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

[Polinym]

During my first run of translating, I hadn't heard about the whole "mafuu" evil wind thing, so rather than translate the name literally, I just stuck with the classic fan translation "Maph" that I already liked. Later on though, I did read a thread on where "Imhullu" came from. But, I've since decided to keep it as "Maph" mostly because I'm a fan of it, second because fitting a nice localization of mafuu within the 7 character limit is a major challenge (not anymore, recently made my patch for longer item names stable). "Imhullu" seems like too much of a departure, adding a mythology reference that wasn't there in the original. If I ever localized the name, I wouldn't just call it "Mafuu", but something like "Demongale" or "Darkwind".

Gharnef was left as the "Dark Pontifex" because he just isn't a demon king. Aside from the dragons, all of the "demons" that he commands are just human.
I give a lot more leeway to Japanese names in hiragana, so any sort of dark ruler would do. And, believe it or not, for the sake of official-ness I decide to use IS's localized names if and when they are appropriate and accurate, so in this case "Dark Pontifex" fits the original Japanese meaning and makes reference to the whole priest-magic connection that InterdimensionalObserver mentioned.

[Shaky Jones]

 

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Draw Wendel running a marathon.

That's a lot of effort. And I'd be banished to hell for not doing his hat justice with the utmost pristine drawing skills that I do not have yet.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You know, one thing I haven't been commenting on as much as I should is the combat visuals. These are some sweet sprites for NES. Look at that archer with the big crossbow, that's awesome!

NESFE is weird. Some of the maps look ugly to me, where occasional specific maps (le Celica desert hell) get nauseating to look at for too long for my zoomer eyes, but the actual sprites of units and everything combat related is just awesome. I was pumped whenever that classic battle tune played as my units ran, slashed, and ran back. It's simple, but I could really feel the impact of each shot with NESFE, which is something I really feel like I can only share with like GBAFE and RD. Thracia look nice too, but something about these 8 bit sprites under the black background hit different. Honestly I think I like them more than GBA aside from how slow they can be, but we'll get to Gaiden soon enough.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Why do you keep calling her Miverva

I'll start calling her Mivels. Why not.

8 hours ago, gnip said:

Anyway, as far as desert maps go, this one is pretty tame, unlike a certain other Akaneian one.

What could you possibly be referring to?

8 hours ago, gnip said:

The initial danger comes from two incoming Wyverns with Javelins, which means that Mages and Archers can't shoot them down without eating a heavy counterattack.

If anything, I find 2 range fliers to be infinitely easier. It lets me enemy phase them, which is vital for making player phase less of a hellhole when you're being surrounded by them (i.e: lunatic fe12 wyverns cornering you with 12 move and 1-2 range, letting you ep them with Arran's silver bow to avoid the average cliff racer encounter in Morrowind).

9 hours ago, gnip said:

Ugh.

Right. I'm starting to remember the reason I don't place Kaga games very high on my tier list.

Don't tell me the Kaga Saga all runs on 1RN.

9 hours ago, gnip said:

This was just barely enough XP for Raddy to finally promote, too - as I mentioned earlier, he isn't that much better than Hero's class bases (and therefore Astria's bases), but he does come with an extra +2 Str, which is certainly welcome.

Main thing that stands out about FE1 is how bad HP is compared to every other game.

It's almost Fates HP

 

9 hours ago, gnip said:

• With all due respect for silly choices, I want to give the Power Ring to Sheeda. After she promotes, obviously, which isn't that far away anymore. I've constantly been feeding XP to a 3 Str unit, now I want the payoff of a strong fast bulky flyer.
• I'm less decided on the Amulet, apart from two things I won't do: (1) use the glitch that allows using it on everybody, (2) give it to Mars. The first one because that's kinda lame, the second one because I think I remember hearing or reading that FE1's AI won't attack anybody with 7 Res, even when they would still be dealing damage. And since Mars's superpower is to draw any incoming attack, that would be kinda contraproductive. So... maybe Miverva? I'll be honest, if I was playing on my own, I'd give it to Sheeda, too, just for the full Supergirl experience.

9 hours ago, gnip said:

No new characters, but I want to point out that Sheeda now sits at 11 Def. Less funny, but more relevant is that she also hit Gradivüü WLv, as the second character after Kain.

Sheeda Sheeda Sheeda. How about you shee deez nuts?

 

I'd unironically give it to Thomas.

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Come now, give it to Roshe. He's the subordinate of its canon wielder!

What's his relation to Matthis?

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Physical fliers in a desert map being the real menace? I wonder how often that has been the case. It's certainly not always magic that's the real threat in a desert map.

It's those damn collectables that never proc when you need them before the gaiden chapter turn limit.

[ping]

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Sheeda Sheeda Sheeda. How about you shee deez nuts?

Don't show your junk to strangers on the internet, Shaky.

To be honest, I don't think the Power Ring would be that great on Thomas. The +Res, maybe, but his greatest asset is his effective damage vs. flyers, and his Str doesn't get the x3 multiplyer from that. And other characters have an easier time finding combat, and thus using the extra strength more often than Thomas.

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

It's those damn collectables that never proc when you need them before the gaiden chapter turn limit.

We need the desert item trick to become a standard feature in the series.

[ping]

• FE1 Chapter 16: Battle of Aritia

Spoiler

__
That day... I was able to escape to Talis, thanks to my sister Elice.
She was captured by Durhua in my staed. Where on earth could she be right now?
...I must rescue her from their hands.
Okay, everyone. Move out! For the freedom and peace of our homeland, Aritia!

This map is fairly interesting, with two side objectives that Mars has to get to before moving towards the throne - first getting Samson or Alan, then recruiting Chainy. In addition to that, you get a big wave of reinforcements over two turns on turn 10-11, with a few Silver weapon users among them, which can be quite dangerous if you're surprised by them.

__

But once again, the first threat is a group of wyverns - three of them this time, even. Maji bravely shields Mars from taking any damage here, before they're taking out by Thomas, Minerva (2x12 damage with the a Wyrmslayer, plus 1x12 on the first enemy phase because she missed once), Boah, Darros (2x8 damage with Steel!), and Marich. No Excalibur uses necessary here, which is nice.

__

Maji is the first of a few characters who manage to be quite useful despite not actually doing a lot - he doesn't get to do any damage after this first turn. The second character of the sort is Sheeda, who baits the Thunder Sword Hero into going into an easily blockable corner.

(Small typo: feud, not fued @Polinym)

I was half-expecting Ruben to demand that I use Arran even though it's not Sick Arran just yet...

...but now I'm not sure if he really would want me to use a Cav named Alan. It just seems antithetical to his being.

Here's an example of the colour palette getting messed up a bit by dialogue screens - the Pegasus west of Kain is Paola, who does not, in fact, rejoin the enemy on this map.

Anyway, back to gameplay - thanks to Sheeda baiting the Hero, Kain can now force him to attack at one-range. He still takes big damage (2x7, to be precise), but he has enough HP to live through two rounds of combat, which is enough to bring the Hero into Raddy's killing range.

This is also the third important small contribution of the map, this time by Paola, who alongside Sheeda makes sure that the other Hero can't reach Kain. That he wouldn't have survived. It also allows Wendell to warp Mars in after getting Alan - Wendell spawned as one of the far left characters, which is barely close enough to reach Mars after getting the further away village.

You can also see Minerva flying on the main island to attack a poor defenseless Cleric. In addition to removing an annoying healer (the prick has a Fortify staff), this also causes some of the enemy units to turn back, which splits up the large group of mounted units. Unfortunately, Minerva doesn't one-round (too weak with an Iron Sword, to slow with anything else she's carrying), but the enemy horsemen are just barely too far off to shoo her away the next turn, so she gets the kill anyway.

