To Become an Elitist [Playlogs FE1-5] [currently playing: Thracia 776]

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, ping said:

It would be feasible (although most likely 100% headcanon) that Rahna herself is the Duchess of Sailane. It's likely that the king of Silesse would've married a noblewoman, so why not a duchess?

I like this idea.  I like Rahna and she deserves to have her own history and home unattached to the dead husband and son that define her as a character.

9 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

-As if all the castles we see are the only castles to exist.😛

Any royal family worth a crown ought to own multiple estates. Presumably, Rahna picked one of the best spares for her special guests. And given she's staying at Silesse Castle, I'd imagine that's the capital city residence, and the Sallane property could be the royals' rural retreat, or perhaps summer palace (to escape the heat) given its more northernly location.

The royal family is currently occupying Zaxon and Tofa already, in addition to the obvious capital, I like Duchess Rahna better.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 hours ago, ping said:

(Non-recruitable) Enemies have zero Lck

Of course, I technically can't tell if that is true for arena opponents (other than Holyn), too, but Serenesforest explicitly says that it is the case. Now, I can't quite trust the numbers on that page, since I have found a few mistakes already, but because it's true for enemies on the field, and because I don't think I've seen an arena opponent (other than Holyn) with an odd avoid stat, I think it's pretty safe to assume that Serenes is correct about this.

Luck continues to be such a garbage stat. Especially in Genealogy. The devs realized it didn't matter, and couldn't be bothered to give any Luck to the enemies.

5 hours ago, ping said:

Nobody cares about bachelors.

...that's basically it. They're victims of my eugenics program, and specifically of my insistence on giving Patty, Fee, and Ced magical dads.

Alas, a shame. I've tended to play with the opposite attitude: "if I'm not getting this dude hitched, then I'm free to send him wherever in battle! Screw positioning!" Ergo, I find myself getting more in-field use out of the bachelors than the suitors, who tend to be doomed to follow after their respective prospective paramours.

5 hours ago, ping said:

would be feasible (although most likely 100% headcanon) that Rahna herself is the Duchess of Sailane. It's likely that the king of Silesse would've married a noblewoman, so why not a duchess?

Sure, I'll take it. I like the idea of Rahna having some importance outside of her marriage to the former king. I like to imagine Rahna cleaning up after Sigurd and co in her childhood home, even as Mahnya insists that such behaviors are far beneath a Queen.

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Yeah, but since she is brainwashed anyway, logically she would have had a different name forced on her. Seeing how the name of the missing wife of Lord Sigurd of House Chalphy would hardly be entirely unknown.
That would make more sense. But it would also just needlessly complicate things. So I most certainly don't mind this getting streamlined and everyone going by the names we know them as.

Eh... sometimes, games treat a name as this "all-important detail that a character, even one who has lost all other memories, will surely remember". In this same game, there's Briggid*. In more recent games, Corrin, and Sothis. Even if Manfroy tried to impose a different name upon Deirdre, I doubt it would stick.

*Me when I forget about Eyvel, but hey, she wasn't in Kaga's head yet.

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

No, Sigurd's mother is dead, this is the very chapter that establishes that as he comes to see Lewyn's mom as an adoptive mother in this time (presumably they went on lots of nice picnics together where she ranted about how had a son Lewyn is while Sigurd was thinking "man I'd be so much better a son than that waster").

 

8 hours ago, ping said:

: "Oh, Sigurd, it's most assuredly a delight to speak with you. Why, you're like the son I never had!"
: "Ma, I'm right here. Get my wind tome ready, I'm gonna blow shit up with the boys."
: "Sometimes, I even imagine his voice. The second coming of his father, he'd be!"
: "MOM COME ON ALREADY, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME."

 

5 hours ago, ping said:

Well, the enemies of House Chalphy are also busy fighting a war in Isaach. And after Kurth's death, Reptor and Langbalt have an excuse to go kill Byron and Sigurd as a permanent solution, instead of occupying Chalphy's lands. But unless stated otherwise, it would seem likely that during the year that Sigurd spent in Silesse, either of the evil dukes would take it over. They control the king, so they would have the means to do so.

I meant before Rango and Reptar pulled their UNO reverse treason card. From the invasion of Verdane, to the total conquest of Augustria. Was Chalphy just left unguarded?

I wonder because - as great as it is to have them along for the ride - it might've made narrative sense for Ethlyn to watch the place once Sigurd absconded. She is, after all, Byron's daughter. Or just leave Arden behind, giving him more time to train everyday. That way, he can repel every conceivable threat to House Chalphy from Arvis, Manfroy, and random Brigands for the next twenty years.

51 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

As if all the castles we see are the only castles to exist.😛

There's a saying about castles: "if you build it, they will come."

 

"They" is Sigurd. He hasn't met a castle yet that he hasn't conquered.

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

This seems so awkward. If he made it all the way to Grandbell, why would he flee all the way here instead of his own territory? This also makes it much less believable that Tiltyu is still sticking around.
Not to mention it's also contrived that it was apparently specifically Reptor who stopped Claude from reaching the king. Alvis is the guy who acts as the king's right hand. Keeping letters or visitors away from the king would be his job. But of course Sigurd can't know yet that Alvis is part of the conspiracy, or he would toss out the invite to his BBQ.

Valflame-hot take, but I think it'd be better if Claud had spoken to Arvis about it. Arvis would take his allegations seriously, of course, and respond that he's suspected as much. However, he doesn't have enough evidence yet, and needs more time to sway the king. Until then, one of his underlings will keep Claud's seat warm in Edda, while our High Priest keeps on aiding Lord Sigurd in Silesse - until this whole mess can be sorted out, that is! What a swell guy that Arvis is! As an added bonus, Claud briefly caught a glimpse of his bride-to-be: a woman of serene beauty, and striking white hair. Too bad he never caught her name...

Edited March 13 by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
Typo.

[Jotari]

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

"They" is Sigurd. He hasn't met a castle yet that he hasn't conquered.

He didn't conquer Nordion. Just saved it from would be conquerors and...annexed all the land around it.

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

Valflame-hot take, but I think it'd be better if Claud had spoken to Arvis about it. Arvis would take his allegations seriously, of course, and respond that he's suspected as much. However, he doesn't have enough evidence yet, and needs more time to sway the king. Until then, one of his underlings will keep Claud's seat warm in Edda, while our High Priest keeps on aiding Lord Sigurd in Silesse - until this whole mess can be sorted out, that is! What a swell guy that Arvis is! As an added bonus, Claud briefly caught a glimpse of his bride-to-be: a woman of serene beauty, and striking white hair. Too bad he never caught her name...

I love it. Put it in the remake.

[ping]

6 hours ago, BrightBow said:

This seems so awkward. If he made it all the way to Grandbell, why would he flee all the way here instead of his own territory? This also makes it much less believable that Tiltyu is still sticking around.
Not to mention it's also contrived that it was apparently specifically Reptor who stopped Claude from reaching the king. Alvis is the guy who acts as the king's right hand. Keeping letters or visitors away from the king would be his job. But of course Sigurd can't know yet that Alvis is part of the conspiracy, or he would toss out the invite to his BBQ.

I would say that it's much easier to imagine that Claude simply recognized the writing at the wall and realized that with Reptor and Langobalt in Augustria, he was not going to make it back to the capital, so he joined the trip to Silesia. For Tiltyu being suddenly confronted by a huge army lead by her dad must have been scary too. So I could see her sticking around for the time being.

Claude's entire trip to Grannvale is very "Tell, not Show". He tells Sigurd during Ch.3 that he will now return to Grannvale, but he (or Taillte) never leave the team. It makes sense for the gameplay (the two of them have the least amount of playtime already, alongside Bridget), and with there being a year of time between Ch.3 and 4, it's not a plot hole, either, but I think it would've flowed better if Reptor and Langbalt's assault on Sigurd in Agustria would've cancelled Claude's trip.

6 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Maybe it's done that way since Sylvia already has a convo with Claude listed.

In any case it's interesting how despite the story pushing Levin and Fury so hard, in gameplay Sylvia is heavily favored. Almost as if that couple is meant to be your punishment if you don't keep Sylvia away from Levin.

Well, Lewyn and Erin have an instant-lovemaking-just-add-water conversation later this chapter, so I'd say it had already been Kaga's favoured pairing during Genealogy's development. For a blind playthough, I don't think Sylvia/Lewyn's head start is all that big, either. Yes, they spawn together as an isolated duo in Ch.2, but it's in the nature of a Dancer that she allows the people she refreshes to then leave her behind. Poetic, really. Silvia will still be a bit ahead of Erin when the latter joins, since it only takes 5 turns of non-adjacency for her to catch up, but likely not by too much.

About the convo - that is possible, actually. Looking through the gen 1 chapters, there's never a blue unit that can initiate a conversation with more than one other blue unit. They might be able to be talked to by multiple characters (Sigurd in the prologue, for example), or have a blue-on-blue talk plus a talk to a differently-coloured character (Sigurd recruiting Ayra and Raquesis), but never a second blue-on-blue talk, not even one that is gated by a seized castle.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

As I said when Cigyun was mentioned in two different context months or years apart, it's entirely believable that two people could have the same name and not be related. In fact, we have an example of the one Steve Limit being violated in Jugdral for no plot reason or reference of anything like that, with the Cross Knight Alva and the Leinster knight Alva having the same name for no specific reason. That being said...I actually like the idea of Manfroy giving Deirdre another name. It would make his plan more robust and it would be crueller on Deirdre as even more of her identity is stolen from her. And for stuff like Cipher and Heroes we would have two specific identifiers for Deirdre in her pre and post amnesiac state. I don't think it would be too confusing for the player either. Give the common man some credit, we can tell it's Deirdre from the same portrait, even with portrait reuse her vanishing in one chapter and showing up in another as someone who was mysteriously refound is enough to understand that she's the same person even if everyone is walking around calling her Lady Kurthina or something.

It's not just the name - what Sigurd and his group know about the two Sigyns lines up nicely, too. Deirdre's mum? Fled the village, then returned 18-19 years ago (*) while pregnant, without telling anybody anything about what happened. Arvis's mum? After her affair with Kurth was made public "some twenty years ago" (**), she fled Grannvale never to be seen again. I think I can still maintain that if Sigurd, at any point, had remembered both these stories at the same time, it should at the very least have given him some pause.

(*) Old village in Ch.1 says that Sigyn's daughter would be 17-18 years old at this point.
(**) Quote from Filat when he visits Sigurd in Ch.2

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

Luck continues to be such a garbage stat. Especially in Genealogy. The devs realized it didn't matter, and couldn't be bothered to give any Luck to the enemies.

In most games, it at least has crit mitigation, so that a character with abysmal Lck at least has this constant threat of low% crits looming above their head. At least Genealogy's +1 avo is generally more valuable than the +.5 hit / +.5 avo that I think Lck usually provides.

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

: "Oh, Sigurd, it's most assuredly a delight to speak with you. Why, you're like the son I never had!"

Dangit, I wanted to make that joke when I read about Rahna's maternal vibes.

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

I meant before Rango and Reptar pulled their UNO reverse treason card. From the invasion of Verdane, to the total conquest of Augustria. Was Chalphy just left unguarded?

