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fade5 posted:
Even better, Alm's party gets a five-use revival shrine later on as well.
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Apr 14, 2014 02:58
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Why's Jenny's big item icon green instead of white? Is it because she's got the dark sword?
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Apr 14, 2014 04:32
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Wounded Land posted:Why's Jenny's big item icon green instead of white? Is it because she's got the dark sword? Yeah I had her holding onto it in case I needed some extra punch from Jesse. Basically that coloration means she can't actually use the item she's holding.
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Apr 14, 2014 07:32
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That is an awful lot of revival. Is this customary for early Fire Emblem, or are they trying something new?
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Apr 17, 2014 01:34
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Glazius posted:That is an awful lot of revival. Is this customary for early Fire Emblem, or are they trying something new? I'm pretty sure you could only revive a character once in both 1 and 3 (using the Aum Staff, itself locked to a single character). Gaiden is just really weird, lots of mechanics are absolutely unique in the franchise, and some were entirely ignored until far later games (Sacred Stones brought some of the good mechanics back). That equipment system and the magic is so different from the usual, and some of the equipment looks so broken (doubling level gains, wow). Honestly, I can't help but wonder how the franchise would've been if it decided this was the right way to go.
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Apr 17, 2014 02:12
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Blaze Dragon posted:Honestly, I can't help but wonder how the franchise would've been if it decided this was the right way to go. You've played Awakening, haven't you?  But I do agree that Gaiden certainly stands out from the rest. I just don't have the patience to play through it myself.
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Apr 17, 2014 02:53
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The revival shrines are also a way to let you swap members between the two groups.
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Apr 17, 2014 05:34
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Hmnaftall posted:The revival shrines are also a way to let you swap members between the two groups. Yea I'll try and show that off when Alm gets to his shrine. Most of the polls are pretty well decided, but Leo's fate is a tie! Should he become a Sniper, or wait? I'm leaning towards promoting him so that we might see some of the third-tier promotions before the end of the game.
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Apr 18, 2014 02:29
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Sniper now!
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Apr 18, 2014 02:32
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All right, voting closed so I can hopefully update tomorrow. Saber and Leo promote into our first home-grown second tier units, while Kamui and Jesse have to work a little harder. And Atlas becomes a Cavalier for some much-needed mobility.
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Apr 19, 2014 22:04
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Chapter 3, Part 14: Northern Forest First, some leftover business from last time.   Saber and Leo get their promotions. Kamui and Jesse will have to wait.   With the extra Speed, Saber doesn't really have any weaknesses left. Leo gets a sizeable HP boost and a bit more Speed as well.   Atlas becomes a Cavalier, gaining some Speed but more importantly a ton of mobility. He actually has the third-highest Power in the army, too.  But they're not who we're here to see today.  Alm's stuck with a re-used map from the first chapter, and lots of ranged attackers. We're allowed to use the entire army this time, but Robin/Gray/Luka are pretty useless at this point so won't actually see any action.   The witches and snipers are nothing new, but potentially dangerous en masse.  The boss here is another Bow Knight. Good thing we already fought one, or I would've been surprised by the natural 5 range in a battle that has far less cover or room for error.   The first time around, I rushed forward to try and hold the bridge. Trying to hold a chokepoint against an army exclusively made up of ranged attackers is a bad idea, and Matilda suffered for my hubris. Although I never would've picked up on the romantic sub-plot between her and Cleive, otherwise. I had considered just letting her die, since in a few more battles she'll be able to revive, but the poor strategy bothered me enough to re-do the battle. Turn 1  Cleive is deliberately positioned to draw out the sniper to its maximum range. The witch will follow as well.  The enemy army charges, but is spread out enough that we can mostly handle it in waves. Turn 2   Alm's strong enough now that he can take out a sniper in just two attacks.  He gets a weird level out of it, but more Defense is at least useful.   Matilda and Python take care of the lead witch.  Witches are worth a lot of XP, and Python get a pretty good level out of it.  Cleive could block the bridge, but I made that mistake last time. It actually works out better to let the archers through, so that the back ranks of our army can work on them while the top units go after the bow knight boss.   Of course, that leaves us open to some attacks, but they would mostly have happened anyway. Turn 3  Three archers are exposed to our army instead of just one. Also key - the bow knight is right next to the bridge. Last time he was further to the right, hiding in a tree and very difficult to hit.   Ryuto takes out the lead archer with two shots of Excalibur.   Alm clears off the bridge.   Cliff is fast enough to double-attack the bow knight, and tough enough to not take much damage from it. He ends up dodging the counterattack and getting a crit on his second attack.  Not a great level, but as we saw with Saber, Cliff's Speed will fix itself at promotion time.   Cleive takes the opportunity to cross the river and finish off the bow knight. He's also still just out of the witch's range, assuming she doesn't teleport.  Same level as Cliff.   Python and Claire take out another archer, and our side of the river is clear.  Both snipers hide in the trees, taking shots at Alm and Cleive, but it's really just mop-up from here. Turn 4  Alm fords the river for an attack on the sniper. Despite the forest he lands both shots for the kill. (Alm and the mercenaries are the only non-fliers that can cross the river, but it takes 4 movement to do so.)  Ryuto steps up to wipe out the last remaining archer.  Cleive and Cliff team up on the last sniper, but between the two of them only land one of their four attacks.   Matilda and Claire take care of the witch, who never even got to attack in this battle.  Just the one sniper left, and he can't do much on his own. Turn 5  This image is not a mistake. Silk still had 99 XP from the shrine, so I wanted her to at least get the 1 XP needed to level. She's actually fast enough to avoid double-attacks here, and only takes 8 damage.  Alm's healer is faster than most of his army.  Claire ends the battle.  She gets the same level as Silk.  Back on the world map, a small group of paladins forms up to go after Celica. They won't have a chance to leave, though, because Celica's storming Mila's Temple next.
