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

[Saint Rubenio]

33 minutes ago, ping said:

I skimmed over the FE3 and FE12 scripts, trying to find a Matthis that wasn't being weird about his sister's "cuteness" or her dating life. I failed in that, but I suspect you're talking about the Matthis that is supportive towards a F!Kris dating his sister? I wouldn't follow that argument, though, since "being supportive" for Matthis translates into "creepily tries to hook up her sister without her consent, with somebody she has never met" still falls under Creepy Loser for me.

Yes, well. Maybe FE11 is just the best script in the series.

33 minutes ago, ping said:

Nevah!

If you can't handle the Matthis Slander, you don't deserve the Easy Pickings

Grrrrrr.

Meißen.

34 minutes ago, ping said:

Brave of you to assume that I won't aks FEWoD about those when it is time.

Heh... Fair enough. Can't hold it against you. I kinda wanna say tackle Thracia blind, though, just to see how many of its funnies take you by storm. FE4, though? FE4 is boring enough without missing all the secrets.

[BrightBow]

1 hour ago, ping said:

As compensation, we get another, even more overpowered Pegasus Knight. Palla's growths are, with the exception of a her Str, stricly worse than Catria's, but that's because she already has bases so high that I wouldn't be surprised if they're endgame-ready with an insta-promotion. A shitty Spd growth is a lot easier to reconcile with if you're only four points away from the cap, *Warren*.

A promotion wouldn't exactly matter for the endgame, because most of it is indoors. Pegasus Knights and Dragon Knights both turn into the same Knight class when dismounted.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Linde looks very modest in comparison, although her big Aura nuke is really strong at this point, despite all those promoted enemies flying around this early in the game already. But her base stats mostly just got a +1 increase, which isn't a lot considering that she's three levels above her FE1 self.

That is not meant as a complaint, though. Considering how much earlier she's joining in Book 2, Linde seems much more useful even with these modest gains. If anything, it's Palla who's just a tad unreasonable.

She also got Nosferatu now. It doesn't have the shaky accuracy it has in FE4, so she can pretty much cheese anything with it.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "You thought I was dead? Haha... Nevermind."

"What do you want, an explaination?"

I sure hope people not dying from getting killed does not become a trend in the series moving forward.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

"If you're going to visit it, be extra careful."

They stay put even if you kill them? That most certainly makes things easier. No need to lure them in after visiting the armory.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Another character three levels higher than before, with appropriately increased stats. Julian gained 2-3 stats in most stats, so maybe even a bit more than just "appropriate", the only stat that increased even more being his WLv, which went from 2 to 6. This puts him only one point away from Killing Edge and Wyrmslayer rank, so that's actually a pretty significant boost to his combat ability. So yeah, he seems pretty decent for that, too, although his thief utility means that he'll often have things to do other than gobbling up XP.

I suppose since they gave him a unique sprite set, they might as well give people a reason to use him in combat.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

__

Further progress... Luckily, Matthis is carrying a Javelin, so he's rather unlikely to kill himself on anybody.

I do usually just have Arran lure Matthis away while everyone else is busy fighting the Dragonknights in the East. That way everyone else can cross the bridge.
Matthis will actually stop charging once nobody is in range, so since Arran has more movement, he can simply disengage from Matthis once he is far enough away from the bridge.
It's not quite as smooth as I'd like, because of the village in the West. Although since it's only a Silver Axe, you could probably get by just fine without visiting it.
 

2 hours ago, ping said:

(let's not linger too long before either of them figures out that there ought to be some civilians in the castle who might have seen and recognised Misheil)

Well, not like it changes anything whether they know about him or not. He could be anywhere at this point.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

...I didn't know about any Iote's.

It's hidden near the castle. Happens a few times that there are specific tiles or a series of tiles containing treasure.
Sure hope that mechanic doesn't eventually come back in a Wii game or something. And not make it even worse by making it a luck based chance if characters will find it even if they are on the right tile.

Berwick Saga would eventually fix this by putting sparkles on tiles with treasure to find.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

These points about direct translations and interpretations are so interesting considering the ongoing conversation elsewhere

I offer my apologies for any part I may have played in that.

 

55 minutes ago, ping said:

Matthis *snip* Creepy Loser for me.

Just was reminded that I in case I haven't said it before, I wonder if Matthis was inspiration for Makalov? Cav big brothers that are pretty pathetic and share their little sis's hair color.

[ping]

42 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

You know, I was going to bring up Radiant Dawn, but I think I've gone a little heavy on #KagaDidItFirst.  But hashtags cannot lie.

Credit where it's due.

And considering how easy the pickings were during FE2, I don't think I'd have the right to complain about overused memes

20 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yes, well. Maybe FE11 is just the best script in the series.

I think at this point, we have to specify "the best English script".

20 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Heh... Fair enough. Can't hold it against you. I kinda wanna say tackle Thracia blind, though, just to see how many of its funnies take you by storm. FE4, though? FE4 is boring enough without missing all the secrets.

It wouldn't be exactly blind, I watched Dondon's playthrough years ago (holy shit, it's 7 years old at this point), plus the occasional spoiler one picks up when hanging out on a FE fan forum, but it's worth considering. I won't be caught by surprise by Thracia-fog, but I'm sure I'll scream angrily over it.

7 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

She also got Nosferatu now. It doesn't have the shaky accuracy it has in FE4, so she can pretty much cheese anything with it.

It's quite heavy, but otherwise, the stats look really good on it. Doesn't seem to be buyable, though, so one probably can't go full Awakening with it.

8 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

I sure hope people not dying from getting killed does not become a trend in the series moving forward.

#KagaDidItFirst, not always an endorsement.

9 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

They stay put even if you kill them? That most certainly makes things easier. No need to lure them in after visiting the armory.

Healing AI overrides it and I didn't wait and see what the Wyvern would've done after healing up to full, but yeah, Palla and Catria can just kill them one by one. If Palla sets up the kill for Catria, the latter doesn't even have to eat a counterattack, so it's not too hard on the Vulns/Heals/delay to heal on forts, either.

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Just was reminded that I in case I haven't said it before, I wonder if Matthis was inspiration for Makalov? Cav big brothers that are pretty pathetic and share their little sis's hair color.

Matthis does even become a bit more pink on the DS, so that might be a bit of an after-the-fact acknowledgement. Makalov manages to be an even shitter person, with Matthis at least having (presumably) good, if creepy, intents, but the basic premise is similar.

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I'll headcanon that... the coup generals stole it from Minerva and chucked in out a castle window, being too stupid to realize what it was.

It's on the exact same tile that Michalis rests on, so it seems more likely that he accidentally dropped it.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

These points about direct translations and interpretations are so interesting considering the ongoing conversation elsewhere

 

Elsewhere where?

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Boohoo FE12 is so bad, Kris stole Jagen's cool moment

Jagen actually still has his moment in New Mystery too. People just think Kris takes away from it by merely existing.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yes, well. Maybe FE11 is just the best script in the series.

Honestly, despite my many gripes with it not trying to retroactively bridge the gap with the sequel and refusal to have an arc for anyone but Marth, from a technical writing stand point, yeah, genuinely might have the best script in the series.

5 hours ago, ping said:

Not entirely a coincident

I skimmed over the FE3 and FE12 scripts, trying to find a Matthis that wasn't being weird about his sister's "cuteness" or her dating life. I failed in that, but I suspect you're talking about the Matthis that is supportive towards a F!Kris dating his sister? I wouldn't follow that argument, though, since "being supportive" for Matthis translates into "creepily tries to hook up her sister without her consent, with somebody she has never met" still falls under Creepy Loser for me.

