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

[ping]

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You know, I'll give it this, that's a lot cooler than just ending the game right after the kill. Since chances are you did it with Marth, you inevitably get to watch as the entire enemy army freezes in awe of your incredible might. That's so neat.

That is an admirable degree of goodwill that you're offering.

(It would be funny if you'd actually be able to see the enemy army freeze in awe, like when you attack them, they cower in fear like you're Gharnef)

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

On a different note, I love how this cutscene takes place with the ominous dark castle as the backdrop.

I know DA:O is the oldest Bioware game you played, where romance mostly happens at campfire, but if you want really badly misplaced romance talk, you have to go one game back and play Baldur's Gate 2, which is the game that premiered the (in)famous Bioware Romances. Your love interest might feel frisky while you're exploring the sewers. Maybe Ser Knight (a total prick, btw) will propose to you in the torture dungeon of the local Thieves' Guild. If your timing happens to be correct, your adorable wingless winged elf girlfriend might give birth to a baby boy while you're in literal hell, desperately fighting the high priestess of the Lord of Murder.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I rather prefer his FE11 speech where he tries to be pompous about it and forgets his words.

Why FE11 Is Excellent, exhibit #3954

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I can't believe I'm lower priority.

...Nah I'm just kidding, I'm glad you've decided to humor my hatred for Mallieasciascacaisacia.

What can I say; you threaten to steal my shoelaces while the funny skeleton man's threats start with nuclear warfare. I'm already walking on thin ice because I didn't field Maji even though he easily could've taken George's role as a face-tank - I just didn't want to bother redoing the deployment order after I figured I would go about that part of the map in that fashion.

Spain really needs to increase its military spending for me to consider your requests at least medium priority.

1 hour ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Also I miss Lawrence.

Not a good map for a 5-move character 😕 Even Navarre didn't see any action apart from fact-tanking one attack on the last enemy phase.

1 hour ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Its a cute animation with a map animation too, but was it really worth it?

Absolutely not The Triangle Attack wasn't even necessary to murder that poor Bishop. But needs must, and a first playthrough of a Fire Emblem game necessitates at least one Triangle Attack.

(actually, wasn't the Triangle Attack enemy-only in FE4? Maybe I don't have to see it there, if that's the case...)

2 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

I hope you pumped him up with some stat boosters.

This was almost a drug-free playthrough! Not really planned as such, but since Book 1 already isn't particularly difficult to begin with, I never felt the need to pull out the stat boosters. It would've been funny to drug Mishelan to a point where he could've done stuff in the final map, though. Not sure if the Medeus kill would've been possible, though, since I don't think I would've had the means to raise his WLv to Gradivus levels.

2 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

If I can add, could you do Sheena too? Also I second Bantu as a normal unit.

Sure! I'm actually curious how salvagable she is in FE3, considering her awfulness in New Mystery.

33 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

I suppose with the Falchion attack power is still halved. But since it deals effective damage, it results in enough attack power to overcome Medeus' defense.
Mist Breath is handled differently. It simply gets it's attack power reduced by 5. With Mist Breath being 10 might, you could reach up to 25 might against Medeus' 15 defense.
I ended up having to bank on that because my Marth could not survive a single hit from Medeus. It might be a good idea to give an Angelic Robe to Marth in Book 2. Just in case.

You're right about the Falchion damage calcs, I just didn't the math when playing - Marth had 48 Atk with it vs. dragons (18 Str + 30 eff. Mt), so that's 24 vs Mediuth's 15 Def, which results in the (2x)9 dmg he did. If it was just regular damage without effectiveness and damage reduction, he would've done 28-15=13 dmg per swing.

Interesting about the different calc for Chiki. Considering that she won't double, she's not going to be amazing vs. Mediuth in Book 2, either. I think she had 16 Str after transforming at the end of Book 1, so if we assume a similar value for the final map in Book 2, that's a modest 6 dmg per combat if she doesn't get any stat boosters.

And looking at the boss data... yeah, Mediuth suddenly becomes a lot more powerful in Book 2 32 Atk, it seems, so my Marth would've survived that, but still.

44 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

In fact, it's necessary to kill Medeus before you can use the Book 2 Aum staff, because it can only be used on the tile Medeus is standing on.

That is funny. Somewhat thematically approproate, that Mediuth uses his spin on healing magic in the place where the most powerful healing spell can be cast, but still funny.

46 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Still, FE3 Bantu counts for a lot.

He does. FE3's transformation mechanics are definitely the best in the series (...pre-Awakening because I don't really know how they play out in the new games). A hypothetical variant of Radiant Dawn's could maybe be better, where Laguz start with a full gauge, and maybe the gauges are a bit more generous for cats in particular. It would be a bit more transparent because the gauge is visible and a bit more interactive because of Olivi Grass existing and combat draining the gauge a little. But... well, that's a hypothetical variant.

31 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Anyone know why I can't edit my comments most of the time, it is really odd? I wanted to add more to my post earlier, but it kept saying the post was either "too old" or "moved", even though less than ten minutes had passed?

I don't know why that is - maybe a measure to make it more difficult for bots to circumvent moderation, but in that case, I wouldn't know why it's mostly long posts that suffer from this. In any case, it's been a thing for a while now, so I'm not very hopeful that it can be fixed. Very annoying when you're doing this kind of stuff or a screenshot Let's Play.

[Saint Rubenio]

2 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Oh @Saint Rubenio, if I can respond to a post earlier this month, I agree that Armored units are too weak, but I don't think armor effective weapons really threaten player units outside of the DS remakes on lunatic mode where the enemy not only common uses effective weaopnry, but has it forged!

Yeah, effective weaponry isn't that big of a deal, but still, the fact is that the designers have historically deemed armored knights amazing enough to require a dedicated slew of gear that targets them specifically. Meanwhile, the likes of mages don't get that even though they've always been basically better archers.

57 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Wrys is probably just a victim of the fact that male priests simply do not exist in this game. All the enemy male priests that existed in FE1 were replaced by Bishops here.

Sounds plausible, but... Dang. What a poop.

2 minutes ago, ping said:

That is an admirable degree of goodwill that you're offering.

Never let it be said I'm blinded by hatred. Only sometimes. Okay, maybe with Three Houses, but that game is entirely deserving of it.

3 minutes ago, ping said:

I know DA:O is the oldest Bioware game you played, where romance mostly happens at campfire, but if you want really badly misplaced romance talk, you have to go one game back and play Baldur's Gate 2, which is the game that premiered the (in)famous Bioware Romances. Your love interest might feel frisky while you're exploring the sewers. Maybe Ser Knight (a total prick, btw) will propose to you in the torture dungeon of the local Thieves' Guild. If your timing happens to be correct, your adorable wingless winged elf girlfriend might give birth to a baby boy while you're in literal hell, desperately fighting the high priestess of the Lord of Murder.

That's incredible.

4 minutes ago, ping said:

Why FE11 Is Excellent, exhibit #3954

I know nobody likes DS Wooden Cavalry, but have you considered it contains Marth's wonderful line about his shoulders?

3 minutes ago, ping said:

What can I say; you threaten to steal my shoelaces while the funny skeleton man's threats start with nuclear warfare. I'm already walking on thin ice because I didn't field Maji even though he easily could've taken George's role as a face-tank - I just didn't want to bother redoing the deployment order after I figured I would go about that part of the map in that fashion.

Spain really needs to increase its military spending for me to consider your requests at least medium priority.

Fine, fine. But you owe me one. You'll be hearing from me come Thracia.

4 minutes ago, ping said:

Sure! I'm actually curious how salvagable she is in FE3, considering her awfulness in New Mystery.

You can feed her her countrymen.

40 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Anyone know why I can't edit my comments most of the time, it is really odd? I wanted to add more to my post earlier, but it kept saying the post was either "too old" or "moved", even though less than ten minutes had passed?

5 minutes ago, ping said:

I don't know why that is - maybe a measure to make it more difficult for bots to circumvent moderation, but in that case, I wouldn't know why it's mostly long posts that suffer from this. In any case, it's been a thing for a while now, so I'm not very hopeful that it can be fixed. Very annoying when you're doing this kind of stuff or a screenshot Let's Play.

I was doing LPs years ago and it was the same then. Just one of Serenes's annoying quirks.

[RPGuy96]

3 hours ago, ping said:

Being European, I naturally drift towards the patch that uses "Shiida" and "Nabarl", but the smart thing to do seems to be to use the new NA Names version by RPGuy96 to make the playthough a bit of a playtest, too.

*crosses fingers that there's no more bugs*

Don't feel obligated, if you prefer the European names.  

3 hours ago, ping said:

Well, a Wryf-shaped hole maybe, as Rena joins a bit late considering she's your first healer now, but it's hard to deny that FE1 has a bunch of unit redundancies, where some don't have too much to distingish themselves from the competition.

Agreed; playing the first three chapters of Book 1 and Shadow Dragon at roughly the same time makes the Wryflessness noticeable, especially compared to, say, Darros, who joins with three other axe users.  (And I'm not even using Wrys that much - I'm playing normal and actively killing people off because I want to experiment with the prologue and gaiden characters.)

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, effective weaponry isn't that big of a deal, but still, the fact is that the designers have historically deemed armored knights amazing enough to require a dedicated slew of gear that targets them specifically. Meanwhile, the likes of mages don't get that even though they've always been basically better archers.

To be fair, eliminating enemy mages isn't that difficult. They tend to be pretty squishy. A mage effective weapon wouldn't really be that useful. It's tanking a hit from mages that is troublesome and for that they do give us Barrier. Though I'm pretty sure 90% of players never use barrier as intended and instead simply use it to grind exp.

[Interdimensional Observer]

On 12/22/2023 at 1:18 PM, ping said:

Strangely, this map is the first one that is completely new instead of the FE1 map with varying numbers of tweaks.

Sorry to comment late on this.😅

But, the Book 1-exclusive redesign is very... amateur? It has symmetry, it has the intent of being imposing, of being epic. But, it's rather small, simple & easy. Something that a newbie just screwing around with a map editor for a half-hour would come up with it. -Take it from me playing around with the design room in Advance Wars.😆

On 12/24/2023 at 3:27 PM, ping said:

This on the other hand...

Book 1 Thabes looks like a grand final battle, this decidedly does not. Just so big, with so much empty space. Even if you ignore the mountain pass, the lower half of the map is entirely ignorable barring the rather unimportant shrine. It's not the heroes crashing against a stalwart villainous last stand, there aren't enough enemies positioned properly for that either.

I'm thinking of Binding Blade Chapter 21 now.:

Visually fairly similar, narratively much the same (perhaps not surprising, with Binding intentionally going back to Archanea for inspiration). The execution is better though, even if I'm sure the Shrine of Murdock is infamous to a few.

8 hours ago, ping said:

...

I commend you for trying!😀 I know I gave the soon-to-be-tragic old man some attention when I did this map.

8 hours ago, ping said:

I was lucky and had the means to heal everything that would've needed healing, but... yeah, allowing the enemy to kill something after this boss kill would've been a dick move.

And so, as the light faded from Medeus's eyes, the vanquisher Marth, sweating with newly-burnt skin from the Shadow Dragon's last breaths, was stabbed in the jugular with a kitchen knife by Medeus's groom of the stool. Marth then collapsed and bled to to death.

8 hours ago, ping said:

Tiki (Interdimensional Observer, and I think Ruben didn't mind the Double Dragon request)

Nothing says you have to use Tiki.😅 -All I'm saying is that for all the games she has been in, Book 2 is Tiki at her best and most unique. Some might criticize her as coming just after she would've have been mega-useful -Anri's Way- but I didn't say she was perfect.😅

5 hours ago, ping said:

(It would be funny if you'd actually be able to see the enemy army freeze in awe, like when you attack them, they cower in fear like you're Gharnef)

I'm now reminded of Viewtiful Joe of all things. The Zoom VFX Power causes the camera to do a closeup on Joe, the effects of this include making nearby weak enemies stunned with awe.

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Fine, fine. But you owe me one. You'll be hearing from me come Thracia.

Already shilling Marty are you?😛

I on the other hand can't think of anyone I'd forcefully impose for Thracia. Nobody piques my interest.

[Saint Rubenio]

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

To be fair, eliminating enemy mages isn't that difficult. They tend to be pretty squishy. A mage effective weapon wouldn't really be that useful. It's tanking a hit from mages that is troublesome and for that they do give us Barrier. Though I'm pretty sure 90% of players never use barrier as intended and instead simply use it to grind exp.

