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

[Saint Rubenio]

48 minutes ago, gnip said:

The boss is a professional StarCraft II player from Ukraine - Александр "Bly" Свисюк, a Zerg player known for his aggressive (read: cheesy) playstyle.

They say this is his battle cry:

 

49 minutes ago, gnip said:

Balbo is literally Goku. He's the protagonist, and dying only means he goes on a training arc.

50 minutes ago, gnip said:

Atlas is now powerful enough for me to google "fire emblem gaiden stat caps". Apparently they're 40, so there's still some gains to be made.

Hahahahaha... What did I tell you? One-shot Dracoshield Jedah, here we come...

51 minutes ago, gnip said:

The group XP, which iirc is still a thing in Echoes. You only get this when you don't kill an enemy, usually 1-2 XP. I never paid attention to how exactly it's distributed after the fight, just assumed "evenly".

Ahhh, I always forget this is a thing.

51 minutes ago, gnip said:

Oh, I'm excellent at using Boey. He's just not being excellent at being used.

If he was called Boy in this patch, he'd be much better. Just like that loser Mycen, he barely exists and he sucks. He's got nothing on the perfect lifeform, Meißen.

[Punished Dayni]

7 minutes ago, gnip said:

Ah, I misremembered that. For some reason, Conrad was giving me massive "little brother" vibes.

He really does, the dork.

How he's used in the plot just sucks.

50 minutes ago, gnip said:

__

Also, official confirmation that the triangle attack can indeed still miss.

Ugh, it happens again.

I know I'm not quite at Shaky or Ruben's level, but right now, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

50 minutes ago, gnip said:

He's also wielding the Dark / Devil Sword - very strong (+13 Atk), but also heavy, inaccurate, and with the backfire rate we all know and love.

Except for DFs.

Because DFs OP

55 minutes ago, gnip said:

The group XP, which iirc is still a thing in Echoes. You only get this when you don't kill an enemy, usually 1-2 XP. I never paid attention to how exactly it's distributed after the fight, just assumed "evenly".

I keep forgetting that's how it is. I have no idea if this is the same in SoV.

[Shaky Jones]

10 hours ago, gnip said:

Since the fight is so short, I take an unnecessary risk and give the bosskill to Est, who gets one-shot if she misses...

Well that's the Est experience.

10 hours ago, gnip said:

...but the reason to reset comes from somewhere else.

Well that's the Gaiden experience.

10 hours ago, gnip said:

But really, not a big deal. The map is played pretty quickly. Kamui and Est get Angel Ring levels in the rerun - I missed the screenshot for the latter, but it was... *drumroll* +2 Lck. Yaaaaaay!

Well that's the Gaiden experience.

10 hours ago, gnip said:

So, we've reached the goal of our campaign. Next up, Book 1.

I won't object, but I dont think Ruben is quite done ranting about SoV's writing.

10 hours ago, gnip said:

Atlas is now powerful enough for me to google "fire emblem gaiden stat caps". Apparently they're 40, so there's still some gains to be made

I believe I only capped with one person, but it's nice that's its possible.

10 hours ago, gnip said:

Oh, I'm excellent at using Boey. He's just not being excellent at being used.

Take responsibility. I pity children whose parents say the kid refuses to grow. That's on you. For shame Gnip

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Balbo is literally Goku. He's the protagonist, and dying only means he goes on a training arc

I dont know Goku Ball or whatever. I was more of a yugioh nerd. Man the cards I used to play with before the game became actual FEH words words words skills per card.  Good times.

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If he was called Boy in this patch, he'd be much better. Just like that loser Mycen, he barely exists and he sucks. He's got nothing on the perfect lifeform, Meißen.

Dread Fighter Mycen was pretty damn good.

9 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Ugh, it happens again.

I know I'm not quite at Shaky or Ruben's level, but right now, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

You're not at Ruben's level until you look and sound like Garon.

You're not at my level until you're fighting intrusive thoughts to not cause extreme harm. If you do reach that level, apply as a police officer.

[ping]

FE2 Chapter 3: Liberty War

Dragon Shrine --> Mila's Temple

Spoiler

__

Look at that, two random spawns on Alm's side. Wonder how that'll work exactly, if they attack together or in two battles.

But first, Celica's last fight of the chapter. Well, second to last, technically, we'll have to get through the Mountain Graveyard once again to send the Angel Ring over to Alm.

: "Look! The temple of Mila! Stay alert--Mikhail, one of Doma's shamans, is ahead. Everyone, protect our frailer allies!"

There he is: Quite hard-hitting, with Slime having 10 Mt, but luckily not very fast at 3 effective Spd.

The generic enemie on the map - two Snipers and 7 Wizards are all Lv.1, so fairly managable at this point.

This map is a lot bigger than it really needed to be. Not only do your non-Pegasus characters have to walk for a fairly long time just to get to the temple entrance, there's also a lot of dead space south of your starting location. I guess that was added to make space for this stunning visual masterpiece.

I made a bit of a blunder with item management, confusing the Holy and Angel ring, but instead of redoing one whole round of unit movement, I rather have Est make a little detour so that she can swap rings with Boey. New ship just set sail, we now know why she left, or rather will leave, Abel

The Sniper moves up a tile, which means that Est unfortunately can't fight him on turn 2, but at least she can open the door. Catria and Palla would've been able to kill him, but, well, Gaiden hitrates.

Mikhail didn't summon on turn 1, but calls on seven Gargoyles at once on turn 2. How nice. This will set up an accidentally beautiful play, though.

__

For now, Est just triangles the nearby Wizard for a far more Est-y level-up than her first one. ...actually, this is already the accidentally beautiful play.

See, after Mikhail summons another four Gargoyles, one of them flies south to attack Boyd...

...while the Sniper attacks Est. And so do the other six Gargoyles, one by one running into the Triangle Attack, even though they easily could've attacked Est from another angle.

Without dodging a single attack, Est just barely survives the experience with 2 HP (why yes, the Gargoyles hit her for 2 dmg). I think that was the most productive enemy phase in this entire playlog, including FE1.

Nobody attacks Mikhail just yet, but a fair amount of characters will be able to on the following turn.

But first: Obligatory useless Devil Sword attack. It does get Saber a level-up, so he doesn't sit at that irritating 99 XP anymore.

__

Mikhail then goes down to a bit of chip by Atlas (mostly for XP, really) and Catria executing the next Triangle Attack. Est was able to position herself for it while handing over the Angel Ring, so Catria gets +2 Spd and Lck out of it.

__

Rest of the map isn't much a problem anymore. Unfortunately, Palla just barely doesn't get an Angel Ring level, she's short like 3 XP, but that just makes it very easy to get one during the obligatory Graveyard fight.

We get some story updates from the unnamed NPCs (even the differently-coloured one doesn't have one) in the temple:

• Emperor Rudolf sealed Mila away, causing the famine in Sofia.
• The sword he used was given him by Doma. Ergo, next plot destination for Celica: Tower of Duma
  • There's life-draining swamps on the way. Wonderful.
• Great Shaman Dolk, who rules north of the temple can summon Necrodragons.
• The Great Sage Hark living in a hamlet in the Lost Woods, can probably help us somehow, in exchange for us enabling some healer to return? I suspect that the game kinda expects you to come here before going into the desert. Although don't Atlas and the two older Whitewings leave the party if you don't go after Geyse first? Or is that an Echoes thing?
• We'll need somebody to open the floodgates in the west in order to continue.

