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

[BrightBow]

15 hours ago, ping said:

: "Ah, of course. You're the heir to Jungby. ...Will you be okay?"
: "Huh? Why, Lord Seliph, you're not saying you think I'm nervous about this, are you?"

Huh, so Faval being the heir of Ulir doesn't actually gain priority over any other obligation he might have been sattled with.

This is all quite new to me because the old patches didn't translate any of this stuff. This was no doubt quite a mess to entangle.
 

15 hours ago, ping said:

Consequently I'm not too surprised that some bugs remained here and there.
 

15 hours ago, ping said:

: "Chalphy... I understand, Oifey. You are right, of course. I won't be able to inherit its throne, which leaves you as the last bearer of the blood of Baldur who can claim it. I suppose there isn't much choice..."

The Ethlyn erasure never stops.
 

15 hours ago, ping said:

"I can't wait to have kids and then dump my family."
 

15 hours ago, ping said:

: "Settle down, Arthur. You're embarrassing me here. You already know exactly why I'm doing this... Don't you, Arthur?"

You're a douche?
 

15 hours ago, ping said:

: "I understand now... All my life, I've heard tales of how the dragonkin feared becoming entangled in the sorry affairs of mankind. But you were different... You guided us where your kin never would. So long as our world lives on, humanity will never forget your kindness..."

It is noteable that the Holsety tome just like Naga and Lopto bears the name of the god who created it, rather than having it's own name.

Probably not intentional that it's also completely overpowered, but I suppose it feels fitting enough that it is.

But if Levin is actually Holsety... well, I get the sense that Holsety is meant to be this free-spirited traveler kinda guy like Xane. But gen 2 Levin is very much the "get of my lawn" kinda guy.
I suppose I can see Levin growing this bitter after all he went through, but it feels strange to envision Holsety acting like that.
 

15 hours ago, ping said:

: "I did only my duty, Seliph. I am the wind, a wind fated to guide the beating light of life. And this very light shines on within the hearts of every last one of you."

Also I heard people say that violence was never my answer to anything, so I decided to prove them wrong personally.
 

15 hours ago, ping said:

God, even Sigurd and Deirdre are worse characters in gen2. It's been a thing with how Ares views Sigurd and Eldigan, but it's even more egregious here, how they literally become saints because... er, why exactly? Jamke's brothers were huge jerks, sure, but Sigurd arguably just swooped in, smashed the existing administration, and went on to more important castles to seize. While Deirdre... existed, I guess? I can buy that Verdanians might feel pride that Seliph, world saviour that he is, is half-Verdanian, but Deirdre honestly might be the least active character in all of gen1. She doesn't really do anything, things are done to her. The constant veneration of her seems rather unearned.

Exaggerating Deidre's role at least gives an excuse to not completely let Verdane fall to the wayside, I suppose.

A shame that Jamke isn't more likely to have heirs. But no Pursuit, a terrible skill stat, no ability to pass down weapons to anyone besides Lester, who really doesn't like being left without Pursuit... his situation is not great.
 

15 hours ago, ping said:

But to close the first generation, I have to go back to singing Kaga's praises again. The insanity, the fucking balls on the man, to just murder the entire cast (terms and conditions may apply) at the halfway-point of the game. It's been discussed when it happened in this playthrough, but it's a damn shame that the scene is "I am your father" levels of famous in the FE community, even for players that know nothing else about Genealogy, since that must be a hard-hitting scene for anybody running into it blindly.

And they explicitly did not go the route of using this for the sake of catharsis when killing those bad guys later in the game.
 

15 hours ago, ping said:

And that didn't even take into account that all this time, it wasn't Boomer Lewyn directing the liberation army, it was an Actual Deity Forseity, but...

It would be one thing if he was simply lending a helping hand, but he acts like he is the de-facto boss.
 

13 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Kaga comparing Julia to a sword lmao. Class act as always.

And yet it took him until Berwick Saga to turn women into actual inventory items.

Edited May 2 by BrightBow

[Jotari]

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

Or you could just. Y'know. Go back and reconquer Castle Thracia. It's not as though Seliph left anybody competent guarding it.

Obviously it was  Mustachio-Vendor-Sigurd guarding Castle Thracia.  The most competent of all of Seliph's allies. Or, idk, Xavier and Galzus being best bros.

How exactly did we get Mustachio-Vendor-Sigurd by the way? It's hilarious and I love it as a glitch, how can I replicate it. Lester needs to be unmarried did someone say?

 

Also, re:Deirdre being revered in Verdane. If we're being charitable, she was pretty instrumental in taking down Sandima with the silence staff. So if Sandima did have a reputation in Verdane that the public actually knew about, then that's something they can more or less attribute directly to Deirdre as doing a thing.

[ping]

14 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

*COUGH!*😝

You make good points, but unfortunately, you explicitly allowed me to, and I quote, disagree in every possible and some impossible ways.

I dunno, the Ike vs. Micaiah scenario is, in my opinion, RD's Big Thing (playable lord vs. playable lord - FE doesn't do that sort of thing otherwise), so I really find it disappointing that it's based on a plot device that I despise on every level. It takes the drama out of the conflict ("oh, we were just forced to fight"), it makes Naesala less interesting of a villain, it's an OP magic spell without any real presense (I could've accepted it more if the threat was, like, a magic nuke in Daein's capital) that somehow distinguishes based on nationality (I could've accepted it more if the threat was, like, a magic nuke in Daein's capital)...

So yeah. First half of RD good, second half bad. If you insist - RD has a total of 42 maps, if we count every tower map seperately, and the 22th map would be 3-5. One map before Micaiah makes her return, so that would be close enough.

10 hours ago, BrightBow said:

This is either a work in progress or the guy just really likes swords. Also nice D&D reference about demons and devils hating each other.

: "Oh, heirs to the courageous! Hear my ode to the crusaders of old."

(I never read that webcomic, but I do remember the meme. Welcome to Corneria.)

10 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Yet Celice still is the one who deals the finishing blow in one of the demo scenes.

With 30 Atk (i.e. 30 Str, five above his cap) and 38 Def. What a dirty cheater.

10 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Well, it does show Levin getting killed by Manfroy before being "resurrected" by Holsety. So it backs up the idea that Levin really did die at some point.

That isn't even the correct holy blood. What a dirty cheater

That is interesting. It doesn't answer the exact nature of gen 2 Lewyn - if he's resurrected "as himself" or, as I read it, as Forseti's avatar, though.

6 hours ago, Revier said:

Yet another victim of the Camus archetype. It washes your brain in bad ways, I swear.

Despite being in the same game as a genuinely pretty good example of the archetype in Eldigan. The difference in quality between the generations really is astonishing.

6 hours ago, Revier said:

I'm conflicted on the Deadlords. On one hand, these are finally enemies worthy of your overpowered holy weapons. On the other, their power is so overwhelming by necessity that they basically invalidate everyone who isn't Seliph, a holy sword wielder, Julia with Naga, or a healer. I don't see a good way to solve this, while later games chose to "fix" the situation by making holy weapons come extremely late and giving them ridiculously high weight, that just comes off as much less interesting, as it doesn't give much opportunity for them to feel relevant, and undermines the hype around them.

Maybe everyone just needs to be as strong as Seliph, lmao.

Honestly, I think they're fine, as far as gameplay goes. You do have a couple tools that can allow non-major-holy-blood plebs contribute - namely the Brave weapons (of which you likely have two with 50+ kills of) or Arvis's Silver Sword (with which Dermott would've had 80 crit...). And since you have so many holy weapon users that don't depend on any gen 1 character getting hitched, I think it's okay for the game to assume that you still have at least a few of them alive.

6 hours ago, Revier said:

One of the funniest things you can do with Naga is use it to completely annihilate the Arena. The mental image of random gladiatorial fighters getting smushed by a legendary holy dragon is just too ridiculous to not laugh at.

To be honest, it always presses my hoarder buttons to use the cheapest weapons feasible in any given situation. I did bring out the big guns for this last chapter more liberally, but iirc, I still had Leif beat the entire arena with an Iron Sword.

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

SMH, why didn't you just set a Shine Barrier on the space that Oifey (Ares?) is currently occupying? Git gud.

Having to replay the whole chapter? That's rough, buddy.

Honestly not that bad. Edda is easy enough to bum-rush, Dozel's forces are a bit of a joke (as long as you have people who can crit through Brian's defenses), and Hilda's Pavise Pals can be largely ignored, too. The map only becomes difficult once Ishtar and the pegasus trio come into play.

