insanity continues! Teehee Madness 3 - Fire Emblem x Pokemon Linked Ironman!

[Sooks]

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Can my Caeda get some as well? Please?

In retrospect, lol.

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Lvl 4 stands for 4 stats

I like the idea of Gordin ending up cracked without the grinding to level 20 at the beginning trick.

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

To compensate for that loss, we got a Dracoknight!

Lol dracoknight Matthis. He might actually be good here.

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Marth finishes

This will become harder for him without Caeda

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

This was a mess

F

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Fuck. that's a miscalculation

I guess this won’t end up being one of the rare runs that sees long term Wrys use.

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

And i fucked up...Thought for sure the Thief would go for the village, but he was aggrod instead.

It confuses me alot when that happens....

Misjudging enemy aggro is rough to deal with...

...wait, that is a dead Julian there isn't it. That is going to make the Micaiah chapter a lot more interesting, although it also means I can't show off the funny Warp Ragnarok Yunaka strats.

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

To compensate for that loss, we got a Dracoknight!

THEY MADE MATTHIS A DRACOKNIGHT? Did @Saint Rubenio sweet talk the hackers into some Matthis favoritism or something.

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

FFFFFFF

All this because of a damn thief....

...Whelp, I guess I don't get to find fun little situations to setup kills with her personal against things she really shouldn't be able to anymore. Also losing my flier early will be a bit annoying to deal with.

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Fuck. that's a miscalculation

Ouch, RIP funny bald man, everyone will miss you. At least you managed to recruit Lena before his death so you still have a healer

Although all this future death does put @Punished Dayni and @Newtype06 in the funny position where if they are clever with their encounter routing they can mitigate the damage of this slaughter.

Although this makes me think I should put off the Jean paralogue til after I get Anna, as I might have to use her at this rate, and an easy chapter to train her sounds like a nice thing to keep around.

 

Alright onto my chapter 5, in which I almost lost us the whole thing like an idiot, but didn't due to sheer dumb luck...sorry

Spoiler

And we open with TeeHee being saved by a little girl

...sigh. WHY does she have chains...and belts(?) on her ankle. Why make her barefoot. Some things about Veyle's design is very stupid.

Although the dragon wing crown is rather adorable, and they captured the mysterious white haired girl trope effectively enough.

But alas, she is gone before anyone else can see her. Why she had to be kept hidden when no one else would recognize her remains a mystery, especially when Marth is there to confirm she isn't simply in TeeHee's head.

Hmmm... I do wonder slightly about that. If Alfred's crew returned, without TeeHee and stewards, could they have won?

That sounds more like some godly abilities, but alas when gods walk the earth

Their faults and frailty are there for all to find. That odd disconnect between gods, and being you can actually interact with rears it head immediately. Although that does make me wonder what people thought of Lumera. Did Celine know so little of Lumera to believe the same of her?

Onto more important matters, TeeHee begins the true path of an Alear, but alas

This chicken defies our divine right to adopt ALL the animals. I will have to fix that.

We do finally get access to some shops on the Somniel

And some funds to spend at it, but alas, I promised the girls some dresses, and without the Clothier yet, the only one available

Ends up depleting all of the funds. I can't even put it on yet 😛

...expect bad financial decision in the pursuit of fashion on my run here.

But then we get the most important addition to the Somniel of all...Sommie. Yeah no custom name for the best little Engage unit here.

Speaking of fashion, we have Sommie rocking the dapper top hat, the candycane charm in the back, and a vibrant red scarf to continue the red, white, and blue color scheme the game pushes.

And of course the very first Bond Ring I make is an S rank without a skill...such mixed luck really..

I also move Sigurd over to Louis, as I plan on this being vital to my strategy on the next map.

That is an odd thing to lampshade there, and quite poorly, for why we have to retake the castle without any of the Firenese troops, and how our little band can overcome the Elusian conquerors.

Queen Eve is defiantly shutting down the next boss for us...

But the real villain is able to slap that defiance down with some truth to the face.

And then threatens some real brutality to drag the truth out of her.

Even to the point of killing her children...whom we hand deliver to this little villainous crew

It is interesting how Zephia immediately seems to recognize TeeHee before logicing the truth away.

It is funny to see Lumera described as beastly, and it makes you wonder what Zephia was doing for the thousand years not to have heard of TeeHee...

A bit of odd logic there from TeeHee, as Zephia is physically much larger than the person we witnessed killing Lumera. Although they may simply mean they think Zephia is the leader who ordered the thieving and killing, or a hint at TeeHee going the darker "kill every last one of them" mode that the devs again shyed away from.

But clearly the recently revived Lord Sombron would probably be more likely the leader responsible.

While I appreciate the sentiment, there is no way TeeHee's awakening isn't tied to either Sombron's awakening, or the Emblem's awakening, rather than simply the power Lumera was pumping into them. Alright enough story nonsense, onto the map

I know technically I can still use Chloe on this map, but I decide to leave them on the bench knowing the death is at the end of this map.

I open with an easy Celine Armored kill, before

Intentionally taking an unnecessary counter attack to feed the kill to

Alfred instead.

With a chain guard to prevent the physical hit Celine is about to take on enemy phase.

Meanwhile Louis Engages so he can solo this half of the map.

And we finally get the thieving loot tutorial, but that is Louis's job to deal with. As for enemy phase in general,

Alfred is doubled by the swordie, but he can take that hit, while his sister isn't, and blocks the one hit she faced with a chain guard.

Celine kills one of the axies by doubling it, Alfred has just enough power with the TeeHee boost to finish his assailant on player phase,

And I will gladly take that levelup from the kill

And I let Etie take the other injured kill, just leaving the last axie, which is easy for TeeHee and Boucheron to finish off. That clears out the frontal assault, but on the other front

Louis starts chipping the thief. Now he was rather unlucky on enemy phase, missing the two Swords, which are the only enemies able to damage him with their chain attacks

But I still need to enemy phase them with Louis. One of them should be dead already, and the other at halfish health, so hopefully we have some better luck this enemy phase. Unfortunate the enemy position themselves such that the injured one can't attempt to kill itself on Louis, but

I can't ignore positioning like this, and besides, I needed to kill the thief anyway.

And he gets even chonkier.

Framme also gets this somewhat underwhelming healing levelup, but the main force

Is just positioning itself to cleanup Louis's missed kills

Enemy phase went well.

And the cleanup was even easier. Not much else happens for the next few turns

Louis loots the chest, and sends them all to convoy for easier access, and

I grab a gauge while he is in the area (and still technically enemy phasing the archer to death with the Javelin)

On the other front, I am just planning out my positioning or after I break down the door, but I still want Louis around, as I will want Sigurd's Ridersbane after opening the door, so sorry to say, but we are just waiting here for another five or six turns after all that looting...

And here is the big plan, Etie will draw fire from the handaxe due to her squishiness, Celine gets a chain block, as she can enemy phase the armored knight, and both her and TeeHee can take a hit.

So we break down that door...

And the first part of the plan goes great, with Celine enemy phasing the armored knight, with a chain block for protection, but alas we have this unlucky level

As the rest of my luck went into saving me from my own stupidity. I just got too used to the enemy doing stupid things for the sake of dealing big damage, that I didn't think they were smart enough to coordinate.

But we luck into a miss, and TeeHee retaliates with a crit to boot. Honestly this risk was so unnecessary, I could have had no one in that position to avoid this with almost no consequences.

TeeHee has really sucked all the luck out of the room with a great levelup as well.

Louis and Bouch take our that dastardly handaxe

While TeeHee helps feed the archer kill to Alfred.

And Celine passes over the Riders bane to Alfred for

Effective damage on the cav reinforcements. As you can see I Engaged Louis to get access to the other Ridersbane for the can on the left

I also have Framme chug a vuln in case I need a chain guard for the next stretch.

...Sigh...

It is funny to see him levelup on a miss.

At least Alfred didn't have the same issue

On enemy phase at least. That other cav is acting like an obnoxious dodge tank on these frustratingly inaccurate effective weapons

At least it didn't dodge a third 70ish accuracy riders bane.

This time Bouchy Boy gave TeeHee the assist on the archer kill, returning the favor from before.

Ughhh...what a garbage levelup from the heal.

And that last archer is too out of the way for me to deal with now, which is a little awkward

As TeeHee is baiting in the next enemy group

Alfred grabs a nice little survivalist levelup from that kill on the one TeeHee chipped on enemy phase,

And I get what advantage I can from TeeHee's current position, as I need them

To engage and one round the Axe enemy.

Etie then gets this entirely unnecessary crit for the kill, that just leaves the archer I left alive last turn, whom Louis and Bouchy Boy deals with

...Eh, might as well. The enemy Qi Adpet isn't much of a threat, so I kill it next turn, and prepare for my enemy phase plans for the boss's po-

...that TeeHee forsaken HP levelup. Its not the biggest deal, it just would have been nice to only take one hit on Alfred instead of two

And I have effective damage to hit the cavs hard on enemy phase, and Louis can get some

Fairly safe chip in on the boss.

TeeHee gets the enemy phase kill on one of the cavs,

For a fantastic levelup.

Alas without TeeHee's positional buffs Alfred is just shy of the kill here (don't worry, he did hit at least)

Time to pop the boss's first health bar with a super,

And we intentionally get the special boss quote this time.

Alfred then finishes his foe with the more reliable (and lighter) Slim Lance

I then let Bouchy Boy get the last bit of chip I needed

But mostly to get him this speedy little levelup (he even got the build)

It is time to end this TeeHee

...Why do they always shy away from a more interesting TeeHee.

And the fool doesn't seem to know Zephia at all

Eh, could have been worse turnwise. Also Louis's solo act should have earned him the MVP title.

Well that is nice enough, and I did like (but missed an image of) the line where TeeHee is glad that Alfred and Celine didn't have to suffer through the death of their mother like TeeHee did.

I do appreciate the sentiment expressed here, consoling TeeHee by simply knowing that others grieve as well.

~

Hmm...I guess if Lumera was going to disproportionately pass out the rings to the other countries, that would be the way to keep the imbalance from escalating to conflict. Although she is really relying on the countries with extra rings from using that to their advantage. Although before the Emblems awakened how useful were the rings really? Were they even worth going to war over if people thought their powers were mere legends?

Although how that was kept secret in general I don't know. Does Lumera just pretend she still has 8 rings? Where do people thing those two bonus rings ended up?

Oh thank goodness, I am no longer bro-

...Well, I guess we will see how close to bankrupt I become in the pursuit of fashion.

But since I got this far, there is one last little cutscene to cover

As they were too cowardly to let TeeHee's words of vengeance be accurate. I guess they needed to show how evil the evil lady is

As she kills the boss we would have killed anyway.

Just feel glad she is more merciful about your failure than you are.

And I think I will stop there before all the Somniel stuff, and the decision for what map to do next.

 

 

 

[Shrimpica]

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

wait, that is a dead Julian there isn't it. That is going to make the Micaiah chapter a lot more interesting, although it also means I can't show off the funny Warp Ragnarok Yunaka strats.

Since thiefs aren't linked, you can still use Yunaka!

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Misjudging enemy aggro is rough to deal with...

Thing is, i saw him move towards the village, so i was sure he won't be aggro'd lol.

In Vailla Fates, in CQ's cheve chapter, the outlaw priotizes the village over attacking you, right?

Or am i misremembering here?

Quote

lso losing my flier early will be a bit annoying to deal with.

Lapis can be reclassed into a Wyvern pretty easily, if you need it

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

That's a dangerous positioning.

The enemy formtion at the start there is quite tough

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

But we luck into a miss

*phew*

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

hat other cav is acting like an obnoxious dodge tank on these frustratingly inaccurate effective weapons

Yeah the cavs in this map are super fast for some reason

And physical non-emblem effective weapons are really not good in Engage. Post the early game especially.

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

...Why do they always shy away from a more interesting TeeHee.

In the manga afaik Alear kills him

But in the Manga Lumera is also still alive

Edited August 23, 2023 by Shrimpy -Limited Edition-

[Shrimpica]

Ch.5

Time to recruit another staff user! or die trying

Spoiler

It's the dude with the cool music from FE12

We got some fresh blood as well!

Alrighty

love his sprite btw

New cav squad has arrived

And a lance squad!

I bait the Cav/Archer pair up with Merrin to take out the Archer for this lvlup

...Spd is nice, 4 bas Mag meens he needs alot of magic once Excalibur is gone

MVP

*crits*

noice

And he learned Sol O:

We got a new old man

Ayy niceee

Manakete taimu?

>Magic

wat

I sent Draug paired up with Matthis to take the pegasi out with Ridersbane for this lvlup

Finally

That 9 Mov pegasi is a pain

Jo?

Devil Axe for the Thief, Gordin for Pegasi!

Def + HP, not bad

One shot Gordin

I could Merric abuse, but i decide against it. So let's debuff and finish

Gordin Tank

Come on Marth

hmmm

And with that, i reach the 2nd check point!

Garon jumpscare the 2nd

Edited August 23, 2023 by Shrimpy -Limited Edition-

[Punished Dayni]

On 8/21/2023 at 6:54 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

It matches up fairly well against major trainers, and its biggest weaknesses statwise is speed, which is mitigate by it learning Flame Charge very early, which is basically a boosting move without the normal loss of tempo from having to give up an attack to use it.

That crit's still stinging, thank you /s

Why do I keep thinking Flame Charge isn't guaranteed to raise Spd? Would have been lovely for Burgh that's for sure.

On 8/21/2023 at 9:20 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

40 SPD Etie is the stuff Dreams are made of

Somehow I don't think a crit from her is recoverable.

On 8/21/2023 at 9:20 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Although all this future death does put @Punished Dayni and @Newtype06 in the funny position where if they are clever with their encounter routing they can mitigate the damage of this slaughter.

The question is which routes or freebies do I sacrifice?

Some neat options in Castelia City and around Route 4 and the ruins, some if which I'm about to lose, but I suppose the real deliberations will be based on what I get in Virbank Complex. Can't count the higher level part of Route 20 either, it's like Pinwheel Forest like that.

Let's put replies here:

Spoiler

On 8/21/2023 at 6:54 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

The complicated relationship between TeeHee and Lumera makes this an odd statement, as the two of them know her better than TeeHee, but TeeHee has that deep gnawing pain of knowing you should have known Lumera better, and now never can...

 

There's potential in this kinds of stuff, but little of it gets actually touched on.

On 8/21/2023 at 6:54 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Hmmm...that seems an odd phrase given how far out of the way she is willing to go to proactively defend the innocents.

Detesting and committing violence aren't mutually exclusive..... I think.

On 8/21/2023 at 9:20 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

To compensate for that loss, we got a Dracoknight!

Wait what.

The idea of Matthis being a dracoknight as a Macedon nobleman isn't odd at all, but it's still funny that the mods devs did this.

@Saint Rubenio Is this your doing? I'm unconvinced, considering General Matthis.

On 8/21/2023 at 9:20 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

FFFFFFF

All this because of a damn thief....

Fuck. that's a miscalculation

Of course Wrys died.

Also Marth gets the bad ending.

13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

...sigh. WHY does she have chains...and belts(?) on her ankle. Why make her barefoot. Some things about Veyle's design is very stupid.

Yeah, this is what the FBI Open Up meme was made for.

On the other hand, proof Gradlon was founded on Zero Emblem being Kaga after all?

13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Their faults and frailty are there for all to find. That odd disconnect between gods, and being you can actually interact with rears it head immediately. Although that does make me wonder what people thought of Lumera. Did Celine know so little of Lumera to believe the same of her?

Is there an intention from IS of making Alear's status as Divine Dragon less..... divine? More in the distance that most people seem to put themselves from their deity in worship.