"What? You want me to open it? No can do. Only the Sofian royal family can order this gate opened. I ain't listening to you!"
"Hmm? Wait a sec... That crown...! That's the royal family's crest! Then you must be the long-lost Princess Anteze! F-forgive my rudeness. I'll open the floodgate straightaway."
"Your Highness, the western floodgate must also be open to drain the water."

There's also two Lion Head Fountains, but let's take a look at the team before talking about them:

	Lv.	   HP  Pow Skl Spd Lck Def Res  +XP   Item
Celica	10/2.94	   24   12*  9   9* 13   5   7  + 51  Steel Sw (+4 Atk, -1 Spd)

Jenny	8.52	   21   11   6   5   8   3* 13  +  8  Leather Sh (+3 Def)
Boey	9.76	   26    8   2  11  10   7   7  +  5  Holy Ring
Atlas	8.06	   40   20  11   6   4*  5   4  + 68  Angel Ring
May	6.24	   23   10   2   7   5   3  10  + 11

Kamui	8/7.62	   37   14* 17  16   2  10   2  + 30  Holy Sw (+3 Atk, +10 hit, +15 crit)
Dean	5.56	   32   13* 17  17   6   9   4  + 29  Hero Sw (+5 Atk, +10 hit, +30 crit)
Saber	5.32	   24    9* 11  10*  7   6   6  + 33  Dark Sw (+13 Atk, -20 hit, -1 Spd)
Leo	7/4.47	   33   13*  9   7*  7   7   1  + 20  Steel Bow (+3 Atk, -1 Spd)

Valbo	4.11	   32   14   8   5   3  12   0  + 11
Catria	10.48	   26   13* 18  16* 14   6   9  + 87  Javelin (+3 Atk, -20 hit, -2 Spd)
Palla	10.99	   30   14   9  10   4   7   5  + 28  Steel Sh (+5 Def)
Est	7.07	   24   13*  7  13*  9   8  12  +220  Steel Ln (+4 Atk, -1 Spd)

Made a mistake with Catria's Spd last time - forgot to factor the -2 Spd from the Javelin. She did not gain +4 Spd in a single level.

__

The left Lion Head is a simple, but strong Strength fountain, but I think the right one is more interesting to us. It raises a character's XP to 99, so they'll level up as soon as they see any combat, even if they can't do any counterdamage. This should make it fairly easy to set up a couple Angel Ring levels in the Mountain Graveyard fight, making this the overall more appealing option. The obvious options are Atlas and Est, who are both more than 90 XP away from a level. Third one, I'm not that sure. Jenny, since she's really annoying to level up at this point, but still has a few nice spells left? Catria just to get her closer to promotion? I'm sorry to say that it won't be Valbar, since Celica's chapter 4 is so incredibly hostile to him.

 

22 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

Except for DFs.

Because DFs OP

Pff. And people say Kaga likes Sages. Clearly, he's a Ninja fanboy.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

Well that's the Gaiden experience.

The thing about Gaiden experience is that you get very little. Characters really level up very slowly.

13 hours ago, Shaky Jones said:

I dont know Goku Ball or whatever. I was more of a yugioh nerd. Man the cards I used to play with before the game became actual FEH words words words skills per card.  Good times.

Goku is basically Ike, very strong and very dumb. And likes to eat.

 

[Punished Dayni]

3 minutes ago, gnip said:

Pff. And people say Kaga likes Sages. Clearly, he's a Ninja fanboy.

Kaga saga not having it's Naruto phase is proof that editorial control was fierce

4 minutes ago, gnip said:

I rather have Est make a little detour so that she can swap rings with Boey. New ship just set sail, we now know why she left, or rather will leave, Abel

Mae killed her

5 minutes ago, gnip said:

...while the Sniper attacks Est. And so do the other six Gargoyles, one by one running into the Triangle Attack, even though they easily could've attacked Est from another angle.

Without dodging a single attack, Est just barely survives the experience with 2 HP (why yes, the Gargoyles hit her for 2 dmg). I think that was the most productive enemy phase in this entire playlog, including FE1.

Nice.

Just, nice play all told.

6 minutes ago, gnip said:

The Great Sage Hark living in a hamlet in the Lost Woods, can probably help us somehow, in exchange for us enabling some healer to return? I suspect that the game kinda expects you to come here before going into the desert. Although don't Atlas and the two older Whitewings leave the party if you don't go after Geyse first? Or is that an Echoes thing?

No, pretty sure they'd leave in Gaiden as well.

7 minutes ago, gnip said:

I'm sorry to say that it won't be Valbar, since Celica's chapter 4 is so incredibly hostile to him.

I hard disagree, he deserves this fountain.

[Saint Rubenio]

6 minutes ago, gnip said:

__

Look at that, two random spawns on Alm's side. Wonder how that'll work exactly, if they attack together or in two battles.

Together. It can actually make the three paladins battle into something rather interesting.

6 minutes ago, gnip said:

: "Look! The temple of Mila! Stay alert--Mikhail, one of Doma's shamans, is ahead.

How does she know Mikhail's name, exactly?

6 minutes ago, gnip said:

This map is a lot bigger than it really needed to be. Not only do your non-Pegasus characters have to walk for a fairly long time just to get to the temple entrance, there's also a lot of dead space south of your starting location. I guess that was added to make space for this stunning visual masterpiece.

That's just fucking hilarious.

7 minutes ago, gnip said:

New ship just set sail, we now know why she left, or rather will leave, Abel

Boy stole her. He's a bad Boy.

7 minutes ago, gnip said:

Great Shaman Dolk

Great Shaman Dork lol. Funniest mishap since Almachus, the Dork Cordinol from Berwick Saga.

8 minutes ago, gnip said:

The Great Sage Hark living in a hamlet in the Lost Woods

Hark, lightning that rides within the ashen depths! Descend down as a storm upon my foes! GRAVITY BLESSING!!

...Sorry.

10 minutes ago, gnip said:

__

The left Lion Head is a simple, but strong Strength fountain, but I think the right one is more interesting to us. It raises a character's XP to 99, so they'll level up as soon as they see any combat, even if they can't do any counterdamage. This should make it fairly easy to set up a couple Angel Ring levels in the Mountain Graveyard fight, making this the overall more appealing option. The obvious options are Atlas and Est, who are both more than 90 XP away from a level. Third one, I'm not that sure. Jenny, since she's really annoying to level up at this point, but still has a few nice spells left? Catria just to get her closer to promotion? I'm sorry to say that it won't be Valbar, since Celica's chapter 4 is so incredibly hostile to him.

I kinda wanna say Atlas power for even more memes, but that's probably incredible overkill at this point...

...So obviously, you give Atlas three levels so he gets that much closer to Sagittae.

3 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

I hard disagree, he deserves this fountain.

As the game's protagonist, he has to fulfill the proud tradition of FE protagonists being bad lololololol

[ping]

16 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

No, pretty sure they'd leave in Gaiden as well.

Interesting. The enemies at and en route to Mila's Temple generally seemed easier than those in Geyse's direction, which I also thought might be because the game half-expects you to go to the temple first. Of course, Mikhail's Gargoyles could become a lot more threatening if they don't all suicide into Est immediately, but Geyse himself is a bloody Dreadfighter, so he'd "make sense" as a final boss of the chapter, too. Everybody leaving if you go in this order, even if it's just temporary, is a pretty unsubtle prod to go get Est first, though.

