outta luck, and gotta whip out someone you benched multiple chapters ago, if not longer. Like I had to do with Lindon here.

 

That and the occasional but present unpleasant “gotcha” moments combine to mean I think this game isn’t quite getting a perfect ironmannability rating.

That feelslike a pretty direct response to setting the final chapters in a barren land of nothing (and in the past). Bit hard to put new units into it. And even before Grandlon Sapphir's appearance is quite contrived. It also sort of feels right that Veyle is the final character you get. Though if I was theory crafting ways to put in new playable characters, I'd create some kind of Elyusian Sapphir. A character from Elyusia that was working alongside Vander and Lumeria who remains behind to oversee (the apparently extant) population and then shows up to help out in Chapter 22 (much as I'd like Veyle to be the final character obtained, Chapter 21 would be a bit messy with everything else going on at that point).

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Just as well, given I totally forgot I have to take it out of the bedroom drawer first, and going there was a good reminder.

That feels like an unnecessary extra step. Did they just not want you to give it away accidentally or something?

 

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Morion had a moment of lucidity before redying? I don't remember that. Hayacinth obviously did because he had been brought back that way from the start, but I thought Morion just stayed as zombie dad. Personally I found it a bit convenient that Lumeria would be able to, idk get over the evil intentions of her frankenstein existence just to reassure Alear.  I would have made it so she just goes and dies evil, but then Veyle brings her back for just a few moments as a pure corrupted so we can hear the real thoughts of real Lumeria (and then Veyle confirms she's use the last of her corrupted powers and can't do it again, because otherwise she should be acting like a living Aum staff for the party).

It's the classic "brainwashed or mind controlled character recovers lucidity as they're dying" trope. As I'd take it that death severs the connection between puppet and pupper master. Veyle bringing her back for a bit just to die again would be... eh. Besides, it was already stablished you can't bring back someone as a Corrupted twice, hence why the Rings had to use The Miracle on Alear. Or who knows why exactly it didn't work with Alear. Veyle mentioned Alear's body was rejecting her power once it began to destabilize. Maybe it was the Divine Essence? Which means it wouldn't work on Lumera either.

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

And a lot of fans would probably have responded positively if Lumeria and Sombron were referred to as demons or snake people or something. As people feel dragons are over done in the series (which is silly, you can never overdo dragons).

Heh, for better or worse Dragons are part of Fire Emblem's identity. It's like asking Final Fantasy to stop using crystals.

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

That feelslike a pretty direct response to setting the final chapters in a barren land of nothing (and in the past). Bit hard to put new units into it. And even before Grandlon Sapphir's appearance is quite contrived. It also sort of feels right that Veyle is the final character you get. Though if I was theory crafting ways to put in new playable characters, I'd create some kind of Elyusian Sapphir. A character from Elyusia that was working alongside Vander and Lumeria who remains behind to oversee (the apparently extant) population and then shows up to help out in Chapter 22 (much as I'd like Veyle to be the final character obtained, Chapter 21 would be a bit messy with everything else going on at that point).

I think you mean Lythian.

[Jotari]

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It's the classic "brainwashed or mind controlled character recovers lucidity as they're dying" trope. As I'd take it that death severs the connection between puppet and pupper master. Veyle bringing her back for a bit just to die again would be... eh. Besides, it was already stablished you can't bring back someone as a Corrupted twice, hence why the Rings had to use The Miracle on Alear. Or who knows why exactly it didn't work with Alear. Veyle mentioned Alear's body was rejecting her power once it began to destabilize. Maybe it was the Divine Essence? Which means it wouldn't work on Lumera either.

Could have worked for five seconds. I wasn't suggesting she bring back Lumeria as a full playable character....although we were mentioning late game recruits.

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

I think you mean Lythian.

Yes,, Elyios is the name of the continent itself, silly me.

[joeygreedy]

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And you know me. Gameplay over story, big time. I’ve got “writing” as just this single category in my rankings, and it doesn’t even give all that many points. I hear people say “the only good part about Conquest is the gameplay” and it literally does not compute to me, I go “how the fuck can that be an ‘only’ to you!?”. I can count the number of games in this series with stories worth shit on a single hand, and I still love this series enough to devote years worth of days of my free time to cataloguing my journey through it.