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

If we've learned anything, it's that Road Tiles are the best, and worst, part of Jugdral.

...not inaccurate. I tend to visualise enemy ranges by marking its "tip" in my head and go diagonally from there, which road tiles routinely messes up. But having your horsies move an entire screen worth of distance in a single turn is really satisfying and makes the huge maps far less bothersome.

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

Nihil stonks coming in clutch!

Interestingly, I always viewed Alec as better for Patty, because Pursuit. And Swords. But this is a considerable advantage for Faval. Maybe I neglected Briggid × Alec?

To reign in the stonks a little - "can deal more damage to Julius if you decide to not get Naga" is a very specific niche. You definitely get more out of Nihil on either Fee or some character that's more likely to fight a random boss with a relevant skill. ...although to be honest, only Dermott comes to mind as a variable kid who can be quite good for that.

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

...Actually, this ending is very similar to the way PoR handles it. With Ike seeing all his guests off.

Once again, with feeling: Kaga Did It First!

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

Thinking on it, Tinny will almost always inherit House Freege. Because Arthur is busy inheriting Silesse... or Velthomer... or Dozel... or Edda...

That's true. Taillte is the only mom with two magic users as children, so she's quite drawn to dads with magic Holy Blood.

Which is another little curiosity: All the magic dads have holy blood, and all of the dads with +Str blood (Sigurd, Quan, Eldigan) have predetermined marriages.

4 hours ago, BrightBow said:

The Ethlyn erasure never stops.

Leif would be higher up in the line of succession, wouldn't he? He's the grandson of the previous Duke (assuming that Sigurd never officially took the title), while Oifey is a more distant cousin. But I suppose wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that a foreign ruler can't inherit titles within Grannvale.

5 hours ago, BrightBow said:

It would be one thing if he was simply lending a helping hand, but he acts like he is the de-facto boss.

Exactly. The game makes a big deal out of Seliph being the leader of the young generation saving the world, but his real role is just to relay Lewyn/Forseti's plans to his men.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

How exactly did we get Mustachio-Vendor-Sigurd by the way? It's hilarious and I love it as a glitch, how can I replicate it. Lester needs to be unmarried did someone say?

I can only say that Lester was unmarried in this run. My uneducated guess is that the game doesn't check for the correct flag ("Lester is married to Patty, Fee, or Lene"), so it's played by mistake, and because there is no lover to insert into the scene, the game defaults to the name "Sigurd" and, for whatever reason, Vendor Guy's portrait.

It would be interesting whether the scene would play if Lester was married to Patty/Fee/Lene, and what would happen if he was married to Nanna/Larcei/Tinni (maybe both scenes would play?).

[Jotari]

8 minutes ago, ping said:

I can only say that Lester was unmarried in this run. My uneducated guess is that the game doesn't check for the correct flag ("Lester is married to Patty, Fee, or Lene"), so it's played by mistake, and because there is no lover to insert into the scene, the game defaults to the name "Sigurd" and, for whatever reason, Vendor Guy's portrait.

It would be interesting whether the scene would play if Lester was married to Patty/Fee/Lene, and what would happen if he was married to Nanna/Larcei/Tinni (maybe both scenes would play?).

Still, wouldn't Lester have a solo unmarried scene written? I know freaking Jeanne of all people does because it's the only way to actually discover in game that she's specifically Eve's (or Eva's or Alva's, which ever of them) daughter. But a scenario in which Jeanne both exists, lives and unmarried is extremely niche. All that being said, that there's a fuck up somewhere in the ending is hardly surprising. Like, genuinely, how many possible endings does Genealogy have? There are so many different variables between who is the child of whom and who is or isn't married to whom to inherit what, there must be at least thousands of different possible combinations of endings that are possible, some of which have probably never even been seen.

[ping]

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Still, wouldn't Lester have a solo unmarried scene written? I know freaking Jeanne of all people does because it's the only way to actually discover in game that she's specifically Eve's (or Eva's or Alva's, which ever of them) daughter. But a scenario in which Jeanne both exists, lives and unmarried is extremely niche. All that being said, that there's a fuck up somewhere in the ending is hardly surprising. Like, genuinely, how many possible endings does Genealogy have? There are so many different variables between who is the child of whom and who is or isn't married to whom to inherit what, there must be at least thousands of different possible combinations of endings that are possible, some of which have probably never even been seen.

Lester's unmarried scene is just the same, minus Vendor-Sigurd's interjection. It's more like Vendor-Sigurd taking one of the potential "married scenes" for Fee/Patty/Lene - for example, because my Fee married Arthur, she had a small generic role in his scene with Lewyn instead of...

Quote

If Fee is alive, has no lover, and does not inherit from father

Seliph: You're headed for Silesse, then, Fee?
Fee: Yep!
Seliph: Is Annand the pegasus in good health?
Fee: Only the best!
Seliph: And the lady herself, Fee?
Fee: Of course! Raring to go!
Seliph: Heh, that's our Fee.
Fee: Hang on, so if I weren't so cheery, then I wouldn't even be me anymore? Is that what you were trying to say, sir?
Seliph: Er... How did you guess?
Fee: Hmph, that's not very nice! Anyway... Bye, Lord Seliph! Take care of yourself!

One could genuinely say that a gen2 girl stops being a character if she marries, turning into a small footnote in her husband's epilogue. The only remedy is to inherit a title herself - which allowed Patty in my run to have her own scene instead of just adding...

Quote

If Lex's son's lover is Fee, Patty, or Lene

Lover: Lex's son, still chatting? C'mon, we should be hurrying!
Lex's son: Lover? What do you mean?
Lover: Nothing'll be a sadder sight than having to walk into Dozel while you're still here. C'mon, you'll thank me later!
Lex's son: Heh, I suppose you're right...

...to Ulster's scene.

[BrightBow]

24 minutes ago, ping said:

I dunno, the Ike vs. Micaiah scenario is, in my opinion, RD's Big Thing (playable lord vs. playable lord - FE doesn't do that sort of thing otherwise), so I really find it disappointing that it's based on a plot device that I despise on every level. It takes the drama out of the conflict ("oh, we were just forced to fight"), it makes Naesala less interesting of a villain, it's an OP magic spell without any real presense (I could've accepted it more if the threat was, like, a magic nuke in Daein's capital) that somehow distinguishes based on nationality (I could've accepted it more if the threat was, like, a magic nuke in Daein's capital)...

Oh yeah, that Naesala thing. Probably wouldn't improve Travant as a villain if Manfroy was just blackmailing him with a magic piece of paper.
 

24 minutes ago, ping said:

(I never read that webcomic, but I do remember the meme. Welcome to Corneria.)

Never read the whole thing, but enough of it for it being the closest point of reference I have to compare the cast of Awakening to.

Well, except the murder hobos of 8-bit theater above all else make each others lives miserable. So it's also a good example of how you can have a cast of psychopathic murders and make it work.

It also features Fomortiis as Chaos and Idoun as Muffin, who basically stands in as Tiamat of the original 4 fiends in Final Fantasy I.
 

24 minutes ago, ping said:

With 30 Atk (i.e. 30 Str, five above his cap) and 38 Def. What a dirty cheater.

That's totally legit. Strength capped at 25 + 5 from the Power Ring + 30 from the Tyrfing. That's 60.

38 res is just his cap of 18 with the +20 of the Tyrfing. So with a ring, he could actually go even higher.
 

24 minutes ago, ping said:

That isn't even the correct holy blood. What a dirty cheater

That is interesting. It doesn't answer the exact nature of gen 2 Lewyn - if he's resurrected "as himself" or, as I read it, as Forseti's avatar, though.

Yeah, the presence of the Valkyria staff most certainly shows that you aren't meant to take this too literally. It's no doubt just a side effect of trying to depict this in the engine.

Edited May 2 by BrightBow

[ping]

2 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

That's totally legit. Strength capped at 25 + 5 from the Power Ring + 30 from the Tyrfing. That's 60.

38 res is just his cap of 18 with the +20 of the Tyrfing. So with a ring, he could actually go even higher.

Shit, you're right. That'll teach me to doubt Kaga.

3 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Yeah, the presence of the Valkyria staff most certainly shows that you aren't meant to take this too literally. It's no doubt just a side effect of trying to depict this in the engine.

As much as I have been criticising Lewyn's role in gen 2, I do like how Kaga wants to keep his exact nature ambiguous. A little bit of mystery is nice to keep in a story.

[Saint Rubenio]

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

...I thought I remembered reading somewhere that Riev had influenced Lyon to experiment on Grado's Sacred Stone. Thus creating the Dark Stone, and reviving the Demon Lord.