I feel like it's somewhat the case based on Alear's supposed reign as seen in endings.

13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

But then we get the most important addition to the Somniel of all...Sommie. Yeah no custom name for the best little Engage unit here.

The real S Tier of Engage.

13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

That is an odd thing to lampshade there, and quite poorly, for why we have to retake the castle without any of the Firenese troops, and how our little band can overcome the Elusian conquerors.

It's almost like they could have clearly had the Elusians distract the main part of the Firenese forces to justify this and make the force led by Zephia and Nelucce a group taking advantage of the chaos of war to go into the palace and catch the reduced garrison by surprise.

Almost.

13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

It is funny to see Lumera described as beastly, and it makes you wonder what Zephia was doing for the thousand years not to have heard of TeeHee...

I mean, between planning for Sombron's return, her recent adoptions and simping she seems pretty occupied.

13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

But we luck into a miss, and TeeHee retaliates with a crit to boot. Honestly this risk was so unnecessary, I could have had no one in that position to avoid this with almost no consequences.

RNG really smiling on you with the 69% miss.

13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

...Why do they always shy away from a more interesting TeeHee.

Because Lumera's actions in the past took that away.

13 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Although how that was kept secret in general I don't know. Does Lumera just pretend she still has 8 rings? Where do people thing those two bonus rings ended up?

I wouldn't be surprised if she did with Brodia and Elusia, considering the Micaiah Ring was intentionally hidden.

The Corrin Ring was treated similarly as well, but the Corrin Ring was heard by people nearby around the time so not the best case.

6 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

MVP

He hit it!

6 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Ayy niceee

....Are we sure this is SD!Marth?

6 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Garon jumpscare the 2nd

Plot Twist: This is Garon's Nightmare as some goody two-shoes human kills the dragon.

Thing about this part of the game is it's actually pretty short. This and Burgh's gyms run pretty close to each other, but we'll see if that speed makes me sloppier.

Spoiler

I realise I saved right after getting the meetings and didn't heal, so I heal what's left of the party and move on. Before leaving Flocessy, I get given the Habitat list, a function I wish was kept. I go to Flocessy to see how low the Audinos are, see Abelanne 2-shots a level 5 one and it still gives a decent chunk of Exp for being 8 levels below. So I mainly grind Abelanne (Frain can't go up a level yet because I would like to do it in the morning.), see a Dunsparce which gives so little exp in comparison, get to see a trainer get caught on the wandering Mareep, find a Level 7 Audino gives nearly half the exp for a level for her and move on after a few more because I have a level cap to avoid pushing past. What I can do before morning is friendship grind (see: TM spam to 200 and then walk for the last 17 or so we need, all in Flocessy Ranch to be faster) so Frain is above the threshold for evolving at the next fight. It'll also give me an excuse to slap Return on both of them for massive damage.

After that and sleep, I remember the boost would also count for the level increase, so I do it there too. Once Frain hits the level, she gets Force Palm. And then she evolves. Beautiful. The party goes to fight the guy blocking our way. Abelanne clears out his Riolu and his egotistic head gets a bop. I then try to skip the other trainers for the sake of our next party member, but that asshat Cheren stops me and Veardiy so he can tutorial us. He also gives us Pecha berries, which best case scenario are irrelevant and says we can call him. I'll call him an asshole. Hugh decides to take inspiration from him, then walks into the tall grass. I walk into the preschooler like an idiot and fight a Lilipup. Return 1-shots. Then I see what in a worst case scenario would have ended me: a double battle. Then have Sunkern, so the issue would be if I only had one pokemon. I get given Great Balls coming into Virbank (Good timing, welcomer). Walking in we spy some family drama where a captain wants to be a movie star as his rockstar daughter tries to get him to not throw away the stability of the ocean? She gives a string of d-lettered insults (all SFW), then stomps off to her gym. While traipsing about I find a star that walks me into the Complex at a low point and get a free Pearl. A guy outsides says the meta thing to do is get Magnemite. Good luck me I suppose?

I go into the inner area to make the risk of a Pidove disappear, then find the grass and get a Growlithe. This is a bother to me for personal reasons (I try to enforce a rule where I ban pokemon I've used in previous runs) but it's a fire type and I kinda need that after what happened. After two tackles I go for a catch but of course the first ball breaks. Second Great ball connects though and we have our next member, Gordie. He even gives us a Rawst Berry. I run back to take on the trainers I skipped earlier. Gordie loses half his health against a Dunsparce of all things. Going back to Virbank Complex, I find the Thief TM and teach it to Gordie (His only damaging move was Ember). I get a minor scare with Gordie fighting a Lilipup, but Ember does better than Thief in surviving. He takes a bit more from the next fight, but he solos the next one too. And the other one. He'd probably gotten as much experience fighting an Audino. But we get Rock Smash from fighting the workers. Also, a guy in a lab coat goes around describing various functions of infrastructure in the complex and calls me a complex buddy. Is he just some autistic guy who has a deep interest in the subject taking it all in?

I decide to take out the gym trainers in the club, then see what my levels are like before fighting Roxie. Abelanne crits both of the first trainer's pokemon, then Gordie does the other one. Might as well use Frain on Roxie herself, but first a bit of a grind just in case. Gordie gets Flame Wheel, Abelanne gets Hypnosis, I get a Sitrus Berry from an Audino, Frain.... I guess just gets ready. I then go to challenge Roxie. She says she'll knock some sense out of me. Ooookay then. Oh, you know how Steel doesn't resist Dark? Well, that was true before Gen 6, so Frain can wall for days because all the moves are that, Normal and Poison. I set up +4 to Atk with Work Up, then Return both her mons to her. Frain does not learn Me First on level up. Badge and Venoshock get, we get invited to Pokestar Studios and Roxie follows, trying to get her dad to not give up his day job (because he absolutely would). And in the silence of the club, that's where we leave it.

TL;DR: Got Worked Up a couple times over things that Returned out to be no problem. Checkpoint reached.

List:

Spoiler

Trainer Alearth

Abelanne the Patrat

Frain the Lucario

Gordie the Growlithe

Question: What should I do about that bit in Castelia Sewers with Hugh? Treat the encounter as is or not? Because if so probably choose to repel through.

[Saint Rubenio]

On 8/23/2023 at 5:13 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

THEY MADE MATTHIS A DRACOKNIGHT? Did @Saint Rubenio sweet talk the hackers into some Matthis favoritism or something.

No, but holy shit that's a great idea. My hat's off to the hack makers!

3 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Wait what.

The idea of Matthis being a dracoknight as a Macedon nobleman isn't odd at all, but it's still funny that the mods devs did this.

@Saint Rubenio Is this your doing? I'm unconvinced, considering General Matthis.

Yeah, you're right, it's not, but I support it nonetheless. I mean, look at my sig - I've also had a rather legendary dracoMatthis! He killed Camus before he could even speak his battle quote!

On 8/21/2023 at 10:20 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Fuck. that's a miscalculation

Words cannot express my disappointment.

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 8/23/2023 at 12:36 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Since thiefs aren't linked, you can still use Yunaka!

Eh, I kinda decided to act like she linked died anyway, as I think it might make things more interesting, and give me an excuse to use Zelkov, as she is another unit I brought all the way to endgame on my last ironman (and when properly used as a smoke machine, thieves are invincible). Plus thieves do not have the kind of vital utility they do in other games, and even if they did you can reclass into them, so the special treatment of thieves doesn't feel as warranted in Engage.

 

On 8/23/2023 at 12:36 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Thing is, i saw him move towards the village, so i was sure he won't be aggro'd lol.

In Vailla Fates, in CQ's cheve chapter, the outlaw priotizes the village over attacking you, right?

Or am i misremembering here?

I am fairly certain it does, but units having odd and unique AI behavior isn't that unheard of in Conquest (for example, only the paired Pegasi in Chapter 10 are unaggressive and head straight to the defend point).

 

On 8/23/2023 at 3:28 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

New cav squad has arrived

Just out of curiosity, are they prepromotes here? If they are, do they have the Jakob/Felicia treatment, or just bonkers growths like in the original Shadow Dragon?

 

On 8/23/2023 at 3:28 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

And a lance squad!

Huh, and they made these two dismounted. I guess that is an alright change to add infantry lances to the game.

 

On 8/23/2023 at 3:28 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

And he learned Sol O:

Already, before promoting, at this somewhat random level? I guess this hack is trying to shake things up a bit.

 

On 8/23/2023 at 3:28 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Garon jumpscare the 2nd

Garon playing double duty as the other really should have been named in game king.

 

 

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

There's potential in this kinds of stuff, but little of it gets actually touched on.

To be fair, I am noticing quite a few times where Alear is clearly using Lumera's death as a way of relating to other character's feelings about family...

 

3 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Is there an intention from IS of making Alear's status as Divine Dragon less..... divine? More in the distance that most people seem to put themselves from their deity in worship.

I feel like it's somewhat the case based on Alear's supposed reign as seen in endings.

It reminds me of some analysis of Kafka's An Imperial Message I saw recently, that it is showing how the convoluted systems of power are used to distance the people in power from their subjects, and that this distance, this abstraction, legitimizes their power.

 

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

It's almost like they could have clearly had the Elusians distract the main part of the Firenese forces to justify this and make the force led by Zephia and Nelucce a group taking advantage of the chaos of war to go into the palace and catch the reduced garrison by surprise.

Almost.

Alas the classic pitfall of writing a better explanation than the game gave.

 

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

RNG really smiling on you with the 69% miss.

To be fair, the 59% just before it could have missed as well, so I was a bit above 50% chance of making it out of that blunder.

 

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

see a Dunsparce which gives so little exp in comparison

Huh, I forgot you could find Dunsparce this early in this game. I guess I haven't actually played Black/White 2 since my fascinating with the line (after getting Zelda the Dunsparce from my Crystal nuzlocke).

 

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

see: TM spam to 200

Now that is clever trick to happiness grinding I never actually thought of for gen 5.

 

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

then find the grass and get a Growlithe.

Was it an intimidate, or flash fire one?

 

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

Oh, you know how Steel doesn't resist Dark? Well, that was true before Gen 6, so Frain can wall for days because all the moves are that, Normal and Poison.

Ah the power of pre-nerfed Steel...well kind of, it traded Dark and Ghost resist for a Fairy one, so how much of a nerf that trade was is up for debate.

 

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

Question: What should I do about that bit in Castelia Sewers with Hugh? Treat the encounter as is or not? Because if so probably choose to repel through.

I would say that decision is entirely up to you.

Although personally I would treat it as is, as that theoretically gives you the interesting choice of risking the double random encounter for more choice (although you probably want to team kill Hugh's pokemon as fast as you can), or repelling for a safer encounter

 

Alright time to reach the next checkpoint by finishing chapter 6

Spoiler

Back at the Somniel

There is an adorable water fight between our young siblings here.

Then I spend about a quarter of my money on buying all of the clothes. All of them...which is surprisingly affordable from a purely monetary perspective... and its time to show off the fruits of that

With TeeHee getting into more divine white robes

Alfred gets that excellent vest with the cravat

Etie rocking this charming little Blue dress with the flower above her heart.

Celine gets this far more sensible, yet still well decorated dress

...Yeah I really like that cravat vest on a lot of the guys. I will try to contain myself, once we get better clothing for the guys, with fashion updates as we unlock new stuff

And I have given out quite a few glasses to wear on my troops, but as you can see here, I wont be changing all the base outfits. I like the way Clanne and Framme's outfits complement eachother for instance, and Vander's base outfit is top tier

Although some, like my Bouchy Boy here, will likely change clothes more drastically when I get more outfits (although I have already added some cute glasses to him)

And while I have changes Chloe's outfit already, but I have a fashion plan for my linked dead troops that I will reveal, once it is fully operational.

Now while this was surviable from a money perspective, it crippled my supply of ore...

if the RNG hadn't decided to again save me from my own destructiveness. Yep, I lucked into the first dog I got digging up a silver ore on the first chance they had. That lets me do a little forging, mostly

Boosting up the personal weapon to +2, and get

The accuracy forge boost on the effective weapons.

I also decide to actually use my stat boosters this time around, and this made the most sense for that first Seraph Robe

TeeHee also gets this great levelup from the Arena, although it took all my Arena uses to get him the exp for it.

The four kingdoms are uncomfortably close to single biome kingdoms, with Firene as the flower field kingdom, Brodia as the mountain kingdom, Elusia as the ice kingdom, and Solm as the desert kingdom...

There is something funny about this moment where the distance that legitimizes power is stripped away by this closeness to their subject, and the young prince and god awkwardly try to live up to ideals that the state otherwise have already failed at (just look at the dead village we are about to fight in).

Yunaka's silly vocal mannerisms, over the top reaction and goofy star filled hair, are utterly charming.

I do also find it funny that she felt the need to generically describe a ring...

When you have this bombshell to drop.

I guess that makes TeeHee the Holy Broccoly 😛

This sounds rather odd to me, are there really that few of ports on the continent, that passing through the Firenese capital is really the fastest way to get passage to Lythos from so close to the Brodian border?

Damn, Yunaka has some great eyesi-

Hey, stop stealing my lines TeeHee

The way she always seems to trip up like this are rather silly. Honestly if she just didn't try to correct herself no one would even notice.

And then she suggests the totally not suspicious idea of a Yunaka and TeeHee solo mission.

Here's my deployment for this map, and I make sure to buy an Illume staff, and torch for the occasion. Honestly, this is the map I most regret losing Chloe for, as there is an annoying Thunder mage that like to hide behind a fence that she can fly over to punish, but here we go.

That is an oddly specific way of tutorializing thieves having better vision, as it makes it seem more like a personal skill of hers or something.

Now I open by trying to get some good vision on that Thunder mage, and its more physical defenders.

And I need to kill this one immediately to protect Framme, although not trying for the Javelin kill instead of this far more accurate Slim Lance one is something I will come to regret a little, but I will get to that in a little bit, there are still other fronts to this map to cover

Which is to prepare Bouchy Boy to draw in some enemies, and ignoring the Long Bow I remember being in the southern fog for now.

Meanwhile in the TeeHee Yunaka solo mission, I was still deciding if I would follow Shrimpy's rule about thieves being unlinked, or just acting like I initially thought, but

Who am I to defy the RNG making it clear TeeHee should solo this section of the map. I will still move Yunaka around, but decided I will ensure she sees no combat.

Or staff using, as she was gifted that potent Micaiah ring.

Also enemy light snuffing AI is kind of funny on this map

For instance, it made the enemy that could break Boucheron extinguish the light instead

Which let's me secure the Hammer with Boucheron

While Etie and Clanne manage exact damage on the swordie

Now for the thing I regretted with my positioning last turn, it let this jerk get the avoid bonus from the terrain, and while that doesn't stop Celine

It does make it physically possible for Alfred to miss the kill here

Which he does. This was such a mistake, in retrospect, I should have engaged Louis for the perfectly accurate override kill, and now I am in a bit of a pickle. I could try for the Javelin kill with Louis, but that is even lower accuracy than the hit that missed, and the lightning has a 1% crit kill chance on him, although he does have exactly 1 HP above double the mage's damage, so he could theoretically survive a miss...

I wish I had just a little more vision as I seem to remember there being something ahead of us in the fog...sigh, I decide to risk the unknown instead of the 1% crit chance

Which proves to be the right move, as Alfred does live being thundered again, and being jumped by this thief.

And like that we have cleared the path ahead.

Also Framme gets this rather underwhelming levelup, for a 3 stat levelup.

Although that Long Bow has finally gotten close enough for us to see. Also TeeHee has done fine solo

but does finally need to pop a vuln.