I think for the gameplay-story balance, some people value story much more overall. Like, for instance, your total amounts of rankings being roughly.

Difficulty - Gameplay

Ironmannability - Gameplay

Usability - Gameplay, but also not something as notable to most players until something is missing, RADIANT DAWN

Depth - Gameplay

Balance - Gameplay

Pacing - A mix of gameplay and story, and honestly, I almost value this more than both gameplay and story, because some really bad pacing can kill both gameplay and story by making you disinterested entirely in the game. 

Writing - Story

Music - Neither, but something that can easily heighten or detract from both

Presentation - Neither, but something that can easily heighten or detract from both

Replayability - Possibly both, but more towards gameplay. A good story can help make a game more replayable, but if the gameplay is shit, it's hard to want to bother. If the story is shit, at least you have good gameplay. If both are bad, then it's just a bad game. 

Of the 10 categories, the lowest weighted are writing ( +8 to -5 ), Music ( +6 to -6 ), Presentation ( +6 to -6 ).

So 5 categories are nearly exclusively gameplay, 2 are mixed, and 2 serve only the enhance the other parts, with 1 category being story exclusive.

So, roughly speaking, your valuation of gameplay-story would be a 80%-20% split, at it's most generous. From this, I do see why your valuation of towards that opinion might be a bit low. Like, don't get me wrong, the gameplay is amazing and the story is shit, but I think most would say large parts of the game can be boiled down into those 2 categories, hence people saying 'Only' the gameplay is good, which is, TBF, is also a massive portion of the game when most of your time in the game is preparing for battle, or actually doing battle. For most people, I'll assume it's a 60-40? 70-30? split. Possibly even a 40-60 split for some. 

Granted, your ranking system is far more in-depth and because of the playlog, I can completely understand why, by your valuation system, you put Conquest that highly, while being critical of people saying it's 'only' gameplay.

Though, I'll be honest, Engage is up there on the "Fire Emblem stories" list for me due to the voice acting and characters. It's not deep, it's not even GOOD. It's just my personal brand of humour resonating with this cast and the lines coming out of their mouth in the most absurd way possible. That's a me thing though, so I'm actually curious where you put it, whether at +3, -4 or -5 ( Yeah, I am not holding my breath on a +6 or a +8, I will legit think you'd have gone mad )

 

5 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Heh, for better or worse Dragons are part of Fire Emblem's identity. It's like asking Final Fantasy to stop using crystals.

I mean, it's Fire Emblem and Dragons. It's a series staple at this point, like how Monster Hunter won't even drop Rathalos, Pokemon won't drop Pikachu, Kingdom Hearts won't drop keyblades, Dark Souls won't drop Estus or Bonfires, and Persona won't drop... Persona. 

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Jotari said:

Could have worked for five seconds. I wasn't suggesting she bring back Lumeria as a full playable character....although we were mentioning late game recruits.

As it is now it works just as well if not better, without making it convoluted.

Just now, Jotari said:

Yes,, Elyios is the name of the continent itself, silly me.

I think how you laid it out could work fine too. Alternatively, if Saphir could walk over from one country away to help you out somewhere else, this Lythian character could do the same at some earlier point.

[joeygreedy]

On the topic of late-game recruits. I wonder if the capture or generics mechanic would have made sense in this game, just generic cannon fodder to pad your ranks a bit, seeing as you should be able to give Rings to them ( Maybe lock to bond level 5 or something ) and just deploy them to kill stuff. Hortensia, Seadall, Lindon, Saphir, Rosado, Goldmary, Mauvier and Veyle are the only ones who are really up to snuff for the endgame of 23-26 even at base, if recruited and only being given a ring and/or a master/second seal, and I'm being very generous to Rosado and Goldmary here because of their SP count. Combined with the smaller cast, stat differences and such, could you end up with severely underleveled teams if you end up messing up too much. Would giving generic characters with nerfs, in a similar way to how Emblem Veronica summons ( Or even put it as Fabrications/willing Corrupted made by Alear/Veyle, who knows ) , but actually taking up a deployment slot be an alternative for underleveled characters. 

[lenticular]

49 minutes ago, Jotari said:

And a lot of fans would probably have responded positively if Lumeria and Sombron were referred to as demons or snake people or something. As people feel dragons are over done in the series (which is silly, you can never overdo dragons).