Then again, maybe this was somebody fanficcing all over the fan wiki. It might've really just been an unhappy coincidence.

I don't believe it's ever implied, no. There's no sign of Riev in any of Knoll's flashbacks and he's only made general after the conquest of Renais. Riev also never gloated about having done anything substantial, which is a very Gharnef thing to do - on the contrary, he spends the lategame being angry at Rausten and giddy about Fomortiis's return. Even Fomortiis himself, after being revived in Ephraim route, talks about having influenced Lyon and Lyon doing the rest.

There's nothing hinting at Riev having a hand in any part of the debacle beyond simply helping out with the conquest of the Sacred Stone nations as another general. And of course, from a Doylist perspective, the story works way, way better if it's the result of Lyon's hubris and insecurity rather than "heh heh heh ugly old man doing ugly old man things." I like Riev than most but I probably wouldn't if he played more of a role. Let Lyon shine, he's the best villain in FE.

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

Just make Daein materially dependent on reparations from Begnion. For a year, it was offered freely by the Apostle. But following the Senate's palace coup, Lekain puts strings on it. Fight the Laguz Alliance, or your people starve. Neither war-shaken Crimea, nor the dispossessed Apostle, can provide the same resources. It's the same endpoint, but with less magical mumbo-jumbo.

Much more grounded, yes.

5 hours ago, BrightBow said:

And yet it took him until Berwick Saga to turn women into actual inventory items.

Pfft. I almost forgot he did that...

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, ping said:

I dunno, the Ike vs. Micaiah scenario is, in my opinion, RD's Big Thing

Really? Feels more like it's tacked on (not helped by the terrible narration when Part 2 concludes sounding like an actually-lame marketing ploy). Plus, Part 3 Ike Side is more an ensemble cast that happens to include him, than actually being about him, I would say. And in the scope of the entire game, the amount of time spent on IvM is pretty small.

Shifting perspectives/storylines, narrative ambition aplenty (I know, too much), that's more what define RD to me.

-But again, my FE bias is for Tellius.😆 Narratively/character-wise, my attachment to the franchise slowly began to die for newer games after that, which is my fault, not the games'.

1 hour ago, ping said:

That's true. Taillte is the only mom with two magic users as children, so she's quite drawn to dads with magic Holy Blood.

More like "dependent", methinks.

Like, it's Azelle, Lewyn, or bust with her (Claud has Mag, yet neither Forseti nor Pursuit and Arthur can't use staffs). Lex I guess for Vantage-Wrath is okay too. She's got no Pursuit, and her not-high Mag growth is I guess kept from not being too bad by the fact enemy Res is usually very low. I insist that Tailtiu by a landslide is the mother whose kids are the most liable to being ruined by a bad choice of father.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Leif would be higher up in the line of succession, wouldn't he? He's the grandson of the previous Duke (assuming that Sigurd never officially took the title), while Oifey is a more distant cousin. But I suppose wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that a foreign ruler can't inherit titles within Grannvale.

Seliph aside, the game seems opposed to personal unions in general. And even with Seliph, Belhalla is okay but he can't have Chalphy too? How dare Oifey get in the way of the God-King of Jugdral like this!

1 hour ago, ping said:

Exactly. The game makes a big deal out of Seliph being the leader of the young generation saving the world, but his real role is just to relay Lewyn/Forseti's plans to his men.

Holsety was younger and held a higher level of good will and sympathy for the humans compared to other dragons. If he had the chance, he would even reside at Jugdral and protect the humans there. However, he was convinced by Narga that it was silly to stay, so he had no choice but to return to Akaneia. Still, his passion and will was inherited strongly within the wind magic tome Holsety. For this reason, the humans who inherit the Holsety tome inherit Holsety’s will as well as his power.

From here on SF.

...Forseti doesn't seem very loving to humanity if you ask me. Maybe he's a "likes humanity in the mass, not so much the individual" kind of person. The kind of person you call to help stop the extermination/enslavement of your species, but not have brunch with.

[BrightBow]

2 hours ago, ping said:

Shit, you're right. That'll teach me to doubt Kaga.

The numbers don't always make sense in those scenes. Like with Alvis vs Sigurd. We see Sigurd wielding the Tyrfing but only having 10 Res. With the Tyrfing alone giving 20 Res, this is obviously not possible.
Meanwhile Alvis has no values listed at all. But maybe patch shenanigans have something to do with that.

Also it's kinda funny how Alvis of all people is depicted with a generic Sage palette. So he ends up with washed out green hair and blue spandex.

Edited May 2 by BrightBow

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, ping said:

Leif would be higher up in the line of succession, wouldn't he? He's the grandson of the previous Duke (assuming that Sigurd never officially took the title), while Oifey is a more distant cousin. But I suppose wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that a foreign ruler can't inherit titles within Grannvale.

Yeah but Leif's Chalphy genes had to pass through an icky woman. While Oifey potentially has grade A Chalphy Y Chromosome if his dad was Byron's younger brother or something.

[Revier]

This entire debate on royal genetics is quite hilarious, it almost looks like we're arguing for the succession of actual lords with actual power LOL.

[Saint Rubenio]

I say we give Jugdral to Hannibal.

[Revier]

I'd be down for that, lmao.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

More like "dependent", methinks.

Like, it's Azelle, Lewyn, or bust with her (Claud has Mag, yet neither Forseti nor Pursuit and Arthur can't use staffs). Lex I guess for Vantage-Wrath is okay too. She's got no Pursuit, and her not-high Mag growth is I guess kept from not being too bad by the fact enemy Res is usually very low. I insist that Tailtiu by a landslide is the mother whose kids are the most liable to being ruined by a bad choice of father.

I actually did Tailtiu x Finn once. Pursuit on the kids was great, of course. But Miracle was excellent. It has great synergy with Wrath, enabling her kids to not just dodge every hit at low HP, but return with a crit. And even if they aren't one-shotting, they get a follow-up crit as well.

Now, do I recommend this pairing? Not at all! You have to rush Finn up in chapter 3, as they have very little overlap. Finn can't pass down any tomes, and he loses his Lances going into Gen II. So even though it's fun, it's far from optimal.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

There's nothing hinting at Riev having a hand in any part of the debacle beyond simply helping out with the conquest of the Sacred Stone nations as another general. And of course, from a Doylist perspective, the story works way, way better if it's the result of Lyon's hubris and insecurity rather than "heh heh heh ugly old man doing ugly old man things." I like Riev than most but I probably wouldn't if he played more of a role. Let Lyon shine, he's the best villain in FE.

I hope you're right. There's enough of the "dark masterminds" already in the series. Still kinda bugged by his survival in chapter 19, even if he gets killed in battle.

7 hours ago, ping said:

Which is another little curiosity: All the magic dads have holy blood, and all of the dads with +Str blood (Sigurd, Quan, Eldigan) have predetermined marriages.

Interesting note. For some reason, I tend to think Neir blood gives Strength. But I'm pretty sure it's actually just HP and Defense. Lex's high Strength comes from his own merits.

7 hours ago, ping said:

To reign in the stonks a little - "can deal more damage to Julius if you decide to not get Naga" is a very specific niche. You definitely get more out of Nihil on either Fee or some character that's more likely to fight a random boss with a relevant skill. ...although to be honest, only Dermott comes to mind as a variable kid who can be quite good for that.

Finally, vindication for Alec > Beowulf as Lachesis's partner.

The final chapter, I find, is definitely notable for actually having a decent bunch of enemies with skills. Such as "Random Hero with Critical and Sol". So Nihil, which sits there in the background for most of the game, finally comes in clutch.

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

Obviously it was  Mustachio-Vendor-Sigurd guarding Castle Thracia.  The most competent of all of Seliph's allies. Or, idk, Xavier and Galzus being best bros.

See, that's where Arion and his troops had been this whole time. They were flying around the continent, with Galzus in a perpetual pursuit.

Xavier, meanwhile... wait, wouldn't it make sense for him to guard Leonster? As that's where he's from? I assume that Leif would want to make extra sure to leave Leonster, of all places, with someone competent he can trust.

7 hours ago, BrightBow said:

38 res is just his cap of 18 with the +20 of the Tyrfing. So with a ring, he could actually go even higher.

: "Can we get much higher?"
: "So high-ee-igh!"

[ping]

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Really? Feels more like it's tacked on (not helped by the terrible narration when Part 2 concludes sounding like an actually-lame marketing ploy). Plus, Part 3 Ike Side is more an ensemble cast that happens to include him, than actually being about him, I would say. And in the scope of the entire game, the amount of time spent on IvM is pretty small.

