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Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make


Hello everyone, and welcome to a special Let's Play of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War! Yes, Fire Emblem Appreciation Season seems to have been revitalized, so I decided to jump on and show YOU how to Max Rank this game!

The Fire Emblem series consists of Strategy RPG's made by Intelligent Systems. They are a little like Chess, in that you control a multitude of "pieces", each with their own strengths and weaknesses. However, UNLIKE Chess, your "pieces" are individual characters that ALL have their own unique attributes, personalities, and even backgrounds. And unlike other Strategy RPG's (like Warcraft, Age of Empires, and Advance Wars), there are NO generic playable characters in the entire game!

Plus, some of these games have a ranking system that judges you on how WELL you beat it! Like, "how many of your people got killed?", "how much time did it take you to beat the game?", and etc.

So my intention is not just to beat it, or even just to get the maximum rank. No, my goal is to instruct you, the readers, on how to Max Rank this game as easily, quickly, efficiently, and reliably as possible. I'm not attempting to reinvent the wheel by trying to exceed the requirements as much as I can (like what Melth does). No, it's to Max Rank this game in a way that is as simple as possible while still using strategies worthy of an RTA speed run. For reference, here are all the updates thus far...

Prologue Part 1: (This Post, Basic Game Mechanics Explained)

Prologue Part 2-1 (Lex and Azel Recruited)

Prologue Part 2-2 (DiMaggio Defeated, Jungby Reclaimed)

Prologue Part 3-1 (Silver Sword Acquired)

Prologue Part 3-2 (Gerrard Defeated, End of Prologue)

Chapter 1 Part 1-1 (Kinbois Defeated, Genoa Conquered)

Chapter 1 Part 1-2 (Miscellaneous Conversations)

Chapter 1 Part 2-1 (Gandolf Defeated, Genoa Conquered)

Chapter 1 Part 2-2 (Plot Stuff)

Chapter 1 Part 3-1 (Sandima Defeated)

Chapter 1 Part 3-2 (End of Chapter 1)

Chapter 2 Part 1-1 (Opening Cutscenes)

Chapter 2 Part 1-2 (Elliot, Philip, and Boldo Defeated, Heirhein Conquered)

Chapter 2 Part 2-1 (Opening Turn With Some Conversations)

Chapter 2 Part 2-2 (Voltz and Macbeth Defeated, Anphony Conquered)

Chapter 2 Part 3 (Clement Defeated, Mackily Conquered)

Chapter 2 Part 4-1 (1st and 2nd Turn)

Chapter 2 Part 4-2 (Zyne and his Army Defeated)

Chapter 2 Part 4-3 (Arena Shenanigans, Miscellaneous Conversations, End of Chapter 2)

Chapter 3 Part 1 (Opening Narration and Turn 1)

Chapter 3 Part 2 (Jacoban Defeated)

Chapter 3 Part 3 (The Last Remnants of Agustria)

Chapter 3 Part 4 (Papilion and His Employer Defeated)

Chapter 3 Part 5 (Pizarl and Dobarl Defeated)

Chapter 4 Part 1 (Arena and War Room #7)

Chapter 4 Part 2 (Cuvuli and Deetva Defeated)

Chapter 4 Part 3 (Lord Maios Defeated)

Chapter 4 Part 4 (Lord Daccar Defeated)

Chapter 5 Part 1 (Lord Langbart Defeated)

Chapter 5 Part 2 (Grinding to LVL 30)

Chapter 5 Part 2 (Grinding to LVL 30)

Chapter 5 Part 3 (Lady Vaha Defeated)

Chapter 5 Part 4 (Miscellaneous Lover Conversations)

Chapter 5 Part 5 (End of Gen 1)

AAAA Ranked Stats at the End of Gen 1

Chapter 6 Part 1 (General Harold Defeated)

Chapter 6 Part 2 (Lord Dannan Defeated)

Chapter 7 Intro

Chapter 7 Part 1 (Cutozov Defeated)

Chapter 7 Part 2 (Lord Ishtor Defeated)

Chapter 7 Part 3-1 (Lord Bramsel Defeated)

Chapter 7 Part 3-2 (Lord Blume Defeated)

Chapter 8 Intro

And here are what I like to consider little "War Room" updates (TOTALLY not stolen from Melth, no sir), going over things that you'll need to understand in order to AAAA Rank this game properly...

The War Room Part 1: What is Max Ranking About?