The weird half-measure dragons in Engage seem like they're destined to please nobody. People who are sick and tired of dragons will think "ugh, more dragons; why does it always have to be dragons?" and people who love dragons will think "these aren't proper dragons; why aren't their dragon forms more prominent?"

On the subject of paired epilogues: I'm probably one of the few people who liked that they got rid of these. And I'd have liked even more if they got rid of the character epilogues entirely and just gave us the stat summaries instead. I like more open-ended epilogues that I can fit to my personal head-canon. What we get is almost never what I imagine, so it always feel limiting to me more than anything else. I'm well aware this is an unpopular opinion, though.

On the subject of the relative importance of gameplay and story: I think I tend to come down closer to the story side of things than average for these forums. There is the argument that I sometimes see that goes along the lines of "if I didn't care about the gameplay then I'd just watch anime instead". But for me, the converse is equally true. If I didn't care about the story then I'd just be playing chess or go or some other abstract strategy game instead. Purely in terms of raw mechanics, I think that they have better gameplay than Fire Emblem does, and are a whole lot cheaper too. Fire Emblem only works for me if I actually care about the characters on some level. I don't need it to be the best story ever, but if I don't have some sort of emotional connection then I just tune out entirely.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

As it is now it works just as well if not better, without making it convoluted.

I will respectfully disagree. Zombies getting their brains back just as they die is a bad trope and has always been a bad trope, and this game has the perfect work around already implemented.

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I think how you laid it out could work fine too. Alternatively, if Saphir could walk over from one country away to help you out somewhere else, this Lythian character could do the same at some earlier point.

Well the whole point is that we need more replacement units towards the end game. Though in general Engage does have a very small cast, being the third smallest in the series at 37 characters, ahead of only Sacred Stones and Gaiden (and that's Gaiden, mind you, it's behind Shadows of Valentia), so it could have done with an extra few bodies in general.

53 minutes ago, joeygreedy said:

On the topic of late-game recruits. I wonder if the capture or generics mechanic would have made sense in this game, just generic cannon fodder to pad your ranks a bit, seeing as you should be able to give Rings to them ( Maybe lock to bond level 5 or something ) and just deploy them to kill stuff. Hortensia, Seadall, Lindon, Saphir, Rosado, Goldmary, Mauvier and Veyle are the only ones who are really up to snuff for the endgame of 23-26 even at base, if recruited and only being given a ring and/or a master/second seal, and I'm being very generous to Rosado and Goldmary here because of their SP count. Combined with the smaller cast, stat differences and such, could you end up with severely underleveled teams if you end up messing up too much. Would giving generic characters with nerfs, in a similar way to how Emblem Veronica summons ( Or even put it as Fabrications/willing Corrupted made by Alear/Veyle, who knows ) , but actually taking up a deployment slot be an alternative for underleveled characters. 

Thing about captuarable generics is that, after Lindon's chapter, you never really fight humans again that aren't bosses. Endgame is pure corrupted. And capturing corrupted doesn't seem like something that makes sense. But if it did have a capture mechanic and then Veyle got some kind of revive corrupted mechanic to assist with it from when she joins, then I think people would have been pretty into that. Having a Necromancer on your side for once is cool.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I will respectfully disagree. Zombies getting their brains back just as they die is a bad trope and has always been a bad trope, and this game has the perfect work around already implemented.

Except they aren't Zombies. When Corrupted Hyacinth shows up we even a small exposition about how they had to spend a bit of time doing a lot of work so he could back with his memories and personality still in there. Which means they are not like the regular Corrupted or even Corrupted Morion.

Which is the workaround you mention. Which is what we see in-game already with him, Alear, and Lumera. No need to come up with another explanation just to make Veyle bring Lumera back again "for five seconds", as you put it.

Edited March 15, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Jotari]

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Except they aren't Zombies. When Corrupted Hyacinth shows up we even a small exposition about how they had to spend a bit of time doing a lot of work so he could back with his memories and personality still in there. Which means they are not like the regular Corrupted or even Corrupted Morion.

Which is the workaround you mention. Which is what we see in-game already. No need to come up with another explanation just to make Veyle bring Lumera back again "for five seconds", as you put it.