...Alright, she lives it on 1, and that takes care of that little issue, and lets me added the Longbow to Etie's inventory easily. I seem to remember there was something some physical defender down there, so we aren't quite done with this little southern path quite yet.

I do also want some more vision ahead as well, so its time to pop an actual torch.

And TeeHee gets this nice little levelup from enemy phase chip. Onto next turn the long bow's defender shows it face

Which lets Celin get this rather defense leve lup from the chip

And thanks to it walking right into Boucheron's hand attack chain attack range, I can finish it off with the Longbow as well.

...What a terrible levelup Etie...

And time for some more funny enemy extinguising AI shenanigans

I might be playing a bit too cautiously now...

But it was funny how the Axe enemy just sat there extinguishing the flame, so I had Alfred light it up again

But this time it was the swordie is the one that extinguished the light, as they managed to find a physical enemy capable of harming Louis.

These weren't very accurate shots for this kill, but I did have Clane in the back to cover a miss.

Although doing do did put me in a bit of danger

As Bouchy boy got jumped from the darkness, so I decide to light things up with Framme again, but I simply don't see anything

Although Alfred did get this excellent level killing the one that jumped Bouchy

But my lack of enemies in vision is really bugging me, so I trade chain to light up a little more area with Alfred's torch

Finally reveals an enemy archer, so I can trade equip Louis to a Javelin for some enemy phase chip.

That lets Bouchy Boy easily get the kill, but I decide to burn another Illume staff, as I remember there being  a mage somewhere ahead, and I really don't want Louis to bite it to some fog jumping...

This should be safe, as I can see far enough to where a mage could jump him, but I want to see if can find that mage anyway.

But its just not close enough. Oh well, I am baiting the boss with Louis already, just in time for TeeHee to rejoin our main army.

And this little monster just had to brag about brutalizing this dead little village.

I do finally see the little mage, so I wipe him out with an override while I am here

Which even got Louis some Resistance.

I did also have enough supers ready to utterly cripple the boss, which lets me easily feed this kill

To my Bouchy Boy.

What else would you call it, after admitting to slaughtering this whole village with your little band.

I guess TeeHee did earn the MVP with his solo performance.

It is a nice little touch to have Yunaka confess...to this crime at least

And seek out redemption, with an

An adorable punish, of being recruited, although with me considering her link-dead

Its bye-a Papaya to you Yunaka.

Although we do have one more scene with Veyle before I finish this update off,

Although I kind of wonder what brought her here, this isn't exactly close to the Elusian troops, or the hounds. Was she trying to track down the Dawn Maiden ring on her own?

The interesting how TeeHee is clearly use Lumera's death as a means of empathizing with Veyle's missing sibling issue...

Although how she expects to actually find TeeHee when she knows nothing about them...or actually identify them I guess.

This is why you should wear shoes...

The literally friendless villain trope is an odd one to appear here...but that is enough story nonsense for now, see you next time when I likely hit up some of the early paralogues.

I do also now have a Talisman that I am not sure what to do with, whether try to make Louis more likely to survive a magic hit, or just pump up another of TeeHee's defensive stats, so feel free to give your suggestions.

 

[Punished Dayni]

On 8/24/2023 at 12:44 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, you're right, it's not, but I support it nonetheless. I mean, look at my sig - I've also had a rather legendary dracoMatthis! He killed Camus before he could even speak his battle quote!

Ah yeah.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

To be fair, the 59% just before it could have missed as well, so I was a bit above 50% chance of making it out of that blunder.

Multiplying the hit rates tells me it was a bit over 55% chance that both hit, but I could be completely wrong on it being True Hit.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Huh, I forgot you could find Dunsparce this early in this game. I guess I haven't actually played Black/White 2 since my fascinating with the line (after getting Zelda the Dunsparce from my Crystal nuzlocke).

It's funny that Dunsparce is kinda prolific in Unova of all places.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Now that is clever trick to happiness grinding I never actually thought of for gen 5.

Had to account for it not giving happiness at 200, so still needed some running about.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Was it an intimidate, or flash fire one?

Intimidate, which might be better overall because while Flash Fire boosts Fire Type damage, I can't think of any major examples of non-fire types using Fire type moves in this version-

Remembers the box legendary

Oh no.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Ah the power of pre-nerfed Steel...well kind of, it traded Dark and Ghost resist for a Fairy one, so how much of a nerf that trade was is up for debate.

Considering it lost both, I'd argue slight nerf with how useful Fairy is offensively (though imo Grass could have used it more /s). It really stung the Steel/Psychics; Metagross (being harmed from it's high position prior), Bronzong (who tripled it's weaknesses) and Jirachi's defensive potential are all harmed by the variety of moves that those types do have now dealing double damage.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I would say that decision is entirely up to you.

Although personally I would treat it as is, as that theoretically gives you the interesting choice of risking the double random encounter for more choice (although you probably want to team kill Hugh's pokemon as fast as you can), or repelling for a safer encounter

About how I expected that to go.

Spoiler

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

There is an adorable water fight between our young siblings here.

Of course, these two are happy siblings.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Then I spend about a quarter of my money on buying all of the clothes. All of them...which is surprisingly affordable from a purely monetary perspective... and its time to show off the fruits of that

Oh it'll be expensive eventually.

Especially if you go for the Level 4 clothes as well.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

There is something funny about this moment where the distance that legitimizes power is stripped away by this closeness to their subject, and the young prince and god awkwardly try to live up to ideals that the state otherwise have already failed at (just look at the dead village we are about to fight in).

I almost want to say something about death as an equaliser, but, well, it seems a bit inappropriate to the fallen.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

That is an oddly specific way of tutorializing thieves having better vision, as it makes it seem more like a personal skill of hers or something.

True enough, though there's how many other chapters? 20? 13? I can't think of any paralogues, so it ends up being a minor issue.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Who am I to defy the RNG making it clear TeeHee should solo this section of the map. I will still move Yunaka around, but decided I will ensure she sees no combat.

Or staff using, as she was gifted that potent Micaiah ring.

RIP Yunaka this run.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Which he does. This was such a mistake, in retrospect, I should have engaged Louis for the perfectly accurate override kill, and now I am in a bit of a pickle. I could try for the Javelin kill with Louis, but that is even lower accuracy than the hit that missed, and the lightning has a 1% crit kill chance on him, although he does have exactly 1 HP above double the mage's damage, so he could theoretically survive a miss...

I wish I had just a little more vision as I seem to remember there being something ahead of us in the fog...sigh, I decide to risk the unknown instead of the 1% crit chance

Which proves to be the right move, as Alfred does live being thundered again, and being jumped by this thief.

Phew, Alfred living is good.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Although Alfred did get this excellent level killing the one that jumped Bouchy

Even gets to showing there's still fight in him yet.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Although how she expects to actually find TeeHee when she knows nothing about them...or actually identify them I guess.

Veyle's face blindness is a cruel fate

Yeah, her having amnesia too is mighty convenient. Maybe her having doubts that it's Alear at first could have been done because of their having been converted AoE style could have been expressed, but I'm not sure how to be going about that in the first half of the game.

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I do also now have a Talisman that I am not sure what to do with, whether try to make Louis more likely to survive a magic hit, or just pump up another of TeeHee's defensive stats, so feel free to give your suggestions.

I'd lean towards a combat unit who might actually face magic without melting instead of Louis.

[Venger_06]

Sorry for the delay guys, this week has been very busy. I had a vacation, I was sick for a couple of days and at the moment there is a storm that is severely limiting my internet speed, so I hope the images are embeded correctly.

ALPHA SAPPHIRE - GYM 2

Spoiler

As we leave the Gym, we see a Team Aqua grunt escaping from the Devon Corporation building with that same Devon researcher from earlier close behind

We say goodbye to Sapphire and put her in the box, where she will never come out...

Dayni...

I urgently need to reorganize my boxes

We meet again with the researcher, who once again asks us to save his skin and recover what was stolen

Carefully avoiding some trainers, we get our new dead encounter, Useless the Nincada

Maybe she wouldn't be so useless if Shrimpy was more careful

Peeko, Mr. Briney's trusted Wingull was stolen too, so off we go to help them too

We pick a pokeball and catch another one, this time Garbage the Whismur

Maybe she wouldn't be so garbage if Shrimpy was more careful

Up ahead, we meet the thug, who challenges us to a battle but is easily defeated by the teamwork between Tybalt and Mia

I know man, Wingull sucks so much

At least he gracefully hands us the Devon parts and Peeko

Oh, I will, and it will be sooner than you think

We send Useless and Garbage to the Box of Doom together with Sapphire and head to the Devon Corporation building, where the researcher gifts us a Great Ball and invites us in

Here we meet its owner Elon Musk Joseph Stone, who upgrades our PokeNav and asks us to deliver a Letter to his son Steven in Dewford

I'm doing better than you

Mr. Briney then returns his favor and takes us to Dewford, where we waste no time and, after talking to a fisherman and earning an Old Rod, we head straight to the gym.

I hated that part in the original as a kid, I found it hard to get into the middle of Mr. Briney and Peeko

I'm sorry this part is rushed and half-baked, I'm in a hurry here

Here we put into practice the Kaizo master tactic and Nelson sweeps the Gym, anticlimactically winning us the Badge

Now I'm scared shitless because I know I won't be able to do the same in the next Gym...

It's late at night here and I'm tired, I'm going to sleep

Good night

On 8/19/2023 at 6:49 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Really wish the remakes were based of Emerald instead/gotten an Emerald remake...

On 8/21/2023 at 2:54 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I am still bitter about the Battle Frontier being under construction...

But what I'm most bitter about is this right here

Everything wrong with the remakes in a nutshell

On 8/19/2023 at 4:44 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Calling out Norman, like he deserves. Then again, he is at least more present in the life of his child than most Pokemon protagonist's fathers...

And it's still funny because like, he's the only protagonist's father we see in the entire series???

On 8/19/2023 at 6:29 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Huh, guess I didn't anticipate Emboar being as well regarded.

The best starter for BW1 and the second best for BW2.

On 8/23/2023 at 12:13 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Although all this future death does put @Punished Dayni and @Newtype06 in the funny position where if they are clever with their encounter routing they can mitigate the damage of this slaughter.

Yeah...

I just did what I was going to do anyway. Granite Cave, Dewford and Slateport's encounters are more important

On 8/24/2023 at 8:39 AM, Punished Dayni said:

That crit's still stinging, thank you /s

Imagine how I feel now that I'm facing Wattson without a good counter

On 8/24/2023 at 8:39 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Some neat options in Castelia City and around Route 4 and the ruins, some if which I'm about to lose, but I suppose the real deliberations will be based on what I get in Virbank Complex. Can't count the higher level part of Route 20 either, it's like Pinwheel Forest like that.

I would catch Eevee and Zubat, they're just too good to pass up

On 8/25/2023 at 11:50 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Ah the power of pre-nerfed Steel...well kind of, it traded Dark and Ghost resist for a Fairy one, so how much of a nerf that trade was is up for debate.

18 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Considering it lost both, I'd argue slight nerf with how useful Fairy is offensively (though imo Grass could have used it more /s). It really stung the Steel/Psychics; Metagross (being harmed from it's high position prior), Bronzong (who tripled it's weaknesses) and Jirachi's defensive potential are all harmed by the variety of moves that those types do have now dealing double damage.

Tbf, Metagross and Bronzong were too OP, so I think it was for the best

Edited August 28, 2023 by Newtype06

[Shrimpica]

Checkpoint 2 List!

On 8/24/2023 at 1:39 PM, Punished Dayni said:

Somehow I don't think a crit from her is recoverable

Armors probably would, thanks to how min max'd they are in Engage.

On 8/24/2023 at 1:39 PM, Punished Dayni said:

What should I do about that bit in Castelia Sewers with Hugh? Treat the encounter as is or not? Because if so probably choose to repel through

For you to decide.

On 8/25/2023 at 4:50 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

the special treatment of thieves doesn't feel as warranted in Engage.

fair

On 8/25/2023 at 4:50 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

are they prepromotes here? I

according to the spreadsheet they don't promote, so i guess so.

Their growths are good, but not what i'd call bonkers

7 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

if Shrimpy was more careful

7 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

I know I won't be able to do the same in the next Gym...

That one i remember gave me alot of trouble as a kiddie when i first played Gen 3

 

[Punished Dayni]

9 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

I would catch Eevee and Zubat, they're just too good to pass up

All I say to that is hope I get lucky, Eevee is 5% and I've gotten that once already.

9 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Tbf, Metagross and Bronzong were too OP, so I think it was for the best

Bronzong was more pain in the ass wall than busted, but sure.

9 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

9 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Carefully avoiding some trainers, we get our new dead encounter, Useless the Nincada

9 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

We pick a pokeball and catch another one, this time Garbage the Whismur

RIP we never knew ye.

Jeez, Nincada would have had immunity.... or Shedinja to all but the Voltorb

9 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

I know man, Wingull sucks so much

Remembers his Pelipper being crucial in a run of Ruby

Certainly if he can't use it well. And he could have Drizzle! I couldn't.

9 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Here we meet its owner Elon Musk Joseph Stone, who upgrades our PokeNav and asks us to deliver a Letter to his son Steven in Dewford

Wait he has a first name?

9 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Now I'm scared shitless because I know I won't be able to do the same in the next Gym...

For all I know, my electric gym could be fatal

it's shocking how low of a chance Geodude is in Granite Cave, but Lightning Rod Electrike would at least block Volt Switch (But then again how much damage would it be capable of?), Couple of other maybes on 110.....

Ugh. Emerald's gym would have been worse in power, but that Magneton's no fun.

2 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Checkpoint 2 List!

Wait, we're at the checkpoints?

Oh, okay.

[Shrimpica]

Welcome to Ch.6

Spoiler

THIEFS!

Let's hope i don't mistake their aggro again

Buy myself couple throwing weapons

get myself a new thief

and start advancing!

Speedy Armor

So early O:

Gordin stronk!

I keep advancing

Throne Squad looks like a bit of trouble

Get some Magic damn it

Muscles!

And he learns Rally STR 😮

Okay!

I keep taking out the thiefs to take my rightful treasures!

...

Annd....

I accidently reset the emulator lmao

Keyboard pls....

I will do it later today or tomorrow

You guys can advance if you want

 

Also posting to Serenes has been a pain

Edited August 30, 2023 by Shrimpy -Limited Edition-

[Venger_06]

I decided to divide the chapters into parts to better manage the screenshots

ALPHA SAPPHIRE - GYM 3 PART 1

Spoiler

Picking up where we left off last time, I already put the Old Rod to use and adds one more to our team, Dennis the Tentacool

He doesn't have Liquid Ooze as ability, but Clear Body is still useful

We fight a trainer ahead in Route 106, and catch the next one, Theresa the Magikarp

We got a Protein, TM Flash and Slappy the Makuhita!

This is another one that could be much better if it had Guts as an ability, but Thick Fat doesn't hurt

In the depths of Granite Cave we find Steven, handing over the Letter

We even got Steel Wing

Of course, always another favor

Carefully avoiding all trainers on the beach, we reach Slateport. We receive a Soothe Bell by showing a poke with high happiness and prepare to engage Team Aqua, who took over the museum...

To be continued...

On 8/28/2023 at 7:45 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

That one i remember gave me alot of trouble as a kiddie when i first played Gen 3

Wattson is harder in Emerald, but he's trivialized by a Marshtomp. Since I won't be able to use mine, I'll have to resort to some Lightning Rod strats...

On 8/28/2023 at 10:37 AM, Punished Dayni said:

All I say to that is hope I get lucky, Eevee is 5% and I've gotten that once already.