I wonder because - as great as it is to have them along for the ride - it might've made narrative sense for Ethlyn to watch the place once Sigurd absconded. She is, after all, Byron's daughter. Or just leave Arden behind, giving him more time to train everyday. That way, he can repel every conceivable threat to House Chalphy from Arvis, Manfroy, and random Brigands for the next twenty years.

Well, Sigurd only took three soldiers with him, so there should be plenty left

I would imagine that Chalphy only has a minimal garrison left - same as Jungby and I assume the other duchies. The prologue unfolds as it does because everybody is blindsided by Verdane's raid and Jungby didn't have adequade defenses to stop it. Azel even says that Sigurd's effort to drive back Verdane is the last line of defense that Grannvale has, because the Isaach war is demanding all its attention, although he of course has ulterior motives (namely, he wants to go on an adventure with that hunk Lex).

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

Valflame-hot take, but I think it'd be better if Claud had spoken to Arvis about it. Arvis would take his allegations seriously, of course, and respond that he's suspected as much. However, he doesn't have enough evidence yet, and needs more time to sway the king. Until then, one of his underlings will keep Claud's seat warm in Edda, while our High Priest keeps on aiding Lord Sigurd in Silesse - until this whole mess can be sorted out, that is! What a swell guy that Arvis is! As an added bonus, Claud briefly caught a glimpse of his bride-to-be: a woman of serene beauty, and striking white hair. Too bad he never caught her name...

Actually, I like that one, contrary to what I said earlier in this post. Maybe even have Claude disappear if you talk to him with Sigurd - if the two are meeting up, the road is clear all the way to Grannvale, so he could even leave Taillte behind because she wants to zap some evildoers, and it's not like Claude needs the extra five turns between Sigurd talking to him and Sigurd seizing Orgahil to gain XP.

Sending Claude to Belhalla would be a nice way of giving Arvis a little bit of screentime, too, by showing their interactions. I think I complained already that Arvis's role in the story is almost entirely developed in absentia, so one could add this (and maybe subtract Reptor revealing him as a villain to the audience) to present Arvis as a harsh and severe, but reasonable character, who agrees to relay Claude's revelations to the king who, how very unfortunate, currently isn't in a state to receive visitors because he's still in shock about the very unfortunate passing of his son, you see.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, ping said:

Sending Claude to Belhalla would be a nice way of giving Arvis a little bit of screentime, too, by showing their interactions. I think I complained already that Arvis's role in the story is almost entirely developed in absentia, so one could add this (and maybe subtract Reptor revealing him as a villain to the audience) to present Arvis as a harsh and severe, but reasonable character, who agrees to relay Claude's revelations to the king who, how very unfortunate, currently isn't in a state to receive visitors because he's still in shock about the very unfortunate passing of his son, you see.

Unfortunately Genealogy of the Holy War has a cardinal rule of never showing any event that happens outside the confines of its rather large maps. Alvis is the main loser of this quirk, but it his Ethlyn really hard in the rationality department too. Coming to think of it, I'm playing Thracia now too and I don't think any scene in that game takes place outside the immediate vicinity. Hell we never see Nyna in New Mystery or anything either, none of the first six games show an event happening far away. Kaga just hadn't discovered yet that you can do that with writing...when is the first time in the series we see something happening on a different map. It can't be the general introduction in Sacred Stones can it?

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

when is the first time in the series we see something happening on a different map. It can't be the general introduction in Sacred Stones can it?

Must be Blazing then, no? Some Nergal scenes spring to mind.

 

4 hours ago, ping said:

In most games, it at least has crit mitigation, so that a character with abysmal Lck at least has this constant threat of low% crits looming above their head. At least Genealogy's +1 avo is generally more valuable than the +.5 hit / +.5 avo that I think Lck usually provides.

+1 Hit & Avoid in Thracia through Radiant Dawn.

Shadow Dragon nerfed Luck to its current 0.5 Hit/Avoid values. And Fates halved the Crit negation too.

[BrightBow]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Unfortunately Genealogy of the Holy War has a cardinal rule of never showing any event that happens outside the confines of its rather large maps. Alvis is the main loser of this quirk, but it his Ethlyn really hard in the rationality department too. Coming to think of it, I'm playing Thracia now too and I don't think any scene in that game takes place outside the immediate vicinity. Hell we never see Nyna in New Mystery or anything either, none of the first six games show an event happening far away. Kaga just hadn't discovered yet that you can do that with writing...when is the first time in the series we see something happening on a different map. It can't be the general introduction in Sacred Stones can it?

Tear Ring Saga, naturally.

Frankly, it actually goes overboard with that. Like, do we really need a scene of Count Marlon and Raffin discussing Runan's arrival when they are about to meet him anyway? They are just telling each other stuff that the audience already knows about.

[Jotari]

54 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Must be Blazing then, no? Some Nergal scenes spring to mind.

 

+1 Hit & Avoid in Thracia through Radiant Dawn.

Shadow Dragon nerfed Luck to its current 0.5 Hit/Avoid values. And Fates halved the Crit negation too.

Oh yeah, Nergal and Ninian going berserk is definitely a necessary scene happening in a distant location.

[ping]

FE4 Chapter 4: Dance in the Skies

Sailane --> Thove

Spoiler

__

Ah. Turns out that this conversation also fires if Sylvia takes an action adjacent to Erin, not just if she waits. During this entire segment (maybe minus a turn or two), Taillte and Lewyn stay next to each other, so I'm hopeful that this won't make a difference, though.

__

This entire segment is also a bit boring. Very one-dimensional, since you're really just walking from Sailane towards Thove, hopefully relieving the villages on your way.

: "Hmhmhm... I'm surprised you've made it this far."

: "Dithorba... The rest... is up to you..."

__

Wind Mage squad: Fairly harmless.

Five of them attack Erin over the course of two turns, who gets an Adept proc for four of them. I'll admit that I am glad that wind magic doesn't have its anti-flyer effect in Genealogy.

One nice thing about this segment is Taillte getting a few kills despite her low movement. She gains another 250 XP in combat, thanks to the Paragon Band, in addition to the ~600 that she gained in the arena. Only this one Wind Mage, but she's going to zap a few flying horses, too, before turning around together with Lewyn, moving towards the bridge leading to Silesse Castle.

Of course, villages are collected along the way. I'll pool the dialogue and who gets the rewards later (well, this particular one just goes to Erin because it's rather out of the way otherwise).

__

One turn after murdering the Wind Mages, Dithorba's squad approaches. Not the most sophisticated defensive formation I've ever devised, but there's precisely one clever thing about it: Dew is in range of exactly one Pegasus Knight, netting him 3000 gold at no chance of death.

One big mistake I make: Beowulf did not give money to Raquesis. He gets attacked by quite a few Pegasi and hits 50k gold quite easily, while poor Raquesis is sitting on a paltry 30k.

: "Behold: you now face Dithorba, one of the Four Falcon Knights of Silesse! This is where your journey ends!"

Dithorba made the interesting choice of hitting Lex for 2 points of damage. He still had his Iron Axe equipped from setting up the kill for Taillte earlier, so he only deals modest chip damage...

...but 'tis still useful. Midir's 70 Atk with a crit would've left Dithorba at a very annoying 3 HP or 116 Avoid, thanks to her Miracle Band.

: "N-no... What have I..."

Actually, even worse: With only Dew's chip damage, Midir would've brought Dithorba to 1 HP. Of course, since Dithorba is a promoted Falcoknight with the Adept skill, this is not an action I would recommend in a ranked run. Here, Dithorba even does get a proc, but misses one of her attacks. Good job, Dew, for not getting that third L on your record.

Bzzt!

So, er, there's the result. Hardly halfway towards whatshisface, Not-Elliot, and all mobile enemies are already dead. Honestly, this map is the one with the worst design thus far, I would say.

__

Minus one Blizzard mage...

...and on to the next three. I missed at first that all of those three Mages have that spell, but this is still not a particularly difficult position to break through, despite the forest slowing everybody's approach down.

And because the map isn't tedious enough already...:

: "Hm? I'd say those traitors are drawing perhaps a bit too close for comfort. You there! Raise the Thove River drawbridge! Without this key, there's no way they'll ever get over here. Heh heh... I almost wish I could see the looks on their faces!"

...ugh.

To make things worse - at this point in time, I assumed that there would be another event telling me to do to lower the bridge again. Which is actually true - the village closest to the bridge will tell me that Dew is the man for the job, which to be honest I should've figured out myself.

However, I didn't, and I had sent Dew to collect some of the villages to delay the decision of who to eventually give that money to, adding a number of turns of waiting.

__

To make things even worse: Maios's guardsmen all have 1-2 range, so you can just engage most of them across the river anyway. If anything, this stunt with the bridge makes this easier. And slower, of course.

But before we deal with the boss, let's go over the villages:

: "Divine heirs can wield even the most advanced weapons with ease, and'll have an easier time growin' stronger. 'Course, it's not every day you meet someone blessed with that sorta blood.

[3500 gold -> Bridget]

: "Should Prince Kurth's daughter bear a son, that son would be heir to Grannvale's throne. I daresay this makes Lord Arvis, husband to the princess, quite the infuential figure."

[3500 gold -> Erin] - this is the more out-of-the-way village south of the path towards Maios.

: "Only a direct holy descendant can inherit the full breadth of the power of the gods. And only they'll be able to wield their family's divine heirlooms. However, if kin intersect, their offspring'll have their exalted blood enriched and'll reap almighty powers. Needless to say, mind, doin' that is condemned and forbidden..."

[3500 gold -> Bridget]

In Holyn and Ayra's defense (but not Claude and Sylvia's, if I recall), after a few generations, you would potentially have people with the same Holy Blood that aren't related so close to make it weird.

: "House Velthomer wields the power of fire, as bestowed by the fire goddess, Vala. And House Freege wields thunder powers, as bestowed by the thunder god, Tordo."

[5000 gold -> Dew]

People in Silesse sure are old. Ruben should look forward to a Genealogy remake just so that they can give all of these identical old beardmen new, unique old beardman portraits.

: "Only Grannvale's House Belhalla, the heirs to Sain Heim, inherit Naga's power."

[3000 gold -> Dew]

: "Y'know how there's a drawbridge over the Thove River? Yeah, that's under the control of Duke Maios, too. If it's still drawn and you don't have the key, you're not getting across. Mind you, if you have a thief's sticky fingers, at your service, that might not be a problem..."

[1500 gold -> Midir]

Thank you for your advise, non-old villager.

: "Magic is governed by a hierarchy of power, just like weapons. Fire magic bests wind, wind bests thunder, and thunder bests fire. However, dark and light magic have an advantage over all of the others. Think your strategies through with care."

[4000 gold -> Bridget]

With the three villages that she collected, Bridget is now sitting at 38580 gold, i.e. enough that she can grab the Paragon Band for the arena rounds #3 through (hopefully) #7.

As an aside, Azel just kept keeping her company during all of this, partially to make sure that the two will get together in the not-too-far future, and partially because I'm sometimes a little stupid and had never repaired Azel's Fire tome because it slipped my mind that he passed Thunder to Aideen and Claude for last chapter's arena.