Finding someone to hook his sister up while she's kidnapped, brainwashed and at risk of being eaten by a dragon! Speaking of which, it always sort of rubbed me the wrong way that Lena specifically was kidnapped. No not because of the rampant sexism, but because she's not a royal. I know we kind out she's a noble, but she still just sticks out to me in comparison to Nyna, Maria and Elice, all bonafide princesses and then that chick Marth found running away from bandits. I guess they really didn't have any other choice but to stick to her because Yuliya didn't exist amin Book 1 and it would kind of suck to invent her just for this purpose and Shiida isn't a cleric even if narratively she'd be the most dramatic kidnapping victim for Marth. The absence of Lena also leads to the weirdness that is Mallesia. As we still need someone to wield Hammere and an early game healer, so we end up with Lena's apprentice, who lives in Grust? Course, her Grandfather also lived in Grust in the original game too to hand over Hammerene. So her and Matthis must have a Grustian parent.

Edited January 5 by Jotari

[Interdimensional Observer]

22 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Elsewhere where?

The most forsaken topic here on SF, also the greatest. A place where angels unfallen dare not tread.

22 minutes ago, Jotari said:

So her and Matthis must have a Grustian parent.

https://serenesforest.net/general/designers-notes/mystery-of-the-emblem/mysteries-of-fe-akaneias-story/

Q7: What is Lena and Michalis’s relationship?

Comments: *sweats* Well, Lena was born into a powerful Medonian noble family. Her mother was a court bishop at the Grustian royal court. When Lena was 10 years old, her mother died, and Lena moved to live with her grandfather at Grust. There she met Camus, who she deeply respected and who shaped her life. Later, Lena was summoned to the Medonian royal court by her foster father. It was around this time that Michalis noticed her and decided to marry her, for her beauty and wisdom, and also to closen his ties with the elder nobility, such as on Lena’s foster father’s side.

[Jotari]

23 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The most forsaken topic here on SF, also the greatest. A place where angels unfallen dare not tread.

Serious Discussion?

[ping]

FE3 Book 2 Chapter 4: Joy and Sorrow

Spoiler

__

Small stat change from going back to grab Iote's Shield: +1 Str / -1 Def compared to the previous Marth.

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

I also forgot to show Matthis, who might be stronger in Book 2 than ever before. No, really. His growths are unchanged, with a damning 20% Spd in the middle, but he gained +2 HP/Def between books, making him the most bulky out of the unpromoted Cavs. ...at base, at least, since Rody and especially Luke have higher HP growths. And he's also an example why Lck, despite usually being an afterthought when talking about a character, does matter when it's *too* low. It's less of a problem for Warren, who shouldn't take as many counterattacks, but I'd be pleasantly surprised if Matthew never caused a reset because of an untimely crit.

 

Back to the regular broadcast!

...headed to visit bishop Wendell, who once protected the children. However, the bishop resides at Holm Beach, ruled by the dreaded Macedonian Vikings. In front of Marth's path countless pirates wait him. Can they really safely rescue the children...?"

: "Yuliya, Jubelo. This place is the territory of the dreaded Macedonian Vikings. Originally, I didn't want to come here, but we must cross through here to reach the bishop."
: "Ogma, I'm scared... I want to... go back..."
: "Jubelo! Be strong, you're a man!! Remember, you can use fire magic to attack with!"
: "But Mister Wendell told me not to use it to fight with... Not that I like to fight anyway..."
: "Honestly, you're still making excuses? Right now it's just the two of us. If you don't become strong, I... I don't know what to do..."
: "Oh... Yuliya... I will try my best... So please don't cry."
: "Crap... This is bad... We've been discovered. No choice, we'll have to break through them. You two, stay close to me!"

The map! It has a ton of dead space, but I still think it's fairly decent. The "desert" in the northern part will slow down your advance but not to an insufferable degree, since you only have to walk along its edge (just imagine how bad a map that's entirely desert would be - what kind of madman would design something like that?) and split-army scenarios tend to be interesting, especially when one of the groups would really appreciate some help.

What's a bit annoying, though more of my own fault, is Kashim's village behind Ogma and the twins. Since Hammerne can only be used on weapons and staves count as items, I don't want to spend Rescue uses when I don't really need to, so Marth has to walk a lot. South to get the Shaver tome, then all the way north to Kashim, and then back south to seize. But all of that is still significantly less annoying than the previous map. At least Marth doesn't need his entourage with him.

[HP 30% | Str 20% | Skl 30% | Spd 40% | Lck 40% | Wlv 60% | Def 10%]

Speaking of Rescue - it's Yumina's personal staff in this version of the game, which already disables some warp/talk/trade/rescue/talk again/rescue again/etc. possibilities for the final map. Shame that she doesn't start with any healing staves in her inventory.

Stat-wise, she doesn't seem to be too different from Malicisheia. Better bases, with +1 Str and more Spd to make sure nothing doubles her, but just as frail and with slightly worse growth distribution.

[HP 50% | Str 50% | Skl 30% | Spd 40% | Lck 40% | WLv 60% | Def 10%]

Kinda bad base stats, not terrible, but exacerbated by a lack of a personal tome like Linde and Merric have, and without Yuliya's excuse of being a staff bot, but his offensive growths are very good. Keep in mind that other magic users tend to have 10-20% Str growths, so 50% is pretty incredible. His Spd looks more suspect, but it's helped by Fire not having any weight. He seems a lot better than in FE12, once you get over the part where he can't reclass into Fighter/Warrior yet.

Ogma gained 2-3 points in every (non-Res) stat between books, so he shares the ol' "solidly better" category with many fellow returnees. His level was increased by 5, which one could argue makes the stats/lv ratio a bit worse, but that doesn't come with any XP gain reduction, that doesn't really matter at all. So yeah, he seems solid, just like in FE1 and FE3.

__

Now then, why didn't anybody tell me this? I've been complaining about not being able to see enemy ranges since the very beginning of Book 1, when all I needed to do was press any direction after selecting an enemy! I'm very tempted to rely on a Palla/Catria hard-carry just to spite two readers at minimum, if that's how we're doing this.

In this instance, the feature makes it easy to see that the two Pirates in the back aren't quite covering the four in the front, so it's not that difficult or dangerous to remove the four in the front directly on turn 1.

Fun Fact: The damage cap seems to be 99.

____

Silly XP optimisation: Because Linde procced Spd after chipping a Pirate with Aura, she now doubles with that tome, so Palla trades her to the weaker Thunder.

Naturally, she then crits on enemy phase anyway.

Back to the trio in the north, about to become a quartett..:

: "Who's there? Are you one of the pirates!?"
: "I am Sirius, a traveller..."
: "Is that so? I'm sorry. I overreacted a little, please accept my apologies."
: "Those children..."
: "Something happened, so I'm taking care of them now. You know them?"
: "No... But if you're carrying the children, you won't be able to escape. I heard, from a village to the south, that the Altean army has come. Leave this place to me, and make your escape."
: "What!? The Altean army...? So Prince Marth... I understand. Thanks. But, why are you helping me?"
: "I want to help those children. That's all..."
: "Really...? So you are Sirius... If we escape safely, I hope we can meet again. I plan on killing the ruler of Grust, Commander Lang. So I can avenge a man named Lorenz. You... If you could lend me your strength... With you, I believe I will be able to succeed."
: "Hmm... Perhaps it might be interesting... However, to do that you must live. Well, get going."

I was going to nag that from Camus's perspective, it would seem very plausible that Ogma is actually kidnapping the twins. But of course, he might also be able to see their attitude towards Ogma this isn't Camus, but a completely different character.

[HP 80% | Str 50% | Skl 50% | Spd 40% | Lck 30% | WLv 40% | Def 30%]

In his work Eine Schwierigkeit der Psychoanalyse (A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-Analysis), Sigmund Freud coined the concept of three Kränkungen der Menschheit (humiliations of humanity) that have shattered our collective naive narcissism:

1. The cosmological humiliation: Kopernikus's discovery that Earth isn't the center of the solar system, let alone universe
2. The biological humiliation: That mankind evolved within the animal kingdom, as discovered by Darwin
3. The psychological humiliation: That a significant part of our psyche takes place outside of our control and even knowledge - Freud's own discovery.

