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

[Saint Rubenio]

5 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

What's your problem with her? Just having the name Fury is honestly really awesome.

I don't like peggy sues. They're coarse, and rough, and irritating, and they get everywhere.

More to the point, they're made in a factory and they're all boring, which is worse than being bad or evil. Fury is a pretty awesome name, I'll give her that much, but beyond that she's exactly the same as every other peggy sue ever. Archetype 1 of 2: The serious one.

6 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

He has the ability to steal money from people simply by talking to them. Even Dew can't do that.

That is rather amazing, I suppose.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

I already did, you never commented on it >.>

Yeah I know, haha. It was a good thread! Was neat to see how many disparate characters shared a portrait, often without rhyme or reason.

I never commented because... I didn't really have anything to add or contribute. I generally don't mind the "pallette swaps" in older games. But I also don't mind that, in a potential remake, they'll almost certainly give the character portraits more variation.

4 hours ago, BrightBow said:

What's your problem with her? Just having the name Fury is honestly really awesome.

The first time I played, the translation I was using called her "Ferry". Which would be great for a Pegasus Knight - in amy game with the Rescue command. Anyway, I think it's amusing that she's had, like, four different names.

[ping]

FE4 Chapter 2: Crisis in Agustria

Anphony --> Mackily

Spoiler

As usual, new things come into motion on the enemy phase after Sigurd seized Anphony:

: "You can't be serious! They've come as far as Anphony?! Are they just going to keep going until all Agustria is theirs? They'll have to come this way. We've no choice but to fight. Deploy the ballistae. We're all that stands between the capital and Grannvale's dogs of war!"

Turns out that "waiting how things play out" isn't always the best course of action. I do like Clement as a minor villain, though - if he can even be called that. Like, all he did was not involve himself with the conflict between Nordion and Heirhein, even if he had planned to throw in with whoever may come out on top. But you can't really fault a guy for not predicting that Sigurd would just go a-conquerin' castle after castle, and now he's kinda forced to resist the foreign aggressor. Poor guy.

I lose a lot of sympathy for Clement after seeing the squad of five Ballistae... up a cliff, so you just have to deal with them being there until you seize Mackily Castle. Other than that, the Mackily squad is mostly notable for including three Mages using Fire, who will of course hit all of our physical characters quite hard.

Clement himself adds to the arseholery of the Ballistae by carrying a Sleep staff, which seems difficult to entirely avoid. The obvious solution would be to have Deirdre Silence him first, but (a) she isn't exactly nearby, and (b) if you don't kill Clement immediately on the same turn, chances are that the Ballistae will tear Deirdre to shreds for daring to approach them.

However, once you close the distance, Clement's rather easy to kill, with his abysmal Def stat and fairly low AS.

: "I need to find Prince Lewyn as quickly as possible. You said you know his location. That's the only reason I'm here."
: "Apologies for the delay, knight, but I just received word of a lead for you. I trust you've noticed we're currently contending with a Grannvale invasion? They have taken Prince Lewyn captive! My scouts report that their army is arresting and executing anyone and anything which stands in their way. Your prince is being held in Evans Castle. Reports say that he is soon to face the axe."
: "No... I can't allow this! Thank you for your assistance. We'll leave to rescue him at once. Our queen, Rahna, cautioned us against clashing with other nations on our mission, but we may have no choice. Should Grannvale's troops cross our way, they'll be confronted without hesitation."
: "Oho... This is even better than I'd hoped! Best of luck on your hunt."
: "I'll be on my way, then."

: "She's gone... Pah! Stupid little girl. Ready the Agusty knights to deploy! End those pigs in a single strike!"

__

Getting tricked by Chagall (Chagall!) really isn't a good look, Erin, darling.

The force that Chagall is sending out... really isn't too impressive. Two groups of five horsies (four goons and one commander), and they're even staggered by about one turn of movement.

Chagall himself is the first Baron boss we face, and he's... not that impressive, honestly. Philip, the third commander of the Heirhein army, hit just as hard and more accurately, while beating Chagall's physical bulk by +3 HP and +2 Def. Chagall has the avoid bonus and healing of his castle tile, but that also makes him a stationary boss locked to 1-range.

He does have a bit of support ability, in form of his Physic staff (assuming he'll use it) and a second Authority star. But overall, he's not as strong as one might expect from the final boss of the map - although I guess that fits with Chagall being a bit of a buffoon in the story.

[HP 50% | Str 20% | Mag 10% | Skl 20% | Spd 30% | Lck 20% | Def 30% | Res 10%]
Skills: Pursuit
Weapon Level: Swords (B), Lances (B)

Erin joins with good base stats considering her low level - her Str is about equal to what Noish, Alec, and Midir have right now, and 18 Spd (and Sword access, if the lighter weight of her Slim Lance still isn't enough to double something) is obviously very nice. Defensively, she's a little squishier on the physical side, but also joins with the Pegasus-typical high Res stat.

Her long-term combat seems a little bit more questionable, though: Not only is her Str growth very low, but she doesn't gain any from her promotion, and while her Def growth is quite decent, her HP growth is decidedly not. However, it seems to be the intended play to swap her over to magic swords, since she get a big +7 bonus to her Mag as a Falcoknight. However however, with her Spd being as excellent as it is, she should be able to quadruple with the Brave Lance most of the time, which should keep her physical combat relevant even as she falls further behind in Str.

Her future husband hasn't joined yet, but I've alluded to him often enough to just say that it's going to be Claude. What can I say, magic-based Pegasi are a nice concept, and Claude gains Fee the second-highest Mag growth possible, as well as a more useful weapon rank increase for both her and Ced, and from what I (vaguely) remember, the increased Res stat can be quite useful in the lategame, too.

Erin and her squad will take a little while before reaching Evans. They only move (I believe) 5 tiles, unless there's somebody to attack inside their full range. Erin is the one in the back, as well as the only one using a Slim Lance instead of a Javelin, which makes it quite feasible to kill a bunch of innocent women before recruiting her.

__

Well then, on to the actual gameplay. Because I marched most of Sigurd's army to or towards Anphony, I'm not exactly in position. But Chagall's Cav troupe spawns at a sufficient distance from Nordion that even though Aideen can't warp anybody there, it being an allied castle, that you can still intercept them fairly easily.

However, Beowulf is not going to participate in that. Because Raquesis can't join the frontline without risking the life of her Paladin friends, Beowulf is going to stay behind as Heirhein to keep her company and provide her with bonus stats.

: "Hey, you! You're that Nordion lady, aren't ya?"
: "E-excuse me?! Such boorishness! What mannter of lowlife is asking?"
: "Oh, er, sorry 'bout that, ma'am. The name's Beowulf, a hired blade."
: "What do you want?"
:" Uh... Well, I just wanted to give ya a quick heads up about fightin'. See, war ain't the fun and games you're used to. And someone as green as you... Well, you're just gonna get in the way. Besides, a princess's a princess. Why not run along back to your castle now?"
: "H-how dare you! My business in battle is just that: my business! Not yours! I'll nail your foul mouth closed!"
: "Heh. You really are Eldigan's sister. Shoulda known you wouldn't be a pushover."
: "What's that? Do you know my brother?!"
: "Oh, yeah. Eldigan and me, we go way back. I'd never've been so nosy if he hadn't asked me to keep an eye on ya."
: "Is that so? Oh, I'm sorry for snapping at you so."
: "Eh, I've seen a lot worse in me time. Hey, how about a quick battle lesson? Eldigan thought it'd be a big help."
: "Why, thank you. I'd like that."

[+2 Str, +2 Skl, +1 Def]

Considering that the chance of Beowulf and Eldigan interacting between Beo's recruitment and now is roughly 0.00%... What are the odds that Beowulf just learned somewhere that Raquesis obsessively adores her brother, so he made the whole story up?

With the help of castle healing, Raquesis manages to get through Buchanan the Myrmidon before the end of the update, but didn't hit a good HP count to cheese her way past the following Lance-using Armour Knight. This still puts her ahead of Beowulf, who would probably need the Speed Ring to beat Buchanan. Later, Jamke joins the two and gets through all the arena except for the final opponent - but really, he's mostly there to function as a healing target for Raquesis. Because hoping for the correct amount of HP restored is a bit of a headache, she gains a bunch of XP through that method instead, although she would definitely appreciate the money she'd get from clearing the rest of the arena. Maybe I'll give it another shot before seizing the final castle.

Since she won't get to the frontlines this map, Raquesis also sells the Thief's Sword so that Ayra can pick it up, in the hope that she might be able to get enough cash to grab the Paragon Band. It's a bit ambitious, though - she's only at roughly 29k when conquering Mackily. But even if she'll only get to the mid-30k range, it might be worth to still get it after going through a few Arena rounds first. Once she and Lex marry, she can basically just take all his cash, since Lex is loaded and will never have to throw 20k to buy and sell the Paragon Ring.

Arden will also join the Heirhein crew eventually, after grabbing the Pursuit Ring. Like Beowulf, he'll be stopped by Buchanan, although I have to admit that I didn't try very hard to find a favourable RN string, nor did I have him buy a better sword than his old trusted Iron.

: "...Sigh. I don't get it. No matter how hard I train or how strong I get, I'm still the butt of every joke 'round here. Maybe if I were more like Alec, with how he can attack twice... That'd be all I need to get a bit of respect, methinks... and maybe a cute lass while I'm at it... Hee hee. But I'm still just me... Back to the ol' grind, I suppose... Hang on? What's this little ring thing? Ooh, maybe it's one of those magical ones I keep hearing about. That'd be grand, wouldn't it? Let's try her on... Hm... Hwooooarh! W-what's this power I'm feeling?! Is this what Alec feels like all the time?"

...Honestly, you know you've hit rock bottom when Alec is the guy you're aspiring to be.

In the north, Midir splits from Aideen in order to grab 14k gold from the collection of villages, putting him to precisely 40k. I have been thinking a bit about who to give the remaining 25k to - Azel was a candidate, because while I wrote earlier that he had been able to clear the arena without the Speed Ring, it turns out that I just hit a particularly lucky RN string for him and he wasn't able to replicate that. But he's still carrying the Return Ring and Def Ring, which he could sell to afford the Spd Ring - with it, he can outspeed Chaimos and hopefully defeat him. So, it's going to be Erin collecting all the remaining money, which should make it very likely that she'll be able to beat the arena. Not quite sure if she'll keep the Bargain Ring indefinitely - eventually, Patty seems like the best inheritance target, I think, so maybe I'll give it to Azel sooner rather than later.

__

Finn goes through the Arena quite easily, not even using the Brave Lance until fighting the last two opponents. he then sells the Paragon Ring and Brave Lance, after buying the Skill Ring because he otherwise would've hit the money cap of 50k. I'll have to take a look at my planned kids' skill stats to see if he'll just keep it.

__

You can also see a rather embarrassing loss for Deirdre, getting merced (or myrmed) despite a +90 avoid bonus from her Circlet's Miracle skill. However, she manages to do better in another attempt, and actually get all the way to Chaimos - who one-shots her, so no shenanigans possible here, unless she'd grab the Def Ring from Azel.

Meanwhile, Aideen stays with Deirdre and the Xmas cavs for a little while to heal their arena wounds for XP. Eventually, she follows Midir because she just loves him that much. And so that she can warp him over to some castle once he has collected all the money he needs.

