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

[ping]

16 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Genealogy chapter 4:

...nah but yeah, there was zero point to that forest, I don't quite know why it's there.

And yet, the worst part of that chapter is when you can't move your units forward.

17 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I believe there's also a turn requirement, hence why he mentions capturing the fort quickly. But nah, yeah, gaiden requirements have almost never made any sense in FE.

They make narrative sense in BinBla! Kinda, anyway. And generally in a "hindsight is 20/20" kind of way, which doesn't really help when Lilina gets an arrow between the eyes and can't point Roy to the lava cave anymore. But still. Better than its prequel.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, ping said:

Kempf really makes Narcian's ascension to Wyvern General seem deserved and reasonable. But his punchability and incompetence aside - Olwen, while she's obviously cast as the victim of Kempf's resolve to get at Reinhardt in any way possible, doesn't exactly come across as a paragon of competence, either, even before Kempf manages to goad her into drawing her weapon. I suppose we enter the conversation after Kempf has already been kempfing for a bit, but with how emotional Olwen acts from the very beginning of the scene, I have a difficult time imagining her as an army officer. I dunno - maybe it's meant to imply that Olwen actually does occupy a post that's above her ability and maturity thanks to Reinhardt's name and/or connections, which would make Kempf's comments more effective because they're not entirely unfounded.

Given this is feudalism both of them are probably only where they are because of nepotism. Which brings up a question for the group, does Reinhardt have holy blood? He's described as being "from Friege" and is even called Thrud reborn, so are he an Olwen meant to be a cadet family of Blume's line or are they just regular nobles from the same area?

3 hours ago, ping said:

Kempf doesn't actually have the most impressive stats - Asbel could probably one-round him with a crit follow-up attack. He does have very strong weapons... and a Venin Edge. And two Vulneraries. I guess using poison and having more healing items than necessary is supposed to be a reflection of his cowardly character.

He uses the Venin Edge in Heroes too (yeah, they put Kempf in Heroes). Unfortunately they never gave the Venin Lance or Axe or Bow to any other Heroes characters even though it had a rather useful effect. At least for the time. Power balance has gone out the window of Heroes a long time ago, it's basically reached Dragon Ball Z vs OG Dragon Ball levels of absurd.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Again, I have to question the competence of the Imperial officer corps. If Kempf has prepared a trap for Leif, shouldn't everybody involved already know what they're supposed to do? I know, I know, it's one of those "I can't wait to see their faces when they fall into my trap which I shall now explain to the audience, mweheheh" speeches, but still. Although, I suppose if the Knights around Fred are just expected to die, that would explain why they don't know the details of the plan.

It would be 100% in character for Kempt to lay a trap that involves his own men dying ignorant of what they were contributing.

3 hours ago, ping said:

: "You'd turn your blade on me in this situation?! What idiocy!"

Note: This is Fred attacking his former comrade during "green" phase.

3 hours ago, ping said:

But seriously, this seems like the "correct" way to play if you're not using savestates. Two ballistae with way too little non-overlap to wiggle through with any modicum of reliability. And since they previously went after Leif (37 HP | 7 Def) over Karin (23 HP | 5 Def) or Ronan (24 HP | 2 Def), it doesn't seem like there's some smart distractionary tactics one could deploy.

At least there is some pressure to move forward in this chapter given there's a Gaiden with, I think, a turn requirement. Not that you'd know that playing blind...or even replaying the game coming to think of it. As the series is rarely forthcoming about what the Gaiden requirements actually are.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Mages are killed, Kempf is being shot at...

: "Ugh... What a joke...! I must flee this place, at least for the time being..."

I really wish Kempf didn't warp away and just ran off to the right. Because he is still in this fortress in the Gaiden and I just find the idea of him legging it funnier than him warping away.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

For all the memes with Kempf, I think the trope was done better later, both by Kaga and by Kagaless IntSys. Narcian's even funnier while managing to have a semblance of a presence, and then on the Kaga side of things he perfected the trope until we got Therenius in Vestaria Saga 1, a man so dumb it's even reflected in gameplay. Kempf, meanwhile, sits on a really awkward spot, like... really, all of this game's notable villains. He has an important problem, but more on that later.

I'm fine with Kempf's level of importance. I don't think he's intended to be a major villain, just a memorable minor villain. You can even finish the game without encountering him again after this chapter if you both miss the Gaiden and take the wrong route. His importance is comparable to Severus from Radiant Dawn as an amusing minor boss who appears in more than one chapter but ultimately is still just a random chapter boss. Though, Kempf does have the distint advantage of being one of only a handful of bosses with a unique face.

 

 

[Saint Rubenio]

2 hours ago, ping said:

They make narrative sense in BinBla! Kinda, anyway. And generally in a "hindsight is 20/20" kind of way, which doesn't really help when Lilina gets an arrow between the eyes and can't point Roy to the lava cave anymore. But still. Better than its prequel.

Ehhhh sometimes? The Lilina one does make sense, as does the western isles one and the Arcadia one. I can also sort of see the Douglas one. Douglas accompanies you there, but it's the king who points you in the direction of the tower. That being said, the argument can be made that he would be unwilling to help Roy after he kills his most loyal general - though this is not conveyed at all, the game just cuts to Guinivere and Roy discussing Bern and Mordred is never seen again.

For the rest though, it all falls apart. You need Zelot and Juno alive for Maltet (neither of them play a significant role in the gaiden), you need Dayan, Shin and Sue alive for Mulagir (none of them play a significant role in the gaiden) and most egregiously, you need Milady and Zeiss alive for Apocalypse even though not only do they not play a significant role in the gaiden, but Guinivere is right there. Why would you need those two? The princess of the realm is more likely to know the secret of the shrine than a rank-and-file like Zeiss is! Not to mention the fact that in all these cases the gaiden is lost if even one dies. Apparently Sue and her dad can't lead the group to Tent Valley if Shin stubbed his toe.

I do agree that it's better than the prequel though.

35 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I'm fine with Kempf's level of importance. I don't think he's intended to be a major villain, just a memorable minor villain. You can even finish the game without encountering him again after this chapter if you both miss the Gaiden and take the wrong route. His importance is comparable to Severus from Radiant Dawn as an amusing minor boss who appears in more than one chapter but ultimately is still just a random chapter boss. Though, Kempf does have the distint advantage of being one of only a handful of bosses with a unique face.

...Yeah, that's what I meant by Kempf's problem. I'm fine with him being minor but the fact that you can just miss him is kind of stupid, honestly. "Wallace vanishes forever if you level the lords too much" vibes there.

Still, we're getting ahead of ourselves here. More on that later.

[BrightBow]

4 hours ago, ping said:

Kempf really makes Narcian's ascension to Wyvern General seem deserved and reasonable. But his punchability and incompetence aside - Olwen, while she's obviously cast as the victim of Kempf's resolve to get at Reinhardt in any way possible, doesn't exactly come across as a paragon of competence, either, even before Kempf manages to goad her into drawing her weapon. I suppose we enter the conversation after Kempf has already been kempfing for a bit, but with how emotional Olwen acts from the very beginning of the scene, I have a difficult time imagining her as an army officer. I dunno - maybe it's meant to imply that Olwen actually does occupy a post that's above her ability and maturity thanks to Reinhardt's name and/or connections, which would make Kempf's comments more effective because they're not entirely unfounded.

Her being a clingy and naive little sister is very much intentional. Her arc is about outgrowing that and forging her own path.

As for her rank, Kempf merely says that it makes sense that there is much to expect form her seeing how she is fresh out of the academy. No accusation of nepotism being the reason for her position. Nor does it even sound like she is holding a high rank in the first place.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

Ah yes, the age-old Fire Emblem trope of "Outsmarting Your Opponent Is Evil". We've been there before, we'll go there again. #JusticeForZola

Yeah, but guilt tripping conflicted enemies can also be a strategy. Although Leaf does have August to call him out if he lets his pride get the better of him.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

Huh, didn't know Fred actually moves and attacks. Thought he just stays put until he can make a run for it.

 

4 hours ago, ping said:

Super epic ballista baiting! Wow! Thrilling gameplay.

But seriously, this seems like the "correct" way to play if you're not using savestates. Two ballistae with way too little non-overlap to wiggle through with any modicum of reliability. And since they previously went after Leif (37 HP | 7 Def) over Karin (23 HP | 5 Def) or Ronan (24 HP | 2 Def), it doesn't seem like there's some smart distractionary tactics one could deploy.

Not a strategy that ever occurred to me. I always have thieves open the 3 southern doors, using Rescue to keep them out of ballista range. Then have a bulky unit use the door keys to open the inner doors. Even with only 2 keys this works, since the first inner door is still close to an outdoor tile.

I guess that's why Tear Ring Saga increased the durability of ballistas to 22. They wanted to make waiting them out less viable.
And unsurprisingly the GBA games did the opposite and lowered their durability to 5 while keeping their stupid long range in addition to giving them the ability to move. Lame it out like it's X Tekken.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

Well, that was close. You have to do this in 30 turns for the Gaiden.
 

4 hours ago, ping said:

Thracia Fog isn't that much of a problem. What really drags Thracia 776's gameplay down is its awful usage of enemy ballisticians.

It would be fine here if it wasn't for Fred's position. Not to mention you cannot heal green units in this game. Unless Racecarart gaslit me into remembering that wrong.

 

4 hours ago, ping said:

And next up, another gaiden. I would assume that this was unlocked by Fred surviving (him fleeing the map may or may not matter), which on the one hand is a fairly reasonable gaiden requirement - but of course it would be odd that Augustus only thinks of the children if a random Imperial officer manages to escape the battle unharmed.

Well, if you fail the requirements, August doesn't actually get any lines here and Leaf talks to Dorias instead.

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, BrightBow said:

It would be fine here if it wasn't for Fred's position. Not to mention you cannot heal green units in this game. Unless Racecarart gaslit me into remembering that wrong.

It's probably true, because of you could heal green units then you'd be able to heal Travant's men who are actively attacking you during the Tara chapter.

[Revier]

On 8/18/2024 at 2:41 PM, ping said:

Well, about that...

LOL oops. Looks like I jinxed you. Or perhaps the game?