: "Oh! Lord Sigurd's army is here to save us all! Hang on... Aren't you a dancer, miss? If you don't mind, perhaps you could do a little dance for us? It's been so long since we've had time for respite or fun..."
: "Yep, not a problem! If you think it'll help everyone cheer up a bit, then I'm gonna dance my feet off! ...Okay! Heeeere we go!

Hah! Yeah! Hyaaaah!

: "Whew... Well, how 'bout that? Everyone feelin' a little better?"
: "Oh! What fantastic dancin'! I dunno how, but now I feel like I'M ready to give life my all! I can't thank you enough, miss. Here, perhaps this magic sword'll help ya out. It oughta do a fine job of keeping ya safe."

[5000 gold; Shield Sword -> Sylvia]

Very useful, indeed. To be honest, I've pretty much given up on Sylvia buying the Leg Ring (and she's certainly not buying the Knight Ring), so I don't care as much for her own arena ambitions with this, but this just seems like a universally strong sword for anybody who can use it.

__

But speaking of arenas, Claude got through it! With a bit of start-of-turn RNG abuse, but still impressive.

...I think I might have overdone Fortify spam a little bit.

__

With most of the castle guards killed from across the river, Aideen and Raquesis start warping people back to Sailane, from where the go gather around the bridge.

To be honest, I never really looked too closely at the jealousy mechanic/bug. I think this formation avoids it? If I recall, you have to have girls standing adjacent to each other, with a man at one end of the formation, to set it up, with some additional rules about who can be jealous of whom.

But back to the castle at hand...

: "Come on, traitors! Grannvale's bounty on your heads is mine for the plucking!"

The fight against Maios is kinda annoying, since he adds high avoid to the already infuriating Pavise skill.

I end up RNG abusing a bit again to find a string that would allow Midir and Sigurd to kill Maios...

...and end up getting one where Midir just kills him by himself. Doesn't really matter that much either way, since Maois doesn't drop anything. (what does matter is Midir gaining an empty level-up from this...)

: "Oof! This can't... be..."

: "Sire, the Thove village elder would like a word with you."
: "Of course. Actually, I'd imagine we need to talk this situation over. Bring him in."
: "Lord Sigurd, I presume? We can't thank you enough for getting rid of Lord Maios. The entire population of Thove is rejoicing as his downfall!"
: "Hm? Are you sure? I mean, I just conquered you. Am I not the enemy here?"
: "Lord Maios was nothing but a tyrant. All he ever did was bleed us dry. You fight in the name of Queen Rahna, and there isn't a Silessian alive who doesn't bear the utmost adoration for our queen."
: "Is that so? Thank you. Anyway, in the interim I think I'll leave governing Thove to you, sir. Once the crisis is settled, the queen will be in touch to arrange a proper successor. Until then, I'm sure you'll be a just governor to help heal Thove's wounds."
: "Very well. Please, Lord Sigurd, do all you can to protect the queen. She is a treasure to us, and a beacon of peace and kindness."
: "Rest assured, my good man. So long as I live, I swear that I'll let no harm come to Queen Rahna. You have my word."

Foreshadowing...? To be honest, I don't remember if Rahna gets ismaired soon, but this dialoge signals very loudly that Yes. With extreme prejudice. In any case, I have to commend Sigurd for his growing self-reflection.

After ending the turn, the next objective is not quite set up:

: "I almost feel bad for my brother: little more than a pawn in my dreams who'd outlived his usefulness. Pamela, it's your turn. Lead your pegasus knights into battle at once! Sigurd is well clear of the capital. Seize it while he has no chance of aiding them!"
: "Yes, sir!"

__

: "Be at ease, milady. My squad will keep Pamela's at bay."
: "Mahnya, are you sure you can do this? I've heard stories of the sheer terror of Pamela's might as a warrior."
: "Of course... I know better than to take lightly such a formidable foe. But remember, I am one of the Four Falcon Knights of Silesse. I never enter a battle ill prepared."
: "Ah... I'm so sorry, Mahnya. I already know well how you feel about all this, but... I..."
: "To fight in your name is the only life I know... Milady, please. Don't worry about me so much. If that's all, then, I'll be going. Knights, to me! Move out!"

The next pair of secondary characters (after Azel and Lex) that seem gaily shippable to me. Certain Elincia/Lucia vibes, although I doubt that the game will pull a younger brother of Mahnya out of the hat with a more explictly shown attraction to Rahna, just to make sure things don't become too gay.

I said that the next objective is not quite set up here, because the game doesn't allow us to rush to Silesse's aid just yet. The mage blocking the bridge is just as yellow and immovable as before. We'll see what happens next. For now, I'll only show the named characters that showed up:

Daccar is very much like his little brother, just with slightly better defensive stats, including a 4% higher chance to proc Pavice. And of course with a Blizzard tome. Since he's guarded by three Generals, he might be able to make use of that once we get to him, but since the three units guarding a boss in a castle tend to be immobile, I'm not too worried.

By contrast, Pamela has a harder-hitting weapon than Dithorba, but seems easier to kill. +5 Def, sure, but no Miracle to worry about, and lower AS/avo because she is using a lance, too.

Mahnya is, pointedly, two levels higher than Pamela, with slightly higher stats to match, but also at a weapon triangle disadvantage. If this was a fair fight, I'd say it's a close fight, but I'm pretty sure Aideen and Bridget are about to have a family reunion.

But I'll stick to the "one castle per update" for now, so I'll leave this on a cliffhanger. As I said, Thove was probably the weakest castle in terms of map design, which is doubly a shame because it directly follows Orgahil, which probably was the weakest castle in terms of map design before this one. To be honest, just looking at this chapter's map as a whole, I'm not too optimistic that Kaga will turn this around with Silesse and Zaxon, but I hope that Ch.5 is going to be a nice finale for the first generation.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Sigurd	  27.15   58  25   0  22  22  15  19   4  23000  +278  [*]
Lex	  28.42   56  27   2  18  14  12  25   4  34720  +330  [*]
Midir	  27.05   47  21   1  16  23   9  14   4  34160  +526  [*]
Beowulf	  24.16	  50  22   0  28  18   4  18   3  50000  +564  [*]

Erin	  25.98	  44  15   9  19  27  10  19  15  40640  +634  [*]
Raquesis  24.53	  39  27   8  22  20  10  22  10  30535  +862  [*]
Ayra	  23.36	  49  23   2  30  29   7  12   4  50000  +96   [1]
Bridget	  18.06	  45  22   1  25  21  12  16   9  38580  +36   [1]

Dew	  8.80	  31   8   0  10  18  14   4   1  16000  +53   [1]
Azel	  23.78	  42   7  23  13  22   6  10  13  4980   --    [1]
Lewyn	  23.39	  49   3  28  24  30   8   9  15  50000  +542  [*]
Tailte	  17.60	  44   0  15  24  13  15   1  11  19000  +854  [*]

Aideen	  27.72	  48   9  24  16  18  25   8  11  2180   +510  [1]
Claude	  30.00	  41   2  24  19  17  14   5  23  16700  +460  [*]
Sylvia	  9.30	  33   4   3   4  13  10   1   8  16000  +130  [1]

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

Noish	  7.68	  35  12   0  10  10   4   9   0  11360	 --    [1]
Alec	  9.21	  37  12   0  12  11   6  12   0  20920  +40   [2]
Arden	  8.41	  39  16   0   6   5   3  15   0  47040  --    [1]
Holyn	  15.96	  43  15   0  20  17   3  11   1  38680  +96   [4]  
Jamke	  18.21	  47  15   0  16  17  11  12   1  44050  +176  [6]

Quan [17.05] - Ethlyn [30.00] - Finn [23.80] - Deirdre [7.82]

 

 

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Must be Blazing then, no? Some Nergal scenes spring to mind.

A couple scenes with the Black Fang, too. Brendan and Sonia sending the brothers after Eliwood is an example, unless I misremember. But I also don't think BinBla has any instances of this, so (outside of non-FE Kaga), BlaBla should be the first.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

+1 Hit & Avoid in Thracia through Radiant Dawn.

Shadow Dragon nerfed Luck to its current 0.5 Hit/Avoid values. And Fates halved the Crit negation too.

Welp, RIP Lck in Genealogy.

Weird that the devs still found the stat to be too powerful in and after DSFE. I guess the crit negation nerf in Fates makes sense because, if I recall, you also get this from pair-up? Just to make sure that you can't get out of crit risks too easily.

[Saint Rubenio]

17 minutes ago, ping said:

: "Hmhmhm... I'm surprised you've made it this far."

: "Dithorba... The rest... is up to you..."

Who even were you, man.

18 minutes ago, ping said:

So, er, there's the result. Hardly halfway towards whatshisface, Not-Elliot, and all mobile enemies are already dead. Honestly, this map is the one with the worst design thus far, I would say.

From what I've gathered, the common sentiment is that chapter 2 is, or at least was at some point, the majority's least favorite in this game.

Not me, though, I agree with you. Chapter 4 is godawful. And you've not even gotten to the really asinine part yet.

19 minutes ago, ping said:

...ugh.

To make things worse - at this point in time, I assumed that there would be another event telling me to do to lower the bridge again. Which is actually true - the village closest to the bridge will tell me that Dew is the man for the job, which to be honest I should've figured out myself.

However, I didn't, and I had sent Dew to collect some of the villages to delay the decision of who to eventually give that money to, adding a number of turns of waiting.

I hate this. I absolutely fucking hate this. There's no organic reason to assume Dew can do this, because there have been no doors or chests for thieves to open in this game (and let's not forget, when this game came out thieves only had that ability in 2 out of 4 games released so far - there wasn't as much of a precedent), and the bridge isn't replaced by a raised bridge tile, but rather disappears entirely. Then the village just tells you, which is the mark of every good puzzle - when the game has to just give you the solution.

And of course, if Dew is dead, you're fucked and have to spend 30 turns walking through an entirely empty mountain. It's just incredibly weird. Why punish the player like that for losing this one (really squishy and bad at combat) unit? There's no reason for this stupidity that I can imagine. It adds nothing to narrative or gameplay both.

26 minutes ago, ping said:

: "House Velthomer wields the power of fire, as bestowed by the fire goddess, Vala. And House Freege wields thunder powers, as bestowed by the thunder god, Tordo."

[5000 gold -> Dew]

People in Silesse sure are old. Ruben should look forward to a Genealogy remake just so that they can give all of these identical old beardmen new, unique old beardman portraits.

Or, just the same old guy model. Modern FE is known for having less generics, not more. It's expensive to make full 3D models.

27 minutes ago, ping said:

: "Y'know how there's a drawbridge over the Thove River? Yeah, that's under the control of Duke Maios, too. If it's still drawn and you don't have the key, you're not getting across. Mind you, if you have a thief's sticky fingers, at your service, that might not be a problem..."

[1500 gold -> Midir]

Thank you for your advise, non-old villager.

No seriously, but why did they use the exact same face for eveyone except this one guy? Where's all the women? Are they all pegasus knights here? Maybe that's the intent, actually...

28 minutes ago, ping said:

The fight against Maios is kinda annoying, since he adds high avoid to the already infuriating Pavise skill.

Two separate avoid rolls? Sure, sounds reasonable!

28 minutes ago, ping said:

:We can't thank you enough for getting rid of Lord Maios. The entire population of Thove is rejoicing as his downfall!"

