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

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

So that's it, huh? We some kinda... Heroes of Light and Shadow?

Too true. Admittedly, in that case, Nagi is the one bringing the fight to him. Had he met the Divine Dragon on more amicable terms, perhaps he'd have tried to create an alliance?

Medeus is undercooked regardless. Less a character, than a force of nature.

Force of nature seems like giving him too much credit. Usually that's a compliment. But for Medeus he absolutely should have a character because they actually gave him interesting motivations and backstory in an exposition dump in Mystery but then never worked it into anything he does or says on screen. In fact they make him even less of a character in Book 2 by making just crazy.

[ping]

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Incredible, incredible.

Check this out:

Biraku	14/2.41	   28  11   8  12   2  15  10   7  +132*

HP/Str/Spd/WLv/Res level! And he did it all on his own! (ignore the inventory)

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

19 defense is 1 from the cap, which is the levels of defense generals need if FE insists on making them complete garbage at everything otherwise and also weak to a whole slew of weapons, not to mention magic. Instead, they end up almost always getting beat by any run-of-the-mill cavalier. Nice balance you got there.

: "I agree! Give me 29 base defence, 1 from the cap!"

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I mean, Marth never gave it away and he got Caeda, so... So far, no.

10 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Depends on if you consider Anri an idiot, I suppose.

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

It did end up in Archanea's hands at the start of Mystery, presumably because Marth gave it back. And then he is split up from Shiida! But he reunited with her not long after Linde returns the Fire Emblem to him. Good job Linde, saving that relationship.

Hmm... yeah, working theory: Only when holding the Fire Emblem will you fall in love with somebody intelligent. One implication being that Hardin isn't the sharpest bulb in the crayon box, either.

Wait, no, that doesn't work at all -.- Darn.

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

In my FE1 run Riff was absolutely instrumental in beating him, as he was the only one who could double him. Thanks to his capped speed. That I managed by feeding him a statbooster.

__

I considered giving the kill to Wryf, too, but, well...

10 hours ago, BrightBow said:

I think it might be because of her lower level.
The Pegasus trio clearly have generic stats in FE1. And generic growths seem to be stuff like having 100% in HP.
Palla's 25 HP at level 8 might not look high in a vacuum, but Tomas is also level 8 and he only has 20. Same with Hardin at level 6. So they might have felt that those stats were a bit higher than what they should be.

I think this doesn't entirely fit specifically because of the HP stat, because Katua's is one point too low: Katua (Lv.3 / 19 HP) - Est (Lv.5 / 22 HP) - Paola (Lv.8 / 25 HP). On the enemy side, Pegasi have a base HP of 16, too, so if we go by that basis, the Whitewings all have slightly too high HP, even Katua.

All that said, their FE3 HP stats are definitely appropriate compared to the rest of the cast. There's only two characters with more than 24 HP at base - Hardin (25), oddly enough, and Lawrence (34), who completely obliterates any boundaries set by the rest.

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

Funny Marth told Camus to drop his sword when his generic battle note specifically draws attention to the fact that he uses a lance, and he can't even use swords unless dismounting.

That explains why Camus felt / will feel some sort of kinship with Rudolf!

7 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:

I know you already talked about it in FE1, but since I missed it, I am very amused by the idea that Lawrence is supposed to show that Camus is a vainglorious, stubborn fool.  It is quite a contrast to have them in the same chapter.

I'm harping on him a lot, but I honestly have more respect for Camus the character since I figured that he's an idiot by design. I always disliked the Camus archetype because of the messaging of "war is bad because it makes good people fight other good people" - not that I disagree with war being bad, but the Camusses generally bring their fate upon themselves. "Blind loyalty is bad because it makes good people do bad things", if you will, and Lawrence is a great contrast to that, which other Camusses tend to lack.

6 hours ago, BrightBow said:

The support from Shiida helps Marth and Ogma tearing Camus to shreds by quite a bit.

Well, Marth doesn't have the greatest Skl - I assumed mine was Skl-screwed at 10, but that's only 1.2 below average - so his accuracy will always be very questionable. I think he's fairly unlikely to double, too, unless you give him a Speedwing. But considering that Navarre did sorta-kinda OK-ish, a trained Oguma would've been nice here. yeah.