Chainy recruits himself on enemy phase. Very considerate of him.

Some shuffling latter...

Roshe joins Alen and Wendell, to face the three Cavaliers that went into this direction. One of those carries a Knightkiller, but since Speedroshe is faster, he still wins the encounter - plus, he dodges that attack, anyway.

Darros and, more successfully, Thomas use the river to get some enemy phase action against the Horsemen (and one Jav Cav). They can both cross rivers, too, so this also allows them to join to fight the two Generals guarding the castle, too.

__

And here I'm being silly, thinking that surely, Mars survives these three enemies, and keeping his Rapier equipped because of that.

...the Paladin is carrying a Silver Lance.

__

But Mars just dodges both him and the Cav, anyway. Thank you kindly, 1RN.

Looking at FEWoD, I think he would've just barely survived everything - 13 damage from the Paladin, 7 from the Cav (I think this was the only Steel Sword Cav, which is the hardest-hitting of the bunch), 3 from the Horseman. Mars had 24 HP going into this.

Calculated. Ignore the part where the Horseman used a Crossbow and thus had 21 crit.

Soon after that, all the scrubs are gone (with Thomas really doing a lot of the work here) and it's time to start working on the boss and his General buddy. The latter gets easily killed by Darros (and by "easily", I mean that Darros hit 3/4 Hammer swings. You can estimate the accuracy from the picture).

Unfortunately, the boss is carrying a Kill Sword, so...

__

...Excalibr it is. No need to pray for even more mercy from RNGeesus.

Thomas does a bit of chip on the next turn, allowing Merric to deal the finishing blow with a regular Thunder. This leaves me with 10 charges - hopefully enough until the Camus map.

And that's the map - just barely quick enough to avoid any reinforcements, although Roshe (and Wendell and Alan) shouldn't have had trouble at least surviving them for a turn or two.

The Team:

	Lv  	   HP  Str Skl WLv Spd Lck Def
Mars	10.21	   25    9   7   6  11  12   8
Darros	15.96	   32   11   2   9  16   9   6	(+6 Spd)
Marich	14.80	   29    1   8  15  12  10   8
Roshe	12/5.02	   30   10  13  12  12   5  10

Wendell	5.12	   25    3   2  13  16   5   8
Raddy	10/1.52	   24   10  14  10  14   4   8
Minerv	5.34	   24   11   5  11   6   6  16
Thomas	4.28	   26    8  10  13  15  11   7	(+7 Lck)

Boah	2.91	   22    4   7  10  16   4   6
Maji	12.50	   29   12   5   8  14   8   7	(+4 Str)
Julian	9.94	   32    8  10   7  16  11   4	(+9 HP, +5 WLv)
Paola	9.31	   26    7   9  13  14   5   9

Sheeda	11.65	   19    3  14  14  20  15  11
Kain	17.25	   33   11  14  17  15   9  10
Alan	1.15	   24    8   8  10  11   4  10	(base)
Chainy	1.??	   16    1   1   2  10  ??   4  (base)

• Alan is basically a base level Paladin with slightly more bulk (+2 HP, +1 Def) and one whole extra point of Skl. Basically what Midia should have been. His growth rates are actually really good, with only HP/Def being a bit on the low side, so he seems pretty decent. Not as good as a trained Xmas cav (Kain not being fielded on the desert map makes this comparison very easy in the table) and a bit worse than our Roshe, too, but you really could do much worse.
  • I didn't look this up beforehand, but I'm glad that I didn't recruit Samson. It just would've made Raddy look bad. Now, Samson has worse growths, so Raddy will hopefully eventually surpass what Samson could've done, but still.
• I mean, copying whatever is your best unit in a given situation seems good, no? All the more reason to create Supersheeda

Speaking of Supersheeda, the boss dropped a Dracoshield (+3 Def). Of course, there's other strong options, like Kain, which is to say that it'll probably go to Roshe. Giving Def boosts to an already bulky character has always been the play, so I don't want to give it to Julian, who is too busy to see combat a lot of the time, anyway.

Actually, we get another Dracoshield next map - maybe that one will go to Kain. Or Sheeda.
Also a Secret Book (+5 Skl), which... I mean, I guess it has to be Darros? I'm not as excited about this because Skl only increases hit 1:1, so I would kinda prefer to give this to a more crit-happy character. Marich would be a funky pick because he only gains crit from Skl, Mars would be an actually sensible one. I've avoided giving him main character privileges, but his stat line actually looks pretty good for this, especially since the Rapier and eventually the Mercurius have an innate 10% crit, too.

 

[Shaky Jones]

12 hours ago, gnip said:

Don't show your junk to strangers on the internet, Shaky

They call ne Shakin' Bones. You don't want me to finish this statement.

12 hours ago, gnip said:

To be honest, I don't think the Power Ring would be that great on Thomas. The +Res, maybe, but his greatest asset is his effective damage vs. flyers, and his Str doesn't get the x3 multiplyer from that. And other characters have an easier time finding combat, and thus using the extra strength more often than Thomas.

The real obvious choice is Bantu, but Thomas would be so much more fun with that speed, and we all know player phase emblem is where it's at. Enemy phase? I sleep.

12 hours ago, gnip said:

We need the desert item trick to become a standard feature in the series.

Live Shaky Jones Footage During the Ruben Arcadia Incident:

1 hour ago, gnip said:

This map is fairly interesting, with two side objectives that Mars has to get to before moving towards the throne - first getting Samson or Alan, then recruiting Chainy. In addition to that, you get a big wave of reinforcements over two turns on turn 10-11, with a few Silver weapon users among them, which can be quite dangerous if you're surprised by them.

I love this map, on both this and the sequel. 

1 hour ago, gnip said:

I was half-expecting Ruben to demand that I use Arran even though it's not Sick Arran just yet...

Arran gaming works best for FE3 methinks. I'd suggest using him B1, and then once more on B2, having this whole big journey going on with him. It'll make you feel more emotional when your B1 carry gets cancer, and why would Marth appoint him as your Jeigan if you never trained him. 

Of course you can ignore him if you promise to do an FE12 run with Arran for me and Ruben.

That said, it'd be so hilarious and amazing to see you try Cord again once more in B1 given what Kaga did to my guy, but I wouldn't blame you for saying no.

1 hour ago, gnip said:

Chainy recruits himself on enemy phase. Very considerate of him.

Time to bait the hero.

Wha the-

*Xane joined your army*

Hero: "Now it's time to get funky"

*death music*

1 hour ago, gnip said:

But Mars just dodges both him and the Cav, anyway. Thank you kindly, 1RN.

Looking at FEWoD, I think he would've just barely survived everything - 13 damage from the Paladin, 7 from the Cav (I think this was the only Steel Sword Cav, which is the hardest-hitting of the bunch), 3 from the Horseman. Mars had 24 HP going into this

I love extremely calculated outcomes like these. It tingles the nerd inside me. 

1 hour ago, gnip said:

Calculated. Ignore the part where the Horseman used a Crossbow and thus had 21 crit.

Average 3 Houses lategame battle

1 hour ago, gnip said:

And that's the map - just barely quick enough to avoid any reinforcements, although Roshe (and Wendell and Alan) shouldn't have had trouble at least surviving them for a turn or two

Me finding out I missed a turn's worth of reinforcements (I really needed that +HP growth)

1 hour ago, gnip said:

Alan is basically a base level Paladin with slightly more bulk (+2 HP, +1 Def) and one whole extra point of Skl. Basically what Midia should have been. His growth rates are actually really good, with only HP/Def being a bit on the low side, so he seems pretty decent. Not as good as a trained Xmas cav (Kain not being fielded on the desert map makes this comparison very easy in the table) and a bit worse than our Roshe, too, but you really could do much worse.