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Apr 27, 2014 20:55
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It's so weird seeing you field a Peg. Knight on a map with that many archers. I know archers work differently in this game, but I still cringed. Also, having enemies that can teleport is just way too cheap. In a game where you depend on having all the information to position your army so that no one gets ganked, having a teleporting enemy just throws everything off. It's really not fair. Though I suppose with those revival shrines it's not as big of a deal... Are you sure this is a Fire Emblem game? 
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Apr 29, 2014 12:17
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Silver Falcon posted:It's so weird seeing you field a Peg. Knight on a map with that many archers. I know archers work differently in this game, but I still cringed. DKII posted:
  For comparison, Saber's now a little bit stronger than Hector Hard mode Raven. That is not an insult, HHM Raven is insanely good, and given how low the growth rates are in this game, having stats comparable to Raven pretty much makes you a god incarnate. 
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Apr 29, 2014 17:02
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fade5 posted:It's also weird seeing a Pegasus knight with such high Strength and low Speed. That's like the opposite of every other Pegasus Knight in the series. Her last level she finally gained Speed for the first time in seven levels (40% growth rate, very unlucky). She had gained Power in five of her first six levels somehow (30% growth rate, very lucky). So it's more the low growth rates producing more anomalies than her being set up atypically I think. (Her highest growths are Skill/Luck at 50%, followed by Speed at 40% - all pretty high for this game.) The real problem is always going to be her Defense (10% growth rate) - she's hit it once in seven levels which is actually above average, and it's still terrible at 5. What's weird is that the Pegasus Knight class supposedly has a base Defense of 7, but none of ours start that high. At least her promotion will help (ups it to 12). Plus - there are still ways to come to fix some stat deficiencies....
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Apr 30, 2014 03:10
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Have you ever used the top half of that map with a river? It seems like it's designed for you to use that chokepoint.
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May 7, 2014 02:46
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Glazius posted:Have you ever used the top half of that map with a river? It seems like it's designed for you to use that chokepoint. The first time around I couldn't get to it before the enemy crossed. This time I tried to use it and got wrecked by all the archers and had to reset. It was still useful to funnel the enemies in at a slower rate.
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May 8, 2014 15:19
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Chapter 3, Part 15: Mila's Temple Time to wrap up Celica's half of Chapter 3. This update contains two and a half hours of recording but it shouldn't be too long in screenshot form.   Mila's Temple is guarded by Mikhail, supplemented by a small random force of paladins. Celica's army is pretty overpowered at this point, thanks to the Angel Ring, so we shouldn't have too much trouble.  The map is kind of a slog. We have to send the army up the stairs and through the forest to reach the temple entrace - the door is just for show, there's no way to open it. The sniper by the door will attack us from inside, but between our mages and our pegasus knights he'll be easy to take out. The three paladins start at the front of the temple and will charge us first. Then it's just a matter of picking off the mages while protecting our units that don't have much Magic Defense.    Might be the most Celica has said all game.  Mikhail is a pretty creepy-looking shaman. He has the two familiar spells by now, and boasts a 24 magic attack with that Slime spell. His flavor of Messiah will summon 1-8 gargoyles for just 4 HP, which can actually be pretty dangerous at the wrong time with our initial movement hindered by the forest. The other enemies are all level 1 promoted units and nothing special at this point so let's get started. Turns 1-2  While the rest of the army charges up the stairs, the pegasus knights are positioned to draw out two of the paladins at the end of the second turn.  The first paladin misses, the second here connects for 5 damage. Catria misses half of her four attacks, though. Turn 3  Leo starts off the turn by softening up the enemy sniper for 10 damage.  Palla finishes off the weakened paladin from last turn, while Catria flies back to pick up the Angel Ring.  Starting to move through the forest, now.  The sniper goes after Leo but doesn't get much out of it, missing his second attack. Leo also missed on the counterattack.  The second paladin attacks Palla from the forest, so she misses both of her attacks. Not a problem, though - the paladin is now in reach of the rest of the army. Turn 4  First, another 10 damage to the enemy sniper.   Sonia weakens the nearby paladin further, allowing Catria to get the kill.  And the pegasus knight gets even stronger. She's up to a natural 15% crit rate, now (14 base Luck).  May wraps up the turn by blowing away the sniper.  Palla is positioned to draw out the final paladin. The lead elements of the army are about ready to break out of the forest, finally, too.  She delivers two devastating counterattacks. Turn 5  And she finishes the job to start the next turn. Less damage here since I put the Angel Ring on her, but she didn't get quite enough for a level.  I was overly cautious about approaching the temple entrance here. Those pillars cost everyone 2 movement - even pegasus knights, something unique to the series I think. Horse-riders such as Atlas (the new cavalier) can't cross those tiles at all so he won't even be able to enter the temple.  