To Become an Elitist [Playlogs FE1-5] [currently playing: Genealogy]

[ping]

Gaiden starts here

Mystery (Book 1) starts here

Mystery (Book 2) starts here

Genealogy starts here

In my very important career as a Fire Emblem player, there has been one very big problem: I am nothing. I can't be an Awakening (or Fates or 3H) baby: I have never played a newer FE game than New Mystery. But I can also not be an oldschool elitist: I have never finished a FE game older than Binding Blade. It is time to change that. And since I don't plan to get any Nintendo console or handheld anytime soon (and don't want to aquire new-ish games through other means), the only sensible choice is to finally go through with it and play through the NES and SNES era of the Fire Emblem series.

This is not going to be a blind experience - I've played a bit of FE1-4 before, although Gaiden is the only one that I played a significant portion of. But I know enough of the unique mechanics that I won't take any request to train up a healer in FE1, and I'm familiar enough with FE4's story that nobody needs to worry about spoiling any major events that may or may not unfold halfway through the game.

I'll keep my posts largely focussed on the gameplay, and more "this is how I played the map" than "omg, look at these old mechanics". Similar to the PoR Maniac playlog that I had been doing the past few months, basically.

Feel free to suggest characters for me to use, or pairings to go for in Geneology. Since these are going to be first playthroughs (apart from maybe the first chapters, or half the game in Gaiden's case), I'll take the liberty to, like, not train Riff in FE1, but I will make an effort to use "non-meta" characters when requested.

Tagging @Saint Rubenio so he can start tearring into me for not playing the other, superior Kaga games.

Finally - to add some opinions to argue about, I'll also add the games into my existing (since roughly 10 minutes ago) tier list of FE games. Entirely subjective, of course, and I won't make a detailed ranking system as it exists in the far more extensive thread made by Alistar for the past couple years. This is how my FE6-12 list looks:

Spoiler

...with the B-tier, and thus every single FE game I've finished, qualifying as "above average". So, without further ado:

• FE1 Chapter 1 - Marth's Quest

Spoiler

The most classic of classic opening FE maps. Almost exclusively enemy Brigands, with only one Hunter and one Thief among them. Their heavy axes weigh every brigand down to zero, which means that everybody is able to double them, although not necessarily with every weapon they could use.

I play this map considering Sheeda (and I'll try to stick to the names that the translation patch is using) as the main XP recipient. So, Abel sets up the Thief kill for her, while Marth visits the village, DOGA buys an Iron Sword (for Marth) and an Iron Lance (for Sheeda), and Kain and Jeigan take run ahead a bit. Jeigan keeps doing a lot of chipping (and ends up killing the Hunter) and gains a lot of XP that way - I believe Dark Dragon and Gaiden award chip XP based on the damage you do, so with Jeigan doubling and almost killing Brigands, he gained like 16 XP per round of combat.

The map is very straight-forward, of course, with the biggest "twist" probably being the three Brigands water-walking towards the middle fort for a bit of a pincer manoeuvre. DOGA ended up engaging them, after giving the newly bought weapons to the recipients, setting up some kills in the process. Gordon was the only character who ended up not doing anything, except for also visiting the shop to buy two Javelins.

Only three characters earned a level-up this map: Sheeda (Pow, WLv, Spd, Lck), Jeigan (Spd), and Kain (HP, Skl, WLv). Sheeda made good leeway towards Lv.3 by getting the boss kill; set up by Jeigan and taken with an Iron Lance. I didn't do the full math, but assumed that one-shotting with the Iron Lance would be more reliable than hoping for two Iron Sword hits. Jeigan hit three out of four attacks during enemy phase and then player phase, which left Gazzak at 6 HP, enough that nobody else had to get a hit in.

The Team:

	Lv  	HP  Pow Skl WLv Spd Lck Def
Marth	1.54	18    5   3   5   7   7   7
Jeigan	*/2.08	20    7  10  10   9   1   9
Kain	2.23	19    7   6   6   6   3   7
Abel	1.23	18    6   7   6   7   2   7

DOGA	1.72	18    7   3   4   3   1  11
Gordon	1.00	16    5   1   5   4   4   6
Sheeda	2.74	16    4   6   8  13  10   7
Riff	1.00	16    1   5   3   7   1   3

And my initial impressions:

• I heard that Marth is very good in this game, thanks to the AI's overwhelming urge to attack him even over the most squishy of healers, and later thanks to Marth-exclusive swords. I'm curious to see how he develops; his growth seem decent, but not necessarily high enough to outweigh the lack of promotion without those unique boons.
• Jeigan seems like he's going to be overtaken by Kain and Abel pretty soon. Right now, he's a bit bulkier and he has a non-zero attack speed with lances, which might allow him to increase his damage by using those over swords.
• It's probably RNG-based whether Kain or Abel ends up better. Interestingly, Kain has lower Pow growth, but higher Spd growth than Abel, but it's just a 10% difference. At base level, I just realise, Abel shares with Jeigan the advantage of non-zero attack speed using an Iron Lance or Javelin, so he would've been able to double Brigands with them.
• Oh god, DOGA has awful growths. And it seems that he can't promote. Welp.
• Gordon also has awful growths, but at least he'd get a big bonus when promoting to Sniper. Hmmm, Tomas looks like a surprisingly decent character, being only two levels from promotion.
• Sheeda does seem very good. Yes, her Pow is really bad, but she'll get a boost to 9 when promoting (which also means that her +Pow level-up in this chapter won't matter at all long-term) and her overkill Spd should allow her to double with lances consistently. With Jeigan's Silver Lance (which she can use at base), she reaches 16 Atk / 6 AS (15 / 5 at base), compared to Kain's 12 Atk / 4 AS with an Iron Sword. Even with an Iron Lance, she'll be at 12 Atk / 7 AS, which may or may not be relevant when it'll come to doubling enemy sword users.
• Riff has funnily low growths. And a funnily obnoxious way of leveling up. Getting him to the WLv needed to use advanced spells like Warp or Physic seems... unlikely.

 

Edited February 20 by ping

[Saint Rubenio]

15 minutes ago, gnip said:

Tagging @Saint Rubenio so he can start tearring into me for not playing the other, superior Kaga games.

On the contrary, I support playing FE1. Not enough people do. It's a very interesting game, it's better than FE3 book 1.

15 minutes ago, gnip said:

I'll take the liberty to, like, not train Riff in FE1, but I will make an effort to use "non-meta" characters when requested.

Consider this my "use Riff" post.

15 minutes ago, gnip said:

I'll try to stick to the names that the translation patch is using

I sincerely wish I could plug the best patch, but alas, the only thing in English I can find is like, a tentative release that never got past chapter 1.

He did, however, translate the manual to English in its entirety, if you're interested in checking that piece of history. Personally, I found that having the manual open on the side for numbers and calculations really helped the FE1 experience, so I would definitely recommend grabbing it. Here's a link.

15 minutes ago, gnip said:

Jeigan seems like he's going to be overtaken by Kain and Abel pretty soon. Right now, he's a bit bulkier and he has a non-zero attack speed with lances, which might allow him to increase his damage by using those over swords

He's doubly hilarious because you can just hand his silver lance to Sheeda.

Still, this game's statboosters being what they are, it's very easy to just give Jeigan a couple boosters and let him keep up, if you're not doing the boring meta thing of just feeding Marth into a powerhouse of a provoke bot.

[ping]

17 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He did, however, translate the manual to English in its entirety, if you're interested in checking that piece of history. Personally, I found that having the manual open on the side for numbers and calculations really helped the FE1 experience, so I would definitely recommend grabbing it. Here's a link.