On 8/20/2024 at 6:59 PM, ping said:

: "When our forces met in Nowell Valley, I respected the honor with which your army conducted itself! It seems I was mistaken!"
: "...On behalf of my home, my honor compels me to agree with you. The crusader Thrud would not have fought using such treachery. This is all because of that fool of a man, General Kempf... This disgrace is his doing. As a knight, I'm loath to give my life in service of such a foul plan. You seem to be an honorable lad. I've self-control enough to not turn my sword against you if you can promise the same."

This whole bit is very very funny. "Ah yes, how dare they use...strategy in battle! What cowardly nitwits!!"

Edited August 22 by Revier

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Revier said:

LOL oops. Looks like I jinxed you. Or perhaps the game?

This whole bit is very very funny. "Ah yes, how dare they use...strategy in battle! What cowardly nitwits!!"

Well Kempf's plan did involve sacrificing Fred and those armoured knights as unwitting pawns. So it's contemptible at least from that angle. Course, Leif doesn't really seem to be thinking about that since his opening line against Fred is a bit accusatory.

[ping]

FE5 Chapter 11x: Desperate Ground

Spoiler

__

And we're back with Thracia fog! Yay!

: "They seem to be led by Leif, the rebel prince who caused a stir when he escaped from the dungeons of Castle Munster. This has escalated beyond a mere border skirmish. I must ride out at once and alert the Imperial Army's high command. Not to imply that this relieves you of your duties, of course. I still have orders for you and your men. Your platoon is to barricade itself inside this wing of the fortress, and stall the rebels for as long as possible. Buy me time."
: "B-But General, the enemy has already breached the fort's interior! my men and I cannot possibly withstand a prolonged siege!"
: "Nonsense! You still have one final means of defense in the southern corridor."
: "...Are you implying we are to huddle behind the gaps in the corridor's walls and take potshots at the invaders?! Y-You're asking us to die...! We'll be sitting ducks!"
: "No, I'm ordering you to kill the invaders before they kill you. There's a tremendous difference. Mind you, no part of my orders require you to die. In fact, if you die, you have only yourself to blame. Oh, and I'm not 'asking' anything. You used that word, not I. These are orders."
: "I... understand. If... If this is an order, I have no choice in the matter."
: "That is the first smart thing you've said, Bishop. Take your advice and follow my orders - otherwise, you'll be keeping Olwen company in the dungeon. Ah, speaking of which, you mustn't forget to dispose of the prisoners. They'll only cause trouble if they manage to survive all this."
: "...As you wish, General."
: "Don't look so glum, Bishop. If you should happen to die here, you can rest knowing your death served a purpose."
: "....."

Kempf getting even more punchable by pulling an "Well, technically". Impressive.

By the way, I never really thought about it, but the existence of bishops in the Imperial apparatus seems a bit odd. You wouldn't think that the Loptyr church allows representatives of other religions to hold official positions.

: "You witch! All you do is go around spreadin' misery to other folk! An' now yer here to kill us, ain'tcha?!"
: No, that's... That's not why I'm here! I was arrested! Wh-What are you kids doing here?!"
: S-Soldiers were raidin' our village... They took me an' brought me here, even when I kicked an' screamed...! Wh-What's gonna happen to us...?"
: "Yer talkin' like they ain't already decided what to do with us! They're gonna sacrifice us to Loptous! They're gonna send us to Belhalla an' kill every last one of us... I know 'cause my sister got taken there an' she never came back!"
: "No! P-Please don't take us away! I jus' wanna go back home... I I jus' wanna see Mama and Papa again...!

: "I'd heard rumors, but... I was sure it was just rebel propagana. I never even considered that it could be true... For the Empire to be doing something so heinous... This is inexcusable! I believed in the Empire, I trusted in House Friege... and this is what they've been doing all along?!"
: "Please, ma'am, help us! Take us back home!"
: "...Everything's going to be all right. You don't have to worry anymore, little one. They won't lay a finger on you ever again. On my honor, I'll protect each and every one of you! Even if it costs me my life...!"

This is once again a rather compact map, as FoW maps in this game tend to be thus far. As a result, it's another mostly palatable map, despite the large number of enemies blocking or threatening the long hallway. Since we have all our troops nearby and their movement is about as restricted as it can be, they aren't terribly threatening.

Roughly marked on the map is the range of the boss's double siege tomes. That said, I honestly mostly just ignored it - he doesn't hit all that hard, and with the map's design, you can't rush him either, without warping somebody in.

The admittedly not very exciting solution for the hallway of mild inconvenience: Asbel, who with Leif's support bonus...

__

...well, admittedly still sees relatively high hit rates from the enemy Archers. But he doesn't even take all that much damage from them, never mind the enemy Mages.

I do try to give Ronan some XP, too, with varying success, but he does come out of the chapter with roughly 1.5 levels, only beaten by Safy in that regard, so that's not too bad.

Right from the start of the map, Olwen in her cell gets thrown at with Javelins. Luckily, a male saviour is already on his way, arriving at the start of the second turn:

(Maybe I should give Olwen some credit since she got imprisoned for trying to defend her brother's honour, but it still turns her into Fire Emblem's damsel in distress #193 as a result)

: "Please, say something!"
: "Fred?! You came back for me... I'm over here! And children have been locked up with me, too! But Kempf still has men stationed here! Don't get careless!"

There's indeed... I think five or six Soldiers between Fred and Olwen's cell, but...

...he outmatches them pretty hard.

____

To be honest, there's just not a ton to say about this part of the map. Many enemies, but enemies weak.

__

Olwen does take some punishment before Fred can clear the hallway, but if her survival is luck-based, the odds at least seem well in her favour.

In this next part of the map, there's a handful of Knights hidden in the fog, but again - not terribly threatening.

__

And then Oltoph goes down.

__

Like, it's a bit wasteful not to capture him and his siege tomes and Physic staff, but I'd rather not bother running around inside of his range. Killing one of the Mages next to him is a bit silly, since they use Wind tomes which Asbel would appreciate, but...

...Dagdar is a bro and refuses to kill the other one on enemy phase (I didn't think he's move, after Kempf's two escorts didn't in the previous chapter).

(and I only now see how much crit the Wind tome has. Whoops. Dagdar is a slightly lucky bro)

__

Meanwhile, Ronan avoids a sword in his gut and gets a magical level. Can't let Karin run away with the +Move level-ups, eh?

As far as fighting is concerned, the rest of the map is just cleaning up. So instead of detailing who stabs whom, I'll just go over the dialogue (as far as I caught it):

: "Think nothing of it, milady. I'm just glad you're safe. Now, we must move quickly if we're to escape... Hm? What's come over you? You're white as a sheet!"

"Surely, being locked up in a dark, dank cell while a soldier stabs you with a sharp spear through the door can't have been *that* traumatising."

: "Fred, what have we really been fighting for?"
: "What do you mean, milady?"
: "What exactly have I accomplished? How many children have been stolen from their families under my watch? How many caravans of children have I helped send to Belhalla? How many... How many sacrifices to Loptous have I made possible?"
: "Lady Olwen..."
: "Never before had I had such... doubts... about what I've done. I believed that as long as I followed my brother, there could be no questioning the righteousness of my path. But now... Now I'm as blind as a newborn! I can't be certain of anything! I have nothing to believe in! I... I don't know what to do..."
: "...Lady Olwen, I can tell you only one thing for certain: your place isn't with the Empire and its army. Not anymore. But perhaps there could be a place for us in Prince Leif's army."
: "Join Prince Leif?! H-He's the enemy! He always has been!"
: "...I met Prince Leif, albeit briefly. Just from what little I saw, his values are far more in line with ours than the Empire's are. Whatever it is you've lost sight of, Lady Olwen, we can find it again in his army!"
: "...If you're convinced of Prince Leif's honor, Fred, then that's where we'll go."

"Now that I can't follow my brother anymore, let me follow you into following Prince Leif instead."

Olwen seems similar to Jill in PoR as a character - minus the racism and plus some big brother admiration, but similarly convinced that she's been with the Good Guys all along until she's forced to join up with the "Bad Guys". However, I'm worried that this is where Olwen's character arc ends, since that's what I believe happens to non-Lord characters once they've been recruited. I suppose there's potentially some tearful confrontation with Reinhardt down the line, but it seems unlikely that we're going to see Olwen find new conviction, which would leave her very unfinished as a character.

[HP 50% | Str 40% | Mag 45% | Skl 55% | Spd 50% | Lck 70% | Def 15% | Con 10% | Mov 1%]
Skills: --
Weapon ranks: Swords (C), Fire (D+40), Thunder (B+30), Wind (D+10)

I wonder if anyone ever tried to establish a "Sheema" archetype and put Olwen in it. Because if you just look at her stats, that seems like an obvious reference, despite Sheema's very different stat spread: A prepromoted character with rather underwhelming base stats (they get better once she finds her horse, but it's only +1 in most stats) but very good growths.

But I know that her main draw is her personal Dire Thunder tome, which hits very hard (15 Mt) with an added Brave effect. However, it's also quite heavy (12 Wt, unmitigated by Con), which cuts into its useability quite a bit. If Olwen fails to kill an enemy (and it's not even that accurate at 70 base hit), chances are that she'll be doubled in return.

I vaguely remember that dondon talked some trash about Olwen because of this, and I also remember that she's part of a very obscure Arran-and-Samson duo, with her much stronger counterpart (Elyas? Something along those lines) being recruitable by Karin... but only if Olwen is unrecruited or dead. So I suppose I did the inefficient thing by not letting her rot in prison.

[HP 75% | Str 60% | Mag 15% | Skl 40% | Spd 35% | Lck 25% | Def 35% | Con 25% | Mov 1%]
Skills: --
Weapon ranks: Swords (A), Lances (C)

Fred's growths are... slightly lower in total, but honestly still just plain better than Olwen's. It helps that he doesn't have to balance his Str/Mag growths, but he also trades some Skl/Spd/Lck for significantly better physical bulk growths.

However, more importantly, his bases are a lot better than Olwens. Flipped Str/Mag, but Fred has a Con stat to preserve his Spd, and significantly better HP/Def bases than his boss. As a result, he seems... solid. Not outstanding - our 12/1 Fergus is basically a better version of Fred except without lances, but Fred seems perfectly competent now and with the growths to remain relevant long-term.