: "Hm? Are you sure? I mean, I just conquered you. Am I not the enemy here?"
: "Lord Maios was nothing but a tyrant.

This game in a nutshell?

29 minutes ago, ping said:

Foreshadowing...? To be honest, I don't remember if Rahna gets ismaired soon

Ismaired lol. Ismaire deserved so much better. Her sword arm was nothing to sneeze at if the CC is anything to go by, and... God she was beautiful. No wonder she had a designated bossman whose entirely character is that he was way too into her. Legit one of the series's prettiest women. Such godlike design gone to waste. I would've rather had her than her son. I'd sell her son's soul to have her. This is not intended to be a clue to anything Also fuck I sound like Carlyle

30 minutes ago, ping said:

I said that the next objective is not quite set up here, because the game doesn't allow us to rush to Silesse's aid just yet. The mage blocking the bridge is just as yellow and immovable as before. We'll see what happens next.

Plenty of conversations have been had about this by the community as a whole. Suffice to say: Nobody likes the forcefields. They're very stupid.

31 minutes ago, ping said:

Ch.5 is going to be a nice finale for the first generation.

Ch.5 has... issues. I'd still call it better than this crap, but... You'll see.

[ping]

17 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

From what I've gathered, the common sentiment is that chapter 2 is, or at least was at some point, the majority's least favorite in this game.

Not me, though, I agree with you. Chapter 4 is godawful. And you've not even gotten to the really asinine part yet.

You can trust on Fire Emblem fans to always have the worst possible opinions.

But seriously, that's wild. I found ch.2 to be the best map thus far, with ch.3 falling behind because of the Orgahil sequence. Ch.2's back-and-forth movement might look bad on paper, but with all the castles connected by roads, it really isn't, and I very much enjoyed how there was stuff happening all over the map. The only bad parts, as far as I'm concerned were Raquesis's body guards (specifically that they prioritise attacking enemies in their range over keeping close to her) and the Mackily ballistae on a cliff.

Meanwhile, ch.4 is just a big nothingburger thus far. Move people east. Move/warp them back west. Presumably, move them next across the bridge (and a few mountain tiles, it seems, to make the movement extra annoying).

26 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And of course, if Dew is dead, you're fucked and have to spend 30 turns walking through an entirely empty mountain. It's just incredibly weird. Why punish the player like that for losing this one (really squishy and bad at combat) unit? There's no reason for this stupidity that I can imagine. It adds nothing to narrative or gameplay both.

Holy shit, I didn't even consider this. The southern path towards Thove is literally all mountain, what the hell.

28 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

No seriously, but why did they use the exact same face for eveyone except this one guy? Where's all the women? Are they all pegasus knights here? Maybe that's the intent, actually...

I think it's because the old beardmen (or the one old beardman with a Rewarp staff. I think I might prefer that headcanon) are providing some background in mythology, which obviously has to be done by an old wise man.

And there are no old wise women because women tend to die young, while serving as pegasus knights. That arrow weakness is brutal.

32 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Two separate avoid rolls? Sure, sounds reasonable!

Thracia's 99 hit cap might come as a relief, compared to the effective 70-80ish hit cap against enemy barons.

34 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Ismaired lol. Ismaire deserved so much better. Her sword arm was nothing to sneeze at if the CC is anything to go by, and... God she was beautiful. No wonder she had a designated bossman whose entirely character is that he was way too into her. Legit one of the series's prettiest women. Such godlike design gone to waste. I would've rather had her than her son. I'd sell her son's soul to have her. This is not intended to be a clue to anything Also fuck I sound like Carlyle

Very merciful of you that you don't have to sacrifice Joshua to recruit Ismaire in The Sacred Rubens.

(wait, Joshua was playable as normal, right? Now that I'm typing this, I'm suddenly not sure, since I don't remember using him at all)

37 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Plenty of conversations have been had about this by the community as a whole. Suffice to say: Nobody likes the forcefields. They're very stupid.

Honestly, I get why they're there. It's more annoying here because they didn't vanish right the next turn after seizing Thove, but I can understand that they're a (somewhat brute-force) way to prevent the player from sequence-skipping with Erin. It's just a cost of having big, multi-seize map.

[Saint Rubenio]

4 minutes ago, ping said:

You can trust on Fire Emblem fans to always have the worst possible opinions.

But seriously, that's wild. I found ch.2 to be the best map thus far, with ch.3 falling behind because of the Orgahil sequence. Ch.2's back-and-forth movement might look bad on paper, but with all the castles connected by roads, it really isn't, and I very much enjoyed how there was stuff happening all over the map. The only bad parts, as far as I'm concerned were Raquesis's body guards (specifically that they prioritise attacking enemies in their range over keeping close to her) and the Mackily ballistae on a cliff.

Meanwhile, ch.4 is just a big nothingburger thus far. Move people east. Move/warp them back west. Presumably, move them next across the bridge (and a few mountain tiles, it seems, to make the movement extra annoying).

Yes, aptly put.

4 minutes ago, ping said:

Holy shit, I didn't even consider this. The southern path towards Thove is literally all mountain, what the hell.

All mountain and a single mage. Challenge!

1 minute ago, ping said:

Very merciful of you that you don't have to sacrifice Joshua to recruit Ismaire in The Sacred Rubens.

Oh, no, not at all.

Instead, you get to do that in this next hack.

2 minutes ago, ping said:

(wait, Joshua was playable as normal, right? Now that I'm typing this, I'm suddenly not sure, since I don't remember using him at all)

Yeah, Ruben Stones may have been a little out there for a rebalance, but it wasn't that out there. It kept the entire vanilla cast. Well, with one exception.

2 minutes ago, ping said:

Honestly, I get why they're there. It's more annoying here because they didn't vanish right the next turn after seizing Thove, but I can understand that they're a (somewhat brute-force) way to prevent the player from sequence-skipping with Erin. It's just a cost of having big, multi-seize map.

I've talked about it elsewhere, but I would've prefered if they designed the map to more naturally allow for this. Like, a more linear map with Sailane at the top and Thove between you and the capital.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I hate this. I absolutely fucking hate this. There's no organic reason to assume Dew can do this, because there have been no doors or chests for thieves to open in this game (and let's not forget, when this game came out thieves only had that ability in 2 out of 4 games released so far - there wasn't as much of a precedent), and the bridge isn't replaced by a raised bridge tile, but rather disappears entirely. Then the village just tells you, which is the mark of every good puzzle - when the game has to just give you the solution.

I know other games pulled this, but I've got to wonder...how does one lock pick a drawbridge of all things? He refers to AK actual lock and it being easy, but surely, of security mechanisms, a literal draw bridge is going to be the most secure against tampering from the outside. I mean, it lifts up for crying out loud! Where is the lock? What can you even manipulate? There should be nothing but empty river from the south western side! Does this drawbridge have some kind remote electronic signal controlling it that Dew can hack into?

35 minutes ago, ping said:

Honestly, I get why they're there. It's more annoying here because they didn't vanish right the next turn after seizing Thove, but I can understand that they're a (somewhat brute-force) way to prevent the player from sequence-skipping with Erin. It's just a cost of having big, multi-seize map.

I agree. The forcefields are annoying but they're kind of necessary. Though, maybe they could be dialed back in some cases. Chapter 7 doesn't have any, you're free to send your pegasus to the end section to help out the allied units there. More chapters probably could work that way. Like, she was blocked off from Orgahil, wasn't she? Even though having here there to help Briggid, Claude and Tailtu right away wouldn't have been game breaking at all. For this chapter maybe she could fly over. The obvious reason she can't is that Annand must die, but sending her up against Andre's bow knights sounds like it might be suicide even for a lv30 Erinys, though she probably could kill Pamela or Andre which might cause issues. And, probably more than that is the issue that players might think they're intended to be able to save Annand of Erinys could freely travel there.

Another possibility is if we make the force fields more naturally integrated by having such areas be high wind hazards or something, though it'd be very contrived if half the map was covered in high winds, or even worse, a single corridor dividing the map. But maybe such winds could just be around the enemy castles so she can fly all around the area but can't disrupt enemy movements in specific spots.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

14 hours ago, ping said:

In most games, it at least has crit mitigation, so that a character with abysmal Lck at least has this constant threat of low% crits looming above their head. At least Genealogy's +1 avo is generally more valuable than the +.5 hit / +.5 avo that I think Lck usually provides.

Admittedly, I generally like how Genealogy handles crits - both in the "most units can't do it", and "it doubles attack power" senses. So, giving the enemies Luck, and having it mitigate Crit, would make the Critical skill nigh-useless. Unless they reconfigure the formula, so that the skill (and Killer Bow) give an automatic 20 Crit, with the Skill-Luck margin determining any modifiers from there.

14 hours ago, ping said:

Well, Sigurd only took three soldiers with him, so there should be plenty left

I would imagine that Chalphy only has a minimal garrison left - same as Jungby and I assume the other duchies. The prologue unfolds as it does because everybody is blindsided by Verdane's raid and Jungby didn't have adequade defenses to stop it. Azel even says that Sigurd's effort to drive back Verdane is the last line of defense that Grannvale has, because the Isaach war is demanding all its attention, although he of course has ulterior motives (namely, he wants to go on an adventure with that hunk Lex).

Hey, three soldiers may have been all they had!

Totally fair motivation re: Azelle. Still kinda wild to think, how the very first chapter beats in "don't let anyone take the home castle!" Only for the second chapter to see... everyone abandon their home castle.

14 hours ago, ping said:

Actually, I like that one, contrary to what I said earlier in this post. Maybe even have Claude disappear if you talk to him with Sigurd - if the two are meeting up, the road is clear all the way to Grannvale, so he could even leave Taillte behind because she wants to zap some evildoers, and it's not like Claude needs the extra five turns between Sigurd talking to him and Sigurd seizing Orgahil to gain XP.

Well, I was thinking of it happening after the flight to Silesse, but before the start of chapter 4. Although, maybe chapter 3 could "end" with Claud and Tailtiu leaving, followed immediately by Rango and Reptor arriving? I dunno.

As for the interaction, Jotari had a point, that maybe it couldn't be shown, due to it being in Grannvale. I'd be fine with Claud relating the experience to Sigurd at the start of chapter 4. Even in such a case, Claud might not be wholly trusting of Arvis, which he could express to Sigurd as well.

17 hours ago, Jotari said:

He didn't conquer Nordion. Just saved it from would be conquerors and...annexed all the land around it.

Honestly, I've tried to get the enemies to conquer Nordion before. The ones under Clement, by retreating Lachesis as far away as possible. That way, Sigurd can re-seize it, so it becomes a Warp destination. Plus everyone gets an extra 1K next chapter. But I've never tricked the enemy AI into doing it.

14 hours ago, ping said:

Dangit, I wanted to make that joke when I read about Rahna's maternal vibes.

Well, thank you for providing the portraits, to make this dialogue possible in the first place!

2 hours ago, ping said:

Actually, even worse: With only Dew's chip damage, Midir would've brought Dithorba to 1 HP. Of course, since Dithorba is a promoted Falcoknight with the Adept skill, this is not an action I would recommend in a ranked run. Here, Dithorba even does get a proc, but misses one of her attacks. Good job, Dew, for not getting that third L on your record.

Bzzt!

Epic Dew gaming moment.