Yeah, that's true. To be completely honest, I feel like effective weaponry is mostly meant for the player to use against enemy tanks, anyway, not to combat your own armors. They were primarily designed as an enemy class, after all. The enemy doesn't need to get to places as fast as the player does, so the class works a lot better for them, and the player's also more limited in ways to effectively dispatch them. It's basically magic or effective weapons. Not counting the games where enemies are so pathetic that even generals die in a couple rounds, of course.

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

But, the Book 1-exclusive redesign is very... amateur? It has symmetry, it has the intent of being imposing, of being epic. But, it's rather small, simple & easy. Something that a newbie just screwing around with a map editor for a half-hour would come up with it. -Take it from me playing around with the design room in Advance Wars.😆

Yeah, actually, you hit it right on the money. That's exactly the vibe that map gives. It feels like a map any of us would make if we were just fooling around with the idea of making a FE map. Symmetry so it looks good, a few ornaments here and there, and then comes to part where we have to actually make it a good, challenging strategy RPG map and that turns out not to be so easy.

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Visually fairly similar, narratively much the same (perhaps not surprising, with Binding intentionally going back to Archanea for inspiration). The execution is better though, even if I'm sure the Shrine of Murdock is infamous to a few.

Storywise it's better, too. Murdock gets some build-up throughout the game, he's insanely strong, Galle's doing things there too, and the shrine itself houses not just one but two legendary weapons. Infamous as it is, it's undeniably a climatic map.

Then there's this. You fight the world's most generic old dragon bossman in a big open field, and if you feel so inclined, you can go and get Aum to revive a character that's... really not going to be of much use at this point, anyway. The end. Most warpskippable map ever.

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Already shilling Marty are you?😛

I on the other hand can't think of anyone I'd forcefully impose for Thracia. Nobody piques my interest.

Oh no, I'm actually not a super big Marty man, against all odds.

Hicks, though. Hicks is where it's at.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, actually, you hit it right on the money. That's exactly the vibe that map gives. It feels like a map any of us would make if we were just fooling around with the idea of making a FE map. Symmetry so it looks good, a few ornaments here and there, and then comes to part where we have to actually make it a good, challenging strategy RPG map and that turns out not to be so easy.

I'd also say Book 1 Thabes is in contrast to the design of the original maps of Ye Olde Firste Fyre Embleme?🤔

"Tight" is not a word I'd use to describe FE1/B1/11's map design, with a fair number of maps having noticeable meaningless empty space. The placement of everything isn't fully thought through. Though it's not FE2 bad, and is it surprising one of the very first takes on the idea of SRPG is lacking in map design? It's not "amateur" design like Book 1 Thabes, it's... grasping around in the complete unknown trying to learn what map design is? Unlike Genealogy emptiness, which is all intentionally the result of gameplay-narrative integration.

Regarding enemy count, the Famicom I can imagine imposed memory limitations on how many enemies could be on the field at any given time. I remember armor reinforcements not spawning on Thracia C14 because the enemy unit cap had been reached, and that was the Super Famicom.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh no, I'm actually not a super big Marty man, against all odds.

Hicks, though. Hicks is where it's at.

The Wrathless axe knight who joins at the wrong end of the infamous little arc, eh? With a rather peculiar name, hicks, slang for a rural bumpkin or the boondocks they live in. Couldn't have tweaked that to "Hickam" for something a touch more serious (if more of a surname).

I suppose you could do worse for Thracian cavalry, namely the utterly characterless trio who join alongside Seliphina. Especially Robert given Thracia gives so little reason to use bow units.

[BrightBow]

14 hours ago, ping said:

Interesting about the different calc for Chiki. Considering that she won't double, she's not going to be amazing vs. Mediuth in Book 2, either. I think she had 16 Str after transforming at the end of Book 1, so if we assume a similar value for the final map in Book 2, that's a modest 6 dmg per combat if she doesn't get any stat boosters.

She should most certainly be stronger than in Book 1. She starts out with 3 more strength despite having gained only 1 level.
 

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh no, I'm actually not a super big Marty man, against all odds.

Hicks, though. Hicks is where it's at.

He is really cool.

https://km-hs-lr22.hatenablog.com/entry/2015/07/14/185357

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, that's true. To be completely honest, I feel like effective weaponry is mostly meant for the player to use against enemy tanks, anyway, not to combat your own armors. They were primarily designed as an enemy class, after all. The enemy doesn't need to get to places as fast as the player does, so the class works a lot better for them, and the player's also more limited in ways to effectively dispatch them. It's basically magic or effective weapons. Not counting the games where enemies are so pathetic that even generals die in a couple rounds, of course.

Indeed, I think the number of enemies with armour effective weaponry throughout the series probably numbers in the low 20s, if even as high as that. Though, maybe enemies could stand to pack a few more Ridersbanes to counter balance how useful Cavaliers are for the player. Seliph has natural immunity to anti Paladin weaponry, but I think literally the only enemy that could threaten him if he didn't is a single enemy in the middle of the desert in Chapter 7.

3 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, actually, you hit it right on the money. That's exactly the vibe that map gives. It feels like a map any of us would make if we were just fooling around with the idea of making a FE map. Symmetry so it looks good, a few ornaments here and there, and then comes to part where we have to actually make it a good, challenging strategy RPG map and that turns out not to be so easy.

Going to blatantly shill myself here, but I think I did a rather good job retooling it into a decent map in Fall of Thabes. There's an allied unit to rescue in the centre, powerful enemies to deal with along the way, and very threatening wyvern reinforcements that really push you to kill the highly defended boss to end the chapter, which can be a struggle to do while still getting the chests in time.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Storywise it's better, too. Murdock gets some build-up throughout the game, he's insanely strong, Galle's doing things there too, and the shrine itself houses not just one but two legendary weapons. Infamous as it is, it's undeniably a climatic map.

Then there's this. You fight the world's most generic old dragon bossman in a big open field, and if you feel so inclined, you can go and get Aum to revive a character that's... really not going to be of much use at this point, anyway. The end. Most warpskippable map ever.

 I do have a soft spot for Xemcel nonetheless. Like, who is this guy? I dunno, but he must be important if Medeus is trusting him to guard the castle gate. What would have been really nice is if he showed up in the Warren chapter or something. Like that's the chapter where Marth is put on the back foot and is losing the war, yet they don't use it as an opportunity to foreshadow any of the later bosses.

 

[BrightBow]

I feel like the Gharnef duplicates should also be disappearing once you kill the main Gharnef.

It's not even that the map is set up so you naturally end up killing the main Gharnef last. The main Gharnef is the one in the center. The Gharnef on the throne behind him is just another duplicate.

You know, I wish those Gharnef clones would show up some more. I like the idea that Gharnef uses his power to create duplicates of himself because no one else wants to work for him. And it would most certainly back up his reputation as a powerful sage if whatever troops he deploys were mere extensions of his personal power.

Edit:
Maybe Gharnef had something like this in mind, but he run out of money once the basic layout of the first two floors of the tower were built.

Symmetric tower design has most certainly come a long way since the days of Thabes.

Edited December 29, 2023 by BrightBow

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Indeed, I think the number of enemies with armour effective weaponry throughout the series probably numbers in the low 20s, if even as high as that.

I don't exactly remember when and how many, but for some odd reason I distinctly remember Thracia giving the bad guys lots and lots of hammers. Way too many hammers.😐 Dalsin is already a lackluster unit, and it really hurts for Xavier given his most hellish recruitment, these guys didn't need any specific checks. Was the entire point to give Leif's forces plentiful anti-armor via capturing?

[BrightBow]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I don't exactly remember when and how many, but for some odd reason I distinctly remember Thracia giving the bad guys lots and lots of hammers. Way too many hammers.😐 Dalsin is already a lackluster unit, and it really hurts for Xavier given his most hellish recruitment, these guys didn't need any specific checks. Was the entire point to give Leif's forces plentiful anti-armor via capturing?

They might not have been intended specifically as a Dalsin check. Just a general purpose weapon.

Axes are a bit weird compared to the other weapon types because they have no "standard issue military grade" types. Those weapons which are just as effective as the ones that can be bought in shops, but sell for far less.
So maybe the reason enemy armors like to use them is because they are meant to fill the same role. That if the player gets them, they sell for less than Steel Axes would. They have very similar stats otherwise.

Edited December 29, 2023 by BrightBow

[ping]

FE3 Book 2 Chapter 1: Grustian Expedition

Spoiler

Here we go again!

After five long years the great war with the Dolhr Empire, which caused much suffering and was later called the War of Darkness, ended with the defeat of the Earth Dragon King Medeus.

The warriors who had gathered under the Fire Emblem returned to their homelands, and to restore the lands from devastation used up much strength. Among the countries that once made up the seven Kingdoms of Archanea, Gra and Grust were ruined. Altea, Aurelis, Macedon, and Talys were also deeply scarred.

Wait, Talys? I always assumed that the events from FE would largely pass it by, considering it's an island and all of Marth's adventures take place on the main land.

Even the grand Kingdom of Archanea was undergoing restoration. Then, at the royal capital Pales, which was still shaken by the war an important event occured. King Aurelis' younger brother, Hardin, married Princess Nyna and ascended as the 24th King of Archanea.

After becoming king, Hardin, although seemingly reluctant, instantly restored the country. He gathered many soldiers to create a powerful army. Following that he declared the restoration of the Holy Empire of Archanea, and declared himself Emperor.

One year after the end of the war with Dolhr the world seems to be entering a state of peace. But the wheels of fate appear to have a fault.

Since I'm neither a native English speaker nor a student of the language, I don't want to assume that my perception is correct, but... some of the commas feel a bit off to me. For example, I wouldn't use any in "King Aurelis's [isn't it __s's for names?] younger brother Hardin married Princess Nyna...", but one in "Following that, he declared...".

I know, I'm a smartass, I can't help it.

Thanks to the efforts of Prince Marth, the Kingdom of Altea, devastated by war, finally begins to stabilise. The knight Jagen, who succeeded the ill Malledus, became the prince's tactician and helped him rule the country, by his side.

But there was another...

 

Afterwards, Princess Caeda was welcomed to Altea, and her marriage with Prince Marth was announced. The citizens of Altea were happy for the pair's fortune and Caeda was passionately welcomed to the country. However... Nearing the day of the wedding, a letter suddenly comes from the imperial palace of Pales, containing an imperial order.

 

"Dear Prince Marth of Altea, At the Kingdom of Grust, occupied by Archanea, a huge rebellion has broken out. I request for your country to subdue Grust. Your highness, please send Altea's full army immediately, to quell Grust's rebellion." Emperor Hardin.

(Hmm... I think I'll make a separate text document with what I'm more confident in calling an error. "At" after a comma shouldn't be capitalised, I don't think, and Hardin's signature probably belongs inside the quotation marks.)

The helpless Marth orders the knight Cain to protect his kingdom. And he leaves, along with Jagen and the others, to an expedition to Grust.

__

To where DOGA is the first one to arrive. I can't believe the lack of realism here.

New portrait for Marthipan!

I don't think his face changed too much, hard to tell because the angle seems slightly different, but his hair grew a little and he got himself a new warderobe.

: "So you are Lord Marth. Currently the situation is relaxed. We have already subdued most of the rebels. All that remains is this fortress. Since you are here, I will leave the job of defeating the rebels' leader, General Lorenz, to you."
: "Huh!? The leader of the rebels is General Lorenz!? Why would he rebel...?"
: "Oh... I don't know why. But it is a fact that he is hiding Grust's prince. He's probably dreaming of restoring the Kingdom of Grust. What a fool. He really thought his rebellion would be victorious? Lord Marth, you will kill Lorenz and bring back the hidden Grustian royal children. We will leave this place to you, and pursue the escaping rebels. We must show those Grustian fools the consequences of opposing us."
: "General Lang... What are you planning to do!?"
: "If you want to know, I am going to slaughter the families of the rebels. Then we will burn down any villages that harboured the rebels. That will stop them from contemplating rebellion again. Hahaha! I can almost see the tears on the faces of those fools."
: "What?! How can you be so cruel..."
: "Th-there's nothing wrong! You'd best follow my orders and not think about things too much. Or do you, also, intend to rebel against Archanea!?"
: "What! Of course not..."
: "Then you'd better listen to my orders!! Lord Marth, don't think too highly of yourself. In my eyes you are just the prince of a weak country. With its power, Archanea can destroy your country at any time. Don't forget about this!"