I wasn't really cautious enough at the back end of the army, leaving Kamui - with all of two Magic Defense points - in front of the door, exposed to the wizard. Fortunately, the wizard missed and only got one shot. Turn 6   Palla and Est lead the charge into the wizards. Est has 12 Magic Defense so she'll be fine even if swarmed. Palla is a bit more vulnerable but since she's holding the Angel Ring, the enemy wizards should have about a 25% hit rate.  So of course the first time around she got hit four straight times and then finished off by the sniper.  Not one to be deterred, I use the exact same setup again, with better results on the enemy phase this time.  Also Boey threw some lightning at the wizard by the door just for the hell of it.  Meanwhile, Palla dodges two out of three wizard attacks this time, leaving plenty of HP to fend off the sniper.  Palla and Catria are in Saber-good territory now. Turn 7  With most of the current front line not in much danger from the wizards, the priority this turn is to get to the sniper while tearing into the wizards as much as possible. To that end, Sonia slices apart the weakened wizard from last turn with Excalibur.  She shores up her one weakness, not that she should be getting hit all that often anyway.   Saber sees his first action as a Myrmidon, blowing away another wizard with a crit.   May singes the sniper with a fireball but is too slow for two attacks. Leo follows up with an attack to bring the sniper down to 7 HP.   Thanks to the pillars slowing down Catria, she can't actually reach the sniper. She settles for wrecking another wizard.   Est could reach the sniper, but would need to get lucky and land both of her attacks in order to kill it - the pillars also grant a 30% evasion bonus. Instead she softens up another wizard.  The floating pointing hand is Jenny topping off Sonia's HP from afar using her new Physic spell.  Catria's not nearly as vulnerable to the swarm tactics as Palla was. Of course there's a few less wizards, too. The sniper and the other wizard forgo attacking in favor of cowering on a pillar. Turn 8   After setting up a short relay with the Angel Ring (Sonia-Catria-Est), another wizard falls, this time to Est.  Est will be following the more traditional Pegasus Knight leveling guide, it seems. (ie: Lots of Skill/Speed/Luck and not much else.)  - Chapter 3 Part 15 Battle 1.gif) Our new myrmidon in action. His XP gains have much improved since promoting.   After Leo misses twice, May lands a pair of lightning bolts and Palla returns to battle to get the kill.  Mikhail and the last wizard continue to sit uselessly inside the temple. And we're through the first hour of video. On a side note, remind me to never ever ever attempt a video LP of a Fire Emblem game. Turn 9  I put Sonia out in front to draw in the last wizard. Mikhail doesn't seem inclined to move. Or do much of anything, really. In any case, Sonia dodges and then brings the wizard down to 2 HP. Turn 10  An easy kill for Celica, after getting her the Angel Ring.  She gets a decent level out of it, picking up more Speed. Just Mikhail himself left now.  I wanted to see how much damage Mikhail would actually do even through Sonia's high Magic Defense. Needless to say I backed out of this result.  Instead she stays out of range and pulls off a critical lightning bolt for 24 damage and 29 XP - the highest amount of XP I've seen for a non-kill. Turn 11  Two more lightning bolts push Mikhail down to just 2 HP, netting her another 20 XP. I could just end the battle here, but where would be the fun in that?  Mikhail takes his first action of the battle, moving one tile north to the recovery tile. He was already magically healing every turn anyway so this move doesn't really buy him anything. Turns 12+  And finally Mikhail uses his Messiah spell, summoning seven gargoyles for us to play with. It's somewhat of a challenge for me to efficiently kill all the gargoyles each turn before they can act and/or new ones are summoned, while making sure that Jenny doesn't get swarmed. But it wouldn't be very interesting to see 25+ turns of that, so here's a level montage instead:   Sonia gets two levels, both solely containing Speed - one from finishing off Mikhail at the end of the turn limit. When she eventually gets one of the heavier, more powerful spells she'll be pretty unstoppable.  May's single level is a great one - she not only gets more Magic Power, but she gains the powerful Aura spell. It has a high cost - 6 HP, with 10 Weight and just an 80% hit rate - but packs a whopping 13 Might. May's total magic attack when using this spell is now 27, higher than Mikhail's with Slime. Of course, it's so heavy that she'll only attack once with it but situationally useful to have a hammer like this spell.  - Chapter 3 Part 15 Battle 2.gif) Aura in action. Can't one-shot a gargoyle but does pretty well for itself. Sonia is still out-damaging May with two shots of Excalibur in a single turn, though.  Saber left behind his leveling magic when he promoted, apparently.  - Chapter 3 Part 15 Battle 3.gif) Also I gave him the Dark Sword to play around with, even though his Luck isn't that great, since he has enough Defense and HP to tank the backlash pretty well. "Nulled curse" is a bit of an odd mis-translation, though.  Apparently Kamui picked up the mercenary leveling magic.   Celica's first level was pretty disappointing, but she made up for it with her second - she's pretty well-rounded now.  Boey managed one level while cleaning up leftover gargoyles and somehow pulled off the most stat gains of the game so far.  Leo's level was pretty useless, but he's one of the few units that really benefits from extra Skill since it helps offset the terrible hit rate of bows.  Another Pegasus Knight level for Est. Her Power and Defense growths are too good for her to be missing them this much (40% and 50%, respectively).  Jesse has great Power and Speed but he's made of paper.  I wasted a level on Valbo as you can see.  And Catria leads the team in Power somehow.  I'll show off the inside of Mila's Temple once Alm has had his finale.  Speaking of Alm, he'll also get to face a few extra paladins. Next time:  Alm reaches the floodgate and the evil wizard holding Ryuto's sister hostage.