Interesting that Dithorba (ah, I remember when she was Deetvar) would switch to the Slim Lance when attacked at range. It weighs her down more than the Silver Sword.

2 hours ago, ping said:

Very useful, indeed. To be honest, I've pretty much given up on Sylvia buying the Leg Ring (and she's certainly not buying the Knight Ring), so I don't care as much for her own arena ambitions with this, but this just seems like a universally strong sword for anybody who can use it.

Yes! And it didn't crash your game, neither!

I really like the Shield Sword on anyone using Miracle strats, since being able to control how much damage you take in that regard is a huge boon. Or you can just use it to make someone uncharacteristically bulky.

2 hours ago, ping said:

The next pair of secondary characters (after Azel and Lex) that seem gaily shippable to me. Certain Elincia/Lucia vibes, although I doubt that the game will pull a younger brother of Mahnya out of the hat with a more explictly shown attraction to Rahna, just to make sure things don't become too gay.

Okay but like

If Mahnya and Rahna got together

Then like

Erinys would be Lewyn's aunt.

 

...So any other day in Jugdral.

2 hours ago, ping said:

So, er, there's the result. Hardly halfway towards whatshisface, Not-Elliot, and all mobile enemies are already dead. Honestly, this map is the one with the worst design thus far, I would say.

Hey, but thank god a solid third of the map is taken up by a nigh-untraversable mountain that's used to punish players who actually believe in permadeath, right?

...RIGHT?

[Jotari]

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

Honestly, I've tried to get the enemies to conquer Nordion before. The ones under Clement, by retreating Lachesis as far away as possible. That way, Sigurd can re-seize it, so it becomes a Warp destination. Plus everyone gets an extra 1K next chapter. But I've never tricked the enemy AI into doing it.

I had the enemy seize it in  my recent Sigurd solo, but I think I missed when and how. When I returned from his venture up north it was red with no enemies around it and I just took it unopposed. I can only guess it was part of Elliot's squad at some point as Sigurd was single handedly massacring them and Lachesis and her knights had been sacrificed to the challenge rules. How do neutral seized castles work? Do you get more money if you get a green castle to turn blue? Also, isn't it kind of weird that the enemy will take a green castle for their own, but will just completely demolish a blue castle? I get the reason for it in terms of gameplay, as being able to reseize a castle after the enemy takes it would basically have no punishment for losing a castle at all, just the minor time investment to send Sigurd somewhere else, it's just kind of funny as a quirk narratively. On this same subject, I spend like two hours trying to get Slayde to capture Sophia castle in the same run thinking I could get both Aura and Nosferatu by doing so, but then accidentally getting both Iucharba and Nosferatu, the worst of both worlds (though I actually like Iucharba a bit more as both a unit and a character).

[RPGuy96]

3 hours ago, ping said:

You can trust on Fire Emblem fans to always have the worst possible opinions.

But seriously, that's wild. I found ch.2 to be the best map thus far, with ch.3 falling behind because of the Orgahil sequence. Ch.2's back-and-forth movement might look bad on paper, but with all the castles connected by roads, it really isn't, and I very much enjoyed how there was stuff happening all over the map. The only bad parts, as far as I'm concerned were Raquesis's body guards (specifically that they prioritise attacking enemies in their range over keeping close to her) and the Mackily ballistae on a cliff.

Meanwhile, ch.4 is just a big nothingburger thus far. Move people east. Move/warp them back west. Presumably, move them next across the bridge (and a few mountain tiles, it seems, to make the movement extra annoying).

Chapters 2 and 4 annoy me for basically the same reason - the branching path means you have to track back all the way (or Warp/Return, but you have to go all the way back to Evans in 2, right?).  Chapter 4 also has the cool scripted battle you're about to see, though obviously we are less attached to Mahnya than friends and relatives from the southeast that you might be seeing soon.

5 hours ago, ping said:

I hope that Ch.5 is going to be a nice finale for the first generation.

Chapter 5 is...very good narratively.

[BrightBow]

9 hours ago, ping said:

_

A faint voice yelling "buuuuuuuullshiiiiiiiiiit" can be heard from across the mountains.
 

9 hours ago, ping said:

: "Hm? I'd say those traitors are drawing perhaps a bit too close for comfort. You there! Raise the Thove River drawbridge! Without this key, there's no way they'll ever get over here. Heh heh... I almost wish I could see the looks on their faces!"

I mean, there isn't really a practical reason to lay siege to that castle. Everyone can just go home.

Of course we are talking about Sigurd. Doesn't matter if it's impractical. He sees a castle, he's gotta have it.
 

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

Admittedly, I generally like how Genealogy handles crits - both in the "most units can't do it", and "it doubles attack power" senses. So, giving the enemies Luck, and having it mitigate Crit, would make the Critical skill nigh-useless. Unless they reconfigure the formula, so that the skill (and Killer Bow) give an automatic 20 Crit, with the Skill-Luck margin determining any modifiers from there.

I can see why Berwick Saga ditched the Luck stat. It's useless.

The only time the Luck stat and universal critical hit rates were even sorta neat was in Tear Ring Saga. Since characters there have so many relationships that it gives low luck units generally options to work around that vulnerability, while those with Luck to spare benefit greatly from the added flexibility.
 

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

I know other games pulled this, but I've got to wonder...how does one lock pick a drawbridge of all things? He refers to AK actual lock and it being easy, but surely, of security mechanisms, a literal draw bridge is going to be the most secure against tampering from the outside. I mean, it lifts up for crying out loud! Where is the lock? What can you even manipulate? There should be nothing but empty river from the south western side! Does this drawbridge have some kind remote electronic signal controlling it that Dew can hack into?

Berwick Saga has control stations on one side of a bridge that can be used to freely lower or raise it. Kinda like in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun.

Edited March 14 by BrightBow

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

Berwick Saga has control stations on one side of a bridge that can be used to freely lower or raise it. Kinda like in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun.

Yeah, but...why though. It's not that mechanism to control a draw bridge from the other side is impossible to design (though with pre modern tech it'd probably be pretty challenging and involve a lot of rope), it's that such a design defeats the purpose of a drawbridge, which is to defend a moat from one side. The only sensible conclusion is that it's not a draw bridge at all and is actually one of those double sided lifting bridges designed for letting large boats to pass under, and despite it's cold climate, Thove is some kind of manufacturing area for tall ships... though even in such a scenario being able to physically work it from both sides as opposed to just telling the guy on the other side to open it at the same time as you is going to be a tonne of redundant effort for the tech they're working with.

[ping]

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I've talked about it elsewhere, but I would've prefered if they designed the map to more naturally allow for this. Like, a more linear map with Sailane at the top and Thove between you and the capital.

For the narrative, the general layout of the map does make sense. Not-Bordeaux (I should call him Marseille) starts attacking once he gets word that Sigurd has beaten Maios, since that means that Sigurd is now much further away from the capital. It's nice that the villains are on the receiving end of some teleport bullshit for a change, too.

I dunno, I find that ch.2 made a similar concept work much better. The long distances Sigurd has to travel are much less annoying when you can move your horsies a full screen worth of tiles every turn, as opposed to the frustrated movement in the Silessian forests, and I don't think it had ch.4's problem where there's literally zero pressure on you while you're only halfway to your destination.

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

Like, she was blocked off from Orgahil, wasn't she? Even though having here there to help Briggid, Claude and Tailtu right away wouldn't have been game breaking at all.

There are forcefields preventing her to actually move onto the land tiles, but the game is very charitable when it comes to Erin helping Claude and Taillte. This is right when they spawn, so Erin is able to immediately act as a frontline tank for them.

Broadly agree with your points. I think the forcefield are particularly annoying in ch.4 because they linger for at least one extra turn (I haven't continued playing yet, so I don't know how this will work exactly) and I obviously can't say anything about the rest of the game, but I don't have a fundamental problem with them existing.

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

Admittedly, I generally like how Genealogy handles crits - both in the "most units can't do it", and "it doubles attack power" senses. So, giving the enemies Luck, and having it mitigate Crit, would make the Critical skill nigh-useless. Unless they reconfigure the formula, so that the skill (and Killer Bow) give an automatic 20 Crit, with the Skill-Luck margin determining any modifiers from there.

I'm in two minds about the Critical skill - I do enjoy that you don't have the constant low% crit chances potentially screwing you over, like in the Akaneia games, but I don't like the multiple proc-based damage-increasing skills like Accost, Adept, Astra, which Critical in practise becomes one of. They add to the variance in Genealogy's combat, where almost every fight has like five potential outcomes with non-marginal probabilities, which I think is a weakness of the game.

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

Epic Dew gaming moment.

Wait a second... Why did I have Dew attack in melee-- Oh fuck, I'm an idiot.

Turns out that when I reloaded the last turn of ch.3 to sell Ethlyn's Mend staff, I forgot that I had also picked up the Wind Sword on that same last turn.

...welp, minus one magic sword. That's annoying. The Wind Sword will only be available in ch.10, too.

Good thing I didn't let Ethlyn take a magic sword with her, I suppose.

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

I really like the Shield Sword on anyone using Miracle strats, since being able to control how much damage you take in that regard is a huge boon. Or you can just use it to make someone uncharacteristically bulky.

It's pretty insane just how much micromanagement one can do with the arena

Sigurd, Beowulf, and Erin could all go to 30-ish Def with the Shield Sword plus Shield Band. Definitely impressive, although I suspect that there's too many enemies that would ignore them to make that a good play.

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

Okay but like

If Mahnya and Rahna got together

Then like

Erinys would be Lewyn's aunt.

 

...So any other day in Jugdral.

To be fair, christmas dinner can't really get much more awkward than Lewyn already makes it by being Lewyn.

5 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:

Chapters 2 and 4 annoy me for basically the same reason - the branching path means you have to track back all the way (or Warp/Return, but you have to go all the way back to Evans in 2, right?).  Chapter 4 also has the cool scripted battle you're about to see, though obviously we are less attached to Mahnya than friends and relatives from the southeast that you might be seeing soon.

Nordion not being a warp spot is a bit annoying, yes. But as I said, moving units about is much less of a hassle if their movement isn't slowed down as much. If I recall, even Quan riding all the way from Anphony and Azel walking from Heirhein both managed to contribute vs. Mackily and Agusty.

3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

I mean, there isn't really a practical reason to lay siege to that castle. Everyone can just go home.

Of course we are talking about Sigurd. Doesn't matter if it's impractical. He sees a castle, he's gotta have it.

Seriously. He's making progress, evidenced by his realisation that some people might not enjoy being invaded, but he still can't overcome his instincts.

But it really is a running theme that Sigurd achieves what he set out to do... and then just keeps on a-conquerin' for no good reason. Happened in Verdane, happened in Agustria, and now it's happening in Silesse.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, but...why though. It's not that mechanism to control a draw bridge from the other side is impossible to design (though with pre modern tech it'd probably be pretty challenging and involve a lot of rope), it's that such a design defeats the purpose of a drawbridge, which is to defend a moat from one side. The only sensible conclusion is that it's not a draw bridge at all and is actually one of those double sided lifting bridges designed for letting large boats to pass under, and despite it's cold climate, Thove is some kind of manufacturing area for tall ships... though even in such a scenario being able to physically work it from both sides as opposed to just telling the guy on the other side to open it at the same time as you is going to be a tonne of redundant effort for the tech they're working with.