I can't deny the historical value of old video game manuals, but as far as calcs go, I already have this useful reference sheet open when playing:

Spoiler

Swords:
	Iron - 	 5 mt, 2 wt, 100 hit
	Steel -  8 mt, 4 wt, 80 hit
	Silver - 12 mt, 3 wt, 100 hit
	Rapier - 5 mt, 2 wt, 100 hit

Lances:
	Iron -   8 mt, 6 wt, 80 hit
	Silver - 12 mt, 7 wt, 80 hit
	Jav -    7 mt, 6 wt, 70 hit

Bows:
	Iron -   4 mt, 1 wt, 90 hit
	Steel -  7 mt, 3 wt, 80 hit
	Bowgun - 5 mt, 2 wt, 100 hit

Axes:
	Iron -   7 mt, 7 wt, 80 hit
	Steel -  9 mt, 9 wt, 70 hit
	Hand -   5 mt, 9 wt, 60 hit
	Hammer - 6 mt, 6 wt, 70 hit

Tomes:
	Fire - 	5 mt, 0 Wt, 100 hit
	Thundr- 6 mt, 1 wt, 90 hit
	blizz - 7 mt, 2 wt, 80 hit
	elfire- 9 mt, 5 wt, 80 hit
	bolgan- 12 mt, 6 wt, 70 hit
	thoron- 13 mt, 3 wt, 100 hit
	swarm -	16 mt, 9 wt, 70 hit
	imhullu-14 mt, 9 wt, 70 hit

	aura -	20 mt, 7 wt, 90 hit
	excal - 13 mt, 3 wt, 100 hit
	starl - 13 mt, 5 wt, 100 hit

 

We young folks (by which I mean "younger than 45", considering FE1 is from 1990) don't appreciate the luxury of the game displaying even just the attack power a character has, nevermind features like a battle forecast.

 

17 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

this game's statboosters being what they are

...oh my.

Edited August 26, 2023 by gnip

[Saint Rubenio]

14 minutes ago, gnip said:

I can't deny the historical value of old video game manuals, but as far as calcs go, I already have this useful reference sheet open when playing:

  Reveal hidden contents

Swords:
	Iron - 	 5 mt, 2 wt, 100 hit
	Steel -  8 mt, 4 wt, 80 hit
	Silver - 12 mt, 3 wt, 100 hit
	Rapier - 5 mt, 2 wt, 100 hit

Lances:
	Iron -   8 mt, 6 wt, 80 hit
	Silver - 12 mt, 7 wt, 80 hit
	Jav -    7 mt, 6 wt, 70 hit

Bows:
	Iron -   4 mt, 1 wt, 90 hit
	Steel -  7 mt, 3 wt, 80 hit
	Bowgun - 5 mt, 2 wt, 100 hit

Axes:
	Iron -   7 mt, 7 wt, 80 hit
	Steel -  9 mt, 9 wt, 70 hit
	Hand -   5 mt, 9 wt, 60 hit
	Hammer - 6 mt, 6 wt, 70 hit

Tomes:
	Fire - 	5 mt, 0 Wt, 100 hit
	Thundr- 6 mt, 1 wt, 90 hit
	blizz - 7 mt, 2 wt, 80 hit
	elfire- 9 mt, 5 wt, 80 hit
	bolgan- 12 mt, 6 wt, 70 hit
	thoron- 13 mt, 3 wt, 100 hit
	swarm -	16 mt, 9 wt, 70 hit
	imhullu-14 mt, 9 wt, 70 hit

	aura -	20 mt, 7 wt, 90 hit
	excal - 13 mt, 3 wt, 100 hit
	starl - 13 mt, 5 wt, 100 hit

 

We young folks (by which I mean "younger than 45", considering FE1 is from 1990) don't appreciate the luxury of the game displaying even just the attack power a character has, nevermind features like a battle forecast.

You talk like I were not younger than 45 myself lol. The manual has weapon reference sheets that are pretty much identical to that shit, just with a bit more visual flair. Swapping over to check values in the manual is the same thing as doing it with that, I found it a pretty enjoyable experience myself. Then again, maybe I just got subconscious nostalgia for my childhood days of playing Papers Please.

Still, I get it. I would definitely recommend giving the manual a read nonetheless, just for curiosity's sake. There's some fun stuff in there. The manual is how you figure out who the fuck that old guy that appears out of nowhere in chapter 3's outro is!

14 minutes ago, gnip said:

...oh my.

With magic not being affected by strength and promotion bringing you to only the class bases, there's basically only one true difference between the mages: which one you give the speed ring, if any. 

Wendel and Boa are objectively superior because they are already promoted about 13 chapters before any other magician can promote. Malik and Rinda don't get much out of promoting either, since again, no stat affects their usage of their fancy tomes. Rena, Maria, Eris and Riff are virtually identical, worse versions of Wendel and Boa, save for the very whatever hammerne access Rena has.

What I'm getting at is, Riff viable. Use him. He's not in FE3, this is your only chance, you must take it.

[Punished Dayni]

I mean, there's things I've liked about modern FE, but if you want to go for it, go ahead. And hey, you'll probably have more of a mindset to clear the first game than I'll ever have.

Thracia does have it's moments though.

1 hour ago, gnip said:

Feel free to suggest characters for me to use, or pairings to go for in Geneology. Since these are going to be first playthroughs (apart from maybe the first chapters, or half the game in Gaiden's case), I'll take the liberty to, like, not train Riff in FE1, but I will make an effort to use "non-meta" characters when requested.

Alright, one rec per?

SDatBoL: Use Darros make him sail.

Gaiden: Get Deen, his hair isn't in his eyes unlike the remake.

MotEI: Make Biraku/Vyland/whatever he's called nowadays your main cav

MotEII: Warren. I have no reasons.

Genealogy: I am of the opinion Aideen/Midir is the better pick, go with it.

T776: I say Marty, you say Party.

If I limit it to one, let it be Warren.

1 hour ago, gnip said:

FE1 Chapter 1 - Marth's Quest

Good luck.

1 hour ago, gnip said:

I heard that Marth is very good in this game, thanks to the AI's overwhelming urge to attack him even over the most squishy of healers, and later thanks to Marth-exclusive swords. I'm curious to see how he develops; his growth seem decent, but not necessarily high enough to outweigh the lack of promotion without those unique boons.

Mercurius doubles his gains in SDatBoL I think, making for an interesting proposition of delaying levels on him for this later on.

2 hours ago, gnip said:

Oh god, DOGA has awful growths. And it seems that he can't promote. Welp.

Doga of the bench. 😞

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

On the contrary, I support playing FE1. Not enough people do. It's a very interesting game, it's better than FE3 book 1.

-No Wrys, No Darros, no Pyrathi, merging chapters 4 and 5 together, no ballistae, no busted Bantu

Fair.

[Saint Rubenio]

15 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

-No Riff, No Darros, no Pyrathi, merging chapters 4 and 5 together, no ballistae, no busted Bantu

Fair.

fify

And being serious (and subjective, for this is only my humble and personal opinion), FE3 book 1 is a tiny bit more modernized than FE1 without being anywhere close to the smooth, convenient, pleasant game feel of Shadow Dragon. It's also not nearly as interesting as FE1, with all the cut content and less exotic mechanics and portrait art that's just plain ugly instead of endearingly ugly.

So, for me, FE3 book 1 ends up being stuck in an awkward position where if I wanted a smooth experience, I'd go SD, and if I wanted an exploration of a unique piece of FE history, I'd go FE1. FE3 book 1 is just the boring, watered-down one.