Buy a few repels from the store. Then make sure you have a level 19 as your primary pokemon, get to the garden and activate your repels while in the dark grass. Now walk around in the dark grass and if done properly you should have a close to 100% chance of everything being a Eevee.

On 8/28/2023 at 10:37 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Bronzong was more pain in the ass wall than busted, but sure.

Defending yourself well is an art, Dayni.

On 8/28/2023 at 10:37 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Jeez, Nincada would have had immunity.... or Shedinja to all but the Voltorb

Yes, but there was a high chance of a Zigzagoon there, so I preferred not to risk it.

On 8/28/2023 at 10:37 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Certainly if he can't use it well. And he could have Drizzle! I couldn't.

Oh, yeah, Pelipper has Drizzle now. Perhaps it will prove useful yet.

On 8/28/2023 at 10:37 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Wait he has a first name?

According to Bulbapedia, yes.

On 8/28/2023 at 10:37 AM, Punished Dayni said:

For all I know, my electric gym could be fatal

Bold of you to assume that you will get there in the first place. Remember, the run is over if I wipe to Wattson, and the chance of that happening is greater than zero.

On 8/28/2023 at 10:37 AM, Punished Dayni said:

it's shocking how low of a chance Geodude is in Granite Cave, but Lightning Rod Electrike would at least block Volt Switch (But then again how much damage would it be capable of?), Couple of other maybes on 110.....

I have a plan

It's not Electrike tho

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 8/27/2023 at 2:08 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Multiplying the hit rates tells me it was a bit over 55% chance that both hit, but I could be completely wrong on it being True Hit.

My calculations puts it at the odds of both hitting at a bit below 41% without true hit, and is just barely above 49% with true hit included (I am ignoring the chain attack, as it never mattered in this case).

 

On 8/27/2023 at 2:08 AM, Punished Dayni said:

Considering it lost both, I'd argue slight nerf with how useful Fairy is offensively (though imo Grass could have used it more /s). It really stung the Steel/Psychics; Metagross (being harmed from it's high position prior), Bronzong (who tripled it's weaknesses) and Jirachi's defensive potential are all harmed by the variety of moves that those types do have now dealing double damage.

It is debatable, Ghost and Dark are almost identical offensively, so it feels more like only losing one weakness (only pokes with no other option would bother with both type moves), and those types tend not to be a major threat offensively, whereas Fairy were a major threat on the scene as soon as they arrived, so outside of the Psychic-Steel types, it didn't seem like as large of loss for the gain.

 

On 8/27/2023 at 2:08 AM, Punished Dayni said:

 

Especially if you go for the Level 4 clothes as well.

I doubt I will have the funds to get many of those tragically...

 

On 8/27/2023 at 2:08 AM, Punished Dayni said:

 

Yeah, her having amnesia too is mighty convenient. Maybe her having doubts that it's Alear at first could have been done because of their having been converted AoE style could have been expressed, but I'm not sure how to be going about that in the first half of the game.

They should have had a scene like the one Zephia has, where she seems like she might recognize Alear, before Alear says they are the divine dragon, to dispell the thought.

 

On 8/27/2023 at 8:34 PM, Newtype06 said:

Carefully avoiding some trainers, we get our new dead encounter, Useless the Nincada

Maybe she wouldn't be so useless if Shrimpy was more careful

Oof. I guess that solves the question about what to do about Shedinja, and whether or not it counts as its own encounter...
 

On 8/27/2023 at 8:34 PM, Newtype06 said:

We pick a pokeball and catch another one, this time Garbage the Whismur

Maybe she wouldn't be so garbage if Shrimpy was more careful

Don't kid yourself, the obligatory Whismur encounter is lucky to find use as a sack pokemon in most Nuzlockes.

 

On 8/27/2023 at 8:34 PM, Newtype06 said:

Here we put into practice the Kaizo master tactic and Nelson sweeps the Gym, anticlimactically winning us the Badge

Classic Guts sweep from the Tailow

 

On 8/27/2023 at 8:34 PM, Newtype06 said:

Everything wrong with the remakes in a nutshell

Emerald really did make the gym leaders much more interesting, with more gen 3 focused pokemon to their teams, like Wattson for example going from all gen 1 pokemon to having the Electrike line, with Manetric as his new ace.

 

On 8/27/2023 at 8:34 PM, Newtype06 said:

Imagine how I feel now that I'm facing Wattson without a good counter

Wattson is a tough gym leader if you don't have some kind of plan for him. Good Luck, that Magneton can be tough to deal with.

 

On 8/30/2023 at 4:05 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

get myself a new thief

At least you got another thief before you needed that valuable utility again.

 

On 8/30/2023 at 4:05 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

And he learns Rally STR 😮

Now that is a nice skill to get.

 

On 8/30/2023 at 4:05 AM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

I accidently reset the emulator lmao

Keyboard pls....

I will do it later today or tomorrow

...Oops. Hopefully you didn't lose too much progress.

 

16 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

He doesn't have Liquid Ooze as ability, but Clear Body is still useful

Eh, that is a really minor thing, especially after a pair of quite excellent water type encounters.

 

16 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

 

This is another one that could be much better if it had Guts as an ability, but Thick Fat doesn't hurt

Although this ability is much more significant to the pokemon...although from a linked perspective it might not be that bad, as it is changing a high risk, high reward offensive ability, for a defensive one.

I am almost suprised you didn't go for the bottom floor encounters, but odd as this sounds, this is another case of me being far too used to Emerald, where Saybeleye is a far better encounter (it is literally immune to Brawley, and having two Dark types at all makes Tate and Lisa into a MUCH easier fight...)

 

16 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Since I won't be able to use mine, I'll have to resort to some Lightning Rod strats...

Intriguing, which Lightning rod pokemon do you even ha-

Oh, ooohhh, heh, interesting. I guess it will be funny to see that special pokemon take center stage 😛

 

17 hours ago, Newtype06 said:

Yes, but there was a high chance of a Zigzagoon there, so I preferred not to risk it.

Unless you were planning on personally banning your use of Gyrados (in which case you should have repeled through there and kill your Petalburg City old rod encounter instead), that was probably the safest option to go with.

 

Alright, time for an update that pushes nothing forward, as it is just the first two paralogues, and which ended up annoying me with my bad luck

Spoiler

Lets start with

This nice little defensive, and accuracy levelup for the Bouchey Boy from the arena, but now onto the Anna paralogue

Adding insult to this injury, the "thief" isn't even a thief...

Seems there is no honor among thieves.

She really had to jinx it like that didn't she.

Now one important bit of preps before I start the map, I give Etie the Micaiah ring so that

I have access to healing on both fronts, and for similar reasons I make sure to split up my mages, and have armor effective weapons on both sides.

In the East, Boucheron and Louis manage to kill the nearest swordie,

With the invincible Louis cantering as far ahead as he can after the kill

While in the West side, I open with a very aggresive enemy phase strat.

Which goes very well for us.

And I will gladly take a defense and resistance levelup for TeeHee.

And on both fronts we still have one more axe to deal with after that enemy phase action

And that lets me get some nice Override damage on the eastern thief, while setting up some nice enemy phase chip for Louis

And I don't end up taking this hit here, but I do have her wait there to get this hit on enemy phase.

There is less action in the west, but I do make the decision to bait in one of the enemy axes ahead with Alfred (the positioning is such that while both can reach, there is only room for one to attack).

And with TeeHee alread commited to drawing this Swordie in as well, I will be in an uncomfortably enemy rich enviroment on this front

But with Alfred lucking his way into a dodge makes things a little easier

But after these two easy kills on this side

I end up forgoing this last kill to avoid the 1% crit chance.

On the other side, Louis gets his thief,

And Bouchey Boy makes my life much easier (and saves me a use of Warp Ragnarok) by landing this handaxe hit here.

I again play things safe with Etie by having her Vuln up to deal with the thunder on enemy phase, instead of risking the miss-death on player phase.

I then try to bait the enemy armor into an enemy phase death,

But it defys my expectation by going for the safer, but lower damage hit on Boucheron.

The western thief does grab this loot as well, which I will try to secure, but is a survivable loss.

Louis should be able to deal with it, but you never know. Speaking of which, I have Louis canter back to block access to the last chest, just in case.

It is beautiful when TeeHee's personal lets me get my choice of kill like this.

My Bouchey boy again making my life easy with the sketchy accuracy kill here, so Celine can grab the armor kill safely, and

That frees up Etie to heal him up.

Onto the next turn

TeeHee secures the stolen tonic for us.

I then have Louis take down this enemy healer with ease

And Framme gets this nice little levelup from healing.

Although otherwise, we are having our troops converge on this center treadure room, so moving onto next turn

I grab the first Master Seal, while casually ignoring the Armored knight chasing Louis.

I even let it choose its own death on enemy phase

And it chose Bouchey's hammer.

Now for the last loot from the chest, a little bourgeois brat.

This bit of dialogue feels a little silly with how we have already basically rescued her

while this one feels silly due to how immediately it followed the reveal of green Anna dialogue.

I sure hope so. I haven't heard the best of things from her (unless you reclass her), but we will see.

I then give Framme the one point of healing needed for chain guard, which conveniently also gives Etie a level

...and another tragically terrible levelup on Etie, really justifying my plans to use Alcryst this time around.

So I chain guard TeeHee for safety, but

They save the most dangerous attack on TeeHee for last, after the chain guard block...sorry about leaving that risk in there.

On the next turn I can go for Anna's first

Embarassing miss of the run, so TeeHee has to clean up instead. After this, I take a bit of time positioning, healing up

And refilling Louis's Engage guage as we go. It takes a few turns, but

Eventually we prepare to bait in the side axes

And TeeHee gets another sweet levelup from that enemy phase kill

Anna also finally gets her first kill

I am a little irritated by her getting all these strength levelups, instead of Magic ones (I was planning on giving her tome access to promote into a staff-magic class...and might still anyway), but I can't complain too much about the solid levelups she is getting overall.

And I am playing things safe here, and waiting for next turn to finish this map off.

You fool, I already have all the treasure.

And Louis gets this levelup from the free override chip

And then Boucheron manages to dodge and miss, making this a wait with animations.

But the chain attack is enough to let Alfred finish off Mitan's first health bar.

And then I get some free Ragnarok chip

...I was so very, very tempted to give Anna this little trial by fire. Honestly, if this wasn't a linked ironman, I would have gone for it. Instead I let TeeHee finish it with his super for a much safer kill.

..."Local authorities".

Sadly enough I do Anna. Welcome to the team small child

I hope so, but you are worryingly low level, and I have heard you really want to reclass her to a magic class ASAP, but I haven't unlocked any Second Seals yet, so that will have to wait.

This does have an odd feel to it, with her insisting on such a formal way of addressing her.

Back at the Somniel

I let Anna keep her adorable little Christmas sweater, with some glasses for now.

The arena also gets us this pair of OK-ish levelups.

I do end up waiting on using the Master Seal, until after the other paralogue, as I figured it might give me a chance to get Anna some experience.

And the other paralogue is a generic corrupted attack with doctors around.

In retrospect, I should have given this to Anna so she could get healing exp, as I am not far enough into the game to really make that extra staff range useful, but oh well.

And this is the crew I am sending in, just leaving Etie, and Clanne behind

And I open by setting up this kill for little Anna.

And I have Celine immediately visit this village, which is in range of the a nasty Axe enemy

So I make sure Framme covers her with a Chain Guard (admittedly she lives it even if I didn't).

...3% of crit death is a bit spicy, but she does live it.

Meanwhile Celine gets this easy enemy phase kill with the help of that chain guard.

Anna can then safely get this easy kill from range, and I let Boucheron get the kill on the little crit archer

I do also decide to send Louis off to pop all the northern cavs with the SIgurd engage.

Admittedly having TeeHee draw something in was a bit of a mistake

As they easily one shot.

Oh well, Alfred should be able to chip it for An-

...sigh.

Eh, he should kill it, and I am not going to worry about the...calculating...roughly 1 in 4750 chance of death.

I should probably buy an extra handaxe, as now I have to trade this one over.

So he can get a little chip in on enemy phase, and with that chip Anna should be able to

...miss the kill.

Oh well, let's have TeeHee pop the mage

Well let's make that pop two mages, with Celine this time

And Louis can miss the kill here on the flier, but it is the thing most likely to lead to a green unit death, which I think reduces my loot.

And that should let me box off the archer, so Anna can

MISS AGAIN....for the love of Lumera you little brat, I have trapped this little thing like a fish in a barrel...

Oh well,  guess Celine can get the kill on the Peg

For this solid little levelup on Celine.

Lets try this again

FINALLY.

...Eh, just barely good enough, but you are on some thin ice with all those misses Lady.

Who to use this on...

Celine pops this one while I am here.

Although the plan for Louis here is to draw the boss here south to feed the kill to... hopefully Anna, but the way she keeps missing, you never know.

Eh, it goes for the free break, but its fine, my healer is protected.

Jeez, the power of coverts in terrain on full display here.

Alright, Bouchey helps to feed this kill to Anna

And Framme just managed to reach promotion level, and another great little levelup at that.

In a lot of ways, this was really reckless

As that is a dangerously large crit rate, but I was never punished. I was just so irritated by her repeated misses that I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have, speaking of which

She missed right there AGAIN, so I have to get the kill on player phase. This is what I get for coddling her, and not giving her that trial by fire in that first chapter.

...Fuck you game.

We put the fear of gods into them 😛

Such a simple summary of the whole game right here.

Sorry kid, but you are already on the dead list, but I will take that free staff you come with.

Eh, permabenched isn't the greatest of burdens to deal with, but its not like he will be any help.

LOL, nope, its all natural 😛

Anna, the way you were hitting it was more like one kill for the price of two.

This is a cute touch, as it is refenced by Celine's supports, as Chloe helped sneak her over here in disguise. I might highlight some of these after battles convos at times, as I learned in my last ironman, it is possible for some of the characters to mourn the death of their friends in these scenes, plus some fun little references like this at times.

Sorry this took so long, I probably should have gotten this up and posted earlier...and be more careful in the future.

 

[Shrimpica]

I do the chapter again fast

This wasn't in OG Fates was it?

Seizing without any Casualities!

Title.drop

Sorry for being a bit late. Not only has Serenes been slow lately, but with how sucky embed'ing has been i didn't bother creating a full log.

Current list

10 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Hopefully you didn't lose too much progress.

it was a bit annoying and pushed everything a bit back

10 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Sorry this took so long, I probably should have gotten this up and posted earlier...and be more careful in the future.

No Problem, and all well that ends well 😉

[Eltosian Kadath]

21 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

This wasn't in OG Fates was it?

Nope, unless it was DLC or something.

 

22 minutes ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Title.drop

Just out of curiosity, does it still give Marth thief powers?

 

Alright, time for Chapter 7, and the first enemy Emblem.

Spoiler

I start by using the arena to prepare for future events, although I ultimately decide to promote someone else first

I also do my first skill inheritance here, and I am a very basic bitch with regard to skills. Expect me to get Canter onto everyone I can, Dual Assist + onto all my backup units, Pair Up on my Armored and Thief units, and reposition on my cavalry and fliers.

I do also use most of my Arena unses getting TeeHee this solid level, so they don't lose as much experience points when I

Promote them. It just made the most sense on an ironman like this.

Back with the story, we almost get shot.

As the Brodians are giving us as warm a welcome as the US police force.

Until they find out we are important, at which point

We see the most ridiculous apology in existence.

TeeHee, you were almost filled with holes...

That is a far more reasonable response.

Terrible choice considering, but to be fair

They have had to defend themselves from the same troubles we have been facing on the way up here, so I can understand the caution a little.