Later authors expanded this list, with Gerhard Vollmer landing on a whole ten, numbered 0-9 because he considers every child's realisation that it's part of the world in it, which obviously predates even Kopernikus. However, I will keep with Freud's three in order to draw a parallel to the three humiliations of Arran:

1. The Catrian humiliation: That the day of being outclassed might be fast approaching
2. The Pallan humiliation: That the day of being outclassed has already come
3. The Albertan humiliation: That he is outclassed even within his own profession as a Paladin.

Here, too, later works will add more, although I believe that only a fourth humiliation is widely accepted as fact by most: The Mayoonit humiliation, also known as Arran's Krisis of faith.

(Er, to tone it back a bit: I believe that in FE12, Sirius is generally considered to be very good, but not to a Sethian degree, as his personal bases aren't quite as good as those of a promoted (good) growth unit. Both there and here, is abysmal Lck base is a problem, too. In FE3, since caps are all 20s, he's probably even better, although unlike Seth, he has to compete with even more imba units.)

____

I didn't intend to prevent all the Pirates from attacking, but I don't think it's a big deal. Apart from the one that crosses over, none of them threaten the twins in any way.

And that one was intended, as Yubello cleanly two-rounds with Fire, or one-rounds with a crit.

Since this part of the will be isolated from the rest, I'll stay here and ignore the main group of a bit. Pictured here is some unnessecary caution, blocking the thief without entirely blocking the village, in case he'd go aggro if there's nothing to destroy. He doesn't, and I've seen that Thief behaviour on previous maps already.

__

Between Sirius and Ogma, the former is still tankier by a decent amount, so he goes ahead and murders a bunch of pirates while Ogma stands and watches. I didn't expect the second Hunter to attack from the bridge, since the +Avo from forest tiles is right there, but it's not a big difference. Only one of the Pirates would've been able to reach him, anyway.

And with that, the area is pretty much secured. Back to Marth.

: "Oh, aren't you the prince of Altea? I have heard a lot about you."
: "I heard bishop Wendell lived in this village."
: "Yes, that's right... However, yesterday, some uninvited visitors from Archanea came and took him away. Your highness, the bishop left behind a magic tome. It seems to be the type that controls wind... Please take it with you."

You'd think that the disappearance of His Holiness would've caused a bicker ruckus.

The Shaver tome has very similar stats to the basic Fire spell, except that it's effective vs. flyers (against whom it has 15 Mt) and has a 20% crit rate.

Honestly, there's nothing to really say about this theatre after the first turn. Forts are blocked in time to avoid reinforcements, and everybody is moving forward at the edge of the desert.

__

The one fort further to the east, right below the pop-up, I keep unblocked for the XP. Not like we're on a tight schedule with Marth making the entire trip on foot. The Vikings spawning here carry Hand Axes - technically a bit annoying because they get an extra attack in without getting chipped down, but hit rates and damage aren't much to worry about.

At some point, I also draw the remaining generic enemies from the south. Catria (carrying Iote's, ofc) two of them, Sirius a third.

__

During all of this, I try to pass around the Taurus, too, just out of principle, even though +5 in every growth isn't that huge. But, again, this map is pretty chill (some might say boring) after the first two or three turns.

____

Bosskill: Not very difficult to acquire.

One of the units farming the reinforcements was Julian - since he's also needed on the final map, he might as well go there with the stats to be useful outside of that one Talk. With the 20-caps, it's not like he' a bad combat unit, anyway.

: "Ah, Marth! Sniff... Well, my mother fell ill and I needed gold to pay for her medicine. However I couldn't find gold at Talys, so I came here."
: "Really...? That's terrible... I hope your mother gets better soon. Well, goodbye..."
: "..... Please wait! My mother's illness... Er... Gold..."
: "Huh? Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. Will this be enough?"
: "Sniff... Marth. Thank you so much. You are so kind, even to a guy like me."
: "Castor... What...? Aren't you being just a little over the top? Helping people in need is the natural thing to do."
: "No, Marth! You are my saviour. I also wish to help you, Marth. Please take me with you. I will lend my life to you!!"

Looking back on our previous discussions about Castor's career as a swindler, this seems to be a point where he has started it, but still has enough of a conscience to feel bad for swindling his friends. Well, either that or he's channeling his inner Soren and is fighting the urge to kiss Marth on the mouth right here and now.

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

The Barts to Warren's Saji. Better stats across the board, outside of slightly worse Skl.

As usual, higher level than in Book 1, with higher stats than an auto-leveled Kashim would have. He's a bit more likely to reach Parthia WLv (12) on his own, since he gained +2 WLv despite his low growth, but it's still far from guaranteed. But apart from that small Manual-dependency, he easily seems to be the strongest bow we can get.

__

Honestly, the rest of the map is just Marth walking southwards while people whack the reinforcing Pirates one by one. But people might be interested in these levels - Matthis's first, while Yubello got a worse one earlier.

And Ruben will much appreciate that Malicisheia is continuously standing in range of these Pirates. He'll be more conflicted to hear that it's all part of Yuliya's training regiment and Malicisheia is still standing at the end of the fight.

Seventeen turns. Eh, not that much shorter than ch.3, but far less annoying since most of the roster doesn't need to be moved at all after a while.

: "Marth!!"
: "Caeda!? What, even you've come here...? Could it be that something's happened to Altea?"
: "Marth... Altea... Altea was ambushed by the imperial army... After being ambushed by the Archanea, Gra and Aurelis united army, the Altean knights were decimated... Even the castle has fallen..."

(not really enough to be called a mistake, but "the united armies of Archanea, Gra and Aurelis" would sound better, imo)

: "Wh-what!? How could... Altea... Jagen, what's going on?
: "It is regrettable... What I feared the most has happened. Emperor hardin has listened to Lang's words and declared us traitors. Your highness, please forgive me. It is because of me that this has happened."
: "No, I still cannot believe it. That Hardin would attack our country. Did Hardin really believe Lang, and thought that we wished to rebel against him?"
: "No, even if that was the case, everything happened too fast. If they hadn't prepared in advance, they wouldn't have been able to attack us that quickly. The Grustian expedition was a trap they planned for us all along, as well as the rebellion in Macedon..."

(here, the block of text is five lines long, so the first has to make room for the last - not a problem for reading along, but since the patch is generally very good about avoiding this, I thought I'd mention it)

: "They wanted us to leave Altea, to divide our army's strength. Hardin had already decided upon this action from the beginning. What happened with Lang was just an excuse to attack our country."
: "No, that can't be right! So you're saying Hardin attacked our country for no reason? And everything was a trap that he set up for us? I don't believe it. I don't believe that Hardin would do that..."
: "Your highness, regardless, our country has been attacked by Archanea. Not only that, but we were ambushed without prior warning. That, to us knights, is the most dishonourable action one could take. In that case, we have no choice but to fight back with our full strength."
: "Damn, Hardin... Why... Why did you..."
: "Your highness... Caeda, what about the others? is Elice safe?"
: "Elice... She agreed to be their hostage, to allow me to escape... The others... I don't know... Abel and Est were still fighting the last time I saw them... Marth... I'm sorry. Only I escaped, but I had to so I could warn you.. So..."
: "Caeda... Don't cry. I understand. It's great that you're safe at least. I should be the one apologising. It was because of me that you experienced such terrible events... I will reclaim Altea. Even if I must fight Hardin to take it back!!"

I think I figured out who Kaga's favourite character must be - Elice. Think about it, she gets kidnapped twice, will be brainwashed the second time around, and it's practically all there is about her. I suppose Est gets captured twice, too, but without the brainwashing and it took her three games to get there.

Anyway, wimpy Marth makes a return here, but happily doesn't stick around for very long. Honestly, the brief shock at the betrayal, followed quickly by the resolution to do what is needed, even is quite in line with FE11!Marth.

Oh, and at this point I remembered that I didn't screenshot the boss's stats. 24 Atk is pretty strong, but the Lady Sword is kinda good.

Also, while I don't dislike the Generic Bandit Boss Recolour, I do appreciate Big Boy Guile in FE12 and his more memorable battle quote.