__

Sigurd's the next guy to go through the arena. He has to sell all his gear except for the Silver Sword to reach 40k, but clearly, it is worth it. (He also rebuys the Iron Lance immediately after the first fight so that he can use it instead of the expensive Silver Sword for battles 2-6)

Eventually, the first group of Cavs gets intercepted, with Quan and Sigurd being the closest. Lex and Ayra follow behind Sigurd; Finn and Ethlyn (and eventually Azel and Dew) behind Quan.

____

Easy stealings.

Finally, back at the home castle, Lewin renders Holyn's guard duty obsolete by killing a few of his compatriots. "Surely, he will be able to dodge at least on out of three incoming 31s", I thought. And I thought correctly, but the first two Javelins connecting did make me a bit worried.

: "What, this? I'm a bard now. You know, walking the land, spreading songs and cheer? What do you say: perfect, or perfect?"
: "Er, Perfect? But why, milord... Aren't you supposed to be held captive at Evans? I got here as fast as I could, but..."
: "I'm imprisoned at Evans, am I? Where'd you hear that one?"
: "King Chagall of Agustria said so."
: "Chagall? Hah! Hate to break it to you, Erin, but you've been tricked. It's nice and all that you're so ready to trust, but you wouldn't last ten seconds out there in the city! It'd eat you and your innocence alive. You might even end up like Sylvia..."
: "Sylvia, milord...?"
: "Oh, Sylvia's... Er, it's not important. Point is, what are you doing all the way out here?"
: "Isn't it obvious? I'm here to find and bring you home, milord. It's been two years since you fled Silesse. Her Majesty is gravely worried about you. Please, milord. Come home with me."
: "Do you have any idea what that'd to to Silesse, Erin? If I go back, I'll have no choice but to take the throne. It's my late father's will, but my uncles would never accept it. Just one false step and we'd have a civil war, just like here. And it's always the common folk who suffer for it! If there are people who want to be kings or whatever, great! Out here, though? I'm free, and I like it that way. I don't want a thing to do with that throne. For the good of Silesse, just give it to one of my uncles."
: "I can't allow that, milord. You know as well as I that the kings of Silesse must bear descent from Forseti, the wind god. You, milord, are the sole living scion of his lineage. Neither of your uncles bear it. You milord, are Silesse's future! Yourself and your uncles aside, all Silesse wishes to see you claim the throne. And... And your mother, the queen, was in tears when she sent me... Please, milord... Come back."
: "Erin... Ugh, don't you start crying too! Give me a break... I can't stand to see a woman in tears... Okay, fine. I'll think about going home. Just... Give me some time to muster the nerve, alright?"
: "Thank you. In that case, I'm staying with you until you're ready, milord. I'll send a messenger back to Silesse to report that you're safe."
: "Wow, you're persistent, I'll grant you that. All right. I think I'll stay with Sigurd's army for now. He's a pretty neat guy to work with, not to mention his army's full of beauties! Hey, Erin, you could stand to get to know some of the ladies here. Maybe their stylishness could rub off on you a bit!"
: "Yes, milord..."
: "Hey, I'm just kidding, Erin! Relax a bit! Don't take everything so seriously! ...Heh, nobody in the world's as sweet as you. Don't you ever change a thing."
: "Y-yes, sir... I mean, no, milord..."

See, there is one generic Pegasus Knight left to bring the message to Silesse that Lewyn is (a) alive and (b) a bloody psychopath who kills for fun (and XP).

If Erin hadn't been so easily tricked by Chagall, I'd almost believe that her insistence on staying with Lewyn comes from her seeing right through his bullshit of "I will potentially think about maybe returning to Silesse, eventually".

And finally, Lewyn, in our own modern world, would be the son of a millionaire who founds a indie rock band with light pseudo-punk vibes (and with himself as the sole leading man, of course). And even though their music is about as generic as it gets, it somehow is played all the time on the radio, giving them some moderate national success. Once the band becomes big enough to attract some groupies, Lewyn would obviously be creepy about it, sleeping with them whenever giving the opportunity (and if they say they're 18, who is he to doubt them) before talking behind their backs about what trashy kind of woman they are.

TL;DR: Lewyn is a shitty person.

Anyway, back to the task at hand: Get through the Ballistae and Clement's Sleep spell.

Step one is to get the enemies move away from the castle, with Sigurd removing a pair of enemy swordfighters right away. He's still outside of Clement's range, and the other units stay a little behind him to draw some Ballista fire.

____

Step two: Retreat a bit. We aren't under any kind of time pressure, really.

__

And finally, move in with a handful of characters.

Clement targets Quan, too bad, whatever will we do without him...

__

...and Lex grabs the boss kill. He's a bit lucky in doing so, hitting two 58s, but otherwise, Sigurd could've just taken the kill instead.

Lex getting the Sleep staff is a bit superfluous, of course, considering that he's very much not in need of cash, but Ayra might eventually appreciate it.

Before seizing, a few villages:

: "War's the most dreadful thing, and 'tis always the innocent and helpless who suffer most for it. Please... go home to your families."

(5000 gold -> Midir)

: "The great Lord Eldigan of Nordion is a descendant of Hezul the Brave, one of the legendary Twelve Crusaders. He wields Hezul's old weapon, Mystletainn, the demon blade. They say it's as strong as Isaach's Balmung and Chalphy's Tyrfing... The three mightiest blades in all of creation."

(5000 gold -> Midir)

: "We can't thank you enough for helpin' us. This here sword's the best we can do. It's an unusual sort, innit? They call it an armorslayer. In the right hands it'll cleave right through the thickest armor. If your hands aren't the right hands, though? Maybe it can make ya a quick buck at a pawn shop in town."

(5000 gold -> Erin)

Somewhat late to teach the player about the pawn shot, maybe.

Finally, and non-canonically, Alec chatting up Sylvia. Non-canon because it has no effect except for the love points, and Sylvia isn't supposed to marry.

: "Hey! You're Sylvia, aren't you? Excuse me for being so forward, but you're adorable!"
: "Finally! Here I was, thinkin' this army's nothin' but stiff and borin' military types. It's about time someone appreciates me!"
: "Heh, I guess I'm the only decent guy around here. Glad I found you."
: "Thanks! Me, too!"
: "I guess we'll be here a while, so how about dinner sometime? Bet that'd be nice."
: "Ooh, yeah! Maybe I'll dance for you too! I've got a special one that nobody's seen yet. It's kinda embarrassing, 'cause it's VERY special. maybe I'll show it to ya, though!"
: "Y-you will? Oh, I can't wait!"

Honestly, if it wasn't for Sylvia's portrait looking rather young, I wouldn't mind this convo all that much. Just two horny fellows being horny. Good for them.

But with that, I think I've covered everything... It's a bit difficult to keep track, there being four groups of characters doing their own things. In any case, Sigurd kills the one Ballistician in Javelin-throwing range because why not, and seizes.

: "Good. Mackily is ours. That leaves the capital, Agusty..."
: "Indeed, sire, but don't get too careless. We've been informed that Agusty still hosts a sizable defensive force. We ought to take the utmost care."
: "Mm, you're right. Who knows what that Chagall has up his sleeve..."

It is increasingly noticable that every time he seizes a castle, Sigurd does not say, "We have a very strong position to negotiate. We should try to use that position to pressure {villain of the day} to accept our justified demands."

__

After that, Chagall is really about as cornered as one can be. Only the one path between Mackily and Agusty left, so no fancy pincer manoeuvres left. But of course, he does have something up his sleeve - I like to call his trick "split up my forces like a dumbass":

: "Y-you! Manfroy!! If it weren't for your schemes, I wouldn't be in this mess! How in the blazes will you fix this?!"
: "Heh heh... You exaggerate my role. All I did was advise the removal of the king, obstacle to your ambition as he was. All else was your choice. Can you doubt that?"
: "I...  Damn it all! How is Sigurd's little army even this strong? This isn't fair! Manfroy, I'm begging you... Help me. What am I supposed to do now?!"
: "As I said, this isn't over. As a last resort, I do beliee you have a fellow of use imprisoned here... Yes, I speak of Eldigan. Eldigan and Sigurd have been associates for years. Sigurd will unquestionably listen to Eldigan's counsel. Of course, Eldigan can't do that while locked up, can he? Go apologize to him."
: "Er... Y-yes, of course! Surely, Eldigan is the answer! Now, if you'll excuse me..."

__

: "With Kurth's death there remains but a single scion to Naga's holy lineage, and that old fool hardly needs our help to die. And then, all that will remain is the restoration of the dark one, and then the world will belong to us..."
: "What of Duke Arvis, Your Excellency? Is he in agreement with your plan?"
: "Why, of course. As a bearer of the dark one's blood, what choice does he have? Not even one of Arvis' stature can afford the wider world learning of his dark heritage, lest he be burned at the stake. Could a man as prideful as Arvis bear to meet such an end?"
: "So he will betray his king and style himself emperor, and..."
: "Indeed... But that will not be enough. Arvis alone cannot restore the dark god. We still need one more person... That woman's daughter.

This fuels my impression that Genealogy is a bit too forthcoming with clearing up its own mysteries. We've been talking about how it's interesting that Arvis is still looking like more than a pawn than a co-conspirator, but that has been made obsolete pretty quickly. Of course, there's still the question how much of the plan Arvis is party of, so combined with my knowing the general structure of the plot already, I might just be overly critical here.

Oh, and Kurth's dead. Not much of a surprise, since Sigurd basically raised the death flag by exclaiming how fucked Grannvale would be without him, but it's maybe a bit surprising that Kurth's death is already announced at the very next castle.

__

Finally, here's Zane (clearly another instance of a shapeshifting Xane who was in an uncreative phase with his name choices) - the first boss that is truly threatening for Sigurd. With an effective Atk of 56, Zane can bring Sigurd down to 13 HP with a single strike. The only other horsies that can survive a blow are Lex and, remarkably, Finn, who is sitting at 44 HP / 14 Def after his Arena clear.

Only question left: Will X/Zane hit on the handsome blue-haired lord if given the chance?