In terms of volume, I would agree. But the confrontation with Ike is the Dawn Brigade's endgame - or maybe rather postgame, since it happens after their grand triumph. A second climax, if you will: 3-13 is the last map where they're playable as the DB, and then in 3-E, the last map where the GMs are playable as the GMs, the DB is the last line of enemies that you have to face (or maybe not). Even though in theory, the conflict in Pt.3 is between Gallia and Begnion, with the GM and DB/Daein being drawn into the conflict on way or t'other - I found that the big battle between them is the Big (narrative) Thing that part 3 built towards, once the DB rejoins the story.

That said, I haven't played Radiant Dawn in a good while, and it's been an even better while since I last played it while actively following the story. Maybe my memory of it is deformed by my intense dislike of the Blood Pact as a plot device.

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

More like "dependent", methinks.

Like, it's Azelle, Lewyn, or bust with her (Claud has Mag, yet neither Forseti nor Pursuit and Arthur can't use staffs). Lex I guess for Vantage-Wrath is okay too. She's got no Pursuit, and her not-high Mag growth is I guess kept from not being too bad by the fact enemy Res is usually very low. I insist that Tailtiu by a landslide is the mother whose kids are the most liable to being ruined by a bad choice of father.

Hmm...

• Aideen: Lana will always work decently well as a staff bot, even with a non-magic dad. Lester, I'd say, will suffer from any dad that doesn't support his pew-pew skills in some way, since he doesn't have the greatest innate usefulness.
• Ayra: Ulster and Larcei seem like they'll always be at the very least OK at combat (and great in the arena), but never have great actual utility because of their lack of riding skills.
• Lachesis: No Pursuit hurts both her kids (especially Dermott, who doesn't have staff utility to fall back on). Any dad with Pursuit is automatically going to be good, though, including Azel, since he can enhance Dermott's normally pretty pathetic 1-2 range.
• Silvia: I mean, does it really matter? Lene is always Dancer/10, Coirpre is always a Lv.1 staff bot who comes way too late to have an impact.
• Erin: She passes Pursuit down herself; Fee can work both physically and magically (...with the Brave Lance salvaging her melee combat very well); Ced, while appreciating more magic, should be decently competent even if he doesn't get it.
• Bridget: Faval has Yewfelle, which lets him do very respectable chip damage even if the dad doesn't help him at all (source: my playthrough), but I do think he appreciates more reliablity (and my hypothesis is that Holyn is a very good dad for him just for the Skl)... but he also has a low ceiling of usefulness because he's an Archer. Patty I do think appreciates a dad that helps her get through her awkward unpromoted phase - Holyn for Brave Sword rank, or anybody with Pursuit.

Lachesis and Bridget seem like their kids will vary a fair bit depending on their fathers, too, but I think I agree that Taillte's kids are on a level even above that. Arthur and Tinni just don't have that much going on innately, apart from Wrath to brute-force the arena.

7 hours ago, BrightBow said:

The numbers don't always make sense in those scenes. Like with Alvis vs Sigurd. We see Sigurd wielding the Tyrfing but only having 10 Res. With the Tyrfing alone giving 20 Res, this is obviously not possible.
Meanwhile Alvis has no values listed at all. But maybe patch shenanigans have something to do with that.

Shit, you're right. That'll teach me to ever trust Kaga.

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

: "Can we get much higher?"
: "So high-ee-igh!"

: "I was gonna save the world, but then I got high
I was gonna promote to Pala too, but then I got high
Now I'm warming the bench, and I know why:
because I got high, because I got high, because I got hiiigh."

[ping]

FE5 Chapter 1: The Warrior of Fiana

Spoiler

...do I dare?

Somewhere in this thread, Saint Rubenio made the suggestion that I should play Thracia 776 blind - or at least as blind as I can, since I did watch dondon151's run of the game years ago when it came out, and didn't actively avoid any spoilers about the game at any point.

So, during this playthrough, I will avoid looking anything up on Serenesforest or the wiki. However, I'm not sure if it's to the benefit of the playlog if I'm ignorant about stuff like character recruitment or gaiden requirements (two things that I'd always recommend to new BinBla players even if they want to avoid spoilers), so I'm asking if I should accept help from readers for stuff like that or if y'all hate me and/or want me to hate this game "almost blind" is still a playable proposition.

I'll say that I remember two gaiden requirements: One almost immediately, which is very important to experience Thracia Fog early and to recruit the only available thief for the earlygame (thanks, Kaga), and whose requirement is to visit (or at least save from pirates) all houses in Ch.2. And the other one somewhere in the mid- or lategame, which is a jailbreak that you skip if you don't get a single character captured and carried off the map. I also know that there's a route split similar to BinBla's Western Isles, and that only one of the routes lets you recruit one of the worst characters in the game, but I don't remember any details except that I think the character in question is called Miranda...?

Everything else, no idea. Maybe something will come back when I see the map in question, but chances are that I'm going to miss plenty of gaidens and that I'm going to murder Xavier if I won't know about them beforehand.

As ages passed and the 12 Crusaders became the talk of legends, a great rebellion arose and spread throughout the Land of Jugdral.

While on the march through the Aed desert, Quan and Ethlyn are suddenly attacked by the Thracian army and killed far from their homeland.

Though grieving the loss of his kin, King Kalf of Leonster fights valiantly. Yet he, too, meets a bitter end, betrayed by his allies, the Connaught army.

The entire army of Thracia seizes upon this chance and assaults Castle Leonster.

As Leonster's army fights in the face of a merciless onslaught, one young knight, Finn, escapes with Prince Leif, Kalf's infant grandson.

As Leif gazes up at the castle, cradled in Finn's arms, can he even begin to understand the terrible sight that meets his eyes?

__

Barely escaping the burning of Castle Leonster with his life, the young Prince Leif was looked after by Finn, his knight and retainer. Together with Nanna, a young noblewoman under Finn's care, the trio fled pursuers sent by the conquerors of North Thracia: the Grannvale Empire, which lay to the west.

Yet Finn proved stronger than those who hunted them, and the three made their way to the cities of Ulster and Tahra, posing as common vagrants.

Fiana was an independent community with its own militia, the Fiana Freeblades, led by the swordswoman Eyvel. Eyvel welcomed Leif's group as if they were her own kin. Under her watchful eye, the deposed prince spent his childhood in Fiana, growing and maturing alongside youths of common birth.

Now, in the year 776 of the Grannvale calendar...

: "Why is such a simple task taking you so long? There is little doubt that the heir to House Leonster is hiding here. You've been too gentle with these villagers - give them ample motivation to talk."
: "We are of the same mind, milord - I've already ordered the men to do as much. Yet the townsfolk claim the prince isn't here. According to them, he left with the Freeblades to fend off a pirate raid on a nearby village."
: "Freeblade? What nonsense is that?"
: "They're the local militia, sire. As I understand it, this village was once home to a group of brigands - rather savage ones, at that. About a decade ago, they were routed by Eyvel, a wandering sellsword. She claimed the village as her own and founded the Freeblades to protect the region from future attacks. She's supposedly quite a wonder with a sword..."
: "Hmm... She may be a problem."
: "You have nothing to fear, milord: we've taken Eyvel's daughter captive. What's more, we also captured the daughter of Finn, the very knight guarding the prince's life. With the leverage we have over them, they'll have no choice but to surrender."
: "Hmph. I admit, you have your uses, Weismann. The women will accompany me back to Munster. You'll remain here and prepare for when these upstart rebels return. See that the young Leonster pup is put in chains befitting a stray mutt."
: "Your trust in me is well placed, sire. Men, bring the girls here!"

: "What's your name, lass?"
: "Hmph..."
: "Hah! A fighting spirit to match a pretty face. Now, let's have a look at the other one... Ah, you must be Finn's young ward. I hear your mother was royalty of House Nordian, is that right? You certainly don't lack for grace, despite living in this backwater hovel - holy blood doesn't run thin even in squalor, I see."
: "....."
: "What a pleasant surprise the two of you make for. Weismann, I'll be departing for Munster now. Don't disappoint me."
: "All shall be as you wish it, milord."

The gameplay hasn't even started yet, and we already have a villain pulling the "I have you now, my pretties" and "Ah, a spirited one" tropes. Wonderful.

: "What's that commotion in the village? Something's rotten here..."
: "I'll scout ahead, Commander. Hold here a moment.

