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

[BrightBow]

1 hour ago, ping said:

...before Fee stabs him with yet another crit weapon.

Now his lance shall rest.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "I won't leave your side, Lord Seliph. The thought of meeting the same fate as Lady Deirdre... It's too painful...

One might even say it would be "cringe".
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "Yeah. They say the gods took human shapes. Naga, the light god, appeared as a little girl, while the fire god Salamand was an old man.

My boi Salamander is finally back! Huzzah!

Although the way he describes him and Naga, it sounds more like Bantu and Tiki.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "With a single taste of the blood of dragons, these once humble warriors of the liberation army were reborn as the Twelve Crusaders.

Just a bit of dragon blood is all it takes to gain super powers? Did no one in Akaneia ever try that, between all the manakete the humans killed there?
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

: "It certainly wouldn't be easy, I think. Even if you had every last dragon fighting together, they'd still need Naga's power. This, of course, means that if we're to win today, we'll need the surviving heir to Saint Heim. In other words, one of Deirdre's three children. Of those three, you didn't inherit the full breadth of Naga's blood, and it's pretty obvious that Julius didn't. Actually, I only recently learned who it is. The inheritor of Naga's power is Julius' twin sister... Princess Julia."

"Recently"? Could you not sense the "aura of Naga" in all the years taking care of her?

And if you didn't know, what else was so special about her that back then you felt compelled to take care of her personally? Surely there was no lack of war orphans you encountered during your travels, who also were in dire need of a caretaker.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

So, here's the next target. For now, not a very diverse group of enemies: Hilda with a bunch of Barons, and a gaggle of Sleep Loptyrians led by your average Fenrir Dark Bishop.

Finally a whole army where everyone has Great Shield.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

...all three Loptyr dudes on the castles have had the same lines. Hm.

Well, at least now his lance can rest.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

_

I suppose I do prefer the angry face over... well, other depictions of possession.

 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Mr Final Boss grabbed a Meteor tome to make sure he can harrass any approaching unit, and the Nihil skill to make sure he can't be cheesed.

I do like that he tabs a little into the Fala side of his heritage for the final battle.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

And his girlfriend grabbed a trio of Falcon Knights, Triangle Attack inclusive. They have minor Forseti blood, represented by a capped Spd stat.

You would think that they have the Delta Attacke, but I can't say I've ever seen them try to set it up. Unlike the mage trio, they don't seem to prioritize attacking foes in melee.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

I forgot to make a screenshot of Ishtar herself, but she received quite significant buffs compared to last chapter. HP from 50 to 70 and Def from 10 to 18 means that she's a lot more difficult to one-round, especially considering her incredible Spd and therefore avoid. Apart from that, her stats didn't go up as much, but "that" is a pretty big thing to be apart from.

Well, not like her offensive stats had much room to grow in the first place.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

Finally, the Deadlords. I neither speak Latin nor know a ton about biology, but I assume they're all named after scientific species names?

They are named after the numbers 1 to 12, but in German.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

This convo would've gotten Johalvier +3 Str, but he's already at the (rather disappointing, tbh) cap of 26.

Yeah, but what can you do? Axe users are more associated with speed than strength.
 

1 hour ago, ping said:

I don't suppose we'll comment on the detail that Quan's grand vision is surprisingly close to Travant's.

If it helps, I believe I can faintly hear August scream "bullshit!" from the distance.
 

25 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Edit: Now that I think about it it was probably Shadow Dragon's replacement units responsible for these names and not Awakening's reuse of the Dead Lords

Shadow Dragon reversed that and used the numbers 1 to 10 in Japanese instead.

I suppose Ichi is not that bad of a name for a generic.

Edited April 23 by BrightBow

[Jotari]

12 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

Shadow Dragon reversed that and used the numbers 1 to 10 in Japanese instead.

I suppose Ichi is not that bad of a name for a generic.

I'm looking at the Shadow a Dragon name chart now and I don't see that.

https://serenesforest.net/shadow-dragon/general/name-chart/

It seems they went Latin (or Greek, where ever decimal comes from, I think Latin, could google, won't google) there but was the more direct translation for number to number. At least in the US. The European translation gave the very creative interpretation of naming them all after Greek mountains...I think. But hey, that gives us Athos which is kind of fun. Also on these names, the Japanese one gave us the 12 months of the year in English, which both the American and Europeans adapted by using, at least from what I can see, completely random and unrelated names. But one of them is Agustus, which they put on the replacement unit with the Id for March in Japan, not August. It is funny to see how this complete throw away part of localization was handled by two different translation teams who knew they had free reign to change whatever they wanted because no one would care.

Anyway, on the original topic here, to sum up. Deadlords with German name first. German names, though not deadlords reused in DS replacement units. Awakening brings back Deadlords and German number names are localized as Latin Animal names.

[BrightBow]

6 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I'm looking at the Shadow a Dragon name chart now and I don't see that.

https://serenesforest.net/shadow-dragon/general/name-chart/

Yes, the site only lists the UK names.

Interesting that they didn't simply keep the German number names for the English translation, though. Not like anyone complains about Frieren at the Funeral using simple German verbs as character names.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, BrightBow said:

Yes, the site only lists the UK names.

Interesting that they didn't simply keep the German number names for the English translation, though. Not like anyone complains about Frieren at the Funeral using simple German verbs as character names.

It says NOE Name and NOA Name.

[Revier]

5 hours ago, ping said:

How To Trivialise Dozel: Use Dermott.

Or Seliph/Ares/Shannan.

5 hours ago, ping said:

Sigurd/Seliph's Silver Sword has 100+ kills, so he has a 72% crit rate with it.

Yeah, see? 😆 

5 hours ago, ping said:

Honestly, this convo is roughly the 392th time that I've seen some iteration of it in a Fire Emblem game, so I can't really find myself caring too much for it.

What, you aren't moved by a generic passionate confession of love? You monster, you.

5 hours ago, ping said:

No, the dingus who has been traveling with Seliph for almost the entirety of the second generation just didn't feel like explaining anything until now. Bleh.

Classic Lewyn™️ moment.

5 hours ago, ping said:

The Beigenritter won't be particularly relevant.

When are generic enemies ever relevant in Generation 2? Outside of like, Chapter 6 or the middle of Chapter 7.

5 hours ago, ping said:

"Few people in this land are as kind and caring as Princess Ishtar. All along, the princess has toiled behind the scenes to aid our cause. It was Princess Ishtar herself who ensured that every last child escaped from the bowels of Belhalla."

Yeah, she's so kind, she goes and actively supports her literally Satanic husband every time we see her.

5 hours ago, ping said:

To re-recruit her, I know that we'll have to beat Manfroy first - who is quite tanky even by the standards of the quite tanky Dark Bishop class. He has Pursuit, Adept, and Charm which makes him quite dangerous for some to face(specifically, Dermott gets two-shot by him).

The game actually has dialogue acknowledging Seliph not rescuing her or defeating Julius without Naga. If it's not too much trouble for you, I would like you to show it off. Maybe not in the main LP, but as a special after episode or something.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If the game had come out 20 years later we would've gotten Travant discourse.

For real. It's kind of bizarre how far people will go to defend their favorite character, even when they aren't particularly well written and support ideas that would actually be quite harmful in real life.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 hours ago, ping said:

: "How dare you murder my father... Learn the pain and wrath of three generations of House Dozel!"

What's that he said? "Blessed are the cheesemakers"?

5 hours ago, ping said:

How To Trivialise Dozel: Use Dermott.

He has 76 avoid vs. the Great Knights' 98 hit, so that gives them 2 hit against him after weapon triangle. Add Seliph to the equation and that goes down to 0 without anybody noticing.

Nice. Just a good strong sword dude.

My approach that I alluded to earlier was, I was able to trap Brian on a mountain tile. Because I killed most (all?) of his subordinates, his "retreat for reinforcements" AI kicked in. But because he was stuck, he couldn't actually go anywhere. And his retreat AI wouldn't let him attack, either. So, he became a non-entity.

5 hours ago, ping said:

: "Now, Loptyr himself is actually from a dragon clan whose fell power is amongst the mightiest of all the dragonkin. The great dragon Naga, strongest of them all, bestowed their own blood upon the leader of the liberation army, the priest Heim. Naga knew only their power could possibly hope to stand against that of Loptyr."

: "Pfft, of course Naga would have green hair and pronouns."

5 hours ago, ping said:

Before seizing, there is one little surprise: Seliph did not randomly hook up with Lana, which I think the First Mate (?) said earlier is the most likely outcome if you don't pay attention to his love life.

Yeah, I think I made Seliph and Tinne happen, like, two playthroughs ago. Tinne technically has the highest love growth of any of Seliph's potential partners (+3 instead of +2 per turn). But I gave the edge to Lana, as she shows up much earlier, with 100 love points right out the gate. And Mana is even easier, because she and Seliph have a Vegas Wedding in chapter 8.

5 hours ago, ping said:

But even if this entire exposition dump turns out to be entirely sensible and consistent, I really dislike this way of presenting it. Apart from the pacing issue of Lewyn just barfing it out all at once, there's also no narrative weight to it. Seliph doesn't find out about anything by, say, finding an ancient temple in which the twelve gods are represented as dragon statues. He doesn't even find an ancient sage on top of the tallest mountain. No, the dingus who has been traveling with Seliph for almost the entirety of the second generation just didn't feel like explaining anything until now. Bleh.

: "I am an endless barrel of exposition!"

Yeah, I'm also curious on the "how did you find out 'recently', Lewyn?" You spent time with Julia before delivering her to Seliph. Even if she didn't have a visible brand, I'd be surprised if no aura of "major Naga blood" presented itself to you. And this is aside from all the circumstantial evidence I mentioned earlier.

I don't understand why "Expositor McGee" has this large of a blind spot, when all the other relevant information comes effortlessly to him. It wouldn't change much of the story, except that he'd be more concerned when Julia disappears. And he wouldn't try to set her up with her half-brother. Hopefully.

5 hours ago, ping said:

: "Dozel's fallen to the rebels? What the hell were my men doing out there?! Feh, why'd I ever expect any better? Worthless cowards, the lot of them! It's time I took this into my own hands.

Apparently, Hilda already has a VA in Heroes. Which is a shame, because I can only read this dialogue in the voice of the evil CEO, Mom, from Futurama. Get Tress McNeille for the remake, you rat bastards! *three slaps in a row*

5 hours ago, ping said:

: "And who are you?"
: "My name is Felipe, sire. I was once an aide to the late Emperor Arvis. On secret orders from His Majesty, the abducted children were moved here to Freege for safe-keeping."
: "No, you're not. You're very clearly Pallmarch. We met last chapter. Do you tgink I wouldn't remember you?!"
: "Er... be that as it may... ah, yes, my jacket! Was Pallmarch wearing a red jacket? If not, then how could I be him?"
: "...People change clothes, my dude. I had to kill the same slanty-eyed guy seven times, fighting for all sorts of factions, but he at least had the decency to wear a slightly different shade of tunic every time. I swear, it's like I'm living in a stageplay, with only so many actors to go around!"

 

5 hours ago, ping said:

This convo would've gotten Johalvier +3 Str, but he's already at the (rather disappointing, tbh) cap of 26.

Very lame, for the Warrior class, of all things. I largely enjoy the "conversations give permanent stat buffs" design, but it's letdown when stat caps get in the way. Almost like the buffs should preferentially be in areas they're unlikely to naturally cap.

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

Seriously why are there so many recolors in the final chapter?

Kaga: "Listen up, we need new character designs for the final chapter!"

Designer: "Uh, uh---" *splashes orange paint on pre-existing portraits*

Kaga: "Brilliant! You're coming with me to Thracia, ya hear?"

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

In German they're named for the numbers 1-12.

To be more clear: in the original Japanese, their names are transliterations of the first twelve counting numbers in German. So Mus is アインス, or "Eins"; Bovis is ツヴァイ, or "Zwei"; and so on. 

4 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This one isn't even a fucking good recolor. Why is his robe's brightest color blue, but the shadow colors are red?

Holy shit... blue and red, together in one character design? Toothpaste-chan? Kaga, you magnificent dastard, you've done it first again!

[Jotari]

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

To be more clear: in the original Japanese, their names are transliterations of the first twelve counting numbers in German. So Mus is アインス, or "Eins"; Bovis is ツヴァイ, or "Zwei"; and so on. 

Ah, yes, I meant Japanese. Would be weird if in the German versions they were just unaltered One to Twelve.

 

Also re:Travant discourse. He wouldn't be pretty or female enough to have avid supporters.

Edited April 24 by Jotari

[ping]

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

...Honestly, I'm amping up the angery for dramatic effect here. This isn't my least favorite map in the game (that'd have to be Silesse, probably) but I find it so funny (derogatory) that the final chapter of the game pulled this. I guess you can make a point of it showing just how deep Manfroy's influence runs when every other castle has a recolor sitting on it but... C'mon, at least give them different quotes than just three consecutive "Lord Julius... Please forgive me..."

In a way, the odd phrasing ("I crave your pardon") makes it worse - if it was more generic, I would've been more likely to pass over that they're the same word for word.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'll say, rather cathartic to watch after my run where he couldn't even be defeated. Alas, such a tragedy, the life of... no wait, I already made this joke... Uhh... Uh... Monty Python! 'Tis but a scratch!

Turns out that Brian wasn't the messiah. Just a very naughty boy.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

This one isn't even a fucking good recolor. Why is his robe's brightest color blue, but the shadow colors are red?

I didn't even tamper with that one!

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If the game had come out 20 years later we would've gotten Travant discourse.

I'm waiting for the inevitable "was Zephiel right, actually?" discourse if/when Binding Blade gets remade.

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

It happened to me.