The War Room Part 2: The Elite Ring, the Arena, and Why We've GOT to Have, Moneyyy...

The War Room Part 3: The Kill Counter, the Critical Skill, and Powering Up Your Weapons

The War Room Part 4: Holy Blood is Thicker Than Iron

The War Room Part 5: Pairings Choices, The X's and Y's of Romance, Inheritance, and the Jealousy System

The War Room Part 6: The Power of Dancers (Courtesy of MartytheDemonslayer)

The War Room Part 7: What to Do With Civilians?

The War Room Part 8: Hitting LVL 30 in Gen 2

Now, enough hooplah about all that; let's check out the opening crawl!



In an age beyond living memory



A devil's shade cast upon our world



Plunging it into the deepest darkness



And condemning us to endless grief.



In vain we prayed to the bleak heavens.



Twelve gods descended from above



To lead the charge against the great evil.



Invoking holy light, the gods smote the devil,



And granted us our lost hope once more.



We and our world were thus reborn.



And so,



As time flows endlessly on,



The nightmare has faded into legend...



And title drop! Yes, like I was saying, the Fire Emblem series is not JUST about the gameplay. Each one also puts a heavy emphasis on having an extensive plotline, on having lots of dialogue, on having many unique and colorful characters, on having an interesting backstory...basically, on having an actual plot.

Unfortunately, this particular game in the series was never released in America. In fact, NONE of them were until the 7th game, shortly after a certain character called Roy appeared in Super Smash Bros. Unfortunately, Roy was the main character of the 6th game, so we never actually got his game. But oh well...

Anyways, I AM using an English patch for this game. But, while it is actually pretty well done (as far as translation patches go), it did not translate ALL of the dialogue, only most of it. There is someone named "BookofHolsety" doing another translation patch, but for now, I'll have to settle for using his script for whatever parts weren't translated.



Now then, let's start our game!



Oh, wait, nvm, another opening crawl. Gotta have that backstory :) !



:ohdear:



Boy...wonder why this never made it into America...



Yeah, some of the middle part of that timeline was alluded to in the opening we watched. You don't really need to know it, but it's a neat little thing to keep in mind, just because it adds some flavor to the story ;) .



Now then, after that, we get a nice isometric map of the world of Fire Emblem 4. Every time you complete a map, you're going to be treated to one of these segments, accompanied with text to inform you of the current situation, being faced by both the world, and by your main character (who is always some sort of military commander in these games).

Unfortunately, the text itself consists of a long string of sentences scrawled across many, many text boxes. And considering each of them can only contain two short lines of text...I'm not going to try to catch all the text in screenshots. Instead, we're just going to transcribe it, and include the occasional screenshot so that you don't get lost. Now then...

Grandbell rests in the centre of the Jugdral continent and was founded by Saint Heim, one of the 12 Crusaders.



Heim’s descendants, the Royal Family, were joined by six additional duchies, each with their own Crusader lineage. Each duchy possessed large territory and military holdings, and exercised partial autonomy while serving under the Royal Family.





Assisting the prince was his confidant Lord Bryon of Chalphy, and Lord Ring of Jungby.



Prime Minister Reptor of Freege felt his position was being undermined. Calling on the avaricious Lord Langbart of Dozel, the two formed a coalition opposing the prince’s authority.

Actually, this screenshot contains a small error in the English patch script. See, Reptor's loathing wasn't something that just started recently. According to BookofHolsety's shiny new script, Reptor had been hating Kurth for a good while before finally starting stuff with Langbart at his side. Anyways, mugshots.



And now for the next person on our list...Alvis!



The young Lord Alvis of Velthomer, commander of the Royal Guard, had little involvement in governmental affairs.

"So all those other important guys? He's not one of them, he just some guy. Some guy who does...stuff, I guess....Yeah. Don't know why we even mentioned him really."

:keke:

Okay but seriously, what the game is SUPPOSED to tell you is that Alvis is extremely busy with his duties as Commander of the Royal Guard, and THAT'S why he isn't involving himself in the current situation with Kurth vs. Reptor & Langbart. The original translation patch just missed that tidbit.



And unfortunately for us, HE'S not going to be in the plot for another 10 hours, so that...doesn't really help us much :geno:. So that's it for all the Dukes and Duchies. But wait, there's more!

Just as this drama was beginning to unfold, news of calamity arrived from the east.