Use him if you want to, but I won't shout for it. I'm sure he's great, but I was trying to make Midia work for a while almost purely out of pity for how I never really meme with her in DSFE. I really should one day. Someone just pulled off a crazy Sage Midia for SD and even I did bishop Midia for a bit last minute to get staff rank for endgame. Really its Mystery/New Mystery Arran I really love, with FE11 Arran being pretty darn fun too. Can't speak for FE1/FE3B1 Arran but I'll definitely do that next time.

1 hour ago, gnip said:

I didn't look this up beforehand, but I'm glad that I didn't recruit Samson. It just would've made Raddy look bad. Now, Samson has worse growths, so Raddy will hopefully eventually surpass what Samson could've done, but still.

Did I already mention the FE1 Nintendo Power guide telling you Samson is objectively better?

1 hour ago, gnip said:

I mean, copying whatever is your best unit in a given situation seems good, no? All the more reason to create Supersheeda

At least Xane can be there for Marth whenever Sheeda isn't

[Saint Rubenio]

21 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

NESFE is weird. Some of the maps look ugly to me, where occasional specific maps (le Celica desert hell) get nauseating to look at for too long for my zoomer eyes, but the actual sprites of units and everything combat related is just awesome. I was pumped whenever that classic battle tune played as my units ran, slashed, and ran back. It's simple, but I could really feel the impact of each shot with NESFE, which is something I really feel like I can only share with like GBAFE and RD. Thracia look nice too, but something about these 8 bit sprites under the black background hit different. Honestly I think I like them more than GBA aside from how slow they can be, but we'll get to Gaiden soon enough.

Yeah, I agree, the NESFE battles look really cool. But my favorite thing about them, I think, is actually the UI.

There's something so satisfying about watching the UI barge into the screen like that. I don't know, it's just an awesome little bit of flair, and I'm kinda sad no other FE does such a thing with their interfaces. I also like the way it announces the things that happen. Like sure, I can see it, but it's neat that the game has a hypeman to describe it.

21 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

What's his relation to Matthis?

Victim.

2 hours ago, gnip said:

(Small typo: feud, not fued @Polinym)

I was half-expecting Ruben to demand that I use Arran even though it's not Sick Arran just yet...

...but now I'm not sure if he really would want me to use a Cav named Alan. It just seems antithetical to his being.

I used Aran in my run. Yeah, he's Aran in the Spanish version, far superior to Alan if you ask me and more in line with the reference. He's actually fairly good in this game, good bases, good EXP gains, fine growths, not horrible base level like in 11... Heck, might be his best game, in terms of long-term potential - though he definitely shines in FE12, where he can juggle all the critical classes and be a big asset until Khadein. And, y'know, where he's literally the best character in FE's history.

2 hours ago, gnip said:

Chainy recruits himself on enemy phase. Very considerate of him.

I'm also sad there hasn't ever been another Xane. Sure, dancers are the best thing since sliced bread, but Xane is just a really fun concept that I wish was seen more often.

2 hours ago, gnip said:

I've avoided giving him main character privileges, but his stat line actually looks pretty good for this, especially since the Rapier and eventually the Mercurius have an innate 10% crit, too.

With his innate provoke, there's basically no argument to give statboosters to anyone but Mars, if we're talking pure, cold efficiency, of course. But that's boring, so give it to Riff.

58 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Live Shaky Jones Footage During the Ruben Arcadia Incident:

Still got nightmares over that?

58 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Arran gaming works best for FE3 methinks.

I will give him this: In a game with an artstyle I personally dislike, he manages to have the best of all his portraits. Dude's full of sick swagger in FE3.

[ping]

• FE1 Chapter 17: Starlord Mars

Spoiler

"I am Lord Mediuth's highest servant, Morzes the Basilisk."
"But your return is too late."
"Your mother, Liza, already died by my hands. And your sister, Elice is with Gharnef."
"Hahaha... Despair, for you cannot defeat me."

Not an expert on English grammar, but I think there should be a comma after Elice, too..? @Polinym

__

I really like this map! ...until I don't, but we'll get to that. But at the start, and for the first 8 turns or so, it's really very interesting and probably the most genuine challenge that the game has posed thus far. I've had to reset earlier, but I think those were generally the result of gross incompetence on my part and/or Crossbows being a standard weapon type on every other bow user.

To start, I trid to get little bit of enemy phase combat in - both Bishops tried to chip against a Sniper on enemy phase. Unfortunately, Boah to the east only hit one Thunder, which was honestly really annoying - it means that Thomas couldn't kill the Sniper on turn 2 because he only doubled with Iron or Crossbow, which made that particualar kill a lot slower than it needed to be. Wendell in the West only needed to hit once to allow Linde to Aura-bomb on player phase, so that part was pretty safe.

Thomas did not one-round the Clerics, which is also a bit of a shame, since getting the Member Card early would've saved me a bunch of tedium. But unfortunately, two Silver Bow arrows aren't quite enough, and I believe neither would be a Crossbow crit+hit.

Roshe used his full movement to lure enemies - most importantly the two generic Manaketes - towards him.

On turn 2, Julian opened the door towards the boss, and Darros and Mars went in to kill the two nearby Knights. RNGeesus wasn't in my favour once again, and Darros got crit on the counter AND missed the follow-up attack, which means that Mars had to cover for him. This was annoying because Mars did one-round from full health with the Rapier, so that's two enemies that survived between Darros's and Thomas's misfortune.

However, I was also lucky on the other side of the map: I knew from a previous failed attempt (the Hero crit Raddy...) that the Elfire Mage near the treasure room moves before the Volganon Mage. "Surely, he'll go for the more frail Linde", I thought - she gets doubled, but has enough HP to live, and then the Volganon Mage is forced to attack Marich. However, the Elfire Mage did go for Marich, so Linde was attacked by the doubling and one-rounding Volganon Mage... however however, he missed one of his attacks, which I unfortunately failed to document.

__

In an example of actually correct foresight, Mars survived the Thunder Sword Knight plus the Swarm Bishop, who deal 7+16 damage vs. his 25 hit points.

Julian then set up the kill on player phase. He's boosted by Boah's Barrier staff here, but he dodged anyway. The reason he was boosted was of course...

...that he was then warped to the treasure toom, where there were still two Mages around.

Minerva was supposed to kill a Manakete with her Wyrmslayer, but in the previous attempt, one of them actually turned around and went through the western corridor, which is why I sent Minverva there, too. It's not the worst thing, though, since Astria came along mostly to give Kain his Wyrmslayer, and Kain had a fairly easy time clearing both of them alone. ...which means that Minerva could've just gone to the throne room immediately, although I guess it wouldn't actually have made the map go more quickly.

Since I had Linda and Marich help with the Knights instead of finishing the Mages, Julian had to go up against them plus the Hero. He does so rather convincingly - it delays him grabbing the treasure, but it's nice XP and this, too, was not the bottleneck for finishing the map quickly.

__

Minerva with her sky-high Def stat and a Wyrmslayer had a pretty easy time killing the boss.

So, that's the map beaten! ...except that in order to visit the Secret Shop, I now had to send a delegation of units around the throne to kill the two Clerics (one drops the Member Card, the other his Fortify staff), then have Roshe gallop back again to carry the Member Card back towards the throne. Meanwhile, Biraku (who's only here for item management) had to run to the convoy to get a Door Key to open up the Secret Shop...