One thing that's always annoying unless you get a lucky crit, though, is that you can't heal them with Mend, thanks to Camus's 1-2 range, and even 2x Physic isn't enough to out-heal Camus's damage, so you have to retreat every other turn.

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by ping

[Saint Rubenio]

3 hours ago, ping said:

Check this out:

Wow. I mean he's not Speedroshe, but...

3 hours ago, ping said:

: "I agree! Give me 29 base defence, 1 from the cap!"

Honestly, if he kept all his other stats and growths, it'd be fine. That's basically what Douglas already is. He can tank bows in Sacae all day long, but he catches a whiff of a siege tome and he's gone. Knights have so many weaknesses that obscene defense would be far, far from making them overpowered.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Hmm... yeah, working theory: Only when holding the Fire Emblem will you fall in love with somebody intelligent. One implication being that Hardin isn't the sharpest bulb in the crayon box, either.

Wait, no, that doesn't work at all -.- Darn.

It's all right, you're trying.

3 hours ago, ping said:

__

I considered giving the kill to Wryf, too, but, well...

F

3 hours ago, ping said:

I'm harping on him a lot, but I honestly have more respect for Camus the character since I figured that he's an idiot by design. I always disliked the Camus archetype because of the messaging of "war is bad because it makes good people fight other good people" - not that I disagree with war being bad, but the Camusses generally bring their fate upon themselves. "Blind loyalty is bad because it makes good people do bad things", if you will, and Lawrence is a great contrast to that, which other Camusses tend to lack.

Every Camus needs a beardman to join to make them look bad.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Wow. I mean he's not Speedroshe, but...

Honestly, if he kept all his other stats and growths, it'd be fine. That's basically what Douglas already is. He can tank bows in Sacae all day long, but he catches a whiff of a siege tome and he's gone. Knights have so many weaknesses that obscene defense would be far, far from making them overpowered.

It's all right, you're trying.

F

Every Camus needs a beardman to join to make them look bad.

Well Selena has that in the form of Duessuel. Though they chose to give them seperate chapters which reduces the effect a bit.

[Saint Rubenio]

46 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Well Selena has that in the form of Duessuel. Though they chose to give them seperate chapters which reduces the effect a bit.

Duessel also hits different because Grado left him without a choice. They stabbed him in the back before he could even speak to Ephraim. Left with nothing, of course he would join his old protegé that's not currently trying to murder him - even if it still took a bit talking to.

It's fine that way, but it's interesting to think what could've gone down if Selena had allowed Duessel to speak to Ephraim. Would he have gone full Camus, or would he have been swayed without needing Grado's betrayal?

[RPGuy96]

5 hours ago, ping said:

I'm harping on him a lot, but I honestly have more respect for Camus the character since I figured that he's an idiot by design. I always disliked the Camus archetype because of the messaging of "war is bad because it makes good people fight other good people" - not that I disagree with war being bad, but the Camusses generally bring their fate upon themselves. "Blind loyalty is bad because it makes good people do bad things", if you will, and Lawrence is a great contrast to that, which other Camusses tend to lack.

Yeah, I feel this way about FE4 Eldigan.  He's probably less stupid than Camus - Chagall is a bad king and a bad choice to be loyal to but he's no Medeus - but I think he's written to be pretty dumb and he has his own contrasts in Lachesis and Ares.  So you get your blind loyalty is bad theme, and in FE4 it resonates especially well with the first gen theme that good - or at least "noble" - intentions can go badly awry.  A fuller discussion of that will come, I'm sure.

[Jotari]

17 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Yeah, I feel this way about FE4 Eldigan.  He's probably less stupid than Camus - Chagall is a bad king and a bad choice to be loyal to but he's no Medeus - but I think he's written to be pretty dumb and he has his own contrasts in Lachesis and Ares.  So you get your blind loyalty is bad theme, and in FE4 it resonates especially well with the first gen theme that good - or at least "noble" - intentions can go badly awry.  A fuller discussion of that will come, I'm sure.

Eldigan also has the advantage that Grandvale actually are the bad guys and Sigurd's good intentions really mean diddly squat.

[RPGuy96]

39 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Eldigan also has the advantage that Grandvale actually are the bad guys and Sigurd's good intentions really mean diddly squat.