The Team:

	Lv. 	   HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res  +XP
Marth	6.61	   25   7   9  10  10   8   8   0  +10
Arran	*/5.36	   22   8   9  11   4  10  10   6  +10
Sirius	*/6.56	   27  13  10  15   1  14  11   6  +256
Luke	4.86	   22   7   6   7   5   6   7   0  --

Rody	4.61	   22   6   6   8   6   7   6   0  +32
Cecille	8.31	   20   9   7  13   9  11   7   0  +104
Matthis	5.11	   22   7   3   8   1   8   9   0  +79
Palla	11.57	   25  10  12  16   9  12   9   6  +42

Catria	9.00	   25   8  11  15   9  13  10   6  +62
DOGA	6.00	   22   8   4   4   2   6  11   0  --	(base)
Ogma	7.96	   25   8  14  14   5   9   8   0  +96	(base)
Julian	8.22	   22   9   8  16   8   7   7   0  +222

Gordin	7.17	   22   7   7   6   5   8   8   0  --
Ryan	1.42	   18   5   4   4   3   5   6   0  --	(base)
Warren	7.74	   26   9   7   7   2   7   4   0  +190
Castor	7.00	   24  10   7   8   4   8   6   0  --	(base)

Linde	5.46	   21   2   6   9   9   9   2   4  +52
Jubelo	3.26	   20   2   2   7   6   7   3   3  +226
Marisha	1.98	   16   1   1   4  12   5   1   5  --	(base)
Yuliya	3.04	   16   2   2   7  10   7   2   5  +104

 

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

59 minutes ago, ping said:

However, the bishop resides at Holm Beach, ruled by the dreaded Macedonian Vikings.

Indeed, worst hockey team in the AHL.

59 minutes ago, ping said:

Fun Fact: The damage cap seems to be 99.

Having fun the Lady'?😀

How banditry is a problem whatsoever in Archanea when that sword exists is beyond me. Make copies and society would be matriarchal overnight.

59 minutes ago, ping said:

But of course, this isn't Camus, but a completely different character.

Now what if I told you both of these men... were clones?😜

WARNING! LONG TEXT DUMP CONCERNING STUFF UNRELATED TO FE, THAT IS ONLY RELEVANT IF MY ASSUMPTION OF WHAT THE EARLY 1990s JAPANESE DEVS AT INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS WERE INSPIRED BY IS TRUE!

I'd like to introduce you to...

Spoiler

Char Aznable (younger self to the upper left), and his sunglasses-wearing alias Quattro Bajeena (lower left), from Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) and its sequel Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985).

This is no obscure figure. Japan loves Gundam, and Char was very much a reason for its initial popularity. The “Japanese Darth Vader” in a sense, a beloved villain from a sci-fi mega-franchise that began in the late 1970s (the Zeong even has a Vader-ish appearance).

Char Aznable begins Mobile Suit Gundam as the villainous rival to the hero Amuro, an elite pilot in the forces of the evil Principality of Zeon. Char usually piloted mobile suits painted in his signature red-with-black-accents color scheme, resulting his nickname “the Red Comet” (Amuro gets the nickname “White Comet”). Now, I haven’t watched any Gundam anime whatsoever, but I presume he went MIA when the first Gundam ended, defeated by Amuro.

During Zeta Gundam, Char changed his name to Quattro (Italian for “four”, because Char was actually his third name, IDK about the second, but the first is because he was born basically space-royalty before his father was murdered) Bajeena. And he joined the heroic Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG), to keep an eye on the events unfolding on Earth. As a leading member of AEUG, Quattro plays an important role in Zeta Gundam, piloting his gilded Hyaku Shiki. Besides the name, the sunglasses are the only thing Char does to hide his identity, which results in no shortage of obvious suspicion about who he is. Eventually, Quattro loses a battle against the villainess Haman and goes MIA.

IDK what Chattro was doing during ZZ (Double Zeta) Gundam, but then comes the finale to the "classic Universal Century Gundam quartet"- the movie Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack. Here, now the leader of Neo Zeon, Char resumes being Char (middle portrait in the above image) and commences his plan to drop a space colony built into a large asteroid (Axis, the capital of Zeon) on the Earth, rendering the planet so uninhabitable that the remaining one billion humans on Earth (if they survive, but they’re worthless either way), shall have no choice but to head into space. Only freed from the Earth’s gravity can humanity develop the psychic powers that shall allow us all to truly understand each other and leave things like war in the cold dead past. -Amuro disagrees with this however, and he tries stopping the colony drop. The old rivals Amuro and Char go MIA forevermore with this (the drop is averted, to clarify).

...

Gundam would later (all of these coming after Camus was born) create characters in new subseries physically resembling Char, of which I’m familiar with two.:

Zechs Marquise/Millardo Peacecraft in New Mobile Report Gundam Wing. The former his evil, rivalrous name in the anime, rival to the protagonist Heero. The latter his heroic unmasked name in the Endless Waltz movie sequel.

And, Rau Le Creuset in Gundam SEED. He turns out to be basically “Hahahahahaha! Let wretched humanity nuke itself to smithereens! All of it!”. And himself is somebody’s genetic clone.

Also, not Gundam but developed by the director of the original Mobile Suit Gundam:

The Baron Maximillian from Brain Powerd. (SPOILER ALERT!, the Baron is actually a baroness. A nice blonde-haired lady who desperately wanted to anonymously help the son who told her that she had never once shown him love, and deeply hated her for that.)

Outside of Gundam, Banpresto would eventually create their own Super Robot Wars parody of Char-

Elzam V. Branstein, later Ratsel Feinschmecker (yes that's German). He even uses a black-with-red-accents signature mecha color scheme, though I don’t think Char was ever a five-star chef.

...

Now, Camus isn’t many of the above things he’s worse, he’s a Camus. But, he is a blonde-haired man, an elite soldier, and a villain who “dies” and later becomes a hero with a thin disguise.

That’s enough to say he’s a Char Clone methinks. -Not like Archanea ever had very much dialogue and other stuff to truly develop its cast.

🤪

59 minutes ago, ping said:

In his work Eine Schwierigkeit der Psychoanalyse (A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-Analysis), Sigmund Freud coined the concept of three Kränkungen der Menschheit (humiliations of humanity) that have shattered our collective naive narcissism:

1. The cosmological humiliation: Kopernikus's discovery that Earth isn't the center of the solar system, let alone universe
2. The biological humiliation: That mankind evolved within the animal kingdom, as discovered by Darwin
3. The psychological humiliation: That a significant part of our psyche takes place outside of our control and even knowledge - Freud's own discovery.

Later authors expanded this list, with Gerhard Vollmer landing on a whole ten, numbered 0-9 because he considers every child's realisation that it's part of the world in it, which obviously predates even Kopernikus. However, I will keep with Freud's three in order to draw a parallel to the three humiliations of Arran:

1. The Catrian humiliation: That the day of being outclassed might be fast approaching
2. The Pallan humiliation: That the day of being outclassed has already come
3. The Albertan humiliation: That he is outclassed even within his own profession as a Paladin.

Thank you for this!😃🤓

Makes Freud sound a little more respectable, than just the man of Id-Ego-Superego, eggplant envy, and the Oedipus complex/daddy hate.

59 minutes ago, ping said:

I think I figured out who Kaga's favourite character must be - Elice. Think about it, she gets kidnapped twice, will be brainwashed the second time around, and it's practically all there is about her.

Can't be, she's a big sister, Kaga seems to prefer them little.

Edited January 5 by Interdimensional Observer

[ping]

12 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Now, Camus isn’t many of the above things he’s worse, he’s a Camus. But, he is a blonde-haired man, an elite soldier, and a villain who “dies” and later becomes a hero with a thin disguise.

A blonde-haired man with a fair share of black/red(/white) colour schemes in his artworks and ingame portraits. I can definitely imagine that he's very directly inspired by Darth Gundam. But of course, Fire Emblem has boatloads of inspirations and references that don't have any implications unless somebody really wants them to (I remember somebody making the argument that the names of their regal weapons imply that Eirika and Ephraim are in an incestuous relationship because  the OG Siegmund and Sieglinde were). But already on the first map of the first game you have Kain and Abel, who I'm pretty sure are neither brothers nor does Kain try to murder Abel at any point, so I personally just don't read anything into that sort of thing.