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn
Sigurd	  22.03*  53  23   0  22  22  13  16   4  30080  +620  [*]
Quan	  14.62*  44  20   0  15  15   7  12   3  43530  +472  [*]
Noish	  7.68	  35  12   0  10  10   4   9   0  5000   +131  [4]
Alec	  7.63	  36  11   0  11  11   5  11   0  9420   +191  [4]

Beowulf	  10.61	  38  14   0  11  11   3  11   0  16500  +161  [4]
Lex	  19.56	  48  19   1  12  13  10  17   0  36840  +992  [*]
Finn	  17.12	  44  16   0  14  18  13  14   1  43150  +967  [*]
Midir	  10.53	  38  11   0  10  11   5   8   1  36000  +154  [1]

Erin	  6.00	  32  11   1  12  18   7   9   9  13000  --    [1]
Arden	  7.69	  38  16   0   6   5   3  15   0  19775  +100  [4]
Ayra	  10.88	  38  12   1  20  20   5   8   1  28740  +220  [1]
Holyn	  12.66	  40  14   0  17  17   1  11   1  14500  +66   [4]

Jamke	  11.57	  41  12   0  16  14   8  10   1  36320  +299  [7]
Dew	  6.42	  30   7   0   9  16  13   2   1  2500   +146  [3]
Raquesis  6.97	  27  10   8  11  14   5   9   9  17350  +497  [5]
Azel	  11.26	  35   1  14  11  16   4   3   8  44500  +322  [1]

Lewyn	  10.37	  38   1  15  12  20   7   5  10  23500  +437  [*]
Deirdre   7.82	  29   0  16  10  13   6   4  18  17500  +348  [7]
Ethlyn	  16.28	  38   8  10  15  18  11   7   6  3270   +644  [1]
Aideen	  12.80	  37   2  15  11  11  17   3  10  6400   +480  --

Sylvia	  2.90	  28   3   0   4  12   7   1   6  5000   +190  [1]

 

  

On 3/2/2024 at 10:46 AM, Jotari said:

The truth is we don't really know what the situation is. For all we know Victor could have been thrilled his wife was sleeping with the future king and pimped her out precisely to get close to the royal family and his letter of denouncement is bullshit. But that's me putting my conspiracy theoriest hat on.

Considering that he killed himself after penning the letter, Victor would've had to be really commited to the act. Although, if you add "the letter was actually penned by the Loptyr Gang, who then killed Victor and made it look like a suicide", you can leave that snazzy tinfoil hat on your head. Omnipresent shadowy death cults are useful like that.

On 3/2/2024 at 3:26 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Boomer Sigurd leaves his castle because Gandalf kidnapped not just Edain, but all the Coors Light as well.

Excuse me, since I am of ze Germanns, I do not recognise zis "Kohrsleid" you are talkink about. Ve drink proper Bier hier.

On 3/2/2024 at 3:26 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

While Azelle can use Elwind after promotion (and should IMO - it's the best tome available to him, and Lewyn gets Forseti, so why would he need it anymore?), it's worth remembering that he cannot pass it down. The one exception is if Ced is his son, but that's a rare pairing. If not passed down, it can be bought in chapter 9. The only way to get Elwind back earlier is if Lewyn hooks up with Tailtiu. Then Arthur can inherit the tome, as can Tinne (assuming you got Tailtiu to promotion).

Good points. Lewyn/Tiltyu is the pairing I'm going for (I mean, Lewyn hasn't been accounted for yet, so this shouldn't be much of a surprise), so Arthur and (maybe) Tinne are available options.

On 3/2/2024 at 6:37 PM, BrightBow said:

Well, PoR has the Sonic Sword.
But Elincia also starts with D swords, so that's not ideal.

But the Sonic Sword is Mist's personal weapon!

Yeah, PoR!Elincia as a combat unit is the epitome of "too little too late", even with her personal unbreakable Brave Sword, so I hardly consider her as anything but a staff bot who might be able to grab a kill to gain more XP from that.

 

[RPGuy96]

41 minutes ago, ping said:

: "With Kurth's death there remains but a single scion to Naga's holy lineage, and that old fool hardly needs our help to die.

41 minutes ago, ping said:

: "Indeed... But that will not be enough. Arvis alone cannot restore the dark god. We still need one more person... That woman's daughter.

Speaking of putting two and two together, shouldn't Manfroy realize that "that woman's daughter" is also Kurth's daughter and he's wrong about the "single scion" thing?  Or is he not privy to the court gossip Sigurd just got about Cigyun and Kurth?  I suppose it's possible he thinks Victor is Deidre's father.  In any case, it's still worth it to him to recreate major Loptyr blood, but now I'm curious if he just doesn't know that his desired match could also (and obviously does) produce a major Naga heir.

[Interdimensional Observer]

54 minutes ago, ping said:

It is increasingly noticable that every time he seizes a castle, Sigurd does not say, "We have a very strong position to negotiate. We should try to use that position to pressure {villain of the day} to accept our justified demands."

Open the negotiations screen and try, I'm sure Chagaal et al. will be most unreasonably asking that you cede Chalphy in a peace deal.😜

[ping]

14 minutes ago, RPGuy96 said:

Speaking of putting two and two together, shouldn't Manfroy realize that "that woman's daughter" is also Kurth's daughter and he's wrong about the "single scion" thing?  Or is he not privy to the court gossip Sigurd just got about Cigyun and Kurth?  I suppose it's possible he thinks Victor is Deidre's father.  In any case, it's still worth it to him to recreate major Loptyr blood, but now I'm curious if he just doesn't know that his desired match could also (and obviously does) produce a major Naga heir.

Manfroy does know about Julia carrying Naga blood, right? I think I remember that he's going for the "sweet irony" achievement for the final battle by kagaing her. But of course there's a lot of time for him to figure that out between now and the end of gen 2's campaign.

That said, "The Duke of Velthomer commited suicide and blamed the crown prince in his suicide note" seems like a really big thing for an omnipresent evil cult to miss. I guess fatherhood tests don't exist in Jugdral, but if Manfroy knew about Kurth and Sigyn banging, this would be a rather important eventuality to consider.

...come to think of it, I'm not sure how recognisable holy blood is in-universe, outside of the ability to wield the legendary weapons. Like, the villagers in the Spirit Forest would know (or suspect) that Deirdre carries Loptyr blood because of who her mother is, but would they notice her aptitute at wielding light magic as unusual?

14 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Open the negotiations screen and try, I'm sure Chagaal et al. will be most unreasonably asking that you cede Chalphy in a peace deal.😜

Well, the solution to that is to besiege Agusty but not actually seize it to avoid warmonger penalties. Although, in Civ5 terms, that ship absolutely would've sailed already with Grannvale fully annexing Verdane.

So I guess there's the logic in Sigurd's actions. "Everybody hates us already anyway, so it makes no difference if we conquer another city or five."

[BrightBow]

1 hour ago, ping said:

Considering that the chance of Beowulf and Eldigan interacting between Beo's recruitment and now is roughly 0.00%... What are the odds that Beowulf just learned somewhere that Raquesis obsessively adores her brother, so he made the whole story up?

Pretty high, considering this is never elaborated on.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Getting tricked by Chagall (Chagall!) really isn't a good look, Erin, darling.

Well, she is named Fury for a reason.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "Chagall? Hah! Hate to break it to you, Erin, but you've been tricked. It's nice and all that you're so ready to trust, but you wouldn't last ten seconds out there in the city! It'd eat you and your innocence alive. You might even end up like Sylvia..."

You mean running around in her undearwear and going out to dinner with the prince of Silesia a few times?
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "Erin... Ugh, don't you start crying too! Give me a break... I can't stand to see a woman in tears... Okay, fine. I'll think about going home. Just... Give me some time to muster the nerve, alright?"

Well, as long as it doesn't take another year...
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "War's the most dreadful thing, and 'tis always the innocent and helpless who suffer most for it. Please... go home to your families."

Oh hey, it's the lady from Knorda. Truly the real mascot of the series.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

It is increasingly noticable that every time he seizes a castle, Sigurd does not say, "We have a very strong position to negotiate. We should try to use that position to pressure {villain of the day} to accept our justified demands."

When all you have is a Seize command...

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "You can't be serious! They've come as far as Anphony?! Are they just going to keep going until all Agustria is theirs? They'll have to come this way. We've no choice but to fight. Deploy the ballistae. We're all that stands between the capital and Grannvale's dogs of war!"

Turns out that "waiting how things play out" isn't always the best course of action. I do like Clement as a minor villain, though - if he can even be called that. Like, all he did was not involve himself with the conflict between Nordion and Heirhein, even if he had planned to throw in with whoever may come out on top. But you can't really fault a guy for not predicting that Sigurd would just go a-conquerin' castle after castle, and now he's kinda forced to resist the foreign aggressor. Poor guy.

Clement tends to be one of the more memorable bossmen in the game for people because of this. In a sea of virtually identical evil morons with the exact same personality - and despite having the face of one - he stands out as just some guy who doesn't even seem like he's necessarily the bad guy in the situation. Sigurd is the aggressor here, after all.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Chagall himself is the first Baron boss we face, and he's... not that impressive, honestly. Philip, the third commander of the Heirhein army, hit just as hard and more accurately, while beating Chagall's physical bulk by +3 HP and +2 Def. Chagall has the avoid bonus and healing of his castle tile, but that also makes him a stationary boss locked to 1-range.

He does have a bit of support ability, in form of his Physic staff (assuming he'll use it) and a second Authority star. But overall, he's not as strong as one might expect from the final boss of the map - although I guess that fits with Chagall being a bit of a buffoon in the story.

Kaga likes to do that sometimes. Having bosses be oddly weak when story-appropriate. And viceversa, a few times.

1 hour ago, ping said:

 

Considering that the chance of Beowulf and Eldigan interacting between Beo's recruitment and now is roughly 0.00%... What are the odds that Beowulf just learned somewhere that Raquesis obsessively adores her brother, so he made the whole story up?

Yeah he did that.

2 hours ago, ping said:

Arden will also join the Heirhein crew eventually, after grabbing the Pursuit Ring. Like Beowulf, he'll be stopped by Buchanan, although I have to admit that I didn't try very hard to find a favourable RN string, nor did I have him buy a better sword than his old trusted Iron.

: "...Sigh. I don't get it. No matter how hard I train or how strong I get, I'm still the butt of every joke 'round here. Maybe if I were more like Alec, with how he can attack twice... That'd be all I need to get a bit of respect, methinks... and maybe a cute lass while I'm at it... Hee hee. But I'm still just me... Back to the ol' grind, I suppose... Hang on? What's this little ring thing? Ooh, maybe it's one of those magical ones I keep hearing about. That'd be grand, wouldn't it? Let's try her on... Hm... Hwooooarh! W-what's this power I'm feeling?! Is this what Alec feels like all the time?"

...Honestly, you know you've hit rock bottom when Alec is the guy you're aspiring to be.

Meme is achieved. Now it's Ardenin' time.

2 hours ago, ping said:

See, there is one generic Pegasus Knight left to bring the message to Silesse that Lewyn is (a) alive and (b) a bloody psychopath who kills for fun (and XP).

If Erin hadn't been so easily tricked by Chagall, I'd almost believe that her insistence on staying with Lewyn comes from her seeing right through his bullshit of "I will potentially think about maybe returning to Silesse, eventually".

And finally, Lewyn, in our own modern world, would be the son of a millionaire who founds a indie rock band with light pseudo-punk vibes (and with himself as the sole leading man, of course). And even though their music is about as generic as it gets, it somehow is played all the time on the radio, giving them some moderate national success. Once the band becomes big enough to attract some groupies, Lewyn would obviously be creepy about it, sleeping with them whenever giving the opportunity (and if they say they're 18, who is he to doubt them) before talking behind their backs about what trashy kind of woman they are.

TL;DR: Lewyn is a shitty person.

Lewyn being a shitty person is, sadly, another constant throughout the game.

2 hours ago, ping said:

__

...and Lex grabs the boss kill. He's a bit lucky in doing so, hitting two 58s, but otherwise, Sigurd could've just taken the kill instead.

I forgot Project Naga rewrote his death quote. In older patches his death quote was an utterly incomprehensible "urgh... don't forget me..." which, ironically, did ensure people wouldn't forget him, as they wondered what the heck he could have possibly meant by asking his murderers to keep his memory in mind.