If I remember correctly they say the opposite. That Corrupted come back as normal humans anyway but Veyle purposely removed their individuality to make them better fodder. Veyle does say that Sombron getting all the rings meant he can make more elaborte Corrupted in the form of Lumeria, probably referring to how hard it is to make a Corrupted Divine Dragon per what had been established with Alear. In either case, no, Lumeria is not just regular Lumeria. She is a twisted Corrupted Lumeria who has had her base instincts changed to be in service of Sombron and it's just silly that having a sword shoved in her chest would conveniently undo all of the meddling that has been done to her mind just in time for her to die. Veyle undoing the meddling using her magic works a lot better for me on both a conceptual mechanical level as well as a narrative level, as it would be Veyle doing something for Alear and returning at least some of the help she received by giving them a last moment with their mother.

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Jotari said:

If I remember correctly they say the opposite. That Corrupted come back as normal humans anyway but Veyle purposely removed their individuality to make them better fodder. Veyle does say that Sombron getting all the rings meant he can make more elaborte Corrupted in the form of Lumeria, probably referring to how hard it is to make a Corrupted Divine Dragon per what had been established with Alear. In either case, no, Lumeria is not just regular Lumeria. She is a twisted Corrupted Lumeria who has had her base instincts changed to be in service of Sombron and it's just silly that having a sword shoved in her chest would conveniently undo all of the meddling that has been done to her mind just in time for her to die. Veyle undoing the meddling using her magic works a lot better for me on both a conceptual mechanical level as well as a narrative level, as it would be Veyle doing something for Alear and returning at least some of the help she received by giving them a last moment with their mother.

I don't think it's so much the complexity but rather how much power they have at their disposal. At the beginning Sombron is weak, very weak. Hence the whole consumption of sovereign blood needed to restore his power. Hence why Corrupted Morion being how he was. Corrupted Lumera was "created" after Sombron recovered his power.

It's really not much different from, say, a computer program being edited to include a new sub-routine... a sub-routine that happens to be the thing that fails when enough damage has been sustained. Or for a more apt comparison, think of it like the helmet they put on Veyle. Perhaps in death, the metaphorical helmet gets broken. It was a foreign addition, after all, so it'd make sense it could be the first thing to go away.

[Jotari]

3 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I don't think it's so much the complexity but rather how much power they have at their disposal. At the beginning Sombron is weak, very weak. Hence the whole consumption of sovereign blood needed to restore his power. Hence why Corrupted Morion being how he was. Corrupted Lumera was "created" after Sombron recovered his power.

It's really not much different from, say, a computer program being edited to include a new sub-routine... a sub-routine that happens to be the thing that fails when enough damage has been sustained. Or for a more apt comparison, think of it like the helmet they put on Veyle. Perhaps in death, the metaphorical helmet gets broken. It was a foreign addition, after all, so it'd make sense it could be the first thing to go away.

If you enjoy the plot point and don't find it at all convenient or contrived then good for you, but even if this were Digimon and that evil sub-routine was literal, I would still find it a bad plot point that getting killed coincidentally removed just the evil subroutine and nothing else on a character who has already been dead for months, particularly when a, not only serviceable but imo superior alternative is sitting right there.

[Alastor15243]

8 hours ago, joeygreedy said:

( Or even put it as Fabrications/willing Corrupted made by Alear/Veyle, who knows ) , but actually taking up a deployment slot be an alternative for underleveled characters. 

The game gives literally no explanation for why Pepsiman can't do that. Lumera could, and she was orders of magnitude less powerful than Pepsiman was when she did. That's probably one of the most frustrating things about the story, that Pepsiman is so comically uninquisitive about his dragon powers.

[Alastor15243]

Engage Day 48: Chapter 26

Today is not a very time-ridden day, unfortunately. And it occurs to me I have a shitton of money to spend, so I may need to spend even more of it prepping. But I’ll get as far into Chapter 26 as I can at least.

…Alright, that thankfully didn’t take too long. I splurged on a bunch of staves, and spent my remaining bond fragments breaking the bank on everyone’s SP reserves and getting them some good skills while I still can.

Including giving Pepsiman a skill I’ve really been sleeping on: Favorite Food. Really, having an emergency engage refill is such a huge help, especially for someone who relies so much on their engage meter to be powerful. Frankly, I should get in the habit of getting this on him before Chapter 10 since it’s so cheap, albeit at a relatively high level, and it would be awesome to be able to splurge more often on my use of Byleth in the midgame.