18 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Thank you for this!😃🤓

Makes Freud sound a little more respectable, than just the man of Id-Ego-Superego, eggplant envy, and the Oedipus complex/daddy hate.

It also makes him seem a bit more self-important, naming himself as one of only three men who caused these big, humanity-wide humiliations. (There's probably something to said about the eurocentrism, too. But if we keep that aspect of the list intact, we should be able to add "white folks aren't intrinsically 'better' in any way" as another entry)

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

18 minutes ago, ping said:

But already on the first map of the first game you have Kain and Abel, who I'm pretty sure are neither brothers nor does Kain try to murder Abel at any point, so I personally just don't read anything into that sort of thing.

Completely fair!😀

-I just find this kinda fun to joke about.😄 And consider, lightly (NOT as irrefutable Truth).

18 minutes ago, ping said:

It also makes him seem a bit more self-important, naming himself as one of only three men who caused these big, humanity-wide humiliations.  

I didn't notice that actually, this new knowledge in itself made me miss it.😆

18 minutes ago, ping said:

(There's probably something to said about the eurocentrism, too. But if we keep that aspect of the list intact, we should be able to add "white folks aren't intrinsically 'better' in any way" as another entry)

First we'd have to start with "Europe/Europe+North Africa+Southwest Asia" isn't the entire world". Then we add Greek "foreigner languages are just "bar-bar-bar" racism", not quite the same as the later kinds.

And, we should add another humiliation, that caused by the recognition that men aren't superior to women. And what of Christianity? Does the establishment of a One True Faith in the late Roman Empire create grounds for a later humiliation that could not have existed during the earlier pagan times of European society?

🤓

Ah, digression.😅

Edited January 5 by Interdimensional Observer

[BrightBow]

1 hour ago, ping said:

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

I also forgot to show Matthis, who might be stronger in Book 2 than ever before. No, really. His growths are unchanged, with a damning 20% Spd in the middle, but he gained +2 HP/Def between books, making him the most bulky out of the unpromoted Cavs. ...at base, at least, since Rody and especially Luke have higher HP growths. And he's also an example why Lck, despite usually being an afterthought when talking about a character, does matter when it's *too* low. It's less of a problem for Warren, who shouldn't take as many counterattacks, but I'd be pleasantly surprised if Matthew never caused a reset because of an untimely crit.

He is no longer at 0 Luck too. How fortunate.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "Jubelo! Be strong, you're a man!! Remember, you can use fire magic to attack with!"
: "But Mister Wendell told me not to use it to fight with... Not that I like to fight anyway..."

No fighting, huh? I suppose that would explain why no one taught Yumina any offensive magic. She seems like she has some ideas for what one can do with fire.

I suppose Yumina would have been used as the 4th priestess if it wasn't for Ogma. Since Hardin only sold out Nyna after he learned that she had the Fire Emblem delivered to Marth. Without Nyna, they would have needed someone else.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

What's a bit annoying, though more of my own fault, is Kashim's village behind Ogma and the twins. Since Hammerne can only be used on weapons and staves count as items, I don't want to spend Rescue uses when I don't really need to, so Marth has to walk a lot. South to get the Shaver tome, then all the way north to Kashim, and then back south to seize. But all of that is still significantly less annoying than the previous map. At least Marth doesn't need his entourage with him.

5 uses seems strangely low, considering 2 of them are practically required to save certain allies. Getting Marth up there is still a pretty good use, I'd say.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

[HP 50% | Str 50% | Skl 30% | Spd 40% | Lck 40% | WLv 60% | Def 10%]

Kinda bad base stats, not terrible, but exacerbated by a lack of a personal tome like Linde and Merric have, and without Yuliya's excuse of being a staff bot, but his offensive growths are very good. Keep in mind that other magic users tend to have 10-20% Str growths, so 50% is pretty incredible. His Spd looks more suspect, but it's helped by Fire not having any weight. He seems a lot better than in FE12, once you get over the part where he can't reclass into Fighter/Warrior yet.

Yubello must have been someone else that the FE12 devs really had it out for. Sure, unlike Cecil he wasn't directly nerfed. But considering every other mage has a much higher magic stat there, him being left at a pitiful 1 magic seems like deliberate cruelty against him. Catria and Shiida start out with more magic than he does.
And they needed to give him a -2 magic base just to ensure that he would have only 1 magic as a mage.

Also here he can use his Yumina support to help out with his skill issue, which is not something he can do in FE12. Not to mention enemies being much faster in general and magic no longer ignoring terrain avoid.

 

Edited January 5 by BrightBow

[ping]

18 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

I suppose Yumina would have been used as the 4th priestess if it wasn't for Ogma. Since Hardin only sold out Nyna after he learned that she had the Fire Emblem delivered to Marth. Without Nyna, they would have needed someone else.

That's a good point. These events line up nicely.

From a narrative perspective, it would've been odd to come up with a new character just to be kidnapped, as @Jotari said earlier. Then again, didn't stop Kaga with Elice

22 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Yubello must have been someone else that the FE12 devs really had it out for. Sure, unlike Cecil he wasn't directly nerfed. But considering every other mage has a much higher magic stat there, him being left at a pitiful 1 magic seems like deliberate cruelty against him. Catria and Shiida start out with more magic than he does.
And they needed to give him a -2 magic base just to ensure that he would have only 1 magic as a mage.

They're just advertising his true destiny.

[Saint Rubenio]

23 hours ago, ping said:

Credit where it's due.

And considering how easy the pickings were during FE2, I don't think I'd have the right to complain about overused memes

Picking easies.

23 hours ago, ping said:

think at this point, we have to specify "the best English script".

That is better than the original.

20 hours ago, Jotari said:

Jagen actually still has his moment in New Mystery too. People just think Kris takes away from it by merely existing.

It's really funny. Kris briefly interjects, but their dialogue is tacked on. Jagen very much gets to keep his moment.

20 hours ago, Jotari said:

Honestly, despite my many gripes with it not trying to retroactively bridge the gap with the sequel and refusal to have an arc for anyone but Marth, from a technical writing stand point, yeah, genuinely might have the best script in the series.

You can really tell Treehouse didn't localize it.

3 hours ago, ping said:

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

I also forgot to show Matthis, who might be stronger in Book 2 than ever before. No, really. His growths are unchanged, with a damning 20% Spd in the middle, but he gained +2 HP/Def between books, making him the most bulky out of the unpromoted Cavs. ...at base, at least, since Rody and especially Luke have higher HP growths. And he's also an example why Lck, despite usually being an afterthought when talking about a character, does matter when it's *too* low. It's less of a problem for Warren, who shouldn't take as many counterattacks, but I'd be pleasantly surprised if Matthew never caused a reset because of an untimely crit

What a badass!

3 hours ago, ping said:

 

The map! It has a ton of dead space, but I still think it's fairly decent. The "desert" in the northern part will slow down your advance but not to an insufferable degree, since you only have to walk along its edge (just imagine how bad a map that's entirely desert would be - what kind of madman would design something like that?) and split-army scenarios tend to be interesting, especially when one of the groups would really appreciate some help.

I never stop to think about that odd sand peninsula to the north. Why is that there? It's totally useless.

3 hours ago, ping said:

[HP 50% | Str 50% | Skl 30% | Spd 40% | Lck 40% | WLv 60% | Def 10%]

Kinda bad base stats, not terrible, but exacerbated by a lack of a personal tome like Linde and Merric have, and without Yuliya's excuse of being a staff bot, but his offensive growths are very good. Keep in mind that other magic users tend to have 10-20% Str growths, so 50% is pretty incredible. His Spd looks more suspect, but it's helped by Fire not having any weight. He seems a lot better than in FE12, once you get over the part where he can't reclass into Fighter/Warrior

Yeah in FE3 he has... a use. 50% groeth and 20 caps work to his benefit. Unlike in 12 where he's the funny -2 magic base meme.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Now then, why didn't anybody tell me this? I've been complaining about not being able to see enemy ranges since the very beginning of Book 1, when all I needed to do was press any direction after selecting an enemy! I'm very tempted to rely on a Palla/Catria hard-carry just to spite two readers at minimum, if that's how we're doing this.