: "Commander, Fiana is packed to the brim with Imperial troops! They... must have struck while we were away."
: "What? No way is the Empire gonna make a mess of our home! Commander, let's move in!"
: "Calm down, Osian. We'll get slaughtered if we just charge in blindly."
: "Yeah, Halvan, I'm sure the village will appreciate your patient attitude while everyone's being rounded up and jailed!"
: "Peace, Osian. Halvan is right. Seems we've finally been noticed by the Empire."

: "Finn, take him as far away from here as you can. Leave the soldiers to us."
: "No, commander! Nanna is still in the village! I won't leave without her!"
: "I'll get her back. Don't worry."
: "It's more than that, Commander... I won't run anymore. That's my decision to make."
: "...Finn, you wanna weigh in here? You going to let the Little Lord throw himself into harm's way like this?"
: "Lord Leif has seen the passing of 15 summers, by now. He's old enough to choose for himself - and as my liege, I will abide by his judgement."
: "Has it been that long already? Hmph, I suppose I let Little Leif come with us to fight off those pirates, myself... Guess I made up my own mind when I did that. If Finn's all right with it, so am I."
: "Then what's the hold-up? If we're done arguing, there's an invation happening over that ridge!"
: "All right, get ready to move in. But stay sharp: most foot-soldiers are just regular folk, forced into the Imperial Army against their will. If they surrender, just take their weapons and let them go. Are we clear?"
: "But we can still bloody them until they surrender, right? I mean, if we can't put up a good fight ourselves, we'll be the ones surrendering."
: "Knock 'em around if you have to, sure, but don't overdo it. That means you, Osian."
: "Hey, c'mon, gimme some credit, commander!"
: "OK, enough chatter! Let's give the Empire a battle worthy of our names as Freeblades!"

It's not really à propos of this dialogue, but I'm curious if the possibility of Finn recognising Eyvel as Bridget will ever come up. Because even if we accept that the two may not have interacted much, if at all, between Bridget joining in Orgahil and Quan leaving from Silesse - she also happens to look exactly the same as the girl whose rescue was the very first mission that Finn joined Sigurd on. He should, at the very least, suspect a connection.

(By the way - I'm grabbing the portraits from this page - so I learned that Leaf has a second, very slightly different portrait. I'd gauge the chances of me noticing if/when he uses it at any point at roughly 0.294%.)

Weapon Levels: Swords (C)
Skills: Adept (AS% chance to hit twice)

But storytime is over. Time for some cold, hard numbers. I'm using the Lil Manster translation patch with its default settings - this shows a few additional numbers (for example the progress towards then next weapon level, and I think the Follow-up Crit Multiplier, too) that are hidden in the base game, as well as who will deployed where once battle preps become a thing. Unit swapping will be disabled, though, although it's a possible game setting with the patch, too.

Anyway - Leif. From what I know, he's supposed to be better than he looks, which is good, because his base stats honestly make Roy look positively swole. He does have a very good personal weapon in the Light Brand - although it weighs him down to zero, and unlike Eyvel's Flame Sword, it doesn't strengthen its ranged attack with a +5 Mag bonus.

His Adept skill lost the +20% activation rate it had in Genealogy, so it's not really something to fish for in this game, even with some Spd procs under his belt. Critical simply doesn't exist as a skill anymore, which is just the continuation of Gen2's persistent Ethlyn Erasure, from whom Leif inherited that skill.

Weapon Levels: Swords (A)
Skills: Adept

Speaking of the Flame Sword...

Yeah, Eyvel seems pretty OP. Capped Spd, highest Str base on the team (although I'd expect that 9 Str won't be particularly good in the lategame). +2 Movement compared to the other footies, too.

I know that she gets stoned relatively early in the game, that she can come down much later, and that I'm likely to miss that because I really don't remember what you need to do for that. I think something about getting a specific magic staff, and moving somebody somewhere, but that doesn't seem like like enough information to actually succeed.

Adept is a class skill for Swordmasters, as it was in Genealogy, so Bridget wasn't actually gifted a new personal skill. She just picked it up when she forgot her supernatural talent for archery and started using swords instead.

Weapon Levels: Lances (B), Swords (D+30 - only when dismounted)
Skills: Miracle ((3x Lck)% chance to avoid fatal damage)

Look how they massacred his Miracle skill. Well, it could be worse - when Finn has his Brave Lance equipped, it's still a 45% chance, unlike in newer games where I believe it's always just Lck%, but it's just not something you can use in a calculated way, unlike in Genealogy (...even though I never really did any smart set-ups with it).

But already just for the Brave Lance, Finn seems pretty darn good, as long as he isn't forced to dismount. His stat line seems decent, but it's not a huge lead over the two Fighters that we also start with (this doubles as a comment on Leif's 4 Str / 5 Spd / 4 AS with Iron).

Weapon Levels: Axe (E+40)
Skills: Wrath (auto-crit on counterattacks - only the first attack if Osian doubles, if I recall)

I know that Osian's big Thing is that he's a 1-2 range crit machine. His skill makes it so on enemy phase, but he'll also get his personal throwing axe in one of the houses on this map, which carries +30 crit, i.e. +90% crit chance on a follow-up attack.

Weapon Levels: Axe (D+10)
Skills: Vantage (will always attack first)

And I believe Halvan is the boring one. Not the crit machine that Osian is, but certainly not as funny-bad as Marty, either. And while Osian can grab his personal axe on this map, Halvan can grab a Brave Axe... that Dagdar is by far the best user of. He does have an awesome FCM of x4 - but no personal crit weapon like Osian.^

And here's the map -  not too large to stitch together anymore. This first one isn't even two 2x2 full screens large. Nothing particularly strange about it, either, although I think enemies starting on top of visitable houses never happens in other FE games.

I correctly remembered that Osian's house is the one outside of the village fortifications, so that's where he's going right away.

__

He also proves my memory correct that Wrath doesn't affect follow-up attacks (he needed to miss three hits in a row for that. What dedication to science the man has!), but eventually kills the Soldier guarding the house...:

...there is four variants of this portrait with differently-coloured shirts. There is five for the generic "young village girl" portrait. I don't think I will bother.

: "We're risking life and limb to protect the village, and you're giving me a lecture? You've got a strange sense of gratitude, old man."
: "Not even the Empire knockin' down our front door can stop that fool mouth of yours, I see. Well, no point in draggin' this out. Here. This is what you came for, right?"
: "For once, you read my mind. When a fight breaks out, I just feel off without this axe at my side."
: "Which doesn't explain why you forget it at home half the damn time!"
: "Hey, I came here for the axe, not to get chewed out!"
: "If that's all you wanted, then get going! Go on, now! Don't keep the Commander waitin' on you!"
: "You don't need to tell me twice!"

And there you have it. Pretty over-statted throwing axe - a bit stronger than Iron (9 Mt), but more importantly, a lot more accurate (Iron has 65 hit) in addition to the crit.

Osian won't catch up to the main group, so that's why I just got his little trip out of the way. Now, back to the main stage - and no, lettign Leif chip an enemy on EP was not a smart move.

He genuinely has an even worse start than Roy on hard mode, who at least has weapon triangle on Ch.1 enemies and, starting in Ch.2, can double the Soldiers that he's at a disadvantage against. Well, Leif does have 2-range over Roy, of course, at least until you get the Light Brand in BinBla, too.

__

On turn 2, Finn starts with the capturing already. We'll see how much I'll actually do of this when the maps become tougher...

...but grabbing the two Vulneraries that are on this relatively easy map seems like a good idea.

__

On turn 3, we get some reinforcements:

: "Papa, the fighting's started already!"
: "Ain't no good way to go about this damned battle... Don't matter how good Eyvel is, there's only one of her an' over a dozen of them. We need to hurry."

He seems enthusiastic.

Weapon Levels: Axes (A), Bows (E)
Skills: Accost (add a round of combat if Dagdar's HP and AS are than the opponent's)

Dagdar seems... good. Just a big ol' ball of stats. Maybe a bit slow considering he's pre-promoted (same Spd as Osian), but as soon as he can grab an axe with more than 50 hit, he should be really good until he leaves the party. He seems similar to Oifey or BlaBla!Marcus in that I would assume that other characters will out-stat him when they promote, but who knows - maybe his stats are still endgame-ready. Since my Thracia experience comes from Dondon's run, I obviously don't have any idea how growth rates look in this game.