It is odd how trusting we are of information the enemy gave us so willingly.

On the one hand, hearing voices is generally considered a bad thing, but I guess its a bit more accepted around magical rings.

Alcryst has some deep imposter syndrome going on, so expect him to unfairly put himself down to the point that it gets a bit annoying.

And now we meet one of my least favorite playable characters. Not that I don't like her design, and sense of fashion, but the first support she has with TeeHee was enough to convince me never to field her again. Cuteness is not a replacement for a personality, and the annoying brat we see here is what is under that candy finish. Hopefully we don't have enough deaths that I have to end up using her.

I must admit, I also find heterochromia fascinating.

But at least in this, she has a bit of a point

As Brodia has definitely earned Elusia's animosity with these invasions of theirs. Alas this feels like another one of those plot points where the Engage writers again walked back from a far more interesting idea so as not to portray our characters as having any darkness in them, as they don't go far enough in showing us how villainous the Brodians really were to the Elusians, as we don't get much more than passing comments like this.

Did she really just think she was given all these troops, so she could ask nicely for those rings?

Loose lips sink ships...yeah this slip up is dumb, but this annoying brat is very clearly still a child.

I mean look at how willing she is to admit that this is all to please her father...

Here comes my deployment, and it is fitting that all of my "living" units fit my deployment exactly.

It is strange to be getting such basic tutorialization as don't expose your mages and archers, as late as this into the game.

Onto the map, one of the first things I do  is pass that Longbow off to Alcryst, while simultaneously

getting some useful chip on this terrain sitting jerk.

That doesn't hinder Mystic units though, but I save my magic for the armored one

Alcryst gets his first kill on a flyer as well, but unfortunately he did need the less accurate steel bow for the damage.

Louis manages to get the kill on the ranged one at least.

Alfred also gets in just enough chip that I can try for this kill

With Anna after Engageing with Micaiah, which I gave her so I can grab some exp on the girl using healing

As Anna has proven to be the mistress of misses.

And yet that 1 exp was exactly enough to get her another OK level.

Alright, time to stop fighting with one hand tied behind my back in an attempt to feed Anna exp.

I do also trade equip Javelins onto the two at the edge of enemy range to ensure some chip

But now the game reveals to us that enemies will be using emblems again too, but with the least offensively threatening ones (bond shield, and learning Dual Assist + are her main uses).

I do love the way she is pointing that out, that this super power isn't just for you.

And they do make it far clearer to those not paying enough attention, that it was Elusia that invaded, and stole the rings of Lythos.

I open by next turn with Boucheron killing the chipped one

And then I use two of my mages to successfully feed a kill to Anna this time, while she has some Engage magic in her.

🙄

In the southern section, I have TeeHee pop one of the mages, and canter back a space to

Use their personal to give Alcryst perfect damage on the other one.

Although I couldn't get close enough for any enemy phase action this turn.

And I let TeeHee open the next turn with an easy kill, and canter a space forward

For another beautiful instance of perfect damage, but in retrospect, I probably should have just gone for the more accurate Steel Bow kill instead. Admittedly, I wasn't punished for this, and could have tried for the Steel Bow kill with Etie if I missed, so it isn't really that big of deal.

On the other side, I open with a hard Louis chip on the other Cav, and canter ahead in preperation for next enemy phase, but more locally, next

I have Anna use her last turn of Engage for the big exp boost of a Great Sacrifice, and I do this now, so that

When Framme heals her up, she can help trade chain my only hand axe over so that Bouchey Boy can th-

..oops, looks like I miscounted by one.

I can still easily get the kill, but that does mean I only have my mages left to deal with the Pegasus in the north

So I have to pull out a Warp Ragnarok for the kill.

What a beautiful crit on enemy phase there

but with those cavs coming in behind the armors, I decide to let them come at me for another turn

And give one of those armors an easy enemy phase death with TeeHee

Onto player phase, I open by wiping out the other armor with magic

Then I use the weight of the Armorslayer to merely chip this first cav, so I can

feed the kill to Alcryst instead.

I am way more proud than I should be about legitimately using a smash weapon, for its smash effect here, because

it pushed this cav just into range of a Riderbane kill from Alfred.

I finish off the last healer enemy here with my Bouchey Boy, as apology for the missed kill before, and now all that is left is boss's posse. I spend a few turn preparing, by healing up

And Anna gets an underwhelming healing level while doing so

And I refill my two Engage gauges before making my stand

And I pre-Engage TeeHee as they draw in the boss on some terrain, while Louis baits in Rosado personally. Now this position is not without risk,

Not for TeeHee though, as they can wipe out the generic that can reach, and Lucina's super is hilariously weak

Its if Rosado has the luck they wish on me

As there is about a 1 in 200 chance of a double crit death here. I had some unconformable flash backs to last linked ironman, with Benny's 1 in 400 double crit death there, but fortunately Anna has sucked all my bad luck into her hilarious mastery of missing.

Dink

I open the final turn by using TeeHee's super to drain all the exp I can out of Goldmary

...I missed this boss quote on previous runs, and never bothered to use Goldmary before, so discovering her random crush on the MC is a bit of a shock. Perhaps she isn't as thirsty for fem Alear, hence why I never noticed before.

At least TeeHee got a respectable levelup from the Mercurius kill there.

Next I cripple Rosado with some Warp Ragnarok

And have Boucheron both try for the kill, and setup for chain attacks on all remaining enemies

And he even landed that kill for himself (instead of the assist).

For a level...shrug.

Now to start chipping at the boss, and while the chain attack gets its chip, Etie herself missed

But that is enough chip for Alcryst to break the revival bead.

And after Alfred gets his round of range chip in. With her so close to death, it is time to eek out the last bit of exp from this map

By setting up this funny kill for Framme

And one last use of Great Sacrifice for some more Anna Exp

Before finishing things with a perfectly accurate override kill.

It really wasn't fair due to her choice of ring, imagine if she didn't cripple herself by switching to a 1 range sword to use her weak "super", and instead kept her 1-2 range magic equipped so I couldn't get all that free 2 range chip...

Alas we don't get her ring yet, and she escapes to disappoint her father another day.

Its funny how the "MVP" tend to be units I am babying a little.

The damage to that bridge is rather reminiscent of Mekkah's bridge...I am almost surprised they didn't bring that gimmick back.

We end things off talking about ring, but Alfred does a good job putting things into an important perspective, as this whole little thing would end if TeeHee fell.

It is interesting to think about how that is half of the rings that will be around for this arc, with two of them trapped in Solm for the latter half of the game, but unfortunately we never get an equal emblem fight (unless you count Lumera's tutorial) like we do in the latter half.

It does seem like an odd choice for Elusia to be given, but tragically the kingdoms weren't really given what I feel are the most thematically appropriate rings, other than perhaps Firene being given Celica, and Solm given Corrin. I think better fits thematically would be Ike for Brodia; Micaiah for Elusia; Celica and Roy for Firene; and Lyn and Corrin for Solm, assuming the same rings are given out.

But I digress, lets finish off the last little bit of exploration and story

And once again, I am denied animals to "adopt", and worse yet

One of those I am denied is the America bird.

Finally the game reminds that Veyle exist, by having her killing corrupted she presumably created, in a clearly ruined village, she claims to be saving, just in case we have forgotten she existed.

Whelp, see you all next time for the next chapter...

 

 

[Shrimpica]

8 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Just out of curiosity, does it still give Marth thief powers?

8 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

dats a good Alear

Also wow you're really unlucky with Anna lol

-----

Ch6x

Oho

We got some villagers to save here. Let's do that

Spoiler

Draug rescues the first villager and we advance

Myrmidon in disguise?

Muscles!

hmm

We advance further

Armors are not memes!

We rescue the 2nd villager

I pair Marth up with Matthis to go the to bottom villager

Set up rallies to EP some enemies, however...

after Clearing the enemies i notice this swordcatcher guy, so i probably shouldn't advance with Marth lol

Stronk Archer

Accent Myrmidon lady, get!

Wrath and Armored Blow? This girl seems fun

Matthis misses an 80something...This guy has only been useful as a carrier honestly lol. Will probably hit the bench once i start getting better fliers

The MVP

We rescue the last villager and...

Defeat the boss!

We Seize to finish and get the rewards!

--------------------------------

Ch.7 lessgo

I gave Marth the Seraph Robe btw. Ironmand and all, he needs survivability.

Spoiler

Minerva and the Squad. They don't attack us on this map, just scare us to death with flying around lol. Whitewing's Personal skill is - you guessed it - Triangle attack!

Gordin and Athena take out the 2 Archers

Fliers advance and i gotta be more careful

We take the generic fliers out

And then

Minerva and Catira...

Leading to the others retreating

Hi there old dragon

I gotchu

Hmm...Hitrate without Weapon triangle stuff or Rank bonuses could be a problem.

STR would've been cool tho

We advance and get hit by mageknt and cav. reinforcement waves, that we take out for...

these lvlups!

Also Navarre going full crit i see!

This dude looks dangerous.

First Gordin Debuff, then..

Marth finishes!

[Venger_06]

ALPHA SAPPHIRE - GYM 3 PART 2

Spoiler

As if it weren't enough for us to have to save the asses of these incompetent people, they still CHARGE US to do it

No, I won't enjoy it

The Grunts here are more interested in the exhibits than battling with you, but we do get something from the guy we beat earlier.

After that, we head upstairs to find Captain Stern and hand him over the Devon parts, but we are attacked by two grunts (that we effortlessly defeat)

LMAOOOOOOOOO

Doesn't that remind you of something?

While they're desperate after losing yet again, their leader Archie shows up and infodumps everything Team Aqua plans to accomplish and leaves after threatening us

I have to say, Team Aqua and Magma's plans were never very smart, but even compared to the rival team, Team Aqua's plan is very, very dumb. Anyway, we deliver Devon Parts to the captain and when we try to leave Slateport, a celebrity catches our attention

This is going to be us in the future

H-hi?

Uuh, thanks, I guess?

Sure, what we don't do for an encounter. Also

🚨🚨TEEHEE ALERT🚨🚨

The contest is easily won, with Nelson emerging victorious

I will never play this ever again

As we're leaving, we received from a breeder the reason we participated in the first place, Marin the Pikachu!

She can't evolve into Raichu and Eviolite doesn't work on her, but she will be useful for at least the next Gym thanks to her hidden ability, Lightning Rod.It would be my ace in the hole since I lost my Marshtomp, and it looks like RNG is favoring me , since when we step on Route 110...

We find an Electrike with a Lightning Rod as well, and he quickly joins the team.

As the grunts clear the way for us, we prepare for one of the most infamous battles in the game...

Serenes is really slow these days

On 9/2/2023 at 6:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I am almost suprised you didn't go for the bottom floor encounters, but odd as this sounds, this is another case of me being far too used to Emerald, where Saybeleye is a far better encounter (it is literally immune to Brawley, and having two Dark types at all makes Tate and Lisa into a MUCH easier fight...)

Can't access the bottom floor in ORAS without a bike 😔

On 9/2/2023 at 6:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Intriguing, which Lightning rod pokemon do you even ha-

Oh, ooohhh, heh, interesting. I guess it will be funny to see that special pokemon take center stage 😛

Actually, nevermind

On 9/2/2023 at 6:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Unless you were planning on personally banning your use of Gyrados (in which case you should have repeled through there and kill your Petalburg City old rod encounter instead), that was probably the safest option to go with.

I plan to get a guaranteed Corphish in Petalburg

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 9/4/2023 at 3:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Ch6x

How are the gaidens treated; are there any requirements for them? are they optional?

 

On 9/4/2023 at 3:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Oho

We got some villagers to save here. Let's do that

That is a cool take on the Fates mechanics for a fun map gimmick. Also feels a little reminiscent of Thracia.

 

On 9/4/2023 at 3:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

after Clearing the enemies i notice this swordcatcher guy, so i probably shouldn't advance with Marth lol

Good job catching it, before it became a problem.

 

On 9/4/2023 at 3:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Matthis misses an 80something...This guy has only been useful as a carrier honestly lol. Will probably hit the bench once i start getting better fliers

If only I had the sense to do the same to Anna...but it has become kind of funny to me 😛

 

On 9/4/2023 at 3:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Whitewing's Personal skill is - you guessed it - Triangle attack!

I hope you end up using it at some point in the run, as I am a fan of the classic Triangle attack.

 

On 9/4/2023 at 3:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

STR would've been cool tho

Classic Myrmidon.

 

On 9/5/2023 at 3:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

 

As if it weren't enough for us to have to save the asses of these incompetent people, they still CHARGE US to do it

Time for a pair of fun fact (from the original at least), of you somehow don't have the money for it, she will still let you through, assuming you are with the evil team, and secondly, grunt talk indicates that the reason there was a massive unmoving line before was that one of the grunts couldn't afford it, and had to talk their way in instead.

 

On 9/5/2023 at 3:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

LMAOOOOOOOOO

I almost want to check how many Grunt fights there are in the game...

 

On 9/5/2023 at 3:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

Doesn't that remind you of something?

 

Heh, its a Persona 4 version of them.

 

On 9/5/2023 at 3:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

 

Sure, what we don't do for an encounter. Also

🚨🚨TEEHEE ALERT🚨🚨

OMG, actual TEEHEE use in the linked run...Lol

 

On 9/5/2023 at 3:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

She can't evolve into Raichu and Eviolite doesn't work on her, but she will be useful for at least the next Gym thanks to her hidden ability, Lightning Rod.It would be my ace in the hole since I lost my Marshtomp, and it looks like RNG is favoring me , since when we step on Route 110...

I am excited to see someone actually use the cosplay Pikachu in an run for legitimate reasons...

 

On 9/5/2023 at 3:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

 

We find an Electrike with a Lightning Rod as well, and he quickly joins the team.

...I guess that is some extra insurance.

 

On 9/5/2023 at 3:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

Can't access the bottom floor in ORAS without a bike 😔

I completely forgot about that change...I guess all of my Hoenn knowledge is mostly Emerald.

 

Now for chapter 8 of Engage

Spoiler

For the first time, I get a three level arena

Lol, speed

Even speedier...yeah Anna is just too funny to bench...for now.

And then a great levelup on Alcryst.

Now I have another promotion, which I agonize over for far too long, but in the end I decide to give it to

I was very tempted to give it to Framme, and both Louis and Alfred are doing well enough that I think they can wait for their promotion, but now, for some fashion

And Citrinne is rocking those gold rimmed sunglasses, and gold embroidered crimson.

I love that jacket to much to abandon it, but he definitely needed the more sensitive look of the glasses

And Lapis's look is already adorable with that purse to boot (only improvement to make is with the glasses again)

The change to these sunglasses almost gives little Clanne a secret agent look to him 😛

Boucheron finally has his first major outfit change by rocking the furs

But with a donation to Brodia for more animal "adoptions", our fashion addiction leaves us basically broke, with only fiddy g to our names

In better news, we arrive in time to prepare for the Elusian attack, instead of in a more desperate situation.

And we get to meet this charming prince...

This kind of reminds me of an old family joke, that the only thing that gets the extended family together are weddings, and funerals, and too many of them have been funerals.

And speaking of family dysfunction, Diamant is acting excessively cautious with his father

King Morion here's health.

And both Diamant's erratic behavior, and the extremely present low self esteem and/or imposter syndrome of Alcryst is treated very... delicately... by their father, like this soft comment on Alcryst's issues here. Morion walks a fine line, where he is a good enough father to recognize his children's issues, but too uncomfortable with emotions to fully engage with them.

Poor Roy getting treated like the smash bros character he is, and getting thrown around.