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May 26, 2014 23:04
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I guess it's in his AI to only call for help when he's alone/low on health? Making reinforcements a spell is an an interesting way of dealing with them. There aren't the conventional sort in this game, are there?
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May 27, 2014 02:33
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Palla and Catria remain the best Peg. Knights. Always nice to see those two wrecking everything.
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May 27, 2014 13:16
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Glazius posted:I guess it's in his AI to only call for help when he's alone/low on health? As far as I know there aren't any traditional/scripted reinforcements. The next chapter will be throwing some nasty stuff our way, though.
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May 27, 2014 15:38
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So I went on vacation for a couple weeks and came back with the flu or something, but I'm trying to get an update out this weekend. It's not dead!
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Jun 26, 2014 04:26
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To be fair, the forums went on vacation and have come back with the flu, so you're in good company there.
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Jun 26, 2014 16:59
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Chapter 3, Part 16: Floodgate  The wizard Tatara and a small army stand between Alm and the floodgate. They don't appear to be very strong, though. Let's head in.  Decent set of fortifications here, just not very well manned.   No speech from Alm, but Tatara has some taunts for us. Dyute, remember, is Ryuto's sister and being mind-controlled by Tatara. It's rather obvious, but you don't want to kill Dyute since you'll be able to recruit her once Tatara is defeated. Anyway, back to the battlefield survey.   The three paladins don't add very much, and will be out of the way early. The wizards aren't anything we haven't seen before, either.  Dyute, much like Sonia, starts off as a witch as an enemy unit. Her Aura spell gives her a 24 Magic Attack to unleash on us, but fortunately she's not very fast.  Tatara is one ugly dude. Fortify we've seen before - it heals everyone on the map, but won't come much into play here since the enemies are pretty spread out and easy to triple-team. The Death spell, though...it's not a low-chance instant-death spell, like you might expect from the Final Fantasy series. Instead it's basically a souped-up Slime spell, capable of just outright killing units with sheer power. It has 15 Might with a 70% Hit Rate, a 9 Weight, and a 5 HP cost. So Tatara will either hit you really hard once (27 Magic Attack), or miss entirely. Our most magic-resistant units have been 8 and 11 Magic Defense so we don't really have anyone that can survive two hits from this guy. (Luka would get one-shotted.) Our best candidates for taking out Tatara are Claire, Cliff, and Matilda, who between them have the best combination of Speed and Luck (for Magical Evasion) and Magic Defense. But how to get to Tatara when Dyute is in the way? Well, remember how I said it was really important for Silk to get that Warp spell? Turn 1  Alm's group learned its lesson from the last battle - don't try to charge over a bridge held by a bunch of ranged units. Instead they're going to draw out the paladins while the wizards slowly make their way forward. Silk is staying close by to the anti-boss crew. The plan is to start warping people up to Tatara if Dyute (as a witch, remember) teleports down to us.   Two of the paladins hang back since they can't reach anyone, but the third makes it to Cleive, who's waiting with the Knight Killer.  Up north, Dyute and the other wizards start the slow march out of the fort. Turn 2   Claire flies over to handle this eastern group, and a lucky crit takes out a wizard. She can fly up to Tatara on her own so doesn't really need to stay close by here.   These wizards are about the only enemies slow enough for Python to get in two attacks, and he takes full advantage.  Meanwhile Cleive finishes off the paladin in front of him, clearing the bridge.  Silk heals up Cleive, and we're ready for another round.  More slow spiraling out of the fort to the north.   Two wizards take shots at Claire, but she dodges one and takes only 3 damage from the other.  One of the paladins can also reach Claire but can't actually hit her.  The other paladin decides it'd be a good idea to go up against the Knight Killer again. Turn 3  Cleive finishes off the paladin to start the turn and clear the bridge again.   Claire stays clear of the paladin and gets another lucky critical to take out another wizard. I didn't show this, but she's got the Holy Lance so she's already healed up all the damage done to her last turn.   Python turns a wizard into a pincushion.   Ryuto gets Excalibur warmed up.  And Cliff calls down some more lightning to finish off the wizard.  Silk heals up Ryuto this time, and Alm moves up to block the remaining paladin.  Dyute is now a few turns away from Tatara so we can probably start sending units in there. Not sure why she hasn't teleported yet.   Alm dodges both the wizard and the paladin, and wrecks the paladin on the counterattack. When did he suddenly become awesome? (Hint: It's the Regal Sword.) Turn 4  Only one wizard left from the southern group, though another one has just about reached us from the north.   Claire flies north since she isn't really needed here anymore. Ryuto moves up to soften up the wizard on the bridge, and Cliff again finishes it off.   Python weakens the remaining wizard and Alm grabs the easy kill afterward.  Silk heals up Ryuto, who's been hurt mostly by fueling his spells. However I wasn't paying attention and now Silk doesn't have enough HP to cast Warp twice.  The way ahead is clear, but I don't really have a plan for dealing with Tatara beyond "hope he misses a lot".  Just two wizards and the boss remaining. Plus a witch that we don't want to actually fight. Turn 5   Ryuto is wrecking people so I let him go out over the bridge, thinking I'd send Matilda over to the boss area this turn and then Ryuto next turn. He ends up getting a crit to take out the wizard anyway.  Meh.  Time to make use of Warp. Silk walks up to Matilda, selects the Warp spell, and can now choose anywhere on the map to send her.  - Chapter 3 Part 16 Battle 1.gif) It's an expensive spell, but strategically well worth it.  Claire and Matilda both poised to strike next turn. They can't do a ton of damage (22 if they each land both attacks) so will be relying on dodges and maybe a crit.  Dyute heads back towards Tatara now that we have units in place there.  And the last generic wizard scratches up Cliff a bit on the enemy phase. Turn 6  It's right here where I realize that Silk doesn't have enough HP to also warp over Ryuto, and that Matilda is caught between Tatara and Dyute with no way to retreat. No other way but forward, then! (For the actual player, a good strategy here is to kill off that last wizard and then use the "Retreat" function on the following turn. Upon returning, the map will still contain only Tatara and Dyute.)  The healing tile won't actually help Claire's evasion but it makes me feel better at least.  - Chapter 3 Part 16 Battle 2.gif) A lucky dodge of the creepy floating laser fire skull, followed by a lucky crit, all but ends the battle here. Claire: MVP.    Matilda gets a free shot here, since after the first hit Tatara doesn't have enough HP to cast anything anymore. She would've gotten the kill on the second hit anyway, but decided to finish things in style.  Her first level isn't a good one but I'm not about to complain about my luck now. If you notice her Power still at its base level, that's because I wasn't actually expecting to use her at the start of the battle and completely forgot to give her the Steel Lance before warping her over. Ah well, guess it all worked out anyway.  Dyute comes to her senses and gets a less murder-y portrait. She teleports out of the battle and will be waiting for us later.   There's just the one wizard remaining, so Alm ends the battle himself.  A bit more luck-reliant than I would like, but other than Tatara this battle is a piece of cake, particularly for a chapter finale. Next time:  We open the floodgates, and somehow that empties the water from the gorge.