Weapon Levels: Bows (E+10)
Skills: --

His daughter seems... bad. Kaga did Rebecca first. Well, maybe - Rebecca has at least decent growths, which I don't know Tanya has. I do know that Thracia is considered to be unkind to bowlocked units, and I also know that another archer joining next map (iirc - could be later, though) who has +1 movement over her and a small chance to gain more via level-ups. She does at least seem to have excellent Spd, although I don't know how difficult it is to double enemies, generally speaking.

Weapon Levels: Axes (D+20)
Skills: --

Bord 2: Bord Harder (Electric Bordaloo).

...no, I tell a lie. Bord has a Skl stat. I think Marty combines his literal zeroes in Skl and Spd with bad growth rates, so he's very much the joke character of this game.

__

To be honest, despite the different prevalent enemy type, this map is still very firmly on "typical Ch.1 map" territory, so I don't have much of interest to say about it. Finn captures the other Vulnerary. I try to feed Leif some kills, although the most XP in this chapter is still gained by Halvan, since he can just fight opponents on his own.

Leaf does get a useful movement star, allowing him to grab two kills in one turn. Value!

__

But yeah. Progress is being made, but not at breakneck pace.

Dagdar suffers from Accost, severely.

__

And I'm very boring with the boss kill. I guess I could've tried to give it to Leif instead, but I'm not going to attempt to punch through +10 Def tiles unless it's absolutely unavoidable.

...which does remind me of another Gaiden requirement. On the map that Marty rejoins, you have to capture the boss, but you have to do so quickly because he'll find a dragon in his backpocket and become an uncapturable Wyvernknight. Anf if you don't do that, I think Dagdar and Tanya will be lost forever...?

: "D-Damn... You'll... live to regret this, all of you..."

So then, the other houses - some of them visited before the boss fight, but let's just put them all in a row...:

: "Weapons can be mighty expensive, can't they? Most folk here gotta make do by nicking supplies from Imperial troops. It's awfully risky, but if you can capture an enemy alive, you get to help yourself to their stuff. Matter of fact, I got the drop on an Imperial soldier myself. Heard 'im snoring from three houses away, so I took me a souvenir! ...Not that it'll do me much good, though. Probably better off in your hands, I reckon. And hey, if you don't need it, you can just hawk it for somethin' you do need."

[Iron Sword received]

: "Those Imperial dogs took Dame Mareeta and Lady Nanna - just snatched 'em right up like they was cattle! You're not gonna let 'em get away with that, are you? If you're fixin' to fight the Empire, take this with you. This here ring's enchanted with some spell or another. But don't just wear it on your finger like some common bauble! You gotta actually [Use] it for it to do any good!"

[Life Ring received]

To be honest, unless somebody has a very convincing argument otherwise, this has LEIF written on it in very large letters.

: "Y'all made it back! What a relief... But look, there's no Fiana Freeblades without Fiana, right? So don't just stop with them pirates - drive the Empire from our village, too! ...Not to imply that I ain't grateful, a' course. Take this with you. Use it if you get scraped up. We don't have much in the way of medicine, but it's the least we can do after everythin' the Commander's done fer us."

[Vulnerary received]

She didn't say, "Take this with you, and you'll be glad that you did". 0/10 translation. Next thing you'll tell me that there won't be any traps in America.

I did visit the three middle houses with Halvin, worried that other characters would "consume" his house without getting the Brave Axe. Just Marty in the top left house; the logic being that "Eh, still early-ish in the map".

: "An... axe? Where in the world did you get such a fine weapon?"
: "Darndest thing... I was walkin' past the lake up on the mountain, when this strange ol' crone just floated outta the water!"

That's not a very nice thing to call Queen Rahna, girl.

: "She gave it to me, then vanished, quick as you can blink! I been keepin' it for you, and takin' real good care of it. Now go put it to use, an' make me proud!"

...Pretty darn good. Slightly more accurate than Iron Axes, and slightly stronger than Steel, even without the Brave effect. And only a (D) requirement, too.

Finally, a conversation between Eyvel and Dagdar. I don't think there's a handy overview of the available talks like there was in Genealogy, so apologies in advance for most likely missing the majority of them.

: "Eyvel! Does me heart good to see you in one piece! Listen, ya have any idea why the Empire would come all the way out here? It have anything to do with... the boy?"
: "Yeah. The Little Lord, Leif, he's... He's not just some nobleman. He's the heir to House Leonster. I've been helping him hide from the Empire. I'm sorry... I shouldn't have kept it from you."
: "Mm. I figured as much. Well, no use worryin' about it now. Long as I get to cut down some of those Imperial dastards meself, we're even."

And I do take a peek at the store, but... Nah, not really anything I want to do right now. I only captured three enemies, so I don't have dozens of basic weapons to sell, either.

So, to the next chapter we go. As I said - pretty standard first map for a FE game, just with lances instead of axes. Maybe to drive home the point that Leif is in deep doodoo, so he doesn't even get a Verdane arc to weapon triangle all over his enemies.

Although, come to think of it - this *is* the first first map that takes place inside of a village, isn't it? The Akaneia maps tend to be more zoomed out (like FE1's first map being the entire island of Talys), not to mention Genealogy, and Gaiden's fights take place on open terrain, in dungeons, or at fortresses. So I suppose this only "standard FE fare" in hindsight.

: "Nanna! Mareeta! Where are you?! Please, answer me!"
: "Little Nan, Mareeta... Raydrik must've taken 'em."
: "What?! That means... they were taken to Munster, right?"
: "Yeah - as bargaining chips, in case Weismann couldn't finish the job. It's the sort of thing Raydrik would pull, all right."
: "God's breath... Commander, we have to give chase! The two of them are counting on us!"
: "Now look here, Little Leif-"
: "Commander, you yourself said I'm not a child anymore. Nanna and Mareeta were taken captive because of me - and I refuse to let anyone suffer in my place. I will never again let someone sacrifice their life in exchange for mine."
: "...I understand. We leave at dawn, then. I won't lie, Little Lord: this is gonna get rough. Get some rest while you can."

The Team:

	  Lv.	    HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Con  XP
Leif	  2.07	    23   4   0   3   6   7   3   5  +107
Finn	  7.55	    28   8   1   8  11   5   7   9  +55
Eyvel	  */12.52   28   9   4  18  20  10   7   8  +52
Osian	  1.67	    27   6   0   7   9   3   4  11  +67

Halvan	  3.23	    29   8   0   7   7   3   5  13  +123
Marty	  1.39	    32   9   0   0   0   6   6  15  +39
Dagdar	  */6.18    43  14   1  11   9   2  10  15  +18
Tanya	  1.45	    20   3   1   6  10   6   2   4  +45

• I believe T776 goes back to the classic "promote at Lv.10+, max Lv.20, promotion resets level", right?

 

[Saint Rubenio]

4 minutes ago, ping said:

...do I dare?

Somewhere in this thread, Saint Rubenio made the suggestion that I should play Thracia 776 blind - or at least as blind as I can, since I did watch dondon151's run of the game years ago when it came out, and didn't actively avoid any spoilers about the game at any point.

Did I?

Dang, I don't remember. What were my arguments?

4 minutes ago, ping said:

So, during this playthrough, I will avoid looking anything up on Serenesforest or the wiki. However, I'm not sure if it's to the benefit of the playlog if I'm ignorant about stuff like character recruitment or gaiden requirements (two things that I'd always recommend to new BinBla players even if they want to avoid spoilers), so I'm asking if I should accept help from readers for stuff like that or if y'all hate me and/or want me to hate this game "almost blind" is still a playable proposition.

Bluntly: The gaiden maps are some of the worst maps in the game. At the same time, there's some decidedly nice stuff in them. I couldn't really tell you what's the most "we hate you and want you to suffer" option, to help you get them or not.

...Ehh, I suppose we'll see.

5 minutes ago, ping said:

Everything else, no idea. Maybe something will come back when I see the map in question, but chances are that I'm going to miss plenty of gaidens and that I'm going to murder Xavier if I won't know about them beforehand.

I can help you with Xavier. That's something I'm willing to help with.

6 minutes ago, ping said:

The gameplay hasn't even started yet, and we already have a villain pulling the "I have you now, my pretties" and "Ah, a spirited one" tropes. Wonderful.

Shouzou Motherfucking Kaga.

6 minutes ago, ping said:

: "OK, enough chatter! Let's give the Empire a battle worthy of our names as Freeblades!"

It's not really à propos of this dialogue, but I'm curious if the possibility of Finn recognising Eyvel as Bridget will ever come up. Because even if we accept that the two may not have interacted much, if at all, between Bridget joining in Orgahil and Quan leaving from Silesse - she also happens to look exactly the same as the girl whose rescue was the very first mission that Finn joined Sigurd on. He should, at the very least, suspect a connection.