Yes, it's definitely helpful that Sigurd is loyally following orders that he knows are wrong (hmm...).  But it's not completely flipped - Chagall is not exactly a Marth or other generic FE lord figure.

[ping]

FE3 Book 1 Chapter 17: Winged Knights

Spoiler

Macedonia is Minerva and Maria's homeland. It is the birth land of flying dragons and is widely known for being a peaceful and rich kingdom. But the ambitious Prince Misheil ignored his sisters' opposition and aided Durhua with its ambitions. He led the Macedonian Dragon Knights to attack numerous countries to instill fear in the people. And, right now, he has gathered his soaring army to fight a final battle with Marth...

But first, he has a wee chat with Gato:

: "Gato, the allied army has come. This place is going to become a battlefield. Please leave to safety."
: "Mmm... I understand. But Misheil, you truly are a fool."
: "!.... Why did you call me a fool!?"
: "You love Minerva and she deeply respects you. Since you were young, you two both discussed the future of this country, and put much effort into both martial arts and study. With your combined strength, Macedonia would eventually become as strong as a country as Akaneia. However you let yourself be deceived by Garnef, becoming obsessed with pointless ambition, which would lead this country down the path of ruin..."
: "...That is already in the past. Minerva betrayed me and betrayed this country... But, Gato, I haven't lost yet. I still have the Macedonian royal family's treasured Iote Shield. With this I needn't fear even arrows. That boy... I will personally slay Aritia's Marth, for you to see. That is my final will, as king of Macedonia!"
: "Really...? Then I have nothing more to say. Go! Misheil, go and punish yourself, for the crime of killing your own father!!"

Seems like Kaga took a liking to the "strong man and gentle woman complement each other" thingie that he already used with Alm and Celica. Also, if Gato had the goal of talking down Misheil, he has remarkably bad people skills.

The map! It's boring. Well, not necessarily the map itself, but what the game does with it.

Please ignore that Sheeda/Minerva (not sure who's who in this picture) doesn't have most of her westward mobility displayed, I just wanted to show that the walls still function as in FE1, forcing both friend and, more importantly, foe to take the long way around. As a result, you have a few boring "just move everybody forward" turns, then a big clash with a lot of enemies, then more turns of boring unit movement.

The one interesting thing, like in FE1, is that the mountain tiles make it so that you need your fliers to choke the rather wide point.

There's actually some very important RNG in the enemy movement up to this point: The lower Horseman also could've moved to the tile right of the other Horseman, in which case Sheeda wouldn't have been able to end her turn next to Minerva, which in turn means that Minerva wouldn't have been safe because she would've been open to two attacks...

...and Misheil, even though he's quite the chump compared to Camüü last chapter, still hits pretty darn hard. I believe Minerva and Sheeda, with their low HP stats, wouldn't survive Misheil plus a generic Wyvern.

(and Minerva needed the extra tile to set up a kill for Chiki, to make the clean-up on the next turn a bit easier)

The whole thing turns out to be moot, though, as Misheil attacks Sheeda over Minerva, anyway.

: "Damn you, Minerva... I still haven't lost. I'll show you to fear the Macedonian Dragon Knights!"

__

Unfortunately, Marth decides to be a try-hard and crit-kill two Wyverns on enemy phase...

...which puts him at some risk of death. A second Pegasus brings him down to 1 HP (and he would've died, hadn't he leveled Def before...)...

__

...but as it turns out, FE3 AI prefers targets that don't fight back over targets it can kill. Unexpected, but not unwelcome.

__

And then Misheil is the dead. Forever.

: "My dreams... have been shattered... Forgive me... citizens of Macedonia..."

__

Aaand instant clean-up, more or less. The Cavs only use Steel Lances, so they're not much of a threat to Sheeda.

__

During this, Marth makes use of the short-lived Orb+Orb+Miracle combination (one Orb to boost growths, one Orb to preserve Miracle Sword uses, and the Miracle Sword to increase XP gain). He gains three levels, proccing Str and Def in all of them (and Spd twice).

Then he visits the village, while people run forward to kill the generic boss and maybe block reinforcements, although Marth seizes two turns before those would've appeared, anyway.