23 minutes ago, Punished Dayni said:

I hard disagree, he deserves this fountain.

I'm sure he'll be much more useful standing around while at Lv.5 than at Lv.4. Like, seriously, his class even has an especially harsh penalty when moving through swamp, worse than anything except the Cav class line.

24 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

How does she know Mikhail's name, exactly?

You're right, we should introduce an extra character to exposit things that Celica shouldn't be aware of. Maybe some mysterious masked stranger, that worked/will work greatly in Book 2.

25 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Hark, lightning that rides within the ashen depths! Descend down as a storm upon my foes! GRAVITY BLESSING!!

...Sorry.

To be honest, I just think of christmas songs (or rather this specific one, one of the few English ones I know) when I hark the word Hark! I'm sure your connotation is much more epic.

(I can still hum along the bass voice, even though I've last sung it, like, five years ago, and not even very often. Not sure if it's a sign of my good memory for tunes or for the relative simpleness of the song. Probably the latter, I guess.)

28 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I kinda wanna say Atlas power for even more memes, but that's probably incredible overkill at this point...

...So obviously, you give Atlas three levels so he gets that much closer to Sagittae.

That's three trips back and forth! I don't think Celica has the travel budget available for that.

[Saint Rubenio]

28 minutes ago, gnip said:

You're right, we should introduce an extra character to exposit things that Celica shouldn't be aware of. Maybe some mysterious masked stranger, that worked/will work greatly in Book 2.

N   O  OO         O O O OO       O

29 minutes ago, gnip said:

To be honest, I just think of christmas songs (or rather this specific one, one of the few English ones I know) when I hark the word Hark! I'm sure your connotation is much more epic.

 

29 minutes ago, gnip said:

That's three trips back and forth! I don't think Celica has the travel budget available for that.

But my dude.

One-shotting Jedah.

[Shaky Jones]

20 hours ago, gnip said:

__

Look at that, two random spawns on Alm's side. Wonder how that'll work exactly, if they attack together or in two battles

Random spawns. The thing I utterly despise about Gaiden/SoV, yet always forget about until it happens. It's like repressing traumatic events.

If you no longer have a sense of honor for Kaga's World of NES fantasies and mayhem, you can do what I did. Save state before walking. RNG determines each time you move whether enemies can move or spawn. So, you just keep reloading until it doesn't.

Yes, I cheated my way out of playing more maps than I had to, just like how Kaga tried cheating children out of their money with this piece of shit game.

20 hours ago, gnip said:

19 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

How does she know Mikhail's name, exactly?

Everybody knows Mikhail!

20 hours ago, gnip said:

The thing about Gaiden experience is that you get very little. Characters really level up very slowly

Well that's the Engage experience.

20 hours ago, gnip said:

Goku is basically Ike, very strong and very dumb. And likes to eat.

Raphael. Got it.

20 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

20 hours ago, gnip said:

...while the Sniper attacks Est. And so do the other six Gargoyles, one by one running into the Triangle Attack, even though they easily could've attacked Est from another angle.

Without dodging a single attack, Est just barely survives the experience with 2 HP (why yes, the Gargoyles hit her for 2 dmg). I think that was the most productive enemy phase in this entire playlog, including FE1.

Nice.

Just, nice play all told.

I cannot wait for Gnip to display his grand tactics and conjure up strategic plays come the Genealogy run, like sending Sigurd with a silver sword to the front lines, or sending your Forsetti user in gen 2 to the front lines.

20 hours ago, Punished Dayni said:

20 hours ago, gnip said:

I'm sorry to say that it won't be Valbar, since Celica's chapter 4 is so incredibly hostile to him.

I hard disagree, he deserves this fountain.

20 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

As the game's protagonist, he has to fulfill the proud tradition of FE protagonists being bad lololololol

It's 3 vs 1 Gnip, or 7 vs 1 because this is me we're talking about.

20 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...So obviously, you give Atlas three levels so he gets that much closer to Sagittae

This is what I would unironically do.

19 hours ago, gnip said:

I'm sure he'll be much more useful standing around while at Lv.5 than at Lv.4. Like, seriously, his class even has an especially harsh penalty when moving through swamp, worse than anything except the Cav class line.

Well not with that attitude!

19 hours ago, gnip said:

That's three trips back and forth! I don't think Celica has the travel budget available for that.

I don't know if this is just a funny saying or if you're saying you physically have to make several back tracks for fountains you didn't use, but yes, that is another reason I felt that I needed to exploit skirmish spawn rates through save state manipulation. I hated using fountains early on knowing that promo gains are based on what you DON'T have, so I felt obligated to wait until my team was promoted.

19 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

But my dude.

One-shotting Jedah.

I like how unnecessary that is in Gaiden as opposed to Echoes, but it's just for the sake of it.

[Saint Rubenio]

2 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Everybody knows Mikhail!

I don't. Who is this man? He looks very angry.

2 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

conjure up strategic plays come the Genealogy run, like sending Sigurd with a silver sword to the front lines

I swear, I'm the only guy who found Sigurd to not be overpowered. I tried sending him at all the enemies in the first turn of the game, like everyone told me to, and he was one lucky dodge away from instantly saving everyone five chapters of effort. I tried sending him at all the enemies to save his father, and he died miserably instead and I had to send the entire army in. He has nothing on Seth.

4 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Well not with that attitude!

I was about to say "I already had Sagittae on Atlas by the time I faced Mikhail", but then I checked and the requirement is 8 levels higher on NES.

Unironically a good idea to give Atlas levels lol

5 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

I like how unnecessary that is in Gaiden as opposed to Echoes, but it's just for the sake of it.

Pretty sure it was very unnecessary in Echoes too, but I liked doing it.

[ping]

FE2 Chapter 3: Liberty War

Alm: Sofia Castle --> Some Forest

Spoiler

There we go. Travel budget kept low, and still fairly effective use of the XP fountain. Jenny only gained half a level or so, but that's at least the equivalent of 300 XP for anybody else in terms of annoyance, considering her hit rates.

Case in point, two misses.

The Mountain Graveyard spawn (the first, I forgot that you have to leave Mountain Village in order to switch to Alm, which leads you directly back in again) was just 7 Zombies, i.e. neither a challenge nor any significant XP gain. Everybody with 90+ XP managed to get an Angel Ring level, though: Celica, Jenny, Atlas, Palla, and Est.

__

Conversely, the second fight was one of the more challenging formations (although not really at this point anymore) with nobody gaining a level at all. Very nice.