I suspect this line is probably the intended one. You can almost interpret a similar message conveyed by the original if you squint hard enough, but the wording's beyond bizarre.

2 hours ago, ping said:

 

Honestly, if it wasn't for Sylvia's portrait looking rather young, I wouldn't mind this convo all that much. Just two horny fellows being horny. Good for them.

Sylvia looking so young in general is iffy. But Kaga will Kaga, I suppose.

2 hours ago, ping said:

: "Good. Mackily is ours. That leaves the capital, Agusty..."
: "Indeed, sire, but don't get too careless. We've been informed that Agusty still hosts a sizable defensive force. We ought to take the utmost care."
: "Mm, you're right. Who knows what that Chagall has up his sleeve..."

It is increasingly noticable that every time he seizes a castle, Sigurd does not say, "We have a very strong position to negotiate. We should try to use that position to pressure {villain of the day} to accept our justified demands."

Sigurd's addicted to war crimes now. It won't be long before he transforms into Benedict Triangle Strategy.

2 hours ago, ping said:

: "Heh heh... You exaggerate my role. All I did was advise the removal of the king, obstacle to your ambition as he was. All else was your choice. Can you doubt that?"

Oh hey, they actually acknowledge it. Neat.

2 hours ago, ping said:

Eggads, Sandima is back to life!

2 hours ago, ping said:

 

Only question left: Will X/Zane hit on the handsome blue-haired lord if given the chance?

I don't know, judging by his facial expression, I'd say the only thing he's going to hit is the crapper.

[ping]

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

You mean running around in her undearwear and going out to dinner with the prince of Silesia a few times?

One could see a tragic figure in Sylvia, along the lines of "she is seeking sexual attention because that is the only form of appreciation she knows", and Lewyn's off-hand remark seems to go into that direction. While making Lewyn look very shitty, of course, for "taking her to dinner" a few times and then shaming her in front of other people.

Of course, if we ignore the anime-aged portrait for a second, she could also just be a young woman who is fine with, and even looking for, casual relationships, while Lewyn is the kind of guy who will go along with that and then after the act immediately shame the woman for being "loose", because I'm absolutely ready to assume the worst about Lewyn in every regard.

31 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Kaga likes to do that sometimes. Having bosses be oddly weak when story-appropriate. And viceversa, a few times.

I certainly remember FE1!Camus being pretty overtuned compared to literally every other boss in the game, yes.

32 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Meme is achieved. Now it's Ardenin' time.

He can sell the ring to Lewyn (as much as I dislike Lewin, I think I want to get Pursuit on Arthur) and retire with the money?

34 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Eggads, Sandima is back to life!

Somehow, Salpatine returned.

34 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Oh hey, they actually acknowledge it. Neat.

I do like that trope, that the corruption of a character requires some fertile soil to take hold, so that the villain in question isn't just absolved from the guilt of their actions.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Clement tends to be one of the more memorable bossmen in the game for people because of this. In a sea of virtually identical evil morons with the exact same personality - and despite having the face of one - he stands out as just some guy who doesn't even seem like he's necessarily the bad guy in the situation. Sigurd is the aggressor here, after all.

Truly he is the Mannu of Jugdral.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I don't know, judging by his facial expression, I'd say the only thing he's going to hit is the crapper.

On the other hand he also looks like Brock from Pokemon, and we all know what a perve that particular childhood icon is.

[BrightBow]

3 hours ago, ping said:

He does have a bit of support ability, in form of his Physic staff (assuming he'll use it) and a second Authority star. But overall, he's not as strong as one might expect from the final boss of the map - although I guess that fits with Chagall being a bit of a buffoon in the story.

The boss with the lowest level on the map. Unless you count Fury.

Meanwhile Zane over there being level 21 with 3 leadership stars.

That reminds me...
 

3 hours ago, ping said:

Finally, here's Zane (clearly another instance of a shapeshifting Xane who was in an uncreative phase with his name choices) - the first boss that is truly threatening for Sigurd. With an effective Atk of 56, Zane can bring Sigurd down to 13 HP with a single strike. The only other horsies that can survive a blow are Lex and, remarkably, Finn, who is sitting at 44 HP / 14 Def after his Arena clear.

Alec can survive this too, since he is immune to crits and consequently effective damage.
 

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Kaga likes to do that sometimes. Having bosses be oddly weak when story-appropriate. And viceversa, a few times.

Padolf with the Estoc he is not even high enough level to use properly.

Edited March 3 by BrightBow

[Saint Rubenio]

45 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Truly he is the Mannu of Jugdral.

He actually is lol

45 minutes ago, Jotari said:

On the other hand he also looks like Brock from Pokemon, and we all know what a perve that particular childhood icon is.

Yeah, but Brock didn't have this guy's furrowed brow and crooked neck. Nah, Zane's just holding a wicked shit. He's been holding that same wicked shit for 7 years, but he's too dutiful to take 10 minutes to go to the restroom. What if his lord needs him then!?

43 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Padolf with the Estoc he is not even high enough level to use properly.

Padolf's the best, though. He's the funniest bossman in the game. Meme stat through the roof.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

On the other hand he also looks like Brock from Pokemon, and we all know what a perve that particular childhood icon is.

Petition to get Eric Stuart to voice Zane, and all the Zanelings, in the inevitable remake with full voice acting:

4 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Alec can survive this too, since he is immune to crits and consequently effective damage.

Remember this for chapter 5!

7 hours ago, ping said:

...come to think of it, I'm not sure how recognisable holy blood is in-universe, outside of the ability to wield the legendary weapons. Like, the villagers in the Spirit Forest would know (or suspect) that Deirdre carries Loptyr blood because of who her mother is, but would they notice her aptitute at wielding light magic as unusual?

In certain cases, they could figure it out experimentally. Like, if a Mage Knight can wield Bolganone, then they must have at least Minor Fjalar blood. Meanwhile, if a generic Mage (not a "Fire Mage") can wield Bolganone, then they necessarily have Major Fjalar Blood.

This wouldn't work for all classes. An Archer has A Bows by default, so you couldn't test for Ullr holy blood. ...Or any other holy blood, since they only use Bows. Likewise, you could never distinguish between Minor Baldr/Hezul/Odo, nor Dainn/Njorun, as they provide identical rank boosts.

5 hours ago, ping said:

He can sell the ring to Lewyn (as much as I dislike Lewin, I think I want to get Pursuit on Arthur) and retire with the money?

Yes... hahaha... YES! Lewyn!Arthur's main issue is one of reliability. But with the Pursuit Ring, he'll leave no survivors. And he won't even have to burn through Forseti - an Elwind tome, or Wind Tome plus Magic Ring, should be a reliable kill.

...Admittedly, there'll still be the argument to swap it over to Leif, before he promotes. Up to you. I think buying Paragon and a Brave Sword is higher priority than Pursuit, but that's still 20 years away.

6 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Sigurd's addicted to war crimes now. It won't be long before he transforms into Benedict Triangle Strategy.

Damn, I need to actually finish that game! I remember thinking that Benedict had everything I wanted out of a Jagen. Whether or not that's how he actually plays out, I dunno.

8 hours ago, ping said:

Considering that the chance of Beowulf and Eldigan interacting between Beo's recruitment and now is roughly 0.00%... What are the odds that Beowulf just learned somewhere that Raquesis obsessively adores her brother, so he made the whole story up?

IMO it's at least plausible that

A) Beowulf, as a mercenary, was at one time hired by House Nordion; and

B) While doing so, he heard gossip about the Princess' obsession with her elder brother.

My guess is that Beowulf's talk about his direct interactions with Eldigan are boastful bluster. But there could be a colonel of truth there.

8 hours ago, ping said:

Clement himself adds to the arseholery of the Ballistae by carrying a Sleep staff, which seems difficult to entirely avoid. The obvious solution would be to have Deirdre Silence him first, but (a) she isn't exactly nearby, and (b) if you don't kill Clement immediately on the same turn, chances are that the Ballistae will tear Deirdre to shreds for daring to approach them.

I have a really dumb way of dealing with him - send Dierdre all the way around. Up onto the plateau. That's the only spot where she can cast Silence on Clement, without being in ballista range. But its suuuper tedious to do so. Silver lining, though - afterwards, she can drop Auras on some of the cavalry. Assuming there are no ranged enemies in... well, range.

7 hours ago, RPGuy96 said:

Speaking of putting two and two together, shouldn't Manfroy realize that "that woman's daughter" is also Kurth's daughter and he's wrong about the "single scion" thing?

Also, Linoan exists. I'm not sure if she's been born by this point in time, but at least one of her parents has Naga holy blood. Manfroy's information gathering skills are... inadequate, to say the least.

8 hours ago, ping said:

Excuse me, since I am of ze Germanns, I do not recognise zis "Kohrsleid" you are talkink about. Ve drink proper Bier hier.

Ich habe Deutschebier getrunken. Dein Radler schmeckt gut. Aber in Amerika, wir haben Bier mit Kürbis, Kaffee, Kakao, etc.. Mehr Vielfahlt!

9 hours ago, ping said:

Finally, and non-canonically, Alec chatting up Sylvia. Non-canon because it has no effect except for the love points, and Sylvia isn't supposed to marry.

Thinking on it, it would've been really meat for Sylvia's "special dance" to give Alec a permanent stat boost. Since the "special dance" skill in later games had a similar effect, albeit temporary. As did Nini's Grace, amd the other rings. And of course, this game is no stranger to stat boosts from even conversations.

[Jotari]

35 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

This wouldn't work for all classes. An Archer has A Bows by default, so you couldn't test for Ullr holy blood. ...Or any other holy blood, since they only use Bows. Likewise, you could never distinguish between Minor Baldr/Hezul/Odo, nor Dainn/Njorun, as they provide identical rank boosts.

People with holy blood do have a visible mark on their body indicating it, though the games are a bit unclear as to whether that is true for minor holy blood as well. Definitely the case for Major Holy Blood though. In addition, both Azmur and Finn talk about being able to recognize an aura of holy blood someone gives off (and Finn doesn't even have Holy Blood himself but can recognize it from experience).

Edited March 4 by Jotari

[Saint Rubenio]

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

Damn, I need to actually finish that game! I remember thinking that Benedict had everything I wanted out of a Jagen. Whether or not that's how he actually plays out, I dunno.

Well, he's my favorite character in the game, and also the one I'd say is best written. As funny as calling him Uncle War crimes is, there's very few places where you can really disagree with his arguments. Even when he's proposing something thoroughly heinous it's less "haha I'm the pragmatic asshole who wants to do the bad things" and more "if we don't do this we're going to die and accomplish nothing for it, it's better to do this bad thing now and live to correct it later." Later in the game his full motivations are revealed and it actually shines a really different light his actions throughout the game - which is the best kind of writing.

[ping]

FE4 Chapter 2: Crisis in Agustria

Mackily --> Agusty

Spoiler

To get the stuff outside of the main group around Sigurd out of the way, here's the remaining villages:

: "The late King Imca was truly a great man. His sudden passing has been nothin' but devastating for us all. He's barely been buried for long and his son Chagall's already runnin' the country into the ground! If Lord Eldigan had a claim to the throne, somehow, then we wouldn't be in this mess..."