: "I heard that he stole from other people, to add to his own wealth. I fear he has continued his ways at Grust, and caused suffering to its people. So General Lorenz's rebellion is completely understandable."
: "Jagen! How can you say things so casually? If we don't inform hardin of the truth, more innocent people will be killed."
: "Your highness, I understand your feelings. However, Lorenz's rebellion is a fact. First, we must see how we can help him. Basically, we should listen to what the citizens have to say, so we can affirm what has happened to this country. Then your highness can talk to General Lorenz personally."
: "But the rebels don't know that we're from Altea. Can we reach the fortress safely?"
: "Don't worry. Most of the rebels have already fled. All that remains is Lorenz, and the children in the fortress. Blocking our path are only bandits, who have taken advantage of the confusion to raid villages. They are no problem for us. You can order Arran ot defeat them in one blow if you want. However, your highness, we have some fresh recruits in our army that could use some fighting experience. To them, bandits are relatively strong foes. So be careful not to push them too much. If possible, I would have liked to fight as well, but my body is not what it used to be. I will stay by your highness's side, as your tactitian. Well, your highness, we should go!"

I have to say that this opening very much reminded me of a few of Conquest's story beats, in the hope that nobody is offended by that opinion. But you have the naive lordling (note: New Mystery's Marth does seem to be pretty faithful to this one); Lang somewhat combines Hans's mindless brutality, Yago's sadism, and Garon's approach to admistration (you can say the line if you want, Ruben); and the "these are just bandits" shtick absolves Cor-- I mean Marth from the guilt of murdering Good Guys, if in a less silly fashion than CQ.

I guess now that we've entered Book 2, the logical comparison to make would be New Mystery's version of this map, huh? The short version of that is that the terrain is more or less the same (*), with some small details like the Armoury being further out of the way here, but New Mystery has fewer enemies than this one: Even on Lunatic, it's only 12 enemies (plus Lorenz) in total, 6 on either side of the fort in the choke point. Here, it's 14 enemies, although it looked like a bigger difference to me at first because so many of them are crammed into the narrow path towards Lorenz.

Which isn't too surprising, of course, since the DS remakes are generally considered to have pretty low numbers of enemies on the map, but really big numbers on their stat screens, if you go to the higher difficulties.

(*)Note from ping-after-having-played-the-map: I would like to retract that statement.

[HP 50% | Str 50% | Skl 40% | Spd 50% | Lck 70% | WLv 40% | Def 20%]

Marth starts two levels above his Book 1 incarnation, with stats that are a bit better than what you'd expect from two level-ups. Most notably, he gained +4 HP (if no Def), but +2 Spd is quite nice, as well. I found that he performed well enough in Book 1, so I'd expect the same here.

[HP 10% | Str 10% | Skl 10% | Spd 10% | Lck -- | WLv 10% | Def 10%]

And Arran compares to Jagen in Book 1 quite similarly to B2!Marth vs B1!Marth. Two levels higher, with base stats that are a bit better than what you'd expect from the spiky old man. I wonder if this will be a trend?

The difference between the two... Jeigans is a bit more impactful, I think, with Arran starting with enough Spd to actually double stuff, which Jagen could only really do with a Slim Lance. But overall, Arran probably still has a very similar usefulness curve, except that he, of course, has been requested as a growth unit. We'll see how much magic the Starshards can do.

____

[HP 90% | Str 30% | Skl 30% | Spd 40% | Lck 10% | WLv 40% | Def 20%] (Luke)
[HP 70% | Str 40% | Skl 50% | Spd 50% | Lck 40% | WLv 60% | Def 20%] (Rody)
[HP 50% | Str 30% | Skl 60% | Spd 60% | Lck 30% | WLv 70% | Def 10%] (Cecille)

Coming from FE12, it's interesting to see that the only advantage in growths that Luke has over his buddies is his HP. He has a lower growth total in FE12, too, of course, but he still has the highest Str growth out of the three there.

That said, I'm not entirely sure how these three stack up against each other. Without the FE12 prologue, Rody's lower bases seem more impactful, so I'd guess that he's the weakest? Luke vs. Cecille obviously depends on how valuable his additional bulk is vs. her higher Spd, which I can't really predict.

I rarely use Rody or Cecille in New Mystery, since they both kinda feel like worse version of other units, so I'm tempted to try and keep one of them on the team. Not both, since there's a certain shitty cav on the list of requests, so if anybody has a preference between these two, feel free to point it out.

[HP 60% | Str 20% | Skl 40% | Spd 40% | Lck 20% | WLv 40% | Def 10%]

DOGA has higher growths now, if you can believe it. His WLv growth was doubled, even!

He also gained the most levels out of the returning characters, but his gains from those five level-ups is much more modest than Marth's. Only +2 HP and no extra Def, and only +1 to Str/Skl/Spd/Lck doesn't exactly spark joy. I suppose it's not a bad thing for him to be closer to his promotion, but... yeah, he really doesn't seem like a remarkable character at all.

[HP 40% | Str 30% | Skl 30% | Spd 30% | Lck 40% | WLv 60% | Def 10%]

Gordin only gained +10% WLv growth during the time skip, but he still came out of it with much better results. He gained +2 points in basically all the important stats, including Def despite the 10% growth, although 6 Spd is notably still too low to double with an Iron Bow (4 Wt). Still, he seems fairly OK. I vaguely remember hearing/reading that this is his best incarnation and I can believe that.

[HP 60% | Str 40% | Skl 70% | Spd 40% | Lck 30% | Wlv 40% | Def 20%]

Ryan is similar to Rody in that his better growths probably don't make up for the worse bases. -2 in basically every stat (-3 HP/Skl, but eh) is really rough, and it would take 20 level-ups to just catch up to Gordin's base advantage. Old Mystery doesn't even scale XP gain with level, so unless reaching Lv.20/20 is a realistic prospect in Book 2, Ryan seems to be pretty much like a worse Gordin - and consider that in Book 1, the characters with the most level-ups were Kashim (13+7=20) and Sheeda (12+9=21). I expect that these numbers will be a bit higher in Book 2, but I still expect Ryan to fall into the "can't catch up" category.

Poor Lorenz is a broken man with a broken lance. Appropriate, since the story makes him out to be literally the last rebel still fighting, but it also encourages the player to stab him for XP instead of talk, which I highly disapprove of.

____

Generic enemies are all pretty weak. Only Rody and Ryan get three-shot by 13 Atk; even Cecille would just barely survive three attacks with one HP remaining.

Well then, let us draw lines on the map. I hear that's how strategy is achieved.

__

You may remember that I retracted a statement about the map having basically the same terrain layout as it will have in New Mystery. You can spot the reason here, indicated by Luke's bad accuracy:

The tile to the right of the fort is a mountain tile, slowing down everybody and even fully blocking the unpromoted Cavs unless they dismount (and I think DOGA just can't cross, period). This sucks. It's annoying, just slowing down the process for no good reason.

Also pictured: Marth about to visit the village. The moment Ruben has been dreading.

...can I recruit you instead, please? Ruben, make a note in case you make another big silly hack. I'm sure she'd fit right in.

: "Don't worry, old lady. We're not going to take this child."
: "Huh...? Aren't you a soldier of the empire?"
: "No... You've got the wrong idea. We haven't come here to fight. If you require anything, please ask. We have some food, please take it if you want."
: "Wait... Please, take me with you..."
: "You... You're REALLY only 10 years old?"
: "Actually I have already become of age... But, my grandmother lied for me so the soldiers wouldn't take me away. Well, I know if I stay here I will eventually be discovered and captured by the imperial soldiers. Lang's soldiers are like beasts. But, you're different. You have very kind eyes. Please, take me out of this country and to your own country. Is that alright, grandmother?"
: "Ah, of course. You will be much safer compared to here. Young lad, I beg of you. Please protect this girl."

Nevermind. Ruben, don't make a note. Also, I definitely wouldn't have batted an eye if Malicisheia's portrait would've belonged to a 10-year-old, but I guess that's anime for you.

: "This child, like me in the past, is a beautiful girl. She will definitely make a fine wife. Marisha, if this youth was to be your husband, you would be happy, right?"
: "Honestly, grandmother. It's far too early. Marisha doesn't know what to do."

Headcanon, considering her apparent mental age: Malicisheia is ten years old and she's just lying so that Marth agrees to bring her along. Her grandmother is just messing with her.

[HP 40% | Str 30% | Skl 20% | Spd 50% | Lck 30% | WLv 70% | Def 10%]

Super squishy, of course, but her other stats seem fine. I can't harp on her low Str, either - Yuliya's won't really be any better, with a base of 2 and a 20% growth. Staffbot/10, basically, with the added benefit of exclusive Hammerne and Thief staff utility, which means that I'll have to field her a few times despite a request to the contrary.

On this map, she goes shopping for some basic weapons and ends up healing twice - Marth next turn and Cecille somewhere near the end of the fight. No reason to staff-grind if she's going to be (mostly) benched, anyway. Thief and Hammerne have no WLv requirements, so Malicisheia doesn't need need the levels.

__

Once somebody reaches the fort in the centre of the map, the Oguma cutscene plays:

: "Lord Ogma, I am deeply sorry for getting you involved in all of this. But, could you listen to one last request of mine?"
: "I was sent here by King Talys to help you. If there is anything I can do for you, please ask."
: "Is that so...? Then, I ask of you... Please send these children to Macedon. These children... Prince Jubelo and Princess Yuliya are the children of the late King Grust. I have always been protecting them in secret, but that is no longer possible. If they fell into General Lang's hands, I bet he would execute them without question. Please, take these children to Wendell at Macedon."
: "I understand... I will protecte these two with my life."
: "Truly? Thank you... Well, Prince Jubelo, Princess Yuliya, you will escape with Lord Ogma."

: "No! I won't go. If we must escape, Lorenz must come with us too."
: "Princess Yuliya... I am afraid I cannot leave. My body is in such agony that even walking pains me. So, please don't worry about me. You two must flee."
: "Why... Why must you say that...? Lorenz, you fought to protect us. That's why you suffered such a heavy wound. How can you tell us to leave you!? I will not go. I will not leave your side!!"
: "What should we do, General?"
: "Hmm... This is troublesome. Yuliya will undoubtedly stick to her word... I apologise, Lord Ogma. You may leave."
: "I understand... Then, I will find another way to help you. I will find Lang and kill him... I will use my blade to send him to his grave. If I succeed, perhaps the nearby enemies will retreat. General Lorenz, you must live to see that day. Don't get yourself killed!!"

Ogma out.
Not a big fan of the twins' names in this localisation, by the way. Looking at the wiki, their Japanese names do both start with the same syllable, which is a parallel these names remove for no real reason.

Riveting gameplay.

__

Luke cages himself in to set up a kill for Rody, but then Cecille can't push ahead because of the mountain... It's just a really annoying chokepoint and FE12 definitely did the right thing by removing the mountains.

Luke and Rody both got a handful of crits this map, which led to them getting far more XP than Cecille. Also some questionable survivability for Rody in this particular situation...

__

...but he got a nice dodge to make sure he's fine.

(wait, no, in retrospective, he would've survived this with 1 HP anyway)

Not much else to say. The thieves spawning from the cave (which doesn't have any treasure, according to FEWoD) aren't aggressive, so they function as a bit of XP pinatas. Unfortunately, Cecille doesn't manage to get a kill because of the +avo from the mountain tiles, which adds to her XP disadvantage.

Some dialogue from villages because why not:

: "The deceased King Grust had two children: Princess Yuliya and Prince Jubelo, twins of 13 to 14 years of age. The King was scared of Gharnef, so he sent the two to Khadein. I heard they were held as hostages and locked inside a dark room. When they were finally rescued by Wendell, they were on the brink of death. The bishop immediately took them to a monestary in Khadein to care for them."

Not the important bit about this story, but... I'll admit that Malicisheia's portrait really doesn't look younger than Yuliya or Jubelo's. That said, I always thought they were supposed to be younger than 13-14.

Rude.

: "Lord Marth! It's you... Although I knew the enemy's reinforcements had come, but I didn't expect it was you... It is a shame, that we must fight Altea... And fight against your highness..."
: "Please wait. I don't intent to fight with you. From the citizens I have discovered disturbing facts about the atrocities performed by the occupation army. I will inform Emperor Hardin about these facts. If I meet him, I will definitely be able to rescue Grust. So, please, put away your weapon."
: "Your highness... I appreciate your favour. But that is impossible. Your highness, you don't know a thing. You think that somebody like Hardin would send a heartless man like Lang here for no reason? He wanted to provoke us into rebelling, so that the Kingdom of Grust would be completely destroyed and become ruled by the Empire. That is the reason why he sent such a cold-blooded man here."
: "What? Why would he!? I cannot possibly believe that Hardin would do such a thing."
: "I didn't expect you to accept the truth so quickly. However, since he became Emperor he has completely changed. He is no longer the Hardin that your highness once knew. Anyway, I believe we're finished here... However, your highness, I have just one last request. In this fortress, Grust's royal princess and prince are hiding. Please save those children. If you can promise me that, I will have no regrets. Lord Marth... Let's just say that in exchange for my life, these children... I will hand them in your care..."