__

...and meanwhile, reinforcements started spawning - three enemies every turn, so you better send somebody to actually block the spots and now the map is starting to really annoy me.

So yeah, this busiwork after the map really had been cleared and beaten already, which could easily have been ambush spawns kill somebody instead of just "busiwork" if I hadn't had consulted FEWoD, is what brings the map down from a 4.5/5 to a 3.5.

I'm also guessing that "STAFF" is meant to be "SECRET"? @Polinym

To be perfectly honest, Starlord is a title that I can't quite take seriously. It sounds more like some ruler in a SciFi comedy than like a eternally glorious fantasy hero, so I think I agree with the DS localisation changing the chapter title to Star and Savior, even though "Star" still has its own modern connotation.

The Team:

	Lv  	   HP  Str Skl WLv Spd Lck Def
Mars	9.95	   25    9   7   6  11  12   8	(+4 Mov)
Darros	17.15	   34   12   2   9  16   6  10	(+6 Spd)
Marich	15.22	   29    1   9  15  12  11   8
Roshe	12/5.76	   30   10  13  12  12   5  10

Wendell	5.94	   25    3   2  13  16   5   8
Raddy	10/1.98	   24   10  14  10  14   4   8
Minerv	6.34	   25   11   6  11   6   6  16
Thomas	10/5.67	   27    8  10  14  16  11   7	(+7 Lck)

Boah	3.09	   22    4   7  10  16   4   6
Julian	12.14	   35   10  11   7  18  13   5	(+9 HP, +5 WLv)
Kain	18.53	   34   12  14  17  16  10  10
Linda	4.00	   22    1   6   9   9  10   4

Astria	1.98	   24    8  14  10  14   3   8	(base)
Biraku	1.00	   base
Wryf	11.24	   19    1   5   4   7   2   3
Katua	3.45	   base

• Katua, like Biraku, was only here for item management. She was still carrying three Elfire tomes. Astria also was mainly fielded to hand over his Wyrmslayer, but he actually did a little bit of work, too.
• Kain is the first character with double-digits in all stats. Hooray! He can also finally promote at the start of next chapter. Double Hooray!

 

On 9/10/2023 at 9:15 PM, Shaky Jones said:

I love this map, on both this and the sequel. 

It's very good, yeah. I suspect the Wingspear might make the boss look a bit more like a chump in FE11, but that's Shadow Dragon for ya.

On 9/10/2023 at 9:15 PM, Shaky Jones said:

Did I already mention the FE1 Nintendo Power guide telling you Samson is objectively better?

I mean, that's probably fair. If you want a growth unit, Oguma and Navarre have a huge head start. If you want a Hero without any hassle, Astria and Samson are both perfectly capable. Raddy (and even moreso poor, poor Caesar) don't really have anything to positively distinguish themselves.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

2 minutes ago, gnip said:

"I am Lord Mediuth's highest servant, Morzes the Basilisk."
"But your return is too late."
"Your mother, Liza, already died by my hands. And your sister, Elice is with Gharnef."
"Hahaha... Despair, for you cannot defeat me."

That moment when the guy who killed your offscreen mom doesn't even get a unique portrait.

7 minutes ago, gnip said:

To be perfectly honest, Starlord is a title that I can't quite take seriously. It sounds more like some ruler in a SciFi comedy than like a eternally glorious fantasy hero, so I think I agree with the DS localisation changing the chapter title to Star and Savior, even though "Star" still has its own modern connotation.

Yeah, this is the kind of liberty you want your localizations to take. Of course, this is a strict fanslation of an old-ass game, so it's okay.

The Spanish fanslation called him... I don't remember, but I do distinctly remember no mention to stars being made. Probably some big ye olde Spanish word.

[ping]

3 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That moment when the guy who killed your offscreen mom doesn't even get a unique portrait.

At least he shares his portrait with the king of Peraty. ...and that random guy from Jake and Linda's joining map. And also the guy from the penultimate map. But hey, that's less generic than Generic Knightly Boss Man.

[Punished Dayni]

On 9/8/2023 at 7:47 PM, gnip said:

• Katua seems to be the awkward middle child both literally and figuratively, even though there isn't anything wrong with her stats at all. Paola, similar to Thomas, comes very close to promotion level (even closer because she starts as an enemy), although she's obviously a lot stronger than him in her base class. And if the player wants to use a more Est-like character, well...
  I'll probably field Paola at least a bit, getting her to Lv. 10, in case there's a spot on the team for a second Wyvern and I won't train Est up to be that. There is no third Dragon Whip (and the second one is already really late), so Katua is not going to get promoted. She'd probably be a more useful character to bring than Raddy at this point, but, well, Sunken Cost Fallacy.
• Please note the Spd stats on Roshe (!!!), Wendell, and Boah.

  Rip Triganometric Gambit.

The Catria dev took offence to Katua

Roshe is doing the work here.

On 9/9/2023 at 1:37 PM, gnip said:

Ignoring... the Sophia... ductus... It's a bit weird how Khadein is introduced here. Gharnef took over, like, a few months ago, and I'm pretty sure it was just the city of mages before that. Heck, if I recall, Marich said that he only stopped studying in Khadein to join Mars, although presumably, he was lucky to leave before the hostile takeover.

Sophia Ductus?

I'd believe it if the narration was tying to paint Khadein as tainted by it's rule under Gharnef and thus would be a terrifying place to fight against. It's suggested Gotoh roled there before this right?

On 9/9/2023 at 1:37 PM, gnip said:

The next challenge for the main group was the generic Bishop, who is really fast (as old men tend to be)

To be fair fast talking makes sense for a mage.

Imagine the robed old guy running past the cavs

On 9/10/2023 at 6:48 PM, gnip said:

• Alan is basically a base level Paladin with slightly more bulk (+2 HP, +1 Def) and one whole extra point of Skl. Basically what Midia should have been. His growth rates are actually really good, with only HP/Def being a bit on the low side, so he seems pretty decent. Not as good as a trained Xmas cav (Kain not being fielded on the desert map makes this comparison very easy in the table) and a bit worse than our Roshe, too, but you really could do much worse.
  • I didn't look this up beforehand, but I'm glad that I didn't recruit Samson. It just would've made Raddy look bad. Now, Samson has worse growths, so Raddy will hopefully eventually surpass what Samson could've done, but still.
• I mean, copying whatever is your best unit in a given situation seems good, no? All the more reason to create Supersheeda

Alan and Samson sounds like Samson is better here? Arguably not with Alan having lance access and Samson not, but then again swords are good here.

Xane is whoever you want him to be. Imposter/10

On 9/9/2023 at 1:37 PM, gnip said:

• With all due respect for silly choices, I want to give the Power Ring to Sheeda. After she promotes, obviously, which isn't that far away anymore. I've constantly been feeding XP to a 3 Str unit, now I want the payoff of a strong fast bulky flyer.
• I'm less decided on the Amulet, apart from two things I won't do: (1) use the glitch that allows using it on everybody, (2) give it to Mars. The first one because that's kinda lame, the second one because I think I remember hearing or reading that FE1's AI won't attack anybody with 7 Res, even when they would still be dealing damage. And since Mars's superpower is to draw any incoming attack, that would be kinda contraproductive. So... maybe Miverva? I'll be honest, if I was playing on my own, I'd give it to Sheeda, too, just for the full Supergirl experience.

On 9/10/2023 at 6:48 PM, gnip said:

Speaking of Supersheeda, the boss dropped a Dracoshield (+3 Def). Of course, there's other strong options, like Kain, which is to say that it'll probably go to Roshe. Giving Def boosts to an already bulky character has always been the play, so I don't want to give it to Julian, who is too busy to see combat a lot of the time, anyway.