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Jun 29, 2014 01:22
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Oh god. Having a recruitable unit that can teleport is a giant dick move to end all dick moves. What if she'd decided to warp over and attack someone who could counterattack?! Also, yikes what was wrong with that boss' skin?
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Jun 29, 2014 02:13
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He's EEEEEEEVIL. And also heavily tattooed.
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Jun 29, 2014 05:51
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Silver Falcon posted:Oh god. Having a recruitable unit that can teleport is a giant dick move to end all dick moves. What if she'd decided to warp over and attack someone who could counterattack?! It's pretty tough to one-round people in this game in general unless you're getting crits. Also the only ranged physical attacker would be Python - anyone else either wouldn't be able to counter or would run into Dyute's 14 Magic Defense. Our weaker units (Robin, Gray, etc) were actually the ones in real danger. Not sure if her AI is programmed to not teleport (or be very unlikely to do so) or if I just got lucky there. Apparently the favored strategy is to grind up Alm, teleport to Tatara on the first turn, and then reset if you don't get a crit (with the Regal Sword, even our current Alm has a 30% crit rate and will one-round Tatara if either attack is a crit). But I figured that was boring and overly risky.
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Jun 29, 2014 18:32
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That sounds like prime GameFAQs "Can't be bothered to learn the system" strategy.
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Jun 29, 2014 20:47
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Okay, that Death animation was pretty sweet, not gonna lie.
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Jun 30, 2014 00:36
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Chapter 3, Epilogue: Floodgate II and Mila's Temple II With the floodgate cleared of enemies, Alm heads inside to release the waters of the gorge.  A pretty simple area, here. Let's talk to the woman first, I have a pretty good idea who she is.  She's talking to Ryuto I guess at this point, rather than Alm.  Eh? I was under Tatara's control? So that's what it was.... I'm sorry if I've been a bother. And to no one's surprise, we get to recruit Dyute.   She comes in with six fewer levels than Ryuto but is already pretty awesome. She's a point shy of him in Power but comes with the Aura spell. Her Speed is a bit better, but Aura's so heavy that it won't matter much. She does have much better Luck and Magic Defense, so will make a pretty effective magic tank. She also comes with a new item, a Prayer Ring - it heals 5 HP per turn like the other rings, and its special effect is to grant a 100% crit rate if the user's HP is below 50%. Pretty handy for a spellcaster that's always eating its own HP, anyway.  But enough about her, what does this guy have to say?   How is that supposed to work? You know what, never mind.  So we have a plot gate here - Celica has to finish her half of the chapter first. Let's head over there....  The only thing driving Celica's plot forward, other than helping Catria and Palla rescue Est, has been her mission to go to Mila's Temple and find out why Mila has disappeared. The goddess's disappearance somehow caused there to be no crops for three years, so the need to get her back is pretty pressing.  Mila's Temple is more populated than the floodgate, and is unsurprisingly full of priestesses. Let's hear what they have to say about the missing goddess.  That's why the land is barren. As things stand, we'll all starve.... Oh, well, mystery solved then. Since Alm's already headed to confront Rudolf, I guess Celica's job is just about done then, right?  Trespass, and he'll summon zombie dragons to devour you. Surely Celica wouldn't be headed there next when she has no real reason to do so.  If you don't open the western floodgate, the water won't drain. There's a reserve gate in this temple's basement, but.... At this point maybe Celica gets the idea that she at least has to open her gate in order for Alm to proceed?  If you go to the Tower of Doma, you could rescue her. Just beware of the life-draining swamps on the way.... Ah! Finally something for Celica to do - go rescue a goddess. I'm sure the only way to do so won't be by heading straight through those swamps.  If you go north, look for a hamlet in the Lost Woods. The Great Sage Hark who lives there ought to help you somehow. What healer? Also I'm not liking the sound of "Lost Woods".  There's no way across yet because the stairs lead straight into the water for some reason. Let's head into the basement.  More shrines!   Pretty much everyone can benefit from the extra Power. A free level isn't bad but only Catria would get the most benefit from it right now. I'll put that up to a vote at the end.  Celica has a minion guarding the floodgate switch as well. I guess he just hangs out in the temple basement while a bunch of priestesses wander about upstairs.  No can do. Only the Sofian royal family can order this gate opened. I ain't listening to you! If you hadn't cleared out Geyse's fort yet, then Celica will rationally explain to the man that the royal family has all been killed and the gate needs to be opened so that all of Sofia is not flooded. Oh wait, this is a video game - actually nothing happens, the conversation ends here and you're forced to go to Geyse's fort anyway. But we already did that, so instead:  Then you must be the long-lost Princess Anteze! Guard recognizes the royal crest somehow, and because it's glowing why it must be the lost princess! I'm guessing (hoping) that Anteze is the family name.  Being a princess has its perks.  - Chapter 3 Epilogue 1.gif) The floodgate opens, and...nothing happens. Alm needs to open up his side, first. (Also, just imagine the screen shaking while the gate opens, since I couldn't capture that part.)  I just said that! Anyway, nothing for Celica to do but leave, so let's go back to Alm....  The minion at the western floodgate somehow knows that the eastern gate has been opened.  - Chapter 3 Epilogue 2.gif) The gate opens again, and this time...the water magically flashes out of existence. Huh.  We know that. That's why we wanted you to open the floodgate. You useless piece of trash. Ugh.  And Chapter 3 is complete!  One last order of business: Celica's group gets some stat upgrades, make your choice here (up to 3 uses total): VOTE New Characters Dyute is another awesome mage and a great counterpoint to her brother, Ryuto. Whereas he gets Excalibur, which is light with a high crit rate to go along with a high Luck growth, Dyute gets Aura, which is strong and heavy instead to go along with a high Power growth. She also comes in at a much lower level and with generally higher stats than Ryuto. Between the two of them you won't be hurting for magical attack options in Alm's group after the third chapter.pre:Stat Base L3 Growth HP 22 30 Power 11 50 Skill 8 30 Speed 10 20 Luck 15 30 Defense 3 10 M. Def 15 0 Moves 4 0 Quality 47 140  The gorge not only is instantly dry but also magically filled up so that we can cross into Rigel without any problems!
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Jun 30, 2014 04:11
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I think I like Dyute's murder-face better.
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Jun 30, 2014 06:17
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Chapter 4, Prologue: Mila's Temple III Music: World Map, Chapter 4  Now that we're into the fourth chapter, the world map has expanded once again. Everything to the south is still available (though Alm and Celica are still separated) in case you want to go back and grind up some XP on random encounters, but in this LP we only look forward!  Alm's side of the map is considerably busier than Celica's, at least at first glance, with nine enemies on the map (two paired) and another battle likely at the Fear Shrine. By the end of the Chapter, Alm will be facing 20-unit enemy armies of pretty significant power. The empty area on the left side of the map is also pretty suspicious....  Celica would seem to have a much easier time of it, with only four enemies on the map, plus the her chapter finale at Doma's Tower. Her upcoming battles seem to have a bit more variety, though she'll still have a 20-unit, 1000+ power enemy army at the end. There's also an unmarked graveyard in the way, and somewhere in there are the mysterious Lost Woods....  But first, more business awaits Celica in Mila's Temple. Now that the water is gone, there's a hidden path here in the basement.  No, it's not through the gate, but off to the right here. The left side is still blocked off.  A mysterious tunnel!  And...some dude hiding down here?  Noma is the bishop from Celica's cloister way back at the start of Chapter 2.    Then I accidentally fell down here. Haha, what a folly! Well, from now on, I'm coming along with you. That'll ease my mind.Wait, what.  Okay, this I gotta see.   There's a theme in Fire Emblem games where an older character joins the protagonist's group early in the game, and while that character is powerful at the time, it is quickly outclassed by the rest of the group as the game progresses. This archetype is called a Jeigan, after the character of the same name in the first game. Noma, here, would be a Jeigan, but he's showing up halfway through the game instead of at the beginning. His stats aren't bad, really, and he actually has a really good spell selection, but he's a level 7 promoted mage with terrible growth rates so doesn't have a lot of growth potential. Sonia's already a better unit and will only keep getting better. The Arrow spell that Noma wields is a new one - it gives a whopping 16 Might with a 70% Hit Rate, for 11 Weight and 8 HP. So Noma can at least be useful in cracking tough enemies and helping out with healing.  Noma's not the only thing hiding down here, though. See this suspicious gap in the decoration at the base of the wall? Well, that wall is solid enough, but head down instead...  It's a hidden passage! There's actually a bit of a maze in the darkness here, but it's pretty easy to navigate. Instead of going all the way down, head left at the first opportunity instead.   Like so. Now, the path continues down from here but then hits a dead-end. Where you actually want to go is to line up with the other gap in the wall decoration visible in this shot.  And from here, proceed into another room....  Nothing here but stairs. Pretty easy to guess where these lead, if you remember Celica's first visit to the temple....  It's the mysteriously closed off treasure room!  And Celica gets yet another overpowered item. The Magic Ring, in addition to healing the wielder for 5 HP per turn, also extends the range of the wielder's spells from the default two or three tiles, to five tiles. For every spell. So Sonia can fling Excalibur around at enemies five tiles away with it, and get some HP back each turn as well. New Characters Noma is a bit of a strange addition to Celica's group at this phase of the game. He's about on the same level as Sonia, with a better spell selection, but he won't be getting any better. For a recruitable character that is so easy to miss, he won't be that useful by the end of the game, though he's a handy crutch now as the fourth chapter really ramps up the difficulty. He's also the last character to join Celica's group - she won't be getting any more for the rest of the game.pre:Stat Base L7 Growth HP 28 10 Power 12 10 Skill 16 15 Speed 8 15 Luck 1 10 Defense 6 10 M. Def 14 0 Moves 4 0 Quality 43 60  Celica crosses the dry gorge and enters a swamp instead.