We then scroll northeast.





The peaceful town of Darna, located in the Yied Desert, came under siege by Isaacian barbarians. Reports told of a massive slaughter taking place.

We then we scroll back to Grandbell.



Back in Grandbell, public outcry began to grow, and before long the decision was made to subdue Isaac. Acting on his father’s behalf, Prince Kurth departed for the front commanding the lords from each duchy. There at his side, a warrior in his own right revered for his heroism and bravery, was none other than Lord Bryon. Only a handful of soldiers remained in Grandbell. Owing to a diplomatic alliance with Agustria to the west...



...and the Verdane Kingdom to the southwest...



...fear of any kind of aggression was virtually non-existent. However, that trust was betrayed all too soon. Verdane Kingdom’s massive army, spearheaded by Prince Gandolf...



...crossed into Grandbell territory unnoticed and laid siege to Jungby Castle.



Entrusted with the protection of the kingdom by his father, Lord Bryon, Sigurd...



...stayed behind at Chalphy Castle. With only a few soldiers at his disposal, he was rightfully terrified when news of the invasion reached Chalphy. Sigurd cried, ‘Those barbarians aren’t laying a hand on Aideen!’

Creative Liberty #1: The original text just has the narrator speaking the entire time, while this one quotes something Sigurd said.

So yeah, unlike most other fan translations, this one actually has had some creative liberties taken with it! And a lot of them actually work out pretty well! This one, for example, brings some much needed spice into what is otherwise a long info-dump about Grandbell and it's politics. Pretty neat eh?

Having known Aideen since childhood, he was left with no other alternative. Sigurd promptly made the decision to take up arms.



Gran calender – 757. It was this very turn of events that cracked open the door of fate. No one at the time could have recognised this forewarning to the disastrous events to follow.

Oooh, that sounds ominous.



Birth of a Crusader

Here's the Chapter title screen, written in lots of complicated looking Kanji! I've taken beginning Japanese, but I can't even HOPE to translate that myself! Not without a dictionary!



So here's that massive army the game was talking about. Man, looks like it's in deep trouble doesn't it?



And here's a look at the conversation going on in Jungby. You're going to be seeing this kind of thing very often in Fire Emblem 4, with every different faction talking about what's going on, and how they feel about the proceedings, and things like that. Quite neat, that.

Aideen: Please save yourself. I want as many of you to get out of this alive as possible!

Midir: None of us are going anywhere, my lady. We’re here for you till the very end. Even if it means our lives.

Aideen: Oh… thank you, Midir. I’m so sorry to put you through all this.

Pretty nice woman, huh? You can really see why everyone's so concerned about her :3: .



Meanwhile, at Castle Chalphy...



Here's Sigurd!

Sigurd: Aideen is in trouble. Gandolf’s army has laid siege to Jungby Castle. Noish, I’m going to go and see if I can do something. You’re in charge while I’m gone.

Noish: Sir… You’re not planning on going alone, are you!?

Sigurd: Grandbell’s military is already en route to Isaac. There really is no one left to call on. Verdane’s army may be full of barbarians, but it’s huge. There are bound to be casualties. I can’t get you involved.

...uh, yeah, isn't that EXACTLY WHY THEY SHOULD get involved?! Sentiment is nice and all, but how are you going to save Aideen and everyone else if you're fricken DEAD :stare: ?!

Noish: Excuse me, sir!?

Yeah, excuse me? Noish and Alec may stink at fighting (as we will see soon), but...surely they don't stink THAT badly...right?

Noish: We were born into the knighthood and are prepared to die fighting! We’d be a disgrace to let our master perish out there all alone. We’re going with you. Alec, you’re with me on this, aren’t you?



You tell him Alec!

Alec: But we’d better swing by the villages before going to Jungby Castle. Those barbarians’ll loot the place, kill everybody in sight, then burn it all to the ground. We’ve got to beat them there and get the villages to strengthen their defenses.

Sigurd: Point well taken, Alec. We mustn’t overlook our duty as knights to protect the people.

Alec: Actually, Oifaye takes credit for that one. I tell ya, that kid’s a strategist in the making. Takes right after that famous grandfather of his, Lord Sesar.