And then he fucking explodes.

: "General Lorenz!! How could you..."

Next turn, after seizing...

: "Waa... Lorenz... He's dead. What should we do?"
: "You fiends!! Don't come near us! Otherwise, we'll kill ourselves!!"
: "No! You've got it wrong..."

: "General Lang! Wait! Those children are innocent. Can you hand them to us?"
: "That isn't possible. Prisoners of war must be taken to my castle. I must also execute them as soon as possible, so that other people dare not defy us. Ah, your highness. You must head immediately to Macedon. The Macedonian army has rebelled, and its princess appears to have been captured by them. Emperor Hardin has ordered that you go and rescue Princess Minerva."
: "What? Macedon? I understand General. If it's to rescue Princess Minerva, I will gladly go. But, please hand those children to me. I beg of you, General Lang!"
: "Don't be stubborn, your highness! When I said no, I meant it. Well, you two, come over here!"
: "No, let go of me! Jubelo, help me!"
: "Yuliya... Yuliya..."
: "Wait, wait!! Lang! Release those children!"

(narrator voice) "Lang... did not release those children."

: "Your highness, please calm down! If we fight with Lang now, we will become traitors. On top of that, we currently don't have the strength to oppose Lang's army."
: "But, Jagen, can we really give those children to Lang? That I..."
: "Right now... No matter what, we must stay calm! If we go to Macedon... And succesfully [sic] rescue Princess Minerva, Macedon may be able to help us. Your highness, please stay calm for now. We must first go to Macedon!"

Phew! I'm not sure if I'll keep up transcribing the full dialogue. This chapter alone heavily contrasts the minimalistic script from FE1 that Book 1 didn't expand a lot, or at least not nearly to the volume of what Book 2's writing is shaping up to be.

I also have to mention that, as much as I love the FE11 localisation... It also really set itself up for failure, had FE12 been released to the west. Marth in these dialogues really would've needed to be rewritten entirely in order to be consistent with his FE11 persona.

It also puts Kris in perspective. I used to really dislike their dialogue with Elice in the prologue, where she basically tells the random knight-to-be that her brother is a little timid boy and not a hero, and I still think it's slightly out of place for her to do so... But really, Marth thus far is acting naive and honestly a bit undignified considering he was about to be crowned as Altea's new king, and it didn't need Kris to make him into that character. ...We still didn't need Elice to talk shit about her brother to a random knight-to-be, either, though.

Anyway, The Team:

	Lv. 	   HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res  +XP
Marth	3.74	   22   6   8   9   8   7   7   0  +74	(base)
Arran	3.00	   22   8   8  11   4  10  10   6  --	(base)
Luke	4.58	   22   7   6   7   5   6   7   0  +258
Rody	2.76	   21   6   5   7   5   6   6   0  +176

Cecille	3.74	   19   7   7   8   6   7   7   0  +74	(base)
DOGA	6.00	   22   8   4   4   2   6  11   0  --	(base)
Gordin	5.92	   21   7   7   6   5   7   8   0  +92	(base)
Ryan	1.25	   18   5   4   4   3   5   6   0  +25	(base)

Marisha	1.28	   16   1   1   4  12   5   1   5  +28	(base)

• Rody got Str/Spd on his first level, so that's a nice omen to use him over Cecille... Meanwhile, Luke didn't proc either in his first two levels.

Answers!

Spoiler

  

22 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Fine, fine. But you owe me one. You'll be hearing from me come Thracia.

Uh oh.

21 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:

*crosses fingers that there's no more bugs*

Don't feel obligated, if you prefer the European names.  

No worries, I'll just call them Shiida and DOGA and Nabarl from time to time out of principle.

16 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

But, the Book 1-exclusive redesign is very... amateur? It has symmetry, it has the intent of being imposing, of being epic. But, it's rather small, simple & easy. Something that a newbie just screwing around with a map editor for a half-hour would come up with it. -Take it from me playing around with the design room in Advance Wars.😆

I think I wouldn't get this far even within a full hour messing with a map editor to be honest.

But yeah, the map is less interesting than the FE1 version both visually and in gameplay, despite the large dead space in the left part of the FE1 version. Maybe the symmetry even works against it a bit - I'd expect the "city of illusion" a bit more screwy, with narrow alleyways, not this nice and orderly structure.

16 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This on the other hand...

Book 1 Thabes looks like a grand final battle, this decidedly does not. Just so big, with so much empty space. Even if you ignore the mountain pass, the lower half of the map is entirely ignorable barring the rather unimportant shrine. It's not the heroes crashing against a stalwart villainous last stand, there aren't enough enemies positioned properly for that either.

I'm thinking of Binding Blade Chapter 21 now.:

Yeah, BinBla Ch21 was one of the maps I was thinking about as a comparison, probably not to your surprise. Without the pathway and without the warp staff, with a lot more enemies than it has here, including some flyers... maybe the map could work. Even if it's just the one loop you'd have to go, if you don't care about Ohming, there could be more of an onslaught with enemies coming over the mountains which you couldn't just block like Chiki can with the one-tile path.

16 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Nothing says you have to use Tiki.😅 -All I'm saying is that for all the games she has been in, Book 2 is Tiki at her best and most unique. Some might criticize her as coming just after she would've have been mega-useful -Anri's Way- but I didn't say she was perfect.😅

Hey, no need to be shy about making a character request. Look at Ruben shamelessly demanding a bazillion characters. Per game.

7 hours ago, BrightBow said:

She should most certainly be stronger than in Book 1. She starts out with 3 more strength despite having gained only 1 level.

That is significant. You'd think that Chiki of all characters would change the least between books, considering that she basically doesn't age at all in the span of a few years.

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

 I do have a soft spot for Xemcel nonetheless. Like, who is this guy? I dunno, but he must be important if Medeus is trusting him to guard the castle gate. What would have been really nice is if he showed up in the Warren chapter or something. Like that's the chapter where Marth is put on the back foot and is losing the war, yet they don't use it as an opportunity to foreshadow any of the later bosses.

Jotari🤝Ruben

Liking the very random boss of the penultimate map of a FE game

 

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

43 minutes ago, ping said:

I have to say that this opening very much reminded me of a few of Conquest's story beats, in the hope that nobody is offended by that opinion. But you have the naive lordling (note: New Mystery's Marth does seem to be pretty faithful to this one); Lang somewhat combines Hans's mindless brutality, Yago's sadism, and Garon's approach to admistration (you can say the line if you want, Ruben); and the "these are just bandits" shtick absolves Cor-- I mean Marth from the guilt of murdering Good Guys, if in a less silly fashion than CQ.

Still, the new music IIRC is good here? Very dire and serious, it's more than Archanea deserves.

-And the point of FE comparison I would make, would be, to little surprise again, Binding Blade. To be precise, the Western Isles arc. "Protagonist is requested to go on a distant expedition by their superior. Turns out they're on the wrong side of the conflict. And then something terrible happens while the protagonist is away."

43 minutes ago, ping said:

That said, I'm not entirely sure how these three stack up against each other. Without the FE12 prologue, Rody's lower bases seem more impactful, so I'd guess that he's the weakest? Luke vs. Cecille obviously depends on how valuable his additional bulk is vs. her higher Spd, which I can't really predict.

I rarely use Rody or Cecille in New Mystery, since they both kinda feel like worse version of other units, so I'm tempted to try and keep one of them on the team. Not both, since there's a certain shitty cav on the list of requests, so if anybody has a preference between these two, feel free to point it out.

Cecille. Cecille is better. There is one reason why IMO, you'll find out soon enough. Not a huge reason, but it's something the power of the stars can't fix.

Or, use Rody, because his male youthfulness and brown hair vaguely remind me of Leif.

43 minutes ago, ping said:

[HP 60% | Str 40% | Skl 70% | Spd 40% | Lck 30% | Wlv 40% | Def 20%]

Did they really need to invent a Gordin Jr.?🤔 The kid looks too dang young, and a new archer wasn't necessary.

43 minutes ago, ping said:

Poor Lorenz is a broken man with a broken lance. Appropriate, since the story makes him out to be literally the last rebel still fighting, but it also encourages the player to stab him for XP instead of talk, which I highly disapprove of.

That'd require Silver Lance stabs or Rapier pokes given the 17 Def, probably not the best use of either weapon. Talking is so much faster.

43 minutes ago, ping said:

...can I recruit you instead, please? Ruben, make a note in case you make another big silly hack. I'm sure she'd fit right in.

I dunno. Those big glasses and her general appearance don't sit well with me. Feels like Kaga would've used this portrait for an old lady who does one of his infamous damseling situations in a later work of his.

43 minutes ago, ping said:

Riveting gameplay.

Feeling choked up by the fun?😛

43 minutes ago, ping said:

Not the important bit about this story, but... I'll admit that Malicisheia's portrait really doesn't look younger than Yuliya or Jubelo's. That said, I always thought they were supposed to be younger than 13-14.

Anime ages are oftentimes just a suggestion, an idea. Go ahead and headcanon that they're six.😜

43 minutes ago, ping said:

And then he fucking explodes.

Can't let the old man be recruitable, or die of already-mentioned injuries, or worst of all be slain by Marth. Would've been better having Lorenz momentarily pass out at the end of the conversation, and then after Marth seizes, Lang has a faceless grunt put an iron sword through the captured Lorenz's liver.

43 minutes ago, ping said:

But really, Marth thus far is acting naive and honestly a bit undignified considering he was about to be crowned as Altea's new king, and it didn't need Kris to make him into that character.

Pureness of heart is needed for maidens to make dark dragon chow.😋

Pureness of heart is needed for males to make dark dragon chow.⚔️

You get what I mean?😀

Edited December 29, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Saint Rubenio]

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The Wrathless axe knight who joins at the wrong end of the infamous little arc, eh? With a rather peculiar name, hicks, slang for a rural bumpkin or the boondocks they live in. Couldn't have tweaked that to "Hickam" for something a touch more serious (if more of a surname).

He's the protagonist of one of my oldest "bad unit beats up big baddie for content" videos in my channel. So old, it's in a beautiful, beautiful 240p.

To this day one of my proudest, too. That was absolutely fantastic.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I suppose you could do worse for Thracian cavalry, namely the utterly characterless trio who join alongside Seliphina. Especially Robert given Thracia gives so little reason to use bow units.

I'd argue Robert is a tiny wee bit better than Kane and Alva, at least. He's got a decent FCM of 3 and his stats aren't bad. Probably worse than Selphina, though.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

Going to blatantly shill myself here, but I think I did a rather good job retooling it into a decent map in Fall of Thabes. There's an allied unit to rescue in the centre, powerful enemies to deal with along the way, and very threatening wyvern reinforcements that really push you to kill the highly defended boss to end the chapter, which can be a struggle to do while still getting the chests in time.

Yeah that does look fine. With a very symmetrical map like this, putting a key component in the middle does seem like the best way to go.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

I do have a soft spot for Xemcel nonetheless. Like, who is this guy? I dunno, but he must be important if Medeus is trusting him to guard the castle gate. What would have been really nice is if he showed up in the Warren chapter or something. Like that's the chapter where Marth is put on the back foot and is losing the war, yet they don't use it as an opportunity to foreshadow any of the later bosses.

Yeah, if FE1 actually did stuff like setting anything up, that'd definitely be the chapter to have a big baddie chase you. Heck, the sequel essentially does it with the bridge.

5 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Maybe Gharnef had something like this in mind, but he run out of money once the basic layout of the first two floors of the tower were built.

Symmetric tower design has most certainly come a long way since the days of Thabes.

Hahahaha! Oh man, can you imagine if this was how a FE ended. Three fucking days of map.

Also, Siluhtin. Holy shit you can really tell this is old. What kind of a name is Siluhtin?

14 minutes ago, ping said:

Look at Ruben shamelessly demanding a bazillion characters. Per game.

Blame Shaky, he's spoiled me. I did the same to him and he relented, every single time, and they became the most noteworthy units in his teams, every single time.

14 minutes ago, ping said:

Jotari🤝Ruben

Liking the very random boss of the penultimate map of a FE game

In my case, the one I didn't even see myself because I didn't reach him. I essentially like Heddwyn's wiki article lol

24 minutes ago, ping said:

Wait, Talys? I always assumed that the events from FE would largely pass it by, considering it's an island and all of Marth's adventures take place on the main land.

The singular brigand attack from way at the beginning did that much harm.

24 minutes ago, ping said:

(you can say the line if you want, Ruben)

Lang definitely does seem like the kind to call rebellions seeds.