[ping]

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

I mean, there's things I've liked about modern FE, but if you want to go for it, go ahead. And hey, you'll probably have more of a mindset to clear the first game than I'll ever have.

Just to be clear, I don't mean to trashtalk modern Fire Emblem, let alone peeps who enjoy those new games. My sole reasoning is that PC gaming is easily able to fill my allotted video games time, so I don't feel like investing into any consoles.

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

Thracia does have it's moments though.

I'm going into this with a strict "no emulator saves" policy. We'll see if it'll hold up throughout T776.

Character requests are noted - I don't really have any restrictions in mind, other than a personal veto if I find that it will make things too difficult or tedious, like the unlikely case that I suddenly have to cycle through 30 characters during Book 1.

Edited August 26, 2023 by gnip

[Punished Dayni]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And being serious (and subjective, for this is only my humble and personal opinion), FE3 book 1 is a tiny bit more modernized than FE1 without being anywhere close to the smooth, convenient, pleasant game feel of Shadow Dragon. It's also not nearly as interesting as FE1, with all the cut content and less exotic mechanics and portrait art that's just plain ugly instead of endearingly ugly.

There's a couple things about MotE that make it playable for me vs. SDatBoL, but I won't pretend like I'm chomping at the bit to play BI again, probably the same with BII if I ever get to finishing it.

5 minutes ago, gnip said:

Just to be clear, I don't mean to trashtalk modern Fire Emblem, let alone peeps who enjoy those new games. My sole reasoning is that PC gaming is easily able to fill my allotted video games time, so I don't feel like investing into any consoles.

On the one hand, fair.

On the other hand, Nintendo PC is a thing for a reason, Citra is long proven (well, if your PC is not a potato) and Switch Emulation is in a pretty useable state from what I've heard (And I doubt there'll be Denuvo put on older titles, smh that that's happening)

6 minutes ago, gnip said:

I'm going into this with a strict "no emulator saves" policy. We'll see if it'll hold up throughout T776.

I was not ready back when I played.

I reset Turn 1 of chapter 19 so many times in that on-off period of 6 months.

7 minutes ago, gnip said:

Character requests are noted - I don't really have any restrictions in mind, other than a personal veto if I find that it will make things to difficult or tedious, like the unlikely case that I suddenly have to cycle through 30 characters during Book 1.

I might try to think of a less meta pairing for Genealogy, but considering how some of the pairings can at times be worse than subs, I don't know that I will.

[Shaky Jones]

3 hours ago, gnip said:

In my very important career as a Fire Emblem player, there has been one very big problem: I am nothing. I can't be an Awakening (or Fates or 3H) baby: I have never played a newer FE game than New Mystery. But I can also not be an oldschool elitist: I have never finished a FE game older than Binding Blade

Me when I hate the same number of old and new games (FE le bad)

3 hours ago, gnip said:

Feel free to suggest characters for me to use, or pairings to go for in Geneology. Since these are going to be first playthroughs (apart from maybe the first chapters, or half the game in Gaiden's case), I'll take the liberty to, like, not train Riff in FE1, but I will make an effort to use "non-meta" characters when requested.

Cord.

It was inevitable. I'll say more recommendations when you get to them. I'll probably forget them myself otherwise.

3 hours ago, gnip said:

I heard that Marth is very good in this game, thanks to the AI's overwhelming urge to attack him even over the most squishy of healers, and later thanks to Marth-exclusive swords. I'm curious to see how he develops; his growth seem decent, but not necessarily high enough to outweigh the lack of promotion without those unique boons.

He's certainly interesting from a gameplay perspective, partially due to the ai, but also something else that will be mentioned in a bit.

3 hours ago, gnip said:

Jeigan seems like he's going to be overtaken by Kain and Abel pretty soon. Right now, he's a bit bulkier and he has a non-zero attack speed with lances, which might allow him to increase his damage by using those over swords.

Jeigan's pretty good for quite a while. Besides being the badass iconic old man to begin all old men with his crazy shoulder spikes, he perfectly sets up kills for about 1/4 or 1/3 or the game (I don't exactly recall) for everyone else, so it's pretty good to deploy him for that. Unless, you know, you level strength. Like me. In chapter 1. And then he 1rko's. And eats all the xp. It's crazy what one strength growth does for him. A lot of prepromotes in this game are quite competent. But yes, Cain/Abel can get pretty broken with not only being able to promote in this primitive game, but having good growths for FE1 standards as well. My Abel I believe was stupid strong. Felt unfair.

3 hours ago, gnip said:

• Oh god, DOGA has awful growths. And it seems that he can't promote. Welp.
• Gordon also has awful growths, but at least he'd get a big bonus when promoting to Sniper. Hmmm, Tomas looks like a surprisingly decent character, being only two levels from promotion.

The game has enemy generals, and yet yours can't promote. That is so stupid. Why FE1? Why!?

 

Gordin vs basically every other bow user is a classic example of how FE1 functions as far as unit balance goes. Gordin's growths are awful, but he's one of the only archers in the game, so only he can promote, right besides his best friend Tomas. Sedgar/Wolf offer better growths and have much more move, but they can't promote. The same goes for Castor, only without the move part, but his availability is better I suppose. I definitely recommend Tomas. Do it. If you need a bow user before then, just use Jeorge and the wolfguard as temporary set up killers, or whatever the Fe1 names are. I'm just gonna refer to everyone by their DS names alright?

3 hours ago, gnip said:

Sheeda does seem very good. Yes, her Pow is really bad, but she'll get a boost to 9 when promoting (which also means that her +Pow level-up in this chapter won't matter at all long-term) and her overkill Spd should allow her to double with lances consistently. With Jeigan's Silver Lance (which she can use at base), she reaches 16 Atk / 6 AS (15 / 5 at base), compared to Kain's 12 Atk / 4 AS with an Iron Sword. Even with an Iron Lance, she'll be at 12 Atk / 7 AS, which may or may not be relevant when it'll come to doubling enemy sword users.

Uh oh

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

On the contrary, I support playing FE1. Not enough people do. It's a very interesting game, it's better than FE3 book 1.

Can't be right about everything.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Consider this my "use Riff" post.

Or you could use him in a good game.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He's doubly hilarious because you can just hand his silver lance to Sheeda.

So she can gift it to one of her dozen boyfriends? Pah! I scoff at the thought. 

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Still, this game's statboosters being what they are, it's very easy to just give Jeigan a couple boosters and let him keep up, if you're not doing the boring meta thing of just feeding Marth into a powerhouse of a provoke bot.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What I'm getting at is, Riff viable. Use him. He's not in FE3, this is your only chance, you must take it.

Half of me regrets playing FE1 in such a boring way. The other half of me is glad I sped through the game like a Fire Emblem dad dashes to his grave. Ain't no way I'm spending my week with that janky ass convoy system and complete lack of a battle window.

It's hard to justify not being meta so you can speed through the game faster. Let's be real. Most people who play FE1 only do it once for the sake of it. Hell, I only played it out of respect for Archanea when I got my hands on the 30th anniversary collection.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Personally, I found that having the manual open on the side for numbers and calculations really helped the FE1 experience

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

3 hours ago, gnip said:

We young folks (by which I mean "younger than 45", considering FE1 is from 1990) don't appreciate the luxury of the game displaying even just the attack power a character has, nevermind features like a battle forecast.

You talk like I were not younger than 45 myself

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wendel and Boa are objectively superior because they are already promoted about 13 chapters before any other magician can promote. Malik and Rinda don't get much out of promoting either, since again, no stat affects their usage of their fancy tomes. Rena, Maria, Eris and Riff are virtually identical, worse versions of Wendel and Boa, save for the very whatever hammerne access Rena has.