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

Oh wow. The only time Seliph hasn't got hitched with Lana for me was when he hooked up with her substitute Muirne.

Petition to rename Genealogy LTC runs into FAS (Forever Alone Seliph) runs. Seems like it's at least a bit of a challenge to achieve.

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

He is such a charismatic and charming individual than Manfroy.

It needs a lot of force of persuasion to be as obviously cackling evil as Manfroy and still convince people to go along with your plans.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Forbidden knowledge must be earned. Simple as that. -Don't question the video game logic.

Earned by suffering Lewyn's presence for this entire campaign, I assume, since it's not like Seliph did anything else. Specifically to unveil the grand secrets of the Twelve Crusaders, that is.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

They all have 4 Luck, must be the common Japanese homonymic wordplay. "Four" and "death" in Japanese are both pronounced "shi", though their kanji are different, obviously. 4 is thus an unlucky number in Japanese. Learning about feudal Japanese banquets- you would be served three sets of three dishes. Sometimes a fourth set would be present -but you never called it the "fourth dish", to avoid accidentally calling it the "death dish" -you don't want to taint the banquet with death- you would say "additional/extra dish" instead.

That is a neat little detail.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

More appropriate on some level, methinks?

It'd be Elffin - prince, posing as a bard, exposition bot for a while (though not as long as Lewyn), fleeing his homeland, associated with the annoyingly immature dancer girl. Elffin's just far less of a prick about all this.

8 hours ago, BrightBow said:

"Recently"? Could you not sense the "aura of Naga" in all the years taking care of her?

And if you didn't know, what else was so special about her that back then you felt compelled to take care of her personally? Surely there was no lack of war orphans you encountered during your travels, who also were in dire need of a caretaker.

Not to mention chances are that Lewyn left behind two children of his own. Fuck 'em, I suppose.

8 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Finally a whole army where everyone has Great Shield.

Hurray...? Well, at least it's also an army that is very easy to ignore almost entirely.

8 hours ago, BrightBow said:

You would think that they have the Delta Attacke, but I can't say I've ever seen them try to set it up. Unlike the mage trio, they don't seem to prioritize attacking foes in melee.

Interesting. I haven't continued playing yet, so I was just going by what FEWoD and the wiki.org say. We'll see, maybe I'll be forced to see for myself, considering just how mobile they are.

8 hours ago, BrightBow said:

They are named after the numbers 1 to 12, but in German.

Not in Project Naga, though. Ich glaube, das hätte ich sonst gemerkt.

4 hours ago, Revier said:

Or Seliph/Ares/Shannan.

Yeah, see? 😆 

...Honestly, yeah. Every sword user could've done this, I think. Even Oifey still would've had the necessary stats, I think. Although Hannibal (-26 avoid, compared to Dermott if using the same weapon and stat rings) would've needed a little more support to do this safely.

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

My approach that I alluded to earlier was, I was able to trap Brian on a mountain tile. Because I killed most (all?) of his subordinates, his "retreat for reinforcements" AI kicked in. But because he was stuck, he couldn't actually go anywhere. And his retreat AI wouldn't let him attack, either. So, he became a non-entity.

Ah, that would work. Hannibal was in that state for a turn or three, although in his case, it's much easier to set up because you can just plonk somebody on his castle without seizing.

 

[Saint Rubenio]

12 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Now his lance shall rest.

G G H . . .

12 hours ago, BrightBow said:

Well, at least now his lance can rest.

G G H . . .

8 hours ago, Revier said:

For real. It's kind of bizarre how far people will go to defend their favorite character, even when they aren't particularly well written and support ideas that would actually be quite harmful in real life.

People need to accept that you can love a fictional character who is evil without trying to justify their actions. It's okay, villains are cool.

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

Holy shit... blue and red, together in one character design? Toothpaste-chan? Kaga, you magnificent dastard, you've done it first again!

(For context, this is a boss in an old hack called Order of the Crimson Arm. Came out a good decade before Engage. The hair would be funny enough but the fact that his shirt is white too is just too perfect)

3 hours ago, ping said:

In a way, the odd phrasing ("I crave your pardon") makes it worse - if it was more generic, I would've been more likely to pass over that they're the same word for word.

Pretty sure in the old translation it was just a generic "Lord Julius... Please forgive me...", and Project Naga tried to combat this utterly awful piece of dialogue by wording it in a more exotic way. Which does not help the fact that it's shared by all three garbage bagmen in the thrilling conclusion.

3 hours ago, ping said:

Petition to rename Genealogy LTC runs into FAS (Forever Alone Seliph) runs. Seems like it's at least a bit of a challenge to achieve.

Simply murder anyone who gets too close to Seliph. Curse of Artemis all over again, baby!

[Revier]

12 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

(For context, this is a boss in an old hack called Order of the Crimson Arm. Came out a good decade before Engage. The hair would be funny enough but the fact that his shirt is white too is just too perfect)

I got a good laugh out of this. Anime hair really is the most beautifully bizarre thing ever.

[Saint Rubenio]

1 minute ago, Revier said:

I got a good laugh out of this. Anime hair really is the most beautifully bizarre thing ever.

And the best part is that the portrait is an edit of a vanilla FE7 portrait - Heath, to be specific. His colors were different but he has the same ridiculous two-colored hair. People bashed Alear like this had never been a thing before in the series lol

[Jotari]

27 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

 

 

To be really perfect, he needs the heterochromia.

10 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And the best part is that the portrait is an edit of a vanilla FE7 portrait - Heath, to be specific. His colors were different but he has the same ridiculous two-colored hair. People bashed Alear like this had never been a thing before in the series lol

I'm fine with Alear's hair. It's the two pieces that cross like an x right over their forehead that drives me nuts. Like, it looks like those two strands are glued together. And they should be annoying as all hell to Alear themself for always brushing against the edge of their vision. Genuinely ruins the whole design for me.

[Saint Rubenio]

25 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I'm fine with Alear's hair. It's the two pieces that cross like an x right over their forehead that drives me nuts. Like, it looks like those two strands are glued together. And they should be annoying as all hell to Alear themself for always brushing against the edge of their vision. Genuinely ruins the whole design for me.

Engage does the cross-hair thing a few times. Pandreo, for instance, has a really nice design but the hair is just...  Why is it like that? It's even worse than Alear's, because the strands crossing his face are even longer.

...I do feel at least female Alear pulls it off better. Her bangs are generally longer so it's not as pronounced as male Alear, who just has two strands crossing his entire face from the top.

Edited April 24 by Saint Rubenio

[ping]

FE4 Endgame: The Final Holy War

Freege --> Velthomer --> Belhalla

Spoiler

Starting the final update with a big reset: I've moved myself into a corner here, with Fee allowing Meng to attack her from outside anybody else's range. Because Meng has Nihil, Fee can't fish for a Brave Lance crit -

- and because Meng has Pursuit, Adept, and Critical, she's actually quite likely to kill Fee instead.

There would have been a possibility to kill Meng: Fee would have to bring her low enough for Altena to one-shot with Gáe Bolg without dying (not easy because, well, Earth Sword, Pursuit, Adept, and Critical) - in which case Sharlow could've warped Altena over after colouring Arion green, Leylia's could've danced for her (because Altena would have to move towards Sharlow first), and I would have to hope that I'd still be able to fend/block off Ishtar's squad well enough.

Unfortunately, I didn't keep a save file from only a few turns earlier, so I decided to just replay the entire thing and see that I can bring a larger force to face Ishtar east of Freege (and maybe not allow any of the Pegasi an abusive position like that again).

So, there goes Edda again (this time without allowing too many characters to be slept, by just rushing the castle with Seliph)...

...and Dozel's troops get decimated basically the same way as before - Dermott with Seliph's aura, and Nanna plus whoever else might be nearby.

I made a half-hearted attempt of letting Johalvier get a shot against his brother, but alas, he cowardly cantered out of range.

Meanwhile, Fee makes a little detour to visit the two villages on the map. Entirely useless from a purely game-mechanical perspective, but hey, why not.

: "Hear me, brave heirs to the crusaders! In your hands lies the task of proving this war to be a holy war of its own. If wisdom, courage and power be your allies, summon them now and give all you have, should you wish to prevail this day. Trust yourselves to bring forth our destiny, one born where the two trails of light meet!"

[5000 gold --> Fee]

: "Oh, heirs to the courageous! Hear my ode to the crusaders of old.

O Black Knight Hezul, Mystletainn the demonic in hand, smite the devil
O Sword Saint Odo, Balmung the divine in hand, repel the blight
O Holy Knight Baldur, Tyrfing the sacred in hand, shine a light
And at last, O Saint Heim, Book of Naga in hand, pray to the heavens above

Prayer begets light, Light begets the white dragon
Foe of the shadow dragon
Black and white
Light and dark
An eternal struggle

Shall our prayers yield victory
Or shall it be death?
And yet have no fear
For our battle is a beginning
And defeat is never the end
The flame of light we seek
Is eternal, undying, never lost

And in all who follow us
I shall believe
And in all who bear the light
I shall believe

Not bad, innit?"

You certainly cannot accuse Genealogy of pretending, at any point, that its overarching conflict has any shades of grey in it.

__

Afterwards, Fee goes straight north to thin out the Sleep staff users above the cliff before the rest of the team arrives. She can stay out of Hilda and her Barons' range easily enough, although this does spawn Scorpius. Or maybe the others came too close, but not quite into range, either.

Being more conscious of bringing a larger force towards Freege also allows for a narratively appropriate Hilda kill:

: "Ohohohoho! You're Taillte's other brat, aren't you? Am I to presume you've come to seek my head for your mommy's pathetic demise?"
: "Oh, yeah. I figured that Tinni shouldn't dirty her hands this time around..."
: "Oh, did you, now? In that case, I'll drag you straight to hell with me!"

Arthur's line almost seems to reference that Tinni actually got the kill (well, shoo-away) on Hilda last chapter, but it's what he always says according to the wiki. Too bad - would've been a great little detail if Tinni-vs-Hilda had set some flag for this chapter.

So, the new result: More folks in Freege's vicinity, only one folk (Arthur) in range of the Loptyrians that can be put to sleep.

__

And as Ishtar approaches, so does Arion:

: "We have no home to return to, men... But we must keep going nonetheless. Chalphy's fall to our blades shall be the first step to winning back our fatherland. Now, move in! Show these liberators one final defiance from the dracoknights of Thracia!"

What an idiot. He didn't say anything particularly eye-rolling here, I just wanted to reiterate.

Now, technically, Altena only half-recruits him after some more action, but just to get it out of the way...

: "That's enough, Arion! Why? Why in the world do you still refuse to see reason?!"
: "Altena?!"
: "How could you be so craven?! How dare you place your own vanity and pride over what truly matters!"
: "What do you want from me, then?"
: "Take a good, hard look at Prince Seliph! Ask yourself this: why is he still fighting? For whom is he out here day after day, setting his own suffering to the side?"
: "So Seliph fights for justice, and I somehow do not? Is that what you're trying to say..."

OK, there's the eye-rolling part.

: "Very well, Arion... If you won't see reason, so be it. Come on. Kill me. End this. My... my life is in your hands, Arion. ...I die with no regrets."
: "A-Altena... Very well. You can rest easy now. I get it. I was wrong... My mercenary days are at an end, and my final task is with Seliph... Wait, no... With you. I now fight for you, Altena."
: "Arion..."

And green he is. I had Sharlow shadow Altena to get her back into action, but reconsidered. Might as well try to keep the doofus alive, and I think he'd likely fly into Julius and the Deadlords if Altena would stay with the main group.

I'm happy to see Altena lay into Arion in this dialogue, although I think I would've preferred it without the "then strike me down" part, which has become a bit of a cliché with Sheeda's lesser clones. I think she could've gotten the same message across without it. "What do YOU want, Arion?! Kill me, your traitorous sister? Or do YOU want to die by my lance, to burden me with the crime of killing the man who is still my brother? What about your men? Whose hand do you want them to die by?! Travant... no, Father built a bridge for you to make peace with the liberation army and even with House Leonster. Do you want to destroy it so carelessly?"

...there I go writing fanfiction again.

Altena does get warped in to grab a single kill before flying back south to redirect Arion west instead of north. But to go back to the first round of combat against Ishtars forces...:

You won't be surprised to see that Arthur is part of it. Forseti indeed goes brrr...

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...although even an Adept proc isn't lethal (and crits are blocked by Nihil), and the arrival of Meng with her leadership stars actually makes things less reliable than one might think.

____

But Ares and Seliph manage to finish the two first Pegasi on player phase, and everybody retreats a few steps. Good ol' turtle tactics, helping out Fire Emblem players since the dawn of time.

(this is the turn on which Altena talks to Arion, btw)

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And that's the last group of triplets dealt with, including Fee avenging her self from a different timeline. Apologies for not bothering overly much with their battle quotes, but they're not all that interesting to begin with.

Aaand more falling back. I'm being a bit craven (and/or too lazy to find productive and safe enemy phase set-ups) here, I'll admit.

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2 x (60-24) = 2x36 = 72. Perfectly safe.

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2x54 - 18 = 90 > 70. Overkill, but not even that much.

And there goes Ishtar, who had ethics when she remembered them. Mostly off-screen, regrettably.

Overall, I think there's two big reasons why ishtar doesn't quite manage to play her role as a sympathetic villain. One isn't so much her fault as it is the timeline's - because Julia fled from Julius years ago, Ishtar couldn't fall in love with the sweet, innocent, pre-Loptyr Julius, which for me would've counted for a lot already. But the second really is that she doesn't really show much reason why we should feel bad for her. We're told that she's actually really nice by Tinni; we learn that she secretly saves children all the time - but on-screen, she generally just goes along with whatever Julius is doing. It would've been nice had she shown at least a little discomfort when Julius is deriving too much pleasure from death, pain, fear, and sorrow.