Why is this my fault? I have barely played this game! I didn't even know you had this issue!

3 hours ago, ping said:

which obviously predates even Kopernikus. However, I will keep with Freud's three in order to draw a parallel to the three humiliations of Arran:

1. The Catrian humiliation: That the day of being outclassed might be fast approaching
2. The Pallan humiliation: That the day of being outclassed has already come
3. The Albertan humiliation: That he is outclassed even within his own profession as a Paladin.

Here, too, later works will add more, although I believe that only a fourth humiliation is widely accepted as fact by most: The Mayoonit humiliation, also known as Arran's Krisis of faith.

He beats all of them by being the best character in Fire Emblem. Everyone knows if the character has cool text it trumps stats.

3 hours ago, ping said:

turns.

I like these silly Book 2 battle quotes where the enemy pretends to have a change of heart. This is not quite as silly as Lang's, but this is pretty silly.

Interesting that in FE12 (the fanslation at least) he says he was "just joking", whereas here he sedms to decide there's no point in trying to give in.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Matthis's first, while Yubello got a worse one earlier.

Speedtthis, Goodbello.

3 hours ago, ping said:

And Ruben will much appreciate that Malicisheia is continuously standing in range of these Pirates

I do, yes.

3 hours ago, ping said:

think I figured out who Kaga's favourite character must be - Elice. Think about it, she gets kidnapped twice, will be brainwashed the second time around, and it's practically all there is about her. I suppose Est gets captured twice, too, but without the brainwashing and it took her three games to get there.

Kaga bias: Not a thing you want.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Also, while I don't dislike the Generic Bandit Boss Recolour, I do appreciate Big Boy Guile in FE12 and his more memorable battle quote

Yeah, Guile in 12 is super unique.

2 hours ago, BrightBow said:

suppose Yumina would have been used as the 4th priestess if it wasn't for Ogma. Since Hardin only sold out Nyna after he learned that she had the Fire Emblem delivered to Marth. Without Nyna, they would have needed someone else.

Come to think of it, yeah, that was likely what would've become of her without the rescue. As for Yubello... Honestly? Death sounds like the only plausible answer, grim as it may be.

1 hour ago, ping said:

They're just advertising his true destiny.

Insert sig here.

 

Anyway @ping Your new pfp is peak

[ping]

29 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What a bad

I agree!

30 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Why is this my fault? I have barely played this game! I didn't even know you had this issue!

What, you're not even reading what I write?! That's it, Malicishea murders Medeus!

33 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Come to think of it, yeah, that was likely what would've become of her without the rescue. As for Yubello... Honestly? Death sounds like the only plausible answer, grim as it may be.

Yumina gets shipped off to Mediuth's dinner table, Yubello is rescued a few days later by Ogma. They join up with Marth again, this time not by running into them by chance because they both want to seek out Pope Man, but because they gained some level of insight into Mediuth's plan, or maybe they even saw Gharnef when Yumina was taken away, or somebody mentioned his name... In any case, they know something (but not everything, of course, this early in the game) about the Evil Plan and Ogma figures that Marth is the man for the job of thwarting it. Before running into Marth, Yubello realises that all of his fancy magics weren't able to save himself or his sister, so he throws the Fire tome into the trash and starts training as an axe fighter.

...oh jeez, I'm starting to write fanfiction.

42 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Anyway @ping Your new pfp is peak

Appreciated I like to keep the Engage hair - or cowl, in this case - theme running.

[BrightBow]

9 minutes ago, ping said:

What, you're not even reading what I write?! That's it, Malicishea murders Medeus!

The thing is, Book 2 Medeus cannot be attacked by magic at all.

Which is a bit surprising considering not even Mage Dragons use that effect in this game. They just have their 20 Res.

Edited January 5 by BrightBow

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, ping said:

I agree!

You're the bad, Ping.

1 hour ago, ping said:

What, you're not even reading what I write?! That's it, Malicishea murders Medeus!

Well, you know what? Back in my Berwick LP I had half the replier-base tell me that a chest gave me 100k denarii instead of 10k. They collectively misread the D for Denarii, ignored my multiple clarifications and kept coming in, even long after the update, to tell me I have 90k lying around I didn't know about.

What I'm getting at is, suffer.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Yumina gets shipped off to Mediuth's dinner table, Yubello is rescued a few days later by Ogma. They join up with Marth again, this time not by running into them by chance because they both want to seek out Pope Man, but because they gained some level of insight into Mediuth's plan, or maybe they even saw Gharnef when Yumina was taken away, or somebody mentioned his name... In any case, they know something (but not everything, of course, this early in the game) about the Evil Plan and Ogma figures that Marth is the man for the job of thwarting it. Before running into Marth, Yubello realises that all of his fancy magics weren't able to save himself or his sister, so he throws the Fire tome into the trash and starts training as an axe fighter.

...oh jeez, I'm starting to write fanfiction.

I was liking it until you managed to incorporate Axe Warlord Yubello into it.

Then I loved it. 10/10 peak kino

1 hour ago, ping said:

Appreciated I like to keep the Engage hair - or cowl, in this case - theme running.

Funniest one since Brightbow's Engagefied Webber.

[BrightBow]

5 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Funniest one since Brightbow's Engagefied Webber.

Admittedly Webber's face is the funniest thing in any possible context.

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, ping said:

Yumina gets shipped off to Mediuth's dinner table, Yubello is rescued a few days later by Ogma. They join up with Marth again, this time not by running into them by chance because they both want to seek out Pope Man, but because they gained some level of insight into Mediuth's plan, or maybe they even saw Gharnef when Yumina was taken away, or somebody mentioned his name... In any case, they know something (but not everything, of course, this early in the game) about the Evil Plan and Ogma figures that Marth is the man for the job of thwarting it. Before running into Marth, Yubello realises that all of his fancy magics weren't able to save himself or his sister, so he throws the Fire tome into the trash and starts training as an axe fighter.

Ditch Lena because of my royal bias, replace her with Yuminia, remove the oddness of introducing a character only to have her kidnapped by doubling down and focusing heavily on her twin brother, not the least misogynistic choice out there, but that ship kind of sailed when the blood sacrifice of maidens became a core part of the plot.

Course another way of integrating Yuminia would have been to just put the Grust Twins into Book 1, even as a cameo.

[ping]

FE3 Book 2 Chapter 5: Grust's Liberation

Spoiler

Hardin was once a companion in battle, and an irreplaceable friend. But why...? Why has he attacked Altea? What have I done wrong? Filled with lament Marth, before hurrying back to his homeland, was faced with his first challenge. Led by the corrupt General Lang, Grust's occupation army was based at Olbern Castle. Its nickname was the "Nest of Evil".

: "But Lord Jeorge's archers left to quell the rebellion. Can we win just by ourselves?"
: "What did you say!? Call Jeorge back this instant. While you're there, call that mercenary, Navarre, here. Anyway, I'll leave this to you, General Toras. I must leave to prepare the defences inside. You will stay here and guard to the death. You mustn't let them get close. Understood?"

This fight's map... has some good ideas. You have an imperfect pincer manoevre by the cavalry, which I think is a good thing in FE maps - if you're fast enough to smack the one group and then turn around to face the other, you easily pick that trap apart, but you're in trouble if you can't do that. However, here, the Cavs from the south can very easily be blocked in a one-tile chokepoint, making the whole set-up pretty pointless.

You also have a group of Wyverns lurking over the mountains, which can create a situation where you have to be careful engaging one group of enemies without getting overwhelmed by the flyer squad. But like in Ch.3, these Wyverns don't do that. The only thing they guard is the village in the top right; you can fight every single enemy on the map without stepping into their range. As a result, they just delay Marth a bit on his way to grab the Hammerne.