If he does recognize her, he's very, very slow on the uptake.

6 minutes ago, ping said:

(By the way - I'm grabbing the portraits from this page - so I learned that Leaf has a second, very slightly different portrait. I'd gauge the chances of me noticing if/when he uses it at any point at roughly 0.294%.)

Leif's the first in Kaga's proud tradition of lords with smiling/frowning portraits that are two or three pixels off of their regular portraits. Marth doesn't count because he's actually noticeable. It gets particularly ridiculous in Berwick Saga, where Reese's smile is not only almost impossible to discern, it also makes his portrait slightly blurrier.

8 minutes ago, ping said:

Anyway - Leif. From what I know, he's supposed to be better than he looks, which is good, because his base stats honestly make Roy look positively swole. He does have a very good personal weapon in the Light Brand - although it weighs him down to zero, and unlike Eyvel's Flame Sword, it doesn't strengthen its ranged attack with a +5 Mag bonus.

It is worth noting that, unlike Roy, Leif is facing a game with universal 20 caps. Relatively speaking, their bases are about equal. And Leif has a million advantages compared to Roy.

11 minutes ago, ping said:

He genuinely has an even worse start than Roy on hard mode, who at least has weapon triangle on Ch.1 enemies and, starting in Ch.2, can double the Soldiers that he's at a disadvantage against. Well, Leif does have 2-range over Roy, of course, at least until you get the Light Brand in BinBla, too.

This is true. The stats may be relatively about on par but Roy gets a ton of axe users to fight early on, whereas Leif gets to eat lances in his first chapter. The weapon triangle in this game is pretty weak but it's still a thing nonetheless.

12 minutes ago, ping said:

Weapon Levels: Axes (A), Bows (E)
Skills: Accost (add a round of combat if Dagdar's HP and AS are than the opponent's)

Dagdar seems... good. Just a big ol' ball of stats. Maybe a bit slow considering he's pre-promoted (same Spd as Osian), but as soon as he can grab an axe with more than 50 hit, he should be really good until he leaves the party. He seems similar to Oifey or BlaBla!Marcus in that I would assume that other characters will out-stat him when they promote, but who knows - maybe his stats are still endgame-ready. Since my Thracia experience comes from Dondon's run, I obviously don't have any idea how growth rates look in this game.

Endgame Ready Beard 1

Yeah, sure, low speed, but enemies in this game aren't super stat balls. Dagdar lasts the entire game - and with scrolls, it's not that difficult to make his stats better, if you feel so inclined. There's flashier options, but you can always rely on Dadgar.

12 minutes ago, ping said:

Weapon Levels: Bows (E+10)
Skills: --

His daughter seems... bad. Kaga did Rebecca first. Well, maybe - Rebecca has at least decent growths, which I don't know Tanya has. I do know that Thracia is considered to be unkind to bowlocked units, and I also know that another archer joining next map (iirc - could be later, though) who has +1 movement over her and a small chance to gain more via level-ups. She does at least seem to have excellent Spd, although I don't know how difficult it is to double enemies, generally speaking.

Yeaaaah it'd take another game for Kaga to begin my favorite of his stereotypes - the unbelievably badass, insanely good prepromoted female sniper that joins really early. I guess Bridget kinda counts but she's late.

In any case, instead we get meme archer. She's not as memeish as the next one - which can be argued isn't even a good thing lmao. I kinda like her though, so I've given her a couple chances.

14 minutes ago, ping said:

Weapon Levels: Axes (D+20)
Skills: --

Bord 2: Bord Harder (Electric Bordaloo).

...no, I tell a lie. Bord has a Skl stat. I think Marty combines his literal zeroes in Skl and Spd with bad growth rates, so he's very much the joke character of this game.

And then there's Mememan. Mememan is very funny. I wouldn't bother giving him many kills until you get a few scrolls, if you want to go down that route.

14 minutes ago, ping said:

And I'm very boring with the boss kill. I guess I could've tried to give it to Leif instead, but I'm not going to attempt to punch through +10 Def tiles unless it's absolutely unavoidable.

...which does remind me of another Gaiden requirement. On the map that Marty rejoins, you have to capture the boss, but you have to do so quickly because he'll find a dragon in his backpocket and become an uncapturable Wyvernknight. Anf if you don't do that, I think Dagdar and Tanya will be lost forever...?

It's very weird. Dagdar OR Tanya will rejoin, but only if one of them is dead. If you fail to get 8x with both alive, they are lost forever. Thanks, Kaga!

15 minutes ago, ping said:

To be honest, unless somebody has a very convincing argument otherwise, this has LEIF written on it in very large letters

The pro strat is to just give all these early rings to Leif, yes.

15 minutes ago, ping said:

: "Darndest thing... I was walkin' past the lake up on the mountain, when this strange ol' crone just floated outta the water!"

That's not a very nice thing to call Queen Rahna, girl.

I mean, keep in mind this is close to gen 2. Gal's gotten older, but she still takes her intercontinental swims. What a trooper.

16 minutes ago, ping said:

So, to the next chapter we go. As I said - pretty standard first map for a FE game, just with lances instead of axes. Maybe to drive home the point that Leif is in deep doodoo, so he doesn't even get a Verdane arc to weapon triangle all over his enemies.

Although, come to think of it - this *is* the first first map that takes place inside of a village, isn't it? The Akaneia maps tend to be more zoomed out (like FE1's first map being the entire island of Talys), not to mention Genealogy, and Gaiden's fights take place on open terrain, in dungeons, or at fortresses. So I suppose this only "standard FE fare" in hindsight.

Yep, there's a couple factors like that to set this map apart from its brethren.

...Not to worry, though. There's always next chapter.

17 minutes ago, ping said:

• I believe T776 goes back to the classic "promote at Lv.10+, max Lv.20, promotion resets level", right?

Ye.

[ping]

6 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Did I?

Dang, I don't remember. What were my arguments?

I think you did, when I was starting to tryhard my breeding schemes for Genealogy. But I don't know about any arguments, so I'm not even sure anymore that I'm not just hallucinating.

9 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I can help you with Xavier. That's something I'm willing to help with.

Beardmen must help fellow beardmen, eh?

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And then there's Mememan. Mememan is very funny. I wouldn't bother giving him many kills until you get a few scrolls, if you want to go down that route.

Dayni had requested a party with Marty, although he hasn't been around for a good while now. We'll see how things are when we find the Forseti and Odo scrolls.

12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's very weird. Dagdar OR Tanya will rejoin, but only if one of them is dead. If you fail to get 8x with both alive, they are lost forever. Thanks, Kaga!

Kaga's motives are inscrutable. Except when it comes to kidnapped and brainwashed girls. Those motives are disturbingly scrutable.

14 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I mean, keep in mind this is close to gen 2. Gal's gotten older, but she still takes her intercontinental swims. What a trooper.

She's also kinda dead, I believe, killed by the Empire. Although that information comes from Lewyn, so he might just not have bothered looking for her.

15 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yep, there's a couple factors like that to set this map apart from its brethren.

...Not to worry, though. There's always next chapter.

Ah, but those are Pirates, not Brigands. I think. Unless those aren't separate classes. I haven't really looked at the map yet.

[BrightBow]

4 hours ago, ping said:

: "OK, enough chatter! Let's give the Empire a battle worthy of our names as Freeblades!"

Urgh, why did the translators think some random local militia needed a fancy name? Idk, maybe this is a Heroes thing.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

And there you have it. Pretty over-statted throwing axe - a bit stronger than Iron (9 Mt), but more importantly, a lot more accurate (Iron has 65 hit) in addition to the crit.

And of course 30% crit with his base skill is enough for a 100% crit chance on follow up attacks.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

He genuinely has an even worse start than Roy on hard mode, who at least has weapon triangle on Ch.1 enemies and, starting in Ch.2, can double the Soldiers that he's at a disadvantage against. Well, Leif does have 2-range over Roy, of course, at least until you get the Light Brand in BinBla, too.

Yeah, but the weapon triangle is only +/-5 hit here. I can most certainly see how by the time of Tear Ring Saga, the mechanic was reduced to an optional rule in Versus Mode.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

: "Papa, the fighting's started already!"

The only good Tanya in C&C, even if she got Kaga'd at one point.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

His daughter seems... bad. Kaga did Rebecca first. Well, maybe - Rebecca has at least decent growths, which I don't know Tanya has. I do know that Thracia is considered to be unkind to bowlocked units, and I also know that another archer joining next map (iirc - could be later, though) who has +1 movement over her and a small chance to gain more via level-ups. She does at least seem to have excellent Spd, although I don't know how difficult it is to double enemies, generally speaking.