There literally isn't an FE game where Wendel is bad. The closest is FE12, and even then, he's very useful on lunatic/lunatic reverse. I love that sweet old pope.

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

I mean, there's things I've liked about modern FE, but if you want to go for it, go ahead. And hey, you'll probably have more of a mindset to clear the first game than I'll ever have.

Modern FE has good things and awful garbage. Old FE also has good things and awful garbage, but with a different coat of paint. 

I tried getting into FE1 with a clear mindset, given my astounding love for FE11, but NES FE is simply too painful to bear. I do have things I want to praise FE1 or, but in a later post.

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

If I limit it to one, let it be Warren.

Thank you

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

Mercurius doubles his gains in SDatBoL I think, making for an interesting proposition of delaying levels on him for this later on.

There it is.

So, either you give Marth a ton of xp to make him strong for a large portion of the game to trivialize the enemy ai's sense of logic, or you wait til you obtain the Mercurius and potentially receive a degree of serotonin that creates ascension. 

Not like it matters if you just throw a single stat booster.

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

-No Wrys, No Darros, no Pyrathi, merging chapters 4 and 5 together, no ballistae, no busted Bantu

No Wrys and Darros. That's a crime. I understand Ruben's disdain for FE3 B1 there. Most chapters that are removed are honestly a benefit to me. They're the chapters I don't really care for, and I am above ballistaes.

Bantu is awesome in FE1, but FE3 Bantu ain't no laughing matter. With that game, you actually transform into a dragon with the stone's usage, and it's one of my favorite forms of playing as a manakete from a gameplay perspective. 20 fixed damage AND 1-2 range WHILE you get to be a badass old dragon? Holy Cannoli!

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

portrait art that's just plain ugly instead of endearingly ugly.

Okay. Now we throwing hands.

20 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

On the other hand, Nintendo PC is a thing for a reason

Me too poor

 

[Saint Rubenio]

19 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Or you could use him in a good game.

Which one? The plan doesn't include Shadow Dragon and he's not in FE3. He needs to Riff up here. It's his only chance.

19 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Half of me regrets playing FE1 in such a boring way. The other half of me is glad I sped through the game like a Fire Emblem dad dashes to his grave. Ain't no way I'm spending my week with that janky ass convoy system and complete lack of a battle window.

Meanwhile, I had a fun time. I had a funner time than with multiple other FEs. Sue me.

19 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

It's hard to justify not being meta so you can speed through the game faster. Let's be real. Most people who play FE1 only do it once for the sake of it. Hell, I only played it out of respect for Archanea when I got my hands on the 30th anniversary collection.

Imagine falling for Nintendo's FOMO tactics instead of playing the game with a fun fanslation patch instead. I'll bet he wasn't even called Riff in your version!

19 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

There literally isn't an FE game where Wendel is bad. The closest is FE12, and even then, he's very useful on lunatic/lunatic reverse. I love that sweet old pope.

Wendell's great. He gives Kris his hat in FE12 so Kris can become Worse Wendell.

20 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

No Wrys and Darros. That's a crime. I understand Ruben's disdain for FE3 B1 there.

I am glad we can reach an understanding there, at least.

20 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Okay. Now we throwing hands.

Come at me. Before you have time to draw your gun, I will have you buried underneath a maelstrom of boulders.

[Punished Dayni]

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

Bantu is awesome in FE1, but FE3 Bantu ain't no laughing matter. With that game, you actually transform into a dragon with the stone's usage, and it's one of my favorite forms of playing as a manakete from a gameplay perspective. 20 fixed damage AND 1-2 range WHILE you get to be a badass old dragon? Holy Cannoli!

Oh yeah, but I said busted because of the ability to make Bantu unkillable full stop with statboosters.

I wish we'd get this kind of manakete again though.

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

Me too poor

I realise with a worse PC there's limits, but I'm assuming that's not the case for gnip here.

And even if you're using a mobile device for it, there are options there. Of course, the power of that device is another question.

59 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Imagine falling for Nintendo's FOMO tactics instead of playing the game with a fun fanslation patch instead. I'll bet he wasn't even called Riff in your version!

The FOMO pissed me off, I would have gotten it otherwise.

[ping]

• FE1 Chapter 2 - Garda Pirates

Spoiler

So Thief AI sure is a thing in this game... He first retreated to the forest in the northeast corner, then attacked Darros from that forest as he was trying to kindly split his head, then didn't pursue Darros even though he was in kill range (I did not expect the thief to attack on player phase), and then he decided to move from the forest after all - not to attack Darros (who was out of range at that point), not to attack Riff who was hoping for a nice chunk of not-die XP... nope! To suicide into Oguma! ...what? I suspect that Marth visiting the only village on the map had a part in this irrational behaviour, but even then, attacking Oguma over Riff sure is a choice.

Confusion-induced chances of death for Daros that turned out not to be chances of death aside, the map is a bit too empty to be really difficult. You can split up your forces to tackle both groups of enemies fairly safely, even when trying to feed XP to superstars such as Maji, Daros, or Riff. Out of the three, Riff actually gained the most XP (by four points, but still) by getting attacked four times by the enemy Hunter. He only needed a single Vuln use to supplement fort healing, too! Unfortunately, Oguma grabbed a fair bit of XP, too, by the aformentioned Thief kill, as well as a crit kill against a Pirate on the second turn.

You do get somewhat swarmed by the enemies coming from the west on turn three, made a bit more difficult by the enemy Pirates' ability to water-walk. Nothing too drastic, though, and after the group has been cleared, all left to do is recruit Kashim: Jeigan pulled him and his buddy over, Sheeda gave him her stern talking to, map done.

Well, apart from the boss kill, of course. Unfortunately, Sheeda missed two attempts with an Iron Lance, which means that Abel had to take the kill. Well, it was him or Marth, and new information about doubled growths in the lategame mean that I don't want to go out of my way to feed him XP. Abel thanked me with an HP/Skl/WLv level-up - the same one that Kain already gained twice, out of two level-ups. I'm sure Ruben will appreciate my bad luck with these high-tier scrub characters. Maybe he'll also appreciate the irony that after me shit-talking Riff's WLv stat, he responded by gaining WLv and nothing else with his first level-up.

Shopping-wise, I got two Hammers (Daros has 1 AS with these!), as well as a regular ol' Iron Axe and a Hand Axe.

The Team:

	Lv  	HP  Pow Skl WLv Spd Lck Def
Marth	2.33	19    5   3   5   8   8   7
Jeigan	2.34	20    7  10  10   9   1   9
Kain	3.16	20    7   7   7   6   3   7
Abel	2.25	19    6   8   7   7   2   7

DOGA	1.82	18    7   3   4   3   1  11
Gordon	1.00	16    5   1   5   4   4   6
Sheeda	3.44	17    4   7   8  14  11   7
Riff	2.04	16    1   5   4   7   1   3

Saji	3.11	20    8   4   5   7   1   5
Maji	4.00	21    8   6   3   9   5   6
Barts	5.00	24   10   6   6   9   5   6
Oguma	2.78	20    6  11   6  12   3   6

Daros	3.50	21    6   2   6   7   7   5
Kashim	3.28	21    7   2   6   6   5   4

And initial thoughts on the recruits:

• Saji / Bord is easily the weakest of the Axe Bro trio, with a pitiful 10% Spd growth and not really anything to positively set him apart.
• Maji / Cord is... still not great, considering his average growths and lack of promotion (which he shares with the other Axe Bros, of course). His most remarkable growths are 100% HP and 40% Def; unfortunately, they aren't that great offensively. His low base WLv actually doesn't matter at all, since the only axe he can't use is the Devil Axe... which of course also means that there is no Silver Axe that he would be able to upgrade to.
• Barts seems pretty decent, actually. 50%+ growths in every stat that counts, very good base stats... yeah, he'd probably hold up fairly well despite the lack of promotion.
• Oguma's growths aren't amazing, but 12 base Spd certainly is. The Hero promotion doesn't seem to be that amazing, with Ogma being fairly likely to hit some of its base stats before reaching Lv.10, but he still seems solid.
• Daros has the same growths growths as Saji, except for zero Skl, as well as lower Lck and Def. That's funny. He'll desperately want a Speedwing (if not two, I don't know how enemy Spd progression will look) and a Secret Book. That said, Skl only increases hit 1:1, so I guess being permanently stuck with 2 is not as bad as it would be in later games..?
• Like DOGA, Kashim cannot promote despite what would become his promoted class already being present in the game. He does have significantly better growths than Gordon in almost every way to compensate - only his WLv is shaky. With a 20% growth, he'll probably be able to get the one proc he needs to use Silvers, but getting to 13 for Parthia seems like a stretch. Overall... eh. Could be worse, could be a lot better.

 

3 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Cord.

It was inevitable.

It was. I saw your name under "Recently Browsing" earlier and wondered why you hadn't made your request order yet.

Although there is no Cord in this game. There is only Maji.

2 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

I realise with a worse PC there's limits, but I'm assuming that's not the case for gnip here.

For what it's worth, my ol' laptop is starting to show its age. Enough to run stuff that isn't too hard on graphics, which suits me fine since I'm more of a strategy gamer anyway, but for example I'm pretty sure that Baldur's Gate 3 is not an option until I upgrade.

Never looked into Citra, so I don't know how demanding it is. For what it's worth, Dolphin runs OK, although Radiant Dawn does not run at 100% speed at all times.

[Saint Rubenio]

5 minutes ago, gnip said:

Maji / Cord is... still not great, considering his average growths and lack of promotion (which he shares with the other Axe Bros, of course). His most remarkable growths are 100% HP and 40% Def; unfortunately, they aren't that great offensively. His low base WLv actually doesn't matter at all, since the only axe he can't use is the Devil Axe... which of course also means that there is no Silver Axe that he would be able to upgrade to.

[ping]

16 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's... +6 Str, admittedly worse than average Spd, +8 Lck, +6 Def, and a non-zero Res stat. Gee, I wonder what stat boosters you gave him.

(for reference, Barst caps at 17.5 Str, 16.5 Spd, and 13.5 Def without any stat boosters)

[Saint Rubenio]

6 minutes ago, gnip said:

That's... +6 Str, admittedly worse than average Spd, +8 Lck, +6 Def, and a non-zero Res stat. Gee, I wonder what stat boosters you gave him.

(for reference, Barst caps at 17.5 Str, 16.5 Spd, and 13.5 Def without any stat boosters)

One defense booster and one res booster. For the record, he already had the biggest defense in the team when I gave it to him for good measure. The massive strength and the rest? Entirely his doing.

[Punished Dayni]

1 minute ago, gnip said:

FE1 Chapter 2 - Garda Pirates

Garda pirates

3 minutes ago, gnip said:

So Thief AI sure is a thing in this game... He first retreated to the forest in the northeast corner, then attacked Darros from that forest as he was trying to kindly split his head, then didn't pursue Darros even though he was in kill range (I did not expect the thief to attack on player phase), and then he decided to move from the forest after all - not to attack Darros (who was out of range at that point), not to attack Riff who was hoping for a nice chunk of not-die XP... nope! To suicide into Oguma! ...what? I suspect that Marth visiting the only village on the map had a part in this irrational behaviour, but even then, attacking Oguma over Riff sure is a choice.

That's a funny moment for sure.

6 minutes ago, gnip said:

Like DOGA, Kashim cannot promote despite what would become his promoted class already being present in the game. He does have significantly better growths than Gordon in almost every way to compensate - only his WLv is shaky. With a 20% growth, he'll probably be able to get the one proc he needs to use Silvers, but getting to 13 for Parthia seems like a stretch. Overall... eh. Could be worse, could be a lot better.

Poor guy, but still useable here.

34 minutes ago, gnip said:

Well, apart from the boss kill, of course. Unfortunately, Sheeda missed two attempts with an Iron Lance, which means that Abel had to take the kill. Well, it was him or Marth, and new information about doubled growths in the lategame mean that I don't want to go out of my way to feed him XP. Abel thanked me with an HP/Skl/WLv level-up - the same one that Kain already gained twice, out of two level-ups. I'm sure Ruben will appreciate my bad luck with these high-tier scrub characters. Maybe he'll also appreciate the irony that after me shit-talking Riff's WLv stat, he responded by gaining WLv and nothing else with his first level-up.

Dangit Abel.

34 minutes ago, gnip said:

Shopping-wise, I got two Hammers (Daros has 1 AS with these!), as well as a regular ol' Iron Axe and a Hand Axe.

Jeez Daros will have to be like the ballista boats with that kind of Spd.

6 minutes ago, gnip said:

For what it's worth, my ol' laptop is starting to show its age. Enough to run stuff that isn't too hard on graphics, which suits me fine since I'm more of a strategy gamer anyway, but for example I'm pretty sure that Baldur's Gate 3 is not an option until I upgrade.

Never looked into Citra, so I don't know how demanding it is. For what it's worth, Dolphin runs OK, although Radiant Dawn does not run at 100% speed at all times.

I can't tell how it'd do from here myself, but it seems like it should be able to.

Just now, Saint Rubenio said:

One defense booster and one res booster. For the record, he already had the biggest defense in the team when I gave it to him for good measure. The massive strength and the rest? Entirely his doing.

Majimum power.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

If I played FE1 again I would feed all speed and skill stat boosters to Bantu. He's the best physical wall in the game at base, and he has no weapon durability to worry about. If you can mentally handle the idea of using a unit that gains no stats on level up, he rocks. I recommend trying him out early in FE3 as well to understand the unique way that dragons handle in FE3. They never treated them like Xane ever again. If I ever play Book 2 again, he's definitely on my list there as well. Found out recently that the Iote's Shield protects against all effective damage, so he should chunk the Ice Dragons down for others to mop up

I hope this doesn't come off as patronizing, but I would seriously recommend anyone use a guide for Book 2. I would argue it's a contender for the hardest Kaga game, and a lot of it's bite was taken out of FE12. I did a blind iron man that ended at chapter 2 because it feels like every early chapter is shaking up the rules in a unique and deadly way. Especially if you're hot off a playthrough of Book 1. It's a fascinating game and is waiting to be rediscovered by FE fans the way Thracia was. Not necessarily a "good" game, but I feel like I see how they arrived at FE4's major shake ups by looking at what went right and wrong here.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Polinym]

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I sincerely wish I could plug the best patch, but alas, the only thing in English I can find is like, a tentative release that never got past chapter 1.

Just gonna throw this out here (though it may be too late), there is indeed a complete, faithful, and unabridged FE1 translation out there. See here: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/6087/

Your save data's most likely even compatible with it.

Strange how so many people are unaware that it even exists... 😞

Edited August 27, 2023 by Polinym

[Shaky Jones]

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Which one? The plan doesn't include Shadow Dragon and he's not in FE3. He needs to Riff up here. It's his only chance.

Any smart person has replaying Shadow Dragon in their monthly schedule.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Imagine falling for Nintendo's FOMO tactics instead of playing the game with a fun fanslation patch instead. I'll bet he wasn't even called Riff in your version!