PFFFFFFFFF

Clanne starts fanboying about the Divine Dragon and saying he was so happy talking to Pepsiman that he could faint, and Sigurd’s like “Fainting during conversation? Some would consider that rude. Strive to remain upright, Clanne.”

…Fuck, I need to get a few more bond fragments if I want to get Canter+ on Clanne. Alright, one sec, what are some achievements I can still do?

Yeah, I sold the shit in the inventories of everyone I benched, and that netted me a few achievements. Woo!

Alright, so, I got those skills, and then I bought a shitton of tonics, medicine and staves. I think I’m pretty set.

Alright, let’s go.

…So I get back to the map and wait for it to show where the final battle is on the map…

…only to reveal I access it from the second floor of the Somniel’s Café Terrace.

…Oh shit.

Oh shit, it’s happening, holy shit please be this wonderfully ridiculous.

YES! WE’RE FLYING THE SOMNIEL INTO THE BLACK HOLE!

…Hey, what’s this “rankings” thing?

…These seem to be the most popular combinations to bring into the final battle or something? Huh. Okay. Anyway…

OFF WE GO!

…

…Oh that is so fucking lame. We don’t even get a cutscene! It’s just a portrait of the Somniel rising to the portal and kinda breaking apart in the process.

…So Marth’s finally coming clean about what’s going on now that he’s literally falling apart at the seams.

…Oh, it’s the portal itself destabilizing them? And closing the portal will be too cataclysmic for the Emblems to survive? It had nothing to do with the miracle?

…Okay, I get why Marth’s been hiding this, it would probably give everyone needless pause about doing the right thing.

…But then, wouldn’t that imply that the Emblems would be fine if we just kept them away from the Portal and only used Pepsiman’s Emblem powers to win?

That would be hard as hell, but they’re acting like the other Emblems are necessary to win the battle, and that they have to die.

Veyle has a line where her actress seems to read it like the “…” is at a different part than the line actually says. She says “It’s beautiful… but very cold”, but the text says “it’s beautiful, but… very cold.”

AND WE’RE JUST SUDDENLY IN FRONT OF SOMBRON OKAY.

…But amusingly, Sombron’s like “look, at this point, I’ve gotten all I wanted from your world. I don’t need to mess with you people anymore, so I’m totally happy agreeing not to bother you again. Let’s just both part ways, no conflict, you close the portal from your side and live happily ever after and all that shit in your world, and I’ll go conquer the rest of the multiverse somewhere far, far away from you. We good?”

That is… by a country fucking mile the most reasonable offer any FE villain has ever made to the heroes, even though it would still be immoral and cowardly to take it. I honestly love this. It’s cold pragmatism, pure practical intelligent self-interest, hedging his bets just on the off-chance they actually have the power to beat him, rather than cartoonishly stomping puppies for the sake of it.

Honestly this one singular line drastically improves my opinion of Sombron as a character and makes me want to replay the game taking a closer look at his actions and behaviors. That is way more intelligent than I’ve been giving Sombron credit for. Could I have been sleeping on his character this whole time?

But then Pepsiman doesn’t even just say that would be selfish and cowardly of them, he just points out they have nothing but Sombron’s word that the bastard won’t attack Elyos again later when he’s well and truly consolidated his power.

But now Sombron seems to wish to elaborate on his big Evil Plan. Let’s see what he’s got for us?

…Zero Emblem?

…So they seem to be doing the Alexander of Brennenburg motivation, where Sombron’s been committing all of these atrocities because he’s an extradimensional alien trying to get home?

He was apparently a child on the losing side of a big Emblem war and was banished to Elyos instead of being killed like all of his relatives. But he brought the Zero Emblem with him? Then why is he trying to reunite with them?

…Oh shit. Because when summoned with his power the Emblem had no free will.

…Okay, is he about to explain why he couldn’t just ask the nice Divine Dragons for help summoning the Zero Emblem with free will? Assuming I’m reading into this correctly that the Zero Emblem was his childhood friend or something.

…No, I apparently am giving the game too much credit. That would’ve been a pretty compellingly tragic backstory, spending eternity with no allies or company but the soulless, mindlessly obedient husk of your childhood friend.