Dew is just a very fast swimmer

[BrightBow]

Plotwall aside, those mountains are also annoying because not all units can even cross them. 1st tier cavalry can't, and of course Arden is screwed over yet again.

Also weird decision of placing a Silesian Wind Mage on the bridge. As if he is actively stopping you from saving their asses.

[Jotari]

23 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Plotwall aside, those mountains are also annoying because not all units can even cross them. 1st tier cavalry can't, and of course Arden is screwed over yet again.

Also weird decision of placing a Silesian Wind Mage on the bridge. As if he is actively stopping you from saving their asses.

I'd say the intention is that you're not meant to get near that guard while the scripted battle plays out. You're supposed to be just moving your army back from Thove, like the whole reason Maios (or is it Daccar) did this in the narrative. Of course the game knows you can warp or return ring right back, so it has to actively stop you...if only there was some kind of cross river technology that could be raised up and down to prevent people on one side from getting to the other.

[BrightBow]

I suppose the guard likely stands there just to draw your attention. To nudge you towards this being the path to take if you want to reach the Southern part of the map.

After all, there isn't really a clear path South at all.
Mountains have mostly been decorative so far, always being impossible to reach on foot due to thickets or cliffs in the way. So you might end up conflating them with the impassible terrain that prevents you from reaching them in the first place.
I think the only exception on previous maps is that one narrow part in chapter 2 that the lone armor knight is standing on.

Edited March 14 by BrightBow

[ping]

FE4 Chapter 4: Dance in the Skies

[Thove/Sailane] --> Silesse --> Zaxon

Spoiler

Apologies for the unannounced break. Mixture of annoyance at myself for accidentally deleting the Wind Sword, at the game because this map is a slog, and some annoyance unrelated to Genealogy, which killed my FE motivation for a little while. On the plus side, we will leave this map already.

__

Slight spoiler, I guess - this is where I stopped playing on thursday. Pictured: Everybody being ready to protect the queen... except for Aideen, who was the last warper remaining at Thove, with no weapon and no money to buy one. This one was a silly mistake on my part, too - Aideen hasn't gone through the arena yet, and there's no reason to leave that money on the table for her, so it really should've been Raquesis (who's gone through the arena and shouldn't have had trouble hitting Lv.30 next map even without any combat in ch.4) remaining at Thove instead, even disregarding the "defenseless" part.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

: "Ah. Duke André, I presume? You certainly took your time getting here... And... Oh! How magnificent! So this is Jungby's renowned bow knight legion!"
: "Hmhmhm... Alas, my father is dead, and my sister is a fugitive among the traitors. This leaves me, and me alone, as the Duke of Jungby and leader of our legion! Against the might of the Beigenritter, these winged ponies stand no chance at all! Now, sit back and watch them drop like flies!"

Very non-suspicious, that man. I would trust anybody who told me, unprompted, how legitimate and irrefutable his claim to his position is.

Also, I can't help but chuckle at the name "Beigenritter". I know, the theme is "colour-knights, but in German", but I find a slightly funny to name a squad after a colour famous for being kinda boring. That said, considering Kaga's track record, I probably need to credit him for not calling them "brownshirts".

Meanwhile, dogfighting, but with horses. Or ponies, to take a cue from André.

: "I'm sorry. I know you're not to blame, but this must be done..."

: "But not once did I ever suspect we would someday find ourselves as enemies."
: "Mahnya... Only you would be so fooish as to insist on following your queen to her inevitable grave! Why should I complain, though? After all, once you're out of the way, that leaves me as the greatest knight of Silesse!"
: "The only fool here is you, Pamela! No... It's too late to change your mind. You're so set on your fate... Very well. All I can do for you now is give you a last honorable duel befitting a Silessian knight."
: "Heh... Saccharine as ever, aren't you?"

(Side note: Project Naga calls the four named Pegasi the four Falcoknights of Silesse. Very immersion-ruining. Erin is just an unpromoted Pegasus Knight when she joins.)

__

: "Aah... Erin... Prince... Lewyn..."

The next turn, still with the Silessian mage blocking access, the Beigenritter start getting involved, which obviously doesn't just tip the scales, but smashes any semblence of balance.

I have to admit that this does a good job in translating the story into... well, not exactly "gameplay", since we're just standing on the sidelines, but into the game engine, if you will. Without André's arrival, my impression is that this is a somewhat even fight (although I don't know how Zaxon's 1-2 range and Silesse's higher hit/avoid would eventually weigh up), which fits the picture of Daccar not daring an assault on the capital without Jungby's support.

However, the translation into gameplay really is hamstrung by the blocked bridge. Instead of a feeling of coming too late, I'm annoyed that an already rather boring map is slowed down to a halt in order to make this in-engine cutscene happen without interference. Looking at this, I have to agree with Ruben that this probably would've worked better if the four castles were more in a linear configuration: Sailane -> Thove -> Zaxon -> Silesse. Or maybe the last two swapped, but I like the idea that Daccar might feel pressured in acting immediately because he's worried that, if his brother falls against Sigurd, he himself is put into a pincer by Sigurd and Rahna's forces.

Anyway, Mahnya's death causes some reactions:

: "Mahnya has been killed?! Ahh... How could this happen... I'm so sorry, Mahnya... Forgive me..."
: "What? Mahnya's dead?! ...Y-you're joking!!"
: "Huh? Mahnya was... No! Th... this can't be happening! How... how could anyone have killed her? This can't be..."

"We have to go avenge her! And protect Queen Rahna! Right now!"

: "No matter. I suppose we might as well bring down the capital while we're here. Pamela, your unit will cross the mountains. Beseige [sic] and capture Thove immediately."
: "Very well."

So yeah, this is when I restarted. Or rather, quite playing for a few days and then restarted from the save at the end of the last update. I don't blame Kaga for this move specifically (I mean, it shouldn't have been a surprise to me that pegasi can fly over mountains), but it really annoyed me that this comes to pass after going through this multi-turn cutscene, when you've had plenty time to evacuate Thove. I guess I'm lucky that I keep the saves at end of an update around at least until the next update, so I didn't have to do the whole trip to Thove again. Then again, if my save rotation was wider, I might still have had a late ch.3 save...

New plan! Raquesis. 1-2 range. Weapon triangle advantage. She has 22 Def, 23 after her level-up from warping Aideen back home. Pamela's generics have 24 Atk with their Javelins. The Hand Axe is slightly less expensive 1-2 range than the Earth Sword. I see no flaw in this plan.

(no, really, Raquesis shuts Pamela's squad down hard)

: "Heh... Begone, weakling!"

: "I-impossible..."

Nothing personel, kid.

Of course, I'm juming ahead a fair bit in my list of screenshots here, but since Raquesis is just going to chill for the rest of the chapter, I thought I might as well get this out of the way.

__

Little AI surprise of the day: Raquesis got another Def proc right before the last remaining winged pony's turn, who then still suicides into her. Doesn't make much of a difference - I suppose I would've preferred the kill on the Brave Sword - but I still wonder why this is. Does the AI not check for a counterattack if a unit attacks from range? Or did the def proc somehow not register?

But back to the main figh-- er, main wait. After waiting for the Beigenritter to kill the last Silessian Peg Knight, we wait for the Beigenritter to seize Silesse.

: "The capital is under our control? Good. Mission accomplished. We ride for Grannvale at once!"

And off they go. For a while, I thought that my initial prediction (that André would function as an Evil Uncle to Aideen and Bridget's four kids) would be correct after all, but since I will be (er, would be? Was going to? That one sounds correct. I'm not good with tenses) copying character stats from next chapter's home castle, I noticed that he's going to be a boss next chapter. Missed opportunity, maybe? Although I might be able to have Bridget and/or Aideen fight him.

: "Heh... At long last. The capital is mine, and mine alone! Now, I want a wind mage unit deployed south of Silesse River. Fortify our defensive line there. Furthermore... Donovan! You and your axemen are to occupy the capital and maintain its defenses. But don't even think about killing the queen. We can't waste a hostage of such high value."
: "Got it, sir!"

: "Hurry! You need to flee as fast as you can!"
: "But, Your Highness..."
: "I'll be okay! Look after yourselves, please!"
: "People, please! The queen wants us to run, so come on! Run!"

: "Huh? Where the hell are all the townsfolk? Ugh... they scarpered, didn't they? Damn it! They took all the fun outta this! Boys, it's up to you now! Get out there and butcher those little pigs! No survivors! Understand?"
: "No! Please, stop! My citizens are as innocent as they come! It matters not what happens to me, but please, don't harm my people!"
: "I don't think so. You've been screwin' up Lord Daccar's will long enough, missy. 'Bout time you learned your lesson!"
: "Ahh..."

I get the intent - present Rahna as selfless and Daccar('s men) as evil and bloodthirsty... But it seems rather counterproductive, if not straight up idiotic, for one side in a civil war to murder civilians for no good reason, no? This isn't even looting and pillaging, it's just killing folks who already left their belongings behind.

That said, Daccar didn't come across as particularly cunning before this, either, so it might as well be in-character for him not to think ahead about after he takes the throne.

: "Coming from someone like you, willing to kill anyone, anywhere, anytime so long as you're handsomely paid, that's quite a claim. High praise indeed, if it's from the lips of the infamous 'Lamia the Infernal'."
: "Ohoho! Quite the flatterer, aren't you? Now, where do we begin with our mayhem?"
: "For now, your group will guard the castle. Be ready to roll out your traditional welcome in case Sigurd's thugs try causing us grief."
: "Guard duty? Really? Where's the fun in that? Eh, no matter. It's your money. Oi, ladies! Listen up! We're on guard duty. Stick to the castle, and pick off the enemy's leftovers if they come!"

It's shocking to me that neither Daccar nor Lamia have a moustache to twirl during these villainous speeches.

(While I'm making fun of them a lot here, I don't actually mind the pair of them. They're minor villains, so I don't mind that they prioritise being memorable over being competent and consistent with their own goals)

____

Now, finally, the Silessian mage disappears, with not even as much as a goodbye to Taillte and Lewyn, who have been picknicking right next to him for the last I don't know how long. Erin takes the opportunity and kills one of the two Blizzard mages spawning near the bridge, but she's slightly short of reaching the other one with a dance.

At the end of Sigurd's phase, the six civilians run towards us and away from the axemen, who try to catch up to them.

: "Boys, get off yer sorry hinds! Guard the castle no matter what. Don't let 'em get anywhere near it!"

Ohhhh, this is recoloured Kimbaith, Jamke's middle (iirc) brother. I recognised that way too late - after finishing typing up the update and while uploading the pictures/copying the text into the forums. It kept bugging me that he looks really familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint it. The green hair made me not consider Verdane.

__

And there's the occupier of Silesse himself.

He's boring. And has Pavise, although he really isn't strong enough for that to matter all that much. I guess it's a small oddity that he is using a sword and bow and not an axe? ...yeah, I think that's the most interesting thing about him that I can come up with.

With everybody already queueing the bridge, it's not a bit problem to reach the civilians well before they receive an axe in their head. "Rescueing" them will just make them disappear from the map, giving their rescuer a full 100 XP - the beneficiaries from this being Lewyn, Taillte (x2), Ayra, Beowulf, and Dew.