Nintendo made this specifically to target me. I was done dirty. Their tactics are immoral and cringe. 

But man do I not regret having it one bit. I love the collection. The book is so cool. And the glass NES cartridge? It's beautiful. And I get a poster in my room of pants-less Marth! Truly, I am one of 7 Archanea fans. That is something only to be ashamed of, but I shall take pride in my shameless identity. It's cool and makes me happy to look at. The game...it's a nice bonus, I suppose. 

The actual game sucks. The emulator is shit. I really only got it for the collectables, because how often does IS ever make anything for Archanea? It's all 3H and Fates figurines.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wendell's great. He gives Kris his hat in FE12 so Kris can become Worse Wendell.

Make Male Mage Kris with the pope hat. Call him Wendell- (minus)

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Come at me. Before you have time to draw your gun, I will have you buried underneath a maelstrom of boulders.

6 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Oh yeah, but I said busted because of the ability to make Bantu unkillable full stop with statboosters.

I wish we'd get this kind of manakete again though.

True. That was satisfying, and I love the manakete sprite for FE1. Bantu's great. Makes you sad that most FE fans who know him see him as worthless garbage due to how he got his legs, arms, and balls crippled in DSFE. 

FE3 manaketes are the most fun and interesting ones to use from a gameplay perspective. Really made you feel the significance and unique aspect of being a dragon in the world of Fire Emblem, especially when book 2 has several types of dragons to fight against AND become.

4 hours ago, gnip said:

Confusion-induced chances of death for Daros that turned out not to be chances of death aside, the map is a bit too empty to be really difficult.

Good thing too. You wouldn't want one of the first few chapters in the first game ever to be a big challenge. If they threw a crap ton of enemies, it would either be too overwhelming to be fair, or you'd have to drastically weaken the enemies and/or give you stupidly strong prepromotes to completely override the concept of strategy in a strategy game.

Ya know, like PoR.

4 hours ago, gnip said:

You do get somewhat swarmed by the enemies coming from the west on turn three, made a bit more difficult by the enemy Pirates' ability to water-walk. Nothing too drastic, though, and after the group has been cleared, all left to do is recruit Kashim: Jeigan pulled him and his buddy over, Sheeda gave him her stern talking to, map done.

I'm guessing they move in larger swarms than in FE3/FE11. At least the lack of higher difficulty prevents said swarm from being crazy. I imagine enough jeigan'ing and Doga'ing can prevent a majority of them from swarming you if you act fast enough. I'm sure there's some over-analyzing to be had here about this map teaching you about the problems of turtling while emphasizing the balance of utilizing enemy phase combat to rout them without solely relying on it, but it could also just be a simple map with simple enemies having a simple ai that somewhat worked out.

4 hours ago, gnip said:

• Saji / Bord is easily the weakest of the Axe Bro trio, with a pitiful 10% Spd growth and not really anything to positively set him apart.
• Maji / Cord is... still not great, considering his average growths and lack of promotion (which he shares with the other Axe Bros, of course). His most remarkable growths are 100% HP and 40% Def; unfortunately, they aren't that great offensively. His low base WLv actually doesn't matter at all, since the only axe he can't use is the Devil Axe... which of course also means that there is no Silver Axe that he would be able to upgrade to.
• Barts seems pretty decent, actually. 50%+ growths in every stat that counts, very good base stats... yeah, he'd probably hold up fairly well despite the lack of promotion.

Big Bord the Saj master is so funny. Same face with Cordio, virtually no speed. He can be a great meme to work around in SD, and helps out quite a bit in FE12 with his weapon rank + triangle attack, but in FE1? Ya donion rings.

Barts. I'm obligated to not like him because everybody always tells me that they have no need of the true master of Archanea if "I alREadY hAVe BaRSt". Fools...

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

There he is. Chaddicus Cordicus. Mighty Maji. Fun fact: They call me the Maji Minister. Yeah. That's my other title. 

Use him. He has never failed anyone. People either bench him, or he benches Dohlr. This is the beginning of PEAK. 

4 hours ago, gnip said:

Kashim cannot promote despite what would become his promoted class already being present in the game. He does have significantly better growths than Gordon in almost every way to compensate - only his WLv is shaky. With a 20% growth, he'll probably be able to get the one proc he needs to use Silvers, but getting to 13 for Parthia seems like a stretch. Overall... eh. Could be worse, could be a lot better.

Like I mentioned earlier, that's his gimmick. Surely, this calls for Tomas shilling, yes?

4 hours ago, gnip said:

It was. I saw your name under "Recently Browsing" earlier and wondered why you hadn't made your request order yet.

Although there is no Cord in this game. There is only Maji.

My reputation precedes me.

Yes yes, I'm aware of Cord's JP name specifically. I was choosing to just refer to everyone by their DS names to not memorize all of the fe1 silly names, but I will make an exception for Maji.

4 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Poor guy, but still useable here.

In a sense, FE1 does a good job making most people usable. High growth units can make up for lack of promotion. Prepromote bases are decent enough to withstand most enemies for a major chunk of the game. Gordin-like characters are capable of promotion, thereby giving them 30+ levels to get lucky and cap stats. Armors have great bases, and with swords, they can double most enemies and decimate them while taking virtually no damage until the lategame, and the contrast between the armor's bases and growths compliment the unit through an interesting but fun rng element that can potentially secure long term investment through a remarkably fast unit protected with its reliably solid base defense potentially enforced with a defense boost item. Manaketes are just awesome. 

Of course, a lot of these units will struggle once the paladins and enemy manaketes arrive, but that's the lategame for ya. A decent team can trivialize them still, but I reckon the traditional blind-ish ironman that Kaga intended is a more proper way to experience FE1. Course, there's still a lot of problems, stupidly late promotion items, healers being worthless compared to prepromotes, armors for some reason having no promotion for the player, etc. But I respect the philosophy of FE1, mainly with armors and dragons. 

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

If I played FE1 again I would feed all speed and skill stat boosters to Bantu. He's the best physical wall in the game at base, and he has no weapon durability to worry about. If you can mentally handle the idea of using a unit that gains no stats on level up, he rocks. I recommend trying him out early in FE3 as well to understand the unique way that dragons handle in FE3. They never treated them like Xane ever again. If I ever play Book 2 again, he's definitely on my list there as well. Found out recently that the Iote's Shield protects against all effective damage, so he should chunk the Ice Dragons down for others to mop up

All my homes love Bantu.

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

I hope this doesn't come off as patronizing, but I would seriously recommend anyone use a guide for Book 2. I would argue it's a contender for the hardest Kaga game, and a lot of it's bite was taken out of FE12.

Clearly, you didn't give every major shard to Arran

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

I did a blind iron man that ended at chapter 2 because it feels like every early chapter is shaking up the rules in a unique and deadly way.

To give the game credit for this, it's the 2nd half of the "game". This is by no means your first rodeo with FE for sure, and if you played book 1, you're also familiar with the mechanics and structure of FE3 overall. It no longer has to coddle potential newbies. They test you on how well you've adapted to the formula of FE. I love it. I have quite a few problems playing book 1, but book 2 was genuinely a blast, and it's obvious how I feel about FE12. They function very differently, but they both hold a special type of challenge that other FE's don't often replicate with the same feel and strategy. 

That said, skill issue.

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

It's a fascinating game and is waiting to be rediscovered by FE fans the way Thracia was.

FE5: A game somewhat known by the FE fanbase, either as a timeless classic or the infamous "elitist game" that shall never be mentioned.

FE3: "Please play our game. No one plays this game. We swear it's good and not clunky as hell!"

FE12: "I've never played it. Doesn't that have Kris? But, Kris le bad!" 