But no, apparently the Emblem just kinda vanished, leaving behind only the ring, because Emblems can’t survive outside of their homeworld. The homeworld of the ring, not the homeworld of the spirit of the ring, that is.

…Actually Sombron says the Emblem “abandoned” him because it befriended people of another world. So he burned the village that took him in to ask in order to… earn this heartless Zero Emblem’s approval… or something…?

Okay this is super edgy and dumb.

…And Pepsiman suggests that what actually happened was that Zero Emblem stayed strong long enough to make sure Sombron was found by someone, keeping him company until the day that leaving wouldn’t mean leaving Sombron alone. And then Sombron, misunderstanding this in the most comically, grotesquely edgy way imaginable, ruined all of it and dedicated his life to being the edgiest, most heartless bastard imaginable in the hope of reuniting with someone who would have never wanted anything he did in the Emblem’s name.

Yeah, this is such a terrible attempt at a tragic backstory that I almost want to vomit. And he was doing so well in the moment just before this!

Though I have noticed the dialogue music and prep music is the same music as the map and battle music for the prologue.

…This map is fucking tiny. So tiny I have to assume the final battle is more than even two parts. The enemies are all high level and have legendary weapons, but if I had used both boots on Pepsiman instead of just one (giving the other to Seadall), then I would’ve been able to attack Sombron with my first fucking move. I have every confidence I could Engage magdump to one-turn this, but at this point I have decent cause to suspect that wouldn’t work out well for me, so I’m going to do this the old-fashioned way, and fight the enemies normally.

I’ve got 15 of every tonic, so I’m going to use 7 of each of them on my best units here just in case this is my only opportunity to do it, and if it isn’t, and they wear off later, I’ll use the remaining 8 of each on the next map if it looks like the true final battle, or 4 then and 4 later if it doesn’t.

Okay, keeping in mind that anyone young already has +2 in str, mag, spd and def…

…Just as I feared, wading through all of these tonics and using them is… a pain.

…Oh shit, I just remembered something!

Turns out that Veyle had a pretty badass conversation with Zephia in the volcano chapter! Zephia talks about her cold contempt for Veyle, and it ends like this:

Zephia: I hated you. No, that’s not right… I was indifferent to you.

Veyle: …

Zephia: Lord Sombron’s puppet. That’s all you were. A thing to be used and cast off. Yet somehow… I knew this day would come.

Veyle: The day I would kill you? No wonder you didn’t like me.

Zephia: Well… You finally have my undivided attention.

…Anyway, okay, I finally have my tonics sorted out, and I’m ready for my first move. I can player-phase the two side groups, then brace for enemy phase, and all without a single engage.

Let’s do this.

…Oh christ, pre-battle cutscene. Is the game gonna throw another curve-ball at me?

…Fuck, Sombron’s sealing off the portal, locking us in and “killing” the Emblems. Damn it!

Honestly, while I think Chapter 11 managed to make it work, I really don’t like when the game takes the Emblems away or significantly nerfs them. It’s annoying.

Sombron: You will die here as I have lived: IN ANGUISH, FAR FROM HOME!

…Okay, props to Sombron, that’s a pretty badass villain line.

…Oh nice! Is Pepsiman gonna bring back the Emblems now? I was thinking there would be at least this part of the map we were forced to do without them.

…That makes it kinda frustratingly pointless though, to introduce this conflict and so quickly resolve it.

And then we get everyone’s final battle lines… and then back to a cutscene… and…

…And then we get the Emblems back. With these big bombastic poses and introductions like they’re all some cross between Power Rangers and Magical Girls, and honestly, again, they should have leaned into that more!

And then Sombron gives a rant right out of the “friendship is for losers” playbook about how having friends will only hurt you in the end, and…

We begin.

Honestly, I don’t know how much my opinion of this final map theme is colored by realizing that it’s that thing I heard in the outro of some FE videos on YouTube that I thought was some lo-fi remix or something. But it’s definitely not doing much for me right now.

Anyway, Kagetsu kills the guy on the far left with the smashing sword, Alcryst uses his brave bow and Seadall’s help to kill the one with Caladbolg and Canter back to safety, and then Ivy kills the axe fighter with Ukonvasara and Clanne kills the one on the far right with the Fragarach.

…Oh thank goodness, the final map theme transitioned into the badass version of the main theme that played when Pepsiman first engaged in Chapter 1.