: "Ah, Lord Marth, I am Gato. Welcome here. Really...? You have fulfilled our promise and brought both the Star Orb and Light Orb here. Excellent. Then I can create the only spell that can penetrate Maph, Starlight Explosion. Very well, take this, and use it defeat the evil priest, Garnef."

Hurray!

__

: "Prince Marth, I have already found the location of Thebes! To the far north of Khadein, at the Marmotord Desert, there appears to be an illusion town. But those who went to Thebes never came back. So, what will you do?"
: "... I must go there, to reclaim the Falchion and to rescue my sister. Garnef! Watch me. I won't let this beautiful world fall into your hands!!"

The Team:

	Lv. 	   HP Str Skl Spd Lck WLv Def Res  +XP
Marth	17.15	   34  18  12  16  17  19  11   0  +234
Sheeda	13/3.23	   24   9  17  20  20  19  14   1  +151
Minerva	8.82	   23  11  11  15   9  16  13   1  +82

Hardin	16/1.39	   28  14  15  16   7  17  10   6  +32*
Alan	3.48	   25  10   8  12   5  12  10   6  +40
Biraku	14/2.73	   28  11   8  12   2  15  10   7  +32
Kashim	16/2.84	   33  16   8  14   5  10  11   2  +77

Lawrenc	5.00	   34  11   3   6   2  15  19   3  --	(base)
Maji	9.68	   22   7   6   9   8   8   6   0  --
Navarre	12/4.80	   30  15  15  19  16  13   9   3  +40

Banutu	8.09	   25   2   3   4   1   2   3   1  --
Chiki	8.42	   17   3   6   7  15   9   3  10  +165

Linda	11.20	   23   4  10  14  13  14   4   4  --
Wendel	7.97	   26   3   2  13   2  13   5   6  +40
Rena	15/3.56	   20   4  18  10  19  14   5   8  +88

 

 

On 12/19/2023 at 1:07 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

Every Camus needs a beardman to join to make them look bad.

An anti-Merlinus, if you will. A smart (instead of dumb) beardman who makes a villain (instead of the hero) look dumb (instead of smart).

On 12/19/2023 at 3:38 PM, RPGuy96 said:

Yeah, I feel this way about FE4 Eldigan.  He's probably less stupid than Camus - Chagall is a bad king and a bad choice to be loyal to but he's no Medeus - but I think he's written to be pretty dumb and he has his own contrasts in Lachesis and Ares.  So you get your blind loyalty is bad theme, and in FE4 it resonates especially well with the first gen theme that good - or at least "noble" - intentions can go badly awry.  A fuller discussion of that will come, I'm sure.

I don't remember enough about Eldigan and why he fights Sigurd to have an opinion yet, but I'll try to keep the angle "Sigurd is a Camus" or "Sigurd vs. Eldigan is Camus-on-Camus action" in the back of my mind when looking at their conflict. @Interdimensional Observer mentioned earlier in this topic (shout-out for the search function for enabling me to credit him ) that Kaga doesn't think highly of Sigurd, so with my own theory that Kaga thinks that Camus himself is an idiot... Maybe there's a spin to be found.

[Saint Rubenio]

24 minutes ago, ping said:

But first, he has a wee chat with Cat

Wee lad.

25 minutes ago, ping said:

: "Mmm... I understand. But Misheil, you truly are a fool."

That's wonderful. I legit prefer that to the good FE11 script. He just nonchalantly segues into an insult. Class act.

28 minutes ago, ping said:

And then Misheil is the dead. Forever.

: "My dreams... have been shattered... Forgive me... citizens of Macedonia..."

He has been killed. We will never see him again.

30 minutes ago, ping said:

An anti-Merlinus, if you will. A smart (instead of dumb) beardman who makes a villain (instead of the hero) look dumb (instead of smart).

Merlinus did so much harm. He singlehandedly murdered the advisorman trope, come to think of it. Going forward in the series the advisormen became the earlygame paladin, the avatar or some other flavor of obscenely powerful unit. And then permadeath stopped mattering so they were no longer needed.

[ping]

4 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That's wonderful. I legit prefer that to the good FE11 script. He just nonchalantly segues into an insult. Class act.

It's quite the different Gotoh in (English) FE11. "this folly" instead of "you fool" and, more importantly, he doesn't throw the patricide into Michalis's face. Honestly, there's a point to make that Gato being rude might be quite appropriate considering that Misheil fucking murdered his father.