The true game no FE fan gives a chance.

[Saint Rubenio]

8 hours ago, Polinym said:

Just gonna throw this out here (though it may be too late), there is indeed a complete, faithful, and unabridged FE1 translation out there. See here: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/6087/

Your save data's most likely even compatible with it.

Strange how so many people are unaware that it even exists... 😞

Hey, that looks pretty good! If I ever replay these games, I'm too fond of the Spanish fanslation, but still, good effort.

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

But man do I not regret having it one bit. I love the collection. The book is so cool. And the glass NES cartridge? It's beautiful. And I get a poster in my room of pants-less Marth! Truly, I am one of 7 Archanea fans. That is something only to be ashamed of, but I shall take pride in my shameless identity. It's cool and makes

That does sound neat.

7 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Make Male Mage Kris with the pope hat. Call him Wendell- (minus)

I did do that once. Minus the name. He sucked so bad I had to bench him for Wrys.

9 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

If I played FE1 again I would feed all speed and skill stat boosters to Bantu. He's the best physical wall in the game at base, and he has no weapon durability to worry about. If you can mentally handle the idea of using a unit that gains no stats on level up, he rocks. I recommend trying him out early in FE3 as well to understand the unique way that dragons handle in FE3. They never treated them like Xane ever again. If I ever play Book 2 again, he's definitely on my list there as well. Found out recently that the Iote's Shield protects against all effective damage, so he should chunk the Ice Dragons down for others to mop up

I hope this doesn't come off as patronizing, but I would seriously recommend anyone use a guide for Book 2. I would argue it's a contender for the hardest Kaga game, and a lot of it's bite was taken out of FE12. I did a blind iron man that ended at chapter 2 because it feels like every early chapter is shaking up the rules in a unique and deadly way. Especially if you're hot off a playthrough of Book 1. It's a fascinating game and is waiting to be rediscovered by FE fans the way Thracia was. Not necessarily a "good" game, but I feel like I see how they arrived at FE4's major shake ups by looking at what went right and wrong here.

Truly? I thought FE12 was wildly considered a challenging game. I never got past the start of Book 2. Between the extremely clunky UI, the slowness and the nagging voice saying "almost all your favorites from 12 aren't here" I never could get into a mindset to get far in that game.

[ping]

13 hours ago, Polinym said:

Just gonna throw this out here (though it may be too late), there is indeed a complete, faithful, and unabridged FE1 translation out there. See here: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/6087/

Your save data's most likely even compatible with it.

The save unfortunately didn't survive the swapped rom / patch, although I didn't try very hard if there would've been a workaround. Two (pretty easy) chapters isn't a lot to replay.

All by choice, I did make a back-up, your translation definitely looks more enjoyable than the old one I have been using.

This means that there have  some slight changes to the game state:

• FE1 Chapter 1 - Mars Embarks (take 2)

Spoiler

The map played out a bit differently thanks to me sending Jeigan a bit further ahead than the first time. As a result, the three Pirates that previously water-walked north of the mountains went the dry route south and then east instead. This means that DOGA didn't see any combat because there was no need to hold the central fort, with Mars, Kain, and Abel all gaining a bit more XP instead.

Sheeda's first level-up unfortunately didn't include Str this time, but Kain got a much better one: HP/Str/Spd/Lck/Def.

Shopping list stayed the same - Iron Sword for Mars, Iron Lance for Sheeda, Javelins for Sheeda and Kain - although Gordon backtracked to get another Lance and Javvy before Mars seized.

	Lv  	HP  Str Skl WLv Spd Lck Def
Mars	1.72	18    5   3   5   7   7   7
Jeigan	1.92	20    7  10  10   8   1   9
Kain	2.51	19    8   5   5   7   4   8
Abel	1.61	18    6   7   6   7   2   7

DOGA	1.00	18    7   3   4   3   1  11
Gordon	1.00	16    5   1   5   4   4   6
Sheeda	2.78	17    3   7   8  13   9   7
Wryf	1.00	16    1   5   3   7   1   3

 

• FE1 Chapter 2 - Garda Pirates (take 2)

Spoiler

(with apologies if the name isn't in line with the translation patch. I'll try to be better about noting chapter names in the future.)

Fairly similar to before, although XP distribution is a bit different again. Kain pulled ahead of Sheeda a bit (helped by his ability to one-round Pirates, actually), Darros managed to reach Lv.4 this time (and gained a whole point of HP! Wow!), while Wryf unfortunately only did two rounds of being shot at this time because I didn't remember giving him the Vuln the ch.1 boss had dropped.

Jeigan didn't proc Spd this time (empty level, in fact), which may or may not be relevant in the future. Maji's first level wasn't awe-inspiring, but he did manage to proc Def again.

	Lv  	HP  Str Skl WLv Spd Lck Def
Mars	2.20	19    6   4   5   7   8   7
Jeigan	2.12	20    7  10  10   8   1   9
Kain	4.19	21    8   6   6   8   4   8
Abel	2.12	19    6   7   7   8   3   7

DOGA	1.00	18    7   3   4   3   1  11
Gordon	1.24	16    5   1   5   4   4   6
Sheeda	3.10	18    3   8   9  14  10   7
Wryf	1.52	16    1   5   3   7   1   3

Saji	3.00	20    8   4   5   7   1   5
Maji	4.09	21    7   6   3   9   5   6
Barts	5.00	24   10   6   6   9   5   6
Oguma	2.24	20    6  11   6  12   3   6

Darros	4.17	22    6   2   6   7   7   5
Kashim	3.28	21    7   2   6   6   5   4

 

• FE1 Chapter 3 - Devil Mountain

Spoiler

(same preemptive apology about the chapter title)

Similarly to chapter 2, splitting your forces doesn't come with too much of a risk. In this case, high-Mov units, plus Marth and Kashim (who has a bit of a head start) go west, while most foot units go north or just remain in the general starting area.

Sheeda helped things a bit further by splitting up the enemies around Navarre, too, before flying over to recruit the man. She also killed one of the enemy thieves starting near Navarre, who doesn't seem to move (or at least not unless you walk into his range).

In the west, his single Str proc already allowed Kain to snowball a bit, by one-rounding Lv.1 enemies (which all of them save the boss and one generic Brigand are) with an Iron Sword. Mars, Jeigan, and Abel helped out a bit, but Kain did the majority of the work here. He took the boss kill (insert penetration joke here, if you insist), too, with Jeigan and Mars doing a bit of chipping.

And then we wait.

__

'cause might as well get this out of the way, right? It's not like he's going to be dodging enemies naturally just by playing the game. I'd also like to point out that Wryf gained 4 points of WLv. during this, and literally nothing else, probably just to prove me wrong about how unlikely it would be for him to get to Physic, in the most spiteful way possible.

Wryf was standing on a fort there, which was generally good enough to counteract the 7 damage that the enemy Hunter dealt some of the time. I'm not sure how fort regen works in this game, though - is it randomly? It definitely felt that way, and the usual 10-20% wouldn't have been nearly enough to live through the hail of arrows as easily as he did. He only required a single heal by Lena, so the main investment done here was time, with the turn count clocking in at a cool 43.