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With Ishtar dead, it's time to haste towards Velthomer - Ares and Seliph for Manfroy-killing duties, Leif and Leylia to get them there more quickly.

A few turns later...

...I learn that the Hel priests around Manfroy actually move. Whoops. For science purposes, I didn't reset immediately to see if Hel might kill targets at 1 HP, but results are inconclusive since Ares dodged all attempts...

__

...but Manfroy still adds a point to the L count.

__

This does give me opportunity to change things up ever so slightly - namely, position Fee to slowly draw Julia back towards Velthomer, or at least make sure that she doesn't push the main group back towards Freege.

: "HA... HA... HA..."

Even though they stayed out of Hel range, Seliph and Ares were still close enough to aggro the Hel Loptyrians, but they're considerate enough to still leave a path to Manfroy...

...and Leylia boosts Ares forward to, at the very least, chip Manfroy down.

Or Ares can just score a crit, since Manfroy doesn't have Nihil. That works, too.

If the RNG hadn't worked out so easily, I still would've had the option to use the arena in Chalphy to advance the RN string, but this just worked out fine on the first try.

And there go the Hel priests.

: "Are we quite certain the Book of Naga is in fact hidden in Velthomer, Lewyn?"
: "Yep. All the evidence we have points to Arvis taking it from Belhalla and keeping it hidden here. That's right, isn't it, Felipe?"
: "Indeed, sir. It should still lie in the treasury. That said, it is likely sealed in a locked case."
: "Huh. Any idea where the key is?"
: "My liege concealed the key within his most treasured memento... The circlet once worn by Empress Deirdre. If we can find that circlet, sir, then the Book of Naga is yours."
: "Deirdre's circlet, huh..."

Aaand more dance+rescue to get Seliph back to Julia quickly.

Fee luring Julia further back east puts her into Julius's Meteor range on the following enemy phase - but no danger thanks to Papa Claude, and no battle quote because it seems that Julius's voice can't carry that far.

However, this does activate the Deadlords - or maybe they start moving because Velthomer is seized. A mixed blessing - they're more difficult to approach when they move (since they tend to be really dangerous to fight on their terms), but they do move away from Julius's Meteor range.

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Unfortunately, miscounting tiles leads to two more resets...

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...and overreliance on Forseti to a third. Brave Sword and Killer Bow do have some extra accuracy, and Arthur had no +avo in addition to the forest. OH WELL

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In the end, I just give up on any enemy phase damage, unless we count Fee's magic damage against a high-Res opponent. But what happened to Julia?!

Oh, right. Of course.

: "Julia! Wake up... Please!"
: "..."
: "...Nnh... Lord Seliph?! I... why am I here?"
: "You can thank Manfroy's dark arts. He brainwashed you into his service."
: "Manfroy... Oh, that's right... That man who caught me..."
: "Thank goodness you're safe..."
: "Lord Seliph, I-"
: "It's fine, Julia. I know. Lewyn already told me everything. I'm sorry... I am so sorry. I failed to protect you..."
: "No... It's fine. Don't worry, Seliph. I finally know why I've survived for all these years. I know my fate... I'm fated to fight. I'll never run away again!"
: "Your strength and courage is such an inspiration, Julia... But you're right. This is the will of fate, tragic as it is. None can afford to cower or flee now. Until the bitter end, we must march on..."

And, one turn later thanks to the magic of magic staves...

: "Okay, Julia. This is the treasury. Try fitting the gemstone on your circlet into that niche there."
: "Here we go..."
: "It worked! It really worked! There it is! The Book of Naga! And it's yours for the taking, Julia!"
: "Wow, I... Oh! How strange... It feels so warm... It's almost as if I've known this book all my life..."

But first, more arenaing. Julia rejoins only at Lv.25 - unacceptable! With the Paragon band, she gets to Lv.29 by the end of her run.

____

At the Belhalla end of the road, the Deadlords are slowly wittled down. Not too much to say specifically - they're strong, yes, but the Velthomer expedition, joined by Nanna and Dermott, has pretty good player phase offense to offer.

____

...close enough. The priestess (or whatever that class's name was) is just a healer, and Leylia can survive a Meteor with the Barrier Sword equipped.

: "Feh.. We meet at last, Seliph. The so-called scion of light... Don't make me laugh! What challenge could an heir of Baldur possibly provide? This is where your story ends!"

...he's not wrong. The combination of Loptyr's Atk-having effect and Nihil circumventing any crit potential means that even holy weapon wielders struggle to deal meaningful damage to Julius. Even Altena, who thanks to Gáe Bolg's Str bonus reaches 67 Atk normally, would only deal 8 dmg (33 - 25) to Julius... and get horribly slaughtered in return, since Julius doubles her for 2x42 damage.

I've seen how Julius can be cheesed without Julia and the Book of Naga - berserk the Hel Deadlord, who only has 25 Res, pick a god, and pray. Killing him legit without Julia seems like an exercise in patience - since Julius has Wrath, nobody without Nihil can fight him once he reaches half HP, which leaves Seliph as the only Holy Weapon user (...and I suppose the Sword Twins can tickle him to death) to get him from 40 HP to 0.

If you wanted to plan a playthrough accordingly, I suppose Alec!Faval would be the best option to increase your damage per turn against Julius, since like Altena, he gets another +10 Str / +5 dmg vs Julius from his holy weapon. The other physical holy weapon wielders don't have variable dads.

So, Julia it is!

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...who, in contrast, completely dunks on her twin brother. Good lord.

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So, one turn, one miss and two Adept procs later, it is over.

____

So before we get into the epilogue - what about the final map itself? Well, the tail end of it is honestly quite good. You throw OP bullshit at the enemy's OP bullshit, which is an appropriate finale for this game - and, relative to the majority of gen 2, it's quite the difficulty spike, too. Not even close to the peaks of the hard(est) modes of future games, of course, but still requiring more precise play than I was capable of in order to get through without resets. Ishtar's group is somewhat threatening (if mostly because of the huge mobility and proc potential of the pegasi), and the following set-up of Julia approaching while you sneak past her to Velthomer is pretty neat.

Before Freege, the map wasn't as interesting, though. Edda, with all the long-ranged tomes and Sleep staves highly encourages what I did in the second run and just rush the castle with Seliph, and Dozel's troops are easily trivialised by strong sword users (and maybe some aura support to make it entirely safe).

But let's get to the epilogue. We'll be here for a while.

: "Thank you, Lewyn, but our victory means precious little while our world still lies in ruins. Where do we begin from here?"
: "There's only one way to rebuild all the scarred lands. Everyone needs to come together and share the work among you. And for that, you'll need a good leader. The crusaders' heirs will be returning home to assume their rightful thrones. And with the proper leadership, they can pool their strengths again to build a new world, one where all can live in happiness."
: "A new world, you say..."
: "Yeah, Seliph... A new world. And your role is the most crucial of all. You'll remain here in Belhalla, and you'll guide the rise of this new world as the King of Grannvale."

"And Julia, major Naga blood or nay, doesn't have a penis, so she's not an option."

(I'll admit that, if we accept Kaga's conviction that monarchy and inheritance by blood is imperative, even Seliph is more leadership material than the girl who spent most of her youth with trauma-induced amnesia)

: "The two of you have inherited the last will of all who lost their lives on this path. These souls watch over you, even now. You mustn't forget the light for which they strove."
: "Mm... I understand, Lewyn. So long as I have the power, I'll do all I can."
: "Now, Julia. What do you say?"
: "I agree, of course. I wish to aid Lord Seliph... No, my lord brother, every step of the way. I know this path will be a grueling one, but that's all the more reason to give it my all..."
: "Well then! Looks like everyone's making their way here from the front lines. Seliph, this'll be your first task as king. I'm sure they'd all love some words of thanks."

And indeed, the whole team is standing in the outskirts of Belhalla. Poor lonely Faval, up there in the corner...

: "I doubt I could ever thank you enough for all you've done for me, Shanan. All my life, you've been here to protect me at every turn. I owe you so dearly."
: "Your father, Lord Sigurd, was always there for me as well when I was a child, as was the Lady Deirdre. But when we lost Lady Deirdre, I couldn't do a thing to stop it... I failed Lord Sigurd. Even now, I'll never forget that day... You don't owe me a thing, Seliph. Not when I've caused you so much pain..."
: "No, Shanan. If it weren't for you and the people of Isaach, I wouldn't be here today. To me, Isaach will always be home. Nothing will ever change that."
: "I'm sure everyone back in Isaach would be heartened to hear such kind words."
: "I've always thought of you as a brother, Shanan. I pray we never forget that bond."
: "My blade will always be yours, King Seliph. I'll never forget that so long as I live."
: "Well, it's time to say goodbye. Best of luck to you!"

Shanan is a character who I like in principle. His loyalty to Seliph resting (in part) on his feelings of guilt for failing Sigurd and Deirdre, even though he was barely a teenager at the time, is a nice concept - but similar to Arvis and Travant, he doesn't have the stage presence necessary to actually work with that concept.

Next, Leonster:

: "The Thracian Peninsula has suffered from war long enough, and it's high time we rebuilt. I know my sister, Altena, wishes dearly for a restored Thracia as well."
: "Indeed. This war has lain waste to Thracia, and I can only imagine the burden laid upon you, the king-to-be of a united peninsula. I pray you gie it your best, no matter what happens."
: "I will. You take care as well, Lord Seliph."
: "Long ago, our fathers Sigurd and Quan were bound by the closest of friendships, sharing their deaths as they did their lives. Prince Leif, I'd love nothing more than for us to follow their example and remain lifelong friends."

"And eventually get stabbed to death and burnt to a crisp, respectively." - They would deserve nothing less for their continued disrespect towards Ethlyn, honestly.

: "As do I, Lord Seliph!"
: "You're about to leave, aren't you, Leif?"
: "Do you wish to accompany me, Nanna?"
: "Huh? Would that really be alright with you?"
: "But of course! All I want is to have you and your might by my side."
: "Th-thank you!"

: "At the very least, I ought to atone for the legacy of my adoptive family... Travant and Arion."
: "How wonderful it would be, if Arion were to work together with you..."
: "I... I don't believe that could happen for the time being, sir. But perhaps someday, he'll feel the time is right."
: "I shall be bound for home as well, milord. I wish you the best of health."
: "Sir Finn, you've come to my family's aid time and again, and for twenty years played a crucial part in both my cause and Father's. I couldn't possibly thank you enough."
: "No, I am a servant of House Leonster. As a knight, I have but followed where my lieges have led. No more, no less."
: "Thracia is in your hands, Sir Finn. I hope you'll assist Prince Leif in granting Thracia its hard-won peace."
: "Yes, sir. A peaceful Thracia was my Lord Quan's lifelong dream as well, and I'll do all I can to bring that dream to life."

: "Many thanks, King Seliph! I shall excuse myself now."
: "Are you headed for Thracia as well, General Hannibal?"
: "Indeed. Thracia yet hangs in the balance, and the people await my return."
: "Who better to lead the reconstruction of Thracia than a mighty war hero? Do your best for the youths of Thracia."

Me, a German, side-eyeing the wikipedia article on Hindenburg: "..."

: "I see. You know, Sharlow, I've seldom seen anyone as happy as you are now. I confess I'm a bit envious!"
: "I'm so proud of Papa, sir. I may just be adopted, but I'm still the son of the great General Hannibal!"
:"The job awaiting you, the heroes of Thracia, certainly won't be easy. It's up to you to unite two peoples long divided by bitter hatred, and build for all of them a new, peaceful land."

I don't have much of substance to say about the Thracians here. All fairly generic stuff, to be honest. Like with Julia, one can point at Altena being the one inheriting the holy weapon of her family, and unlike Julia, she's even Leaf's older sibling, but I guess we can just assume some level of agnatic succession law in every realm in Jugdral.

Next, Agustria!

: "Oh, no, Prince Ares. The joy chancing upon you brought is thanks enough! It was such an honor to meet the son of my father's dearest friend. As tragic as their lives were, their faith in each other was unshakable to the very end. Our fathers, Prince Ares, were united by a singular dream their deaths left unfulfilled. Let us fulfill their dreams where they cannot. Let the two of us, hand in hand, guide all Jugdral toward bringing the dream to life."
: "Well spoken, King Seliph! My father so dearly wished to see his beloved Agustria united in a lasting peace. In the name of his dying wish, I'll carve for Agustria a new, prosperous future."

I probably sound like a broken record here, but Ares is, I would say, actually the biggest missed opportunity of all gen 2 characters. He and Seliph could've be used to re-examine the relationship between their fathers, what their faults were, and why they eventually came to fight each other. Instead, Ares gets this letter to Memphis from Raquesis/Nanna which just proves that they always loved and trusted each other, they were both literally perfect, and their conflict was just this big tragedy but it doesn't really mean anything.

: "I see... Don't worry too much. Somebody wonderful, I know, will be graced with your charm someday, Leylia."
: "Hee hee... Oh, Lord Seliph! I know you're just trying to perk me up. But it's okay! I've always got dancing... I've been alone my whole life. Staying alone for the rest of it won't be that bad."
: "Leylia..."

That is sad. Now I almost feel bad for not hooking her up with Ares.

: "I'm going with Prince Ares to Agustria, Lord Seliph. I'll lend the prince my strength and help rebuild the country."
: "Dermott? Ah, of course. Your mother was a noblewoman of Nordion, yes?"
: "Lord Eldigan's sister, Raquesis, to be exact, sir. Nobody was closer to him than she was. I'll give my entire life to fulfilling the last wishies of my mother and Eldigan, and to creating a united Agustria."