____

Once the map is cleared, Leif also has a talk with Olwen:

: "...My name is Leif, and I command this army."
: Leif?! So you're Prince Leif of House Leonster, are you not? I... I am Olwen, Mage Knight of House Friege, at your service."
: "House Friege, you say? Then...why did you-"
: "Frankly, I'm not sure where to begin. It's quite the long story... I've... come to learn a number of terrible truths in a very short time, and my mind is in disarray... Prince Leif, if you can forgive my choice of allegiance, I would ask to stay in your company for a time. Just while I come to terms with what I've learned, I assure you."
: "Your past is of no issue to me. However, I must consult with my advisors, Augustus and Dorius, on this matter. You'll have to wait until this battle is over before I can render judgment on your request."
: "Of course. It was unreasonable of me to ask such a thing of you so suddenly... I apologize."

Well, technically, Olwen learned one particularly terrible truth. Kempf being an asshat clearly wasn't a recent development. OK, even more technically, one is "a number", I guess...

I delay the seize a bit to check if Fred has anything to say to Leif (...hm, I think I forgot to see if Fred is able to initiate a talk); with Fred first making sure that the three children wouldn't run into some reinforcements on their way to freedom...

...but this was still not an awfully long map. Overall, a decent one. Less interesting than Dagdar's return or Asbel's joining map before that, but not a chore to play, either.

: "Supposing they allowed Tahra to defy them, countless cities would follow suit. It's for this very reason that the Empire has summoned troops from across Jugdral just to attack one city: they move to crush both Tahra and its hopes all at once. I've even heard tell that the Gelbenritter have been recalled from Belhalla to join in the assault."
: "The Gelbenritter... That's House Friege's elite battalion of knights, correct?"
: "Indeed, but they are not mere knights. They're Mage Knights, each of them handpicked for the job, and each of them a noble from House Friege's inner circle. They're one of the strongest, if not THE strongest, battalion of knights in the continent. To make matters worse, they're led by none other than Princess Ishtar - the woman widely feared as the Goddess of Thunder. And her adjutant, Sir Reinhardt, is a damned fine warrior in his own right. Some even believe him to be the reincarnation of the the crusader Thrud."
: "A man who readily lends his hand to child hunting is what you call a 'damned fine warrior'? How typical... Knights are so hopeless. You've lost sight of reality!"
: "Augustus! You insult me, speaking so brashly! Just what is it that I'm unaware of?! Please, do tell!"
: "Need I spell it out? Reinhardt is Ishtar's adjutant and guardian. Ishtar is the betrothed of Crown Prince Julius. Julius - the very same man the people call the 'Scion of Darkness', need I remind you - is the vessel of the dark god Loptous! Ultimately, anyone who serves Julius in any way is ushering the world closer to destruction!"

: "...And who might you be?"
: "Olwen, sister of Sir Reinhardt."
: "For her own reasons, she wishes to accompany our army. I gave her leave to do so, unless you have objections."
: "...I see. If that's the case, Olwen, take a good, hard look at what the Empire has done here. See them for what they truly are."

I like how Augustus throws the Camus archetype into the waste bin here. His disdain for glorifying military leaders fighting for insanely evil regimes really seems like it would be applicable to real life examples, too, but I wouldn't want to speculate how deliberate that might be on Kaga's part.

I am a bit surprised that Augustus identifies Julius as Loptyr's vessel. This just doesn't seem like it would be common knowledge at all - I have to admit that I don't quite remember how this is brought up in Genealogy, but considering the general structure of Gen 2, chances are that Lewyn/Forseti exposited it to Seliph at some point. ...oh geez, I worried earlier that Augustus might be on Lewyn's payroll and this could be a clue supporting that.

The Team:

	  Lv.	    Fat/HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Con  XP
Leif	  16.11	    --  38   7   1   7   9  13   8   9  +40	[+7 HP]
Marty	  13/2.70    8/ 45  18   1  14  12  14  13  20  +112	[+3 Spd, +3 Skl]
Dagdar	   */9.57   20/ 43  15   1  11   9   2  10  15  +50

Macha	  9.95	    11/ 27   6   1  14  14  10   5   7  +49
Lifis	  8.11	     3/ 22   6   1   4  12   2   2   6  --
Ronan	  12.41	    13/ 26   9   4   7  12   3   3   7  +152

Asbel	  10/6.85   10/ 37   0  15  17  20   9   8   6  +96	[+7 HP, +2 Mag]
Safy	  8.95	    15/ 16   0  10   9   8   9   0   4  +185

Fred	   */2.63    7/ 33   9   4  10   8   4   8  11  +63	[unmounted]
Olwen	   */2.00    4/ 24   4  10   7   9   5   3   5  --	[unmounted]

• I'm currently sitting on two Master Seals, with a bigger number of potential recipients. Ronan and Hicks (Lv.13.28) are requested characters, so they obviously need to be promoted sooner or later, but I think I'd prefer feeding both of them more XP before doing so. In addition, Nanna (Lv.14.89) and Karin (Lv.12.20) are two units at Lv.10+ that I'd like to promote, too. Macha (Lv.9.95) is almost there, too, although she honestly feels more and more outpaced. The 49 XP she gained during this chapter were very much set up for her, not anything useful she did.
  • I think my preferred course of action would be to promote Nanna first, once she staffed herself to Lv.15, followed by Hicks, also at Lv.15 or 16. And then see when we get the next Master Seals, with Ronan getting preferential treatment in case they become so rare that this is an important decision.

 

On 8/20/2024 at 6:50 PM, Jotari said:

Given this is feudalism both of them are probably only where they are because of nepotism. Which brings up a question for the group, does Reinhardt have holy blood? He's described as being "from Friege" and is even called Thrud reborn, so are he an Olwen meant to be a cadet family of Blume's line or are they just regular nobles from the same area?

If Reinhardt is Ishtar's adjutant, I would assume that he's also officially part of the Gelbenritter, which according to Dorius's gushing would mean that he and Olwen are part of House Friege's inner circle. Which must be rather enormous, if you can handpick a whole battalion of Mage Knights from it, so I feel like "inner circle" might not be the best phrase to use in the translation.

On 8/20/2024 at 6:50 PM, Jotari said:

There always is an awkwardzombie. Truly the XKCD of video games.

On 8/20/2024 at 8:29 PM, BrightBow said:

Her being a clingy and naive little sister is very much intentional. Her arc is about outgrowing that and forging her own path.

As for her rank, Kempf merely says that it makes sense that there is much to expect form her seeing how she is fresh out of the academy. No accusation of nepotism being the reason for her position. Nor does it even sound like she is holding a high rank in the first place.

I'd say that Kempf at least implies that Olwen got into (or maybe through) the academy because of Reinhardt: "I know that your only real weapon is to go begging your brother for help."

As for her position in the chain of command - I'm not terribly familiar with military practice, but with Olwen having her own personal adjutant, I kinda assume that she's more than just a sergeant.

On 8/20/2024 at 8:29 PM, BrightBow said:

Huh, didn't know Fred actually moves and attacks. Thought he just stays put until he can make a run for it.

He did have a path open already, since I opened the three southern doors on the same turn the trap fired. Maybe he attacked the Knight because he was right next to the direct path south, although of course that's just wild guessing.

On 8/20/2024 at 8:29 PM, BrightBow said:

It would be fine here if it wasn't for Fred's position. Not to mention you cannot heal green units in this game. Unless Racecarart gaslit me into remembering that wrong.

No, that's correct. I checked with Olwen during this chapter.

On 8/22/2024 at 5:20 AM, Jotari said:

Well Kempf's plan did involve sacrificing Fred and those armoured knights as unwitting pawns. So it's contemptible at least from that angle. Course, Leif doesn't really seem to be thinking about that since his opening line against Fred is a bit accusatory.

Yeah, I feel like that's an angle that would've made sense, but wasn't looked from in the dialogue. In addition to Leif's accusatory tone, Fred also sounds more like "yeah, sorry you were tricked" than "yeah, fuck that guy for using me as a sacrificial pawn" in his response.

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, ping said:

By the way, I never really thought about it, but the existence of bishops in the Imperial apparatus seems a bit odd. You wouldn't think that the Loptyr church allows representatives of other religions to hold official positions.

It's not the first time and it won't be the last. What is Volzhin a bishop of when he's working with a human-hating cult of personality? Why does Bern have a bishop as a military commander over in Ilia? Why ? Sometimes classes just make things funky. I mean, think back to all the so-called mercenaries who join the good guys without the slightest promise of pay. Lousy mercenaries all of them, like Gerik said.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Roughly marked on the map is the range of the boss's double siege tomes. That said, I honestly mostly just ignored it - he doesn't hit all that hard, and with the map's design, you can't rush him either, without warping somebody in.

Something very funny happens with Oltoph in like, turn 30 or something isnane like that.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Right from the start of the map, Olwen in her cell gets thrown at with Javelins. Luckily, a male saviour is already on his way, arriving at the start of the second turn:

(Maybe I should give Olwen some credit since she got imprisoned for trying to defend her brother's honour, but it still turns her into Fire Emblem's damsel in distress #193 as a result)

Lest you forget who the game director for this was!

1 hour ago, ping said:

__

Like, it's a bit wasteful not to capture him and his siege tomes and Physic staff, but I'd rather not bother running around inside of his range. Killing one of the Mages next to him is a bit silly, since they use Wind tomes which Asbel would appreciate, but...

Well, what happens on turn 30 is, he goes "I'm not following an order that I know will lead to my death", he gives a soldier some bullshit about needing to make a report and just bolts outta there.

1 hour ago, ping said:

__

Meanwhile, Ronan avoids a sword in his gut and gets a magical level. Can't let Karin run away with the +Move level-ups, eh?

He has 9 strength. somehow that's more noteworthy to me than his move. Boy's actually growing really well.

1 hour ago, ping said:

[HP 50% | Str 40% | Mag 45% | Skl 55% | Spd 50% | Lck 70% | Def 15% | Con 10% | Mov 1%]
Skills: --
Weapon ranks: Swords (C), Fire (D+40), Thunder (B+30), Wind (D+10)

I wonder if anyone ever tried to establish a "Sheema" archetype and put Olwen in it. Because if you just look at her stats, that seems like an obvious reference, despite Sheema's very different stat spread: A prepromoted character with rather underwhelming base stats (they get better once she finds her horse, but it's only +1 in most stats) but very good growths.