Celica's Team:

	Lv.	   HP  Pow Skl Spd Lck Def Res  +XP   Item
Celica	10/3.28	   26   14*  9   9* 13   5   7  + 34  Steel Sw (+4 Atk, -1 Spd)

Jenny	9.35	   21   11   8   7   8   3* 13  + 83* Leather Sh (+3 Def)
Boey	9.90	   26    8   2  11  10   7   7  + 14  Holy Ring
Atlas	9.22	   40   20  11   6   4   7   4  +116*
May	6.40	   23   10   2   7   5   3  10  + 16

Kamui	8/7.76	   37   14* 17  16   2  10   2  + 14  Holy Sw (+3 Atk, +10 hit, +15 crit)
Dean	5.92	   32   13* 17  17   6   9   4  + 36  Hero Sw (+5 Atk, +10 hit, +30 crit)
Saber	5.54	   24    9* 11  10*  7   6   6  + 22  Dark Sw (+13 Atk, -20 hit, -1 Spd)
Leo	4.61	   33   13*  9   7*  7   7   1  + 14  Steel Bow (+3 Atk, -1 Spd)

Valbo	4.33	   32   14   8   5   3  12   0  + 22
Catria	10.62	   26   13* 18  16* 14   6   9  + 14  Javelin (+3 Atk, -20 hit, -2 Spd)
Palla	11.08	   32   16   9  10   4   7*  5  +  9  Steel Sh (+5 Atk)
Est	8.21	   26   15*  9  13*  9  10  12  +114* Steel Ln (+4 Atk, -1 Spd)

• Still no Str level on Atlas after he hit 20. Did the internet lie to me and 20 is secretly the cap at all?! (I don't actually believe this, since one has to remember that his "good by Gaiden's standards" Str growth is only 30%)
• Est is bulkier than Catria already, and has a good chance of surpassing Falcoknight's Def base before hitting Lv.12. She recovered quickly from her initial awful +2 Lck level-up.

Now then, back to Alm, with a bit of silly item distribution. The reasoning is that both Luka and Cliff are very close to a level, so this should make it easier to allow them both to Angel Ring it.

: "Everyone, stay alert! A brigade from Rigel is closing in. Fortify our defenses! Scatter our foes and pick them off one by one!"

Alm's first map is the copy of an earlier one, as Gaiden likes to do. This one plays very differently, though, because you cannot play around with the bridge as a chokepoint at all - the two groups of enemies will actually converge on your troops very quickly, making this effectively a featureless map. Which isn't to say easy, since fighting all the enemies at once is pretty tough.

Oh, and if you play Alm's part first, this is also your first experience with teleporting Witches. But since it's only the one, she doesn't add that much of a threat.

But as you can see, there isn't much "picking off individual enemies" on this map, apart from the boss himself, who is lagging behind every other enemy by a mile. You're hit by a lot of enemies, some of which even hit rather hard (that being the Armour Knights, of course).

It's actually kinda jarring, returning from Celica's side, how much weaker Alm's group is. He does have some tools, of course, like a Horseslayer or Gray's Bolt Sword, but he still has much more trouble with this fight than Celica would at this point. And related - XP gain is suddenly pretty good again, with sometimes 40+ XP for a kill, which means that consistent Angel Ring levels aren't easy to get. Claire killing the witch, for example, got her some hideous "+1"s.

You do have some decent offensive firepower with Alm, at least. It's more of a problem that some of his companions (Claire in particular) have paper-thin defenses.

Since almost the entire map boils down to this one big brawl, there isn't really much to say. Alm kill enemy before enemy kill Alm. End of story.

__

Well, OK, Zack, who's interesting enough to get a unique name, but too boring to get his own portrait, also shows up eventually.

He wasn't supposed to, but Gray quickly disposes of him.

Next, a bunch of Wizards in a forest. Again, a remade map with a much more threatening group of enemies - this time, Wizards instead of some Brigands.

This fight isn't as much difficult as it is bloody annoying. Six enemies, all targeting Rest, charging at you at once is obviously threatening, but the real problem is that the Wizards can easily use all the forest tiles, since they can attack from 2-range, while you can't do the same because they ignore the Avoid bonus. The map layout makes it very difficult to find a formation that doesn't offer the Wizards any forest tile, which really draws out the fight. That most characters don't have 1-2 range doesn't help either, since it means that you rarely do any counterdamage on enemy phase.

But again, there isn't much "progress" in this map, in the sense that you don't really move towards an objective. You just keep trying to hit wizards, over and over again, so I don't have much to narrate.

It does, at least, end on a funny note, with Silk getting the killing blow with one of her monstrous 1-damage, <50% hit attacks.

Alm's Team:

	Lv.	   HP  Pow Skl Spd Lck Def Res  +XP   Item
Alm	5.51	   29   12   8   7   8   9*  4  +117  Leather Sh (+3 Def)
Luka	5.99	   23   12   4   4   3   8   2  +106
Cliff	6.99	   30   13   5   6  11*  9   8  +200  Angel Ring
Robin	4.97	   28    9   4   7   6   5   4  + 54

Gray	6.16	   29    9*  8  10*  2   5   2  +147  Bolt Sw (15 Atk, -3 Spd)
Silk	6.99	   18    9   5   8   5   2  11  +124  (Steel Bow, will swap w/ Cliff)
Claire	5.37	   21   12*  6   7* 14   4   8  +169
Cleive  6.52	   26   12   7   7   6   7   1  + 27

Force	5.81	   29   12*  5   4*  3   7   5  +122  Knight Ln (+3 Atk, -1 Spd)
Pyhton	4.24	   24   10   3   4   2   6   4  + 94

• More even XP distribution than intended, generally speaking. I think I'll try and avoid going back south to do promotions, so there'll be a lot of those at once in the Forest Shrine.
• Cliff got two Angelic HP/Str/Def levels in a row, which is not quite what his growths layout is like. Some Skl/Spd would be appreciated, that's why I made you an Archer, but I can't complain about the stats he did get. 13 is even a point above Sniper base, so it'll stick around.
• Claire is going full Lilina with ther stats. Falcoknight can't come soon enough for her to fix her physical bulk.

 

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

I cannot wait for Gnip to display his grand tactics and conjure up strategic plays come the Genealogy run, like sending Sigurd with a silver sword to the front lines, or sending your Forsetti user in gen 2 to the front lines.

That sounds a lot like the grand tactics and strategic plays available in BlaBla and SacSto. Or non-maniac PoR, except that you don't need to pick anybody specific to do the mass slaughter on enemy phase. Well, "not Rolf" is advisable for that particular play.

1 hour ago, Shaky Jones said:

I don't know if this is just a funny saying or if you're saying you physically have to make several back tracks for fountains you didn't use, but yes, that is another reason I felt that I needed to exploit skirmish spawn rates through save state manipulation. I hated using fountains early on knowing that promo gains are based on what you DON'T have, so I felt obligated to wait until my team was promoted.

It's semi-serious, I guess. It's not that the tedium of sending Celica back and forth would be unbearable, but I generally dislike walking back and forth on the world map in games that allow that, even if there's no tangible disadvantage in doing so. I just find it a bit silly when the protagonist of SacSto / Baldur's Gate / Dragon Age takes a stroll five times around Magvel / the Sword Coast / Thedas while the villain of the day is patiently waiting until they're done shopping, grinding, and whatnot before they start their plan that requires immediate counteraction.

[Saint Rubenio]

8 minutes ago, gnip said:

There we go. Travel budget kept low, and still fairly effective use of the XP fountain. Jenny only gained half a level or so, but that's at least the equivalent of 300 XP for anybody else in terms of annoyance, considering her hit rates.

Feh, I'll take it.

8 minutes ago, gnip said:

Still no Str level on Atlas after he hit 20. Did the internet lie to me and 20 is secretly the cap at all?! (I don't actually believe this, since one has to remember that his "good by Gaiden's standards" Str growth is only 30%)

It's still 5 points higher than the runner up, I think he can afford to get a few strengthless levels lol

8 minutes ago, gnip said:

Look at that beautiful, beautiful map design. Almost makes you miss Celica's maps.