Actually, we get another Dracoshield next map - maybe that one will go to Kain. Or Sheeda.
Also a Secret Book (+5 Skl), which... I mean, I guess it has to be Darros? I'm not as excited about this because Skl only increases hit 1:1, so I would kinda prefer to give this to a more crit-happy character. Marich would be a funky pick because he only gains crit from Skl, Mars would be an actually sensible one. I've avoided giving him main character privileges, but his stat line actually looks pretty good for this, especially since the Rapier and eventually the Mercurius have an innate 10% crit, too.

More power too you I guess, because I want to argue for others further down.

Doesn't the Amulet not pass the stat boost on between maps or am I wrong?

Dracoshield, I's say Roshe too

Darros for skill book, no questions.

20 minutes ago, gnip said:

To be perfectly honest, Starlord is a title that I can't quite take seriously. It sounds more like some ruler in a SciFi comedy than like a eternally glorious fantasy hero, so I think I agree with the DS localisation changing the chapter title to Star and Savior, even though "Star" still has its own modern connotation.

Everyone hearing Marth be called Starlord:

[ping]

8 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Sophia Ductus?

I'd believe it if the narration was tying to paint Khadein as tainted by it's rule under Gharnef and thus would be a terrifying place to fight against. It's suggested Gotoh roled there before this right?

Sophia.... in Binding Blade... constantly talks.... like this....

Gotoh made Linda's dad his heir, which is what prompted Gharnef to murder him. If that made Gharnef take over the city, I would assume that Gotoh wasn't present at that point? Or he fled after the murder, although I don't think the game explicitly states anything to that effect.

18 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Alan and Samson sounds like Samson is better here? Arguably not with Alan having lance access and Samson not, but then again swords are good here.

I would say so, yeah. They both have their classes' base stats plus a few points, but the Hero class has better bases in most areas. As a result, Samson is stronger, faster, more accurate, while Alan only has a tiny defensive advantage (same HP, +1 Def). Also, assuming that Oguma and Navarre don't have considerably better Lv.10 stats than Raddy, Samson is actually pretty competitive with any Merc->Hero you may have, while a trained Kain or Abel completely blows Alan out of the water.

I'm sure that professional tier list makers will point out that Alan has better movement, but just looking at their combat performance, Alan's best hope is to get +4 Wlv. before the Camus chapter so that he can use Gradivus. Otherwise, Samson should be just better.

25 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Doesn't the Amulet not pass the stat boost on between maps or am I wrong?

I think it just works like any other stat booster, unless you use the Barrier glitch, which allows you to use it without consuming it. As in, you can give multiple characters permanent 7 Res with the glitch, but I don't want to do that.

27 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Everyone hearing Marth be called Starlord:

I actually didn't know that Signore Prattio's Marvel character was named Star-Lord Or, more likely, I heard it somewhere and forgot, which is why I immediately thought of SciFi.

[Punished Dayni]

3 minutes ago, gnip said:

Gotoh made Linda's dad his heir, which is what prompted Gharnef to murder him. If that made Gharnef take over the city, I would assume that Gotoh wasn't present at that point? Or he fled after the murder, although I don't think the game explicitly states anything to that effect.

That or he gave up, would explain some of his actions in these games.

7 minutes ago, gnip said:

I would say so, yeah. They both have their classes' base stats plus a few points, but the Hero class has better bases in most areas. As a result, Samson is stronger, faster, more accurate, while Alan only has a tiny defensive advantage (same HP, +1 Def). Also, assuming that Oguma and Navarre don't have considerably better Lv.10 stats than Raddy, Samson is actually pretty competitive with any Merc->Hero you may have, while a trained Kain or Abel completely blows Alan out of the water.

Sounds about right, though bit unfair to be comparing Kain and Abel to Alan when you're comparing Raddy to Samson.

1 hour ago, gnip said:

Sophia.... in Binding Blade... constantly talks.... like this....

Ah, that's on me.

[Interdimensional Observer]

3 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Everyone hearing Marth be called Starlord:

I'm thinking it's his magical girl name.

You know, bandits come to abduct young women, Marth appears just in time on the roof of the nearest building. He tells the bandits to stop and they ask "and just who are you exactly?🤨". Marth, not uttering his real name b/c prince/kings shouldn't be doing vigilante work in their free time, says he is the emissary of celestial justice. Guided by the brilliance of the pole star Siralop... *The 2:00PM clear day sunny sky turns into a moonless night sky, a droplet of light from the pole star manifests into a sword starting from the tip going downward. Marth grabs the sword and strikes a pose.* ...the Starlord will extinguish evil!

Don't worry about the state of Altea with Marth doing hero work, Kris is able to disguise themselves as a convincing body double and manage affairs when need be.

[Shaky Jones]

5 hours ago, gnip said:

I really like this map! ...until I don't, but we'll get to that. But at the start, and for the first 8 turns or so, it's really very interesting and probably the most genuine challenge that the game has posed thus far. I've had to reset earlier, but I think those were generally the result of gross incompetence on my part and/or Crossbows being a standard weapon type on every other bow user.

Playing it in FE1, then FE3 B1, then FE3 B2, then FE11, then Fe12, then Engage, only to spend 15 turns walking from the left side to the right on all of them. Truly, the most iconic map in FE.

5 hours ago, gnip said:

Thomas did not one-round the Clerics

This is what happens when you ignore Saucy Shakes.

Power Ring Thomas would be slaying.

5 hours ago, gnip said:

In an example of actually correct foresight, Mars survived the Thunder Sword Knight plus the Swarm Bishop, who deal 7+16 damage vs. his 25 hit points.

25 HP this far into the game. Actually Fates.

5 hours ago, gnip said:

...that he was then warped to the treasure toom, where there were still two Mages around.

The classic cheap way into blocking the thieves from triggering the the ambush proc in FE12 non lunatic. 

 

Yubello certainly is quite the hero killer.

5 hours ago, gnip said:

So, that's the map beaten! ...except that in order to visit the Secret Shop, I now had to send a delegation of units around the throne to kill the two Clerics (one drops the Member Card, the other his Fortify staff), then have Roshe gallop back again to carry the Member Card back towards the throne. Meanwhile, Biraku (who's only here for item management) had to run to the convoy to get a Door Key to open up the Secret Shop...

__

...and meanwhile, reinforcements started spawning - three enemies every turn, so you better send somebody to actually block the spots and now the map is starting to really annoy me.

you mean you didn't wait out all 41 turns of enemies? Couldn't be me.

5 hours ago, gnip said:

So yeah, this busiwork after the map really had been cleared and beaten already, which could easily have been ambush spawns kill somebody instead of just "busiwork" if I hadn't had consulted FEWoD, is what brings the map down from a 4.5/5 to a 3.5.

I'm not a fan of how often FE1 resorts to 30+ turns of ambush spawns as opposed to FE11, but in this case, I totally understand it, as it's incentivizing you to push through a gauntlet that tries stopping you from getting the card and staff, although it is odd that you can simply just shoot them from below, kinda defeating the purpose. It's better done in fe11 for sure, especially with high difficulties + reclassing allowing for a mix of preventing players from naturally shooting them with a sniper but giving potential opportunities for blessed units in certain classes combined with forging and barrier staves to ease the issue of long term throne battles if taking the time and effort to clear with the right units early on.

I'd give this a 4.25/5 in og FE1, or at least I would if I wasn't spending 50 years managing the horrible convoy system while trying to organizing my purchases from the secret shop. 3.75/5. Weird number, but it deserves better than 3.5 imo.