In some ways, it does seem a little strange to take such a detour when Jungby, one of the six major duchies of Grandbell, is in danger of being conquered...but actually, this is pretty smart if you think about it. One, you really do need the support of the common people if you want them to fund your war as willingly as you'll want them to, and secondly, Verdane's army is kind of all over the place. So if you just try and charge straight toward Jungby, like Sigurd may have otherwise done, there's a very real risk that he and his men would have just gotten themselves surrounded, flanked, and then killed.

But by doing this first, they're not only eliminating that risk, but they're also taking out a good chunk of Verdane's army while it's still scattered, unorganized, and not as adequately prepared to deal with Sigurd's army. So good on ya Oifaye.



Sigurd: I don’t know, Oifaye…You’re still pretty young. You think you’ll be okay out there?

Oifaye: I’m already 14, sir.

Whoa fourteen! That's like, all the way into your tweens :cheeky:!

Oifaye: I know I’m not ready to fight yet, but I can still help out. Please… let me go with you.

Sigurd: Well, it has been a good two years since you began training for your knighthood under me. You’re probably ready for some battlefield action. But no fighting… not just yet anyway. Why don’t you come along as my personal advisor?

Oifaye: You bet! Thanks, sir!

So Fire Emblem 7 had Mark the Tactician, and now we have Oifaye. Quite a bit younger than Mark, but hey, at least he talks :keke: !

Noish: Sir, have you considered leaving someone behind to defend the castle? It would be too risky not to. We would be finished if we lost our base here to the enemy.

Alec: Hey Noish… you KNOW who’d be perfect for that job! Isn’t that right, Arden?

Ardan: Why me, Alec?



:lol:

Ok, so I've given the Translation patch some grief in regards to a few mistranslations and some untranslated dialogue. And trust me, there's going to be more issues as time goes along...

But do not be fooled. In terms of reading well, reading like it was written by an actual human being, this is BY FAR one of the best patches I've ever seen. It's not (usually) overly literal, it's easily to understand what the characters are saying, the names were localized faithfully while still sounding like actual names, the characters personalities are still mostly retained (though the translators DID take liberties with some of them...like Trabant and Ardan, and it's really obvious that whoever the translators were, they had a very good sense of humor.

Seriously, it's very rare that you'll find an English patch like this. Obviously the localization isn't quite as good as the kind you'd find in any of the FE games that actually came out in America...but it's still head and shoulders above almost every other fan translation I've ever seen (exceeded only by the excellent FE12 translation). Heck, it even reminds me of Woosley's FF6 translation in some ways, though BookofHolsety certainly doesn't think it's anywhere near comparable in quality...

But still, it's an extremely nice change of pace after fan translation after fan translation containing dialogue so stiff and natural, it hardly even feels like a human wrote it. So I like it at least. Anyways, let's see some more of that dialogue, shall we?

Sigurd: Ardan, can we count on you? You’re the only who can aptly handle the castle’s defense.

Ardan: Alright, I’ll do it. But you gotta promise to take me to battle with you sometimes.

Sigurd: Will do. Alright, let’s make our way to the villages, and then we’re off to Jungby!



And there we go. All of Sigurd's forces are assembled, and we are ready to kick some butt! But first, let's use the R Button to scan one of the enemies...





Alright, so we're seeing a whole lot of numbers and stuff. But if you're new to the Fire Emblem series, I'm guessing you're not too familiar with any of this stuff, so let's go over it real quickly, alright? Now then...

HP: This here is the most important stat of all. This represents your health, and the number on the right represents the maximum amount of health any unit can have. The number on the left represents how much health you have currently, and this number will start to go down if the unit starts taking hits from an opposing unit. And if it goes all the way to zero...well, I'm...sure you can imagine what happens then :nervous:. So do NOT let that happen to your own units!

Lev: We'll get more into this later...but for now, just realize that this plays a crucial role in how many of the other stats you have.

Atk: This here represents how much "Damage" your unit can do to another unit's HP. See, like Chess, each faction in this game takes turns. But unlike Chess, each and every unit on your side gets to move before the Computer gets a chance to move it's unit. Then you have to wait till IT moves all of it's units before finally getting to take your next turn.

In addition, unlike Chess, you can't just attack a "piece" and expect to just instantly K.O. it no matter what. No, in order to "kill" a unit, you have to take off ALL of it's HP, and the "Atk" rating represents just how much HP you can take off at any one time, assuming that your opponent has 0 Defense/Resistance. If your opponent DOES have Defense and Resistance however, then your Atk will be subtracted by however much Defense or Resistance your opponent has. "But wait', you might ask. 'Why do you keep saying Defense OR Resistance as opposed to both?" Well...you'll see, but for now, let's move on...

