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

[Revier]

Loved the intro to this one, lol.

This Tahra expedition seems to be taking forever. I really wonder how far Leif is, and how much padding Kaga wanted to put in this game.

[Jotari]

7 hours ago, ping said:

 

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.

Somewhat surprisingly his name has actually received an offical localization. Perne mentions him in Heroes and renders it Cullough, which has far more Irish than Romanian flair. Though I would not be surprised at all if they don't realize they've given him an English name already and end up calling him something else if Thracia ever gets localized.

7 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.

There's a lot of context. You see his mug very frequently. It has appeared before and shall appear again. More specifically I believe we saw him speaking to Lifis in 2x and then a whole other different character with that face again speaking to Lifis in the jail chapter.

7 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.

Absolutely. I've been of that very opinion for a long time now. Eyvel is an absolutely fine character by herself and making her an amnesiac Brigid adds absolutely nothing to either her own personal story or the wider narrative, and at worst undermines aspects of both.

7 hours ago, ping said:

..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

My biggest criticism of this chapter is that it comes before Restore exists. Salem eliminating three of your units would be fine if there was a work around, but since you only get your first restore staff later you're basically powerless to do anything about it other than rescue drop the sleeping units to a place where they won't be mobbed.

6 hours ago, BrightBow said:

And just think how easy it would be for Eyvel's role to be played by Ayra, seeing how she was never confirmed dead.

Plus Ayra is already a swordmaster. Though I'd still rather she just be who she is.

6 hours ago, BrightBow said:

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.

Mareeta and Leif lacking much of any kind of significant interaction is kind of weird in retrospect. Mareeta is kind of Leif's sister after all. Leif outright says he sees Eyvel as a mother, yet I don't think he speaks to Mareeta even once. And if he does it's almost certainly a conversation about getting Eyvel back and not about Mareeta herself (who, let's face it, has been through some serious shit and could do with a sympathetic ear).

6 hours ago, ping said:

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.

I guess you don't care so much about spoilers, but he does tell her in the end of the game. But it comes across as more "I regretted not telling you before". Which, like, honestly fare. It's probably about fifteen years before Finn's brief meeting with Brigid and first meeting Eyvel. It's a bit of a strange conversation to say "You look vaguely like someone I met one time". People do actually look like other people. I see doppelgangers of old friends all the time (which is a bit weird as I live in a country with an entirely different racial majority to where I grew up, but resemblances be resemblances). Of course, throw in Eyvel's "I literally don't know who I am" and suddenly any sort of resemblance to anyone could be a vital clue. Which, coming to think of it, and I can't believe I've never thought about this before or seen anyone point it out, no way would Finn think Eyvel looks like Brigid, a woman he only me briefly. He should think she's the splitting image of Adean instead, someone who he spent a lot more time with and who looks identical to Brigid. That would actually be a bit if a funny plot point in a different context. An amnesiac who looks identical to a set of identical twins leaving everyone uncertain as to who the survivor is. Of course in this context Adean did survive, and Finn might or might not know that depending on wether he has active connections to the rebels in Isaach. But if he does know that's all the more reason to tell Eyvel.

6 hours ago, BrightBow said:

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.

Wouldn't Leif getting slept be effectively a game over since you need him to seize? Oh wait, you mean the chances of him getting hit by sleep to begin with isn't worth worrying about. Yeah, that's true. I actually thought Leif was immune to status effects until I also got the enemies to target him in my no staffs run by stacking my army with high magic mages.

Edited September 1 by Jotari

[ping]

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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.

It's a grrrreat look for a game if the meta (and not even just the LTC meta) is to enable map skips as early as possible.

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

One of Lifis's cellmates.

Ah. Hey, that means it's feasible that that cellmate actually was Colho and he ended up with Parne's posse after escaping. Unless one gets all the green units in that chapter killed, of course, but iirc, one or two escaped in this run. With how much I'm resetting, I can never be quite sure if I'm remembering something from a failed attempt or if it actually happened "canonically".

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

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

Yeah, despite all the issues I have with the map, Salem being capturable isn't one of them. At worst, I would complain that the concept of "capture boss to recruit him" was tutorialised in a gaiden chapter, but to be fair, 2x is kinda difficult to miss.

6 hours ago, Revier said:

This Tahra expedition seems to be taking forever. I really wonder how far Leif is, and how much padding Kaga wanted to put in this game.

Yeah, considering that we escaped Munster back in Ch.6/7, we're approaching LotR levels of time spent on walking the lands. I didn't mind it too much thus far, but with 12 and 12x being more or less a repeat of Dagdar and Gomez in 8/8x, it becomes a bit too much. Nothing too dramatic, though, as long as later stages of the game won't be rushed to compensate.

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Somewhat surprisingly his name has actually received an offical localization. Perne mentions him in Heroes and renders it Cullough, which has far more Irish than Romanian flair. Though I would not be surprised at all if they don't realize they've given him an English name already and end up calling him something else if Thracia ever gets localized.

Portuguese, not Romanian. I went with Romania because that's where (most of) ancient Dacia was located. (and I should say that almost all of my knowledge of the Portuguese language comes from how footsoccerball players' names are pronounced)

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

My biggest criticism of this chapter is that it comes before Restore exists. Salem eliminating three of your units would be fine if there was a work around, but since you only get your first restore staff later you're basically powerless to do anything about it other than rescue drop the sleeping units to a place where they won't be mobbed.

imo, it's all the things adding up. It's fog of war. The map is large enough that you can't even see which way to go after using a torch. All the forest turns the map into a quasi-desert (which would be an odd statement if it wasn't for the FE context). There's a blocked bridge that you don't see on turn 1, so you better have brought a thief or bridge key. You don't see from where the Sleep spell is cast. And if you know, it still won't help unless you then warp-skip (or half-skip) because it's infinite range and you can't bum-rush Salem. You can't cure the Sleep status. For me, Marty was the first character that Salem targeted, so, um, about that rescue/drop...

I think I maintain that Thracia fog doesn't have to be the worst thing in the world, and that there have been several FoW maps that are good, and not despite the fog -- but when the fog hides elements that can instantly screw you over, in particular when you're already a few turns in, adds a layer of frustration on top of the already existing one. I didn't spend nearly as much time playing this map as the time between updates suggests, but it was another map that I just didn't look forward to playing.

(I think I can put my "Thracia fog is fine, actually" hot take on the shelf right next to the "ambush spawns are fine in principle, actually, FE just uses them badly most of the time" file)

 

[RPGuy96]

On 8/31/2024 at 1:56 PM, 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.

Yep, warp Finn or whoever over to him and deal with him right away.  But I never use staves enough to get there.

On 8/31/2024 at 5:14 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

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

On 8/31/2024 at 5:30 PM, BrightBow said:

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.

I think the last time I played...

Spoiler

I brought units with a high enough Mag stat that a Pure Water would keep them out of Thief Staff range?  But I might be misremembering, I do definitely recall some difficulty getting into the last room.  It's possible I went back and got Saphy up to A on Salem's map.

On 8/31/2024 at 3:04 PM, BrightBow said:

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.

Ayra would presumably make a beeline for Isaach and Shannan as soon as anyone mentioned to her that swordies with black hair are probably Isaachians.  Although, Ruben is right about Briggid's kids, she ought to be off as soon as Finn tells her, too.  ...Kind of a jerk move, Finn, keeping her in the dark in order to babysit Leif.

Edited September 1 by RPGuy96