But I know that her main draw is her personal Dire Thunder tome, which hits very hard (15 Mt) with an added Brave effect. However, it's also quite heavy (12 Wt, unmitigated by Con), which cuts into its useability quite a bit. If Olwen fails to kill an enemy (and it's not even that accurate at 70 base hit), chances are that she'll be doubled in return.

I vaguely remember that dondon talked some trash about Olwen because of this, and I also remember that she's part of a very obscure Arran-and-Samson duo, with her much stronger counterpart (Elyas? Something along those lines) being recruitable by Karin... but only if Olwen is unrecruited or dead. So I suppose I did the inefficient thing by not letting her rot in prison.

Yeah, there's a totally unclear Arran/Samson with Olwen that you'd never get without a guide, because even if Olwen dies on her own accord the recruitment for that guy is entirely asinine. Nevertheless he is indeed just better than Olwen.

1 hour ago, ping said:

[HP 75% | Str 60% | Mag 15% | Skl 40% | Spd 35% | Lck 25% | Def 35% | Con 25% | Mov 1%]
Skills: --
Weapon ranks: Swords (A), Lances (C)

Fred's growths are... slightly lower in total, but honestly still just plain better than Olwen's. It helps that he doesn't have to balance his Str/Mag growths, but he also trades some Skl/Spd/Lck for significantly better physical bulk growths.

However, more importantly, his bases are a lot better than Olwens. Flipped Str/Mag, but Fred has a Con stat to preserve his Spd, and significantly better HP/Def bases than his boss. As a result, he seems... solid. Not outstanding - our 12/1 Fergus is basically a better version of Fred except without lances, but Fred seems perfectly competent now and with the growths to remain relevant long-term.

Fred's just... he's a really boring unit. His face is just a dude, his character is just a generic upstanding dude that gets overshadowed by far superior characters around him while they still have a presence, and as a unit he can be accurately described with the words "good cavalier." There's just nothing all too inspiring about this man.

1 hour ago, ping said:

I delay the seize a bit to check if Fred has anything to say to Leif (...hm, I think I forgot to see if Fred is able to initiate a talk); with Fred first making sure that the three children wouldn't run into some reinforcements on their way to freedom...

Nope, he doesn't. He's already fulfilled his purpose of being Olwen's obligatory knight in shining armor when she got Kaga'd. We've seen as much as we ever will from him.

1 hour ago, ping said:

I like how Augustus throws the Camus archetype into the waste bin here. His disdain for glorifying military leaders fighting for insanely evil regimes really seems like it would be applicable to real life examples, too, but I wouldn't want to speculate how deliberate that might be on Kaga's part.

Yeah, this is one of August's best moments. He takes the series's beloved theme of honorable knights and loyalty (the one they've already indulged in, mind, with Largo and such) and flips it on his head as he remarks that, yeah, actually, all that honor don't mean zip when they're aiding in fucking child hunts.

1 hour ago, ping said:

As for her position in the chain of command - I'm not terribly familiar with military practice, but with Olwen having her own personal adjutant, I kinda assume that she's more than just a sergeant.

They do seem to be nobles, perhaps Fred is just a sworn knight of Olwen's family.

...Then again, considering he too is a knight... Sheesh.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, there's a totally unclear Arran/Samson with Olwen that you'd never get without a guide, because even if Olwen dies on her own accord the recruitment for that guy is entirely asinine. Nevertheless he is indeed just better than Olwen.

But growths (with lower base level for more Scroll abuse)! And critplier! Availability! Plus Daiya Thunda!⚡😛

I wouldn't say it's totally clear-cut. Unlike a certain other either-or.

[Jotari]

8 hours ago, ping said:

By the way, I never really thought about it, but the existence of bishops in the Imperial apparatus seems a bit odd. You wouldn't think that the Loptyr church allows representatives of other religions to hold official positions.

There are two possibilities. Ether Oltoph is a bishop of the loot sect, just a rather benign one (unlikely given his age) or stamping out other religions isn't really easy, as our own history would certainly attest to. The Lopt Sect really hasn't been in power for that long, and the history of the crusaders and the religions surrounding them probably still resonate with the people a lot, Julius is still getting his authority from his Crusader bloodline and not from his Lopt powers. Discrimination against other religions is probably only just getting started. Still, it'd be nice to see it in some way, like having the Lopt members pursuing Palmarch could have talked shit about other religions.

What I really wonder about is Saias. Is he part of the Lopt Sect? All the information seems to indicate no, since he somehow has the Bragi Sword and he wants to go to the tower of Bragi at the end. Also his class allows for light magic instead of dark. Still, he's a rather young bishop who is considered influential enough to have direct contact with a sick Julius which seems like something the Lopt Sect would never allow if it wasn't their own.

8 hours ago, ping said:

Meanwhile, Ronan avoids a sword in his gut and gets a magical level. Can't let Karin run away with the +Move level-ups, eh?

And people say Ronan sucks as a character. Movement baby, it's all an archer needs (well a hefty does of favouritism helps too).

8 hours ago, ping said:

If Olwen fails to kill an enemy (and it's not even that accurate at 70 base hit), chances are that she'll be doubled in return

If the enemy can counter, of course. 1-2 range is considered amazing for a reason. A Dire Tome is pretty hype.

8 hours ago, ping said:

but this was still not an awfully long map. Overall, a decent one. Less interesting than Dagdar's return or Asbel's joining map before that, but not a chore to play, either.

Fun trivia for this map, any playable units captured in the previous map will show up as prisoners in the cells adjacent to Olwen in this map. It's pretty unlikely for you to naturally lose a unit in the previous map given it's lay out, but it is really cool that they're thrown in the nearest cell and can be saved now. I wish more chapters did stuff like that, especially when you're not fighting the empire.

8 hours ago, ping said:

If Reinhardt is Ishtar's adjutant, I would assume that he's also officially part of the Gelbenritter, which according to Dorius's gushing would mean that he and Olwen are part of House Friege's inner circle. Which must be rather enormous, if you can handpick a whole battalion of Mage Knights from it, so I feel like "inner circle" might not be the best phrase to use in the translation.

Well not necessarily every mage knight would need to be related to the royal family, but I could certainly see the commanders being cousins and nephews and stuff. After all, what are the likes of Reptor's brothers kids going to do with their lives sive they're not inheriting lands? Going into military command would be a reasonable way of giving purpose to the second sons and stuff.

Of course the aristocracy of Jugdral should be kind of weird. The crusaders did an outright purge of the previous aristocracy, killing every Loptyr blooded person they can find, which in the Lopt empire is probably near synonyms with blue blood. So all of these nobles we see running around the place should be incredibly young noble families given it's only a hundred years or so. Everyone of note should be related to the crusaders even if not by direct descent. The only answer I have is that the crusaders probably elevated a lot of the ordinary non holy blood soldiers that fought beside them to the lower level aristocracy, with maybe one or two families from the previous nobility that could prove they weren't related to the royal family that changed sides and helped the crusaders scattered in.

Edited August 24 by Jotari

[Revier]

On 8/24/2024 at 12:34 AM, ping said:

(Maybe I should give Olwen some credit since she got imprisoned for trying to defend her brother's honour, but it still turns her into Fire Emblem's damsel in distress #193 as a result)

Ah yes, honor. Such a simple yet enticing thing that drives people to madness.

On 8/24/2024 at 12:34 AM, ping said:

To be honest, there's just not a ton to say about this part of the map. Many enemies, but enemies weak.

So the standard Fire Emblem formula for enemy formations. 😄

On 8/24/2024 at 12:34 AM, ping said:

: "A man who readily lends his hand to child hunting is what you call a 'damned fine warrior'? How typical... Knights are so hopeless. You've lost sight of reality!"

A+ trash talk here, lol. Would love to see more of that.

Edited August 25 by Revier

[ping]

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Lest you forget who the game director for this was!

I applaud Kaga's restraint for not giving her amnesia, too. I believe we're only at one lost mind (Mareeta) and one lost memory (Bridget), which really isn't that much, considering whose game we're talking about.

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Well, what happens on turn 30 is, he goes "I'm not following an order that I know will lead to my death", he gives a soldier some bullshit about needing to make a report and just bolts outta there.

That is pretty funny. And would explain the door key in his inventory.

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Yeah, this is one of August's best moments. He takes the series's beloved theme of honorable knights and loyalty (the one they've already indulged in, mind, with Largo and such) and flips it on his head as he remarks that, yeah, actually, all that honor don't mean zip when they're aiding in fucking child hunts.

1 hour ago, Revier said:

A+ trash talk here, lol. Could use more of those.

Definitely his best scene thus far. I'm honestly still a bit undecided about Augustus as whole, mostly because the "why are you here?" question hasn't been answered even though it could be asked twice - first because we still don't know what exactly Augustus's allegiances are, second because I still find it a bit questionable that Leif made the random guy he found in a pirate fort into his chief advisor.

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

There are two possibilities. Ether Oltoph is a bishop of the loot sect, just a rather benign one (unlikely given his age) or stamping out other religions isn't really easy, as our own history would certainly attest to. The Lopt Sect really hasn't been in power for that long, and the history of the crusaders and the religions surrounding them probably still resonate with the people a lot, Julius is still getting his authority from his Crusader bloodline and not from his Lopt powers. Discrimination against other religions is probably only just getting started. Still, it'd be nice to see it in some way, like having the Lopt members pursuing Palmarch could have talked shit about other religions.

Good points. Loptyr's take-over of Julius is still fairly recent (I don't remember the exact timeline, but Genealogy did play the "he was a cute kid" card with Julius) and officially, it's still Arvis who is in charge, whose end goal isn't even any form of Loptyr domination. We (or at least I) don't even know if Thracia plays before or after the initial power struggle where Arvis tried to have Julius exiled.

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Well not necessarily every mage knight would need to be related to the royal family, but I could certainly see the commanders being cousins and nephews and stuff. After all, what are the likes of Reptor's brothers kids going to do with their lives sive they're not inheriting lands? Going into military command would be a reasonable way of giving purpose to the second sons and stuff.