I wanted to say there should be absolutely no way that Seliph doesn't know that Dermott is Eldigan's nephew. But then I remembered that he constantly forgets who his own aunt was.

: "Even as we speak, Agustria's still embroiled in a civil war. A gruelling task awaits you all, but I know you can handle it if you give it your best together. Agustria's fate now lies squarely in all of your hands."

Next, Jungby:

: "Ah, of course. You're the heir to Jungby. ...Will you be okay?"
: "Huh? Why, Lord Seliph, you're not saying you think I'm nervous about this, are you?"
: "Er, no. That isn't what I meant I just-"
: "I'll be just fine, sir. I'm the daughter of the great Lady Bridget, after all! Sure, I don't look the part, but when the going needs doing, I'll go and do it! Just watch me go, sir!"
: "I'm going back to Jungby as well, sir."
: "Mm. I know Jungby will need your might in the years to come, as will I."
: "Yes, sir. I want to help my cousin, just as my mother once helped my aunt, and I hope I can for the rest of my life."

Gay representation!

Not sure if this a rare edge case, a common bug, or something the translation patch messed up. So I'll just assume that this is canon and that Lester has a thing for moustaches.

: "I know you're mad at me, Lana. Lester told me as much."
: "That's because you've... No, it's fine. I'll be fine. I'm going home to Jungby now. Farewell, Lord Seliph..."
: "Lana..."

This one surprised me a bit, simply because I didn't think Seliph/Lana was pushed that hard during the game as a pseudo-canon pairing, à la Roy/Lilina or Eliwood/Ninian. But I suppose they are mutually their most likely partners, with their only other partner starting with a non-zero love value being the late-joining Coirpre/Sharlow for Lana.

No comment from Lewyn for this one.

: "But of course. We'll be with you every step of the way."

...that's all? Gosh, Seliph is even worse at smooth-talk than Marth.

Checking the wiki on this, it seems that I didn't get a tiny intersection that Seliph's lover is supposed to have right at the start of the epilogue. Might be an issue with the translation patch, but it's very possible that it's removed because Tinni has her own gig going on and can't just "support Seliph" as that intersection would suggest.

: "Your father was Lord Lex, correct? I'm sue the people of Dozel eagerly await your return, Ulster."
: "The likes of Langbalt and Dannan have tormented the people and stained House Dozel's good name for too long. Now that my father is gone, it falls to me to heal the state's wounds."
: "Mm. I entrust Dozel's welfare to you. I pray you'll be able to lend me your might in the years to come."
: "Yes, Lord Seliph!"

Like with Dermott, Seliph really should know who his childhood friends' parents are or were. But in Ulster's case, this is just the generic "Lex's son" text, so I can't mind this too much.

: "So long, Seliph."
: "I leave Dozel's care to you, Lord Johalvier."
: "Facing my people ain't gonna be easy, but one way or another, I've gotta atone for my dad's crimes somehow. Guess I won't know till I try. I really owe you one, Seliph."
: "You truly are an odd one, Lord Johalvier. Your rough words hide such a gentle spirit."
: "Heh, I guess. Talking like this never felt right, yeah? Good luck with everything, Seliph. I'll see ya around."
: "Don't worry, Lord Seliph. Johalvier's always felt awkward about what really lies beneath his act..."
: "Hahaha, I though as much. Do take care, Larcei. And do take care of Johalvier."
: "Yes, sir. I suppose I can't really afford to leave him be, can I? Rest assured, I'll look after him. Take care as well, Lord Seliph!"

The crowd is thinning...

: "I take you're headed for Edda, Ced?"
: "I am, sir. In the name of my father, Claude, I'll breathe new life back into Edda."
: "Saint Bragi's faith is strong indeed. I know your exalted prayers will bring peace to Grannvale and the world."
: "Yes, sir!"

Very generic. Not Ced-specific, either - he's just speaking as "Claude's Son" here, and because Fee got together with Arthur, Claude's Daughter doesn't make an appearance here.

: "I beg your forgiveness, Lord Faval. The task which now lies before you is the most painful of all."
: "No, sir. I'm all that's left of House Velthomer, and it's my duty alone to atone for the many crimes of my kin. I know that's what my father, Lord Azel, would want as well."
: "Faval, I can't bring myself to hate Lord Arvis any longer. Knowing now he was but a sad victim of fate, I can only offer you my condolences."

I'd call Arvis a schemer that got out-schemed, but I appreciate Seliph's sentiment.

: "Thank you so much, Lord Seliph..."

He said the thing!

: "I'll work tirelessly until the Emblem's honor and good name are restored."

'nother generic "___'s Son" ending here.

: "What? Why, Oifey? Why?! I thought you would never leave my side! I... I still need you."
: "No, sire... You will do a magnificent job ruling on your own. I know it. And whilst you do, it'll be my duty to protect House Chalphy in your stead."
: "Chalphy... I understand, Oifey. You are right, of course. I won't be able to inherit its throne, which leaves you as the last bearer of the blood of Baldur who can claim it. I suppose there isn't much choice..."
: "Everything will be alright, sire. I'll always be watching over you, even from Chalphy."
: "Oifey... To me, you've always been like the father I've never had. You taught me all I know... How to strategize, how to live as a knight does... And how to be kind. You've done so much, and I could never thank you even nearly enough..."
: "Sire... I, too, owe your father dearly for all he once did for me. When my parents died, Lord Seliph took me into his home. He loved me just as if I were his own brother. And yet... I couldn't even be by his side in his final moments... I was such a coward."
: "Oifey... Please don't cry... This is my fault, not yours..."
: "Sniff... My apologies, sire. You shouldn't have seen that. Now then... Please, sire..."
: "I know, Oifey... I know. You take care as well..."

And we save Lewyn's son for last.

Oifey, in his relation to Seliph is obviously similar to Shanan, including the part where the story doesn't do a whole lot with it. I like the set-up more for Shanan, I think, since he has that concrete act of (self-perceived) failure with Deirdre's kagaing.

: "Well, Lord Seliph, thanks for everything. I'll be going back to Silesse with Father now."

FUCK OFF.

Honestly though, I get it, we're in the middle of the Happily Ever After, everybody is in full peace-and-love mood... But we're still talking about Lewyn here. Think of him what you want, but he's not a good father to anyone. And not even Lewyn!Ced deviates from the script at this spot.

: "Lord Seliph! I'll be going to Silesse with Arthur."
: "You will as well, Fee? That's very reassuring. I pray you and Arthur will pool your might to aid Silesse's people."
: "Got it! I'll do my best!"

: "No. My work there is done."

: "I don't belong on the throne. Silesse needs a fresh start with its leadership, just like everywhere else. What Silesse needs is you. It needs to be guided by your youthful hand."
: "I don't understand... Silesse needs you, too... And I need you. Please, Father... Please. Come home with me!"
: "Settle down, Arthur. You're embarrassing me here. You already know exactly why I'm doing this... Don't you, Arthur?"
: "...Father..."
: "...That's enough. There's nothing left to say. Go! I leave Silesse's fate to you..."

Bad dad to the end. (...although I appreciate the implied "you know this isn't Lewyn speaking" there)

: "Thank you, Lewyn... Thank you so much... You've done so much for us, the young generation. You've always guided us... From the bottom of our hearts, thank you."
: "I did only my duty, Seliph. I am the wind, a wind fated to guide the beating light of life. And this very light shines on within the hearts of every last one of you."
: "I understand now... All my life, I've heard tales of how the dragonkin feared becoming entangled in the sorry affairs of mankind. But you were different... You guided us where your kin never would. So long as our world lives on, humanity will never forget your kindness..."

Gasp!

I do have a little to say about this - obviously, since it's a rather big bomb to drop in the very last line of dialogue of the entire game - but I think I'll keep that in the overall opinion piece at the end.

The very last piece of the story is one final tour of Jugdral. Frankly - a bit superfluous, since we already had the characters talk things out, but here we are.

At long last, Thracia has been unified. A region once swamped with countless small nations constantly warring among themselves, with the restoration of House Leonster and the downfall of the Thracian kingdom, the Thracian Peninsula finally knows peace. And as the first ruler of this new Thracia, the people ardently desired for the throne to be taken by Leif. And so, Leif worked together with
Nanna, Leif's wife,
Finn, the lance knight,
the great General Hannibal,
Sharlow, the holy youth,
to build a new nation for Thracia's people.

At Leif's behest, the old Thracia's former lands were entrusted to his sister, Altena. Legends tell of Altena's love for and dedication to the very soil that raised her, and this love never died so long as she lived. The Thracian peninsula thus gave rise to a new realm: the Kingdom of New Thracia.

The Kingdom of Isaach may have found its freedom from Imperial abuse the quickest, yet its people could not rest easy while its heir was absent fighting in the war. This changed with the final victory of the liberation army, and when Shanan returned from battle, the people greeted their liege with raucous cheers. And so, with Shanan assuming the crown, and others by his side to restore the land, they also strove for a new age of diplomacy and trade, seeking to build a wealthy nation. Isaach was once reviled by others as little more than a barbarous eastern land, but under the reign of Shanan, Isaach will grow like never before and shall one day be reborn as a mighty nation, every bit the equal of other realms.

The aftermath of Agustria's civil war left it to be annexed by Grannvale, and so the land fell to harsh tyranny. After years of abuse, its people dearly wished for the rise of a unified nation, one led by House Nordion, heirs of the legendary hero Eldigan. And so the people eagerly welcomed the homecoming of Ares. In Ares, the people saw the very same aure Eldigan had borne in his youth.

(Translation: Ares is literall Eldigan with bigger eyes and a different wardrobe)

Ares was accompanied home by
Leylia, the resolute dancer,
Dermott, the charming knight,
and worked with them to unite Agustria. Under the reign of Ares, Agustria will soon become Grannvale's most crucial partner and will grow to be greater than ever before.

Even at its peak, the Empire had shunned and ignored Verdane. Uninterested in seizing the region within its iron fist, it completely abandoned the old kingdom. Instead, Verdane was left to the mercy of constantly warring clans, and brigands ran rampant. Nobody had any hope of peace. With the holy war's end, Seliph led an expedition to restore peace to Verdane. The people were overjoyed to, at last, be saved by Seliph, the son of Deirdre. Deirdre had long since passed into the legends and folklore of Verdane, now revered there as a saint, and now Verdane's people clamored to come under the rule of Deirdre's son. Seliph, too, held a deep love for the land of his mother's youth, and so Verdane joined Grannvale's lands, becoming the Royal Province of Verdane. Verdane is a land of natural beauty. Its verdant forests are Sigurd's prayers... Its sparkling, crystal-clear water is Deirdre's tears... And these are its people's emblems of hope and faith...

God, even Sigurd and Deirdre are worse characters in gen2. It's been a thing with how Ares views Sigurd and Eldigan, but it's even more egregious here, how they literally become saints because... er, why exactly? Jamke's brothers were huge jerks, sure, but Sigurd arguably just swooped in, smashed the existing administration, and went on to more important castles to seize. While Deirdre... existed, I guess? I can buy that Verdanians might feel pride that Seliph, world saviour that he is, is half-Verdanian, but Deirdre honestly might be the least active character in all of gen1. She doesn't really do anything, things are done to her. The constant veneration of her seems rather unearned.

Silesse had long dwelt under the empire's cruel hand, and so Arthur devoted their life to rebuilding the ruined land. Assisting them was
Fee, his wife,
all bearing hope-filled smiles.

Probably the most obvious it gets that these segments are automatically generated.

A breathtaking land... A peaceful people... Lewyn had devoted his life to protecting the Kingdom of Silesse, and at long last, his decades of work came to fruition.

FFS Kaga, stop pretending that Lewyn has been a good person at any point of his life. You even confirmed just now that the guy helping Seliph hasn't been Lewyn all along. I suppose it's in line with Sigurd, Eldigan, and Deirdre's posthumous elevation to paragons of love, justice, virtue, knowledge, wisdom and whatnot.

And in Grannvale itself,
Velthomer's new lord, Faval,
Freege's new lord, Tinni,
Edda's new lord, Ced,
Dozel's new lord, Ulster,
and Johalvier,
and his wife, Larcei,
Jungby's new lord, Patty,
and Lester,
and Lana,
Chalphy's new lord, Oifey,
and others all returned to their lands.

Okay, that is also a rather clunky segment.

In the royal capital Belhalla itself, with overwhelming support from the public, Seliph was officially hailed as their king. The newly anointed King Seliph devoted himself to rebuilding his land and bringing peace to all, his goal nothing short of a prosperous world free of oppression and bigotry. And by his side, one would always find his sister, Princess Julia, regarding his toil with the warmest of eyes...

In ages to come, the people of Jugdral tell legends of a king of ages past. None shell ever forget his name: Seliph.

TL;DR: The divine right of kings is restored, and the correct people are in charge. In Verdane, the one place where the correct bloodline died out, anarchy obviously follows, until the Über-correct king comes and restores the natural order. Everybody cheers. All is well.

After this, turncounts and W/L for every (gen 1 and 2) characters pass by with some nice little artwork on the side...

...until the final rankings are listed. As well as evidence for my very liberal usage of the speed-up button, I assume. To go through the four individual ranks:

Tactics - 417 turns (399 or lower required for A)

• Prologue - Birth of a Crusader: 14 turns
• Ch.1 - The Spirit Forest's Maiden: 39 turns
• Ch.2 - Crisis in Agustria: 45 turns
• Ch.3 - Eldigan the Lionheart: 42 turns
• Ch.4 - Dance in the Skies: 39 turns
• Ch.5 - Threshold of Fate: 28 turns
• Ch.6 - Heirs to the Light: 36 turns
• Ch.7 - Beyond the Desert: 52 turns
• Ch.8 - The Dracoknights of Thracia: 41 turns
• Ch.9 - For Whose Sake: 31 turns
• Ch.10 - Light and Darkness: 25 turns
• Endgame - The Final Holy War: 25 turns

Honestly, 18 turns behind the highest rank is closer than I would've expected. I'd have to take a closer look to see if it's as easy to spot potential turn saves as "check the maps with 40+ turns, dummy", but I assume that it's a reasonable (if not as easy as, say, Eliwood Mode) Tactics rank to ace.