4000 gold -> Midir

This is enough to put Midir precisely at 40k gold, so after this, he gets warped to Mackily by Aideen to go through the arena, Paragon-style.

: "Psst! Wanna hear somethin' saucy? Y'know how Lord Eldigan has a li'l sister, right? Well, lookin' at 'emm wouldn't ya say there's more to it than that? If ya know what I mean... Ohoho! I love me a li'l bit of gossip! Hmm? I've better things to do than run me mouth y'say? Fine, then."

5000 gold --> Erin

This should answer my previous question if Raquesis obsessing over Eldigan as the pinnacle of masculinity looks less weird to a Japanese player.

(That said, pornographic satire about the rich and powerful was very popular back in the day, especially when the powerful person in question was a woman, so maybe let's just file this under that. I know that Marie Antoinette had been constantly accused of extramaritial affairs, including with other women (gasp!), and the less said about Catherine the Great's horse, the better)

: "Anphony's Lord Macbeth is the foulest, most gold-obsessed man there is. He does nothin' but torment us for his own profit. I wish I could kill 'em with my bare hands!"

5000 gold --> Erin

: "Hey, thanks for saving us! I want you to have this, one of my favorite things. It's a pretty little bracelet, huh? Wear it at the shops and the nice man there'll be happy to give ya a discount!"

1000 gold; Bargain Band --> Erin

Erin is going to keep the Bargain Band on her until the end of the chapter. Eventually, I think I'll want it on Azel, so that Patty can distribute the money she'll save among the needy. I don't know how much of a point there is in giving it to somebody else in between - the effect is immensely powerful, of course, but the up-front cost of 40k might make it difficult to really make use of it.

: "Lord Eldigan is a sincere and righteous man, but alas, his sincerity's never been welcome to the ears of King Chagall. That's gotta be why he was locked up. Please, for the good of all Agustria... Help Lord Eldigan!"

2000 gold --> Erin

: "Beware of Bishop Clement, the lord of Mackily Castle. That dastard wields a magical staff that they call a Sleep staff. If you're not careful, you'll find yourself snoozin' and wide open to bein' attacked."

5000 gold --> Aideen

Wayyy ahead of you, gramps.

Aideen grabs this one village because Erin will still have enough money for the Paragon Ring and the Brave Lance without it, and because Aideen as a weaponless staff user really appreciates the money. This is especially true because she'll spend the three remaining Warp charges on Midir (for the arena), Sylvia (for XP and so that I can more easily get her conversation with Sigurd), and Deirdre (for XP).

: "There's still gotta be descendants of the dark lord Loptyr livin' somewhere, right? Folk in the big cities like Agusty an' Mackily certainly seem to think so. Every year they do these huge hunts for Loptyr's spawn. They arrest a ton of people, then burn 'em all at the stake, even if they're innocent... Madness, I tell ya!"

2000 gold --> Erin

I vaguely remember this - people with Loptyr blood are a prosecuted minority desperate for relief... except that they're also desperately trying to be the ones holding the knives. If I recall, Arvis is only really in for the first half of that objective, so it's nice that it's set up a little bit ahead of time.

And there we go. All villages are blue now. And you may notice a certain dearth of red on the map, too. We'll get to that in a bit.

I do like that about Genealogy, really - that there tend to be multiple things happening at different spots of the map. As humongous as the maps are, and as much of the ol' "move characters from A to B" there is, at least for this first playthough, I'm really not bothered by the game being too slow or anything. I can imagine that this might change if you replay the game (as stuff like arenaing also takes a lot of time to optimise), but that's obviously purely speculative.

Speaking of the "multiple things" - I tried to get a good miracle strat with Lachesis again, but she unfortunately went from 21 HP (being one-shot) to 26 HP (too too high to reliably dodge Heltzog (and I'd bet 62 cent that he's supposed to be "Herzog", which is simply the German equivalent to a duke)). Come to think of it, I thought that castle healing had a random component, but Raquesis recovered 5x 5 HP while guarding Heirhein. Which means that with 5 HP --> 25 HP, she would've been able to reduce Heltzog's hit rate to 3%, which should've been close enough. Oh well. This is not a ranked run at all, so I don't expect these errors to kill me.

In other arenaing news, Midir does manage to go through the entire thing. I think he had to brute force against the penultimate opponent (the Elthunder Mage) because he had an unlucky first attempt, but otherwise got through everybody with his first attempt. I didn't really make screenshots of his run though, so I might misremember.

__

After that, Azel has his turn. He sells his Shield Ring to be able to afford the Speed Ring before facing Buchanan the Myrmidon...

...oh, and he's the one struggling vs. Tyakov. Maybe Midir just cruised through after all. In any case, Azel manages to brute-force Tyakov and then beat Chaimos, as well.

__

Azel then keeps the Paragon Ring on for a little while, grabbing two or three kills on the field with it, before marching back to Mackily so that Erin can pick it up. She clears the arena, too, no problem - she needs a bit of luck vs. Chaimos, but his hit rate against her really isn't very high.

__

And while this is mixing up with the fight against Chagall's Last Stand, Ayra (with a little help from Dew) managed to Thief Sword her way to 40k gold, allowing her a full Paragon run, too. She buys the Slim Sword from the Armoury for accuracy against Chaimos specifically and then proceeds to dominate him with an Astra proc.

This means that Ayra also carries the Paragon Ring into Ch.3. Hopefully, she'll be able to clear that arena without the Brave Sword, since that would make the pre-turn 1 arenaing a lot easier.

Now, next step: the remaining conversations. All of them will technically not be canon because I reloaded after getting them - first Ethlyn returned Sigurd for his talk with Lewyn, and near the end of the map, he ran back towards Mackily for Erin and Sylvia to say their bits.

: "Lewyn, I presume? The one who's been helping defend the villages? I appreciate the aid. As I understand it, you're a bard, but you also wield magic? That's unusual."
: "Something like that. I guess it's a hobby. You're that Sigurd fellow, aren't you? It's obvious what your little hobby is: war! Clearly you've got so much spare time, you spend it starting war after war!"
: "Come again? You seem angry, but-"
: "Don't play dumb! Think about the people of all the countries that you're flattening! You come barging in, swords flashing, and all you do is ruin the lives of normal folk who're trying to make a living here!"
: "You're right. My apologies, Lewyn... I didn't even think about that, but I can't stand knowing I've done this to them."
: "Words are just words without action backing them up. If you really feel so bad, then why not pull your army out?"
: "Mm, you're right... Very well. I'll consult with my troops and arrange a retreat."
: "Wait, you're serious about this?"
: "Of course. I've been mulling over retreating for a while already, and you just gave me the answer to all of this. I've had enough of the war approach. I think I'd rather seek a diplomatic answer."
: "Yeah, no. Trying to get through to Chagall now would be a total waste of everyone's time. Besides, if you lot pull out now, then nothing stands between a peeved king and and all the citizens who've helped you so far. Are you sure you're okay with leaving them all hanging like that?"
: "Well, no, but... Er... I..."
: "Ahahaha! Y'know, I guess I was wrong about you. You're alright, Sigurd. Say, why don't I help you finish this fight up?"
: "Er... Okay, I suppose... Who are you, anyway?"
: "Who, me? I'm just a wayward troubadour, my friend..."

"Don't do war!" - "OK" - "Just kidding, do war a little" - "OK"

But to be honest, Lewyn makes a good point in his own (shitty) ways. Even though Sigurd's continuously conquesting ways are, well, not very intelligent - invading a country and then just leaving it with the devestated lands, potential succession crises, and all-around bad blood between faction that has only worsened by Sigurd's little adventure would be even worse than what Sigurd keeps doing.

Now, if only somebody could actually drive home the lection about not immediately invading every enemy at the first opportunity...

: "Lord Sigurd, I presume?"
: "I am indeed. And you, madam?"
: "My name is Erin. I'm a royal knight of Silesse. I wish to join your army, so as to keep an eye on Prince Lewyn."
: "Er... Prince Lewyn? What are you on about?"
: "My lord Lewyn is the rightful heir to the Silessian crown. He is a scion of Ced, the Wind Crusader, and is the sole inheritor of his power."
: "Wait, THAT Lewyn?! Heh... I knew there was something odd about him, but I'd never have thought him to be Silessian royalty. Any idea why he's pretending to be a bard?"
: "That's a long story, sir, and I'm hardly the most qualified to tell it. Perhaps try asking him later, but for now..."
: "Fair enough. It's hardly my business, anyway. I'm glad you're here, Erin. A pegasus knight among us would be a great help. Would you mind aiding us in battle?"
: "Yes, sir! I'll do my part!"

Well, Erin won't be able to participate in actual battle on this map, but I'm sure she'll have her chance.

: "Eee! It's the great Lord Sigurd!"
: "Er... Hello, there? You're a dancer, right? The battlefield is too dangerous for the likes of you. Go back to the castle."
: "Come on, sir! Don'tcha know who I am? I'm Sylviaaaaaaa! You can call me Sylvie if ya want, though!"
: "Look, I'm sorry, but I really don't have the time to look after children. Be a good little girl and run along back to the castle, alright?"
: "Rrrgh... Good little girl? Look at me! How d'you look at someone this hot and think 'little girl'?! What is wrong with you? Never thought ya'd be such a borin' old stiff, just like everyone else 'round here..."
: "Enough! I have work to do."
: "Sigh... Oh, well. Back to being a lone, delicate flower, sprouting in a battlefield... My beauty is nothing to the tide of bodies..."
: "Ugh... What in the world is..."

Okay, no, it's not just Sylvia's childlike portrait that really makes her dialogue off-putting.

Now then, I hear there is enemies to be stabbed! It seems that Zane's group doesn't move right away - they only did so two turns after they appeared, so either there's some zone trigger to it or it's just delayed a bit.

I first stay fairly defensive, since Zane's Horseslayer really isn't something I want to be hit with.

__

But after this enemy phase, Zane stands in front of most of his soldiers...

: "Grannvale's dogs stand no chance in the face of my warrior's pride! I'll put an end to your rampage!"

____

...allowing for a quick snipe without any danger for anybody.

__

After that, it's really mostly clean-up. I'm a little proud for setting up a perfect Miracle for Finn by attacking a Lance Knight on player phase, though.

____

And so on...

__

...and so on.

The "Knights plus Ballistae" combo sounds strong on paper, but with the Knights using the rather weak and inaccurate Javelin, the total offensive output of this last group of enemies isn't that impressive.

: "Tch... Don't even think about underestimating me. You don't stand a chance of besting me!"

Finn very nearly gets the boss kill...

...and Lex (connecting a 36% in his second try) is the one to grab it.

And with that, Lex has way too much vendor's trash on hand. He and Ayra better hurry up the courting process (and even then, I doubt they'll ever be even close to be wanting for cash, with both of them clearing the Arena and Ayra keeping the Paragon Ring this chapter).

And there's that. Halfway through the first generation, except not really because the Prologue was rather shorter than the properly numbered maps.

: "This ring will help you fight more like a mounted knight. Put it on and it will allow you to keep moving after fighting or healing. I know it will prove highly useful to you. Take care, milady!