7 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He has been killed. We will never see him again.

And even if we did, there's no frigging way that guy would be made into a playable character. Lunacy to even consider it.

9 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Merlinus did so much harm. He singlehandedly murdered the advisorman trope, come to think of it. Going forward in the series the advisormen became the earlygame paladin, the avatar or some other flavor of obscenely powerful unit. And then permadeath stopped mattering so they were no longer needed.

It probably helped kill the trope that BlaBla was already forced to introduce characters not dying when they are killed. A significant part of the cast is wearing plot armour, even if they aren't playable in BinBla (like Pent and Louise - I think they're confirmed to be alive anyway, but even if not, Klein and Clarine are born after BlaBla), so it's not a big step to make a playable character the advisor(wo)man and have them retreat as well.

I don't think I mind that on principle, either - but it's a shame that this coincides with the Jeigans functioning as advisors becoming much younger: Seth, Titania (with the even younger Soren as co-advisorman), RD!Sothe. If the playable advisorman would be still old, and maybe in a less martial class to underline that they're more the brains than the brawns of the operation, I think I'd be game.

So basically, make Wryf the advisorman in every FE game. I'm very disappointed in you that you didn't add him as a counterpart to Moulder in The Sacred Rubens.

--

Random observation: It seems that Chiki's HP growth is effectively halved - she leveled HP twice this map, but after going back to her base HP in the next chapter's prep screen, she's only at 17 HP, with her base being 16. Of course, because every "surviving" HP proc counts double, her HP growth isn't literally "effectively halfed", but if a single HP proc gets rounded down between transformations.... TL;DR, her HP growth is a bit fucky.

[Saint Rubenio]

7 minutes ago, ping said:

It's quite the different Gotoh in (English) FE11. "this folly" instead of "you fool" and, more importantly, he doesn't throw the patricide into Michalis's face. Honestly, there's a point to make that Gato being rude might be quite appropriate considering that Misheil fucking murdered his father.

Yeah, committing patricide, usurping the throne and kidnapping his own sister to blackmail his other sister goes a bit beyond "folly" territory.

5 minutes ago, ping said:

I don't think I mind that on principle, either - but it's a shame that this coincides with the Jeigans functioning as advisors becoming much younger: Seth, Titania (with the even younger Soren as co-advisorman), RD!Sothe. If the playable advisorman would be still old, and maybe in a less martial class to underline that they're more the brains than the brawns of the operation, I think I'd be game.

It's worth noting that Kaga never discarded the concept. His only playable advisorman is Ward "Endgame Ready Beard" Berwick Saga, and he's a game over unit. He even condemned a unit from Vestaria 1 to unplayability so he could be the sequel's advisorman.

...And it was actually the right move, because he's by far the best advisorman in the series. Funnily enough, though, he's also by far the youngest in Kaga's games.

6 minutes ago, ping said:

So basically, make Wryf the advisorman in every FE game. I'm very disappointed in you that you didn't add him as a counterpart to Moulder in The Sacred Rubens.

I will add it as an easter egg if you kill off Moulder in chapter 2.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, committing patricide, usurping the throne and kidnapping his own sister to blackmail his other sister goes a bit beyond "folly" territory.

Yeah, but, as Ping pointed out, if his intention was to actually talk some sense into Michalis then just blatantly insulting him doesn't really achieve anything. Though poor people skills wouldn't actually be out of character for Gotoh. He's no kindly Dumbledore or party rouser Gandalf. Gotoh's brand of mentor feels more begrudging dickery, at least to me.

While we're here, I wonder what Gotoh was doing in that Macedonian village. Like, does he live there? Does he have an actual house with idk a butter churn and stuff with neighbours who know of him as the wise and powerful sage with locals bothering him all the time to ask him to bless their chickens? Or has he only been there recently, as a sort of refugee from Dolhr after Medeus return, with Macedon being the closest nation (even if they're aligned Michalis seems whiley enough to hold onto the great sage rather than let Dolhr have him). Or does Gotoh have no fixed abode and just wandered the nation and this was the most convenient meeting point between him and Marth? The last feels the most on point for his character, but it seems to be the only suggestion that the text actually discourages as that previous comment I made a fuss about distance of showed that Gotoh was already in Macedon. on a bit of a related note, Gotih's ending (which he doesn't have in this game because random exclusion) notes that he actually settled down in Archanea as their Archsage at Nyna's request... something that is never suggested s having happened already in Book 2, and, given what happens to Nyna and her apparent swift departure from Archanea after Book 2, doesn't really seem like it happens naturally after the game either. She must have asked him to settle down while they were still at the Dragon's Table celebrating Medeus' defeat.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Jotari