25 minutes ago, ping said:

and the "these are just bandits" shtick absolves Cor-- I mean Marth from the guilt of murdering Good Guys, if in a less silly fashion than CQ.

Funnily enough, FE12 ommits this part, so Marth just seemingly commits war crimes.

26 minutes ago, ping said:

[HP 10% | Str 10% | Skl 10% | Spd 10% | Lck -- | WLv 10% | Def 10%]

And Arran compares to Jagen in Book 1 quite similarly to B2!Marth vs B1!Marth. Two levels higher, with base stats that are a bit better than what you'd expect from the spiky old man. I wonder if this will be a trend?

The difference between the two... Jeigans is a bit more impactful, I think, with Arran starting with enough Spd to actually double stuff, which Jagen could only really do with a Slim Lance. But overall, Arran probably still has a very similar usefulness curve, except that he, of course, has been requested as a growth unit. We'll see how much magic the Starshards can do.

Best Boy Arran.

26 minutes ago, ping said:

____

[HP 90% | Str 30% | Skl 30% | Spd 40% | Lck 10% | WLv 40% | Def 20%] (Luke)
[HP 70% | Str 40% | Skl 50% | Spd 50% | Lck 40% | WLv 60% | Def 20%] (Rody)
[HP 50% | Str 30% | Skl 60% | Spd 60% | Lck 30% | WLv 70% | Def 10%] (Cecille)

Coming from FE12, it's interesting to see that the only advantage in growths that Luke has over his buddies is his HP. He has a lower growth total in FE12, too, of course, but he still has the highest Str growth out of the three there.

That said, I'm not entirely sure how these three stack up against each other. Without the FE12 prologue, Rody's lower bases seem more impactful, so I'd guess that he's the weakest? Luke vs. Cecille obviously depends on how valuable his additional bulk is vs. her higher Spd, which I can't really predict.

I rarely use Rody or Cecille in New Mystery, since they both kinda feel like worse version of other units, so I'm tempted to try and keep one of them on the team. Not both, since there's a certain shitty cav on the list of requests, so if anybody has a preference between these two, feel free to point it out.

I really do love how in this game these lamers just sort of... appear. People meme about the Thracia cavaliers, but these doofuses are even worse.

30 minutes ago, ping said:

Poor Lorenz is a broken man with a broken lance. Appropriate, since the story makes him out to be literally the last rebel still fighting, but it also encourages the player to stab him for XP instead of talk, which I highly disapprove of.

In fairness, this'd be the one time the weird "sad death song plays for bosses" quirk of this game would actually be appropriate.

29 minutes ago, ping said:

The tile to the right of the fort is a mountain tile, slowing down everybody and even fully blocking the unpromoted Cavs unless they dismount (and I think DOGA just can't cross, period). This sucks. It's annoying, just slowing down the process for no good reason.

Off to a great start.

28 minutes ago, ping said:

Ruben, make a note in case you make another big silly hack. I'm sure she'd fit right in.

I fucking love this portrait. In New Mystery she's just a forgettable villager woman. Here she's the funniest person in Archanea.

28 minutes ago, ping said:

...can I recruit you instead, please?

Duly noted, mate.

29 minutes ago, ping said:

Nevermind. Ruben, don't make a note.

Bah, I've put worse people in my hacks.

31 minutes ago, ping said:

Ogma out.
Not a big fan of the twins' names in this localisation, by the way. Looking at the wiki, their Japanese names do both start with the same syllable, which is a parallel these names remove for no real reason.

Well, apparently, Jubelo is the correct form used in the name's origin. Yubello's just a corruption, likely done for the sake of the parallelism you speak of. You know, kinda like the way they corrupted Meißen to Mycen so as not to make non-Germans have to google for the Funny German B. But they underestimated my power.

33 minutes ago, ping said:

I'll admit that Malicisheia's portrait really doesn't look younger than Yuliya or Jubelo's. That said, I always thought they were supposed to be younger than 13-14.

In FE12 they look vastly younger than everyone else, so I can understand. Combined with his gentle expression Yubello straight up looks like a toddler. Which only makes it funnier to give him an axe and make him chop heads off, of course.

34 minutes ago, ping said:

I also have to mention that, as much as I love the FE11 localisation... It also really set itself up for failure, had FE12 been released to the west. Marth in these dialogues really would've needed to be rewritten entirely in order to be consistent with his FE11 persona.

The real reason FE12 wasn't localized.

34 minutes ago, ping said:

It also puts Kris in perspective. I used to really dislike their dialogue with Elice in the prologue, where she basically tells the random knight-to-be that her brother is a little timid boy and not a hero, and I still think it's slightly out of place for her to do so... But really, Marth thus far is acting naive and honestly a bit undignified considering he was about to be crowned as Altea's new king, and it didn't need Kris to make him into that character. ...We still didn't need Elice to talk shit about her brother to a random knight-to-be, either, though.

FE12 did play around a lot of Marth's more naïve and/or uncultured moments by making Kris be the dumbass instead. He gets a lot of the more obvious history lessons, for instance, with Marth mainly only getting lectures from Xane, who tells him things most humans aren't privy to. I'm not about to say Kris is perfect or anything, but their levels of story ruinage definitely aren't as massive as some would claim.

That being said... Yeah, it's really silly how Elice just trashtalks her brother to a random-ass dude/dudette. But hey, at least she got a scene. It's more than she usually got.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Just now, Saint Rubenio said:

I'd argue Robert is a tiny wee bit better than Kane and Alva, at least. He's got a decent FCM of 3 and his stats aren't bad. Probably worse than Selphina, though.

Robert has almost double the Str growth in his favor (the +30% Str Nova/Njorun Scroll isn't until Leonster Castle IIRC, very late), and more Con, and better growths with a much lower base level. 

-Robert has E Bows.😐

+1 WEXP per use means Robert needs 150 shots (probably mostly player-phase being a bow user) to reach B Bows, that's 75 rounds of combat if he's doubling every time. Selphina starts with B Bows, and thusly will have that 60 uses, 14 Mt, 95 Hit, 20 Crit Brave Bow to herself for quite some time. The BraBow may as well be a pseudo-personal for her, given nobody else except Xavier begins with a Bow rank above E. Xavier starts with a Killer Bow too, another 20 uses of B-rank goodness Selphina could steal for herself.

13 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I really do love how in this game these lamers just sort of... appear. People meme about the Thracia cavaliers, but these doofuses are even worse.

Cecille has pink. That and being female does more for her than Selphina's nobody-trio.

[RPGuy96]

44 minutes ago, ping said:

(Hmm... I think I'll make a separate text document with what I'm more confident in calling an error. "At" after a comma shouldn't be capitalised, I don't think, and Hardin's signature probably belongs inside the quotation marks.)

Please do!  I hope to make my own observations and fix some typos / grammatical errors.  I don't know any Japanese, though, so I'm hesitant to do any real editing of the script for fear of losing the original nuances. 

For this capitalized At, specifically, I think the idea is that it's a letter with a salutation:

Quote

Dear Prince Marth of Altea,

At the Kingdom of Grust, lots of stuff happened and I decided to kill everyone and execute children because I'm still a super nice guy.

Yours In Goodness and Light,

Emperor Hardin

But it's pretty awkward as it is.

50 minutes ago, ping said:

To where DOGA is the first one to arrive. I can't believe the lack of realism here.

Anticipating him being a speed demon in DSFE!

55 minutes ago, ping said:

The tile to the right of the fort is a mountain tile, slowing down everybody and even fully blocking the unpromoted Cavs unless they dismount (and I think DOGA just can't cross, period). This sucks. It's annoying, just slowing down the process for no good reason.

Gotta have a dismounting "tutorial", I guess.  I like dismounting as a way to make mounts not the solution to every problem, but sometimes it's more annoying than its worth and this is one of those times.

58 minutes ago, ping said:

Not a big fan of the twins' names in this localisation, by the way. Looking at the wiki, their Japanese names do both start with the same syllable, which is a parallel these names remove for no real reason.

Very much agreed.  I did a double take when looking at their NA names next to each other.  Why??

19 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Funnily enough, FE12 ommits this part, so Marth just seemingly commits war crimes.

Loyally following orders

[Saint Rubenio]

32 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Cecille. Cecille is better. There is one reason why IMO, you'll find out soon enough. Not a huge reason, but it's something the power of the stars can't fix.

I mean... If it's this:

14 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Cecille has pink. That and being female does more for her than Selphina's nobody-trio.

There is a way, you know.

14 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Robert has almost double the Str growth in his favor (the +30% Str Nova/Njorun Scroll isn't until Leonster Castle IIRC, very late), and more Con, and better growths with a much lower base level. 

-Robert has E Bows.😐

+1 WEXP per use means Robert needs 150 shots (probably mostly player-phase being a bow user) to reach B Bows, that's 75 rounds of combat if he's doubling every time. Selphina starts with B Bows, and thusly will have that 60 uses, 14 Mt, 95 Hit, 20 Crit Brave Bow to herself for quite some time. The BraBow may as well be a pseudo-personal for her, given nobody else except Xavier begins with a Bow rank above E. Xavier starts with a Killer Bow too, another 20 uses of B-rank goodness Selphina could steal for herself.

Yeah E bows and competing directly with Selphina is really what kills Robert. Rank building in this game is quite possibly at its absolute worst in the series. It's horrible to grow out of E rank hell. Difficult to justify when Selphina is needed to get the brave bow and basically has dibs on it forever.

8 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Loyally following orders

I can't believe Marth was the Camus of Book 2 all along.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 minute ago, Saint Rubenio said:

There is a way, you know.

FE has no such magic.

3 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Rank building in this game is quite possibly at its absolute worst in the series. It's horrible to grow out of E rank hell.

It was the first game with growable weapon ranks. And really, Bows are very bad to be stuck trying to get rank in in almost any game, owing to that near-total lack of enemy phase.

...Why on Jugchantia does Thracia have no recruitable Sniper?🤨 Dagda starts at E Bows, so does his daughter and the terrible blue boy, and so does the Playable Generic. Xavier and Selphina are the only ones above E, and Xavier is late and iffy. Where's Febail/Asaello when you want them?

[ping]

19 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Still, the new music IIRC is good here? Very dire and serious, it's more than Archanea deserves.

It's pretty good, yeah. If I was playing on my own, I'd probably disable animations so that the EP theme wouldn't get interrupted every five seconds.

19 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

-And the point of FE comparison I would make, would be, to little surprise again, Binding Blade. To be precise, the Western Isles arc. "Protagonist is requested to go on a distant expedition by their superior. Turns out they're on the wrong side of the conflict. And then something terrible happens while the protagonist is away."

Absolutely, yeah. Elffin even narrates the part of FE3 where Akaneia/Etruria invades Altea/Lycia to Roy as a test of character, and is astonished when he's smart enough that Elffin is only describing what could possibly maybe happen, and that it would be folly to abandon the task in front of him to chase after rumours.

20 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

That'd require Silver Lance stabs or Rapier pokes given the 17 Def, probably not the best use of either weapon. Talking is so much faster.

True. Marth would deal a very modest 4 damage per poke, so it'd take a while to collect the 75 XP.

21 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I dunno. Those big glasses and her general appearance don't sit well with me. Feels like Kaga would've used this portrait for an old lady who does one of his infamous damseling situations in a later work of his.

I mean, she's currently pimping out her granddaughter to Marth, so it would make sense if she looked a bit creepy. But personally, the first adjective that comes to mind is "funny", even moreso because she looks so out of place.

23 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Anime ages are oftentimes just a suggestion, an idea. Go ahead and headcanon that they're six.😜

Wellll, if they looked like they were six, they'd probably be a thousand years old.

24 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Pureness of heart is needed for maidens to make dark dragon chow.😋

Pureness of heart is needed for males to make dark dragon chow.⚔️

You get what I mean?😀

But why must Pureness of Heart always go along with Dumbness of Ass?

(Yes, I get it )

26 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The singular brigand attack from way at the beginning did that much harm.

They did destroy One house. Also, they gave 10000 bucks to Marth. I choose to believe that the latter is what ruined their economy.

27 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Well, apparently, Jubelo is the correct form used in the name's origin. Yubello's just a corruption, likely done for the sake of the parallelism you speak of. You know, kinda like the way they corrupted Meißen to Mycen so as not to make non-Germans have to google for the Funny German B. But they underestimated my power.

OK, but "Julia" would've been right there for his sister if the Freemason reference is that central to his character. And FE has been doubling up on names decently often at this point, so that's not an excuse, either.

31 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Which only makes it funnier to give him an axe and make him chop heads off, of course.

Naturally. It is his best class, too, after all.