And then there's a couple bad ideas, too. 8 forest tiles and 3 mountain tiles if you want to move Marth from the village to the castle? Fuck off. The long, one-tile wide bridge? Annoying.

The map does look good, though, so that's nice.

[HP 50% | Str 20% | Skl 70% | Spd 90% | Lck 70% | WLv 80% | Def 20%]

In the battle preps, we get access to Caeda, who's... not terrible, I guess? She still has her overkill Spd generally excellent stats... with the exception of her Str and her Def. She has the same physical bulk at base as Cecille had in Ch.1, which is to say lackluster, and her Str is downright bad - the worst of all physical characters thus far, I think.

Now, she already had that Str issue in FE1 and Book 1, of course, but now in Book 2, her competition is stiffer. She isn't your only flyer until Minerva anymore, and I think that the Whitewings are just plain better than Sheeda, even if you didn't give them any levels until now. As a result, Sheeda is still OK - she reliably doubles with Lances, and we have a handful of Silvers - but very overshadowed by her peers.

And because I made sure that Julian starts the map in the most forward position, we immediately gain access to our secondary thief on turn 1:

: "Hey, Rickard! What are you doing here?"
: "Oh, big bro. It's been so long. Originally, I planned to earn money with you. But you had already stopped your ways. But, even if you found yourself a pretty cleric, it wasn't nice to just abandon me like that. Our love is just like that, huh?"
: "Hey! Shut up!! Don't spout nonsense like that, or other people will get the wrong impression. Anyway, you should quit your ways as well, and come with me."
: "Ha... I understand. Wherever you go, I'll follow you. Big bro Julian❤️ "

[HP 50% | Str 50% | Skl 20% | Spd 60% | Lck 40% | WLv 30% | Def 20%]

I mean, it's the same old story with Rickard. As a combat unit, he's wholly outclassed by Julian. It's even worse than in Book 1, since Julian gained more stats than Rickard (like +3 Str instead of +2). I might field him a bit more often because I want to use Julian as a fighter, but it'll always just be as a walking lockpick.

Well, here's one round of combat for him, against the most forward thief on the map.

And here's Siriüü suffering from his low Lck. Enemies on this map hit reasonably hard, so crits do hurt. Luckily, no enemy followed up on this until Yuliya found the time to heal him back up.

But... honestly, I already said most of what I think is worth saying about the map. Neat ideas, but not very interesting in execution.

: "Captain Jeorge. The commander ordered us to return to the castle immediately."
: "Lang...? I hate that guy. He treats the civilians like slaves. I'm not seriously going to work for a guy like him. Just ignore his order."
: "But, Captain Jeorge. If we do that, you will become a criminal. Captain!? Are you thinking of siding with Altea...?"
: "No, I couldn't do that... If I did that right now, my men would get into trouble. That's something that I must avoid at all costs."
: "Captain Jeorge..."

"That sounds very well thought out, if you didn't think of it before."

: "Alright, just tell everyone this. Tell them to stay where they are. However, if the enemy gets close begin the attack."

This dialogue plays at the start of the 2nd enemy phase. "Close" actually means pretty close here - the rectangle that you're not allowed to step into is much smaller than the range of the Sniper squad. However, this still means that you have to keep somebody ready to kill the Bishop behind them on the same turn Marth seizes, if you want to grab his Physic staff. Palla takes that job here - the Bishop moves around a little, and non-flyers could be thwarted by the forest tiles.

Village saved. And Knight's Crest gotten.

__

The three Ballisticians have one Arrowspade (the boss) and two Stonehoists. The former only has 7 Atk (19 vs. flyers), the latter do sting when they hit, but they don't do so very often.

____

Case in point.

Thank you, Matthis. I know you're doing your best.

__

Here, try taking the easiest boss kill in the entire series (including Idoun) instead.

As I said, the Wyverns can then be pulled, after everything else on the map has been done. Doing so towards the south is overall easier, since there's more room to manoevre. With two bow users and two Mages, we're getting more characters that can actually hit them hard, too, so it's not a problem to pull several of them at once.

Very impressive, Matthis.

: "Oh, Prince Marth. It's been a while. How is my granddaughter, Lena? What, she's not here? Really...? Then, does that mean this Hammerne staff is useless? At least, Lena's pupil, Marisha, should be able to use it... Well, please take it."

And yoink, because I'm not interested in walking Marth back to the south of the map for the next 10 turns...

...and yoink again.

I dunno. This map isn't painful to play, nor as boring as Ch.3, but it's low-key irritating. It's better in FE12, if I remember correctly, with the enemies being a bit smarter and (very importantly) that bloody rough terrain between village and castle removed, which brings us to a 60% ratio of maps that the remake significantly improves. Shaky, I think this is your cue to point and laugh at Echoes, is it not?

: "Your highness, we've finally subdued Grust. However, many enemies are hiding inside the castle. So we must be careful."
: "Hmm, I understand. Still... If we don't defeat Lang, the citizens of this country cannot be saved."
: "That's right. He must be defeated at all costs... Yet, we don't know what dastardly plans he has prepared for us. So, if we're fighting inside, we must be extremely careful!"

The Team:

	Lv. 	   HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res  +XP
Marth	6.93	   25   7   9  10  10   8   8   0  +32
Arran	*/5.76	   22   8   9  11   4  10  10   6  +40
Sirius	*/7.38	   27  13  11  15   2  14  11   6  +82
Matthis	7.32	   22   9   3   8   2  10   9   1  +221

Cecille	9.08	   21   9   8  14   9  11   8   0  +77
Palla	12.39	   26  10  13  16   9  12   9   6  +82
Catria	9.42	   25   8  11  15   9  13  10   6  +42
Caeda	4.50	   19   6   7  15  13   9   7   6  +50	(base)

Ogma	8.16	   26   8  14  15   5   9   9   0  +20
Julian	8.64	   22   9   8  16   8   7   7   0  +42
Rickard	3.09	   18   6   3   9   1   6   3   0  +9	(base)
Gordin	7.78	   22   7   7   6   5   8   8   0  +61

Warren	8.96	   26   9   8   7   2   7   4   0  +122
Linde	5.96	   21   2   6   9   9   9   2   4  +50
Jubelo	5.44	   21   4   3   7   8   8   3   3  +218
Yuliya	5.34	   17   2   4   7  12   8   2   5  +230

• Res on Matthis! Magekiller incoming! (also two Str procs)

From Doras, we grabbed the Gemini shard, which is very strong: [30% Str | -10% WLv| 20% Def]. Some characters already have all the WLv they'll ever need (Siriüü, Palla, Catria), so they can use it with literally no downside, and even for the others - 10% isn't that much of a penalty.

  

On 1/5/2024 at 11:38 PM, BrightBow said:

The thing is, Book 2 Medeus cannot be attacked by magic at all.

Which is a bit surprising considering not even Mage Dragons use that effect in this game. They just have their 20 Res.

Curses! Ruben can't keep getting away with this!

...by the way, Ruben, did you find anything to spend the 90k on eventually?

On 1/6/2024 at 3:38 AM, Jotari said:

Ditch Lena because of my royal bias, replace her with Yuminia, remove the oddness of introducing a character only to have her kidnapped by doubling down and focusing heavily on her twin brother, not the least misogynistic choice out there, but that ship kind of sailed when the blood sacrifice of maidens became a core part of the plot.

Really, another kidnapped and brainwashed girl would be but a drop in the ocean. And it wouldn't even be an additional one, since we'd replace Lena (...being un-brainwashed by Julian) with Yumina (...being un-brainwashed by Yubello).

[BrightBow]

19 minutes ago, ping said:

Well, here's one round of combat for him, against the most forward thief on the map.

Thieves don't even really have a unique color for the player side, huh? Seems identical besides being slightly more saturated.
 

19 minutes ago, ping said:

This dialogue plays at the start of the 2nd enemy phase. "Close" actually means pretty close here - the rectangle that you're not allowed to step into is much smaller than the range of the Sniper squad. However, this still means that you have to keep somebody ready to kill the Bishop behind them on the same turn Marth seizes, if you want to grab his Physic staff. Palla takes that job here - the Bishop moves around a little, and non-flyers could be thwarted by the forest tiles.