To be honest, I think I would interpret Dorius's line such that every Gelbenritter is part of House Friege: "They're Mage Knights, each of them handpicked for the job, and each of them a noble from House Friege's inner circle." - although I guess it could also be parsed as "a noble who is also buddy-buddy with Blume/Ishtar/Ishtore".

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Of course the aristocracy of Jugdral should be kind of weird. The crusaders did an outright purge of the previous aristocracy, killing every Loptyr blooded person they can find, which in the Lopt empire is probably near synonyms with blue blood. So all of these nobles we see running around the place should be incredibly young noble families given it's only a hundred years or so. Everyone of note should be related to the crusaders even if not by direct descent. The only answer I have is that the crusaders probably elevated a lot of the ordinary non holy blood soldiers that fought beside them to the lower level aristocracy, with maybe one or two families from the previous nobility that could prove they weren't related to the royal family that changed sides and helped the crusaders scattered in.

Clearly, Tordo was just a terrible horndog, chasing every skirt from Thracia to Agustria, but because he was also honourable, being a Crusader and all, he legitimised every son and daughter he produced. So that's why the Friege family is so incredibly large that you can recruit a whole battalion from it.

[BrightBow]

Woho! Murder Hollace time!
 

11 hours ago, ping said:

By the way, I never really thought about it, but the existence of bishops in the Imperial apparatus seems a bit odd. You wouldn't think that the Loptyr church allows representatives of other religions to hold official positions.

Doesn't seem very strange to me. Their power grab is still very much a work in progress. And the Freege in particular don't like them very much.
 

11 hours ago, ping said:

I wonder if anyone ever tried to establish a "Sheema" archetype and put Olwen in it. Because if you just look at her stats, that seems like an obvious reference, despite Sheema's very different stat spread: A prepromoted character with rather underwhelming base stats (they get better once she finds her horse, but it's only +1 in most stats) but very good growths.

This seem to be basically placeholder growths, considering other characters have those too. Kinda like how Nanna and Selphina share identical growths, but for this one there are even more cases.
 

11 hours ago, ping said:

But I know that her main draw is her personal Dire Thunder tome, which hits very hard (15 Mt) with an added Brave effect. However, it's also quite heavy (12 Wt, unmitigated by Con), which cuts into its useability quite a bit. If Olwen fails to kill an enemy (and it's not even that accurate at 70 base hit), chances are that she'll be doubled in return.

Brenthunder it is not. 95 accuracy and 4 weight. Woho!
 

11 hours ago, ping said:

I vaguely remember that dondon talked some trash about Olwen because of this, and I also remember that she's part of a very obscure Arran-and-Samson duo, with her much stronger counterpart (Elyas? Something along those lines) being recruitable by Karin... but only if Olwen is unrecruited or dead. So I suppose I did the inefficient thing by not letting her rot in prison.

It kinda makes sense if you consider that that map encourages you to sacrifice Olwen to gain a tactical advantage.
So not too much of a surprise that you get a replacement for her on the same map with the same class if you decide to take that option.

Only on a meta level, though. There is nothing in-universe that justifies why this conversation can only happen if Olwen is dead.
 

11 hours ago, ping said:

Is it so easy? Seems like children in cages doesn't even swing elections, let alone cause a rebellion.
 

11 hours ago, ping said:

I like how Augustus throws the Camus archetype into the waste bin here. His disdain for glorifying military leaders fighting for insanely evil regimes really seems like it would be applicable to real life examples, too, but I wouldn't want to speculate how deliberate that might be on Kaga's part.

And Heroes wants to insist that August would get along with the likes of Corrin or Xander.

It's arguable if the "Camus archetype" even exists in any of the Saga games. Some seem to fit the mold at first glance, but end up being played very differently.
 

12 hours ago, ping said:

I am a bit surprised that Augustus identifies Julius as Loptyr's vessel. This just doesn't seem like it would be common knowledge at all - I have to admit that I don't quite remember how this is brought up in Genealogy, but considering the general structure of Gen 2, chances are that Lewyn/Forseti exposited it to Seliph at some point. ...oh geez, I worried earlier that Augustus might be on Lewyn's payroll and this could be a clue supporting that.

The old translation did phrase it as hearsay rather than a universally accepted truth.

August: “You call a man who helps kidnap children honorable?
Hmph…this is the problem with you knights. You know nothing of reality.”

Dorias: “What did you say? What don’t I know, August?”

August: “Rinehart is Queen Ishtar’s first guard. Ishtar is Prince Yurius’
lover. And Yurius is said to be an incarnation of the dark god, Lopto. They are all servants of Lopto… They are leading this world to destruction.”
 

12 hours ago, ping said:

I think my preferred course of action would be to promote Nanna first, once she staffed herself to Lv.15, followed by Hicks, also at Lv.15 or 16. And then see when we get the next Master Seals, with Ronan getting preferential treatment in case they become so rare that this is an important decision.

A fun thing you can do with Nanna is to give her the Elite Sword, so she gets double EXP whenever she uses staffs without using up the sword's durability.
That +5 defense isn't terrible either if she does get attacked.

[Saint Rubenio]

2 hours ago, ping said:

first because we still don't know what exactly Augustus's allegiances are, second because I still find it a bit questionable that Leif made the random guy he found in a pirate fort into his chief advisor.

I'd say he's a tad starved for options. Finn's just a knight, Eyvel's otherwise preoccupied and everyone else is just random fighters and dudes he picked up along the way. Nobody that's really got the strategic chops Leif needs. I mean, look at Dryas. He's the closest thing to a strategist Leif has outside of August and so far his track record is "I'm sure you don't need me to spell it out for you, Lord Leif!" August is competent and seems trustworthy enough, helped him take a bunch of pirates to justice and all.

All of this, at the start, at least. Leif does certainly pick up people who could work as the strategist later on. Though let's not kid ourselves, the real reason is that Kaga was sticking really sternly to the permadeath thing in this game and couldn't have any of the playables be the advisor man.

Also once again pointing out that if you miss 2x it all falls apart because he didn't even help him to take the pirates to justice, they just talked once and parted ways

Edited August 24 by Saint Rubenio

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'd say he's a tad starved for options. Finn's just a knight, Eyvel's otherwise preoccupied and everyone else is just random fighters and dudes he picked up along the way. Nobody that's really got the strategic chops Leif needs. I mean, look at Dryas. He's the closest thing to a strategist Leif has outside of August and so far his track record is "I'm sure you don't need me to spell it out for you, Lord Leif!" August is competent and seems trustworthy enough, helped him take a bunch of pirates to justice and all.

All of this, at the start, at least. Leif does certainly pick up people who could work as the strategist later on. Though let's not kid ourselves, the real reason is that Kaga was sticking really sternly to the permadeath thing in this game and couldn't have any of the playables be the advisor man.

Also once again pointing out that if you miss 2x it all falls apart because he didn't even help him to take the pirates to justice, they just talked once and parted ways

Honestly, Dagdar could be a decent advisor. He might not understand broader continental politics, but he has led men and surely has some knowledge of tactics and guerilla warfare. And Gomez dies show that bandits have their own politics to deal with (though the fact that Dagdar suffered a coup probably means he's not great at that side of things).

15 hours ago, ping said:

To be honest, I think I would interpret Dorius's line such that every Gelbenritter is part of House Friege: "They're Mage Knights, each of them handpicked for the job, and each of them a noble from House Friege's inner circle." - although I guess it could also be parsed as "a noble who is also buddy-buddy with Blume/Ishtar/Ishtore".

If it's been a hundred years since the era of Thrud. Let's say he had three kids. If all three those had three kids (one of which is Reptor's parent), all three of them had three kids (one of which is Reptor), all three of them had three kids (we actually know Reptor's three kids) and all of those three kids had two (as we see in game), that would be 3*3*3*3*2=162 descendents of Thrud running around, if my math is right. Minus 6 for the kids of Ishtar's generation who are rebels or royals we have a total potential batallion of 156 Ishtar's generation, plus another day 50% if we assume all their parents are still of fighting age. So about about 230. Which is not really that insignificant for a set of elite troops. Of course, literally 100% of them wouldn't be military inclined (some probably did inherit smaller castles and some might just want to be scholars or priest etc) and any of them could have had more or less than three kids. Thrud could have head twelve kids for all we know. But for an average it gives a decent estimation for the range we would be talking about. It's not going to be in the thousands, but it that way, but it could easily be over 100.

Edited August 24 by Jotari

[BrightBow]

Should have made Lifis the tactician. It worked well in Vestaria Saga II.

[Nauriam]

On 8/24/2024 at 7:25 AM, BrightBow said:

Should have made Lifis the tactician. It worked well in Vestaria Saga II.

Caesar is somewhat of a dirtbag, but not nearly as much as Lifis is. I agree that Caesar is a great tactician for VSII, even if it doesn't make that much sense for Zade to appoint him as tactician. Maybe if Lifis had any redeeming qualities at all they could have pulled off something similar. Also, the way chapter 2x is setup, it'd be too easy to miss Lifis.

For all the reasons everyone already mentioned I think Augustus is really badass. I always saw him as someone who both offered his help to get himself out of the sticky situation at the time, but also realized the importance of Leif and what he's doing so decided to continue to offer support to genuinely make a difference. Before long Augustus helping Leif went from opportunistic help to somewhat of a vocation. And Leif accepting his help is definitely weird, but at that time Leif had to take a lot of risks to build support and not die, and this is one of the risks he took that ended up working out.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Nauriam said:

Caesar is somewhat of a dirtbag, but not nearly as much as Lifis is. I agree that Caesar is a great tactician for VSII, even if it doesn't make that much sense for Zade to appoint him as tactician. Maybe if Lifis had any redeeming qualities at all they could have pulled off something similar. Also, the way chapter 2x is setup, it'd be too easy to miss Lifis.

For all the reasons everyone already mentioned I think Augustus is really badass. I always saw him as someone who both offered his help to get himself out of the sticky situation at the time, but also realized the importance of Leif and what he's doing so decided to continue to offer support to genuinely make a difference. Before long Augustus helping Leif went from opportunistic help to somewhat of a vocation. And Leif accepting his help is definitely weird, but at that time Leif had to take a lot of risks to build support and not die, and this is one of the risks he took that ended up working out.