In another instance of what feels like the writers shying away from an interesting idea, we never really see this demon side of his come out, despite being told about it.

And then the Elusians cutscene their way into having an army of corrupted appear in the middle of the castle, and I regret missing the image on the really BS line about Ivy matrix dodging all the castle's defenders to arrive here.

Take our SOULS...Really Ivy?

...I mean you can see your corrupted soldiers already being here in your arrival cutscene. I do also appreciate the offer for surrender.

The overprotective son then saves us the hassle of protecting a green unit, although that might be more of a mixed bag.

Oh no, did Hortensia have a crush on us like Goldmary?

Will do Ivy, speaking of which

Here is what my deployment is looking like so far, as we finally have enough troops to bench a couple duds, like Clanne, and Etie...also sorry Lapis, I still haven't really given you a chance, but we get a brans new swordie in Diamant to replace you in this very chapter.

Then the character who I find so forgettable that I have had to look up who he was when people mentioned him on multiple occasion. I don't plan on using him on this run either, unless things go horribly wrong real fast.

It is kind of cute how they try to call back to Conquest chapter 10 with this gate region we have to defend (and with some non-aggressive flyers reinforcements later), but this map really doesn't compare.

An I open with an immediate override

to put Louis in the middle of the action immediately

Also, immediately promoting Alcryst gave me the move to use this ballista first turn, to

give Alfred a kill on enemy phase, but we started far enough away that this is the only action we get on turn one

On turn 2, Alcryst shows us what he will be doing most on this map, popping fliers. But I should probably point out that we have split our army here, with Alfred and Boucheron as the phsyical force heading east, with Citrinne as their magic support, and Framme as their main healer

But I clearly over favored the west here. Louis's opening gambit killed the two closest enemies in the west here on enemy phase, so TeeHee can use that promoted move to slaughter this flier

And Louis can get the kill he just barely missed on enemy phase on the other flier. He did end up taking a little damage from enemy chain attack, but it isn't a big deal yet. Alas these two have done a good enough job that the rest of the west, Anna as healer, and Celine as magic support, plus the newbies I am not sure what to do with yet, can't reach this forward front they set with higher move and canter.

The east takes a bit more work, as Boucheron sets up this Citrinne kill

And Alfred sadly misses the kill here, so I have to take a hit from it come enemy phase

And he does get another solid levelup from the chip.

TeeHee does take a fair bit of damage on this enemy phase

And Citrinne takes a lot of damage cleaning up Alfred's mess, but I have healers on both sides, so it isn't the biggest deal in the world

What seemed like a bigger issue, at first, was that the east moved far too slowly to keep the barricades around Alcryst intact, but he perfectly deals with the physical enemy approaching him all on his own.

I should probably buy a thunder tome for Celine, that way she could have gotten this kill instead, but with TeeHee getting the kill instead, they can canter a space over

To give Louis the extra point of damage he needs to go for the kill on this flier...well he could have also repositioned for the momentum damage for it instead, but his current position is able to canter out of mage range after the kill

But he managed to both miss, and get this little levelup while doing so

He does have to Canter out of mage range (whom TeeHee is now baiting instead), so I need to put Diamant in position to protect the squishier ladies in the back.

We are again unable to kill a flier in the east, as Alfred is the only one that can reach

I should have probably split up TeeHee and Louis, as the east is really floundering without their help.

Alas that was one of the non-aggressive flier, so it does noth-

...huh, I guess Framme became a better fighter than I thought will all those insane levelups of hers.

And it just keeps getting better, doesn't it.

That takes care of another of those non-aggressive fliers

But an important thing to note, is that Ivy's retainers are on the move, so I have to be a bit careful dealing with the rest of those non-aggressive fliers (as if I literally ignore them, they will go for the defend points). Both TeeHee, and Louis are defensive enough for the extremely high crit of Kagetsu to not be immediately fatal, but I need the mage dead to hold a line with Louis

Louis can then use momentum, and TeeHee boost for the Javelin kill, which is close enough to canter back into a defensive line of just him and TeeHee

In the east, Alfred has to go for the Javelin hit on the other flier, to avoid Kagetsu's range, and with the infantry close enough to help out, we can actually kill it

But I go for the kill with Thunder to avoid Zelkov's range.

We are getting close to the end, so I bait the more distant mages on the flanks as well, which I fear might be a bit more than I can handle.

As I am not taking any of these enemies down on enemy phase.

Although Alfred does better than I expected with Zelkov, tanking well, and hitting for half damage.

But Kagetsu was always the most dangerous threat for this turn.

And then TeeHee's levelup from this chip is exactly enough

To get the kill on player phase, but I am jumping slightly ahead

As first Boucheron killed the mage he baited

...How did I get to the point that fighting with Framme legitimately seems like a good idea?

Framme is supposed to be the funny unlikely kill, not a surprisingly good option.

Diamant then gets the kill Celine baited in, that lets

Her finish off this flier,

who is too close to an enemy mage for Louis to get the kill himself...

And she gets an ok levelup from it

And is just in range of getting chip on the mage that was threatening Louis away from the getting the kill. On the other front, I am trusting a bit in flier being non-aggressive like the last few have been.

Ivy has now given us a kind warning that she will start moving next turn, so I have to get the cleanup of this map done real quick.

I open by popping one of the remaining fliers, intentionally in range of the last enemy mages as well

Cetrinne and Boucheron get the kill from range on the other.

I let Diamant cleanup another of Celine's mage chips

And intentionally have Louis chip the last normal flier

Because it would be funny for Anna to get one kill this map...and she actually does.

There goes the last enemy mage

Which leaves just Ivy...except for some more flier reinforcements.

With enemy Lief's power protecting Louis from enemy phase magic, Louis can get some very easy chip without a super, and this is enough that I think I can squeeze more exp from those last reinforcements before the end.

This is literally just for the chip exp, as

As Alcryst can trivially get the kill on his own.

For a solid little levelup.

Fun fact, this thing's defense stats are at the exact point that her physical, and magic damage are identical here, so I go for the sword hit for funsies... and to give slightly more experience

With this last Great Sacrifice for the exp on Anna

For a kind of garbage levelup on Anna here. Alas now I have to make a difficult decision

And I decide to play things slightly more dangerous here, as I could use this Warp Ragnarok for the certain kill on Ivy

As I figured the 94% kill chance here was likely enough, and even if it missed, I could try for the kill with both...wait let me look it up...Amber, and Framme, although they would be risking a low accuracy Killer Axe crit death to do it.

Alfred pulls though, so we don't reach that more desperate position, and recover the ring

Which we now establish has to be resummoned by us,

so they can show a fancy animation for all the emblems...even the ones blatantly neglected by IS, like my boy Lief here.

We then ask for Ivy's surrender, but she matrix flies away (must be all that practice at the Wyvern minigame she runs shining through)

We then hear about the obvious trap next chapter is going to be.

Because it is very obviously baiting Morion to his death.

I have to give credit to Engage's writing here, for having Morion actually talking to his son about this, instead of letting it fester into one of those stupid sitcom issues that is solved if people actually talking to eachother like this

And the way Morion show how much less comfortable he with emotional things, by how he shies away from the emotional heart of this issue by making it less personal,

And deliberately showing Alear in frame for this line, to link it back to Alear's personal experience with parental death

It is interesting how positively they frame such a clear instance of toxic masculinity here, where Morion admits he would literally rather die, than be known as a coward. It is such a clear weakness in the man that our enemy are exploiting to make this next arc a tragedy.

I guess I have been talking around how I think Morion is fettered in these emotional discussions by toxic masculinity, but he is overcoming that thanks to the more positive sides of masculinity of trying to be a good father.

For his faults, Morion is a good enough father to truely understand his children, recognizing Diamant's fears, and

Knowing how to draw confidence from Alcryst

And reinforce that confidence when it shines through

Oddly enough, I have to agree Morion, TeeHee probably is my strongest warrior at the moment.

Then the game cruelly teases us with the lack of any true dragon forms with our dragons...

Oh thank goodness, more money for fashion.

Again we see more hints at a darker story, that the writers continue to she away from...well kind of. I guess there is the Lindon-Saphir support that touches on something close to this sentiment.

And I will end things off with the game taunting us with us leaving the castle protected by a future recruit that will return at an arbitrary point later in the game. Hopefully we get far enough to see you again Saphir.

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Eltosian Kadath

[Shrimpica]

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

How are the gaidens treated; are there any requirements for them? are they optional?

Gaiden requirements:

6x: kill 5 thieves

12x: beat the map in 14 turns, OR have one of Midia, Boah, Tomas, Dolph, or Macellan die in 14 turns (either one).

17x: kill 3 bishops.

20x: kill Camus, OR, DO NOT recruit Lorenz, (killing him off after recruitment doesn't work).

24x: have neither Tiki, nor the Falchion.

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

That is a cool take on the Fates mechanics for a fun map gimmick. Also feels a little reminiscent of Thracia.

Now i want Thracia remake in Fates

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I hope you end up using it at some point in the run, as I am a fan of the classic Triangle attack.

I hope so too!

On 9/6/2023 at 12:47 AM, Newtype06 said:

that will help!

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

non-aggressive flier,

huh

til

i usually kill them so fast i didn't notice this

So they are like the pegasi in CQ ch10? Just going to the seize point?

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

..How did I get to the point that fighting with Framme legitimately seems like a good idea?

Now give her Eirika/Lunar Brace later on and watch the music

This is from Maddening iirc.

Punchies is hella good with Eirika/Lunar brace.

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

even the ones blatantly neglected by IS, like my boy Lief here.

Leafy boy actually has quite a few niches others can't replicate. He is one of the weaker ones yeah, but i think people quite underestimate him.

Quite hate what they did with the Master Lance tho. Like atleast don't half it's Mt from Thracia

-------------------

Chapter 8!

This one doesn't look that bad....but i have 1 big problem

I don't have Caeda...Which means i will have to win without killing him or you guys will lose a unit...I will try xD

Spoiler

Hi

That's a cool skill

Eh

Thanks for the Dual Katana tho

I am doing something a little risky

With Marth's Charm that's 31 Atk. That should kill the Bow Knights and Dark Knights on counter while still surviving.

My first idea was to dual attack with Devil Aex, but that puts Draug at a much higher risk of dying, especially since the enemy paired up cavs are quite strong

Radd shop Turn 1 - get a couple Lunges, a Shove and a Swap

cool Dragon

Omg so much speed

Miasma dude ignored Draug. Other than that plan success and enemies start coming to me....

Including Roger

This is tricky

But first

Time to buy heals and rapiers.

I setup for Draug + Marth to take out the some more the Cavs. I use Rapiers a bit more liberally thx to shop lol

Shop turn 3. I buy me some HP/Def tonics

toughening defenses by becoming an evasion tank 😄

nice

Marth paired with Draug take out the rest of Armors and cavs and then...

Roger Suicides

Damn it.

Marth crits him even.

"If my fiancee was alive she would've seduced you, alas..."

Funny stuff

Blessed

I start parking units to stop the reinforcements that will eventually spawn

Spawn earlier than expected. RETREAT

clearing the initial group and ending with this sweet lvlup

Classic debuff tactic

Then poison into Marth finish

Bolt Naginata nice

OMG

Mop up some enemies then

Seize to finish

Checkpoint 2 reached....with one more casuality

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 9/9/2023 at 2:05 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

huh

til

i usually kill them so fast i didn't notice this

So they are like the pegasi in CQ ch10? Just going to the seize point?

I haven't ever waited to see if they will actually reach the seize point, but I noticed this behavior when trying to enemy phase them on my last Enagae run. I will also note that it is specifically the reinforcements that do it.

 

On 9/9/2023 at 2:05 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Leafy boy actually has quite a few niches others can't replicate. He is one of the weaker ones yeah, but i think people quite underestimate him.

Quite hate what they did with the Master Lance tho. Like atleast don't half it's Mt from Thracia

He has his uses, but he is very clearly the worst of the Emblem Rings. Also I meant it a bit more generally, as an extension of how Leif and Thracia get treated by FEH as well, and with how much inspiration they took from his Genealogy form (in both FEH, and this appearance here), when Thracia had a lot of interesting ideas they could have drawn from.

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

 

Radd shop Turn 1 - get a couple Lunges, a Shove and a Swap

That is a very interesting shop, and way to deal with the mobility skills...although the lack of shelter there is very telling for how overpowered it is in Fates...

 

3 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Roger Suicides

Damn it.

Marth crits him even.

"If my fiancee was alive she would've seduced you, alas..."

Marth is showing us what he truly feels about that, without Caede around to curb his anger. Yeah, that was a tough spot to be in, and poor Goldmary was a unit I ignored last time, and it looks like will remain so this time.

 

Time to reach that checkpoint by finishing chapter 9

Spoiler

Back at the Somniel, the biggest change to things

Is the first buyable seals. That means another promotion to agonize over, an the potential for Second Seal class changes...

Additionally I was given enough funds to get this rather expensive clothes, and buy out the clothier's again

And I put that new drip to use immediately with an improvement of Bouchy Boy's outfit.

The shades add to the cool guy sense of that fabulous jacket and shirt.

While I am usually not a fan of the vest designs on the guys, the floral patterning just meshes well with...with... Amber here.

The Arena is enough to critically get Boucheron to promotion level

And Anna continues to disappoint with even more mediocre levelups.

Now to figure out my promotion. Giving it to one of the mages is starting to get tempting, but I get the feeling I will be dropping at least one of them soon, and I am still a bit uncertain as to which. Promoting Anna, and then reclassing her with a Second Seal is very tempting as well, but what I ended up going with

Was to fix an issue with my team composition, only having one bow user, so with Boucheron

Able to go Warrior for the bow access with Lief's help, I now have another bow wielder to better cover Etie moving to the bench.

Alas the story gives us an explanation for why we aren't in a position to aid in the duel, or respond to its results quickly

On the one hand, I can kind of respect the cautious analysis of this decision, but

That is heavily undercut by knowing that it is covering for a very stupid insistence of following through with obviously dumb toxic masculinity shit

Especially when it is so obviously a trap that even TeeHee recognizes it. Its like he is going out there intending to die.

Hyacinth is so gleeful at his opportunity for revenge against Brodia

And seeing Hyacinth do the punchy combat against Morion's sword is kind of funny to watch.

But once he puts on the ring he changes completely, with those glowing red eyes, and dark purple energy surrounding him.

And he kicks Morion's ass

Hyacinth makes it so obvious that chapter 10 is going to be a trap, goading Diamant right in his fears.

Huh, is this the first time we see Griss and Marni, here carrying off the body of Morion? Its so minor a scene that I kind of forgot about it.

And then he callously tries to sacrifice Ivy quite pointlessly here.

We do have two major ring changes here, first Lief made a lot of sense for Alcryst so that dynamic weapon changes can let him enemy phase at 1-2 range. Also, while it isn't relevant yet, I like Lief on a proc unit to make the Quadruple Hit super better. Giving Roy to Bouchy Boy was some simple favoritism.

As for my deployment, I am mostly bringing the same crew I did last time, with Diamant earning a real spot for now.

We also have a recruitable green unit in Jade here to deal with, and if I ignore her for long enough (or get really unlucky with crits) she can fall here...

Now I am splitting my party in two for this first section, learning from last chapter I made sure to split up TeeHee and Louis, I am splitting my healer"s" with Framme going south, Anna going north, also splitting my mages of Citrinne north, and Celine south, and my archers Boucheron north, Alcryst south (who has not moved yet in the image). That just leaves Diamant and Alfred, who I split north and south respectively. I think this is a bit more balanced split than last time.

Ivy really has been left out here to die, with only the slim hope of dragging a ring off one of our heroe's corpses.