Gosh, it seems that the brothers still haven't sorted out their outfit colour coordination.

The Knight Ring very clearly seems like something that should end up on Sylvia, although because I didn't bother to send her into the arena last map, she doesn't really have the cash for that. But until she promotes, Raquesis should be able to make use of it, as well.

: "Sire, King Chagall survived the battle, but he was badly wounded. He's currently being attended to by a royal priest."
: "From what I heard, somebody pulled him from the battlefield when he was defeated. Who in the world would've done that...?"
: "That was me, Sigurd. I rescued King Chagall. I preserved the life of the last survivor of the Agusty dynasty. No matter how unwise his decisions, no matter how ill his temper, I cannot sit in silence and allow my liege to die."
: "Hm? Eldigan?! You're safe! Thank the gods! I've been looking everywhere for you, since I heard you'd been arrested."
: "I suppose I was... But what is the meaning of this, Sigurd? Why is your army swarming the capital the first thing I find upon release? Why are reports saying our castles are now under the rule of Grannvale officers, as if we are a mere tributary state? I'm indisposed for barely any time at all, only to find Grannvale has made itself at home in Agustria behind my back! There had better be a damned good explanation for all of this, Sigurd, or there will be consequences."
: "I'm so sorry, Eldigan. You're absolutely right: none of this makes sense to me, either. As if out of nowhere, the entirety of Agustria suddenly turned against us. We had no choice. I've been ordered to remain here with my army for the time being, to maintain peace and order. Eldigan, please. I know this is a dreadful situation, but one year is all I need. I can restore the country's peace to normal and repair our diplomatic ties, but only if I'm allowed time to do it. Once our time is up, we'll leave your country with no objections. My king and I pledge our word."
: "Hm... I suppose I've little choice but to take you at your word. Very well: you have your year. I shall relocate the king to the northern Madino Castle for his own protection. I'll also leave my Cross Knights stationed at Fort Silvail. Offer even the slightest provocation, and your forces will have us to answer to. Remember, I'm holding you to your word. Break your promise, and we will break you. Do I make myself clear, Sigurd?"
: "Of course. You know I'm not about to betray you. Please, Eldigan. You have to trust me!"

Honestly, I think this is done very well. You spend most of the first three maps just a-conquering castles with nobody questioning the wisdom or righteousness of it... until now, where first Lewyn and then (even if you missed Lewyn's speech) Eldigan chew Sigurd out for his actions. It's surprising, in a way, since you don't necessarily question the game mechanic of "seize castle to win" - that's just how Fire Emblem works, innit - but you can't say that Eldigan's sudden hostility towards his best bro comes out of nowhere, either. Sigurd did just occupy more than half of Agustria, killing two of its dukes and almost slaying its king. We know that he did so because he saw no other choice... but between Eldigan and Lewyn's rants, it's also made very clear that Sigurd's foresight ends roughly at the tip of his nose.

I'm also wondering if it'll come up again how Sigurd is making an oath in his liege's place. I'm not an expert on feudal law, but that seems like something that could easily be seen as an act of treason, to basically assume the power of the king to not only make diplomacy, but to dictate the king's policy with regards to the neighboring country.

That was all for chapter 2, but since I needed to skip ahead to ch.3's home castle to check B/W records and love triangles, I might as well pull Lex's promotion ahead to this update:

: "Masterfully done! You're now able to change class to Great Knight."

__

Ta-dah! Lex is really bulky now. Seven points ahead of Sigurd in Def, which more than makes up for Sigurd's +4 HP lead.

The Team:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  Funds  XP    Arn  W/L
Sigurd	  22.18*  53  23   0  22  22  13  16   4  34080  +635  [*]  59/0
Quan	  14.90*  44  20   0  15  15   7  12   3  47530  +500  [*]  15/4
Noish	  7.68	  35  12   0  10  10   4   9   0  9000	 +131  [4]  6/1
Alec	  7.63	  36  11   0  11  11   5  11   0  13420  +191  [4]  2/1

Beowulf	  10.61	  38  14   0  11  11   3  11   0  20500  +161  [4]  2/0
Lex	  21.04*  49  26   1  14  14  11  23   3  40840  +1140 [*]  23/0
Finn	  19.18	  44  17   0  15  18  14  14   1  47150  +1173 [*]  32/1
Midir	  15.78	  43  14   0  11  14   6   9   1  46380  +679  [*]  16/0

Erin	  11.80	  36  13   1  12  20   8  11   9  33830  +580  [*]  0/0
Arden	  7.69	  38  16   0   6   5   3  15   0  23775  +100  [4]  4/0
Ayra	  16.18	  43  15   2  22  21   5   8   1  18705  +750  [*]  12/1
Holyn	  13.82	  41  14   0  18  17   2  11   1  27500  +182  [7]  0/0

Jamke	  11.57	  41  12   0  16  14   8  10   1  40320  +299  [7]  2/0
Dew	  6.75	  30   7   0   9  16  13   2   1  4000   +279  [3]  3/1
Azel	  17.18	  37   2  16  12  20   6   5  10  44140  +914  [*]  26/1
Lewyn	  10.37	  38   1  15  12  20   7   5  10  27500  +437  [*]  7/0

Deirdre	  7.82	  29   0  16  10  13   6   4  18  21500  +348  [7]  3/0
Ethlyn	  18.48	  39   8  10  15  19  12   8   6  7270   +864  [1]  6/0
Raquesis  7.72	  28  11   8  12  14   5   9   9  21225  +572  [5]  2/0
Aideen	  14.60	  38   2  15  11  11  19   3  10  15400  +660  --   0/0

Sylvia	  3.90	  29   3   0   4  12   7   1   6  9000   +290  [1]  0/0

• "" dwelling on your mind (200-299): Arden/Aideen, Azel/Aideen, Lewyn/Sylvia, Lewyn/Erin, Dew/Aideen, Beowulf/Raquesis
• "" taken your fancy of late (300-399): Lex/Ayra, Jamke/Aideen
• well and truly in love with "" (400-499): Midir/Aideen
• Nobody: Alec, Noish, Holyn, Finn

Gosh, Aideen sure is popular with the boys. Five suitors, with otherwise only Lewyn even having more than one.

 

 

15 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Alec can survive this too, since he is immune to crits and consequently effective damage.

I do keep forgetting about Nihil. It's honestly a really neat skill, and it's a cool little side effect that this makes Alec an excellent father for Fee.

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

In certain cases, they could figure it out experimentally. Like, if a Mage Knight can wield Bolganone, then they must have at least Minor Fjalar blood. Meanwhile, if a generic Mage (not a "Fire Mage") can wield Bolganone, then they necessarily have Major Fjalar Blood.

This wouldn't work for all classes. An Archer has A Bows by default, so you couldn't test for Ullr holy blood. ...Or any other holy blood, since they only use Bows. Likewise, you could never distinguish between Minor Baldr/Hezul/Odo, nor Dainn/Njorun, as they provide identical rank boosts.

This still works under the assumption that game mechanics aren't just an abstruction, but very specifically measurable in-universe, too. But, for example, what is a Mage Knight but a mage on a horse? Realistically (as applicable as the term can be for a fantasy setting), what's stopping Azel from buying a horse and a sword before Oifey tells him what a nice job he's done? Why would buying that horse precisely coincide with Azel's increased ability to use advanced spells, or those two skills with him becoming swole enough to carry a sword?

For me, the question is if some random teacher would be able to tell the difference between a student with Fjalar blood on the one side, and a student who just happens to have a knack for setting things on fire. Jotari says that there is, but I think this hasn't really come up in Genealogy's writing until now.

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

I have a really dumb way of dealing with him - send Dierdre all the way around. Up onto the plateau. That's the only spot where she can cast Silence on Clement, without being in ballista range. But its suuuper tedious to do so. Silver lining, though - afterwards, she can drop Auras on some of the cavalry. Assuming there are no ranged enemies in... well, range.

Honestly, since this map is really awful for Deirdre to keep up with everybody else, this doesn't seem like the worst idea. Certainly not LTC-compatible, but as a casual player, there's not really any punishment for taking it slow after seizing Heirhein and having Lewyn save the village cluster.

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

Ich habe Deutschebier getrunken. Dein Radler schmeckt gut. Aber in Amerika, wir haben Bier mit Kürbis, Kaffee, Kakao, etc.. Mehr Vielfahlt!

Yeahh, the Reinheitsgebot is quite the anachronism at this point.

[RPGuy96]

I find chapter 2 kind of annoying because it acts like a big Y and heavily incentivizes you to just use Sigurd for everything, which I find boring.  I like chapter 3, though, and there's generally a lot happening in different parts of the map so you might too.

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

Also, Linoan exists. I'm not sure if she's been born by this point in time, but at least one of her parents has Naga holy blood. Manfroy's information gathering skills are... inadequate, to say the least.

I forgot that Linoan has Naga blood.  Tahra is not really connected with Grannvale in any way, but it does make some sense that some holy blood would spread as nobles intermarried (certainly it does in highly eugenicist gen 2 children).  Given Tahra's place on the FE4 map, I'm willing to give Manfroy a pass on knowing about Tahran politics, though.  Not even a castle!

59 minutes ago, ping said:

I'm also wondering if it'll come up again how Sigurd is making an oath in his liege's place. I'm not an expert on feudal law, but that seems like something that could easily be seen as an act of treason, to basically assume the power of the king to not only make diplomacy, but to dictate the king's policy with regards to the neighboring country.

Well, Sigurd is noble and good, and the King is also noble and good, and the noble and good thing is to (eventually) make peace with Augustria, so what could possibly go wrong?  I do enjoy the game critiquing its own mechanics as well - Kaga was getting ready to develop map objectives other than seize!

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, ping said:

This should answer my previous question if Raquesis obsessing over Eldigan as the pinnacle of masculinity looks less weird to a Japanese player.

(That said, pornographic satire about the rich and powerful was very popular back in the day, especially when the powerful person in question was a woman, so maybe let's just file this under that. I know that Marie Antoinette had been constantly accused of extramaritial affairs, including with other women (gasp!), and the less said about Catherine the Great's horse, the better)

If it wasn't for the constant insistence from all sorts of sources for the pairing, that'd be a nice and charitable way to interpret this bit of dialogue.

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "Anphony's Lord Macbeth is the foulest, most gold-obsessed man there is. He does nothin' but torment us for his own profit. I wish I could kill 'em with my bare hands!"

Bit late there, champ.

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "There's still gotta be descendants of the dark lord Loptyr livin' somewhere, right? Folk in the big cities like Agusty an' Mackily certainly seem to think so. Every year they do these huge hunts for Loptyr's spawn. They arrest a ton of people, then burn 'em all at the stake, even if they're innocent... Madness, I tell ya!"

2000 gold --> Erin

I vaguely remember this - people with Loptyr blood are a prosecuted minority desperate for relief... except that they're also desperately trying to be the ones holding the knives.

Considering current real life events, this concept is... disturbingly relevant.

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "Tch... Don't even think about underestimating me. You don't stand a chance of besting me!"

Finn very nearly gets the boss kill...

This is very funny when it's on a jobber like Chagall.

If only it was always that way.