The low weapon rank is really the main problem here. Weapon rank goes up slow, so starting at the bottom with limited opportunities for enemy phase action is far from ideal.

Tanya's best perk is that she supports 2 excellent units in Dagdar and Othin. That +10 for Othin translates to +30% crit with PCC right there.

4 hours ago, ping said:

...no, I tell a lie. Bord has a Skl stat. I think Marty combines his literal zeroes in Skl and Spd with bad growth rates, so he's very much the joke character of this game.

Bold of you to assume that there are no other characters with 0 bases in important stats.

Anyway, Marty is... bad. But not as bad as he looks. Warrior class bases are amazing and he has good bulk. Which is nice because speed and skill shortcomings are much easier to address. Joke character he is not.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

And I'm very boring with the boss kill. I guess I could've tried to give it to Leif instead, but I'm not going to attempt to punch through +10 Def tiles unless it's absolutely unavoidable.

It's way easier than it sounds, because of PCC. Doubling attack power does wonders against a little 10 defense boost.
Of course magic works too.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

: "Weapons can be mighty expensive, can't they? Most folk here gotta make do by nicking supplies from Imperial troops. It's awfully risky, but if you can capture an enemy alive, you get to help yourself to their stuff. Matter of fact, I got the drop on an Imperial soldier myself. Heard 'im snoring from three houses away, so I took me a souvenir! ...Not that it'll do me much good, though. Probably better off in your hands, I reckon. And hey, if you don't need it, you can just hawk it for somethin' you do need."

On the subject of capture, it's probably good to point out that the Trading command has unlimited uses. So you are free to move item and bodies around as much as you like.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

To be honest, unless somebody has a very convincing argument otherwise, this has LEIF written on it in very large letters.

Leaf is good.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

: "Yeah. The Little Lord, Leif, he's... He's not just some nobleman. He's the heir to House Leonster. I've been helping him hide from the Empire. I'm sorry... I shouldn't have kept it from you."

The idea of Eyvel giving a cutesy nickname to the heir of Lenster is so out of character.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

: "Little Nan, Mareeta... Raydrik must've taken 'em."

Or the lady of Nordion for that matter. Urgh.

Anyway, speaking of...
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

You did see the Leadership stars on the 2nd stat page? The way they work her that for any star you have among your allies, you get +3% hit and avoid for everyone in your army. No 3 tile range or anything.
Finn and Eyvel have both 1 Leadership star, so that's a +6% boost for everyone simply by having them deployed.

Just keep in mind that not every red unit is necessarily part of the same "army". Or even among blue units, if the characters in question are still just guest units.
So you can't always tell who benefits from whose's stars simply by their color.

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, ping said:

(By the way - I'm grabbing the portraits from this page - so I learned that Leaf has a second, very slightly different portrait. I'd gauge the chances of me noticing if/when he uses it at any point at roughly 0.294%.)

I'm staring and staring at those two portraits and I'm really questioning if they're different at all. If I were on my laptop now then I would have overlayed them on paint.net by now. Are we sure the wiki hasn't just accidentally uploaded two Leif's?

5 hours ago, ping said:

Adept is a class skill for Swordmasters, as it was in Genealogy, so Bridget wasn't actually gifted a new personal skill

She has the best personal skill, which Lil Manster shows on the skill screen. Literal immortality! 

5 hours ago, ping said:

 

 

Oh look, it's Sigurd!

5 hours ago, ping said:

: "Darndest thing... I was walkin' past the lake up on the mountain, when this strange ol' crone just floated outta the water!"

I think a lot of these villager dialogues are not accurate to the original Japanese text by the way. The translator wanted to liven up generic villager dialogue with jokes and stuff, to... varying results.

6 hours ago, ping said:

Although, come to think of it - this *is* the first first map that takes place inside of a village, isn't it? The Akaneia maps tend to be more zoomed out (like FE1's first map being the entire island of Talys), not to mention Genealogy, and Gaiden's fights take place on open terrain, in dungeons, or at fortresses. So I suppose this only "standard FE fare" in hindsight.

First Gaiden map is just outside Ram Village. You can even go back inside the village boundary in the gameplay if you really need to use a healing tile.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's very weird. Dagdar OR Tanya will rejoin, but only if one of them is dead. If you fail to get 8x with both alive, they are lost forever. Thanks, Kaga!

I did not know that. So if one of them is dead you can't get the Gaiden, but the survivor just shows up along with everyone else?

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

The idea of Eyvel giving a cutesy nickname to the heir of Lenster is so out of character.

Yeah it kind of felt off for me too. I'm guessing her Little Leif and Little Nan stuff is an attempt for the translator to localize her saying Leif Chan (or possibly Kun) and Nanna Chan. But it doesn't quite sound natural, at least to me, in English given the context. Like, it's a pretty serious moment.

 

[BrightBow]

16 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I think a lot of these villager dialogues are not accurate to the original Japanese text by the way. The translator wanted to liven up generic villager dialogue with jokes and stuff, to... varying results.

Well, at least this one is likely correct. Considering the old translation said the same thing.

Patricia:
“It’s a nice axe, isn’t it? I got it from a strange old lady who came out of the lake in the mountain. But I can’t really use it, so take it.”

[Jotari]

42 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Well, at least this one is likely correct. Considering the old translation said the same thing.

Patricia:
“It’s a nice axe, isn’t it? I got it from a strange old lady who came out of the lake in the mountain. But I can’t really use it, so take it.”

When in doubt, Pegasus Knight.com

パトリシア]
あ、おにいちゃん！
いいものあげるよ
これ、役に立つんじゃないかな？▼

[ハルヴァン]
？
・・・このオノは？▼⇒

[パトリシア]
よさそーなオノでしょう？▼↓

この前、裏山を歩いてたとき
いずみの中から出てきた
ヘンなおばさんにもらったんだ▼↓

でも
わたしにはあんまり必要なさそうだし
おにいちゃん、使ってよ▼

Which according to my pheromonal powers of having an automated translator can tell, yes, this instance the translation is authentic. Kaga was the one to make the joke about axe lady throwing axes at people all over Jugdral. Not sure I like that myself, as I like thinking of axe lady as a Verdane centric local spirit rather than a transcontinental being. If she's just casually existing all over the continent then why isn't she helping out more to fight the Lopt Sect. We could do with a lot more Brave Axes lady >.>

[Revier]

6 hours ago, ping said:

The gameplay hasn't even started yet, and we already have a villain pulling the "I have you now, my pretties" and "Ah, a spirited one" tropes. Wonderful.

At least we got the Kagaisms out of the way early.

Though, it's kinda funny how villains in these games keep acting like creeps to their lady captives but then don't actually...rough them up, for one reason or the other.

6 hours ago, ping said:

What, a Fire Emblem villain actually making effective use of their hostages? Why, I never!

7 hours ago, ping said:

That's not a very nice thing to call Queen Rahna, girl.

More like Lady of the Lake, am I right? 😎

7 hours ago, ping said:

: "Mm. I figured as much. Well, no use worryin' about it now. Long as I get to cut down some of those Imperial dastards meself, we're even."

Dagdar sure lusts for some Evil Empire blood. A fine quality for a Goodly Rebel™️to have.

7 hours ago, ping said:

: "Commander, you yourself said I'm not a child anymore. Nanna and Mareeta were taken captive because of me - and I refuse to let anyone suffer in my place. I will never again let someone sacrifice their life in exchange for mine."

You know that sounds good and all but aren't you being a mite reckless? Finn and Eyvel didn't shelter you in vain.

Game so far feels like a pared down Genealogy, but I'll give it some time, after all this is the literal beginning of the game.

[BrightBow]

29 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Which according to my pheromonal powers of having an automated translator can tell, yes, this instance the translation is authentic. Kaga was the one to make the joke about axe lady throwing axes at people all over Jugdral. Not sure I like that myself, as I like thinking of axe lady as a Verdane centric local spirit rather than a transcontinental being. If she's just casually existing all over the continent then why isn't she helping out more to fight the Lopt Sect. We could do with a lot more Brave Axes lady >.>

It's probably a different lake lady. For one thing, she is described as "old" here. Though I suppose this is 15 years later.

But more importantly she also clearly operates differently, considering Patricia makes no mention of having dropped an iron axe or anything.

The one from Vestaria also looks entirely different from her. So there are probably just a lot of lake ladies around trying to get rid of the junk people are dropping into their home.