That's pretty much is spelled out at the end where August said he has no faith in Leif in the beginning and was just helping because [Redacted] said to with him growing to believe in Leif over time. What isn't spelled out directly is when August begins to change, but I'd say the turning point was Tara. He cautious Leif against going there and ends up being right considering Leif fails to save it, but he still does help a lot of people in the process and display he's serious about this conflict and does have the ability to alter the course of the war.

[ping]

FE5 Chapter 12: The Bandits of Dacia

Spoiler

Today, we find ourselves in a region mostly located in today's Romania, which was part of the Roman Empire from 102 to the 270s. Being a border province, Dacia was often target of "barbarian" attacks after its conquest under Trajan, but because it contained a large amount of mineral riches, including gold and silver, the Romans refused to give up the land and fall back to a more defensible position. It is likely that when Emperor Aurelian (you might recognise the name from the city walls of Rome) eventually gave up on holding Dacia, these mines were largely exhausted, as they otherwise would've been too important to abandon.

Leif's campaign, of course, famously takes place almost 500 years after the Romans have left Dacia, at what time I assume the Roman-built infrastructure has been almost entirely withered away. This is represented in gameplay by the fact that this map is shit.

Having seized the infamous Fort Dundrum, Leif's Liberation Army was keenly aware just how little time remained before the Empire launched its assault on Tahra. Scarcely taking a moment to catch their breath, the Liberation Army kept marching well into the evening, determined to come to the city's defense before it was too late. When they finally arrived at the edges of Dacia Forest, which extends around Tahra's eastern border, it was the dead of night. The thick foliage obscured what little moonlight had been illuminating their path, and the forest was now blanketed in a deep, foreboding darkness...

So, another fog of war mission. And while I (somewhat) defended Thracia Fog previously, it's really starting to get on my nerves. The reason: I have one (1) torch. I've had one (1) torch for a while. On the last map, I used my one (1) torch to unveil as much of the map as possible on turn 1 before restarting the map and play it with the regular 3-tile vision range. And I'll have to do that again, because I'm fairly certain at this point that the next map is going to be another FoW one.

(OK, as I'm typing this, I know that that is the case, but during battle preps, I only suspected it because of who's going to be in the opening cutscene)

The team - with Olwen barely visible at the bottom, and without too many surprises, I think. Asbel taking another break also results from seeing the opening cutscene, so here it is:

: "Come now, it was all thanks to you that I managed to survive. I'll be fine."
: "Still, those Loptrian lunatics are a sadistic bunch, ain't they? If we hadn't happened to pass by, you'd have been a goner for sure."
: "..... The Loptr Church never forgives betrayal. That is one of their highest tenets..."
: "'Betrayal' is a bit of a stretch, ain't it? I mean, you just said you wanted to leave the Church, that's all. It ain't right to kill a man just because he wants to go his own way. ...But I gotta ask you, why'd you want to leave in the first place? I hear the Loptrian bishops have even more power than the Emperor now. That's an awful luxurious position to just walk away from."
: "I... no longer understood the Church. That was my reason - nothing more, nothing less."
: "Hmm... Simple as that, huh? I like the cut of your jib, kid. How about you join up with me and my crew? We could use someone like you. If you're up for it, that is."
: "I admit, your... unusual sense of ethics hasn't gone unnoticed by me. You're bandits, true, but you do not kill, and you refuse to steal from the poor. So long as you continue to abide by that code, I'll agree to stay here."
: "I'm not in the hobby of murder, myself - but our crew has swelled in number lately, and I can't say the same for the new folks. Especially this one hothead, Colho. Him and his lackeys are gettin' antsy about how I won't let them drop any bodies during a heist."
: "It's more than that. Colho and his followers are truly wicked men - they've been attacking travelers and passing merchants."
: "Ah... So you already heard about them, huh? I'll get right to the point, then: I'm planning on cuttin' ties with the lot of them. Long as Trude comes with me, I can manage just fine. Of course, I'm hoping you'll also come along, Salem."
: "Don't forget about Tina. See that you're mindful of her feelings, and don't be too harsh with her - she's little more than a child."
: "Hah... All right, all right. Anyhow, I'm headed back inside. Looks like you get your wish, 'cause I'M trusting you with guard duty. Don't say I never did anything for you. Just be on the lookout for the Imperial Army. With all the troops they're sending to Tahra, they might come through the forest. If they find us, we'll be sitting ducks."
: "Not to worry. If anyone draws near, I'll use my Sleep staff to send them into a deep slumber."

So I remember both these characters as well as Tina (although I'm going to be reminded of an important detail later), but I think it'd be rather difficult to miss that they're recruitable anyway. Which is why Asbel resets his fatigue even though it's only at 10 / 37 - since there's no obvious hint about anyone being able to talk to Salem, I'm assuming that I'll have to capture him like with Lifis back in 2x, and I can't exactly rely on Asbel being beefy enough to carry Salem.

Before we can start, another cutscene plays:

__

: "I'm afraid so - I must return to Grannvale. I regret having to leave you behind like this, but you seem to have recovered nicely. You'll be just fine on your own."
: "...I don't know how I can ever repay you, Bishop. If not for you, I..."
: "You certainly don't lack for gratitude, but everything else about you - your stance, your face - is marred by regret. However, you'd do well to put the memory behind you. What happened was unavoidable - your will was pitted against darkness itself, and the Shadow Sword's influence was strong indeed. But if my words alone cannot convince you, I offer the sword itself as proof: I've dispelled the curse placed upon the blade. Now I offer it to you, as a symbol that no darkness is impenetrable, and no regret is irredeemable."
: "Y-You want me to use that damned sword?! I'm not laying a finger on that foul thing ever again!"
: "You wish to carry on your mother's legacy and become a Swordmaster, do you not? If that's your goal, you must learn to understand weapons in a different light. Just as holy blades shine from their bearer's righteous deeds, no cursed blade will ever be more wicked than its wielder. The legacy of the Shadow Sword does not have to remain mired in evil. You can choose to alter its course, by asserting your will over that which once robbed you of it. And so, you must learn to cherish all blades, for they are the tools that allow you to unshackle yourself from the past, and carve your own fate. Any sword can be used for your purpose, and if you believe otherwise, then you won't ever truly be a Swordmaster."
: "I... think I understand. I'll wield the sword, and cherish it as a symbol of how not even the foulest magic could overcome my mother's love for me."
: "With that, I'm afraid I must be going. I've lingered here much too long. I doubt that we'll cross paths again, but I pray you find happiness."
: "The same to you, Bishop Saias. Be well. ...Thank you for everything."

Saias clearly doesn't act as an enemy here, but I believe he'll appear as one somewhere down the line, so red portrait it is. He was clearly better prepared to talk Mareeta through her trauma than Dagda was with Leif, though, that being his literal job (maybe, it's still rather vague what a "bishop" in this setting represents) and Dagda being rather more personally involved in the matter.

That said, I prefer BinBla!Karel's perspective on the matter: "A sword is simply a sword. It is a weapon used to kill people."

The map! ...or what we're able to see from it on turn 1 with a Karin that starts the map dismounted, anyway. As I said before, I don't like it. The simple reason is that I don't think Thracia fog works at all with wide open maps. It's fine for indoor maps, where the hallways more or less lead your way, but once I have to move forward without the effect of the torch, it's just annoying to stumble forward step by step.

I'll also say that even with the increased vision, I cannot say for certain which way I have to go. You can see that there's water tiles blocking the way west, but you can't see where you can cross them, you can't see that you need Lifis/Lara or a Bridge Key to do so, and you can't even see where exactly Salem is waiting for us. Fuck that.

I ended up spending a second turn for recon-then-reset. Thanks to that, I can at least see that I'll have to go north-west to pass the real boss and cross the bridge.

Speaking of, here's Colho who I assume is a Portuguese immigrant to Romania and pronounced Colyo. Quite strong and bulky, and so heavy that Dagdar wouldn't be able to capture him.

But who really makes this map annoying is Salem, who's going to cast his unlimited-range Sleep on your characters. Maybe. Some of the time. I had two or three attempts ruined because Marty and Dagdar were slept in the vicinity of too many enemies - this time, he only started casting on turn 4, and missed his first attempt to boot.

This sucks. It's chapter 10 all over again: what let me beat the map eventually wasn't finding some clever strategy to avoid the spell, or finding out some pattern in how Salem acts (other that he seems to hate Warriors - he always went for Dagdar and Marty first). What led to success was a good string of RNG, which allowed Marty, Dagdar, Hicks, and Olwen to clean up their surroundings before anyone would be slept.

I assume that this is the map that someone (RPGuy, iirc) said it would be very nice to have warp for? If so - close, but no cigar. Maybe by barriering up random targets to get the necessary WEXP, but that +7 Mag feels too valuable to be pissed away just for grinding.

So, basic strategy: a small detachment to save the southern village (and to check if there's something else hidden in the fog in the southern parts of the map, while a larger team pushes northeast. And as I said, with RNGeesus's support, this works out fine this time.

Before the first enemy phase, Colho (or Cullough, as he seems to be known in other translations) makes a quick appearance:

: "Keep quiet an' move in close, then do 'em in. Whatever valuables they got, we all split equally. ...What? Oh, don't tell me you lot are worried about what Perne will say! Look, don't go thinkin' we need his permission! I'll take care of Perne myself. He won't be a problem no more. The rest of you, while you're dealin' with those travelers, go after the villages an' take anything worth carryin'!"

It's really just a rehash of Dagdar and Gomez with less detail, huh? There's no indication that Parne cosplays as Robin Hood because he's simping for anyone, and Colho hasn't the excuse of literally starving to death because of his boss's moral high ground, but it's the same basic structure of "bandit chief goes robin hood, his underling(s) rebel as a result" that we've seen before. Twice, even, considering Bridget in Genealogy, and this seems to be the least interesting iteration thus far.

Come to think of it, did Colho play one of Gomez's lackeys? I did have his portrait made and uploaded before this, but I can't remember what the context was.