8 minutes ago, gnip said:

I just find it a bit silly when the protagonist of SacSto / Baldur's Gate / Dragon Age takes a stroll five times around Magvel / the Sword Coast / Thedas while the villain of the day is patiently waiting until they're done shopping, grinding, and whatnot before they start their plan that requires immediate counteraction.

Oh yeah, games with world maps that aren't strictly open ended sandboxes tend to suffer from this. The world map tends to be little more than a stage select menu that causes iffy implications story-wise.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Shaky Jones]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I don't. Who is this man? He looks very angry.

He's a dude from resident evil 3. Cool guy, even if he barely appears, but at least you can play as him in a badass post game mission. Or you can use him in the board game if you're a complete nerd. Great board game.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I swear, I'm the only guy who found Sigurd to not be overpowered. I tried sending him at all the enemies in the first turn of the game, like everyone told me to, and he was one lucky dodge away from instantly saving everyone five chapters of effort. I tried sending him at all the enemies to save his father, and he died miserably instead and I had to send the entire army in. He has nothing on Seth.

Ruben is bad at Sigurd'ing.

Reminds me of how my brother said that Sigurd isn't actually that tanky, only for me to proc several defense growths that led to him tanking all of part 1. Thanks Kaga. He wanted me to speed through the mess just as much as I wanted to have someone put me out of my misery. 

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I was about to say "I already had Sagittae on Atlas by the time I faced Mikhail", but then I checked and the requirement is 8 levels higher on NES.

Unironically a good idea to give Atlas levels lol

That's what I'm sayin!

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Pretty sure it was very unnecessary in Echoes too, but I liked doing it.

I'd say killing him in Gaiden is way easier, but I suppose you don't get Tigerstance Nomah here. Oh well. Too bad SoV doesn't have 10 pitchforks.

And actual maps, and no masked losers, and a sensical plot, and no enemy skirmishes, and a cast long enough to warrant replayability.

2 minutes ago, gnip said:

till no Str level on Atlas after he hit 20. Did the internet lie to me and 20 is secretly the cap at all?! (I don't actually believe this, since one has to remember that his "good by Gaiden's standards" Str growth is only 30%

Yes. Those screenshots I sent with people having more than 20 on their stats were photoshopped just to mess with you. Unlucky.

3 minutes ago, gnip said:

.....

.....

Average FE4 map.

4 minutes ago, gnip said:

Next, a bunch of Wizards in a forest. Again, a remade map with a much more threatening group of enemies - this time, Wizards instead of some Brigands.

Okay, so picture this square, but multiplied like a 3 x 3 square. 

Average FE4 map.

6 minutes ago, gnip said:

That sounds a lot like the grand tactics and strategic plays available in BlaBla and SacSto. Or non-maniac PoR, except that you don't need to pick anybody specific to do the mass slaughter on enemy phase. Well, "not Rolf" is advisable for that particular play.

You say that, but maniac PoR only encourages average FE7 gameplay even more, as it drastically increases the number of enemies, as well as their defense stat. That and also giving everyone 1-2 range because fuck swords and bows. Xp is lowered to compensate for added enemies, thereby only allowing xp gain to be balanced out by funneling most of it through a handful of 1-2 range using mounts rather than training a larger team with variety. It's easier to just Titania solo, and it's one of the only ways to play while keeping your sanity intact. Sure I suppose there's more choices than FE4, but it's still far, far more limiting than what ANY FE game should be giving you.

[ping]

7 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Yes. Those screenshots I sent with people having more than 20 on their stats were photoshopped just to mess with you. Unlucky.

I knew it. What a joker this skelly boy is.

9 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

You say that, but maniac PoR only encourages average FE7 gameplay even more, as it drastically increases the number of enemies, as well as their defense stat. That and also giving everyone 1-2 range because fuck swords and bows. Xp is lowered to compensate for added enemies, thereby only allowing xp gain to be balanced out by funneling most of it through a handful of 1-2 range using mounts rather than training a larger team with variety. It's easier to just Titania solo, and it's one of the only ways to play while keeping your sanity intact. Sure I suppose there's more choices than FE4, but it's still far, far more limiting than what ANY FE game should be giving you.

I did play Maniac recently, and I found 1-2 range less desirable than silver weapons (forged if necessary), since the latter can actually kill enemies. I'd rather have three dead enemies than six slightly wounded ones, thankyouverymuch. I found the mode more player phase focused than BlaBla as a result, too.

22 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Look at that beautiful, beautiful map design. Almost makes you miss Celica's maps.

Almost being the operative word.

[Saint Rubenio]

15 minutes ago, gnip said:

I did play Maniac recently, and I found 1-2 range less desirable than silver weapons (forged if necessary), since the latter can actually kill enemies. I'd rather have three dead enemies than six slightly wounded ones, thankyouverymuch. I found the mode more player phase focused than BlaBla as a result, too.

You almost make PoR sound like a good time. If it wasn't for the "enemies have infinite defense" part. Next time I'm tempted to give PoR another shot, I might have to see about playing Maniac and trying to reach Heddwyn so I can actually see the guy I put in my hack in action.

15 minutes ago, gnip said:

Almost being the operative word.

No map design vs the worst kind of map design. Pick your poison, Gaiden sayeth.

[ping]

22 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You almost make PoR sound like a good time. If it wasn't for the "enemies have infinite defense" part. Next time I'm tempted to give PoR another shot, I might have to see about playing Maniac and trying to reach Heddwyn so I can actually see the guy I put in my hack in action.

Keep in mind that I played with a team filled with high tier scrubs, and there were plenty maps where swapping some of them out for Rolf and Mia would've made the map a lot more painful. I like to point at Clash!, which was surpringly fun to plan and play (...other than the whole "no x8 speed button in Dolphin" issue), but I don't know if that would still be true without a max Str Jill one-rounding all the Paladins charging at you and 60% of the Wyvern Lord reinforcements down the line. I'm worried that PoR would not appreciate if you were stubbornly trying to make Rolf and Mia (or whoever your favourite scrub in PoR might be) work.

As far as I can extrapolate, Maniac takes a problem that PoR has even on lower difficulties - that using multiple characters without horses and/or wings makes the game much slower - and makes it even more pronounced.

29 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Heddwyn

I'm afraid he's a bit of a scrub, really. That map is all about the Laguz swarms - I think this screenshot summed it up pretty nicely:

Spoiler

 

[Saint Rubenio]

34 minutes ago, gnip said:

Keep in mind that I played with a team filled with high tier scrubs, and there were plenty maps where swapping some of them out for Rolf and Mia would've made the map a lot more painful. I like to point at Clash!, which was surpringly fun to plan and play (...other than the whole "no x8 speed button in Dolphin" issue), but I don't know if that would still be true without a max Str Jill one-rounding all the Paladins charging at you and 60% of the Wyvern Lord reinforcements down the line. I'm worried that PoR would not appreciate if you were stubbornly trying to make Rolf and Mia (or whoever your favourite scrub in PoR might be) work.

As far as I can extrapolate, Maniac takes a problem that PoR has even on lower difficulties - that using multiple characters without horses and/or wings makes the game much slower - and makes it even more pronounced.