I'd give the FE11 one a 4.4/5, or at least I would if there wasn't so much walking. Nobody's actually bringing Julian in FE11. You just aren't. We all use Marth, get him all the way to the right, open 5 dozen chests one by one, then either walk ALL the way to the right side, or you warp him. Either way, there's a LOT of downtime in this map, and some of these issues can be in FE1 as well, but I find that using Julian is way more common in this game. 4/5. I'd be mad about fighting so many enemies before seizing, but that's mostly on me for being addicted to the xp gaining noise.

5 hours ago, gnip said:

It's very good, yeah. I suspect the Wingspear might make the boss look a bit more like a chump in FE11, but that's Shadow Dragon for ya.

How to have fun in Shadow Dragon: Bench the Wench

5 hours ago, gnip said:

I mean, that's probably fair. If you want a growth unit, Oguma and Navarre have a huge head start. If you want a Hero without any hassle, Astria and Samson are both perfectly capable. Raddy (and even moreso poor, poor Caesar) don't really have anything to positively distinguish themselves.

They defend Arran by going elitist mode: Mount le good, ridersbane le good. Give ridersbane to other mount. Profit.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That moment when the guy who killed your offscreen mom doesn't even get a unique portrait.

...at least he has a cool stone?

On 9/10/2023 at 1:14 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

There's something so satisfying about watching the UI barge into the screen like that. I don't know, it's just an awesome little bit of flair, and I'm kinda sad no other FE does such a thing with their interfaces. I also like the way it announces the things that happen. Like sure, I can see it, but it's neat that the game has a hypeman to describe it.

Absolutely. The announcements are charming. It's like Kaga's cheering me on!

 

And now we shit talk 3 Houses. What terrible UI it has. What even are those battle animations anyways? Where's the weight of anything? Where's the soul?

On 9/10/2023 at 1:14 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

used Aran in my run. Yeah, he's Aran in the Spanish version, far superior to Alan if you ask me and more in line with the reference. He's actually fairly good in this game, good bases, good EXP gains, fine growths, not horrible base level like in 11... Heck, might be his best game, in terms of long-term potential - though he definitely shines in FE12, where he can juggle all the critical classes and be a big asset until Khadein. And, y'know, where he's literally the best character in FE's history.

Until Khadein? Clearly, you didn't reclass to sniper and silver bow the wyverns with the bow rank you trained through General Arran.

Yes, you also use this bow for the dragon wyverns in Anri's way. Imagine thinking Vander falls off immediately. You ain't surviving a minute in FE12.

Best character for playables, or does he surpass the mighty Nerring?

On 9/10/2023 at 1:14 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Still got nightmares over that?

This will be Jotari one week after Ruben Blade:

On 9/10/2023 at 1:14 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

I will give him this: In a game with an artstyle I personally dislike, he manages to have the best of all his portraits. Dude's full of sick swagger in FE3

He's certainly full of sick.

4 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Xane is whoever you want him to be. Imposter/10

Get vented

4 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Dracoshield, I's say Roshe too

Darros for skill book, no questions.

Fair

3 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Sounds about right, though bit unfair to be comparing Kain and Abel to Alan when you're comparing Raddy to Samson.

I wouldn't compare Kain and Abel to anyone. They're the good ones you earn by not sucking at the game until Kaga decides you've have enough fun by critting them anyways.

[Saint Rubenio]

13 hours ago, gnip said:

At least he shares his portrait with the king of Peraty. ...and that random guy from Jake and Linda's joining map. And also the guy from the penultimate map. But hey, that's less generic than Generic Knightly Boss Man.

Yeah, but GKBM has more charm. He's iconic. He's Elephant Man, and others!

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Playing it in FE1, then FE3 B1, then FE3 B2, then FE11, then Fe12, then Engage, only to spend 15 turns walking from the left side to the right on all of them. Truly, the most iconic map in FE.

You'd think at some point between these six games, someone would've through of throwing a breakable wall or a one-way door somewhere. Just, something.

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Best character for playables, or does he surpass the mighty Nerring?

I can't joke with Arran, he's too awesome.

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Yes, you also use this bow for the dragon wyverns in Anri's way. Imagine thinking Vander falls off immediately. You ain't surviving a minute in FE12.

I mean, I've taken Horseman Arran to the endgame before. It's a pain, but hey.

8 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

This will be Jotari one week after Ruben Blade:

The Ostian Singularity isn't even a thing anymore, Shakes.

[Punished Dayni]

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I'm thinking it's his magical girl name.

You know, bandits come to abduct young women, Marth appears just in time on the roof of the nearest building. He tells the bandits to stop and they ask "and just who are you exactly?🤨". Marth, not uttering his real name b/c prince/kings shouldn't be doing vigilante work in their free time, says he is the emissary of celestial justice. Guided by the brilliance of the pole star Siralop... *The 2:00PM clear day sunny sky turns into a moonless night sky, a droplet of light from the pole star manifests into a sword starting from the tip going downward. Marth grabs the sword and strikes a pose.* ...the Starlord will extinguish evil!

Don't worry about the state of Altea with Marth doing hero work, Kris is able to disguise themselves as a convincing body double and manage affairs when need be.

Magical Marth sounds like it'd do for someone's fanfic, doing a whole series worth of scripts.

Marth's costume is based off his SDatBoL appearance

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

....I know I can't, but I want to delete this so much.

6 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I wouldn't compare Kain and Abel to anyone. They're the good ones you earn by not sucking at the game until Kaga decides you've have enough fun by critting them anyways.

True.

[ping]

Real quick - we have a Speed Ring that is unaccounted for - Roshe or Minerva?

Otherwise, I'll be going with the following:

• Secret Book -> Darros
• Dragonshield -> Roshe
• Dragonshield -> Mars (I should be allowed a little protag only-guy-in-the-series-with-a-functioning-Provoke-skill privilege, I think)
• Talisman -> Minerva
• Power Ring -> Sheeda (after promotion, obv)

Coming soon (in ch.19) are another Speed Ring (I guess that one can go to the other one between Roshe and Minerva) and an Angelic Robe. Feel free to make demands.

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, gnip said:

Real quick - we have a Speed Ring that is unaccounted for - Roshe or Minerva?

Speedroshe doesn't need it.

1 hour ago, gnip said:

Coming soon (in ch.19) are another Speed Ring (I guess that one can go to the other one between Roshe and Minerva)

No, that one goes to Riff after he promotes.

[ping]

FE1 Chapter 18: The Sable Order

Spoiler

But on the road was Grunia's battalion of black knights, the Sable Order.
Around the one bridge to Cashmere, a fierce battle would begin.

__

This map is honestly kinda forgettable without Mr Turban hanging around. Single path, and while enemies are somewhat powerful (and equipped with a bunch of effective weapons), they also wait patiently for you to approach them, with the exception of the two Cavs you can see at the bottom of the bridge. So, this is a good opportunity to use some promo items and stat boosters, with Abel coming along to help with item management. Before anything actually happened, Kain finally promotee as well, gaining one point of movement and a bunch of potential level-ups as a result, while Darros grabbed himself a nice +5 hit.

__

I really don't have much to say about the map apart from "and then I moved everybody further south". It wasn't particularly tedious or anything, but this really feels like a filler map.

Of note are a bunch of reinforcements starting on turn 8 with a single Cav and then escalating until five units per turn spawn between t.14 and 16. They're quite strong, mostly wielding Silver weapons - according to FEWoD, since I managed to entirely circumvent them. If you know they're coming, it's quite doable to block them all in time, with Sheeda preventing the first Cav from spawning.