More specifically, he tries to stay out of attack range. Which means a pincer attack is very much required here. Which is difficult to do without knowing where that arbitrary line is drawn. Which is not great.

Since the box is so small, you can't even try to lure the Snipers away from the Bishop.

Come to think of it, maybe you can trick the AI by simply not having a weapon in your inventory.

Edited January 7 by BrightBow

[Saint Rubenio]

On 1/6/2024 at 12:53 AM, BrightBow said:

Admittedly Webber's face is the funniest thing in any possible context.

I don't know what the artist was smoking when they made this face but I fucking love it.

20 minutes ago, ping said:

: "Hey, Rickard! What are you doing here?"
: "Oh, big bro. It's been so long. Originally, I planned to earn money with you. But you had already stopped your ways. But, even if you found yourself a pretty cleric, it wasn't nice to just abandon me like that. Our love is just like that, huh?"
: "Hey! Shut up!! Don't spout nonsense like that, or other people will get the wrong impression. Anyway, you should quit your ways as well, and come with me."
: "Ha... I understand. Wherever you go, I'll follow you. Big bro Julian❤️ "

I do have to give Kaga credit for having such an overtly gay character this early on.

25 minutes ago, ping said:

Thank you, Matthis. I know you're doing your best.

__

Here, try taking the easiest boss kill in the entire series (including Idoun) instead.

Look at him kill the boss. I'm so proud of him.

26 minutes ago, ping said:

I dunno. This map isn't painful to play, nor as boring as Ch.3, but it's low-key irritating. It's better in FE12, if I remember correctly, with the enemies being a bit smarter and (very importantly) that bloody rough terrain between village and castle removed, which brings us to a 60% ratio of maps that the remake significantly improves. Shaky, I think this is your cue to point and laugh at Echoes, is it not?

I shall join him. Haha!

10 minutes ago, ping said:

Curses! Ruben can't keep getting away with this!

I'm just too good.

10 minutes ago, ping said:

...by the way, Ruben, did you find anything to spend the 90k on eventually?

You--!

How many times must I say it

IT'S A FUCKING D

[ping]

13 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

More specifically, he tries to stay out of attack range. Which means a pincer attack is very much required here. Which is difficult to do without knowing where that arbitrary line is drawn. Which is not great.

Since the box is so small, you can't even try to lure the Snipers away from the Bishop.

Huh, he didn't run away from Palla, who was sitting as close as possible (two left, one up from the Sniper to the left), even though nobody else was even remotely in the area. Must be some randomness or some other restriction on the movement.

6 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Look at him kill the boss. I'm so proud of him.

He's trying very hard. Always giving 110%.

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

IT'S A FUCKING D

Well, yeah, D as in "deka". I know how the metric system works.

[Jotari]

So is that north west town meant to be the same town as the Camus chapter in Book 1? If not, does that mean Lena's grandfather moved to a different town between the two books? Or was he just visiting relatives or something?

[Emperor Hardin]

On 1/3/2024 at 1:06 PM, ping said:

And here's the boss. He tanky. Since we don't have any magic users on our team at this point, the only characters that deal any meaningful damage to him are Gordin and Ryan (so there's a possible answer to the question why we needed smol Gordin). Arran, too, I guess, but he obviously wouldn't like to be ridersbaned. At least he can tango with the other two Wyverns reasonably well.

No mention of the fact that he actually moves?
That caught me offguard the first time I played and I lost some units to him!

On 1/3/2024 at 1:06 PM, ping said:

[HP 70% | Str 50% | Skl 50% | Spd 10% | Lck 20% | Wlv 20% | Def 20%]

Seeing Katua and Warren's growths side by side is kinda funny. Although hey, he beats her Str growth by 10%! Wow!

Of course, what ruins him is his abysmal Spd. He starts with 2 AS with an Iron Bow, i.e. literally incapable of doubling anything, and that is unlikely to ever change unless he gets some help, as he is tied with Arran and Nyna (lol) for the second-worst Spd growth. Out of all the requested characters, including Arran, he's easily the one most desperately waiting for the +Spd starshard (Libra, iirc?).

He can be good after a couple speed levels even if he's not high tier.

On 1/3/2024 at 1:06 PM, ping said:

Arran's the guy your girlfriend told you not to worry about.

Funny dialogue.

Also I'm very curious as to what translation patch this is?

On 1/3/2024 at 1:06 PM, ping said:

____

Anyway, this is Altean-Macedonian bowmanship at work. Gordin and Warren deal precisely enough damage to kill Rumel without any additional help.

Rumel/Lumel's brown green wyvern and bright green armor is a brilliant palette, I wonder why such a minor boss got such a unique palette yet his own boss is one of the only General bosses in the game to lack a unique palette?

On 1/4/2024 at 10:57 AM, ping said:

[HP 70% | Str 50% | Skl 80% | Spd 20% | Lck 10% | WLv 30% | Def 20%]

As compensation, we get another, even more overpowered Pegasus Knight. Palla's growths are, with the exception of a her Str, stricly worse than Catria's, but that's because she already has bases so high that I wouldn't be surprised if they're endgame-ready with an insta-promotion. A shitty Spd growth is a lot easier to reconcile with if you're only four points away from the cap, *Warren*.

Just to put it into perspective: Palla has +2 Str compared to Arran and DOGA, +2 Spd compared to Catria, and her physical bulk isn't even that much worse than DOGA's (+2 HP / -2 Def). Her WLv is high enough to use the Gradivüü at base, so the low-ish growth is literally inconsequential.

Palla and Catria break another game.

On 1/4/2024 at 10:57 AM, ping said:

__

In two turns, with throne healing in between, Linda chips down the boss to four XP...

Another odd thing about Lykke, whom I know is Ryuke, is not only does he not have a unique palette, he directly re-uses Merach's portrait with no changes whatsoever! 

Also he got an official artwork for some reason where he's pictured with an axe?

On 1/5/2024 at 10:04 AM, ping said:

__

Small stat change from going back to grab Iote's Shield: +1 Str / -1 Def compared to the previous Marth.

As if fliers needed to be more broken, you get this in chapter 2!

On 1/5/2024 at 10:04 AM, ping said:

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

I also forgot to show Matthis, who might be stronger in Book 2 than ever before. No, really. His growths are unchanged, with a damning 20% Spd in the middle, but he gained +2 HP/Def between books, making him the most bulky out of the unpromoted Cavs. ...at base, at least, since Rody and especially Luke have higher HP growths. And he's also an example why Lck, despite usually being an afterthought when talking about a character, does matter when it's *too* low. It's less of a problem for Warren, who shouldn't take as many counterattacks, but I'd be pleasantly surprised if Matthew never caused a reset because of an untimely crit.

I forgot to mention, @Saint Rubenio listen too, I hear its normal for older siblings to refer to their younger sibling, male or female, as kawaii in Japan. 

In english, it just comes off as creepy.

On 1/5/2024 at 10:04 AM, ping said:

Oh, and at this point I remembered that I didn't screenshot the boss's stats. 24 Atk is pretty strong, but the Lady Sword is kinda good.

Also, while I don't dislike the Generic Bandit Boss Recolour, I do appreciate Big Boy Guile in FE12 and his more memorable battle quote.

Funny thing about that, I was talking with someone that translated Japanese text and it turns out Guile's FE3 text is more accurate.

Even in FE12, Guile's Japanese dialogue is apparently still considering if he should surrender before deciding the Alteans wouldn't spare him and attacking!

14 hours ago, ping said:

__

Here, try taking the easiest boss kill in the entire series (including Idoun) instead.

I'm actually thinking of buffing Shooter/Ballistician base stats, Toras definitely needs a huge buff.

14 hours ago, ping said:

Really, another kidnapped and brainwashed girl would be but a drop in the ocean. And it wouldn't even be an additional one, since we'd replace Lena (...being un-brainwashed by Julian) with Yumina (...being un-brainwashed by Yubello).

Spoiler

I guess I should keep mum about the remake.