I did say "next time I'm tempted to give PoR another shot." This is an ailment easily cured by looking at PoR's gameplay. On that topic, I must thank you for handily providing a link to your playlog. It looks very tedious.

36 minutes ago, gnip said:

I'm afraid he's a bit of a scrub, really. That map is all about the Laguz swarms - I think this screenshot summed it up pretty nicely:

I picked the perfect man.

No seriously, I find this guy so funny. That's the penultimate boss in the game, let's not forget. Well, technically antepenultimate, but the boss of the penultimate chapter. The game's almost over and this is what it's throwing at you. Some guy whose single contribution to the plot is yelling "haaaaalp!", armed with three chins and a fancy tome he never gets to use. He's fucking amazing.

[ping]

FE2 Chapter 3: Liberty War

Some Forest --> Dozer's Fortress

Spoiler

__

We are back with silly low enemy numbers. Don't worry, that will change.

Paladins are fairly threatening in an open map like this, though. 12 Atk hits fairly hard, and 8 Spd doubles almost every character we have. The only exception is Silk, of all people.

__

With the position I take, two Paladins go south to attack Cliff and only one can reach the fairly squishy Gray up north, which is probably the best split they can take. I had Claire and Cleive start in the position in the east, so they're able to join the southern group quickly, allowing them to overwhelm the two Paladins eventually.

Next up, an ambush! Now, this isn't the "Paladin" that spawned at the flood gate - that one is a group with only three enemies, presumably the same three Paladins that we just fought.

No, this is what I like to call a "dick move".

__

Add to that the sloppy mistake of leaving Claire open to too many attacks when I am allowed my turn...

__

...and it's up to RNGeesus to make up for the combination of Gaiden being evil and me being a little dumb. I'll be honest, I was quite ready to go back on my personal "no emulator rewind" rule to correct my positional mistake (in the hope that there would have been a solid formation, many high-move enemies on the map, after all).

But after that, the rest of the fight luckily isn't as much of an issue anymore.

Next stop: Easy pickings.

Also a few story updates:

• "A Liberation soldier" at Dozer's fortress is soon to be executed.
• Opening the flood gate is necessary to prevent a devestating flooding of Sofia.
• One villager's child was abducted by Gargoyles, and he'll reward Alm with his "treasure" if he saves her.

: "I beg of you, please save my little sister! She's being manipulated by the shaman Tatara at Rigel's sluice. If Tatara is defeated, the spell on Dyute should break..."

But mostly Easy Pickings.

[HP 40% | Str 20% | Skl 20% | Spd 15% | Lck 50% | Def 15%]
[Fire (Lv.1) | Excalibur (Lv.1) | Thunder (Lv.10) | Saggitae (Lv.15) | Recover (Sage)]

Ryuto ties Est for the highest Lck growth in the game, which is not something I would've expected. I suppose it will add to Excalibur's crit chance, although his base crit is fairly unremarkable at 5%. But starting with Excalibur seems to be his main Thing, and it's a pretty cool Thing to have. With it, he has a respectable Spd base of 6 (although I think he defaults to Fire, and therefore 4 Spd, when counterattacking), great accuracy (not perfect like in FE1, though, since Spd gives magic avoid now), and good damage - 12 base Str is actually very impressive if you don't have Atlas to compare him to.

Growth-wise, he's pretty normal, apart from the surprisingly high Lck. A total of 160% is perfectly in line with all the other low-growth characters. Overall, he seems to be the best Mage that Alm can get up to this point, maybe excluding Mage!Cliff. Gray and Robin can't really compete with his combination of Str and Spd - my Robin is really Spd-blessed and outspeeds Ryuto by one point, but he's also three points weaker - and also need to combine their spell books to get the same selection as Ryuto.

Now, as alluded to at the start of the update, a fight against what isn't a silly low number of enemies.

: "The rebel forces are attacking? Shit! In that case... Archers! Kill that girl in her cell as a warning!"

So, because the next Paladin troop didn't move off of Dozer's Fortress, they are simply added to the fight, literally doubling the amount of enemies that we have to fight. This means that we should bring our best tank to the front!

Which, of course, is Cliff. If I recall, he's sitting at 11 Def at this point, after getting another Angel Ring +Def level-up in the fight against the three Paladins. ...or maybe 12, I think he got an angelless level in the ambush. Point is, he only takes 1 dmg, or sometimes 2x1 dmg, from all the horsies and archers, and only 3 dmg from the wizard added by the Paladin group, too.

And now we sit in the choke point for a good while.

During the next enemy phase, I also notice the Wizard starting in the southeast corner, because he uses Fortify. We can't be having with that, of course, so Silk warps over Claire to deal with that. She first lures him off of his healing tile - too bad that Alm doesn't have access to a Javelin, at least not yet.

It's a bit wasteful, since there's no Cleric!Faye around to restore Silk's HP, so she has to use the other effect of the Angel ring to be able to heal stuff in the future.

You might've noticed the empty tile in front of Cliff - Ryuto's doing...

...which gives Dozer a spot to attack Cliff from. No worries, he's fine, although he has to retreat to get some treatment.

: "Is this all you've got...?"

____

Nope!

: "Grr..Mycen! Is  he planning to give Sofia to Rudolf's brat?! Damn traitor!"

Whatever could this mean?!

During all this, I haven't really mentioned Matilda, because there's not too much to say: She can only be attacked by one archer, takes 2 damage, and has a, what, 2/3 chance to dodge. Not exactly a Lilina situation here.

Which is good, because the whole process of breaking through is really, really slow. The choke point being more of a long choke line, as well as neither Mage having a Thunder for the 3-range, means that the damage output isn't all that great. Cliff's low accuracy, especially inside a building, doesn't exactly help, either.

But eventually, enemy numbers get low enough. The Knights are a bit of a threat, since they hit very hard with their 16 Atk, but Ryuto and Robin (who also got to Excalibur during this fight!) deal big damage to them, as well.

The Canter in the corner does add some more, but, well, he only summons Zombies. Not a problem, and I think he was fairly lazy with his summoning, compared to previous ones.

__

So I'll just show a few nice +2 procs instead of elaborating further.

Beating Dozer causes Tatara to spawn, which is... mildly interesting, maybe? It's not really any different from him being there from the very beginning.

__

Inside the fortress, we find a Paladin and Alm's personal weapon, both with less fanfare than I kinda expected. I guess Kaga wanted to keep at least a little subtlety about ALM BEING THE PRINCE OF RIGEL, YOU GUYS, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT.

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

Matilda is a little bit less physically bulky than Paladin bases (-2 HP, -1 Def), but makes up for it with excellent Skl, Spd, Lck, and Res. She's actually as fast as a Gold Knight at base. Her growths are really good, too - a bit lower than, say, Claire's if you look at the total, but Matilda has good Str/Spd/Def growths, and bad growths in generally less impactful stats (...that she has great bases in, anyway).

Her first impression is obviously helped by nobody else on the team being promoted at this point, which is probably not the "optimal" way to go. But even if you'd have 2-3 promoted units, Matilda would still be one of the best units on the team, with her own advantages: 12 Spd and access to the Horseslayer, for example? That sounds really good.