…Aaaaand only enemies in range of us attack.

They have that kind of AI.

Wonderful.

I know there’s going to be more after this. There just has to be, it’s a mathematical necessity. So I’m not going to complain too much about the first part being simple. But honestly at this point it might have actually been nice to force us to do this part without the Emblems, given how simple it is otherwise.

The fighters have been taken out, now time to bait in Sombron, who can move.

I’m not sure how the game defines “the start of the turn” when it comes to this skill, so I’m having anyone who majorly depends on engaging stay far enough away that they won’t lose their full engage gauge.

…Seems to be the start of his turn, not the turn, which would be player phase. Good. Alright, then let’s finish him. I don’t think we’ll even need to engage anyone!

He has a bit of a crit rate, so I’m avoiding taking chances whenever I can. Thankfully, Yunaka, Alcryst and Kagetsu are enough, with the help of Goldmary’s brave assists.

And then the screen fades to black, comes back with everyone’s positions reset and some sigils on the map.

Did I mention how much this looks like the final map in Revelation? Because this looks so fucking much like the final map in Revelation.

And now he finally turns into a dragon.

…And now there’s a barrier around his giant ass, and he’s supported by 12 Corrupted wielding… twelve Dark Emblems?

…Apparently I have to kill each one with the corresponding Emblem, or at least I should, but the game isn’t explicitly telling me who is who.

…So basically… the game is challenging me to a test of my Fire Emblem knowledge… asking me to correctly guess who’s who based on their descriptions alone.

…Oho.

…Ohohohohohohohohohohohohohohoho.

OH HELL FUCKING YES!

BRING IT ON, GAME!

I HAVE BEEN TRAINING FOR THIS MOMENT SINCE BEFORE THE AGE OF PLAGUES AND MADNESS!

When we next meet tomorrow, friends…

WE’RE GONNA HAVE SOME FUN!

ALASTOR!

SIGNING!

THE FUCK!

OFF!

Edited March 16, 2023 by Alastor15243

[Acacia Sgt]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Including giving Pepsiman a skill I’ve really been sleeping on: Favorite Food. Really, having an emergency engage refill is such a huge help, especially for someone who relies so much on their engage meter to be powerful. Frankly, I should get in the habit of getting this on him before Chapter 10 since it’s so cheap, albeit at a relatively high level, and it would be awesome to be able to splurge more often on my use of Byleth in the midgame.

I'd say, by this point I've relied on WorldTree!Nodus for Engage Gauge refills, Favorite Food is quite unneeded. Still, not a bad idea if not wanting to rely much on RNG rolls.

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, I sold the shit in the inventories of everyone I benched, and that netted me a few achievements. Woo!

Not using the Ancient Well? I'm pretty sure it was part of the free part of Wave 3. Or I guess it was for the money.

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…But then, wouldn’t that imply that the Emblems would be fine if we just kept them away from the Portal and only used Pepsiman’s Emblem powers to win?

That would be hard as hell, but they’re acting like the other Emblems are necessary to win the battle, and that they have to die.

Gameplay and Story Segregation, pretty much.

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…And then we get the Emblems back. With these big bombastic poses and introductions like they’re all some cross between Power Rangers and Magical Girls, and honestly, again, they should have leaned into that more!

Eh, at least it did not intrude into the gameplay.

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I HAVE BEEN TRAINING FOR THIS MOMENT SINCE BEFORE THE AGE OF PLAGUES AND MADNESS!

On normal you don't need to. I defeated Sombron only having defeated three of the Dark Emblems. Quite a few of my units were shaving half his HP bar per action, so it was like... no need to prolong this.

As an aside, shame the Dark Emblem only use the same generic model. Or that they're basically a last minute thing. Would've been cooler if they had showed up much earlier. Alas, that didn't happen.

[Alastor15243]

2 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Not using the Ancient Well? I'm pretty sure it was part of the free part of Wave 3. Or I guess it was for the money.

My understanding is that there's nothing I can do with it now. I'd have to wait another map to get the results of putting anything in today. Does it do more than that? And at any rate it was also for boosting my bond fragments, though I suppose maybe they also added well achievements.