[Saint Rubenio]

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, but, as Ping pointed out, if his intention was to actually talk some sense into Michalis then just blatantly insulting him doesn't really achieve anything.

While we're here, I wonder what Gotoh was doing in that Macedonian village. Like, does he live there? Does he have an actual house with idk a butter churn and stuff with neighbours who know of him as the wise and powerful sage with locals bothering him all the time to ask him to bless their chickens? Or has he only been there recently, as a sort of refugee from Dolhr after Medeus return, with Macedon being the closest nation (even if they're aligned Michalis seems whiley enough to hold onto the great sage rather than let Dolhr have him). Or does Gotoh have no fixed abode and just wandered the nation and this was the most convenient meeting point between him and Marth? The last feels the most on point for his character, but it seems to be the only suggestion that the text actually discourages as that previous comment I made a fuss about distance of showed that Gotoh was already in Macedon. on a bit of a related note, Gotih's ending (which he doesn't have in this game because random exclusion) notes that he actually settled down in Archanea as their Archsage at Nyna's request... something that is never suggested s having happened already in Book 2, and, given what happens to Nyna and her apparent swift departure from Archanea after Book 2, doesn't really seem like it happens naturally after the game either. She must have asked him to settle down while they were still at the Dragon's Table celebrating Medeus' defeat.

Pretty sure he mentions it's his home, or at least in FE11 I seem to recall he does. He probably does just live there. Which does beg the question as to why he moved to an abandoned castle in the middle of Peak Nowhere with a bunch of thieves and dragons as roommates in the sequel...

(Also, bolded doesn't make sense, Gotoh would never go for the most convenient option)

[BrightBow]

Visiting a village was probably merely the only way to do any kind of event triggered by player action in FE1. There might be no deeper reason than that.

[Jotari]

14 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Visiting a village was probably merely the only way to do any kind of event triggered by player action in FE1. There might be no deeper reason than that.

Oh well of course that's the Doylest reason. I was looking at it from the Watson perspective.

36 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Pretty sure he mentions it's his home, or at least in FE11 I seem to recall he does. He probably does just live there. Which does beg the question as to why he moved to an abandoned castle in the middle of Peak Nowhere with a bunch of thieves and dragons as roommates in the sequel...

(Also, bolded doesn't make sense, Gotoh would never go for the most convenient option)

Hmm. Let's see. It'll be either the chapter after Kahdein or Raman...and...he says he's speaking from Macedon after the Khadein chapter but he doesn't explain why he's there. And it seems I mis remembered as he doesn't seem to show up in any of the Grust chapters. The Grust quote in Book 1 was adapted from Oriddyon's cut chapter where he again just says where he is without explanation, this time in more detail so players can know how important saving that village is...on that point.. why exactly is saving that village so important? Gotoh certainly has the end game stats to deal with that lowly thief XD

Edited December 21, 2023 by Jotari

[RPGuy96]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, but, as Ping pointed out, if his intention was to actually talk some sense into Michalis then just blatantly insulting him doesn't really achieve anything. Though poor people skills wouldn't actually be out of character for Gotoh. He's no kindly Dumbledore or party rouser Gandalf. Gotoh's brand of mentor feels more begrudging dickery, at least to me.

Gotoh is such a jerk he doesn't even fight with you!  Really weird thing to leave out.  I think when I played Shadow Dragon (after FE3 but long before FE1) I assumed making him playable was a remake thing, and was really surprised when he joined me in FE1.

I agree that Gotoh feels like a big meanie even when he's trying to be nice and help you.  I don't remember Shadow Dragon and New Mystery well enough to know if that feeling is warranted in the official localizations, but that's the vibe I remember.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It's worth noting that Kaga never discarded the concept. His only playable advisorman is Ward "Endgame Ready Beard" Berwick Saga, and he's a game over unit. He even condemned a unit from Vestaria 1 to unplayability so he could be the sequel's advisorman.