: "Ah! Are you here to help me? I couldn't possibly thank you enough!"

: "Oh! You're here to save me? Thank you so, so much!"

(only those two unique responses from the civilians)

____

After that, re-sieging Silesse is really, really easy. Most notable event is Taillte hitting Lv.20, although she doesn't get her promotion before next chapter.

__

: "Hahaha! Time for ya to die!"

: "Gah... You're... You're too strong..."

Done. Next!

: "Your Highness! I'm so glad you're unharmed. My sincerest apologies for not coming to your aid sooner."
: "It's fine, Lord Sigurd. That you've made it here is more than enough. I... I'm sorry I couldn't do more. Too many people have died, and I could only stand by and watch... I can't bear it. And... and Mahnya..."
: "Don't worry, Your Highness. Mahnya's killers will die this day by my hand. Daccar's crimes are beyond forgiveness. I promise you: he will not escape me. With this in mind, I humbly request your authorization to assault Zaxon Castle."
: "Lord Daccar's petty greed has condemned my people to utter agony long enough. He is a murderer. Nothing more, nothing less. You may visit justice upon him, Lord Sigurd."
: "Understood. I'll mobilize my army to capture Zaxon immediately. For now, Your Highness, please get some rest."
: "Do take care of yourself, Lord Sigurd. As soon as Zaxon is under your control, I'll be coming by for a word with you."

With how much I (well, We) have been making fun of Sigurd's if-all-you-have-is-a-seize-button attitude... I really do have to compliment him for becoming more reluctant to just grab all castles he lays an eye on... although he'll have a bit of a backslide at the end of the chapter.

: "What in blazes is Donovan even doing out there? Blast... We've no choice. Instruct Lamia to move out and attack at once! They mustn't be allowed near my castle!"
: "Wow, even something so tiny gets Daccar panicking... No matter. Let's go, ladies! We've got quite the feast ahead of us!"

Good luck with that.

____

That said, Lamia's little band (and it is fairly small, by FE4's standards) has some mean tricks up their sleeves. Definitely something that'll catch an unsuspecting player off-guard.

Lamia herself can be quite dangerous, too. As a Swordmaster, she has both Pursuit and Adept (and she has exactly enough Atk to one-round even Lex with two Adept procs), and she carries three Authority stars for +20 hit/avo.

However, because they're moving away from Zaxon Castle, they also move away from Daccar's Blizzard range, making that part of the fight a lot less dangerous.

To get it out of the way - a convo that will never have happened because it gives love points to a pairing that isn't meant to be...:

: "Hello there, mister Father!"
: "Hm? And who are you?"
: "I'm Sylviiiiiiiia!"
: "Well then, Miss Sylvia, how can I help you? Have you, perchance, recently run afoul of bandits?"
: "What's that?"
: "Well, er... I'm not sure how to put this... You're wearing nothing but smallclothes."
: "Eh?! Watch your mouth, mister Father! Haven't you seen dancers like me before? This is just a dancer's clothes. It's just like you wearin' your churchy cloak!"
: "Is that so... Hm. Surely you're chilled to the bone, wearing as little as you are, though?"
: "Oh, no! Even 'round here I'm never cold, 'cause my heart's ablaze!"
: "Is dancing truly so fun for you?"
: "Yeah! I just love it!"
: "Is that so... What of your parents? Do they agree with this career of yours?"
: "Actually, I'm an orphan. When I was really little, my master took me in and helped me become a dancer. But he... he was an awful, awful man. He'd always beat me outta nowhere. 'Bout a year ago I couldn't stand any more of it all, so I ran away."
: "I see... What a horrible tale. I believe I know your pain. I once had a sister, who would likely be around your age if she's still alive."
: "A sister?"
: "Yes. Alas, she was abducted while she was still an infant. I've searched for her ever since, but to this day I've yet to find any sign of her."
: "Ohh... I bet she's just like a princess! She's gotta be all pretty and classy... And nothin' like me..."
: "I disagree. I assure you, I do find you to be utterly charming. In your own way, you possess a unique grace and beauty."
: "Oh... mister Father... really?"
: "Of course. I could never lie."
: "Th-thank you... Nobody's ever told me somethin' like that... This feels kinda funny somehow... Oh... Oh, g-great, now I'm cryin'... What is this...?"

*sigh*

On the plus side, "mister Father" is a funny bit of irreverence, although with how Sylvia is sylviing, it might just be her parsing "Father Claude" as a name because she is a childish child. The convo confirms something I had been speculating about earlier - that Sylvia is supposed to be a tragic character behind her oh-so-quirky façade - but I don' think I have it in me to discuss the implications of the "girl is flirty and promiscuous because of daddy issues" trope right now.

__

So, let's never talk of that again. Back to killin' folks. Midir has enough HP/Def to survive a crit (i.e. 54 effective Atk), so he starts by baiting first on archer...

__

...and then another.

: "Hah! What a clumsy mistake, trying to fight me!"

To avoid any risk fighting Lamia, Azel chips her down, hitting one of his two attacks...

: "N-no... How..."

...and Bridget gets the kill.

Lamia is just the henchwoman of a minor villain, so she really doesn't have much of an impact in the grand scheme of the story, but I think she's the first actual villainess of the series? I know Gaiden had Sonia's sisters, but... actually, I'm not sure what characterisation, if any, they had in OG Gaiden. In Echoes, I think they're more tragic than evil.

____

Anyway, Lamia's crew is quickly cleaned up (with Dew getting payed 1000 gold for taking a nap). Onwards to Daccar.

__

: "The throne of Silesse is mine, and mine alone! It is my birthright! Stand aside, loathsome gnats!"

__

Needless to say, three stationary Generals plus one long-ranged boss with middling attack strength isn't really a threatening formation.

__

And done.

Sigurd got a crit+miss there (oh yeah, Silver Sword has 50 kills now!), allowing an easy Ayra kill. If I recall, she even got Astra and then killed Daccar with the first hit.

While this is going on, some last-minute arenaing takes place - Aideen, who only fails to defeat the final Baron, Azel (full clear, although I forgot to get him the Paragon band for the first three rounds or so), Bridget (same, minus the forgotten Paragon).

And after she got the boss kill, I notice that Ayra also didn't get through the arena yet, so she's the last one to do so. Not the most efficient character to carry the Paragon Band into ch.5, since she and Lex are filthy rich already, but it'll do.

And finally, there are two conversations left - one important, one less so. For narrative reasons, I'll show the one which I technically only got right before seizing first:

: "I had no idea Jungby's bow knights would get involved in this mess."
: "No, it's not your fault. Just mine... I just haven't been thinking right lately. I should've been here all along, looking after Mother and the country. But nope, I just ran away! That's why Mahnya died... She just took my place in all this."
: "There's no need to blame yourself. The best you can do now is care for the queen, and ensure that Mahnya didn't die in vain."
: "Yeah, I know. No use pointing out the obvious, huh?"
: "Very well. Oh, Lewyn, before I forget... Don't forget to go see your mother at the capital as soon as possible. She said it's of the utmost importance!"

Very nice of Kaga to give this many reminders to the player to go pick up Forseti. Which Lewyn already did, in this timeline, but hey:

: "Perhaps Lord Sigurd has had quite the positive influence on you after all."
: "Oh, come on, Mother! You don't need to act like I'm still a child. Besides, Sigurd is hardly all that much older than I am."
: "Dear, compared to the likes of Lord Sigurd, you may as well still be a screaming infant. You've still much to learn from him, and quickly. Nothing would be more reassuring than having a son as fine as he by my side. Especially now that Mahnya is... Oh..."
: "Mahnya... I should've been the one to die out there. Not her. If only I'd gotten here sooner! Mother, I'll be here to protect you from now on. I won't let Mahnya's death go to waste. I swear, I will never, ever leave you again."
: "Oh, Lewyn... I never thought you were capable of saying anything so kind. But your word is more than enough. For now, at least, I believe you should remain at Lord Sigurd's side. He has a greater need of your strength."
: "But if I do that, what about you...?"
: "There's nothing to worry about, Lewyn. You are the heir of the wind crusader. Your place is with the rest of the world, to lead and guide it on its true path. The time has come for me to confer upon you your true birthright... The exalted wind tome, Forseti. Here, Lewyn. It's yours."
: "This... So this is the royal family's ancestral tome... The Book of Forseti... Oh! This power... What's this... warmth?"
: "Lewyn, never forget: the Wind Crusader flows as the gentlest breeze. His way is to guide all peoples of the world on the path of peace. Hate and violence is never his answer."
: "Yes, of course. I don't think I could live my life any other way."
: "Indeed. Perhaps you truly are a child of the wind... Lewyn... It's time for you to go. Take care out there, and... And don't do anything too rash."
: "Mother..."
: "Go on! ...For heaven's sake, go..."

As the Greek philosopher Vicky Leandros once sang: Geh mit Gott, aber geh.

(I didn't know of that song - absolutely not my genre of music - but it came out when I was googling if there's a known origin of that "polite" goodbye. But it's certainly older than Vicky's song.)

Forseti is, of course, OP. It technically doesn't hit quite as hard as Yewfelle or Gáe Bolg (I hope I remember the accent placement correctly), but it hits Res, it's insanely accurate (effectively 110 base hit), it makes Lewyn hecking dodgy, and it significantly boosts the proc chance of both Adept and Critical.

But there we go. Bad map. Very boring. Glad we're done.

Really, the design is just incredibly generic - go to this castle, then return (preferrably by magic means) to your home castle, be annoyed at several turns of inaction while a long cutscene plays out, then move straight to Zaxon (with Silesse being a small detour along the way). Enemy formations are placed on the map without much purpose - they never synergise in any form to create an interesting challenge; apart from Pamela going for Thove, they just come at you one by one, making them really easy to defeat, especially because there's not much time pressure once the villages are saved. The rescuable villagers are cute, but since you have so much time positioning at the bridge, it's really trivial to grab those 600 XP, too.

Story-wise, it's also not the most interesting chapter. Compared to the Agustrian conflict, the Silessian civil war isn't given much time, so there isn't much to it that goes beyond "two dickheads are trying to ursurp the throne". But this aspect of the map I'm fine with - it's a retarding moment before the big catastrophe, Sigurd has a bit of time of relative peace, and he can even partake in his favourite hobby without anybody being mad at him for it. I like Rahna, too - again, she didn't have as much time to establish herself in the story as, say, Eldigan, and her role is less interesting than his, too, but she's nice. It's nice to have somebody in the story who is nice. And she has one last opportunity to be nice in the closing cutscene of the chapter - I don't think she'll have another appearance, at least not in the first generation.

: "Sire, Queen Rahna has arrived."
: "Lord Sigurd, that was quite the fierce battle, wasn't it? Are you unharmed?"
: "Yeah. Somehow, I'm okay."

Always a bit awkward when Fire Emblem tries to play up the wrong battle as this big epic fierce showdown.