Alas she hasn't thought of the idea of jumping ship over to our side, but she will come around eventually.

Alas, the crit luck is on Jade's side this time around, as she crits one of these enemies on the first turn.

Onto turn two, I open by putting Boucheron's hand me down bows from his friend Etie to good use here.

Citrinne wipes out the infantry unit

For an OK levelup. Not really what she needed, but not bad for a mage.

Diamant kills the remaining flier

With Louis then getting the reliable kill on the last mage. The north was an easy clear

Things are a lot more complicated in the south, with a LOT of these off by just a few damage point ranges coming up

So I feel the need to open with TeeHee

As their debuff lets Alcryst get a perfectly reliable kill on the full health pegasi

Lets Celine get the damage she needs to finish off the full health infantry unit

And even gets Framme the extra damage she needed to kill the last Pegasi there. That was uncomfortably close little section, but we cleared both side on turn two. Onto turn 3

I open with Alcryst Engaging in an instance of undue caution (the only enemy in ran is Zelkov who will stop in the fort)

Before killing this pegasi

And I even blocked off melee access to him to make the Engage on this turn even more unnecessary, but with all these power pools lying around (and probably wanting the Engage for next turn anyway) its not a big deal.

Similarly Bouchy Boy pops the peg in the north

But I can be even more aggressive in this direction

with Louis actually getting the hit here

That lets me get the Warp Ragnarok kill on the otherwise scary Kagetsu immediately

Thanks to that early crit, green Jade even managed to get a kill all on her own.

Zelkov managed to release some reinforcement by reaching his fort, but we prevented the ones on the other side with the early Kagetsu kill. Also sitting on the fort is going to make him annoying to deal with.

Back in the north, I clear out the other unit harassing Jade

I then have the invincible wall of Louis draw in all the physical threats in the north towards him, as we advance in that direction

In the south I open with Celine...missing.

I guess that means I have to do something a bit more extreme, and reliable to this thief instead

That way I can use TeeHee's super to bypass Zelkov's double fort avoid bonus for the kill.

And with Mercurius's help TeeHee gets this... mediocre levelup for them really.

Alfred gets some chip in before

And I end things off by holding the line with an Obstruct staff use. Probably unnecessary, as Framme and Celine can take a physical hit if they have to, but it makes me feel safer.

Leif's dynamic weapon changing does some good here, getting Alcryst this kill here

On the next turn we finally recruit Jade, although I don't expect to end up using her.

Meanwhile in the north, I have Louis override to kill the only magic unit in his direction.

I then have Bouchy Boy Engage to make it certain he can't die, while preparing to enemy phase this section of the map with his trusty hammer, and a fort.

The south is more player phase focused instead, with TeeHee Rapiering one armored knight

Alcryst pops the mage

Celine pops an armored knight (although notably still needing TeeHee's boost to do so). Next I can

...sigh, miss the kill by 1 on the already injured armored knight

Framme then trade switches Alfred to a better one range weapon for enemy phase while getting into this safe pocket away from the enemy.

In the north I just let Bouchy boy do his thing

And he even managed to get a solid enough levelup on his enemy phase slaughter here. Alfred also gets his enemy phase kill on the one health armored knight as well

Onto next turn Framme gets another solid healing levelup

Before Celine finishes off the last enemy in the south. Now I spend a few turns here moving my units towards the center, waiting for engages to run out, to then refill it with gauge refill spaces

I also have Jade and TeeHee get their talk in as well, which is obvious an alternate recruitment conversation possibility, and eventually I am all ready to draw in the bo-

...If this wasn't an ironman, I would probably RNG rig an S rank Dierdre ring, so I no longer have to run into this obnoxious nonsense. Really its fine

I have a second healer

So I can get the chain guard in anyway

Which gets me a very safe opening pot shot on Ivy

And I open the final turn with Louis removing Ivy's chain guarder.

I kill off a few of the cavalry before

TeeHee supering through the rest of Ivy's first health bar

Which also lets Framme kill the last cav with their boost

Celine also safely milks a little chip exp on Ivy

For an odd levelup on her.

The chip also lowers her health for more exp

On Anna's cynical Great Sacrifice for exp move, which gets her another underwhelming levelup.

Let's finish this

And earn a nice little survival levelup on him while I am at it.

Ivy, this is a linked ironman, doing so would have ramifications on everyone playing. Plus I kind of like your flying magic class

TeeHee is even in agreement with me here.

She really is trying her best to summon up the strongest argument for her death here

But that just encourages TeeHee to brutally tear her argument apart here, by pointing out that se doesn't have the support to pull that off

Brutally point out that her father sent her into just battle intending her to die

And just drives the knife in deeper by pointing out that it wouldn't have even been a meaningful death.

Ivy, we will not assist you in suicide.

I do wonder when she decided to be a divine dragon worshiper. Just last chapter she was asking to take her "deity's" soul. Did Hyacinth know, is that why he threw her life away so pointlessly?

And now she rewards us for saving her life, with the information we need...to fall into the Elusian trap.

It does sound like we have an opportunity to catch Sombrom when he is weak, but we are just a little too late...

Is that why TeeHee can't transform into a dragon? Did they just need to eat a Sovereign or two to get that power back?

Hyacinth is about to learn why you don't ally with the leopards eating people's face party

See you soon, I might even use all three of you, we will see, as actually using a busted unit like Kagetsu feels wrong...

It will be as friends, and it is funny that they act like it will be any other way.

It is interesting how we are seeing phenomena of the physical world being attributed to the sinister nature of Sombrom here. Is this how dragons get called deities?

A village of winter festivals? What a strange turn of phrase. It makes me think she is saying she comes from Santa's workshop or something.

We do have one more talk with Veyle before I end things off, but now all the people get to meet her too.

Really lamp-shading the oddities of her split personality induced amnesia there. Evil Veyle is clearly the one directing her movements through the world.

Again we are helpfully directed towards our doom by well meaning people with ties to our foes...

Evil Veyle almost breaks through here, when she notices our ring, but she stumbles off before that awkward reveal can occur, and with her disappearing into the snow, we can move on to the next checkpoint, and I have a fair bit of prepwork to get through for that.

 

 

[Punished Dayni]

Apologies for taking so long, a combination of stuff going on irl (like my headache being tooth based and needing some direct work or getting stuff sorted out for some work involving talking with a bunch of people) and a bit of distractions. And a sin I must confess.

Spoiler

Gamestop decided to shut down here back in June. They were selling everything at discounts and while I could have been more patient for some things (especially on stuff I'd bought before these sales started), I ended up getting 5 games: Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the Klonoa remaster (It was 9 euro, the place I got it was closing down on the day, Of course I got it)...... And several Pokemon titles, because those going any lower in price before disappearing out of stock I wasn't really anticipating.

So I've been playing Pokemon Sword over the last few weeks, ended last week. And man, if this ain't proof Gen 8 is the worst one. Dynamax as a gimmick has the issue of oversimplifying because you have 19 moves at most while Dynamaxed (if you're gigantamaxed one of the moves is switched out and not being able to choose is a weird and bad call imo) and the den raids are too hit and miss if you don't have others to work with and it's integration feels like the gimmick it is with how rare it is outside the stadia, especially with how rare it that that you do raid-style fights in the story before end/postgame. The story is fucked, with Macro Cosmo's leadership being so condescending and stupid I'd believe Elon Musk was CEO if we didn't see Rose and thus dooming everything about the evil team plot. The game would be better with just the gym challenge. Eternatus's part in the lore is honestly too confusing, what does this pokemon made of lineart mean? Is it the cause of the Darkest Day or not? How was it imprisoned and why was it at the energy plant? Leon is pretty annoying and useless, Hop I feel better about but I still take issue with things like how his arc ends and the amount of beating up the game's writing does to him, Marnie is weridly not relevant for being pegged as a rival and is underwhelming, which I'm disappointed to say. The layout of Galar and the routes bothered me personally, not a fan of how the routes were in this game at all, though it can express areas being higher and lower they don't feel as complicated to traverse as the routes of the older games could get. Visually some of the wide shots were fine I felt, a contrast from the obvious deficiencies in stuff like textures and draw distance. The music's kinda meh in the world, but alright in towns and the battle music (with some exceptions, Marnie, the Championship music and those raids come to mind). The handholding isn't on Gen 7's level, but not by much and it's still very railroady. And that's not even talking of all the cut moves and mons, not to mention how limited some 'mon's movesets can feel at points. Or the catching formula being altered to avoid someone catching a level 60 early by making it so if they're any level above you it's 0.1 times catch rate for you. This is a fucking shitshow when it's 1 level above because I'd rather not curbstomp the game because I tried to catch shit. Or the knockoff Jedward arc that they decided to add as the sole postgame not tied to towers, tourneys or titanslaying.

But there's things I liked. Bede is the best rival since Hugh down to his bopping music, high praise. I like the concept of the wild area, much as it's less interesting than I'd have hoped and with how the routes feel in this game SV can't be that much worse. The towns are more hit and miss than I'd like but I do like a decent amount of them (Motostoke, Stow-On-Side, Ballonlea, Circester, even Postwick and Wedgehurst though maybe they should have been the one town) but few if any of them feel that explorable compared to even Gen 7 in terms of the houses (And Stow-On-Side/Ballonlea feel so small), but then again, Stow-On-Side has a moment where you're exploring rooves, which is nice. I'd like to add Spikemuth and Wyndon, but both have the issue of not being able to enter enough places for their size and Wyndon isn't hitting the limits like Lumiose did. And honestly, having the team you used to beat Leon show up in the opening menu once you've cleared the game is nice imo.

Moving on from the sin, let's play a great game! I'll reply to everything I haven't next post, it's late here and I wanted to prove I hadn't died.

Spoiler

Last time, we left off on Roxie having to chase after her dad because he wanted to pursue his dreams of stardom. Let's break a man's hopes and dreams. We go to Pokestar Studios in the pouring rain of Virbank and the moment we enter the talent scout who spoke to us before is talking to an old white guy (aka hollywood exec #321) about us being a star (I am concerned by this coming out of nowhere) and the exec speaks in such strange intonations that there's no way they're implying Stu Deeoh is anything but a stereotyped gay man. We get dragged in and get the tour of the place. Roxie's dad sees us and asks that we watch and learn from him. They also say 8 screens is impressive, but I'm not exactly in a big city and there's 3 cinemas with as many screens. Ah, the joys of condensing stuff like this in video game settings. He's called Midlife Man of Justice in the film intro, oof. The dialogue is about as cheesy as you'd expect from a mid superhero flick, while the audience sleeps. The film even says goodbye Riolu-Man. Roxie's dad is broken by this, retreating to his captaincy.

We get dragged off to make a film now, taking part in recasting after Roxie's dad as Riolu-Man to Brycen-Man. Before that, I note there's possibly a scab in the studio because there's at least one screenwriter. I just get on with clearing this one, which is simple enough with the rental. Get a good ending (Apparently this film made 24 billion pokecurrenccy, which yeesh), leave and go to the pier. Team Plasma are in the way, ugh. I beat the guy, he shouts PLASMAAAAA, we have to chase them, Roxie thanks us saying she might have lost one of her 'mons (Why, you'd have been ambushed in a horde battle? Wrong gen) and get Cut. Then we search for the runaways, find one on Route 20, beat them up (Took a bit more work because rain and Sand Attack), hear them ask why they ran fron the coast when they had a boat, Veardiy notes this and says we should get a boat if they have one. We head back to Virbank and leave for Castelia, after Roxie says to her dad he shouldn't give up on his dreams (but does say don't let them prevent him from ferrying people, effectively dooming his career in acting)

We get a shot of Castelia at night, then arrive. Veardiy notes a weird sailboat after registering me on the Xtransciever, but doesn't realise it could be where he's looking for. After heading towards the city, we get immediately jumped by a clown, who asks us to look for other clowns and gives us a bike.  Accepting this won't be the weirdest thing about Castelia, I get on with looking around the city. I find one in the Battle Company, which will not be faced until I have more mons, I buy repels in advance of the master plan, get items around town without fighting, find out Burgh ain't at the gym and some sassy lost child shows up saying she'll help look for Plasma 2: Icy Boogaloo. After more looking, we find the child leading us to the sewers. Anticipating my death, Veardiy shows up and I can shake the child by following him in. I spray repels, then team up with him. We find the grunts stupid fast, but after beating them rather than chase more we get told not to by Burgh, Veardiy gives me Strength, Some guy in a lab coat and accessories like he's a Vtuber and Burgh says to challenge him.

Might as well do what I repelled for. Takes a shocking amount of time and all the repels I bought (All 5 of them), but Eevee does show up. It also does some good damage when I switch in Abelanne to put it to sleep. Thankfully, the Hypnosis lands, the catch goes off first try, but jeez he took some effort to catch. Welcome to the team Drauis! I'll admit I feel like he'll be a project that I'll debate for a while about what evo I go for, because he could fit in most teams but it'll be dependent on what I'm missing. With that done, might as well get one of my lost catches out of the way with the sewer, which turns out to be a low level Zubat. He gets called Chloeda, one of the ones I never get to use. After leaving the sewers, the lost child tells me to fight Burgh, I go to the centre to deposit Chloeda and save because it is too late for me to be fighting for Exp and prepping for a gym.

TL;DR: We shoot for the stars, reach the mainland and get some future versatility for the team.

Spoiler

Team:

Frain the Lucario

Abelanne the Patrat

Gordie the Growlithe

Drauis the Eevee

Forever boxed:

Chloeda the Zubat

Edited September 14, 2023 by Punished Dayni

[Shrimpica]

20 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

(like my headache being tooth based and needing some direct work

O

Hoping that's better now!

 

[Punished Dayni]

Let's do ALL the replying I missed:

@Shrimpy -Limited Edition-

Spoiler

On 8/30/2023 at 12:05 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Buy myself couple throwing weapons

  Kodachi in Archanea is a weird one for sure.

On 9/2/2023 at 9:56 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

This wasn't in OG Fates was it?

No, it looks neat.

On 9/2/2023 at 9:56 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Title.drop

It's the thing!

On 9/4/2023 at 11:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Oho

Well that looks interesting. How'd they make that work?

On 9/4/2023 at 11:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Myrmidon in disguise?

Draug will change his name to Hsams

On 9/4/2023 at 11:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Wrath and Armored Blow? This girl seems fun

Comes with a Sunrise Katana too, odd with a +Def skill and a crit skill arguably.

On 9/4/2023 at 11:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

I think he'll need a Bathysphere after facing Marth.

On 9/4/2023 at 11:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Minerva and the Squad. They don't attack us on this map, just scare us to death with flying around lol. Whitewing's Personal skill is - you guessed it - Triangle attack!

Well, that makes sense.

On 9/4/2023 at 11:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Hmm...Hitrate without Weapon triangle stuff or Rank bonuses could be a problem.

Please be good Bantu

On 9/4/2023 at 11:42 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Also Navarre going full crit i see!

Makes more sense than Arthur getting it.

On 9/9/2023 at 10:05 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

12x: beat the map in 14 turns, OR have one of Midia, Boah, Tomas, Dolph, or Macellan die in 14 turns (either one).

Tight enough I'd think, but maybe the Fates mechanics changes that.

On 9/9/2023 at 10:05 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

20x: kill Camus, OR, DO NOT recruit Lorenz, (killing him off after recruitment doesn't work).

So Camus has to die then?

Well I hope you don't kill Lorenz then all things considered.

On 9/9/2023 at 10:05 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

I don't have Caeda...Which means i will have to win without killing him or you guys will lose a unit...I will try xD

OOOFF

On 9/9/2023 at 10:05 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

That's a cool skill

Eh

Thanks for the Dual Katana tho

Caeser could be solid eventually, if this skill gets to be active often.