The Team:

	Lv.	   HP  Pow Skl Spd Lck Def Res  +XP   Item
Alm	5.98	   29   12*  8   7   8   9   4  + 47  Regal Sw (+7 Atk, +10 hit, +20 Crit)
Gray	5/7.61	   30   10*  9  10*  2   5   2  +145  Bolt Sw (15 Atk, -3 Spd)
Luka	6.39	   23   13   4   4   3   9   2  + 40
Force	7.11	   30   13   5   5   5   7   5  +130

Cleive	6.93	   26   12*  7   7*  6   7   1  + 41  Knight Ln (+3 Atk, -1 Spd)
Claire	8.34	   23   14*  8   9* 15   5   8  +297  Steel Ln (+4 Atk, -1 Spd)
Matilda	1.00	   26   12  14  12  13   7  10

Cliff	4/10.35	   32   18*  5   8* 11  16   8  +336  Steel Bow (+3 At, -1 Spd)
Python	4.66	   24   10   3   4   2   6   4  + 42

Silk	7.38	   18    9   5  10   5   2* 11  + 39  Leather Sh (+3 Def)
Robin	4/6.49	   28    9   6   9   6   5   4  + 52
Ryuto	8.30	   30   14   9   7   4*  5   8  +130  Angel Ring

• Cliff's stats are beyond funny at this point.
• Robin is even two points faster than Ryuto? Goodness. That's three Spd procs in seven level-ups, off a 15% growth rate.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

5 minutes ago, gnip said:

__

We are back with silly low enemy numbers. Don't worry, that will change.

This infamous map. It never ceases to amuse me that they actually made it worse on SoV. You might think "wait how do you make a map with three enemies worse? There's no room to do anything", but as it turns out, Fernand is coded to always prioritize Clive, and Berkut to always prioritize Alm. This means the three of them will never even get the chance to gang up on one squishy, making them even more ineffective than the original generic three. Also, they missed the perfect opportunity to make Slayder the third paladin and establish him as a presence instead of just randomly bringing him back on act 4, so there's that.

7 minutes ago, gnip said:

No, this is what I like to call a "dick move".

Good game.

7 minutes ago, gnip said:

Next stop: Easy pickings.

There he is. The man, the myth, the legend.

8 minutes ago, gnip said:

Luth. Somehow, his name is less funny in the Meißen fanslation than here. What the heck is a Ryuto even?

9 minutes ago, gnip said:

: "The rebel forces are attacking? Shit!

I like how "shit!" is this guy's catchphrase in this translation. Once again, quality 2008 fan writing.

9 minutes ago, gnip said:

: "Grr..Meißen! Is  he planning to give Sofia to Rudolf's brat?! Damn traitor!"

This is what we call foreshadowing. Brilliant writing techniques all around.

10 minutes ago, gnip said:

Beating Dozer causes Tatara to spawn, which is... mildly interesting, maybe? It's not really any different from him being there from the very beginning.

He forgot his tome at the floodgate. This was secretly the first instance of that classic Kaga running gag.

10 minutes ago, gnip said:

_

I'm kind of torn about Matilda. Because on the one hand, her design here is just kinda generic. She much benefitted from Hidari's excellence in Echoes... Except that game chose to sexualize the shit out of her, ruining the concept of the one and only woman in the game that's strong enough to be in a fully physical class.

Fucking SoV...

12 minutes ago, gnip said:

Inside the fortress, we find a Paladin and Alm's personal weapon, both with less fanfare than I kinda expected. I guess Kaga wanted to keep at least a little subtlety about ALM BEING THE PRINCE OF RIGEL, YOU GUYS, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT.

"Hmmm, I wonder why Alm can wield this sword that only Rigelian royalty can wield. A mystery for the ages."

 

[ping]

6 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I like how "shit!" is this guy's catchphrase in this translation. Once again, quality 2008 fan writing.

 

6 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm kind of torn about Matilda. Because on the one hand, her design here is just kinda generic. She much benefitted from Hidari's excellence in Echoes... Except that game chose to sexualize the shit out of her, ruining the concept of the one and only woman in the game that's strong enough to be in a fully physical class.

Fucking SoV...

The subtleties of the prison CGI are clearly going wayyy over your head.

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This infamous map. It never ceases to amuse me that they actually made it worse on SoV. You might think "wait how do you make a map with three enemies worse? There's no room to do anything", but as it turns out, Fernand is coded to always prioritize Clive, and Berkut to always prioritize Alm. This means the three of them will never even get the chance to gang up on one squishy, making them even more ineffective than the original generic three. Also, they missed the perfect opportunity to make Slayder the third paladin and establish him as a presence instead of just randomly bringing him back on act 4, so there's that.

Might be meant as an anti-frustration change, in addition to the story reasons. With your own units split up, you might not be able to shield your squishies if the wrong characters are grouped together. Although, didn't Echoes allow you to swap unit placement at the start of a fight?

[Saint Rubenio]

10 minutes ago, gnip said:

The subtleties of the prison CGI are clearly going wayyy over your head.

Every anime is just a fun romp until someone complains about the titties, then all of a sudden they're all Cervantesian masterpieces of satire.

10 minutes ago, gnip said:

Might be meant as an anti-frustration change, in addition to the story reasons. With your own units split up, you might not be able to shield your squishies if the wrong characters are grouped together. Although, didn't Echoes allow you to swap unit placement at the start of a fight?

Yeah, Echoes kind of overfixed that issue and ended up making the map a no-brainer lol

[Interdimensional Observer]

5 hours ago, gnip said:

[HP 40% | Str 20% | Skl 20% | Spd 15% | Lck 50% | Def 15%]
[Fire (Lv.1) | Excalibur (Lv.1) | Thunder (Lv.10) | Saggitae (Lv.15) | Recover (Sage)

Dude looks so much more striking here. Not an eeeeeeeh nerd.

Never got much use of him in SoV, since Mage!Cliff and Delthea + a willingness to grind meant Violin Maker was utterly mediocre by comparison. Though I get the sense he's a nice anti-armor unit at the least, just not the anti-everything-physical unit people like to expect from a mage.

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

What the heck is a Ryuto even?

Ryu = dragon. To = sword. He was originally going to be a sentient Falchion.

-Or not. All FE names are written in katakana, not kanji. It's just a name and I have no idea what it really is.😝

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I like how "shit!" is this guy's catchphrase in this translation. Once again, quality 2008 fan writing.

I'm not sure what word/phrase is being translated but...

"basically くそ (kuso) can run the gamut of “gee wiz” to “darn” to “fuck”, depending entirely on context, the translator’s experience, etc.

Even words like “kuso” have multiple translations, you could call it the “shit” in one case, while in other case it could be as harmless as “dang it!”. You’d even hear “kuso” in Pokemon anime I’m sure, for example. I know I heard it in Beyblade [another children's anime] often enough.

Because all of this is so subjective, swearing in translation can vary pretty crazily depending on the translator. Generally, the more experience, the better the swearing turns out. That’s why with fan translations (particularly anime and manga) you tend to see tons of swearing in what would seem to be kids’ shows or what have you."

-Written by one of the Mother 3 translators.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Interdimensional Observer

[Saint Rubenio]

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Dude looks so much more striking here. Not an eeeeeeeh nerd.

Yeah, he has one of he coolest portraits in the game, for some reason. The hand goes hard.