1 hour ago, ping said:

I do like that about Genealogy, really - that there tend to be multiple things happening at different spots of the map. As humongous as the maps are, and as much of the ol' "move characters from A to B" there is, at least for this first playthough, I'm really not bothered by the game being too slow or anything. I can imagine that this might change if you replay the game (as stuff like arenaing also takes a lot of time to optimise), but that's obviously purely speculative.

As critical as I often am about this game, I did enjoy my first FE4 run enough that I got from start to finish without really having to force myself. It was very far from a FE I'd call super enjoyable, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't get to the end either. What I'm trying to say is, I get what you mean here.

That said, I also feel this is probably one of the least replayable, if not the least replayable FE in the series. Because on replay you're going to feel all the walking, all the arenaing and where's the variety? There's one small team for gen 1 you're basically always going to use, and second gen is a choice between breaking the game with obscene child units (children are basically always good, you have to look hard for parents that yield a genuinely bad child - except for Sylvia's kids, who are the opposite lmao) or getting subs and still breaking it with the few broken fixed units you still get.

There's an argument to be made about how important replayability is, but for this series in particular it's one of its main draws for me personally, which made my opinion of this game tank severely.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Okay, no, it's not just Sylvia's childlike portrait that really makes her dialogue off-putting.

The game likes to drive home the point that she looks childlike a bit too much. Which is not good, to say the least. Sadly, a constant character trait of Kaga throughout his plotline.

1 hour ago, ping said:

I'm also wondering if it'll come up again how Sigurd is making an oath in his liege's place. I'm not an expert on feudal law, but that seems like something that could easily be seen as an act of treason, to basically assume the power of the king to not only make diplomacy, but to dictate the king's policy with regards to the neighboring country.

I'd say it's more like the king could just come along and say "hey Sigurd, do this thing that happens to be the opposite of what you promised to Eldigan" and then Sigurd has to commit treason or break his promises. I don't recall exactly how the transition from chapter 2 to 3 goes, but... Well, two guesses as to what he ends up doing.

Anyway, agreed on this being pretty well done. Aside from The One Moment and a few bits with Arvis, the shenanigans with Eldigan are probably the story's best points, so enjoy them while they last.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Honestly, since this map is really awful for Deirdre to keep up with everybody else, this doesn't seem like the worst idea. Certainly not LTC-compatible, but as a casual player, there's not really any punishment for taking it slow after seizing Heirhein and having Lewyn save the village cluster.

Pretty sure that's actually what I did, myself. Either that or I just powered on through. I can't remember. Actually, I might've just powered on through lol. I do remember I had Lewyn take care of the village cluster, it seemed like the most obvious course of action.

[BrightBow]

2 hours ago, ping said:

: "The late King Imca was truly a great man. His sudden passing has been nothin' but devastating for us all. He's barely been buried for long and his son Chagall's already runnin' the country into the ground! If Lord Eldigan had a claim to the throne, somehow, then we wouldn't be in this mess..."

With the way the crusader bloodlines have been treated so far, it is a little surprising that the Hezul folks are just mere subordinates to an unrelated royal family.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

(That said, pornographic satire about the rich and powerful was very popular back in the day, especially when the powerful person in question was a woman, so maybe let's just file this under that. I know that Marie Antoinette had been constantly accused of extramaritial affairs, including with other women (gasp!), and the less said about Catherine the Great's horse, the better)

Oh sure. There is also a gossiper in Vestaria Saga who proposes that the reason Gyskhal backs Cyltan's claim for the throne is because he is the boy's real father due to a possible affair with his brother's bride-to-be.
That theory becomes increasingly implausible over the course of the Solis arc. Though I suppose it is never outright disproven.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Okay, no, it's not just Sylvia's childlike portrait that really makes her dialogue off-putting.

I suppose unlike "I like it rough" the line "You ever see a little girl with THESE before!?" from the old patch wasn't considered to be quite iconic enough to be kept.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "That was me, Sigurd. I rescued King Chagall. I preserved the life of the last survivor of the Agusty dynasty. No matter how unwise his decisions, no matter how ill his temper, I cannot sit in silence and allow my liege to die."

Well, Chagall wouldn't be the "last survivor of the Agusty dynasty" if he didn't murder his dad.
Just saying.

Would really like to have a scene with Lachesis here. From her perspective it would most certainly make sense to put the whole mess firmly on Chagall's feet. And she would likely see little value in a definition of chivalry that puts blind loyalty to a patricidal moron running the country into the ground above all else.

Her staying with Sigurd after all of this is most certainly not surprising. But considering Jamke is still around for no reason, it's impossible to consider this the result of a character arc unless it's actually shown.

[ping]

1 hour ago, RPGuy96 said:

I find chapter 2 kind of annoying because it acts like a big Y and heavily incentivizes you to just use Sigurd for everything, which I find boring.  I like chapter 3, though, and there's generally a lot happening in different parts of the map so you might too.

I think I managed to avoid the Sigurd solo relatively well - looking at the W/L records, his 21 kills are actually behind Finn's 23 - but this is certainly a very Horse Emblem-y map. With a bit more foresight, it's maybe possible to just keep your foot units near the path towards Mackily while leaving Anphony for the horses, though. For me, Azel managed to still do a decent amount outside of the arena thanks to a Warp, at least.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

As critical as I often am about this game, I did enjoy my first FE4 run enough that I got from start to finish without really having to force myself. It was very far from a FE I'd call super enjoyable, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't get to the end either. What I'm trying to say is, I get what you mean here.

That said, I also feel this is probably one of the least replayable, if not the least replayable FE in the series. Because on replay you're going to feel all the walking, all the arenaing and where's the variety? There's one small team for gen 1 you're basically always going to use, and second gen is a choice between breaking the game with obscene child units (children are basically always good, you have to look hard for parents that yield a genuinely bad child - except for Sylvia's kids, who are the opposite lmao) or getting subs and still breaking it with the few broken fixed units you still get.

There's an argument to be made about how important replayability is, but for this series in particular it's one of its main draws for me personally, which made my opinion of this game tank severely.

I'll say that the ability to "build" the children in itself probably is a good replay draw for many players, as overkill as it might be for actually beating ch.6 to endgame. For me personally, this might be a case where the planning would be more fun than the execution, but I could imagine myself returning to the game just to do Lex/Tiltyu so I can try to play Arthur as a bonk mage after promotion. Add a substitute run (which has the added benefit that you don't need to train anybody in gen 1 just to turn them into better parents), and that's potentially three playthoughs I can see myself doing.

Of course, some of the modern FE games, Fates in particular, do the unit customisability game much better than Genealogy. But out of the old FE games, it's probably the only one where you can not only use, but also create funny characters.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'd say it's more like the king could just come along and say "hey Sigurd, do this thing that happens to be the opposite of what you promised to Eldigan" and then Sigurd has to commit treason or break his promises. I don't recall exactly how the transition from chapter 2 to 3 goes, but... Well, two guesses as to what he ends up doing.

Well, if Agustrian officials went to Grannvale and said, "your king has agreed, with Sigurd as messenger, to leave our country now", and Sigurd, stupid himbo that he is, confirmed that, indeed, he had made that promise in the name of the king... I'd say that this, at the very least, would be a Bad Look. Remember that Reptor and Langbard (or whatever their names were) are already building the narrative that Sigurd is part of a conspiracy against the crown. If Sigurd then claims to speak for the king without having the authority to do so, I'd say it'll be pretty easy to integrate that in the conspiracy story.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Pretty sure that's actually what I did, myself. Either that or I just powered on through. I can't remember. Actually, I might've just powered on through lol. I do remember I had Lewyn take care of the village cluster, it seemed like the most obvious course of action.

Lewyn (with Sylvia speeding him up) saving the village cluster seems to be the only feasible way, really. But that doesn't mean he's beholden to the rewards, of course.

Brute forcing Mackily is definitely not that bad. I was worried initially that the five unreachable Ballistae would be a pain, but they're just far too weak and inaccurate to be too much of a threat, unless you're putting like Dew in all their overlapping ranges, on a road tile for good measure. You can basically just face the mooks outside of Clement's Sleep range and then move in within a turn to kill him. Although I don't know how Genealogy's staff AI works - Clement targeted Quan for me, which really didn't matter too much, but if there's a chance that he goes for Sigurd, that would obviously suck.

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

With the way the crusader bloodlines have been treated so far, it is a little surprising that the Hezul folks are just mere subordinates to an unrelated royal family.

I was wondering about that, yeah. I was already slightly surprised that Verdane's royals don't have holy blood, but that kinda fits with the country being seen as a bunch of ruffians by everybody else. For Agustria, it's definitely an odd detail that they have only the one noble house with holy blood and then nobody else.

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

I suppose unlike "I like it rough" the line "You ever see a little girl with THESE before!?" from the old patch wasn't considered to be quite iconic enough to be kept.

I'm just happy that Sylvia doesn't go "LOOK AT MY TITS" anymore, although she's still plenty irritating without that line.

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

Well, Chagall wouldn't be the "last survivor of the Agusty dynasty" if he didn't murder his dad.
Just saying.

Would really like to have a scene with Lachesis here. From her perspective it would most certainly make sense to put the whole mess firmly on Chagall's feet. And she would likely see little value in a definition of chivalry that puts blind loyalty to a patricidal moron running the country into the ground above all else.

Her staying with Sigurd after all of this is most certainly not surprising. But considering Jamke is still around for no reason, it's impossible to consider this the result of a character arc unless it's actually shown.

Eldigan was very willing to give Chagall the benefit of the doubt at the start of the chapter, dismissing Raquesis very decisively when she brought up the rumours about the patricide. It's not like he was listening into Chagall and Manfroy's expositionary talks, so it seems plausible that Eldigan still sticks to the "innocent until proven guilty" principle even after witnessing very directly what kind of person Chagall is.

So unless there's some explanation offered somewhere in the game, I'd still say it's a bit odd for Raquesis to stay with Sigurd, if not as blatantly so as it is with Jamke. It would seem possible that Eldigan is still aware that Chagall is a bit (OK, a lot) of a loose gun, so he wants Raquesis out of his way for safety, but that's something I would rather have the game say explicitly instead of Raquesis just staying with Sigurd without comment.

[Interdimensional Observer]

3 hours ago, ping said:

I was wondering about that, yeah. I was already slightly surprised that Verdane's royals don't have holy blood, but that kinda fits with the country being seen as a bunch of ruffians by everybody else. For Agustria, it's definitely an odd detail that they have only the one noble house with holy blood and then nobody else.

Grannvale was stated to be inspired by the Holy Roman Empire, Agustria by France, Verdane by a Greek -biased- perception of the Persians. With Grannvale, you might be able to compare the Crusader Duchies to the Electors, individuals who have more clout and autonomy than a normal noble. With Agustria/France, for any tumult the aristocrats create for the Agustrian/French King, it doesn't have the same level of... "authority"?... as that the Duchies/Electors would have over the King/Emperor.

As for why 7/12 Crusaders settled in Grannvale, I'll headcanon on that. That being, the Loptyrian Empire was centered in Grannvale, and that it also happened to the most populous region in Jugdral at the time. Grannvale could therefore use more holy governors (or, from a conqueror's perspective, a seventh of Grannvale was a prize worth all of Agustria at the time). I'd then go further and imagine this remains true over 100 years later, albeit with a relative decline owing to the increased socio-economic development of the non-Grannvale countries. And I would guess the population rankings at Genealogy's start go: Grannvale > Agustria > Manster District (highest population density?), then a major drop-off, Issach > Silesse (higher real population density than Issach though, concentrated mostly along the southern coast) > Thracia. IDK where to put barbarian Verdane and underdeveloped Miletos.