RIP Radd.

On 9/9/2023 at 10:05 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Radd shop Turn 1 - get a couple Lunges, a Shove and a Swap

Huh, that's a nice way of keeping skills in this game.

(Is there a shop between maps?)

 

On 9/9/2023 at 10:05 PM, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

OMG

This guy is going to be a mainstay in this army.

Almost worth benching Drauis to be safe.

13 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

I really have to figure out who's the next sacrificed encounter, going to impact my choices for Elesa for sure.

13 hours ago, Shrimpy -Limited Edition- said:

Hoping that's better now!

It is.

@Newtype06

Spoiler

On 9/1/2023 at 3:42 AM, Newtype06 said:

He doesn't have Liquid Ooze as ability, but Clear Body is still useful

  Can't think of enough cases where Liquid Ooze would be very useful personally, so Clear Body seems the better choice to my mind.

On 9/1/2023 at 3:42 AM, Newtype06 said:

This is another one that could be much better if it had Guts as an ability, but Thick Fat doesn't hurt

Guts is a tad risky, but this line can take the damage.

On 9/1/2023 at 3:42 AM, Newtype06 said:

Buy a few repels from the store. Then make sure you have a level 19 as your primary pokemon, get to the garden and activate your repels while in the dark grass. Now walk around in the dark grass and if done properly you should have a close to 100% chance of everything being a Eevee.

It worked. Just about. I almost ran out without getting any encounters.

On 9/1/2023 at 3:42 AM, Newtype06 said:

Bold of you to assume that you will get there in the first place. Remember, the run is over if I wipe to Wattson, and the chance of that happening is greater than zero.

My chances of wiping to Cheren was greater than zero with how it went.

You can do it!

On 9/1/2023 at 3:42 AM, Newtype06 said:

I have a plan

It's not Electrike tho

Oooh, mystery.

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

As if it weren't enough for us to have to save the asses of these incompetent people, they still CHARGE US to do it

They'll argue Aqua paid to get in and are causing no scenes..... so far.

Truly, they are desperate and need the money.

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

The Grunts here are more interested in the exhibits than battling with you, but we do get something from the guy we beat earlier.

The scenes of him giving the player thief.

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

LMAOOOOOOOOO

That is a worrying sign about the quality of Team Aqua's goons.

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

Doesn't that remind you of something?

What's this from?

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

Okay what mod is this?

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

This is going to be us in the future

So, you're doing contests while I do the filming?

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

Sure, what we don't do for an encounter. Also

🚨🚨TEEHEE ALERT🚨🚨

The Teeheegnal!

*rushes out window

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

The contest is easily won, with Nelson emerging victorious

The competition wasn't even close.

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

I will never play this ever again

Oh phew, guess not.

On 9/5/2023 at 11:47 PM, Newtype06 said:

She can't evolve into Raichu and Eviolite doesn't work on her, but she will be useful for at least the next Gym thanks to her hidden ability, Lightning Rod.It would be my ace in the hole since I lost my Marshtomp, and it looks like RNG is favoring me , since when we step on Route 110...

There we are, the answer. Eviolite is useless though? That sucks man.

(Also, you got a Electrike with Lightning Rod, lol.)

@Eltosian Kadath

Spoiler

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

It is debatable, Ghost and Dark are almost identical offensively, so it feels more like only losing one weakness (only pokes with no other option would bother with both type moves), and those types tend not to be a major threat offensively, whereas Fairy were a major threat on the scene as soon as they arrived, so outside of the Psychic-Steel types, it didn't seem like as large of loss for the gain.

 Fair enough.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

They should have had a scene like the one Zephia has, where she seems like she might recognize Alear, before Alear says they are the divine dragon, to dispell the thought.

Probably.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Don't kid yourself, the obligatory Whismur encounter is lucky to find use as a sack pokemon in most Nuzlockes.

Oh, I know Exploud isn't amazing or anything......

Yeah, I can't defend it too hard.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

She really had to jinx it like that didn't she.

It's moments like this that cemented her as never playable without mods.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I even let it choose its own death on enemy phase

And it chose Bouchey's hammer.

It was big and Bouchy, I'd be surprised if they didn't.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Now for the last loot from the chest, a little bourgeois brat.

I suppose she didn't expect to be the first unit in the series to be gotten from a chest.

Bourgeois, how apt a descriptor.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I hope so, but you are worryingly low level, and I have heard you really want to reclass her to a magic class ASAP, but I haven't unlocked any Second Seals yet, so that will have to wait.

People seemed to defend Warrior Anna with Radiant Bow if I recall Engage discourse.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

...3% of crit death is a bit spicy, but she does live it.

Least she didn't.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

...miss the kill.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

MISS AGAIN....for the love of Lumera you little brat, I have trapped this little thing like a fish in a barrel...

Anna clearly doesn't want to fight with performance like this.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

And Framme just managed to reach promotion level, and another great little levelup at that.

Framme getting ready to box Sombron's ears.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

As that is a dangerously large crit rate, but I was never punished. I was just so irritated by her repeated misses that I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have, speaking of which

She missed right there AGAIN, so I have to get the kill on player phase. This is what I get for coddling her, and not giving her that trial by fire in that first chapter.

Hard to blame you, she's really bad at this.

On 9/2/2023 at 10:57 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

LOL, nope, its all natural 😛

I mean (Spoilers)

Spoiler

Not in practice

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I do also use most of my Arena unses getting TeeHee this solid level, so they don't lose as much experience points when I

Promote them. It just made the most sense on an ironman like this.

I get it, Internal level being the only impact on experience and all.

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

As the Brodians are giving us as warm a welcome as the US police force.

How the right wants their border patrol

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

We see the most ridiculous apology in existence.

Alcryst would win the Gold for performance in apology, by being completely sincere in apologising for being there.

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

TeeHee, you were almost filled with holes...

But he wasn't is what he'd say.

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

And now we meet one of my least favorite playable characters. Not that I don't like her design, and sense of fashion, but the first support she has with TeeHee was enough to convince me never to field her again. Cuteness is not a replacement for a personality, and the annoying brat we see here is what is under that candy finish. Hopefully we don't have enough deaths that I have to end up using her.

Hortensia; a character who's fittingly annoying.

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

It is strange to be getting such basic tutorialization as don't expose your mages and archers, as late as this into the game.

Considering Alcryst is in front there I believe it.

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

And yet that 1 exp was exactly enough to get her another OK level.

MISStress Anna indeed.

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I am way more proud than I should be about legitimately using a smash weapon, for its smash effect here, because

it pushed this cav just into range of a Riderbane kill from Alfred.

WOO SMASH STRATS

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Alas we don't get her ring yet, and she escapes to disappoint her father another day.

That sounds like Hyacinth's default though.

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

The damage to that bridge is rather reminiscent of Mekkah's bridge...I am almost surprised they didn't bring that gimmick back.

It's a surprise it wasn't explicitly referring to that bridge, I was expecting more like that from Engage for a while.

On 9/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

One of those I am denied is the America bird.

You on being denied the birb.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Even speedier...yeah Anna is just too funny to bench...for now.

Warrior Anna confirmed?

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

And Citrinne is rocking those gold rimmed sunglasses, and gold embroidered crimson.

Peak Citrinne fashion.

If she could wear it to battle she'd have 100% crit with the Slay effect.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

The change to these sunglasses almost gives little Clanne a secret agent look to him 😛

Clanne and Framme forming the Elyosian MIB to protect Alear from future Sombrons

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

But with a donation to Brodia for more animal "adoptions", our fashion addiction leaves us basically broke, with only fiddy g to our names

Left with 50g total.

Fashion is killer on your wallet.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

And both Diamant's erratic behavior, and the extremely present low self esteem and/or imposter syndrome of Alcryst is treated very... delicately... by their father, like this soft comment on Alcryst's issues here. Morion walks a fine line, where he is a good enough father to recognize his children's issues, but too uncomfortable with emotions to fully engage with them.

Morion, good father, foolish king?

Now the queen being missing sucks.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

In another instance of what feels like the writers shying away from an interesting idea, we never really see this demon side of his come out, despite being told about it.

If Corrupted Morion had been less Shouty monster and aggressive but cogent, cunning and fierce that could have been nice. His charging later on just makes him look foolish.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Take our SOULS...Really Ivy?

She's really playing the bit.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Oh no, did Hortensia have a crush on us like Goldmary?

I mean, 14 year old being "this be cute" is one thing.

Ivy takinge her at her word is another. A concerning one.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

...huh, I guess Framme became a better fighter than I thought will all those insane levelups of hers.

And it just keeps getting better, doesn't it.

Framme is insisting on being in your party

I might have to insist on benching her to keep Frain safer.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

...How did I get to the point that fighting with Framme legitimately seems like a good idea?

She kept getting attacking stats.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

With enemy Lief's power protecting Louis from enemy phase magic, Louis can get some very easy chip without a super, and this is enough that I think I can squeeze more exp from those last reinforcements before the end.

I keep thinking Loui's hit is always a concern, yet here he is at 83%.

Sure, no WTD on it but still.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

so they can show a fancy animation for all the emblems...even the ones blatantly neglected by IS, like my boy Lief here.

I'm disappointed you didn't go for the t-pose stance all of them do.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

It is interesting how positively they frame such a clear instance of toxic masculinity here, where Morion admits he would literally rather die, than be known as a coward. It is such a clear weakness in the man that our enemy are exploiting to make this next arc a tragedy.

I guess I have been talking around how I think Morion is fettered in these emotional discussions by toxic masculinity, but he is overcoming that thanks to the more positive sides of masculinity of trying to be a good father.

He seems to find showing physical strength to be essential to his reign, to the detriment of logic and how others will behave. He pushed Brodia into invasions of Elusia, but wants to at least keep his sons holding the line if it does go wrong. Maybe he has tried to make his children more open to their emotions and possibly not take his approach to these things.

I wonder how much of this was taught to him from his own youth? How much Brodians were told to aggro others? Engage never engages with the question enough.

On 9/9/2023 at 12:49 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

And reinforce that confidence when it shines through

Morion loves his sons, at least he has that going for him.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

He has his uses, but he is very clearly the worst of the Emblem Rings. Also I meant it a bit more generally, as an extension of how Leif and Thracia get treated by FEH as well, and with how much inspiration they took from his Genealogy form (in both FEH, and this appearance here), when Thracia had a lot of interesting ideas they could have drawn from.

Leif: left to seem undercooked, but at least he can do easier Wrath-Vantage combos.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Marth is showing us what he truly feels about that, without Caede around to curb his anger. Yeah, that was a tough spot to be in, and poor Goldmary was a unit I ignored last time, and it looks like will remain so this time.

Marth will kill all comers confirmed.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

And I put that new drip to use immediately with an improvement of Bouchy Boy's outfit.

#Bouche Fashion

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Able to go Warrior for the bow access with Lief's help, I now have another bow wielder to better cover Etie moving to the bench.

Promoted Boucheron lessgo

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Especially when it is so obviously a trap that even TeeHee recognizes it. Its like he is going out there intending to die.

Morion = I Moron.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

And then he callously tries to sacrifice Ivy quite pointlessly here.

What is with this arc and people doing Suicide by combat?

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Alas she hasn't thought of the idea of jumping ship over to our side, but she will come around eventually.

I feel like she wouldn't be willing to go for it at the time because she's fought against them and still can't get over the situation with her dad, wanting his approval even as he only wants Sombron to make invasion easy for him.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Alas, the crit luck is on Jade's side this time around, as she crits one of these enemies on the first turn.

For some reason I'm thinking of Beyond Good and Evil with one of the NPCs saying Bravo Jade.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

On the next turn we finally recruit Jade, although I don't expect to end up using her.

Huh, he does have a convo with her, news to me.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

And he even managed to get a solid enough levelup on his enemy phase slaughter here. Alfred also gets his enemy phase kill on the one health armored knight as well

Low Str still a worry though.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Ivy, this is a linked ironman, doing so would have ramifications on everyone playing. Plus I kind of like your flying magic class

Please don't, I still don't have a full party and won't before Nimbasa at best

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

But that just encourages TeeHee to brutally tear her argument apart here, by pointing out that se doesn't have the support to pull that off

Brutally point out that her father sent her into just battle intending her to die

And just drives the knife in deeper by pointing out that it wouldn't have even been a meaningful death.

Alear is a savage sometimes.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

I do wonder when she decided to be a divine dragon worshiper. Just last chapter she was asking to take her "deity's" soul. Did Hyacinth know, is that why he threw her life away so pointlessly?

I mean, Hyacinth doesn't seem to give a shit either way to me. Maybe he could have figured it out but I can't say.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Is that why TeeHee can't transform into a dragon? Did they just need to eat a Sovereign or two to get that power back?

Alear being Fell and Divine made it impossible for him to turn, calling it now.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

A village of winter festivals? What a strange turn of phrase. It makes me think she is saying she comes from Santa's workshop or something.

Oh the Annas wouldn't work on the toys, that'd be off brand.

On 9/13/2023 at 1:55 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Evil Veyle almost breaks through here, when she notices our ring, but she stumbles off before that awkward reveal can occur, and with her disappearing into the snow, we can move on to the next checkpoint, and I have a fair bit of prepwork to get through for that.

Eveyle realised the moment wasn't dramatic enough.

I'll be back on this soon enough.

[Venger_06]

I procrastinated too much. Without further ado,

ALPHA SAPPHIRE - GYM 3 PART 3

Spoiler

In preparation for the arduous battle against the rival, Mia evolves

The plan is to bait his Grovyle after beating his Slugma with Dennis so that Nelson one-shots him with Guts-boosted Wing Attack (with the help of Toxic Spikes).

They accomplished more than yours, I guarantee

The plan proceeds well at first, but begins to fall apart when Grovyle's Fury Cutter lands on Nelson. Combined with his poison status his HP is almost in the red after defeating Grovyle. Thus, this causes the next Wailmer's AI to choose an attack randomly. I was expecting Wailmer to use the super effective Rollout, so I sent Slappy, but he preferred to use Whirpool, which critted and left Slappy trapped. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything else to save him.

Marin made short work of him after that, but the damage was done.

Yours more than mine

At least we got that. Making our way to Mauville, we met a familiar face right at the entrance

How can you tell?

 

Terrible idea, but we'll get more into it

Listen to him, kid

You sure?

Well that was anticlimactic. Mia one-shotted him with Bite

Not really, it is simply a difference in skill

No

Fortunately, after that we receive the HM06 Rock Smash and make the final preparations for the Gym. We get a bike some TMs and Theresa evolves

And last but not least

We add Nick the Marill to the team! Luckily his ability is Huge Power

After that, we finally face the leader

I put a Cheri Berry on Mia so I could safely two shot the Magnemite with Rock Smash. This baited his Magneton, who after having his attack lowered and being hit by a +1 Draining Kiss, was promptly one-shotted by Theresa's Bulldoze, which swept the rest of his team as well.

I was worried about this Gym, but it was easier than the battle against the rival

I'm sorry.

3 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Guts is a tad risky, but this line can take the damage.

OOF 😕

3 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

My chances of wiping to Cheren was greater than zero with how it went.

The chances of someone wiping to Cheren are almost always 50%. Challenge Mode Cheren is the only gym leader in the franchise who can consistently wipe you and there is nothing you can do to stop it unless you have Lucario.

3 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

What's this from?

Persona 4.

3 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Okay what mod is this?

Mod?

3 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

So, you're doing contests while I do the filming?

Only this time around. Also,

Pokestar>>>>>>>>Contests