[Acacia Sgt]

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

My understanding is that there's nothing I can do with it now. I'd have to wait another map to get the results of putting anything in today. Does it do more than that? And at any rate it was also for boosting my bond fragments, though I suppose maybe they also added well achievements.

At the very least, you could've done the triggering sequence. You'll get two unique weapons out of it.

But yes, it's basically:

> Put items in
> Do a Skirmish/StoryChapter/etc.
> Pick up items, then put more in

And repeat.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

At the very least, you could've done the triggering sequence. You'll get two unique weapons out of it.

Ah yes, I did at least do that, unfortunately neither weapon is particularly useful for my squad.

[Anathaco]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So basically… the game is challenging me to a test of my Fire Emblem knowledge… asking me to correctly guess who’s who based on their descriptions alone.

Worth pointing out that if you use the X button to actually view the descriptions of each emblem it straight up tells you who’s from which world. So essentially the only knowledge you have to rely on without spoiling it for you is the title itself. Figured I’d mention it in case you tried looking for extra information only to have the whole thing ruined for you.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Anathaco said:

Worth pointing out that if you use the X button to actually view the descriptions of each emblem it straight up tells you who’s from which world. So essentially the only knowledge you have to rely on without spoiling it for you is the title itself. Figured I’d mention it in case you tried looking for extra information only to have the whole thing ruined for you.

...Noted, thank you.

[Shadow Mir]

On 2/4/2023 at 1:34 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, so, Hyacinth is not fucking around. He’s got a scary bow attack that makes me really glad I didn’t deploy Chloé.

Ironically, having Chloé on board with Sigurd specifically woulda made that map easier, as she could whack the mage manning the artillery without having to get (or rather, stay) in freeze range.

On 2/5/2023 at 11:00 AM, Alastor15243 said:

Also, HUGEASS FUCKING ZOMBIE DRAGONS ON THE MAP.

 

They’re pretty blatantly there to keep us from trying to do anything but escape in this chapter. And I like that. I like actually having insurmountable odds to run away from. Very few maps genuinely do this in Fire Emblem. There’s always the optional side-objective of just completely trouncing them instead of running away, and maps that do that bug me. It cheapens the urgency and aesthetics of the whole “running for your life” thing when you know it’s entirely realistic to win.

NIGERUNDAYO!!!

[Alastor15243]

38 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Ironically, having Chloé on board with Sigurd specifically woulda made that map easier, as she could whack the mage manning the artillery without having to get (or rather, stay) in freeze range.

Would she need Canter? I can't remember enemy placement for that map that well.

[Shadow Mir]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Would she need Canter? I can't remember enemy placement for that map that well.

Ayup. And a javelin.

[Alastor15243]

Oh, hey, so, another thing: I've got a feeling the reason they give you no new recruits for the endgame is because they don't want it to be too difficult to get supports with characters or something. Well, to that, I have a solution, and I'm only half joking:

Sommie.

Like, just discover something in the endgame, a magic mech, or Lumera's construct-making machine, or the legendary Holy Hamster Wheel, and have it be a thing Sommie can use to join in the fight. It would be stupid, but it would also be adorable and hilarious, and it's not like the game isn't already overflowing with Saturday Morning Cartoon Energy.

But no repeats of the ghost Lilith bullshit. They don't die if they lose all their HP, the thing they use to fight just breaks and Sommie scampers off.

[Shadow Mir]

On 2/5/2023 at 8:44 PM, Jotari said:

Also, don't try to use Lyn on Ivy. At least on Maddening that is a super sucky combination. She'll appreciate Speed Eater, but so will literally everyone. It's the best skill in the game. Lyn is purely physical and needs to go on someone with high strength to make use of Astra Storm, which Ivy is very definitely not.

I see this and raise you Canter. I don't think it's even close. Speedtaker is good, sure, but I don't think I'd be wanting to put it on literally everyone. Eventually, your units start stepping on each other's toes trying to get its benefits.

On 2/6/2023 at 3:17 PM, Alastor15243 said:

…Unfortunately I don’t think I have time to do this map tonight. I’m gonna do my best to see if I can post some manner of update tomorrow, but I do not want to rush this one. Not a fog of war map. Definitely not.

Also, like happened in Ike's original game, you get to see a village get destroyed, and can do fuck all to stop it, as you're way too far away to save it! Unless you're this guy...

 

Edited March 15, 2023 by Shadow Mir