Experience - 995 level-ups (1000+ required for A)

No, really. I didn't expect to be that close to the A rank here, since I hardly bothered leveling up the non-dads in the first generation at all. But to take a look at ALL THE NUMBERS:

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  W/L   levels missing
Sigurd	  30	  61  25   0  22  22  16  21   4  79/1  0
Noish	  7.68	  35  12   0  10  10   4   9   0  6/1	23
Alec	  9.21	  37  12   0  12  11   6  12   0  2/1	21
Arden	  8.41	  39  16   0   6   5   3  15   0  4/0	22

Finn	  23.80   46  22   0  16  20  17  17   4  43/1	--
Quan	  17.05   47  21   0  16  17   7  13   4  17/4	13
Midir	  29.98	  49  23   1  16  23   9  15   4  43/1	1
Lewyn	  30	  56   4  30  25  30   8  12  15  25/0	0

Holyn	  22.48	  51  21   3  27  21   7  16   4  0/0	8
Azel	  30	  47   7  25  14  22   8  14  13  52/3	0
Jamke	  24.09	  52  22   0  19  22  13  17   4  5/0	6
Claude	  30	  41   2  24  19  17  14   5  23  1/0	0

Beowulf	  30	  55  23   0  30  19   4  19   3  19/0	0
Lex	  30	  58  27   2  18  14  12  25   4  37/0	0
Dew	  11.58	  32   8   0  10  18  14   4   1  3/2	19
Deirdre   7.82	  29   0  16  10  13   6   4  18  3/0	23

Ethlyn	  30	  43  15  13  20  24  14  18   8  9/0	0
Raquesis  30	  44  27   9  23  20  13  24  10  24/1	0
Ayra	  30	  53  24   2  30  30  10  14   5  35/1	0
Erin	  30	  46  17   9  19  30  12  20  15  47/0	0

Taillte	  28.05	  52   4  22  24  24  22   6  18  23/0	2
Sylvia	  13.70	   didn't note her final stats    0/0	17
Aideen	  30	  48   9  26  17  19  28   9  11  1/0	0
Bridget	  30	  55  27   4  25  22  19  18  10  25/0	0

--------------------------------------------------------

	  Lv.	  HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res  W/L   levels missing
Seliph	  30	  69  25  10  22  22  28  22  16  57/0
Shanan	  30	  68  24   1  30  26  14  22   6  20/0
Leif	  30	  66  27   8  27  27  17  27  11  28/0
Sharlow	  30	  45   4  27  16  18  14  10  18  0/0

Finn	  30	  51  24   1  18  22  24  21   4  19/0
Hannibal  30	  67  24   2  18  13   8  25   6  1/0
Ares	  30	  73  24   9  23  22  19  24  14  30/1
Oifey	  30	  58  23  10  24  22  14  22   8  24/3

Julia	  30	  50   4  30  18  29  12   5  27  20/0
Altena	  30	  69  27   3  24  22  11  29   9  19/0
Leylia	  15.66	  30   9   2   2  16   8   3   7  0/0	15
Johalvier 30	  60  26   0  19  21   7  25   8  28/0

Ulster	  30	  70  27   7  27  26  13  22   5  6/0
Faval	  30	  68  18  15  20  27  30  14   6  16/0
Ced	  30	  55   5  27  22  30  29  14  27  11/0
Dermott	  30	  65  23   0  30  25  22  20   7  68/1

Lester	  30	  58  24   3  19  23  25  18   5  38/0
Arthur	  30	  70   6  23  22  22  27  11  11  42/1
Patty	  30	  63  22  17  22  27  24  17   9  30/0
Larcei	  30	  70  27   1  30  30  21  22   7  18/0

Lana	  30	  61  12  24  24  23  29  12  11  0/0
Fee	  30	  56  20  17  24  29  15  20  24  55/0
Tinni	  30	  63   4  27  24  27  30  11  17  15/1
Nanna	  30	  58  24   7  22  21  24  24   8  26/0

In total, there's 1165 possible level-ups to be gained - 606 in the first generation and 559 in the second, counting Finn as a gen1 character. The numbers showcase that maxing out all of gen2 isn't too difficult (outside of Leylia - and since Leylia gained 12 levels without Paragon, it seems that Lex!Lene doesn't even need to arena too crazily to cap, as well), so reaching an A rank here obviously seems like it's almost exclusively a challenge in the first generation.

Survival - full recruitment, everybody alive.
Combat - 23 registered deaths (0-3 required for A; 4-10 required for B)

Honestly, very straightforward. I was pretty cavalier with potential character deaths at some points (like with Azel in the prologue already), but still - combat might actually be the most stringent requirement of them all, considering how long the chapters can be that you might have to replay entirely.

So there's the confirmation: I am an average Fire Emblem player. B tier. Not great, not terrible. ...but genuinely, trying my hand at a ranked run is definitely tempting, especially with how much closer than expected to A I was in Tactics and especially Experience.

 

Spoiler

Now, with Beelzebub back underground - what to make of Genealogy as a whole?

Praise for this game, as far as I can tell, is more often directed at the story than the gameplay, so it seems appropriate to start there. And for the first generation, I'm absolutely willing to sing along the choir of these praises (preferably as a basso; bariton if it's absolutely necessary) - more than I expected, honestly. Of course, it's not perfect, but what FE story is? Tellius, the dilogy that story enjoyers usually point at, still has a fairly standard main plot in Path of Radiance and the Blood Pact in Radiant Dawn.

But before I get to the detractions, I want to start with the positives. For starters: Sigurd is a really good protagonist, as I was shocked to learn. I would even say that Sigurd is what Corrin wishes they were (minus the "burnt to a crisp" part, presumably): A protagonist that other characters are drawn to, because he is honest, straightforward, polite, and noble... but he's also a bit of a dummy, who can't quite fathom the concept of diplomatic solutions ("maybe the problem will go away if I seize another castle"), doesn't recognise the implications of his actions ("helping the crown prince of our war enemy is the Right Thing To Do, I don't see why anybody would suspect or insinuate ulterior motives"), and who seems entirely incapable of recognising duplicity ("Arvis, who just stabbed his former friend in the back, now wants to be my friend? ...Neat!").

What's about Sigurd is that he starts to grow out of his weaknesses - namely, in Ch.4 he's more aware that invading can potentially be seen as an aggressive move - but his growth is cut short because his mistakes also come to haunt him. I know that this can be debated, since Sigurd doing the sensible thing just as well could've allowed Langbalt and/or Reptor to fight him without the strong allies he collects on his campaign. But I think that discussion would lead me too far away from the question how good FE4 really is, so I'll just quickly say that my read is "Sigurd had no chance, but he didn't use it, either" and observe that it's a good sign that one can genuinely have this discussion about a character that's seemingly just another "I do what is right" Fire Emblem protagonist.

And to add another character that I found a lot more convincing than most other representatives of his archetype: Eldigan is pretty great. Most of the time, anyway. His first interaction with Chagall is a bit inadverently goofy; the second one ensures that Eldigan's last impression isn't the greatest. But most of the time, Eldigan's attitude is quite reasonable, if too rigidly loyal to a king that doesn't deserve that loyalty. The entire Agustrian part of the game is really some of the best stuff that Fire Emblem writing has to offer, and it's largely because Sigurd and Eldigan play their roles very well. It's a believable scenario of two friends being forced - admittedly partially by their own mistakes - to fight one another.

Unfortunately, Genealogy doesn't manage to hold that high past Ch.3. I'll give the Silesse chapter a pass (for its story, anyway) because it works well as a small hope spot for Sigurd, but the game never manages to sufficiently build up its main villages, much to Ch.5's detriment. Reptor and Langbalt can quickly be dismissed as non-characters with a cool monocle and beard, respectively, but Arvis (and I'm going to reach into the second generation here) feels like a missed opportunity. A great character - offscreen. We're told that something very intriguing is going on behind the scenes - Arvis's scheming during the first generation, and his desperate attempts to counteract Julius's maniacal ways before and during the second - but because he makes hardly any appearances onscreen, his presence in the actual plot is miniscule considering how important he is to it.

But to close the first generation, I have to go back to singing Kaga's praises again. The insanity, the fucking balls on the man, to just murder the entire cast (terms and conditions may apply) at the halfway-point of the game. It's been discussed when it happened in this playthrough, but it's a damn shame that the scene is "I am your father" levels of famous in the FE community, even for players that know nothing else about Genealogy, since that must be a hard-hitting scene for anybody running into it blindly.

Unfortunately, though, I have to start another paragraph with "unfortunately". Story-wise, the second generation is a mirror of the first: Instead of "great, but with some weaknesses", Seliph's story is "awful, but with some good elements". From Sigurd, the good man who can't keep up with the intrigues around him, we go to Seliph, the good man who does good things in a good manner and all is good. The guy has less character than FE1!Marth, which is not a good look for somebody with more dialogue in a single chapter than the entire script of FE1 as a whole.

Where the second generation shines (...well, manages a little shimmer) are two of its villains. Travant is pretty cool as a villain whose goal is fairly grounded and not actually that evil - ruthless and with limited supply of empathy, but not a cackling villain. His decision to get himself killed to give his son a clean slate to make a deal with Leaf and Seliph was a good scene (even though Arion fucks it up...). And Arvis manages to make an impression when he re-enters the story - but not by being this awesome badass. It's very striking to see the smug and powerful villain of the first generation already beaten by his son, only able to act against him in secret and with no hope of standing up to him at all. It's done quite well, I think - but like in the first generation, his actual stage presence is very short, which reaffirms the impression of Arvis of a great character... ofscreen.

But despite these two positive examples, the main villains of the second generation are godawful. Of course, Manfroy and the Young Men's Loptyrian Association were already present (and awful) during the first generation, but I find that it becomes a bigger problem in Seliph's story where they're more of a direct antagonist instead of the shadowy organisation behind the likes of Chagall and Arvis (and I'm irrationally happy that I can bring them up side by side here). They're just so boring. Generic, boring evil. No redeeming qualities, no flair, just generic "Mwehehe, I'm evil, watch me stab this toddler, mwehehe" Evil McEvilness. The guy feeding people to the giant spider in early Sacred Stones is a better villain than the entire Loptyr cult combined. He at least had fun.

I think this also hurts Julius as the final antagonist of the game. Not to say that he'd be suddenly amazing - but his "creepily sadistic teenager" act might've been more impactful if the Loptyrians had been a more... moderately evil. Present them as this cult who is trying to rule from the shadows, sure, and won't shy away from murder when necessary, but maybe don't go into the child hunts until Julius makes an appearance, the thing that the cult has been working to create all of gen 1 - who then turns out to be this cold, sadistic boy who revels in the fear of the masses. When the "EVIL" notch is at 10 the entire time, even the child hunts honestly lose a lot of their shock value.

Now, I think I've established what I think of gen 2's story, so I'll swap my complaining to the presentation. I've consistently made clear what I think of Lewyn if he was an actual person (which is very little), but overall, I don't think he works very well as a plot device, either. With Sigurd, I had voiced some frustation that he collects the information necessary to figure out at least something about the going-ons. With Seliph, my main issue is that he doesn't really collect any information at all, and the problem here is Lewyn.

Lewyn is basically the exposition bot for Seliph. If some new information needs to be established, it's via Lewyn. If the story demands that a new information only become available at a certain point, like Julia's parentage - well, then Lewyn happens to somehow acquire that info at a convenient point in time. I found that very annoying, because at no point did I have the impression that Seliph is working to find answers to some of the unsolved questions. He just does what Lewyn tells him, and receives some more insight whenever Lewyn happens to feel like it.

This also runs contrary to the theme of the game, I find: It's about the young generation doing what their parents couldn't, but also building on the foundations that their parents left behind. You find that most obviously in the inheritance mechanics, but also with Seliph finding help from people (starting with Oifey and Shanan) repaying Sigurd's kindness, directly or indirectly. In general I liked that a lot (and I'm going to forget about any ghostly apparitions) - but Lewyn not just having an advisory role, but in effect dictating Seliph's strategy every step of the way - I think that undermines the theme of the young 'uns taking over responsibility. And that didn't even take into account that all this time, it wasn't Boomer Lewyn directing the liberation army, it was an Actual Deity Forseity, but...

...considering that I never liked text interpretations back at school, that has already been far more rambling about the story than I expected I would do. So, I'll just sum my thoughts on that up with "Seliph being told what to do by a dragon/deity only makes it worse" and move on the the gameplay...

...which I think averages out at "OK". I will say this: The size of Genealogy's maps wasn't nearly as big a deal to me as it's usually made out to be, and I say that despite complaining about "dead turns" in the previous games. It's also a small, but constant annoyance in Genealogy, but I don't think that the game stands out particularly much in that regard. Yes, maps are huge - but most of the time, so are movement ranges. It does impede non-mounted units a fair bit, but that can be somewhat alleviated with some foresight - don't move your footies all the way to Anphony, for example, when it's clear that the next target is going to be Mackily at the other side of the map. At other points, the Return/Warp slingshot help greatly.That is not to say that there aren't specific maps (or parts of maps) that are particularly annoying. The Spirit Forest back in Ch.1, or the entire northern half of Ch.4's map, for example. But overall, "maps too big 😞 😞 😞" seems to me like a rather overblown criticism of the game. 