: "I know I've asked so much of you already, Lord Sigurd, but would you and your army please station yourselves here at Zaxon? Grannvale's Lord Langbalt has already swept in with an immense army and conquered Lubeck Castle, to our east. The people of Silesse are terrified that this will prove to be but a prelude to a full-scale war with Grannvale."
: "Your Highness, I believe Langbalt's army is here only for me. I've no desire to needlessley endanger you or your citizens, after all you've done for us. My men and I are leaving. Now. I have a score to settle with Langbalt."
: "What recklessness! How could you possibly prevail like this?"
: "They're coming for me no matter what. If we remain here, then they'll just invade. We can't afford to waste time debating this."
: "Is that so... How sad..."
: "Your Highness... Thank you so much. You've given me the most wonderful year here, and you've done some much to put my mind at ease. My mother died when I was still very young, so as I grew up, I never knew the unconditional love of a mother. But thanks to you, here in Silesse, I've come to know that very same warmth. You're like a second mother to me now... Take care of yourself, Your Highness. I hope that someday, once this is all over, we'll have a chance to meet again."
: "As do I, Lord Sigurd. Please, stay vigilant out there, and keep yourself safe. From the bottom of my heart, I pray that you and Deirdre will soon be reunited."

You say "unconditional love", Sigurd, but Lewyn has been testing the limits of that concept... But, of course, to be fair, we're talking Lewyn here.

Anyway, because Silesse has only been the scene for one (fairly short) chapter, the "second mother" part feels a little bit unearned. Not terribly so, but it still sticks out a bit to me. Apart from that, I think I've said all I wanted about this chapter, so let's get to

The Team

with one added promotion:

Minus a horse, plus a Staff rank, compared to Azel. Great for ranked runners, I assume, since Taillte would be able to just staff-spam herself to Lv.30, but not as great if you want to use Taillte in actual combat.

You can also see that she hooked up with Lewyn at the tail end of the chapter. The same is true for Azel and Bridget, which means that only Erin and Claude need to step up their game...

...which it seems they will soon enough. This message indicates that there's at most 100 love points left for our last marriage, which with Erin and Claude's love growth of +3 equals at most 13 rounds of adjacency. Shouldn't be much of a problem, even if Erin ends up flying around saving villages 'n stuff.

Finally, Project Bachelorette will hopefully be successful for Sylvia. It's possible that Holyn is only 101 love points (=34 rounds without adjacency) away from proposing, but since he never left the home castle, I hope that he's further away than that. But enough about love 'n junk, I was going to present

The Team

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn  W/L
Sigurd	  27.47	  58  25   0  22  22  15  19   4  25000  +310  [*]  73/1
Lex	  28.46	  56  27   2  18  14  12  25   4  36720  +334  [*]  30/0
Azel	  26.80	  44   7  25  14  22   8  12  13  40470  +302  [*]  48/1
Midir	  27.52	  47  21   1  16  23   9  14   4  2000   +573  [*]  36/0

Raquesis  27.24	  41  27   8  22  20  11  24  10  24500  +1133 [*]  21/1
Beowulf	  25.85	  51  22   0  29  19   4  18   3  50000  +733  [*]  14/0
Erin	  26.28	  45  15   9  19  28  11  19  15  42640  +664  [*]  30/0
Ayra	  28.66	  51  24   2  30  30   9  13   4  27500  +626  [*]  34/1

Bridget	  23.70	  49  24   2  25  21  14  16   9  35500  +600  [*]  16/0
Dew	  10.13	  31   8   0  10  18  14   4   1  3000   +186  [1]  3/2
Lewyn	  25.03   51   3  29  25  30   8   9  15  50000  +706  [*]  18/0
Taillte	  22.02	  48   4  22  24  22  18   6  16  41000  +1298 [*]  15/0

Aideen	  29.87	  48   9  25  16  19  27   9  11  37520  +725  [7]  0/0
Claude	  30.00	  41   2  24  19  17  14   5  23  18700  +460  [*]  0/0
Sylvia	  11.10	  34   4   3   4  14  10   1   9  18000  +310  [1]  0/0

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

Arden	  8.41	  39  16   0   6   5   3  15   0  49040  --    [1]  4/0
Noish	  7.68	  35  12   0  10  10   4   9   0  13360	 --    [1]  6/1
Alec	  9.21	  37  12   0  12  11   6  12   0  22815  +40   [2]  2/1
Holyn	  16.40	  44  16   0  21  17   3  11   1  43060  +140  [5]  0/0
Jamke	  18.21	  47  15   0  16  17  11  12   1  45915  +176  [6]  4/0

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

Quan	  17.05   47  21   0  16  17   7  13   4  10200  	    17/4
Ethlyn	  30.00   43  15  13  20  24  14  18   8  180   	    9/0
Finn	  23.80   46  22   0  16  20  17  17   4  34030	  	    43/1
Deirdre   7.82	  29   0  16  10  13   6   4  18  21500	  	    3/0

Quan: Gáe Bolg, Silver Lance, Iron Lance, Javelin
Finn: Silver Lance, Steel Lance, Skill Ring
Ethlyn: Slim Sword, Silver Blade, Pursuit Band
Deirdre: Silence, Aura, Circlet

• I hope Beowulf isn't the kind of husband that feels humilated by a more successful wife. The girl he was trying to impress by offering weapon training is now thoroughly kicking his ass.
• And it's not as funny as Azura vs. Ike's Str growths, since Dew is just a kid himself, but I still like that Aideen has bigger guns than our thievy boy. Reaching 9 Str (with a base of 0 and no promo gains) is equivalent to a 35% growth, which is almost as good as Bridget (4/11 => 36%) has been growing.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

32 minutes ago, ping said:

I have to admit that this does a good job in translating the story into... well, not exactly "gameplay", since we're just standing on the sidelines, but into the game engine, if you will. Without André's arrival, my impression is that this is a somewhat even fight (although I don't know how Zaxon's 1-2 range and Silesse's higher hit/avoid would eventually weigh up), which fits the picture of Daccar not daring an assault on the capital without Jungby's support.

However, the translation into gameplay really is hamstrung by the blocked bridge. Instead of a feeling of coming too late, I'm annoyed that an already rather boring map is slowed down to a halt in order to make this in-engine cutscene happen without interference. Looking at this, I have to agree with Ruben that this probably would've worked better if the four castles were more in a linear configuration: Sailane -> Thove -> Zaxon -> Silesse. Or maybe the last two swapped, but I like the idea that Daccar might feel pressured in acting immediately because he's worried that, if his brother falls against Sigurd, he himself is put into a pincer by Sigurd and Rahna's forces.

Basically this is how I feel about it, as I've made clear before. The setpiece is pretty nice, but the forcefields keeping you from interfering drag the whole thing down.

33 minutes ago, ping said:

"We have to go avenge her! And protect Queen Rahna! Right now!"

Oh right, and I forgot the stupid fucking forcefields don't even lift immediately after Mahnya's death. You just have to keep on waiting for the game to see fit to let you do things.

35 minutes ago, ping said:

 "Donovan! You and your axemen are to occupy the capital and maintain its defenses. But don't even think about killing the queen. We can't waste a hostage of such high value."

"She's a really useful hostage, you see. That's why I'm going to do absolutely nothing to use her to keep her allies from murdering us all."

36 minutes ago, ping said:

Eyy it's my girl.

37 minutes ago, ping said:

On the plus side, "mister Father" is a funny bit of irreverence, although with how Sylvia is sylviing, it might just be her parsing "Father Claude" as a name because she is a childish child. The convo confirms something I had been speculating about earlier - that Sylvia is supposed to be a tragic character behind her oh-so-quirky façade - but I don' think I have it in me to discuss the implications of the "girl is flirty and promiscuous because of daddy issues" trope right now.

Let's instead discuss the implications that this is a recurring trope for Kaga.

38 minutes ago, ping said:

Lamia is just the henchwoman of a minor villain, so she really doesn't have much of an impact in the grand scheme of the story, but I think she's the first actual villainess of the series? I know Gaiden had Sonia's sisters, but... actually, I'm not sure what characterisation, if any, they had in OG Gaiden. In Echoes, I think they're more tragic than evil.

Exactly zero, that's how much. Not even combat quotes, like many bosses in Gaiden. Lamia is the first female villainess to get any characterization at all.

...And, truthfully, as far as minor hench(wo)men in this game go, she gets more characterization than most. For the most part they're either "haha bad brigand", "haha bad mercenary" or "I'm just a general guy," but Lamia takes an overt pleasure in being an asshole that isn't there for the rest. More "haha evil mercenary" than "haha bad mercenary." Her brand of arrogance also feels different - a bit more subtle, and mixed in with some sultriness. There's also the fact that she has an all-girls band, which is a pretty unique tidbit.

What I'm saying is, it's something. Puts her roughly around Clement as far as bossmen that actually have a personality in this game go (though I'd say Clement is more interesting due to the more grey nature of his situation). Worryingly, it also puts her ahead of more major characters like Lungbait and Report.

tl;dr: Lamia cool.

42 minutes ago, ping said:

Always a bit awkward when Fire Emblem tries to play up the wrong battle as this big epic fierce showdown.

"Dragons are truly fearsome beasts. I can't believe we survived this battle. How can we ever win against beasts such as these?!"

"Lord Roy, he didn't have a ranged weapon. Even Damas was harder than him."

"But, Elphin... Dragons!"

"His name was Ein, Lord Roy."

44 minutes ago, ping said:

I like Rahna, too - again, she didn't have as much time to establish herself in the story as, say, Eldigan, and her role is less interesting than his, too, but she's nice. It's nice to have somebody in the story who is nice.

I agree. It's nice that Rahna's nice. I'm glad she got to live.

[ping]

31 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

"She's a really useful hostage, you see. That's why I'm going to do absolutely nothing to use her to keep her allies from murdering us all."

To be fair, it's quite in line with Daccar's general characterisation (he is not very smart).

I think this could've been used better if Silesse had indeed been behind Zaxon, as I suggested in the update. Daccar moves to Silesse after André conquers it and actually threatens to kill Rahna when you come near. Or Daccar remains in Zaxon and, after you conquer it, turns out to be alive and bargains to be exchanged for Rahna, just to flee to Grannvale and appear as a minor boss in ch.5 - basically a shorter version of those traiterous Etrurian nobles in BinBla.

38 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Eyy it's my girl.

[...]

tl;dr: Lamia cool.

Ruben's waifu (no worries, I'm not going to accuse you of liking an anime girl):

Spoiler

But yeah, I agree with what you say about Lamia. It's consistently rare to find a woman in Fire Emblem that is allowed to be a villain instead of being vaguely Camüh-shaped. Petrine in PoR comes to mind, if you remember her. She even has some flirtatous lines with Greil as an additional parallel to Lamia, although Petrine of course has a much bigger role in her game, and is more brutish in her behaviour.

54 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

"Dragons are truly fearsome beasts. I can't believe we survived this battle. How can we ever win against beasts such as these?!"

"Lord Roy, he didn't have a ranged weapon. Even Damas was harder than him."

"But, Elphin... Dragons!"

"His name was Ein, Lord Roy."

Clearly, that is foreshadowing for just how disappointing Jahn's Long March is going to be as the last (real) map.

And since I was just thinking about PoR - the Defend map right after Greil's death is another example, unless you're playing on Lunatic. On Hard, the challenge is to rout the map, ideally with non-Titania characters getting good XP. Staying alive is a simple matter. But still, the fight is followed by a cutscene of Ike almost fainting from exhaustion before Lethe and Mordecai arrive to save the day.