32 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

FE12 did play around a lot of Marth's more naïve and/or uncultured moments by making Kris be the dumbass instead. He gets a lot of the more obvious history lessons, for instance, with Marth mainly only getting lectures from Xane, who tells him things most humans aren't privy to. I'm not about to say Kris is perfect or anything, but their levels of story ruinage definitely aren't as massive as some would claim.

I saw the fantastic FE11!Marth and then the... not fantastic FE12!Marth, and the explanation that Marth had to be made a bit of a wuss in order to make Kris look better seemed very plausible. I'm sure I wasn't alone with that assumption. It's interesting to see how FE11!Marth came from the liberties the translators took and how FE12/Book2!Marth had been a bit of a wuss all along.

14 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

For this capitalized At, specifically, I think the idea is that it's a letter with a salutation:

It's definitely plausible that I'm just applying German custom where it doesn't belong, since I don't think I've ever written a formal letter in English outside of school. In German, one would continue in lowercase after a salutation ending with a comma.

16 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Anticipating him being a speed demon in DSFE!

Kaga did it first once again. This is insane.

20 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Loyally following orders

12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I can't believe Marth was the Camus of Book 2 all along.

Broke: Wolf and Eldigan and Galle are the Camühs of their respective games.
Woke: Maybe Sigurd could be viewed as a Camüh-loke character...
Bespoke: Marth was the Camus of Book 2 all along.

(I'm worried that at the end of this, we will have learned that actually, every character in Fire Emblem is a Camüh in their own little ways)

 

[RPGuy96]

13 minutes ago, ping said:

I saw the fantastic FE11!Marth and then the... not fantastic FE12!Marth, and the explanation that Marth had to be made a bit of a wuss in order to make Kris look better seemed very plausible. I'm sure I wasn't alone with that assumption. It's interesting to see how FE11!Marth came from the liberties the translators took and how FE12/Book2!Marth had been a bit of a wuss all along.

FE1 and Book 1 are really barebones, it makes sense for someone writing FE11 in a vacuum to give Marth a character arc that makes him into an actual hero.  Unfortunately, there's this sequel...

From what I remember, Book 2 Marthipan snaps out of his wussiness (and alleged Camusesness) quite quickly.  I suppose we'll see if that's actually true soon enough.  Perhaps he's been busy trying to propose to Caeda since Book 1 ended and that's sapped his courage.

[Emperor Hardin]

14 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, effective weaponry isn't that big of a deal, but still, the fact is that the designers have historically deemed armored knights amazing enough to require a dedicated slew of gear that targets them specifically. Meanwhile, the likes of mages don't get that even though they've always been basically better archers.

The debug menu of FE3 labels the "Lady Sword" as "Magekiller", indicating a mage effective weaponry was almost in FE3! The concept got into the Vestaria Saga games.

The anti armor weaponry usually does make sense from a player perspective as for all the problems as player units, Armored Knight enemies are not only very common, but can give the player alot of trouble in how hard they are to crack.

I do admit though, FE12 adding an Anti Armor bow when the Hammer and ArmorSlayer already exited, really perplexed me though, especially as Armored enemies had their defense stats nerfed to the ground in the DS remake of Mystery of the Emblem, meaning the player already has no trouble with them.

And several late game bosses would be much more powerful if there almost any other class even without the effective weaponry as the DS remakes use FE6 Caps.

14 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I was doing LPs years ago and it was the same then. Just one of Serenes's annoying quirks.

1 hour ago, ping said:

I don't know why that is - maybe a measure to make it more difficult for bots to circumvent moderation, but in that case, I wouldn't know why it's mostly long posts that suffer from this. In any case, it's been a thing for a while now, so I'm not very hopeful that it can be fixed. Very annoying when you're doing this kind of stuff or a screenshot Let's Play.

Damn it, so its not just a me issue.

I'm having a long conversation with Shaky Jones and alot of the time, I really need to edit stuff in.

Someone should really figure out whats causing the issue, but they probably won't.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Not a good map for a 5-move character 😕 Even Navarre didn't see any action apart from fact-tanking one attack on the last enemy phase.

Yeah Lorenz is meant for indoor maps!

1 hour ago, ping said:

Sure! I'm actually curious how salvagable she is in FE3, considering her awfulness in New Mystery.

I think Kaga planned her to be a high tier unit, but it didn't quite work out, but she's still ok.

2 hours ago, ping said:

I have to say that this opening very much reminded me of a few of Conquest's story beats, in the hope that nobody is offended by that opinion. But you have the naive lordling (note: New Mystery's Marth does seem to be pretty faithful to this one); Lang somewhat combines Hans's mindless brutality, Yago's sadism, and Garon's approach to admistration (you can say the line if you want, Ruben); and the "these are just bandits" shtick absolves Cor-- I mean Marth from the guilt of murdering Good Guys, if in a less silly fashion than CQ.

Hans reminds me of Lang too, with a bit of Gazzak.

The "just bandits left", despite them starting near Lorenz, always come off as a bit of a copout to me.

2 hours ago, ping said:

I don't think his face changed too much, hard to tell because the angle seems slightly different, but his hair grew a little and he got himself a new warderobe.

I'll do a comparison picture later, but Marth's outfit in his book 1 portrait appears to be the Toga he wore in the NES artwork and his SNES battle sprites, conversely his Book 2 portrait appears to be wearing his modern outfit.

2 hours ago, ping said:

[HP 60% | Str 20% | Skl 40% | Spd 40% | Lck 20% | WLv 40% | Def 10%]

DOGA has higher growths now, if you can believe it. His WLv growth was doubled, even!

He also gained the most levels out of the returning characters, but his gains from those five level-ups is much more modest than Marth's. Only +2 HP and no extra Def, and only +1 to Str/Skl/Spd/Lck doesn't exactly spark joy. I suppose it's not a bad thing for him to be closer to his promotion, but... yeah, he really doesn't seem like a remarkable character at all.

I don't think Draug's extra levels really helped him personally.

2 hours ago, ping said:

____

[HP 90% | Str 30% | Skl 30% | Spd 40% | Lck 10% | WLv 40% | Def 20%] (Luke)
[HP 70% | Str 40% | Skl 50% | Spd 50% | Lck 40% | WLv 60% | Def 20%] (Rody)
[HP 50% | Str 30% | Skl 60% | Spd 60% | Lck 30% | WLv 70% | Def 10%] (Cecille)

Coming from FE12, it's interesting to see that the only advantage in growths that Luke has over his buddies is his HP. He has a lower growth total in FE12, too, of course, but he still has the highest Str growth out of the three there.

That said, I'm not entirely sure how these three stack up against each other. Without the FE12 prologue, Rody's lower bases seem more impactful, so I'd guess that he's the weakest? Luke vs. Cecille obviously depends on how valuable his additional bulk is vs. her higher Spd, which I can't really predict.

I rarely use Rody or Cecille in New Mystery, since they both kinda feel like worse version of other units, so I'm tempted to try and keep one of them on the team. Not both, since there's a certain shitty cav on the list of requests, so if anybody has a preference between these two, feel free to point it out.

They also have some support bonuses if you want to hear. I feel if you use Rody or Cecille, you should use the other.

2 hours ago, ping said:

...can I recruit you instead, please? Ruben, make a note in case you make another big silly hack. I'm sure she'd fit right in.

She has a nice and unique portrait, it'd be nice for a playable character too.

This is one of many things disproving the Archanean didn't have glasses comment on Awakening's official site.

2 hours ago, ping said:

And then he fucking explodes.

: "General Lorenz!! How could you..."

Apparently the novelization says he used gunpowder from a Ballista.

2 hours ago, ping said:

I think I wouldn't get this far even within a full hour messing with a map editor to be honest.

But yeah, the map is less interesting than the FE1 version both visually and in gameplay, despite the large dead space in the left part of the FE1 version. Maybe the symmetry even works against it a bit - I'd expect the "city of illusion" a bit more screwy, with narrow alleyways, not this nice and orderly structure.

I really do wonder why they made the Thabes map so linear in Book 1?

@JotariIt'd be nice if a lot of Book 1 bosses got more screentime, I imagine Xemcel is a personal friend of Medeus given he has such an important job.

[BrightBow]

3 hours ago, ping said:

I don't think his face changed too much, hard to tell because the angle seems slightly different, but his hair grew a little and he got himself a new warderobe.

Considering Marth's FE3 artwork has him with pants and Marth's battle sprite clearly does not, I get the impression that they wanted him to change from his FE1 outfit to his proper FE3 outfit between books.
Those portraits seem in line with that. In FE1 he had his cape tucked under his shoulder pads, while in FE3 it's covering his shoulder pads.
 

3 hours ago, ping said:

And Arran compares to Jagen in Book 1 quite similarly to B2!Marth vs B1!Marth. Two levels higher, with base stats that are a bit better than what you'd expect from the spiky old man. I wonder if this will be a trend?

He did mostly manage to keep his Book 1 stats. He only lost 2 HP.
 

3 hours ago, ping said:

I rarely use Rody or Cecille in New Mystery, since they both kinda feel like worse version of other units, so I'm tempted to try and keep one of them on the team. Not both, since there's a certain shitty cav on the list of requests, so if anybody has a preference between these two, feel free to point it out.

I am most certainly in favor of Cecil, seeing how dirty the remake did her. What did the poor girl do to deserve a negative defense base, honestly.
 

3 hours ago, ping said:

Gordin only gained +10% WLv growth during the time skip, but he still came out of it with much better results. He gained +2 points in basically all the important stats, including Def despite the 10% growth, although 6 Spd is notably still too low to double with an Iron Bow (4 Wt). Still, he seems fairly OK. I vaguely remember hearing/reading that this is his best incarnation and I can believe that.

Gordin is like a mini Tomas in this campaign. It helps that archers get plenty of opportunity to earn exp early. Though not so much that I would recommend feeding kills to Ryan. A level 5 start works out just fine.
 

3 hours ago, ping said:

On this map, she goes shopping for some basic weapons and ends up healing twice - Marth next turn and Cecille somewhere near the end of the fight. No reason to staff-grind if she's going to be (mostly) benched, anyway. Thief and Hammerne have no WLv requirements, so Malicisheia doesn't need need the levels.

Like in Book 1, it's also gonna take a while before you can buy new staffs. As in, longer than in takes for Yumina to join.

Would really have been nice if Yumina came with a healing staff.
 

3 hours ago, ping said:

Not a big fan of the twins' names in this localisation, by the way. Looking at the wiki, their Japanese names do both start with the same syllable, which is a parallel these names remove for no real reason.

It's fine. We just need to eventually go back and rename the Sacred Stones twins to Eirika and Iprahim or something to restore inbalance.
 

3 hours ago, ping said:

Luke cages himself in to set up a kill for Rody, but then Cecille can't push ahead because of the mountain... It's just a really annoying chokepoint and FE12 definitely did the right thing by removing the mountains.

Doesn't help that swords are less accurate than lances, so you end up missing a lot trying to push forward.

Fun times.
 

3 hours ago, ping said:

Phew! I'm not sure if I'll keep up transcribing the full dialogue. This chapter alone heavily contrasts the minimalistic script from FE1 that Book 1 didn't expand a lot, or at least not nearly to the volume of what Book 2's writing is shaping up to be.

This must have been quite a shock for those who started with Book 1, not realizing it was just a remake of an NES game.
 

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Well, apparently, Jubelo is the correct form used in the name's origin. Yubello's just a corruption, likely done for the sake of the parallelism you speak of. You know, kinda like the way they corrupted Meißen to Mycen so as not to make non-Germans have to google for the Funny German B. But they underestimated my power.

Couldn't it just be Jubelo and Julia then? Instead of Yuliya.
 

2 hours ago, ping said:

That is significant. You'd think that Chiki of all characters would change the least between books, considering that she basically doesn't age at all in the span of a few years.

It is actually rather in line with how the stats of the returning characters evolved. Unless you are Doga, it seems.
Which I feel like puts new characters generally at a disadvantage. I mean, just look at Gordon vs Ryan. Gordon has better stats then his growths would suggest while Ryan has worse bases than Book 1 Gordon.
Not to mention Warren.

But funnily enough it is also made note of that Tiki did in fact notably grow in the past year.
It would make sense if manakete grow up just as quickly as humans. That they just have a longer lifespan. But that would not explain why Tiki still looks like a child, despite being like 1000 years old.
Maybe the magical induced sleep slowed down her aging? Idk.

Of course when Marth makes note of that, he is unknowingly talking to Xane. So maybe Xane simply took some creative liberties with Tiki's appearance.

Edited December 30, 2023 by BrightBow

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, ping said:

FE3 Book 2 Chapter 1: Grustian Expedition

  Hide contents

Here we go again!