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Jul 1, 2014 03:10
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DKII posted:And Celica gets yet another overpowered item. The Magic Ring, in addition to healing the wielder for 5 HP per turn, also extends the range of the wielder's spells from the default two or three tiles, to five tiles. For every spell. So Sonia can fling Excalibur around at enemies five tiles away with it, and get some HP back each turn as well. Jesus, every time I think this game is done, it drops something else crazy into your lap.
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Jul 1, 2014 05:45
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Edward_Tohr posted:Jesus, every time I think this game is done, it drops something else crazy into your lap. Oh there's still more to come. Would be nice for Alm's group to get some help, though. Voting will close tomorrow so I can work on an update over the weekend!
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Jul 2, 2014 05:40
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Oh, of course you get another mage on the path with half the party as mages. That just makes sense.
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Jul 2, 2014 06:18
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Glazius posted:Oh, of course you get another mage on the path with half the party as mages. That just makes sense. What I'm trying to say is that I think we've found the origin of Thracia 776's bullshit. Nice to know that some things never change.
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Jul 3, 2014 01:00
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 Power for Celica and Saber, and Catria is a toss-up. Since her growth rates only give her a combined 90% chance at something useful (Power/Speed/Defense; and really she has a 1/3 chance of getting none of them), I think I'll go with the guaranteed extra Power for her as well.
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Jul 3, 2014 18:11
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Chapter 4, Part 1: Dead Swamp It's time to start the fourth chapter for real. Celica's ready to enter the Dead Swamp.  But first, Celica, Saber, and Catria each get a Power boost of a single point.  Upon leaving the temple, Celica heads straight for the enemy encounter. Can be a bit of a surprise if you're not ready for it.  Welcome to the swamp. The enemy army isn't particularly numerous but they're a step up from the usual filler fight. As an added complication, any non-flying unit starting their turn in the water gets hit for 5 damage. Because it's poisonous or something. At least we finally get an interesting map.  The boss is a gargoyle-summoning shaman, with just enough defenses and HP to be annoying to kill and a 24 Magic Attack with the Slime spell. There are two other, weaker shamans accompanying him - one summons skeletons, the other zombies.  There are also a couple of snipers and four wizards for more long-range capacity.  There's a slayer up at the front of the enemy group that is the real challenge here. He's fast enough to double-attack all of our units, will do a lot of damage with each attack, and is very difficult to kill. Oh and he's going to park himself on the shoreline so he can attack our units that have taken damage from crossing the poisoned waters. Turn 1  Did I mention that the swamp also slows down our units worse than a forest? It'll take a few turns to get everyone over. Meanwhile the pegasus knights will be flying vanguard.  The snipers and most of the wizards bunch up to the north, with a single wizard joining the southern shaman and the slayer. Up off-screen, a single skeleton is summoned. Turn 2  The pegasus knights can survive getting swarmed for one round, as long as they don't take a counterattack from the slayer as well. So the strategy here is to send out Catria with the Steel Lance to try and wipe out the shaman.  Thanks to the extra point of Power we gave her earlier, she can do just enough damage to kill off the shaman in one round.  I was trying to bait the slayer down south with Est, but since she has the Steel Shield her Defense is actually higher than Catria's.  It works out even better this way, since Catria can get in some counterattack damage on the slayer before retreating next turn.  The rest of the wizards advance, though the snipers are still hanging back for some reason. Turn 3   So, on my first attempt, I forgot that slayers have 7 Movement and thus this one had no trouble getting deep into swamp and slaughtering Jenny.   Palla gets to be slayer-bait this turn instead, with a lucky critical taking out a wizard as a bonus.  Jenny hangs back this time, and Catria flies back to be healed up by Noma instead. Noma's class, the Sage, has a hidden passive ability - he and every unit adjacent to him will heal up 5 HP at the start of each turn. Thus Noma isn't having any trouble crossing the swamp, and Catria will get a bit more HP at the start of next turn.  The slayer should only be able to reach the mercs and the pegasus knights.   Jesse is the target here. He's got the Holy Sword so will heal up a bit next turn, but taking 20 damage still hurts. At least the slayer took another 7 damage on the counterattack.  I'm not really sure what the enemy strategy here is, maybe trying to draw us out the way we're doing to them? Turn 4   The main strategy here is to wear down the slayer with ranged damage now that he's surrounded and isolated.   I got a bit lucky landing each hit but still had a fully-healed Kamui waiting in the wings, anyway.  Is it possible the Angel Ring actually lowers growth rates? Anyway, the real news here is Celica picking up the Excalibur spell.  We've started coming ashore in time to meet the second wave. The key at this point is using Jenny, Celica, and Noma to top off everyone's HP.   Est draws in one of the snipers and dodges the attack, though the damage wouldn't have been much anyway.  The skeleton comes closer, but the rest are hanging back. The boss summons a couple of gargoyles to harass us. Turn 5   Sonia's got the Magic Ring, and uses it to clear out the sniper from 5 tiles away.   