What I would call the main failings of Genealogy are (1) it's mostly quite easy, which makes the myriad of optimisations one can do feel a bit pointless, and (2) the way a turn, and specifically an enemy phase will go is really random.

I don't think I have to elaborate on (1) too much. The very last chapter, while it did have more dangerous enemy formations in Ishtar's group or the Deadlords, also threw the Grauenritter at us which Dermott (or any half-decent Swordie) could solo with minimal support. And (2) is something that I brought up once in a while: Proc skills and imperfect hit rates tend to make individual rounds of combat very variable ("54% of the time, Lewyn kills this enemy every time.") and with the AI making inscrutable desicions on a turnly basis, it's anybody's guess how any given enemy phase will go.

I'm sure that a more diligent player (and one more willing to just lean on a small number of hard carries) can reduce, if not remove, most of the randomness - case in point, Dermott outnumbering the Grauenritter one to fourteen, with the only randomness being how many Brave Sword uses he'll save via crits. But assuming that I'm a somewhat average FE player, I think that for most, Genealogy tends more towards the left on a "Gambling <--> Strategise" scale.

What I did enjoy a lot were the eugenic optimisations one can do. There's a lot of directions one can take - simple minmaxing (Beo!Dermott comes to mind), stupid broken shit (Ch.6 Forseti, lolol), odd but viable builds (Mag-based Patty for ranged stealing (sorry about your Str, Faval)), funky skill combinations (Holyn x Ayra for ALL THE PROC SKILLS, or Lex x Taillte for Vantage-Wrath), or simple silliness (Arden x Taillte for Vantage-Wrath, minus the Paragon). But as I said, because Genealogy isn't all that difficult, planning this out felt a bit like playing Civilization on Chieftain difficulty: The meta plays and optimisations are still "good play"... but that good play doesn't translate into a good game when you end up shooting swordsmen with your rocket artillery.

Overall, I didn't have to write all this to decide that Genealogy goes into the B-tier.

But I'm less decided about its position relative to Radiant Dawn, which I put at the top of that tier at the start of this project. As far as the quality of their stories are concerned, I find that they're actually very similar: Both start very strong, but fall off eventually (*coughbloodpactcough*). For gameplay... I'd actually call Genealogy more interesting because of its inheritance mechanics providing a more long-term element. But of course, RD benefits greatly from the brilliant minds of BinBla's designers coming up with the concept of multiple difficulty settings - as much as I dislike the removal of QoL features that RD uses to "increase difficulty".

In the end, I think I'll go with the subjective "jank is more forgivable in old game" criterion and put Genealogy at the top of the B-tier. Flawed game, but still a good game, and definitely an improvement over Old Mystery.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, ping said:

OK, there's the eye-rolling part.

A throwaway greenification would you say?

Supposedly, not sure how true, the original idea was to park Arion stationary and in a non-blue/red color in front of Julius. -Except Altena can simply be not recruited/die, so then you'd be SOL, which leaves me to doubt the idea was ever true.

1 hour ago, ping said:

How unbefitting the Magical Master Manipulator.

Should've tried fleeing, only for his panicked Rewarp spell to misfire and he gets torn apart by naught but the distorted fabric of spacetime itself. -Or you can invent your own, better execution.😛

1 hour ago, ping said:

At the Belhalla end of the road, the Deadlords are slowly wittled down.

Fearing Meteor Meteor Rain, I think I sent Julia to solo the Deaddies. Even setting aside the Hel guy, I think not even with Naga was it all that safe for her😅, probably because the DLs are strong and Julia's HP ain't great, while her Def is still a "mere" 38 at best with Naga.

1 hour ago, ping said:

__

...who, in contrast, completely dunks on her twin brother. Good lord.

Heuga: I’m curious about Julia being the only character made to be overpowered against the final boss. You’d think that the legendary weapons and the protagonist would be even a little stronger against it.

Kaga’s comment: Julia is a human of course, but her role is similar to that of the Falchion in the previous games. It is still possible to defeat the final boss even without Julia, it’s just more troublesome (laughs). To tell the truth, Seliph’s arc reached its climax with the defeat of Arvis, so the Final Chapter is more like an extra addition.
Julia defeating Julius is not meant to come off as her defeating her brother, but more of her driving Loptyr out of her brother’s body. So, no matter how you look at it, it’s not wrong to say that Julia saved Julius. That’s why Julia is the one with the power to defeat Julius, and not anyone else.

Sharing.

1 hour ago, ping said:

So before we get into the epilogue - what about the final map itself? Well, the tail end of it is honestly quite good.

It's a grandiose buffet, of late 19th-early 20th century French haute cuisine to be precise. I'd think of it like that. Genealogy knows decorum, whatever its other flaws.

1 hour ago, ping said:

"And eventually get stabbed to death and burnt to a crisp, respectively." - They would deserve nothing less for their continued disrespect towards Ethlyn, honestly.

"Blood connections don't matter when they come from a woman, except when no male connection can serve the same general purpose."🤨

1 hour ago, ping said:

Me, a German, side-eyeing the wikipedia article on Hindenburg: "..."

I take it the guy's reputation later went down in flames?😛

1 hour ago, ping said:

He said the thing!

The Honoo no Monshou in this case, apparently, not the Faia Emuburemu as is usually the case for the franchise. Pretty irrelevant, but then what you've really been playing is Holy Sword Elm Kaiser/Sword Emblem, so ofc it's a last-minute add-on. Unless you count Arvis and Julius as being the nonliteral Fire Emblem, since it's the symbol of Velthomer. And for Kaga, he probably would've been happy having his husbando be the Fire Emblem.

1 hour ago, ping said:

Gasp!

I do have a little to say about this - obviously, since it's a rather big bomb to drop in the very last line of dialogue of the entire game - but I think I'll keep that in the overall opinion piece at the end.

Heuga: By the way, Lewyn was referred to as ‘Forseti of the Wind’ and had a strange air to him; so is he related to the dragons?

Kaga’s comment: This is actually one of my favourite themes, and I won’t give a definite answer. You can put the pieces you learn together in different ways depending on how you play the game. It might be that, in Seliph’s chapter, the dragonkind borrowed Lewyn’s consciousness for the moment; or, if Lewyn was killed in Sigurd’s chapter, the Lewyn that appears in Seliph’s chapter could be an actual dragon acting as his substitute.

And to provide a link to the entire interview.:

https://garmtranslations.wordpress.com/2019/02/13/fire-emblem-genealogy-of-the-holy-war-fan-special-roundtable-discussion/

1 hour ago, ping said:

God, even Sigurd and Deirdre are worse characters in gen2. It's been a thing with how Ares views Sigurd and Eldigan, but it's even more egregious here, how they literally become saints because... er, why exactly? Jamke's brothers were huge jerks, sure, but Sigurd arguably just swooped in, smashed the existing administration, and went on to more important castles to seize. While Deirdre... existed, I guess? I can buy that Verdanians might feel pride that Seliph, world saviour that he is, is half-Verdanian, but Deirdre honestly might be the least active character in all of gen1. She doesn't really do anything, things are done to her. The constant veneration of her seems rather unearned.

The academic standards for hagiography are different than the ones for historiography.😇

You seriously can't tell me that Sigurd didn't stop by a village that had been half-pillaged, and grabbed an axe and chopped one tree into enough ready-to-assemble timber beams and planks to rebuild an entire house that been destroyed in a single day. Nor, that Deirdre, seeing a month-old infant in the arms of their father whose wife had just been murdered, summoned a pacified she-wolf through her calm Naga-infused majesty, and so provided the toddler with a new source of milk.

1 hour ago, ping said:

But I'm less decided about its position relative to Radiant Dawn, which I put at the top of that tier at the start of this project. As far as the quality of their stories are concerned, I find that they're actually very similar: Both start very strong, but fall off eventually (*coughbloodpactcough*).

Blood Pact vs. Literally Half The Game. -I know I've a Tellius bias😜, but the BP occupies proportionally less time and thus, is less bad.

And, one could argue, that the BP exists to try creating a logical explanation for how an exhausted Daein gets forced into a continental war for the sake of triggering Part 4, and Mic vs. Ike in P3 too (let's not forget one of the first things shown of RD was Mic vs. Cain). Gen 2 Genealogy imploded for no good reason. 

-Disagree in every possible and some impossible ways if you will.😀

1 hour ago, ping said:

In the end, I think I'll go with the subjective "jank is more forgivable in old game" criterion and put Genealogy at the top of the B-tier. Flawed game, but still a good game, and definitely an improvement over Old Mystery.

If I could skip right to Gen 2 and reselect parents/inheritance, I might place FE4 over FE3. But without that replayability ease, Old Mystery is the 16-bit best FE, IMO.😛

---

Good luck with Thracia BTW!😃 I thought the reason for your seeming delay of ending Genealogy, was fearing what would follow.

[Shaky Jones]

Oh fuckin finally

 

6 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Blood Pact vs. Literally Half The Game

Arvis is so powerful that he not only succeeds in destroying the cast of gen 1, but also the story itself. Bravo Kaga.

 

Only good sections of part 2 are bits and pieces of the Thracia arc, and now we get to see what happens when Kaga actually focuses on gameplay when making a strategy game. 

Aka also cancer, but in a fun and engaging way. 

[Saint Rubenio]

2 hours ago, ping said:

- and because Meng has Pursuit, Adept, and Critical, she's actually quite likely to kill Fee instead.

There would have been a possibility to kill Meng: Fee would have to bring her low enough for Altena to one-shot with Gáe Bolg without dying (not easy because, well, Earth Sword, Pursuit, Adept, and Critical) - in which case Sharlow could've warped Altena over after colouring Arion green, Leylia's could've danced for her (because Altena would have to move towards Sharlow first), and I would have to hope that I'd still be able to fend/block off Ishtar's squad well enough.

Unfortunately, I didn't keep a save file from only a few turns earlier, so I decided to just replay the entire thing and see that I can bring a larger force to face Ishtar east of Freege (and maybe not allow any of the Pegasi an abusive position like that again).

So, there goes Edda again (this time without allowing too many characters to be slept, by just rushing the castle with Seliph)...

...and Dozel's troops get decimated basically the same way as before - Dermott with Seliph's aura, and Nanna plus whoever else might be nearby.

You've more patience than I do. I would've just let Fee die lmao

2 hours ago, ping said:

I'm happy to see Altena lay into Arion in this dialogue, although I think I would've preferred it without the "then strike me down" part, which has become a bit of a cliché with Sheeda's lesser clones. I think she could've gotten the same message across without it. "What do YOU want, Arion?! Kill me, your traitorous sister? Or do YOU want to die by my lance, to burden me with the crime of killing the man who is still my brother? What about your men? Whose hand do you want them to die by?! Travant... no, Father built a bridge for you to make peace with the liberation army and even with House Leonster. Do you want to destroy it so carelessly?"

...there I go writing fanfiction again.

Write away, I like it better than Caeda 2.

2 hours ago, ping said:

Meme line.

2 hours ago, ping said:

: "Indeed. Thracia yet hangs in the balance, and the people await my return."
: "Who better to lead the reconstruction of Thracia than a mighty war hero? Do your best for the youths of Thracia."

Me, a German, side-eyeing the wikipedia article on Hindenburg: "..."

The difference is that Hannibal is the most epic man in Thracia. I mean, who's the competition? Arion? Pfft.

2 hours ago, ping said:

Gay representation!

Not sure if this a rare edge case, a common bug, or something the translation patch messed up. So I'll just assume that this is canon and that Lester has a thing for moustaches.

I'm more interested in the fact that this man is apparently called Sigurd.

...Wait-- The eyes! I'd recognize them anywhere - He's the father of the constipated septuplets! What a twist!

2 hours ago, ping said:

The very last piece of the story is one final tour of Jugdral. Frankly - a bit superfluous, since we already had the characters talk things out, but here we are.

Well, there's one thing to note here.

2 hours ago, ping said:

That being Verdane. With no canon heirs, there wasn't a chance to acknowledge it in the previous scene.

2 hours ago, ping said:

God, even Sigurd and Deirdre are worse characters in gen2. It's been a thing with how Ares views Sigurd and Eldigan, but it's even more egregious here, how they literally become saints because... er, why exactly? Jamke's brothers were huge jerks, sure, but Sigurd arguably just swooped in, smashed the existing administration, and went on to more important castles to seize. While Deirdre... existed, I guess? I can buy that Verdanians might feel pride that Seliph, world saviour that he is, is half-Verdanian, but Deirdre honestly might be the least active character in all of gen1. She doesn't really do anything, things are done to her. The constant veneration of her seems rather unearned.

Let's not forget unlike Kaga that they establish King Batou had been the one to unite the wildlands of Verdane and turned them into a peaceful and decently prosperous land. Until Sandima got in his ear and manipulated him, but that can't have been public knowledge. As far as the populace is concerned, Verdane was finally a nice place to live, until that blue-haired Grannvalian arrived, murdered everyone and abandoned them to fall back into anarchy once more. Heck, Batou died right when Sigurd conquered his palace - he'd definitely be suspected of Batou's death by the common folk.

How in the world did all of this lead to Sigurd and his wife being revered by the Verdanites? It's actually hilarious how little Kaga cared about this place. But at least it got a cursory mention, unlike...

2 hours ago, ping said:

TL;DR: The divine right of kings is restored, and the correct people are in charge. In Verdane, the one place where the correct bloodline died out, anarchy obviously follows, until the Über-correct king comes and restores the natural order. Everybody cheers. All is well.

And Miletos broke away from the peninsula and sank beneath the waves. Nobody cared.

2 hours ago, ping said:

The guy feeding people to the giant spider in early Sacred Stones is a better villain than the entire Loptyr cult combined. He at least had fun.