Est appears two turns prior, with Mars's second personal weapon in her inventory. In my great wisdom, my Mars leveled up twice during this chapter, right before Est appeared. We'll see what he can do with his remaining 8 levels.

Bosskill is Boah setting up a kill for Marich, i.e. very easy. The Tron spell is really quite strong, but the animation is one of the weakest.

"somehow"

So, time to recruit Chiki. I've spent the stat boosters that I said I would, so there's the two Speed Rings and the Angelic Robe left to give out. The Power Ring still exists, too, but I do think I'll give it to Sheeda.

The Team:

	Lv  	   HP  Str Skl WLv Spd Lck Def
Mars	12.17	   27   10   7   6  13  14  11	(+3 Def, +4 Mov)
Darros	18.33	   35   12   7   9  17   6  10	(+6 Spd, +5 Skl)
Marich	15.80	   29    1   9  15  12  11   8
Roshe	12/6.24	   31   10  13  13  13   5  13	(+3 Def)

Wendell	5.94	   25    3   2  13  16   5   8
Raddy	10/2.56	   25   10  14  11  15   4   8
Minerv	7.46	   26   11   7  12   7   6  16	(7 Res)
Thomas	10/6.63	   28    8  10  15  16  11   7	(+7 Lck)

Boah	3.29	   22    4   7  10  16   4   6
Julian	12.14	   35   10  11   7  18  13   5	(+9 HP, +5 WLv)
Kain	18/3.90	   36   12  16  18  17  11  10
Astria	1.98	   24    8  14  10  14   3   8

Maji	13.18	   30   12   5   9  15   9   7	(+4 Str)
Sheeda	12.88	   20    3  15  15  20  15  11
Abel	4.01	   unchanged since forever
Est	5.40	   22    6   7  11  13   1   8	(base)

• Darros leveled Spd again! That's 4 procs in 15 level-ups, or a 27% rate instead of the advertised 10%.
• I've talked about Est a bit when her sisters joined - she honestly doesn't seem to be that bad with only 4.60 levels before she can promote, and better bases than (and comparable growths to) Katua. I'm sure Paola is the best of the trio simply because she's the easiest to promote, but I think I might consider Paola>Est>Katua, despite Katua's availailability lead.

 

17 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I wouldn't compare Kain and Abel to anyone. They're the good ones you earn by not sucking at the game until Kaga decides you've have enough fun by critting them anyways.

Kain after getting crit:

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Speedroshe doesn't need it.

No, that one goes to Riff after he promotes.

Actually, fair. Angelic Robe -> Wryf, too, I suspect.

[Punished Dayni]

2 hours ago, gnip said:

But on the road was Grunia's battalion of black knights, the Sable Order.
Around the one bridge to Cashmere, a fierce battle would begin.

Cashmere, what a fun translation

2 hours ago, gnip said:

Est appears two turns prior, with Mars's second personal weapon in her inventory. In my great wisdom, my Mars leveled up twice during this chapter, right before Est appeared. We'll see what he can do with his remaining 8 levels.

So Mercurius is a Rapier in SDatBoL?

Interesting to note, that it was intended to be pushed as a weapon Marth was trained in that nobody else he recruited was?

2 hours ago, gnip said:

I've talked about Est a bit when her sisters joined - she honestly doesn't seem to be that bad with only 4.60 levels before she can promote, and better bases than (and comparable growths to) Katua. I'm sure Paola is the best of the trio simply because she's the easiest to promote, but I think I might consider Paola>Est>Katua, despite Katua's availailability lead.

Catria dev:

2 hours ago, gnip said:

Darros leveled Spd again! That's 4 procs in 15 level-ups, or a 27% rate instead of the advertised 10%.

HE SAILS

[Saint Rubenio]

2 hours ago, gnip said:

Miracle Rapier, huh? Interesting.

2 hours ago, gnip said:

"somehow"

He's not very good at his job. Why do you think Marth banished him to the shadow realm and replaced him with Jagen later on?

2 hours ago, gnip said:

Actually, fair. Angelic Robe -> Wryf, too, I suspect.

Good Gnip.

2 hours ago, gnip said:

Darros leveled Spd again! That's 4 procs in 15 level-ups, or a 27% rate instead of the advertised 10%.

In this run, it's better to have 10% growths than anything higher, it would seem.

[Shaky Jones]

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You'd think at some point between these six games, someone would've through of throwing a breakable wall or a one-way door somewhere. Just, something.

I can understand the logic of FE12 at least.

I'm also going to pretend this is you patting yourself on the back for adding a door. What a piece of shi-

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I mean, I've taken Horseman Arran to the endgame before. It's a pain, but hey.

Now  do it again on lunatic. Dew it. 

It was genuinely one of the most fun runs I've had. Replacing Kris with Arran as Marth's best friend. Really makes you re-evaluate strategies and stat thresholds. That and a LOT of money management, good prep for real life!

12 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The Ostian Singularity isn't even a thing anymore, Shakes.

I don't trust that there's no replacement Ruben moment.

10 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

..I know I can't, but I want to delete this so much.

What seems to be the problem?

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

No, that one goes to Riff after he promotes.

I second this.

3 hours ago, gnip said:

This map is honestly kinda forgettable without Mr Turban hanging around. Single path, and while enemies are somewhat powerful (and equipped with a bunch of effective weapons), they also wait patiently for you to approach them, with the exception of the two Cavs you can see at the bottom of the bridge. So, this is a good opportunity to use some promo items and stat boosters, with Abel coming along to help with item management. Before anything actually happened, Kain finally promotee as well, gaining one point of movement and a bunch of potential level-ups as a result, while Darros grabbed himself a nice +5 hit.

This is the map you remember from the absolute banger FE3/FE12 version. In here, it's mainly the concept that they're introducing the Sable Order, or Black Knights, that's special, which just means a chapter of free xp for ridersbane users.

3 hours ago, gnip said:

I really don't have much to say about the map apart from "and then I moved everybody further south". It wasn't particularly tedious or anything, but this really feels like a filler map.

That's probably why this chapter doesn't exist in FE3 Book 1

3 hours ago, gnip said:

"somehow"

Gamers' most hated writing

3 hours ago, gnip said:

So, time to recruit Chiki. I've spent the stat boosters that I said I would, so there's the two Speed Rings and the Angelic Robe left to give out. The Power Ring still exists, too, but I do think I'll give it to Sheeda.

Do that, and you'll shee deez hands

3 hours ago, gnip said:

Kain after getting crit:

Wow, I guess Ruben is just that bad at FE1.

3 hours ago, gnip said:

I've talked about Est a bit when her sisters joined - she honestly doesn't seem to be that bad with only 4.60 levels before she can promote, and better bases than (and comparable growths to) Katua. I'm sure Paola is the best of the trio simply because she's the easiest to promote, but I think I might consider Paola>Est>Katua, despite Katua's availailability lead.

I've never found Palleech to be very amazing in Shadow Dragon iterations, but broken in Mystery to the point where I hate her, so she sucks.

Catrickery feels busted in 11, and somehow even more busted in FE12 (she's good in b2 but not Palla stupid), so she can roleplay as Edelgard and Ruben as Dimitri. 

Est is the unit I always use to piss off people that call her bad.

What am I supposed to say? I've used too many little shits that Est feels good now. FE isn't all about bases. It's called having fun, even if frail pegs go against everything I like in a unit. Besides, they're all basically joining like growth units. She honestly felt pretty good in FE1.

But yes, I do recall Est just outdoing Caters completely in FE1. If you're wondering why I actually used them, I'm trying to use the triangle attacks in every FE game. So far, nothing beats FE6 armors and FE12 axe boiz. They're unironically the best users of it.