Skeletons aren't much of a threat anymore, particularly to a promoted Saber.  Poor Valbo can only move one tile at a time through the swamp. He'll hit the beach at just 4 HP remaining and never take any action in the battle.  Two wizards attacked Catria for some scratch damage, and the gargoyles moved ahead. The remaining sniper is still hanging back for some reason. Turn 6   Palla and Catria go after the wizards, but only Catria lands both of her hits.  Leo can't quite finish off the wizard, but with 1 HP remaining the wizard can't cast anything anymore anyway.  We've got a rough line formed up for the gargoyles, out of reach of the boss.  And Garcie calls up another seven gargoyles. Better than him attacking Catria, at least.  The two gargoyles from last turn both reach Est, but the Steel Shield keeps her safe.  The second sniper finally joins the party, but misses Catria. Turn 7   The sniper should've stayed hidden, because Catria quickly gets rid of it.   The gargoyles aren't much threat while isolated like this, so I give the second string some action (Boey and Atlas). They still can't kill it.  Meanwhile, Palla finishes off this wizard from a safe distance. The boss appears to be in "summon" mode as long as there's no weak units in range but I'd rather not get too close yet, anyway.  Leo gets the Angel Ring from Celica, and finishes off the gargoyle for a level.  His Speed is actually serviceable now.  With the Holy Sword and his HP topped off, Jesse makes short work of this gargoyle.   Kamui is just able to kill off the last wizard.  It's a bit of a rough line, but it'll do. Pay attention to the formation of the Pegasus Knights....  But first, seven more gargoyles join the fray.  A gargoyle flies into the center of the pincer formation to get to Est. She's got the lowest Defense amongst units not able to immediately kill him, I think. Anyway, whenever a pegasus knight attacks from this formation (even if it's a counterattack), the following occurs:  - Chapter 4 Part 1 Battle 1.gif) The Triangle Attack is triggered, guaranteeing that every hit is a critical hit. Of course, that doesn't guarantee that every attack is a hit, as you can see.  Another gargoyle attacks Est from outside the formation. The Triangle Attack is not triggered here, since it only works on the surrounded unit.  With Est out of reach, Noma is the next favorite target. He holds his own well enough, taking only 4 damage while dishing out 8 damage in return.  The remainder suicide on Jesse, who still has the Holy Sword and easily counter-kills each of the four gargoyles to go after him. He takes a total of 12 damage, but will heal up half of that thanks to the sword. Turn 8  With the battle pretty well in hand, I wanted to show off both Noma's sprite in action and the new Arrow spell.  - Chapter 4 Part 1 Battle 2.gif) Arrow? More like barrage, right?    Boey and Leo take out the gargoyle behind the line.   Est lands another Triangle Attack to finish off another gargoyle. It can actually be initiated from any position of the triangle, as long as the target is in the center.  I made a bit of mistake here by moving Jesse forward so much. He kills the gargoyle just fine here, but guess what'll happen on the enemy phase?   The second shaman is a bit tougher than the first, and Catria can't quite kill it in one round.  Another crooked line for us but it'll do.  And another seven gargoyles. You'd think he could roll a two or three at some point.  Est isn't in a triangle anymore so no super-strong counterattacks for her, but she's still not taking much damage.  Jesse is targeted by the rest. He has more than enough HP to survive, but he's also gaining a lot of XP - and he has the Holy Sword, not the Angel Ring.  The one time Celica's group gains a level without the Angel Ring, and of course it's a great one. Turn 9   Sonia grabs the Angel Ring and takes a couple shots at Garcie with Excalibur. Since the Angel Ring sets her Luck to 40, it's great for Sonia's magic evasion.  And another terrible level gets doubled by the Angel Ring.  Catria finishes off the shaman minion.  Leo weakens Garcie a bit more.  Palla picks off a gargoyle for some extra XP.  Jesse clears out the space in front of Garcie.   I could farm some more gargoyles for more XP, but this shaman is too much of a risk to really bother. Kamui moves in to take the kill, and the remaining gargoyles vanish.  And the swamp is clear!  Back out on the world map, a pack of dragon zombies joins the group ahead at Dolk's Fort. Next time:  Alm opens up his part of the fourth chapter by storming the border of Rigel. DKII fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 7, 2014 03:40
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Hey cool, Triangle Attack! I think in other games, if you crit, you hit. But I don't know if that counts crits from a Triangle Attack. Also all I could see with those Gargoyles was a sea of EXP pinatas. Best not to drag it out too much, though. You're right.
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Jul 7, 2014 12:06
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In later games, the Triangle Attack is a guaranteed hit and crit, regardless of the accuracy/critical numbers listed. Letting the thing miss is just...
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Jul 7, 2014 14:42
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Artix posted:In later games, the Triangle Attack is a guaranteed hit and crit, regardless of the accuracy/critical numbers listed. Letting the thing miss is just... Regular crits in this game can miss as well, which I don't remember from other games in the series. For some reason Gaiden rolls the crit first and then the hit, so you can definitely see "Critical!" followed by "So-and-so dodged!". But I think accuracy in general is lower in the early part of the series, and in this game in particular. Definitely less useful this way, particularly if the target is up a tree or some other evasion-boosting terrain.
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Jul 7, 2014 15:56
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