What is your opinion of Eugen's beard?  Clear best [story] advisorman, I think.  Ward has some of the same, uh, idiosyncrasies in Navaron, but at least to where I am in the game (Ch 8) he hasn't screwed up any map deployments like Eugen wisely does.

[Interdimensional Observer]

5 hours ago, ping said:

...and Misheil, even though he's quite the chump compared to Camüü last chapter, still hits pretty darn hard. I believe Minerva and Sheeda, with their low HP stats, wouldn't survive Misheil plus a generic Wyvern.

He moves with the rest of the pack this time? Michalis at his most threatening? (Way better than his stationary DS Javelin incarnation.)

Also, while he, Lorenz, and Camus all have the puffy shirt & large collar, now that I notice it, Michalis's collar looks reallllly big. Too much so.

4 hours ago, ping said:

It's quite the different Gotoh in (English) FE11. "this folly" instead of "you fool" and, more importantly, he doesn't throw the patricide into Michalis's face. Honestly, there's a point to make that Gato being rude might be quite appropriate considering that Misheil fucking murdered his father.

TBF

Gotoh:
“The weight of his father’s murder threatens to crush him…Poor boy. …Poor fool.”

Gotoh still drops the f*** bomb, just after Michalis leaves his presence. Pity and a scolding. I'm sure ala a Japanese(?) old wives' tale, Gotoh's talk of Michalis behind his back caused the Usurper King to sneeze so loudly, that his wyvern was shocked and made a little "drop off" midair, landing on an unassuming Macedonian civilian Frost.

5 hours ago, ping said:

@Interdimensional Observer mentioned earlier in this topic (shout-out for the search function for enabling me to credit him ) that Kaga doesn't think highly of Sigurd,

To be precise.:

Kaga’s comment: Sigurd’s chapter was meant simply to be foreshadowing, leading up to Seliph’s chapter.
None of the characters are perfect; all of them have flaws because it is human nature, and it is precisely because of their flaws that they meet the fates that they do.

...

Although Sigurd is the protagonist, he is also heavily flawed, his aforementioned love included. He is also extremely naïve, even compared to Seliph. The tragedy would not have happened were he a more competent person.

Old interview before Thracia released. Not entirely sure on its date, but not too long after Genealogy released, I think.

When you get to Genealogy, I'll rip further tracts out of it when they become relevant.😜

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He just nonchalantly segues into an insult. Class act.

Your Gotoh jabs are reminding me of my own ...flabbergasted disappointment... with the L.

[BrightBow]

26 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

He moves with the rest of the pack this time? Michalis at his most threatening? (Way better than his stationary DS Javelin incarnation.)

He does it in FE1 too. Why the DS remake felt the need to change that, I have no idea.
I mean, they actually did the opposite for Camus and removed him from the gate so that the map can be cleared without killing him. Clearly they were not acting with the attitude that the boss needed to always be on the seize point.

In terms of personality, this kind of approach most certainly makes more sense for Michalis. He is the one with a chip on his shoulder, the desperate need to prove that he was right to do the awful things he did and to not be outdone by some blue-haired, juvenile wannabe hero.
Camus does not believe in his cause, and is merely driven by a sense of loyalty to his king.

Funnily enough in FE1 Michalis actually starts out on the gate, but swaps positions with another dragonrider on the first turn. It's quite fun missing that and to only notice Michalis once he is right up your face.

Edited December 22, 2023 by BrightBow

[Jotari]

8 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

He does it in FE1 too. Why the DS remake felt the need to change that, I have no idea.
I mean, they actually did the opposite for Camus and removed him from the gate so that the map can be cleared without killing him. Clearly they were not acting with the attitude that the boss needed to always be on the seize point.

In terms of personality, this kind of approach most certainly makes more sense for Michalis. He is the one with a chip on his shoulder, the desperate need to prove that he was right to do the awful things he did and to not be outdone by some blue-haired, juvenile wannabe hero.
Camus does not believe in his cause, and is merely driven by a sense of loyalty to his king.