Est > Paola > Katua for FE1. 

52 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

Catria dev:

Catria fans:

55 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

3 hours ago, gnip said:

Darros leveled Spd again! That's 4 procs in 15 level-ups, or a 27% rate instead of the advertised 10%.

HE SAILS

Every. Damn. Time.

51 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In this run, it's better to have 10% growths than anything higher, it would seem.

I think it's for most FE games. You just don't see 10% growths anymore.

[Interdimensional Observer]

3 hours ago, gnip said:

I really don't have much to say about the map apart from "and then I moved everybody further south". It wasn't particularly tedious or anything, but this really feels like a filler map.

It's not much of a surprise it got cut from FE3. Of the five battles they did, this one makes some of the most sense ...even if they left the map itself in!😆 

It's kinda similar to Aurelis 1 and Macedon 1 in this regard. Big, kinda empty, nothing happens. Pyrathi and the Wooden Cavalry were the major map losses of Book 1.

3 hours ago, gnip said:

Est appears two turns prior, with Mars's second personal weapon in her inventory. In my great wisdom, my Mars leveled up twice during this chapter, right before Est appeared. We'll see what he can do with his remaining 8 levels.

I heard it once described as "Marth gets a separate, 25% for every stat, chance to proc a point in any non-Res stat when leveling". Not sure if it is accurate.

 

1 hour ago, Punished Dayni said:

Cashmere, what a fun translation

A plush translation you mean.

Kashmir IRL is the northernmost region of South Asia, split between India, Pakistan, and b/c Tibet, China. The potential for border skirmishes and or nuclear war over this territory are non-zero.

[ping]

FE1 Chapter 19: Mamkute Princess

Spoiler

"Use your power to burn the intruders of this holy Raman temple.
Forget not that when you became lose from your Grandpa Banutu, it was I who saved you from Mediuth's gnip grip."

The main feature of this map, I would say, are the bow users (three Hunters, one Sniper) locked inside rooms next to the treasure rooms. They're only really relevant when going after the treasure - they will be able to attack your thief of choice when he unlocks the door. Naturally, we went after all the treasure, with Thomas, the Paladins, and the Bishops clearing the way for Julian and Rickard.

The other main feature is that enemies are really strong - high attack speed, good weapons, decently bulky. However, they aren't terribly many, which makes the push towards Chiki less daunting. But this is definitely a map where a crit can quickly cause a reset (like, for example, Thomas getting crit by the Silver Bow Hunter), and two of the enemies carry Killing Edges to boot.

__

It's also the first map with some nice Miracle level-ups for Mars - which clearly doesn't simply double the growth rates, since Mars's Spd growth is precisely 50%.

According to the .org wiki, citing Gryz (who also used to be active on SF, but I think it might be rude to ping somebody who has been inactive for 6 years) on this FEUniverse post, it gives Mars a 25% chance to turn any +1 into a +2. So basically, his 50% chance to get +1 Spd turns into: [50% +0 | 37.5% +1 | 12.5% +2], which on average is equal to a multiplicative x1.25 increase in his growth rates. Since all of his growths are below 100%, this is worse than the mechanic the @Interdimensional Observer was told, not to mention the doubled growth rates I was promised earlier. Effectively, Mars's growth rates are now...

[ HP 112.5% | Str 62.5% | Skl 50% | WLv 37.5% | Spd 62.5% | Lck 87.5% | Def 25% ]

...which is still overall better than Julian's (even disregarding WLv), but not by that much. However, the growths are more variant, since instead of getting +0, +1, or +2 in two level-ups, it's not possible to get anything between +0 and +4. Case in point, my Marth gained three Miracle level-ups, yielding:

[ +5 HP | +2 Str | +0 Skl | +0 WLv | +4 Spd | +5 Lck | +0 Def ].

__

But I know that most people aren't here to see high numbers on Mars's stat screen. I didn't make a screenshot, but Wryf also immediately got the Angelic Robe you find on this map.

Other than that, Minerva grabbed the other Speed Ring. This should cover all stat boosters used thus far - I didn't field Sheeda, so she wasn't able to promote and grab the Power Ring from before just yet.

Overall, the map still is pretty staightforward. No ambushes, no pincer manoeuvres, just some big numbers that might catch you off-guard (...especially because FE1 does not show you how fast and strong exactly a Silver Sword Hero is).

Grabbing the treasure is a bit of a chore, even with two thieves - the last enemy went down on turn 9, the last chest was opened on turn 14, and Wryf got his much deserved +9 HP bonus on turn 15. Not the end of the world, though, since there's no reinforcements, and you only really need to move your thieves (and, in my case, Wryf towards Rickard). Decent map, 3/5.

The Team:

	Lv  	   HP  Str Skl WLv Spd Lck Def
Mars	15.16	   32   12   7   6  17  19  11	(+3 Def, +4 Mov)
Roshe	12/8.40	   32   11  14  14  13   5  14	(+3 Def)
Wendell	6.76	   26    3   2  14  16   5   8
Minerv	8.05	   27   11   8  13  13   6  16	(7 Res, +6 Spd)

Thomas	10/8.15	   30    8  10  17  17  11   7	(+7 Lck)
Boah	3.69	   22    4   7  10  16   4   6
Julian	12.65	   35   10  11   7  18  13   5	(+9 HP, +5 WLv)
Kain	18/4.86	   37   12  17  19  18  11  10

Abel	4.01	   unchanged since forever
Wryf	11/1.24	   31    3   5  10  20   2   8	(+ 9 HP, +6 Spd)
Banutu	2.09	   18    2   3   2   4   1   3
Rickrd	1.40	   base

Chiki	5.56	   24    3   3   9   3   0   5	(base)

• Chiki joins with only 15 Atk - lower than Banutu's 18 - but with a whole 2 AS (Twice as fast! Whoa!) and, without irony, an excellent 20 Def stat. Unlike Banutu, her growth rates are phantastic, though, with the only exception being a 0% Def growth.
  For the next map(s), this is enough to make her a good wall. Silver weapon Paladins have 22-24 attack next chapter, so despite getting doubled, Chiki can actually tank then pretty well. However, she does very little damage in return, which means that feeding her XP seems to be a bit annoying. Eventually, she'll be able to make use of her effective damage vs. Manaketes (and that's no small feat with a 12 Mt weapon), but... I think those just don't turn anymore until the penultimate map. Hm.

__

Well then, time to face everybody's favourite archetype.

 

23 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

So Mercurius is a Rapier in SDatBoL?

Interesting to note, that it was intended to be pushed as a weapon Marth was trained in that nobody else he recruited was?

23 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Miracle Rapier, huh? Interesting.

For what it's worth, Mars does the same "raised sword" pose that he does when using a regular Rapier. I think the animation has a blade whirl that the regular Rapier doesn't have, but that only fits with Mercurius being an even more special Rapier.

23 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In this run, it's better to have 10% growths than anything higher, it would seem.

Now imagine Roshe and Darros with Micacle Rapier level-ups. A 2.5% chance to get +2 Spd? They would've capped it in chapter 12!

22 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Gamers' most hated writing

I can't believe the game isn't telling me how awesome my win was. Tsk.

22 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Do that, and you'll shee deez hands

Bring it, burger boy

 

[ping]

21 minutes ago, gnip said:

Forget not that when you became lose from your Grandpa Banutu, it was I who saved you from Mediuth's gnip grip."

Serenesforest once again doesn't let me edit my post, so I want to clarify that "become lose" was my mistake, not the translation patch's.