9 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Never got much use of him in SoV, since Mage!Cliff and Delthea + a willingness to grind meant Violin Maker was utterly mediocre by comparison. Though I get the sense he's a nice anti-armor unit at the least, just not the anti-everything-physical unit people like to expect from a mage.

Hmph. The enemies must've been hard pickings with an army so lacking in the Luthier factor.

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Ryu = dragon. To = sword. He was originally going to be a sentient Falchion.

-Or not. All FE names are written in katakana, not kanji. It's just a name and I have no idea what it really is.😝

Okay but that's an incredible theory though. Making Duma into easy pickings!

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

"basically くそ (kuso) can run the gamut of “gee wiz” to “darn” to “fuck”, depending entirely on context, the translator’s experience, etc.

Even words like “kuso” have multiple translations, you could call it the “shit” in one case, while in other case it could be as harmless as “dang it!”. You’d even hear “kuso” in Pokemon anime I’m sure, for example. I know I heard it in Beyblade [another children's anime] often enough.

Because all of this is so subjective, swearing in translation can vary pretty crazily depending on the translator. Generally, the more experience, the better the swearing turns out. That’s why with fan translations (particularly anime and manga) you tend to see tons of swearing in what would seem to be kids’ shows or what have you."

-Written by one of the Mother 3 translators.

Yeah, when there's no choice but to interpret, you can tell what kind of translator is behind the text.

[Shaky Jones]

20 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

21 hours ago, gnip said:

Keep in mind that I played with a team filled with high tier scrubs, and there were plenty maps where swapping some of them out for Rolf and Mia would've made the map a lot more painful. I like to point at Clash!, which was surpringly fun to plan and play (...other than the whole "no x8 speed button in Dolphin" issue), but I don't know if that would still be true without a max Str Jill one-rounding all the Paladins charging at you and 60% of the Wyvern Lord reinforcements down the line. I'm worried that PoR would not appreciate if you were stubbornly trying to make Rolf and Mia (or whoever your favourite scrub in PoR might be) work.

As far as I can extrapolate, Maniac takes a problem that PoR has even on lower difficulties - that using multiple characters without horses and/or wings makes the game much slower - and makes it even more pronounced.

I did say "next time I'm tempted to give PoR another shot." This is an ailment easily cured by looking at PoR's gameplay. On that topic, I must thank you for handily providing a link to your playlog. It looks very tedious.

Pointless conversation about PoR gameplay (tl;dr: it's bad) aside, I actually have been replaying PoR, mainly for a community event at a discord server (gross, I know). Yeah it's bad, but at least I'm doing what I can to use units I actually like, although I am making an effort to use all the basic cavs with the intent of giving all of them bows for a maximum bow run. Yes, I'm doing a Shinon run where the goal is to play in the most racist way possible. Also, I killed Titania and Rhys immediately to add challenge and make Ike look worse to pretend that Shinon is the only reason I'm alive. Combining that with the desire to get maximum bonus xp does let me occasionally have fun, which is a lot more than I can say for FE7, but man this playstyle would just not work in maniac. I'd absolutely feel forced to just Titania Oscar solo. Hell, the whole silver weapon thing Gnip mentioned is hilariously enough overshadowed by maniac players just bringing up the forge glitch on 1-2 range forges. I swear this is brought up every time maniac mode is discussed, as if using a literal glitch is the only way to play a difficulty, because that's the only way people can tolerate one of the least player friendly, archer friendly games ever. Even if it's true that barely one shotting 1/4 of the enemy wave being preferable to chipping all of them, it still sounds far worse of an enemy phase hell than anything else other than maybe FE7 (but even fe7 has low requisites for kill stats and the average enemy doesn't just use a jav), but FE9 maniac sounds even less fun seeing those few screenshots of 5 billion enemies that now you can't even kill without dumping all your bexp on the same 3 paladins to low man. Fuck PoR.

6 hours ago, gnip said:

No, this is what I like to call a "dick move".

Sad. This was one of the few strategic stages for me that actually challenged me here.

6 hours ago, gnip said:

It's a bit wasteful, since there's no Cleric!Faye around to restore Silk's HP, so she has to use the other effect of the Angel ring to be able to heal stuff in the future.

When game balance is Kaga's passion.

6 hours ago, gnip said:

Inside the fortress, we find a Paladin and Alm's personal weapon, both with less fanfare than I kinda expected. I guess Kaga wanted to keep at least a little subtlety about ALM BEING THE PRINCE OF RIGEL, YOU GUYS, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT.

Yeah, very relatable commoner. Thanks SoV.

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This infamous map. It never ceases to amuse me that they actually made it worse on SoV. You might think "wait how do you make a map with three enemies worse? There's no room to do anything", but as it turns out, Fernand is coded to always prioritize Clive, and Berkut to always prioritize Alm. This means the three of them will never even get the chance to gang up on one squishy, making them even more ineffective than the original generic three. Also, they missed the perfect opportunity to make Slayder the third paladin and establish him as a presence instead of just randomly bringing him back on act 4, so there's that.

My brother always brings up that this map is kinda challenging in Gaiden, but that SoV is weird for successfully making something out of this map for using named characters, yet still having one rando paladin instead of putting Slayde there. Also it's SoV, so it's not that hard to clown on the baddies with your combat arts and the like.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I like how "shit!" is this guy's catchphrase in this translation. Once again, quality 2008 fan writing

Love it.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm kind of torn about Matilda. Because on the one hand, her design here is just kinda generic. She much benefitted from Hidari's excellence in Echoes... Except that game chose to sexualize the shit out of her, ruining the concept of the one and only woman in the game that's strong enough to be in a fully physical class.

Fucking SoV...

Truly the dedication of staying true to Kaga's lack of respect for women. Bravo SoV dev!

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Every anime is just a fun romp until someone complains about the titties, then all of a sudden they're all Cervantesian masterpieces of satire.

Anime fan when horny presentation:

Anime fans when people aren't as horny as them:

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, Echoes kind of overfixed that issue and ended up making the map a no-brainer lol

Most things in SoV are no brainers, and if the FE4 remake is called Echoes, the term will become synonymous with that.

20 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

39 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

"basically くそ (kuso) can run the gamut of “gee wiz” to “darn” to “fuck”, depending entirely on context, the translator’s experience, etc.

Even words like “kuso” have multiple translations, you could call it the “shit” in one case, while in other case it could be as harmless as “dang it!”. You’d even hear “kuso” in Pokemon anime I’m sure, for example. I know I heard it in Beyblade [another children's anime] often enough.

Because all of this is so subjective, swearing in translation can vary pretty crazily depending on the translator. Generally, the more experience, the better the swearing turns out. That’s why with fan translations (particularly anime and manga) you tend to see tons of swearing in what would seem to be kids’ shows or what have you."

-Written by one of the Mother 3 translators.

Yeah, when there's no choice but to interpret, you can tell what kind of translator is behind the text.

You can really figure out who's based and who's cringe.

 

Case in point, based:

[Saint Rubenio]

17 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

I actually have been replaying PoR, mainly for a community event at a discord server (gross, I know)

My condolences.

18 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

SoV is weird for successfully making something out of this map for using named characters, yet still having one rando paladin instead of putting Slayde there.

It defies comprehension. It was so obvious, and they didn't do it. Why?

19 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

You can really figure out who's based and who's cringe.

 

Case in point, based:

Of course you'd think In America! man is based. You're American, you love all things America.