Funnily enough in FE1 Michalis actually starts out on the gate, but swaps positions with another dragonrider on the first turn. It's quite fun missing that and to only notice Michalis once he is right up your face.

Having him get off the throne and pursue you also allows you to not kill him, which makes his appearance in the next game a bit easier to swallow for those of us who like a sense of story gameplay integration (course in canon he still ends up fighting and injured in the battle, but yes, I find that easier to swallow if I can avoid killing him myself). I feel that's why they changed Camus to be off the throne, so it's a bit curious they altered this aspect of Michalis. Maybe it was genuinely an oversight because they didn't realize he moved on the NES.

[Saint Rubenio]

7 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:

What is your opinion of Eugen's beard?  Clear best [story] advisorman, I think.  Ward has some of the same, uh, idiosyncrasies in Navaron, but at least to where I am in the game (Ch 😎 he hasn't screwed up any map deployments like Eugen wisely does.

Best character in games. He is amazing at everything except his job, at which he consistently blows. He's amazing.

Nowadays I feel the best advisorman is the VS2 one but  Eugen is definitely the funniest. I will never forget the time he punched the (good) lord unconscious with a single blow.

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

why exactly is saving that village so important? Gotoh certainly has the end game stats to deal with that lowly thief XD

He is lazy and won't bother fighting the thief.

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Your Gotoh jabs are reminding me of my own ...flabbergasted disappointment... with the L.

Huh? I'm drawing a blank now.

...Gotoh is dumb, though.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

Having him get off the throne and pursue you also allows you to not kill him, which makes his appearance in the next game a bit easier to swallow for those of us who like a sense of story gameplay integration (course in canon he still ends up fighting and injured in the battle, but yes, I find that easier to swallow if I can avoid killing him myself). I feel that's why they changed Camus to be off the throne, so it's a bit curious they altered this aspect of Michalis. Maybe it was genuinely an oversight because they didn't realize he moved on the NES.

The point is rendered rather moot considering BOTH appear in the sequel lol. They should've just changed Camus and kept Michalis at it is. It feels like they thought he'd make for a good gate boss with his shiny new anti-arrow shield? Bad call. It didn't work for Valter, why'd it work for this bozo?

Edited December 22, 2023 by Saint Rubenio

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Best character in games. He is amazing at everything except his job, at which he consistently blows. He's amazing.

Nowadays I feel the best advisorman is the VS2 one but  Eugen is definitely the funniest. I will never forget the time he punched the (good) lord unconscious with a single blow.

He is lazy and won't bother fighting the thief.

Huh? I'm drawing a blank now.

...Gotoh is dumb, though.

The point is rendered rather moot considering BOTH appear in the sequel lol. They should've just changed Camus and kept Michalis at it is. It feels like they thought he'd make for a good gate boss with his shiny new anti-arrow shield? Bad call. It didn't work for Valter, why'd it work for this bozo?

New anti arrow shield? I'm pretty sure Iotes Shield was in the originals. I specifically remember....

Spoiler

It being obtainable on Book 2 by standing on the spot Michalis appears in the Lykke chapter, but they moved it to a paralogue later in the game in New Mystery.

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Jotari

[Saint Rubenio]

21 minutes ago, Jotari said:

New anti arrow shield? I'm pretty sure Iotes Shield was in the originals. I specifically remember....

  Hide contents

It being obtainable on Book 2 by standing on the spot Michalis appears in the Lykke chapter, but they loved it to a paralogue later in the game in New Mystery.

 

Oh yeah, it's in this game. It's FE1 where it doesn't exist.

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Huh? I'm drawing a blank now.

...Gotoh is dumb, though.

The green of the L' being his hair in this case, not his attire. An advisor whose dialogue I expected to be fixed in the improved FE4 translation. After all, the overly crass and or casual language that an early era of amateur fan translators had used elsewhere in FE4 had been corrected. Instead... 🤨.

[Saint Rubenio]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The green of the L' being his hair in this case, not his attire. An advisor whose dialogue I expected to be fixed in the improved FE4 translation. After all, the overly crass and or casual language that an early era of amateur fan translators had used elsewhere in FE4 had been corrected. Instead... 🤨.

Ahhhhhhh, now I know which one you're referring to... That one's quite popular, though I didn't think he was all that. The man the myth the legend, August definitely has him beat.