 

5 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

(children are basically always good, you have to look hard for parents that yield a genuinely bad child - except for Sylvia's kids, who are the opposite lmao)

Tailtiu's too I'd say. No Pursuit, and they're both in magic classes. Tailtiu has Tordo blood, not Fjalar, with a mere 20% Mag growth, only 3/13 fathers have a good Mag growth. Yes Lex can kinda fix this via Vantage + Wrath, and they both get swords on promotion -but should you really bother training these two up if they have a physical father? Also, while Claud is magical, his lack of Azelle's Pursuit or Lewyn's Forseti without anything to compensate makes him decidedly inferior.

Tailtiu's children are the only ones whom you can ruin both of. You can ruin Lester, but Lana will always be a staffbot/10. You can leave Diarmuid Pursuit-less, but Nanna will always be mobile staffbot/10. You can kill Ced's Mag growth, but 29 Res-hitting Atk with Pursuit minimum doesn't sound all that bad, and a physical dad means Fee will benefit.

Edited March 4 by Interdimensional Observer

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, ping said:

I think I managed to avoid the Sigurd solo relatively well - looking at the W/L records, his 21 kills are actually behind Finn's 23 - but this is certainly a very Horse Emblem-y map. With a bit more foresight, it's maybe possible to just keep your foot units near the path towards Mackily while leaving Anphony for the horses, though. For me, Azel managed to still do a decent amount outside of the arena thanks to a Warp, at least.

I'll say that the ability to "build" the children in itself probably is a good replay draw for many players, as overkill as it might be for actually beating ch.6 to endgame. For me personally, this might be a case where the planning would be more fun than the execution, but I could imagine myself returning to the game just to do Lex/Tiltyu so I can try to play Arthur as a bonk mage after promotion. Add a substitute run (which has the added benefit that you don't need to train anybody in gen 1 just to turn them into better parents), and that's potentially three playthoughs I can see myself doing.

Of course, some of the modern FE games, Fates in particular, do the unit customisability game much better than Genealogy. But out of the old FE games, it's probably the only one where you can not only use, but also create funny characters.

Well, if Agustrian officials went to Grannvale and said, "your king has agreed, with Sigurd as messenger, to leave our country now", and Sigurd, stupid himbo that he is, confirmed that, indeed, he had made that promise in the name of the king... I'd say that this, at the very least, would be a Bad Look. Remember that Reptor and Langbard (or whatever their names were) are already building the narrative that Sigurd is part of a conspiracy against the crown. If Sigurd then claims to speak for the king without having the authority to do so, I'd say it'll be pretty easy to integrate that in the conspiracy story.

Lewyn (with Sylvia speeding him up) saving the village cluster seems to be the only feasible way, really. But that doesn't mean he's beholden to the rewards, of course.

Brute forcing Mackily is definitely not that bad. I was worried initially that the five unreachable Ballistae would be a pain, but they're just far too weak and inaccurate to be too much of a threat, unless you're putting like Dew in all their overlapping ranges, on a road tile for good measure. You can basically just face the mooks outside of Clement's Sleep range and then move in within a turn to kill him. Although I don't know how Genealogy's staff AI works - Clement targeted Quan for me, which really didn't matter too much, but if there's a chance that he goes for Sigurd, that would obviously suck.

I was wondering about that, yeah. I was already slightly surprised that Verdane's royals don't have holy blood, but that kinda fits with the country being seen as a bunch of ruffians by everybody else. For Agustria, it's definitely an odd detail that they have only the one noble house with holy blood and then nobody else.

I'm just happy that Sylvia doesn't go "LOOK AT MY TITS" anymore, although she's still plenty irritating without that line.

Eldigan was very willing to give Chagall the benefit of the doubt at the start of the chapter, dismissing Raquesis very decisively when she brought up the rumours about the patricide. It's not like he was listening into Chagall and Manfroy's expositionary talks, so it seems plausible that Eldigan still sticks to the "innocent until proven guilty" principle even after witnessing very directly what kind of person Chagall is.

So unless there's some explanation offered somewhere in the game, I'd still say it's a bit odd for Raquesis to stay with Sigurd, if not as blatantly so as it is with Jamke. It would seem possible that Eldigan is still aware that Chagall is a bit (OK, a lot) of a loose gun, so he wants Raquesis out of his way for safety, but that's something I would rather have the game say explicitly instead of Raquesis just staying with Sigurd without comment.

Nordion is also now squarely within Sigurd's territory, so having a scene where Eldigan tell her to stay not only with Sigurd but look after their own feudal lands would not go astray.

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Grannvale was stated to be inspired by the Holy Roman Empire, Agustria by France, Verdane by a Greek -biased- perception of the Persians. With Grannvale, you might be able to compare the Crusader Duchies to the Electors, individuals who have more clout and autonomy than a normal noble. With Agustria/France, for any tumult the aristocrats create for the Agustrian/French King, it doesn't have the same level of... "authority"?... as that the Duchies/Electors would have over the King/Emperor.

As for why 7/12 Crusaders settled in Grannvale, I'll headcanon on that. That being, the Loptyrian Empire was centered in Grannvale, and that it also happened to the most populous region in Jugdral at the time. Grannvale could therefore use more holy governors (or, from a conqueror's perspective, a seventh of Grannvale was a prize worth all of Agustria at the time). I'd then go further and imagine this remains true over 100 years later, albeit with a relative decline owing to the increased socio-economic development of the non-Grannvale countries. And I would guess the population rankings at Genealogy's start go: Grannvale > Agustria > Manster District (highest population density?), then a major drop-off, Issach > Silesse (higher real population density than Issach though, concentrated mostly along the southern coast) > Thracia. IDK where to put barbarian Verdane and underdeveloped Miletos.

 

Tailtiu's too I'd say. No Pursuit, and they're both in magic classes. Tailtiu has Tordo blood, not Fjalar, with a mere 20% Mag growth, only 3/13 fathers have a good Mag growth. Yes Lex can kinda fix this via Vantage + Wrath, and they both get swords on promotion -but should you really bother training these two up if they have a physical father? Also, while Claud is magical, his lack of Azelle's Pursuit or Lewyn's Forseti without anything to compensate makes him decidedly inferior.

Tailtiu's children are the only ones whom you can ruin both of. You can ruin Lester, but Lana will always be a staffbot/10. You can leave Diarmuid Pursuit-less, but Nanna will always be mobile staffbot/10. You can kill Ced's Mag growth, but 29 Res-hitting Atk with Pursuit minimum doesn't sound all that bad, and a physical dad means Fee will benefit.

Quan has a line when he goes to help Sigurd where Ethlyn (pinnacle of wisdom that she is in this moment of the story) asks if it's really wise of Quan to challenge Grannvale and Quan says that Leinster (not even Munster district, just Leinster specifically) is far stronger than it's size suggests. That being said, what happens immediately afterwards with Bloom and Travant kind of suggests Quan was just plain wrong? Nevertheless it would give me reason to believe that Munster District is more powerful than Agustria, and I find it a far stranger case of "one holy blood family+others" given that, unlike Agustria, the separate houses of Munster do seem to be semi independent kingdoms unto themselves. Another interesting note here is that Alvis promised Agustria to House Friege after the war which just never happens. House Friege instead gets all of Munster. We have no idea what happens to Agustria in Gen II expect for some off hand remarks about rebellion, but it seems like House Friege were given the better prize of Munster instead once that became realistically within the Empire's grasp.

7 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If it wasn't for the constant insistence from all sorts of sources for the pairing, that'd be a nice and charitable way to interpret this bit of dialogue.

Bit late there, champ.

Considering current real life events, this concept is... disturbingly relevant.

This is very funny when it's on a jobber like Chagall.

If only it was always that way.

As critical as I often am about this game, I did enjoy my first FE4 run enough that I got from start to finish without really having to force myself. It was very far from a FE I'd call super enjoyable, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't get to the end either. What I'm trying to say is, I get what you mean here.

That said, I also feel this is probably one of the least replayable, if not the least replayable FE in the series. Because on replay you're going to feel all the walking, all the arenaing and where's the variety? There's one small team for gen 1 you're basically always going to use, and second gen is a choice between breaking the game with obscene child units (children are basically always good, you have to look hard for parents that yield a genuinely bad child - except for Sylvia's kids, who are the opposite lmao) or getting subs and still breaking it with the few broken fixed units you still get.

There's an argument to be made about how important replayability is, but for this series in particular it's one of its main draws for me personally, which made my opinion of this game tank severely.

The game likes to drive home the point that she looks childlike a bit too much. Which is not good, to say the least. Sadly, a constant character trait of Kaga throughout his plotline.

I'd say it's more like the king could just come along and say "hey Sigurd, do this thing that happens to be the opposite of what you promised to Eldigan" and then Sigurd has to commit treason or break his promises. I don't recall exactly how the transition from chapter 2 to 3 goes, but... Well, two guesses as to what he ends up doing.

Anyway, agreed on this being pretty well done. Aside from The One Moment and a few bits with Arvis, the shenanigans with Eldigan are probably the story's best points, so enjoy them while they last.

Pretty sure that's actually what I did, myself. Either that or I just powered on through. I can't remember. Actually, I might've just powered on through lol. I do remember I had Lewyn take care of the village cluster, it seemed like the most obvious course of action.

The number 1 thing Genealogy needs to be replayable is the Tellius style orders where you can point to a specific point on the map and just move everyone who hasn't acted there automatically.

Edited March 4 by Jotari

[BrightBow]

It's a good thing this game controls so much better than FE3. It's so fast and snappy. Just really fun to do stuff.
I would say the arena is the biggest obstacle to replayability. It might not start out this way, but the arena takes longer the more units you have. It adds up after a while.
 

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Nordion is also now squarely within Sigurd's territory, so having a scene where Eldigan tell her to stay not only with Sigurd but look after their own feudal lands would not go astray.

That would mean that Eldigan is actively asking his sister to be a hostage for Grandvelle to be used against him. That's not something he would want to do.

Their split really only makes sense is she is the one to insist on it.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

It's a good thing this game controls so much better than FE3. It's so fast and snappy. Just really fun to do stuff.
I would say the arena is the biggest obstacle to replayability. It might not start out this way, but the arena takes longer the more units you have. It adds up after a while.
 

That would mean that Eldigan is actively asking his sister to be a hostage for Grandvelle to be used against him. That's not something he would want to do.

Their split really only makes sense is she is the one to insist on it.

Well she can be the one to insist to protect Nordion then. Which is nicer. Gives her more agency. And unlike Jamke, the way the following chapter ends means she's not just voluntarily abandoning her feudal duty for no reason.

[BrightBow]

10 hours ago, ping said:

I'm just happy that Sylvia doesn't go "LOOK AT MY TITS" anymore, although she's still plenty irritating without that line.

I suppose that's to be expected given that she is apparently based on a subculture that the Big K wasn't particularly fond of.