After five long years the great war with the Dolhr Empire, which caused much suffering and was later called the War of Darkness, ended with the defeat of the Earth Dragon King Medeus.

The warriors who had gathered under the Fire Emblem returned to their homelands, and to restore the lands from devastation used up much strength. Among the countries that once made up the seven Kingdoms of Archanea, Gra and Grust were ruined. Altea, Aurelis, Macedon, and Talys were also deeply scarred.

Wait, Talys? I always assumed that the events from FE would largely pass it by, considering it's an island and all of Marth's adventures take place on the main land.

Even the grand Kingdom of Archanea was undergoing restoration. Then, at the royal capital Pales, which was still shaken by the war an important event occured. King Aurelis' younger brother, Hardin, married Princess Nyna and ascended as the 24th King of Archanea.

After becoming king, Hardin, although seemingly reluctant, instantly restored the country. He gathered many soldiers to create a powerful army. Following that he declared the restoration of the Holy Empire of Archanea, and declared himself Emperor.

One year after the end of the war with Dolhr the world seems to be entering a state of peace. But the wheels of fate appear to have a fault.

Since I'm neither a native English speaker nor a student of the language, I don't want to assume that my perception is correct, but... some of the commas feel a bit off to me. For example, I wouldn't use any in "King Aurelis's [isn't it __s's for names?] younger brother Hardin married Princess Nyna...", but one in "Following that, he declared...".

I know, I'm a smartass, I can't help it.

Thanks to the efforts of Prince Marth, the Kingdom of Altea, devastated by war, finally begins to stabilise. The knight Jagen, who succeeded the ill Malledus, became the prince's tactician and helped him rule the country, by his side.

But there was another...

 

Afterwards, Princess Caeda was welcomed to Altea, and her marriage with Prince Marth was announced. The citizens of Altea were happy for the pair's fortune and Caeda was passionately welcomed to the country. However... Nearing the day of the wedding, a letter suddenly comes from the imperial palace of Pales, containing an imperial order.

 

"Dear Prince Marth of Altea, At the Kingdom of Grust, occupied by Archanea, a huge rebellion has broken out. I request for your country to subdue Grust. Your highness, please send Altea's full army immediately, to quell Grust's rebellion." Emperor Hardin.

(Hmm... I think I'll make a separate text document with what I'm more confident in calling an error. "At" after a comma shouldn't be capitalised, I don't think, and Hardin's signature probably belongs inside the quotation marks.)

The helpless Marth orders the knight Cain to protect his kingdom. And he leaves, along with Jagen and the others, to an expedition to Grust.

__

To where DOGA is the first one to arrive. I can't believe the lack of realism here.

New portrait for Marthipan!

I don't think his face changed too much, hard to tell because the angle seems slightly different, but his hair grew a little and he got himself a new warderobe.

: "So you are Lord Marth. Currently the situation is relaxed. We have already subdued most of the rebels. All that remains is this fortress. Since you are here, I will leave the job of defeating the rebels' leader, General Lorenz, to you."
: "Huh!? The leader of the rebels is General Lorenz!? Why would he rebel...?"
: "Oh... I don't know why. But it is a fact that he is hiding Grust's prince. He's probably dreaming of restoring the Kingdom of Grust. What a fool. He really thought his rebellion would be victorious? Lord Marth, you will kill Lorenz and bring back the hidden Grustian royal children. We will leave this place to you, and pursue the escaping rebels. We must show those Grustian fools the consequences of opposing us."
: "General Lang... What are you planning to do!?"
: "If you want to know, I am going to slaughter the families of the rebels. Then we will burn down any villages that harboured the rebels. That will stop them from contemplating rebellion again. Hahaha! I can almost see the tears on the faces of those fools."
: "What?! How can you be so cruel..."
: "Th-there's nothing wrong! You'd best follow my orders and not think about things too much. Or do you, also, intend to rebel against Archanea!?"
: "What! Of course not..."
: "Then you'd better listen to my orders!! Lord Marth, don't think too highly of yourself. In my eyes you are just the prince of a weak country. With its power, Archanea can destroy your country at any time. Don't forget about this!"

: "I heard that he stole from other people, to add to his own wealth. I fear he has continued his ways at Grust, and caused suffering to its people. So General Lorenz's rebellion is completely understandable."
: "Jagen! How can you say things so casually? If we don't inform hardin of the truth, more innocent people will be killed."
: "Your highness, I understand your feelings. However, Lorenz's rebellion is a fact. First, we must see how we can help him. Basically, we should listen to what the citizens have to say, so we can affirm what has happened to this country. Then your highness can talk to General Lorenz personally."
: "But the rebels don't know that we're from Altea. Can we reach the fortress safely?"
: "Don't worry. Most of the rebels have already fled. All that remains is Lorenz, and the children in the fortress. Blocking our path are only bandits, who have taken advantage of the confusion to raid villages. They are no problem for us. You can order Arran ot defeat them in one blow if you want. However, your highness, we have some fresh recruits in our army that could use some fighting experience. To them, bandits are relatively strong foes. So be careful not to push them too much. If possible, I would have liked to fight as well, but my body is not what it used to be. I will stay by your highness's side, as your tactitian. Well, your highness, we should go!"

I have to say that this opening very much reminded me of a few of Conquest's story beats, in the hope that nobody is offended by that opinion. But you have the naive lordling (note: New Mystery's Marth does seem to be pretty faithful to this one); Lang somewhat combines Hans's mindless brutality, Yago's sadism, and Garon's approach to admistration (you can say the line if you want, Ruben); and the "these are just bandits" shtick absolves Cor-- I mean Marth from the guilt of murdering Good Guys, if in a less silly fashion than CQ.

I guess now that we've entered Book 2, the logical comparison to make would be New Mystery's version of this map, huh? The short version of that is that the terrain is more or less the same (*), with some small details like the Armoury being further out of the way here, but New Mystery has fewer enemies than this one: Even on Lunatic, it's only 12 enemies (plus Lorenz) in total, 6 on either side of the fort in the choke point. Here, it's 14 enemies, although it looked like a bigger difference to me at first because so many of them are crammed into the narrow path towards Lorenz.

Which isn't too surprising, of course, since the DS remakes are generally considered to have pretty low numbers of enemies on the map, but really big numbers on their stat screens, if you go to the higher difficulties.

(*)Note from ping-after-having-played-the-map: I would like to retract that statement.

[HP 50% | Str 50% | Skl 40% | Spd 50% | Lck 70% | WLv 40% | Def 20%]

Marth starts two levels above his Book 1 incarnation, with stats that are a bit better than what you'd expect from two level-ups. Most notably, he gained +4 HP (if no Def), but +2 Spd is quite nice, as well. I found that he performed well enough in Book 1, so I'd expect the same here.

[HP 10% | Str 10% | Skl 10% | Spd 10% | Lck -- | WLv 10% | Def 10%]

And Arran compares to Jagen in Book 1 quite similarly to B2!Marth vs B1!Marth. Two levels higher, with base stats that are a bit better than what you'd expect from the spiky old man. I wonder if this will be a trend?

The difference between the two... Jeigans is a bit more impactful, I think, with Arran starting with enough Spd to actually double stuff, which Jagen could only really do with a Slim Lance. But overall, Arran probably still has a very similar usefulness curve, except that he, of course, has been requested as a growth unit. We'll see how much magic the Starshards can do.

____

[HP 90% | Str 30% | Skl 30% | Spd 40% | Lck 10% | WLv 40% | Def 20%] (Luke)
[HP 70% | Str 40% | Skl 50% | Spd 50% | Lck 40% | WLv 60% | Def 20%] (Rody)
[HP 50% | Str 30% | Skl 60% | Spd 60% | Lck 30% | WLv 70% | Def 10%] (Cecille)

Coming from FE12, it's interesting to see that the only advantage in growths that Luke has over his buddies is his HP. He has a lower growth total in FE12, too, of course, but he still has the highest Str growth out of the three there.

That said, I'm not entirely sure how these three stack up against each other. Without the FE12 prologue, Rody's lower bases seem more impactful, so I'd guess that he's the weakest? Luke vs. Cecille obviously depends on how valuable his additional bulk is vs. her higher Spd, which I can't really predict.

I rarely use Rody or Cecille in New Mystery, since they both kinda feel like worse version of other units, so I'm tempted to try and keep one of them on the team. Not both, since there's a certain shitty cav on the list of requests, so if anybody has a preference between these two, feel free to point it out.

[HP 60% | Str 20% | Skl 40% | Spd 40% | Lck 20% | WLv 40% | Def 10%]

DOGA has higher growths now, if you can believe it. His WLv growth was doubled, even!

He also gained the most levels out of the returning characters, but his gains from those five level-ups is much more modest than Marth's. Only +2 HP and no extra Def, and only +1 to Str/Skl/Spd/Lck doesn't exactly spark joy. I suppose it's not a bad thing for him to be closer to his promotion, but... yeah, he really doesn't seem like a remarkable character at all.

[HP 40% | Str 30% | Skl 30% | Spd 30% | Lck 40% | WLv 60% | Def 10%]

Gordin only gained +10% WLv growth during the time skip, but he still came out of it with much better results. He gained +2 points in basically all the important stats, including Def despite the 10% growth, although 6 Spd is notably still too low to double with an Iron Bow (4 Wt). Still, he seems fairly OK. I vaguely remember hearing/reading that this is his best incarnation and I can believe that.

[HP 60% | Str 40% | Skl 70% | Spd 40% | Lck 30% | Wlv 40% | Def 20%]

Ryan is similar to Rody in that his better growths probably don't make up for the worse bases. -2 in basically every stat (-3 HP/Skl, but eh) is really rough, and it would take 20 level-ups to just catch up to Gordin's base advantage. Old Mystery doesn't even scale XP gain with level, so unless reaching Lv.20/20 is a realistic prospect in Book 2, Ryan seems to be pretty much like a worse Gordin - and consider that in Book 1, the characters with the most level-ups were Kashim (13+7=20) and Sheeda (12+9=21). I expect that these numbers will be a bit higher in Book 2, but I still expect Ryan to fall into the "can't catch up" category.

Poor Lorenz is a broken man with a broken lance. Appropriate, since the story makes him out to be literally the last rebel still fighting, but it also encourages the player to stab him for XP instead of talk, which I highly disapprove of.

____

Generic enemies are all pretty weak. Only Rody and Ryan get three-shot by 13 Atk; even Cecille would just barely survive three attacks with one HP remaining.

Well then, let us draw lines on the map. I hear that's how strategy is achieved.

__

You may remember that I retracted a statement about the map having basically the same terrain layout as it will have in New Mystery. You can spot the reason here, indicated by Luke's bad accuracy:

The tile to the right of the fort is a mountain tile, slowing down everybody and even fully blocking the unpromoted Cavs unless they dismount (and I think DOGA just can't cross, period). This sucks. It's annoying, just slowing down the process for no good reason.

Also pictured: Marth about to visit the village. The moment Ruben has been dreading.

...can I recruit you instead, please? Ruben, make a note in case you make another big silly hack. I'm sure she'd fit right in.

: "Don't worry, old lady. We're not going to take this child."
: "Huh...? Aren't you a soldier of the empire?"
: "No... You've got the wrong idea. We haven't come here to fight. If you require anything, please ask. We have some food, please take it if you want."
: "Wait... Please, take me with you..."
: "You... You're REALLY only 10 years old?"
: "Actually I have already become of age... But, my grandmother lied for me so the soldiers wouldn't take me away. Well, I know if I stay here I will eventually be discovered and captured by the imperial soldiers. Lang's soldiers are like beasts. But, you're different. You have very kind eyes. Please, take me out of this country and to your own country. Is that alright, grandmother?"
: "Ah, of course. You will be much safer compared to here. Young lad, I beg of you. Please protect this girl."

Nevermind. Ruben, don't make a note. Also, I definitely wouldn't have batted an eye if Malicisheia's portrait would've belonged to a 10-year-old, but I guess that's anime for you.

: "This child, like me in the past, is a beautiful girl. She will definitely make a fine wife. Marisha, if this youth was to be your husband, you would be happy, right?"
: "Honestly, grandmother. It's far too early. Marisha doesn't know what to do."

Headcanon, considering her apparent mental age: Malicisheia is ten years old and she's just lying so that Marth agrees to bring her along. Her grandmother is just messing with her.

[HP 40% | Str 30% | Skl 20% | Spd 50% | Lck 30% | WLv 70% | Def 10%]

Super squishy, of course, but her other stats seem fine. I can't harp on her low Str, either - Yuliya's won't really be any better, with a base of 2 and a 20% growth. Staffbot/10, basically, with the added benefit of exclusive Hammerne and Thief staff utility, which means that I'll have to field her a few times despite a request to the contrary.