__

So, some brigands get bonked (and Ronan can just duel his opponent for XP) before Mareeta makes her full entrance at the start of turn 2:

: "Are they the local bandit group I've heard the villagers mention?"
: "No, no, no - that's the Dandelion yer thinkin' of, an' they would never stoop to plunderin' a village like this! Matter of fact, they've even helped us when we needed it! Can't be the Dandelion - I'd bet me life on it! It must be them rough types that turned up here not too long ago..."
: "Well, whoever they are, you don't need to worry. I'll protect every last one of you!"

Calm down there, Dimi-- wait, "protect"?

: "What in blazes are you thinkin'?! You... look an awful lot like me daughter, y'know. A pretty little thing like you can't expect to go toe-to-toe with bandits!"
: "No - I'm a swordswoman, a Myrmidon, like my mother before me! I'm the daughter of Eyvel of Fiana! No mere bandit could defeat me!"

You know, every time the game brings up Eyvel the Swordswoman, it makes me think how odd it is that Eyvel is Bridget. It makes absolutely no sense that Finn doesn't know who she is (yes, Bridget joins shorty before Finn leaves, but they still travel to Silesse together) and memory loss or no, it's odd that the master sniper just decides to pick up a sword and immediately become a master swordfighter. Like, is there anything that Eyvel being Bridget adds to the story other than fanservice? You could have basically the same character without the inconsistencies if Eyvel was, say, an officer from Belhalla who deserted and fled to Fiana after witnessing the evil evilness of the Loptyr church.

Anyway, Mareeta immediately turns around and says hi to her host:

: "We thought the children of our village would be safe from the Empire, long as the bandits stayed here an' made it too dangerous to be worth the trouble. That was before the Imperial Army started showin' up in droves to attack Tahra... If you plan on makin' trouble fer them, yer a friend of mine. Take this, an' use it to patch yerself up if you get hurt. Hope it helps."

[Vulnerary received]

Well, Mareeta already starts with one in her inventory, but I guess the added consistency is nice.

__

[HP 65% | Str 60% | Mag 15% | Skl 75% | Spd 80% | Lck 60% | Def 20% | Con 10% | Mov 3%]
Skill: Luna (Skl% to ignore enemy Def)
Weapon Rank: Sword (D+10)

Base Mareeta is carried pretty hard by her hard-hitting, crit-heavy (100% on follow-ups), brave-effect personal weapon, what with her noodle arms and questionable bulk. However, while she really looks like someone in desperate need of an Life ring, as her defensive growths aren't too impressive either, her offensive growths are. She seems quite good with investment (and I think somebody said that she's the best physical bosskiller in the game), with her sword providing enough unique value to make that investment worthwhile.

: "You've me deepest gratitude, you do. In all my years, I've never-- Bah, what am I doin'?! Heroes like you ain't got time to stand around listenin' to me yammer on! Take a gander. This scroll is a family heirloom, but a family heirloom don't mean much without a family, an' you gave mine back to me. I'd like you to have it, I would. Won't take no for an answer!"

[Heim's Scroll received]

+30 Mag, +10 Lck, -10 Def, that one is. Great to make your glass cannons even glass cannoneer.

And, two turns later, the final village:

: "I been waitin' fer you since I heard the Liberation Army was comin' this way! Me boy told me all about what happened. We're mighty indebted to you, we are. Take this staff as my way of sayin' thanks. It can quiet down anyone you point it at. If you ever have kids of your own, it's awful handy fer shuttin' them up when it's naptime."

[Silence received]

I'm, like, 98% certain that the naptime joke is an addition by the translation patch.

I'm also, like, 47.93% certain that the village that Mareeta spawned from and then visited would've given another reward for another visitor, considering that there were three children to save on the previous map and the other two villages explicitly mention their rescue. Probably Leif because Protag Privileges or Olwen because she was sharing her cell with the kids. Or Fred, because he's the one saving Olwen and by extension the children, although it seems doubtful that Fred would be granted that level of importance.

__

I'm also, like, not showing you much of the progress through the map. It's a lot of axe enemies. Not too threatening. I had one run ended because two of them hit Lifis (with 10-ish hit), but that's just my fault for trying to make him do stuff when his replacement is almost there.

A few enemies will go after Mareeta, too, but only one at a time and with really low hitrates, so with her two Vulneraries, I think she's entirely safe. I'm trying to remember if there was some enemy that she didn't quadruple and easily one-round, but I don't think there was. Well, I guess she killed some with a crit on her first or second attack, and in any case, she got hit exactly once.

Fairly early into the chapter, at the start of EP 5 I believe, another cutscene plays:

: "I brought you a midnight snack! What with it being so cold out, I figured you could use a nice, not meal!"
: "That's very kind of you, Tina, but it gets dangerous out here at night. I don't want you getting hurt. You should stay inside and get your rest. Ladies need their beauty sleep, or so I'm told."
: "Aw, you're no fun..."
: "...Wait. You're worried about your sister, aren't you? Is that what's keeping you awake? You said her name was Safy, right? Well, you needn't worry one moment longer. You will see her again - I'll make sure of that. I'll help you find her."
: "D-Do you mean it?! Oh, thank you, Salem! You're just the best! Well, I'll get out of your hair - how DO you get you hair like that, anyway? - and let you get back to lookout or whatever. Nighty-night, Salem! ...You better not forget your promise!"

I'm also, like, 98% certain that the anime hair joke was added by the translation patch. I always approve of ridiculing anime, of course.

This convo also gives out the information that Safy needs to be fielded in the upcoming chapter - good thing that I let her recover from her 15/16 fatigue, since I do want to avoid using stamina drinks as much as possible.

Turn 6 (I think), Lifis lowers the bridge, which gets him into an awkw--

--well, not really. Karin and Finn just rescue-drop him out of the way.

However, while the chokepoint makes it easy to avoid dying against Colho, it does make it awkward to chip him down for capture.

This... well, I don't think it was the best I could do, since Nanna would've been close enough to move in and provide Charm...

...but I have to admit that I just ended up stabbing him. RIP Vantage manual, which I'm sure would've gone amazingly with the Wrath skill.

On the plus side, Str/Def level for Karin!

__

A few more enemies arrive and get murdered, and Lifis spots the edge of a building which looks suspiciously like our goal.

__

Yep!

Turns out that Salem actually would've been light enough for Asbel to capture him, but oh well. With such low physical durability, he's quite capturable by Brave weapons, too.

Unfortunately, he decides to use a second Sleep charge on Dagdar (although I should be thankful that he used it so little and missed one attempt)...

__

: "Begone from our forest, invaders!"

...but he then goes down (or rather, gets caught) the following turn.

__

I then delay seizing for a turn to see if there's any talks between Mareeta and Lifis or Nanna (nope)...

...and, like with Lifis back in Ch.2x, grab Salem's stuff to make sure it doesn't get lost in the chapter transition, but then we're out of here.

So yeah, bad map. It wasn't too painful to clear in the end, but as I said - like in Ch.10, it didn't feel like a map I've beaten, but RNGeesus playing nice and allowing me to continue. Annoying.

Luckily, as it turns out, capturing Salem was indeed what Kaga expected me to do, so I won't have to play it again.

: "The night is still young. I advise that we seize this opportunity to purge Tahra's borders of these vermin."
: "I've no objections, but what of our troops? Aren't the men exhausted?"
: "I'm afraid so. Between the long march from Fort Dundrum and the skirmish here, our forces have little strength left. At most, we could only spare a small strike team of five soldiers to accompany you. The decision is yours, milord."
: "...I'll do it. If we rout these bandits once and for all, the villagers here will finally be able to breathe easy."

: "I'm just as surprised as you are! I never expected I'd see you and everyone from Fiana again so soon! Hah... I'm halfway convinced this is just a dream."
: "Mareeta, I... I beg your forgiveness for what happened to your mother. It was my fault that the Commander... That she..."
: "If what happened is anyone's fault, it's mine. I was... I was inexperienced, and weak, and... And I couldn't overcome the power of that sword. I didn't have the discipline to resist it..."
: "...Mareeta, this I swear to you: I'll get the Commander back, whatever it takes!"
: "You mean WE! We'll get Mother back together! Please, Leif, I want to be a part of this! I'll be stronger than I was before! You must let me join you!"
: "Of course I'll have you! Though as much as it pains me, it's not feasible for our army to return to Munster with things the way they are right now... But someday, we'll be able to go back for the Commander. You can count on that. And when that day comes, there's no force in all the heavens that can keep the two of us from getting her back!"
: "Couldn't have said it better myself, Little Lord!"

...really, Mareeta? "Little Lord"? It already sounds a bit strange when Eyvel uses it.

...really, Kaga? The next chapter is a gaiden? Between taking a peek at it and actually remembering a bit more than about other maps, I'm once again aghast at how many tools Kaga is hiding in gaiden chapters.

The Team:

	  Lv.	    Fat/HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Con  XP
Leif	  16.61	    --  38   7   1   7   9  13   8   9  +50	[+7 HP]
Finn	  /5.50	     8/ 33  15   2  12  15   8  10  11  +112  
Hicks	  13.58	     5/ 37  13   0   8   6   9  10  17  +30
Fergus	  /2.00      4/ 36  10   1  15  14   8  10  11  +48

Karin	  13.77	     9/ 23   8  10  12  20  20   7   4  +157
Dagdar	   */9.92   27/ 43  15   1  11   9   2  10  15  +35
Marty	  13/3.52   11/ 46  18   1  15  12  14  13  20  +82	[+3 Spd, +3 Skl]

Macha	  10.64	    15/ 28   7   1  14  15  10   5   7  +69
Lifis	  8.33	     5/ 22   6   1   4  12   2   2   6  +22
Ronan	  13.44	    21/ 26   9   5   8  13   3   3   7  +103

Nanna	  15.83	     4/ 28   9   8  16  12  19   5   5  +94
Olwen	   */2.38    6/ 24   5  10   8  10   5   4   5  +38
Mareeta	  3.42	     5/ 23   4   1   8  14   7   4   5  +142

• Very good first level (HP/Str/Skl/Spd/Def) for Mareeta.

 

On 8/24/2024 at 9:24 AM, BrightBow said:

And Heroes wants to insist that August would get along with the likes of Corrin or Xander.

...Jesus, Augustus would despise Corrin.