Somewhere in the world, Novala is shedding tears of joy at the fact that someone actually remembered him. He truly has attained the fame and glory he had yearned for.

Well, that was fun. I'll tell Shaky he can return to the thread now. Next up is Thracia, my personal favorite of the Kaga FE era and also my favorite FE story depending on which day you ask me. On Wednesdays Lyon and his cadre carry Sacred Stones to the top. We'll see how you feel about it.

15 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Heuga: I’m curious about Julia being the only character made to be overpowered against the final boss. You’d think that the legendary weapons and the protagonist would be even a little stronger against it.

Kaga’s comment: Julia is a human of course, but her role is similar to that of the Falchion in the previous games. It is still possible to defeat the final boss even without Julia, it’s just more troublesome (laughs). To tell the truth, Seliph’s arc reached its climax with the defeat of Arvis, so the Final Chapter is more like an extra addition.
Julia defeating Julius is not meant to come off as her defeating her brother, but more of her driving Loptyr out of her brother’s body. So, no matter how you look at it, it’s not wrong to say that Julia saved Julius. That’s why Julia is the one with the power to defeat Julius, and not anyone else.

Sharing.

Kaga comparing Julia to a sword lmao. Class act as always.

4 minutes ago, Shaky Jones said:

Oh fuckin finally

Oh, there you are.

Edited May 1 by Saint Rubenio

[Jotari]

I wonder where Areone was hanging out before he appears on the map. He specifically says he doesn't live in Thracia anymore, but Thracia and the more recently liberate Miletos are the only things in that direction. He must have flown out east of Belhalla at turn 0 and just spent ages travelling south to flank Seliph from a position where no one is likely to be.

 

Lopt Sect = Bad. This is true. But, what's really shocking and kind of sad...they are, at least in my opinion, by far the best evil cult the series has done.

Gharnef is great by himself, but his larger support system is non existent beyond exp bags. We get no other named characters of his heretics, and the closest we do get, Ereimya, is just mind controlled.

The Duma Faithful are...alright. They don't really do anything though. And what Jedah does do with Celica is, controversial, to put it mildly. They're also literally summoning monsters and sacrificing their souls to Cthullu. And, like, the lopt sect may be ridiculously evil, but at least they're evil as humans. The Duma Faithful are almost literally becoming unhuman in their evil. Though I guess they get some style points. Alright, I'll call it a tie for them.

Elibe doesn't have any evil cult, unless you want to count Nergal and his morphs. Neither does Sacred Stones. Ping praises Novala, and I agree, he's a bit of fun (Sacred Stones bossmen=Good, as Ruben's next game shall demonstrate). But I think he's just a dark mage working with Riev who is mostly by himself in his inexplicable worship of satan.

Again no evil cults in Tellius (unless you want to count the senators, but they're more polticans than cultists despite their classes). We took a big break from them after Kaga left, huh? But then Awakening comes crashing back into bad evil cult territory with the Grimleal. Whose main goal is literally to get themselves all eaten by a dragon.

And then the worst of them all is the Agarthans in Three Houses. Because they are actually an interesting idea! They're not just crazy evil cultists for the sake of crazy evil cultists. Their a millennia old Illuminati style conspiracy cult with super science! That's fun, that's cool. But they're the worst because they just fuck it up entirely by doing absolutely nothing with them and making the bulk of their evil mostly pointless and just for the sake of having a completely morally black faction.

 

Uh...sorry, that might have been a bit off topic. Thank you for coming to my seminar on Fire Embelm's worst recurring trope and how the Lopt Sect are only bad in the absolute sense, and not the relative sense...

Edited May 1 by Jotari

[Saint Rubenio]

14 minutes ago, Jotari said:

But I think he's just a dark mage working with Riev who is mostly by himself in his inexplicable worship of satan.

You know, for how much Riev screams "Gharnef expy", when you really stop to think about it, beyond his superficial design and demeanor traits he doesn't have that many things in common with Gharnef, does he?

He's not a secret mastermind behind the scenes, instead just being an underling with more knowledge than the rest; he doesn't seem to have a cult at all, instead summoning monsters or gathering remnants of Grado's army to do his bidding; he's a light mage instead of a dark mage.

...Eh, he's a Gharnef expy but I like him nonetheless. He has a funny laugh and he uses light magic, which is cool and interesting.

[ping]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

How unbefitting the Magical Master Manipulator.

Should've tried fleeing, only for his panicked Rewarp spell to misfire and he gets torn apart by naught but the distorted fabric of spacetime itself. -Or you can invent your own, better execution.😛

Turns out that teleportation at will, alongside time travel or some degree of omniscience, can easily poke holes, nay, craters into most stories.

Maybe if the Book of Naga wasn't sealed away, so Manfroy was explicitly guarding it and saw that as more important than his own life. It would remove Julia's obligator excursion to Velthomer, but I didn't find that to be crucial to either plot or gameplay, anyway.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Kaga’s comment: Julia is a human of course, but her role is similar to that of the Falchion in the previous games. It is still possible to defeat the final boss even without Julia, it’s just more troublesome (laughs). To tell the truth, Seliph’s arc reached its climax with the defeat of Arvis, so the Final Chapter is more like an extra addition.
Julia defeating Julius is not meant to come off as her defeating her brother, but more of her driving Loptyr out of her brother’s body. So, no matter how you look at it, it’s not wrong to say that Julia saved Julius. That’s why Julia is the one with the power to defeat Julius, and not anyone else.

...BinBla did it better. At least that's my gut reaction - I've always maintained that I like Idoun as a final non-boss, it's only too bad about Jahn's Thousand Thrones as the real final fight. The pieces are different, of course, so this comparison is incredibly shaky.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I take it the guy's reputation later went down in flames?😛

Honestly, he would've been so lucky if that was the Bad Thing he (or his name) is remembered for.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Kaga’s comment: This is actually one of my favourite themes, and I won’t give a definite answer. You can put the pieces you learn together in different ways depending on how you play the game. It might be that, in Seliph’s chapter, the dragonkind borrowed Lewyn’s consciousness for the moment; or, if Lewyn was killed in Sigurd’s chapter, the Lewyn that appears in Seliph’s chapter could be an actual dragon acting as his substitute.

To be honest, I always read it as Lewyn dying at Belhalla and his corpse being revived and possessed by Forseti. It makes Lewyn a bit less awful as a person, too, since at least it's not him who is treating his children (in particular if they're Fee and Ced) like dirt for no reason.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Blood Pact vs. Literally Half The Game. -I know I've a Tellius bias😜, but the BP occupies proportionally less time and thus, is less bad.

And, one could argue, that the BP exists to try creating a logical explanation for how an exhausted Daein gets forced into a continental war for the sake of triggering Part 4, and Mic vs. Ike in P3 too (let's not forget one of the first things shown of RD was Mic vs. Cain). Gen 2 Genealogy imploded for no good reason. 

-Disagree in every possible and some impossible ways if you will.😀

That's the thing, though - virtually all of P3 rests on the awfulness that is the Blood Pact, so it's hard for me to see anything that happens as separate from it. Miccy vs. Ike for good reasons maybe could've been cool, but Miccy vs. Ike because Pelleas didn't read the small print is something I can't care for. By contrast, Seliph's story is just... not good. I can't say I prefer one over the other, I just find them bad in different ways.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

You've more patience than I do. I would've just let Fee die lmao

Let's say we have patience for different things. Reminder that you made a hack of Binding Blade.

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

The difference is that Hannibal is the most epic man in Thracia. I mean, who's the competition? Arion? Pfft.

Ah, but does Hannibal have an exploding Zeppelin named after him?

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

I'm more interested in the fact that this man is apparently called Sigurd.

...Wait-- The eyes! I'd recognize them anywhere - He's the father of the constipated septuplets! What a twist!

My guess would be that Sigurd is the first name in a list, and because this line was created without Lester having a girlfriend, the game just defaulted to that.

The portrait is the vendor guy in the castle, by the way - no idea why he would be portrait #1, though.

2 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

And Miletos broke away from the peninsula and sank beneath the waves. Nobody cared.

Why would they? They don't even have kings.

(More fuel for my opinion that ch.10 should've taken place in and around the border triangle between Grannvale, Agustria, and Verdane)

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I wonder where Areone was hanging out before he appears on the map. He specifically says he doesn't live in Thracia anymore, but Thracia and the more recently liberate Miletos are the only things in that direction. He must have flown out east of Belhalla at turn 0 and just spent ages travelling south to flank Seliph from a position where no one is likely to be.

Kaga did PoR!Haar first!

(for anybody who doesn't remember - taking forever to create a flank/pincer against Ike's forces is how he appears on that game's bridge map)

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Lopt Sect = Bad. This is true. But, what's really shocking and kind of sad...they are, at least in my opinion, by far the best evil cult the series has done.

Gharnef is great by himself, but his larger support system is non existent beyond exp bags. We get no other named characters of his heretics, and the closest we do get, Ereimya, is just mind controlled.

The Duma Faithful are...alright. They don't really do anything though. And what Jedah does do with Celica is, controversial, to put it mildly. They're also literally summoning monsters and sacrificing their souls to Cthullu. And, like, the lopt sect may be ridiculously evil, but at least they're evil as humans. The Duma Faithful are almost literally becoming unhuman in their evil. Though I guess they get some style points. Alright, I'll call it a tie for them.

Elibe doesn't have any evil cult, unless you want to count Nergal and his morphs. Neither does Sacred Stones. Ping praises Novala, and I agree, he's a bit of fun (Sacred Stones bossmen=Good, as Ruben's next game shall demonstrate). But I think he's just a dark mage working with Riev who is mostly by himself in his inexplicable worship of satan.

Again no evil cults in Tellius (unless you want to count the senators, but they're more polticans than cultists despite their classes). We took a big break from them after Kaga left, huh? But then Awakening comes crashing back into bad evil cult territory with the Grimleal. Whose main goal is literally to get themselves all eaten by a dragon.

And then the worst of them all is the Agarthans in Three Houses. Because they are actually an interesting idea! They're not just crazy evil cultists for the sake of crazy evil cultists. Their a millennia old Illuminati style conspiracy cult with super science! That's fun, that's cool. But they're the worst because they just fuck it up entirely by doing absolutely nothing with them and making the bulk of their evil mostly pointless and just for the sake of having a completely morally black faction.

 

Uh...sorry, that might have been a bit off topic. Thank you for coming to my seminar on Fire Embelm's worst recurring trope and how the Lopt Sect are only bad in the absolute sense, and not the relative sense...

No worries about the tangent. It's rather solid evidence that "Evil guys who do evil things, evilly, because they're evil evil-doers" really isn't a concept that carries very far. Genealogy makes this very half-hearted attempt of giving them depth by making them a prosecuted minority, but if a minority is prosecuted because they literally murder children, that doesn't help.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

18 minutes ago, ping said:

That's the thing, though - virtually all of P3 rests on the awfulness that is the Blood Pact, so it's hard for me to see anything that happens as separate from it.

You've NEVER started writing, only days later, to hit a certain roadblock? -When you REALLY want to include Idea A, but, upon pages and pages of detail, come to the realization that you're struggling to see a "natural, reasonable" way of reconciling Idea A with Ideas B and C?

You do see that you might be able to make B and C work, if you amended them, which sounds reasonable. But then, you think "if I change B and C in such & such a way, I'll need to make 50 other fine adjustments", all of which in turn will need to be checked against each other as well as A, B, C, and everything else to assure logical coherence.

And, witnessing the immensity of the challenge of retaining A yet STUBBORNLY refusing to drop it, finding the pleasure of writing having reversed into a real headache, you throw your hands up in the air and forsake your solemn insistence on "naturalness" and exclaim the artificiality of all creative fiction. Then, to bury your frustration in a shallow grave, you write "A unicorn did it!", or whatever utter awful nonsense it is that others will come harpoon you for, but they do not understand the Sisyphean hell you were desperate to escape from.

*COUGH!*😝

...Well, I disagree that it's all of Part 3. Five out of the first six chapters are basically unaffected by the Blood Pact (and if Kilvas simply hadn't joined in the first place, it P3 would be pretty much the same as Naesala's factual BP-induced betrayal). The lava caves, the two Crimea-related chapters, neither is really affected by the BP. 3-2, 3-6, 7, 11-F are all BP-heavy; that's 7/15, only half. Although, it just so happens 4 of the 6 are the last chapters of Part 3, and necessary to trigger Part 4.

[Saint Rubenio]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Honestly I feel like Riev doesn't even do anything at all. He basically stands around looking menacing and then you fight him twice near the end where it's a moment of "Oh yeah, that guy's still alive." Like, correct me if I'm wrong, but he actually has zero connection to Lyon's experiments or corruption and stuff. That's all Knoll's territory. Lyon just got corrupt all on his own and Riev basically just showed up afterwards to do the Demon King's bidding, being lucky enough to be the one crazy satanist worshipper who happens to be alive at the same time his god is actually returning by sheer happenstance. Not saying it be necessarily better if Riev was the man behind it all, it's good that Lyon is corrupted via his own ambition and naivety rather than some obviously untrustworthy guy telling him to do something obviously shady. But it does leave Riev largely without a role or purpose in the plot other than to be basically Xemcel (I do wish Xemcel got to stand around looking menacing earlier in Shadow Dragon though).

Riev is by far the best bonus unit though. A staffs+slayer+defense better than Moulder = a monster's worst nightmare.

Responding to this here because this is where it's supposed to be.

Yeah, that's what I meant when I said he's just an underling that knows more. Beyond knowing more he's basically just another general on the same level as Caellach and Valter. Perhaps he was meant to be a sort of red herring - you take one look at him and go "it's him, he's the guy behind everything", but then it turns out he's just coincidental and it was all Lyon, all the way.