The Team:

	Lv  	HP  Str Skl WLv Spd Lck Def
Mars	2.56	19    6   4   5   7   8   7
Jeigan	2.27	20    7  10  10   8   1   9
Kain	5.86	22    8   6   7   9   4   8
Abel	2.76	19    6   7   7   8   3   7

DOGA	1.00	18    7   3   4   3   1  11
Gordon	1.24	16    5   1   5   4   4   6
Sheeda	4.02	19    3   9  10  14  11   7
Wryf	10.10	16    1   5   7   7   1   3

Saji	3.00	20    8   4   5   7   1   5
Maji	5.12	22    7   6   4  10   5   6
Bartz	5.00	24   10   6   6   9   5   6
Oguma	2.24	20    6  11   6  12   3   6

Darros	4.73	22    6   2   6   7   7   5
Kashim	3.28	21    7   2   6   6   5   4

Julian	3.00	17    4   6   2  12   7   4
Lena	3.00	16    1   7   7   8   8   3
Navarr	3.30	19    5   9   9  11   2   6

New character impressions:

• Julian's growths, like in the DS remake, are really good, so his Lv.20 stats wouldn't be all that bad. 16 Str, 20 Spd, 9 Def seems perfectly fine in the context of this game. Unfortunately, his WLv growth is a literal zero, so he will be permanently stuck with Iron Swords unless you give him the appropriate stat booster.
• Lena has growths just as bad as Wryf, even though they're technically a little higher. 0% HP and 0% Def in particular are funny (not that Wryf's 20% HP growth has done him any good thus far). For what it's worth, she would be a bit more likely to get the 8th point in WLv for the Fortify staff, but I don't even know if one of these is available before you get a Guiding Ring (or its equivalent). Basically interchangable with Wryf after his arrow eating arc, is what I'm saying.
• Navarre looks like he'd overtake Oguma fairly soon, at least on average. The only relevant growth he's worse in is Def (10 vs 20%), otherwise he's pretty consistently 10-20 points better. Yes, Oguma has a much higher WLv growth, but unlike him, Navarre just comes with the necessary rank to wield every sword in the game that isn't Mars-exclusive.

 

edit: I've put down Bantu as a highly recommended character to use for FE1, as well as recommended as at least a temporary unit for both Book 1 and Book 2, as suggested by @Zapp Branniglenn and supported by @Shaky Jones. I've always noted Tomas, for when he finally shows up.

Edited August 27, 2023 by gnip

[Saint Rubenio]

4 minutes ago, gnip said:

Wryf

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

@Polinym Okay that's good. I like that. I still prefer Riff, but that's great.

1 minute ago, gnip said:

'cause might as well get this out of the way, right? It's not like he's going to be dodging enemies naturally just by playing the game. I'd also like to point out that Wryf gained 4 points of WLv. during this, and literally nothing else, probably just to prove me wrong about how unlikely it would be for him to get to Physic, in the most spiteful way possible.

That's genuinely amazing. The only thing that sets Riff (sorry I think I'm dying on this hill) apart from Rena and Maria is that he has a significant chance to be unable to get enough wplvl to wield every staff before promotion. A wplvl blessed Riff needs nothing else to achieve peak FE1 cleric performance: Worse Wendel/Boa until the Tiki chapter.

So yeah, congratulations. Now you have no excuse. Riff must stay.

On a side note, the shortening of res is making my mind subconciously read it as resistin'. Which is fine, mind, I'm not complaining.

3 minutes ago, gnip said:

Julian's growths, like in the DS remake, are really good, so his Lv.20 stats wouldn't be all that bad. 16 Str, 20 Spd, 9 Def seems perfectly fine in the context of this game. Unfortunately, his WLv growth is a literal zero, so he will be permanently stuck with Iron Swords unless you give him the appropriate stat booster.

My Julian died to a crit.

In fact, fair warning: Crits in this game are an issue. I lost so many units to crits. And not wanting to reset, of course, but... yeah. Be mindful.

[ping]

3 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In fact, fair warning: Crits in this game are an issue. I lost so many units to crits. And not wanting to reset, of course, but... yeah. Be mindful.

Looking at the calc overview on the main site...

Luck does not counteract crit rates, it seems. It's just [Skl+Lck]/2, rounded down, which means that the only issue with Wryf's (sorry, as a German I have to appreciate that you can even read this transcription as Wrys with a 'long s' if you want) abysmal Lck is that he won't crit as much after promotion. And conversely, Sheeda is going to be a crit machine.

And the effect of a crit is triple damage just like in modern FE (assuming it didn't change after I stopped looking). Interesting, I had assumed that "double the attack power" was the initial mechanic.

[Shaky Jones]

6 hours ago, gnip said:

FE1 Chapter 1 - Mars Embarks (take 2)

Everyone in the previous universe died. The bad guys won. Sadge.

6 hours ago, gnip said:

but Kain got a much better one: HP/Str/Spd/Lck/Def.

Critical!

Kain has fallen.

6 hours ago, gnip said:

Jeigan didn't proc Spd this time (empty level, in fact), which may or may not be relevant in the future

It's over.

6 hours ago, gnip said:

insert penetration joke here, if you insist

¿Que?

6 hours ago, gnip said:

__

'cause might as well get this out of the way, right? It's not like he's going to be dodging enemies naturally just by playing the game. I'd also like to point out that Wryf gained 4 points of WLv. during this, and literally nothing else, probably just to prove me wrong about how unlikely it would be for him to get to Physic, in the most spiteful way possible

6 hours ago, gnip said:

Basically interchangable with Wryf after his arrow eating arc, is what I'm saying.

But oh man is Wryf prettier.

6 hours ago, gnip said:

Navarre looks like he'd overtake Oguma fairly soon, at least on average. The only relevant growth he's worse in is Def (10 vs 20%), otherwise he's pretty consistently 10-20 points better. Yes, Oguma has a much higher WLv growth, but unlike him, Navarre just comes with the necessary rank to wield every sword in the game that isn't Mars-exclusive.

While you were playing those Tellius games, Nabarl was studying the blade.

This Navarre actually does something, unlike DS Navarre who sprained his ankle. Pretty sure I used him in my FE1 run. He was alright, but he funnily enough just had about the same stats of Astram/Samson during their respective jointimes. 

6 hours ago, gnip said:

Julian's growths, like in the DS remake, are really good, so his Lv.20 stats wouldn't be all that bad. 16 Str, 20 Spd, 9 Def seems perfectly fine in the context of this game. Unfortunately, his WLv growth is a literal zero, so he will be permanently stuck with Iron Swords unless you give him the appropriate stat booster.

Now we're talking. We're juul'in now.

Julian is basically the ultimate growth unit of FE1. They're so good that even the lack of a promotion doesn't stop him. He absolutely carried my run from beginning to end. Like you said, his downfall is the lack of wpn lvl gain. With one arms scroll however, you can use killing edges, which is usually one of the best weapons to use in general. Incredibly light, extremely accurate, and can crit enemies to instantly kill with his great STR growth.  Yeah, no silver sucks, but I like taking my chances with the killer anyways. Musta bought at least 30 of them in my run. NES thieves also just look cool. I find them very unfun to use in DSFE given the joy of reclassing that game offers and the severe reduction of the swords' value (along with fe12 growths making julian's look much less impressive in comparison) so I'll take any opportunity I can to use him elsewhere. 

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

6 hours ago, gnip said:

Wryf

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Bro polymerized Wrys and Riff. It's even pronounced the same. It's destiny.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

My Julian died to a crit.

FE1 better than FE3 huh.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In fact, fair warning: Crits in this game are an issue. I lost so many units to crits. And not wanting to reset, of course, but... yeah. Be mindful.

Pretty sure I reached a point where I used the save states exclusively for that. I don't care if Kaga wants me to try out his whole team and get the ironman experience. I am NOT letting pure luck determine whether my highly trained units just bite the dust.

I suppose this only further adds value to the defense stat. Bantu S tier.

[Saint Rubenio]

5 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Bantu S tier.

Bantu was literally invincible the entire game. It was wonderful.