On 8/24/2024 at 9:24 AM, BrightBow said:

A fun thing you can do with Nanna is to give her the Elite Sword, so she gets double EXP whenever she uses staffs without using up the sword's durability.
That +5 defense isn't terrible either if she does get attacked.

You mean the Elite Sword that I didn't get? *whistle* Something to keep in mind for future playthroughs for sure, but Thracia isn't exactly shaping up to be a game I'd be too interested in revisiting.

On 8/26/2024 at 5:02 PM, Nauriam said:

For all the reasons everyone already mentioned I think Augustus is really badass. I always saw him as someone who both offered his help to get himself out of the sticky situation at the time, but also realized the importance of Leif and what he's doing so decided to continue to offer support to genuinely make a difference. Before long Augustus helping Leif went from opportunistic help to somewhat of a vocation. And Leif accepting his help is definitely weird, but at that time Leif had to take a lot of risks to build support and not die, and this is one of the risks he took that ended up working out.

I do like Augustus thus far - I'm just not that sure about how he's inserted into Leif's inner circle. He doesn't just join it, he immediately becomes Leif's most trusted advisor until Dorias comes along and assumes an equal position. But as Ruben says, permadeath preventing Finn or Dagdar from being Leif's right-hand man plays into that.

[BrightBow]

 

1 hour ago, ping said:

But who really makes this map annoying is Salem, who's going to cast his unlimited-range Sleep on your characters. Maybe. Some of the time. I had two or three attempts ruined because Marty and Dagdar were slept in the vicinity of too many enemies - this time, he only started casting on turn 4, and missed his first attempt to boot.

The difference between Salem and Kakyoin is that Salem's attacks can in fact not be deflected.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

This sucks. It's chapter 10 all over again: what let me beat the map eventually wasn't finding some clever strategy to avoid the spell, or finding out some pattern in how Salem acts (other that he seems to hate Warriors - he always went for Dagdar and Marty first). What led to success was a good string of RNG, which allowed Marty, Dagdar, Hicks, and Olwen to clean up their surroundings before anyone would be slept.

Hmm, I don't remember it like that. I recall the risk here always being very manageable, even with an untimely sleep.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

I assume that this is the map that someone (RPGuy, iirc) said it would be very nice to have warp for? If so - close, but no cigar. Maybe by barriering up random targets to get the necessary WEXP, but that +7 Mag feels too valuable to be pissed away just for grinding.

Keep in mind that a class change would also increase her staff rank.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "No, no, no - that's the Dandelion yer thinkin' of, an' they would never stoop to plunderin' a village like this! Matter of fact, they've even helped us when we needed it! Can't be the Dandelion - I'd bet me life on it! It must be them rough types that turned up here not too long ago..."

I wonder if Merida's Dandelion is a deliberate reference to those nerds. At least otherwise it would seem to be a rather random name for a spear.

Either way a lot of fanart of Merida depicts her with an actual dandelion, which I can't help but find cute.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

You know, every time the game brings up Eyvel the Swordswoman, it makes me think how odd it is that Eyvel is Bridget. It makes absolutely no sense that Finn doesn't know who she is (yes, Bridget joins shorty before Finn leaves, but they still travel to Silesse together) and memory loss or no, it's odd that the master sniper just decides to pick up a sword and immediately become a master swordfighter. Like, is there anything that Eyvel being Bridget adds to the story other than fanservice? You could have basically the same character without the inconsistencies if Eyvel was, say, an officer from Belhalla who deserted and fled to Fiana after witnessing the evil evilness of the Loptyr church.

If it helps, Finn does actually explicitly recognize her. He just hasn't brought it up to her yet.

I suppose there is no practical reason for Eyvel being Briggid. I think Kaga just likes her.
I mean, Raquel in Tear Ring Saga is specifically called "The daughter of Briggid", with said Briggid being apparently the goddess of archery.
I most certainly don't think it's fanservice. If I recall, the 3 most popular FE4 girls at the time were Fury, Lachesis and Ayra. And just think how easy it would be for Eyvel's role to be played by Ayra, seeing how she was never confirmed dead.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Well, Mareeta already starts with one in her inventory, but I guess the added consistency is nice.

And she also doesn't have any support out there. Not like she can take too many hits.

But if you find that underwhelming, if I recall you get a magic ring instead if this house is visited by Olwen. Don't remember if that event is tied to the children last chapter.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Base Mareeta is carried pretty hard by her hard-hitting, crit-heavy (100% on follow-ups), brave-effect personal weapon, what with her noodle arms and questionable bulk. However, while she really looks like someone in desperate need of an Life ring, as her defensive growths aren't too impressive either, her offensive growths are. She seems quite good with investment (and I think somebody said that she's the best physical bosskiller in the game), with her sword providing enough unique value to make that investment worthwhile.

As far as low level units go, she most certainly starts out being able to kick plenty of ass. And a 5 PCC unit with the potential to reach 20 skill is always quite tempting. 100% crit with any weapon and without any support? Yes, please.

She can also learn Astra, which in this game can stack with Luna. The theoretical damage output of this girl is all kinds of silly. We are talking about Black Knight Eclipse level of needless overkill.

While the Nihil on her sword is not going to do much most of the time, it does come in handy once or twice.

Strangely she is not a member of the Leaf support group. You'd think she would be, seeing how this leaves her without a support partner for basically the whole game.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

However, while the chokepoint makes it easy to avoid dying against Colho, it does make it awkward to chip him down for capture.

You want to capture him? For the record, Hammers are really cheap to buy.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

...but I have to admit that I just ended up stabbing him. RIP Vantage manual, which I'm sure would've gone amazingly with the Wrath skill.

Just in case there is any confusion on this, Wrath does not work together with Vantage. Vantage triggering means your attack is no longer considered a counter.

 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Turns out that Salem actually would've been light enough for Asbel to capture him, but oh well. With such low physical durability, he's quite capturable by Brave weapons, too.

It really is a very low con for a male character. I imagine it's this low so that Mareeta can still capture him.

Of course for a mage, low con isn't much of a downside. For the most part it just makes them easier to ferry around.

Edited August 31 by BrightBow

[ping]

6 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

If it helps, Finn does actually explicitly recognize her. He just hasn't brought it up to her yet.

...how long have Finn and Leif been in Fiana, again? I shouldn't judge before it's cleared up ingame, but it feels like a dick move to not tell the woman who most likely has two children somewhere in Jugdral (and, I mean, even if Patty and Faval don't exist) who she is.

10 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

You want to capture him? For the record, Hammers are really cheap to buy.

I never leveled up Lifis, so he was too slow to steal the Vantage manual. Otherwise, I wouldn't even have bothered to try and set up a capture.

11 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Just in case there is any confusion on this, Wrath does not work together with Vantage. Vantage triggering means your attack is no longer considered a counter.

Ah. I did indeed not know that. Makes Vantage considerably less powerful.

 

 

[BrightBow]

Since we are now officially dealing with status staffs, I would like to note that the AI seems to try to avoid targeting Leaf, though it will eventually do so if no other possible targets are around.
I learned this when I tried some Pure Water & Rescue shenanigans in the hope this would prevent Salem from using up valuable Sleep Staff uses. Turns out eventually Leaf will be targeted.

Maybe they use the same "highest priority for the latest deployment slots" like in the GBA games in order to archive this. I don't know.
But either way Leaf getting slept shouldn't be much of a concern unless you are already in such a bad spot that a reset would be preferable anyway.

Sleep can also be used to capture mounted units, since it forces them to dismount.

On a related note, status swords still exist. And unlike FE4, their effect always applies on hit. No different from poison weapons, I suppose.

I imagine Salem's Sleep Staff is broken. It might be worth using the Repair Staff on it.
Because the easiest way to get full durability status staffs is to status the enemies that carry them before they can use them.

[Saint Rubenio]

3 hours ago, ping said:

I'll also say that even with the increased vision, I cannot say for certain which way I have to go. You can see that there's water tiles blocking the way west, but you can't see where you can cross them, you can't see that you need Lifis/Lara or a Bridge Key to do so, and you can't even see where exactly Salem is waiting for us. Fuck that.

Don't forget that without warp, you get three units slept for the entirety of the map with zero counterplay.

3 hours ago, ping said:

I assume that this is the map that someone (RPGuy, iirc) said it would be very nice to have warp for? If so - close, but no cigar. Maybe by barriering up random targets to get the necessary WEXP, but that +7 Mag feels too valuable to be pissed away just for grinding.

Yeah, when you know (Thracia bad blind and all) the entire earlygame's point is getting Safy to A staves while hoarding Cairpre's warp so she can use it here to get rid of Salem early, and in the next map to make the rewards obtainable.

...I'll have more words for next map when we get there.

3 hours ago, ping said:

 

Come to think of it, did Colho play one of Gomez's lackeys? I did have his portrait made and uploaded before this, but I can't remember what the context was.

One of Lifis's cellmates.

3 hours ago, ping said:

You know, every time the game brings up Eyvel the Swordswoman, it makes me think how odd it is that Eyvel is Bridget. It makes absolutely no sense that Finn doesn't know who she is (yes, Bridget joins shorty before Finn leaves, but they still travel to Silesse together) and memory loss or no, it's odd that the master sniper just decides to pick up a sword and immediately become a master swordfighter. Like, is there anything that Eyvel being Bridget adds to the story other than fanservice? You could have basically the same character without the inconsistencies if Eyvel was, say, an officer from Belhalla who deserted and fled to Fiana after witnessing the evil evilness of the Loptyr church.

She has exalted blood, which means she can do anything she puts her mind to! That's the power of being special. Because of your blood.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Probably Leif because Protag Privileges or Olwen because she was sharing her cell with the kids. Or Fred, because he's the one saving Olwen and by extension the children, although it seems doubtful that Fred would be granted that level of importance.

Eyup. Visit with Olwen and she gets a magic ring.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Luckily, as it turns out, capturing Salem was indeed what Kaga expected me to do, so I won't have to play it again.

This one is rather smart, I'll admit. He just screams "cap me for goodies."

 

[BrightBow]

I still don't know what the best play for 12x even is. I think every time I just accepted that I wouldn't get Trude.

Let's see how this goes, I suppose.