54 minutes ago, ping said:

Let's say we have patience for different things. Reminder that you made a hack of Binding Blade.

Hah! Fair enough. That truly was an ordeal.

54 minutes ago, ping said:

Ah, but does Hannibal have an exploding Zeppelin named after him?

No, but he does have an icon of horror media named after him.

54 minutes ago, ping said:

That's the thing, though - virtually all of P3 rests on the awfulness that is the Blood Pact, so it's hard for me to see anything that happens as separate from it. Miccy vs. Ike for good reasons maybe could've been cool, but Miccy vs. Ike because Pelleas didn't read the small print is something I can't care for. By contrast, Seliph's story is just... not good. I can't say I prefer one over the other, I just find them bad in different ways.

You hate part 3 because of the blood pact.

I hate part 3 because Ike is extremely boring and his stats are too good and he ruins the game.

We are not the same.

(For what it's worth, I can't hate the blood pact as much because I fucking love Pelleas's role in part 3 - though it could've still been made to work with a mcguffin more graceful than the blood pact, so eh)

Edited May 1 by Saint Rubenio

[BrightBow]

8 hours ago, ping said:

: "Oh, heirs to the courageous! Hear my ode to the crusaders of old.

O Black Knight Hezul, Mystletainn the demonic in hand, smite the devil
O Sword Saint Odo, Balmung the divine in hand, repel the blight
O Holy Knight Baldur, Tyrfing the sacred in hand, shine a light
And at last, O Saint Heim, Book of Naga in hand, pray to the heavens above

This is either a work in progress or the guy just really likes swords. Also nice D&D reference about demons and devils hating each other.

 

8 hours ago, ping said:

Prayer begets light, Light begets the white dragon
Foe of the shadow dragon
Black and white
Light and dark
An eternal struggle

So is he just trying to sound poetic or does he actually know about the dragons? I thought people weren't aware of that.
 

8 hours ago, ping said:

What an idiot. He didn't say anything particularly eye-rolling here, I just wanted to reiterate.

Some things are just worth saying every now and then.
 

8 hours ago, ping said:

: "So Seliph fights for justice, and I somehow do not? Is that what you're trying to say..."

Well, the guy who mass kidnaps children with the intent to have them kill each other and turn the survivors into his personal champions considers you a homie for some reason.
 

9 hours ago, ping said:

: "Very well, Arion... If you won't see reason, so be it. Come on. Kill me. End this. My... my life is in your hands, Arion. ...I die with no regrets."

Altena would rather die than put up with any more of Arione's bullshit. Understandable.
 

9 hours ago, ping said:

...he's not wrong. The combination of Loptyr's Atk-having effect and Nihil circumventing any crit potential means that even holy weapon wielders struggle to deal meaningful damage to Julius. Even Altena, who thanks to Gáe Bolg's Str bonus reaches 67 Atk normally, would only deal 8 dmg (33 - 25) to Julius... and get horribly slaughtered in return, since Julius doubles her for 2x42 damage.

Yet Celice still is the one who deals the finishing blow in one of the demo scenes.

Not that they show any juicy lore or anything, but they are still quite difficult to unlock.

Well, it does show Levin getting killed by Manfroy before being "resurrected" by Holsety. So it backs up the idea that Levin really did die at some point.

[Revier]

12 hours ago, ping said:

You certainly cannot accuse Genealogy of pretending, at any point, that its overarching conflict has any shades of grey in it.

Yeah, Genealogy has some weird hatred for nuance, which hurts some of its own plot points considerably.

12 hours ago, ping said:

: "We have no home to return to, men... But we must keep going nonetheless. Chalphy's fall to our blades shall be the first step to winning back our fatherland. Now, move in! Show these liberators one final defiance from the dracoknights of Thracia!"

Yet another victim of the Camus archetype. It washes your brain in bad ways, I swear.

12 hours ago, ping said:

I'm happy to see Altena lay into Arion in this dialogue, although I think I would've preferred it without the "then strike me down" part, which has become a bit of a cliché with Sheeda's lesser clones.

Yeah, it's good to see a Camus called out, even if the melodrama is a bit over the top.

12 hours ago, ping said:

But the second really is that she doesn't really show much reason why we should feel bad for her. We're told that she's actually really nice by Tinni; we learn that she secretly saves children all the time - but on-screen, she generally just goes along with whatever Julius is doing. It would've been nice had she shown at least a little discomfort when Julius is deriving too much pleasure from death, pain, fear, and sorrow.

Yeah, prime example of why writing needs to show more than tell. Telling things can still be fine when you don't need detail, but none of Ishtar's "actually a good gal despite being literally Satan's girlfriend" bits actually land, since we're only told of them.

12 hours ago, ping said:

However, this does activate the Deadlords - or maybe they start moving because Velthomer is seized. A mixed blessing - they're more difficult to approach when they move (since they tend to be really dangerous to fight on their terms), but they do move away from Julius's Meteor range.

__

Unfortunately, miscounting tiles leads to two more resets...

__

...and overreliance on Forseti to a third. Brave Sword and Killer Bow do have some extra accuracy, and Arthur had no +avo in addition to the forest. OH WELL

I'm conflicted on the Deadlords. On one hand, these are finally enemies worthy of your overpowered holy weapons. On the other, their power is so overwhelming by necessity that they basically invalidate everyone who isn't Seliph, a holy sword wielder, Julia with Naga, or a healer. I don't see a good way to solve this, while later games chose to "fix" the situation by making holy weapons come extremely late and giving them ridiculously high weight, that just comes off as much less interesting, as it doesn't give much opportunity for them to feel relevant, and undermines the hype around them.

Maybe everyone just needs to be as strong as Seliph, lmao.

12 hours ago, ping said:

But first, more arenaing. Julia rejoins only at Lv.25 - unacceptable! With the Paragon band, she gets to Lv.29 by the end of her run.

One of the funniest things you can do with Naga is use it to completely annihilate the Arena. The mental image of random gladiatorial fighters getting smushed by a legendary holy dragon is just too ridiculous to not laugh at.

12 hours ago, ping said:

Manfroy might well be the worst ally ever. He couldn't even protect the object of his worship himself!

13 hours ago, ping said:

But let's get to the epilogue. We'll be here for a while.

The boring part where the good guys get all of their lands.

Review: pretty much agreed on everything, good work with it. I just wonder how angry Shaky Jones is going to get over your top of B rating for this game. 😆

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

13 hours ago, ping said:

Starting the final update with a big reset: I've moved myself into a corner here, with Fee allowing Meng to attack her from outside anybody else's range. Because Meng has Nihil, Fee can't fish for a Brave Lance crit -

SMH, why didn't you just set a Shine Barrier on the space that Oifey (Ares?) is currently occupying? Git gud.

Having to replay the whole chapter? That's rough, buddy.

13 hours ago, ping said:

: "We have no home to return to, men... But we must keep going nonetheless. Chalphy's fall to our blades shall be the first step to winning back our fatherland. Now, move in! Show these liberators one final defiance from the dracoknights of Thracia!"

Or you could just. Y'know. Go back and reconquer Castle Thracia. It's not as though Seliph left anybody competent guarding it.

13 hours ago, ping said:

: "My liege concealed the key within his most treasured memento... The circlet once worn by Empress Deirdre. If we can find that circlet, sir, then the Book of Naga is yours."
: "Certainly was nice of Manfroy to let Julia keep the Circlet, rather than leave it with Julius or simply destroy it, huh..."

WTF I love Gen II Lewyn now-

13 hours ago, ping said:

Unfortunately, miscounting tiles leads to two more resets...

If we've learned anything, it's that Road Tiles are the best, and worst, part of Jugdral.

13 hours ago, ping said:

If you wanted to plan a playthrough accordingly, I suppose Alec!Faval would be the best option to increase your damage per turn against Julius, since like Altena, he gets another +10 Str / +5 dmg vs Julius from his holy weapon. The other physical holy weapon wielders don't have variable dads.

Nihil stonks coming in clutch!

Interestingly, I always viewed Alec as better for Patty, because Pursuit. And Swords. But this is a considerable advantage for Faval. Maybe I neglected Briggid × Alec?

14 hours ago, ping said:

And indeed, the whole team is standing in the outskirts of Belhalla. Poor lonely Faval, up there in the corner...

It's a shame - between this moment, and the reclamation of Chalphy at the end of chapter 10, Seliph never gets to give his "Prince's Homecoming" speech. The sort that Marth, Ephraim, and Dimitri all got to deliver.

...Actually, this ending is very similar to the way PoR handles it. With Ike seeing all his guests off.

14 hours ago, ping said:

"And eventually get stabbed to death and burnt to a crisp, respectively." - They would deserve nothing less for their continued disrespect towards Ethlyn, honestly.

If there is any justice in the world, at least one of Leif and Nanna's children will have pink hair. It just skipped a generation.

14 hours ago, ping said:

Gay representation!

Not sure if this a rare edge case, a common bug, or something the translation patch messed up. So I'll just assume that this is canon and that Lester has a thing for moustaches

Best ending for Lester. And more evidence that our army is way bigger than 24 people. Mustache Sigurd has been doing hard work in the background!

14 hours ago, ping said:

: "I beg your forgiveness, Lord Faval. The task which now lies before you is the most painful of all."
: "No, sir. I'm all that's left of House Velthomer, and it's my duty alone to atone for the many crimes of my kin. I know that's what my father, Lord Azel, would want as well."
: "Wait a second, why are you leading House Velthomer? You inherited the Yewfelle, right? Jungby's treasure? And you can't even use magic! Patty, if nothing else, can use the Flame Sword."

: "See, we drew lots, and Patty got the old manse. And this way, she doesn't have to worry about getting ambushed by any long-lost children of Arvis who may arise..."

I still feel like the inheritance ought to be swapped. But hey, at least Patty got her own house! Girl power!

14 hours ago, ping said:

: "But of course. We'll be with you every step of the way."

...that's all? Gosh, Seliph is even worse at smooth-talk than Marth.

Thinking on it, Tinny will almost always inherit House Freege. Because Arthur is busy inheriting Silesse... or Velthomer... or Dozel... or Edda...

14 hours ago, ping said:

: "Your father was Lord Lex, correct? I'm sue the people of Dozel eagerly await your return, Ulster."
: "The likes of Langbalt and Dannan have tormented the people and stained House Dozel's good name for too long. Now that my father is gone, it falls to me to heal the state's wounds."
: "Mm. I entrust Dozel's welfare to you. I pray you'll be able to lend me your might in the years to come."
: "Yes, Lord Seliph!"

Like with Dermott, Seliph really should know who his childhood friends' parents are or were. But in Ulster's case, this is just the generic "Lex's son" text, so I can't mind this too much.

See, this is the best aspect of Lex x Sylvia. Imagine this whole conversation, but with Coirpre taking Scathach's place. Grannvale's toughest house, led by a cute blonde tweenage Priest.

14 hours ago, ping said:

FUCK OFF.

Wait, they like "Lewyn" now? I thought the whole point was his kids berating him for being a deadbeat dad and general jerkass! At least that way was entertaining, and gave some pathos. This way is... bleh. Sickeningly saccarine.

All my homies hate Gen II Lewyn.

14 hours ago, ping said:

...until the final rankings are listed. As well as evidence for my very liberal usage of the speed-up button, I assume. To go through the four individual ranks:

These rankimgs are quite solid! Especially for someone not angling for a "ranked run". Don't sell yourself short - IMO B-rank is above the "average" player. I believe your turncount is actually better than anything I've ever accomplished. My last run (all subs) was 444 turns. And, coincidentally, ended with B, B, A, and C. Except, I got an A in Experience, and B in Survival (Asaello died to the Weißenritter and I didn't bother resetting LOL).

14 hours ago, ping said:

Me, a German, side-eyeing the wikipedia article on Hindenburg: "..."

Don't worry, I heard that Franz von Papen will keep this "Hilter" fellow in check. And I've played enough Sacred Stones to know that Franz is a standup guy.

10 hours ago, ping said:

Kaga did PoR!Haar first!

Oh boy, I can't wait for Arion to return in the next game as a high-availability pre-promote with no weakness to bows or ballistae!

11 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

He's not a secret mastermind behind the scenes, instead just being an underling with more knowledge than the rest; he doesn't seem to have a cult at all, instead summoning monsters or gathering remnants of Grado's army to do his bidding; he's a light mage instead of a dark mage.

...I thought I remembered reading somewhere that Riev had influenced Lyon to experiment on Grado's Sacred Stone. Thus creating the Dark Stone, and reviving the Demon Lord.

Then again, maybe this was somebody fanficcing all over the fan wiki. It might've really just been an unhappy coincidence.

9 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

For what it's worth, I can't hate the blood pact as much because I fucking love Pelleas's role in part 3 - though it could've still been made to work with a mcguffin more graceful than the blood pact, so eh)

Just make Daein materially dependent on reparations from Begnion. For a year, it was offered freely by the Apostle. But following the Senate's palace coup, Lekain puts strings on it. Fight the Laguz Alliance, or your people starve. Neither war-shaken Crimea, nor the dispossessed Apostle, can provide the same resources. It's the same endpoint, but with less magical mumbo-jumbo.

9 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Five out of the first six chapters are basically unaffected by the Blood Pact (and if Kilvas simply hadn't joined in the first place, it P3 would be pretty much the same as Naesala's factual BP-induced betrayal).

TBH it's kinda funny that Naesala's betrayal doesn't actually... do anything. It doesn't actually halt the Laguz Emancipation Army's forward momentum. That happens with Skrimir's one-on-one loss to Zelgius, following the (successful) crossing of the Ribahn River (tributary of the mighty Miscale). Since Skrimir is an idiot, that still would've happened with Naesala on his side. All it meant was a bunch of dead hawks offscreen.