On this map, she goes shopping for some basic weapons and ends up healing twice - Marth next turn and Cecille somewhere near the end of the fight. No reason to staff-grind if she's going to be (mostly) benched, anyway. Thief and Hammerne have no WLv requirements, so Malicisheia doesn't need need the levels.

__

Once somebody reaches the fort in the centre of the map, the Oguma cutscene plays:

: "Lord Ogma, I am deeply sorry for getting you involved in all of this. But, could you listen to one last request of mine?"
: "I was sent here by King Talys to help you. If there is anything I can do for you, please ask."
: "Is that so...? Then, I ask of you... Please send these children to Macedon. These children... Prince Jubelo and Princess Yuliya are the children of the late King Grust. I have always been protecting them in secret, but that is no longer possible. If they fell into General Lang's hands, I bet he would execute them without question. Please, take these children to Wendell at Macedon."
: "I understand... I will protecte these two with my life."
: "Truly? Thank you... Well, Prince Jubelo, Princess Yuliya, you will escape with Lord Ogma."

: "No! I won't go. If we must escape, Lorenz must come with us too."
: "Princess Yuliya... I am afraid I cannot leave. My body is in such agony that even walking pains me. So, please don't worry about me. You two must flee."
: "Why... Why must you say that...? Lorenz, you fought to protect us. That's why you suffered such a heavy wound. How can you tell us to leave you!? I will not go. I will not leave your side!!"
: "What should we do, General?"
: "Hmm... This is troublesome. Yuliya will undoubtedly stick to her word... I apologise, Lord Ogma. You may leave."
: "I understand... Then, I will find another way to help you. I will find Lang and kill him... I will use my blade to send him to his grave. If I succeed, perhaps the nearby enemies will retreat. General Lorenz, you must live to see that day. Don't get yourself killed!!"

Ogma out.
Not a big fan of the twins' names in this localisation, by the way. Looking at the wiki, their Japanese names do both start with the same syllable, which is a parallel these names remove for no real reason.

Riveting gameplay.

__

Luke cages himself in to set up a kill for Rody, but then Cecille can't push ahead because of the mountain... It's just a really annoying chokepoint and FE12 definitely did the right thing by removing the mountains.

Luke and Rody both got a handful of crits this map, which led to them getting far more XP than Cecille. Also some questionable survivability for Rody in this particular situation...

__

...but he got a nice dodge to make sure he's fine.

(wait, no, in retrospective, he would've survived this with 1 HP anyway)

Not much else to say. The thieves spawning from the cave (which doesn't have any treasure, according to FEWoD) aren't aggressive, so they function as a bit of XP pinatas. Unfortunately, Cecille doesn't manage to get a kill because of the +avo from the mountain tiles, which adds to her XP disadvantage.

Some dialogue from villages because why not:

: "The deceased King Grust had two children: Princess Yuliya and Prince Jubelo, twins of 13 to 14 years of age. The King was scared of Gharnef, so he sent the two to Khadein. I heard they were held as hostages and locked inside a dark room. When they were finally rescued by Wendell, they were on the brink of death. The bishop immediately took them to a monestary in Khadein to care for them."

Not the important bit about this story, but... I'll admit that Malicisheia's portrait really doesn't look younger than Yuliya or Jubelo's. That said, I always thought they were supposed to be younger than 13-14.

Rude.

: "Lord Marth! It's you... Although I knew the enemy's reinforcements had come, but I didn't expect it was you... It is a shame, that we must fight Altea... And fight against your highness..."
: "Please wait. I don't intent to fight with you. From the citizens I have discovered disturbing facts about the atrocities performed by the occupation army. I will inform Emperor Hardin about these facts. If I meet him, I will definitely be able to rescue Grust. So, please, put away your weapon."
: "Your highness... I appreciate your favour. But that is impossible. Your highness, you don't know a thing. You think that somebody like Hardin would send a heartless man like Lang here for no reason? He wanted to provoke us into rebelling, so that the Kingdom of Grust would be completely destroyed and become ruled by the Empire. That is the reason why he sent such a cold-blooded man here."
: "What? Why would he!? I cannot possibly believe that Hardin would do such a thing."
: "I didn't expect you to accept the truth so quickly. However, since he became Emperor he has completely changed. He is no longer the Hardin that your highness once knew. Anyway, I believe we're finished here... However, your highness, I have just one last request. In this fortress, Grust's royal princess and prince are hiding. Please save those children. If you can promise me that, I will have no regrets. Lord Marth... Let's just say that in exchange for my life, these children... I will hand them in your care..."

And then he fucking explodes.

: "General Lorenz!! How could you..."

Next turn, after seizing...

: "Waa... Lorenz... He's dead. What should we do?"
: "You fiends!! Don't come near us! Otherwise, we'll kill ourselves!!"
: "No! You've got it wrong..."

: "General Lang! Wait! Those children are innocent. Can you hand them to us?"
: "That isn't possible. Prisoners of war must be taken to my castle. I must also execute them as soon as possible, so that other people dare not defy us. Ah, your highness. You must head immediately to Macedon. The Macedonian army has rebelled, and its princess appears to have been captured by them. Emperor Hardin has ordered that you go and rescue Princess Minerva."
: "What? Macedon? I understand General. If it's to rescue Princess Minerva, I will gladly go. But, please hand those children to me. I beg of you, General Lang!"
: "Don't be stubborn, your highness! When I said no, I meant it. Well, you two, come over here!"
: "No, let go of me! Jubelo, help me!"
: "Yuliya... Yuliya..."
: "Wait, wait!! Lang! Release those children!"

(narrator voice) "Lang... did not release those children."

: "Your highness, please calm down! If we fight with Lang now, we will become traitors. On top of that, we currently don't have the strength to oppose Lang's army."
: "But, Jagen, can we really give those children to Lang? That I..."
: "Right now... No matter what, we must stay calm! If we go to Macedon... And succesfully [sic] rescue Princess Minerva, Macedon may be able to help us. Your highness, please stay calm for now. We must first go to Macedon!"

Phew! I'm not sure if I'll keep up transcribing the full dialogue. This chapter alone heavily contrasts the minimalistic script from FE1 that Book 1 didn't expand a lot, or at least not nearly to the volume of what Book 2's writing is shaping up to be.

I also have to mention that, as much as I love the FE11 localisation... It also really set itself up for failure, had FE12 been released to the west. Marth in these dialogues really would've needed to be rewritten entirely in order to be consistent with his FE11 persona.

It also puts Kris in perspective. I used to really dislike their dialogue with Elice in the prologue, where she basically tells the random knight-to-be that her brother is a little timid boy and not a hero, and I still think it's slightly out of place for her to do so... But really, Marth thus far is acting naive and honestly a bit undignified considering he was about to be crowned as Altea's new king, and it didn't need Kris to make him into that character. ...We still didn't need Elice to talk shit about her brother to a random knight-to-be, either, though.

Anyway, The Team:

	Lv. 	   HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res  +XP
Marth	3.74	   22   6   8   9   8   7   7   0  +74	(base)
Arran	3.00	   22   8   8  11   4  10  10   6  --	(base)
Luke	4.58	   22   7   6   7   5   6   7   0  +258
Rody	2.76	   21   6   5   7   5   6   6   0  +176

Cecille	3.74	   19   7   7   8   6   7   7   0  +74	(base)
DOGA	6.00	   22   8   4   4   2   6  11   0  --	(base)
Gordin	5.92	   21   7   7   6   5   7   8   0  +92	(base)
Ryan	1.25	   18   5   4   4   3   5   6   0  +25	(base)

Marisha	1.28	   16   1   1   4  12   5   1   5  +28	(base)

• Rody got Str/Spd on his first level, so that's a nice omen to use him over Cecille... Meanwhile, Luke didn't proc either in his first two levels.

Answers!

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Uh oh.

No worries, I'll just call them Shiida and DOGA and Nabarl from time to time out of principle.

I think I wouldn't get this far even within a full hour messing with a map editor to be honest.

But yeah, the map is less interesting than the FE1 version both visually and in gameplay, despite the large dead space in the left part of the FE1 version. Maybe the symmetry even works against it a bit - I'd expect the "city of illusion" a bit more screwy, with narrow alleyways, not this nice and orderly structure.

Yeah, BinBla Ch21 was one of the maps I was thinking about as a comparison, probably not to your surprise. Without the pathway and without the warp staff, with a lot more enemies than it has here, including some flyers... maybe the map could work. Even if it's just the one loop you'd have to go, if you don't care about Ohming, there could be more of an onslaught with enemies coming over the mountains which you couldn't just block like Chiki can with the one-tile path.

Hey, no need to be shy about making a character request. Look at Ruben shamelessly demanding a bazillion characters. Per game.

That is significant. You'd think that Chiki of all characters would change the least between books, considering that she basically doesn't age at all in the span of a few years.

Jotari🤝Ruben

Liking the very random boss of the penultimate map of a FE game

 

 

Ah! There she is! Malicia's grandmother, the only character in all of Archanea to wear glasses! (No Etzel, the monacle doesn't count). Shame New Mystery abandoned that design.

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Still, the new music IIRC is good here? Very dire and serious, it's more than Archanea deserves.

-And the point of FE comparison I would make, would be, to little surprise again, Binding Blade. To be precise, the Western Isles arc. "Protagonist is requested to go on a distant expedition by their superior. Turns out they're on the wrong side of the conflict. And then something terrible happens while the protagonist is away."

Cecille. Cecille is better. There is one reason why IMO, you'll find out soon enough. Not a huge reason, but it's something the power of the stars can't fix.

Or, use Rody, because his male youthfulness and brown hair vaguely remind me of Leif.

Did they really need to invent a Gordin Jr.?🤔 The kid looks too dang young, and a new archer wasn't necessary.

That'd require Silver Lance stabs or Rapier pokes given the 17 Def, probably not the best use of either weapon. Talking is so much faster.

I dunno. Those big glasses and her general appearance don't sit well with me. Feels like Kaga would've used this portrait for an old lady who does one of his infamous damseling situations in a later work of his.

Feeling choked up by the fun?😛

Anime ages are oftentimes just a suggestion, an idea. Go ahead and headcanon that they're six.😜

Can't let the old man be recruitable, or die of already-mentioned injuries, or worst of all be slain by Marth. Would've been better having Lorenz momentarily pass out at the end of the conversation, and then after Marth seizes, Lang has a faceless grunt put an iron sword through the captured Lorenz's liver.

Pureness of heart is needed for maidens to make dark dragon chow.😋

Pureness of heart is needed for males to make dark dragon chow.⚔️

You get what I mean?😀

No. Exploding Lorenz is much better. New Mystery is a 0/10 game for removing it.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Funnily enough, FE12 ommits this part, so Marth just seemingly commits war crimes.

The game might not mention it, but the enemies are still labelled as Ruffians instead of rebels. Personally I'd prefer it if Marth was killing good people out of ignorance than Lang basically having sorted out the rebellion already only for a bunch of bandits to sprout up out of nowhere just so Marth has something to kill. Either way though I don't think Marth killing righteous rebels could be considered a war crime. It's not like they're unarmed or noncombatants or something. They are enemies trying to kill him and overthrow a government even if they are morally superior.

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

FE has no such magic.

It was the first game with growable weapon ranks. And really, Bows are very bad to be stuck trying to get rank in in almost any game, owing to that near-total lack of enemy phase.

...Why on Jugchantia does Thracia have no recruitable Sniper?🤨 Dagda starts at E Bows, so does his daughter and the terrible blue boy, and so does the Playable Generic. Xavier and Selphina are the only ones above E, and Xavier is late and iffy. Where's Febail/Asaello when you want them?

Febail absolutely should have been playable in Thracia. I've complained about it before, but the flow of Genealogy's chapter puts Febail directly in your path and the game just ignores him. Plus if we really have to have the whole Briggid-Eyvel thing, let's actually do something with it and put her kids in the game!

5 hours ago, ping said:

They did destroy One house. Also, they gave 10000 bucks to Marth. I choose to believe that the latter is what ruined their economy.

It is possible the villains got up off their asses and actually attacked Talys while Marth was on the other side of the continent. Goodness knows the villains are passive enough, some off screen battles for them would go a long way.

 

 

[Emperor Hardin]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Ah! There she is! Malicia's grandmother, the only character in all of Archanea to wear glasses! (No Etzel, the monacle doesn't count). Shame New Mystery abandoned that design.

Female Kris can get a pair of theatre glasses after the Legion paralogue in the DS version.