Hit and Evd (Evade): Represents how accurate a unit's attack is, and how likely it is to "dodge" an attack. Yes, not only can you NOT kill a unit in one blow, but you're attack may not even do ANY Damage at all! Basically, take the "Hit" of your unit, and subtract it by the "Evade" of whatever enemy unit you want to attack, and you'll have your percentage of how likely you are to hit.

So if one of your units has 80 Hit, and you subtract it by this guy's -20 Evade, that means you have a 100% chance of hitting this guy! But if your unit has only 10 Hit, and you subtract it by this guy's -20 Evade, then that means you only have a 30% chance of hitting this guy. So you're going to want to have REALLY high Hit and Evade ratings in this game if you want to do well!

Str (Strength), Mgt (Might) and Def (Defense): So now we know that "Attack" determines how much damage you can do...but what determines how much Attack your unit has? Well, actually, it's quite easy to find out. Just add this unit's "Strength" rating to the "Might" of it's weapon, and there you go! 5 Str + 14 Mgt = 19 Damage! As for those two stats, a unit has a fixed amount of Strength that it just naturally possesses, but it's Might depends on what exact weapon it's using. Right now, this enemy only has a weak Iron Axe, but later enemies have multiple Weapons that it can use depending on what they feel like doing. So keep that in mind for later...

As for "Defense", this is the stat that protects you against your opponent's attack. So if this guy attacks your unit, and your unit has 14 Defense, then that means this guy will only do 5 HP worth of damage rather than his full 19. So that's pretty simple I think...

Mgc & Res: Now these stats are like Str and Def, except, they only into play if you or your enemy decides to use a book of magic, like a Fire Tome or a Thunder Tome. Yes, in addition to knights and bandits, there are also wizards and sorcerers here too! And if one of those guys decide to attack you with magic rather than a weapon...

Then these stats will determine how much damage you take from their magic spells. So if your opponent has 4 Mgc and their Thunder tome has 14 Mgt, then that means that they have 18 Atk. Then if your unit has 5 Res, then that means your opponent does 13 Damage to you. Because 18 - 5 = 13. So that'll add a bit of a new dimension to things, once we actually get magic using units and stuff.

Skl & Acc: Now then, these two stats are what are used to determine your Hit rating. The formula is Skl x 2 + Weapon Acc = Hit. This guy's Skl is 0, and the Acc of his Iron Axe is 70. So, 0 Skl x 2 + 70 Acc = 70 Hit.

Spd, Wgt and Lck: These three stats are what determine your Evd. The formula for this is (Spd-Wgt) x 2 + Lck = Evd. This guy's Spd is 7, the weight of his weapon is 18, and his Lck is 0. So, (7 Spd - 18 Wgt) x 2 + Lck = -22 Evd.

That said though, Spd actually has an EXTREMELY important second function, which we will get to...now!



See this screen here? This is the second part of each unit's stat screen. So first, let's start with...

Personal Data: "Move" represents how many squares a unit can move per turn, Gold allows you to buy stuff on later maps, and "Lead" is a passive bonus Hit and Evd bonus that some units can give to others if they happen to be within 3 square of them. 2 Star units give 10+ Hit/Evd, 3 star units give 20+ Hit/Evd, 4 star units give 30+ Hit/Evd, and finally, 5 star units give 40+ Hit/Evd. So if you have the opportunity, it can sometimes be REALLY helpful to have your other units fight within three squares of wherever Sigurd is. As for the rest of the Personal data, those are all only situationally relevant, so we'll save those for later. For now, let's move on to...

Weapon Level: Here we have every kind of weapon in the game represented, both regular and magical. And there are 4 Ranks you can get within each category. You can have either a C Rank, a B Rank, an A Rank, or an "*" Rank. Each one is better than the one before it, to the point where having an * in, say, Axes, allows you to wield each and every single Axe in the entire game, including the very best ones to exist. But if you only have a C Rank, then that means you can only use extremely weak, extremely ineffective axes. And obviously THAT'S no good! And finally...

Special Skills: Oh boy. This here is one of the simplest, yet probably THE most important mechanic in the game. Remember what I was saying at the beginning, when I said that each character had their own unique attributes and traits? Well, this here is a large part of that!

See, "Special Skills" represent abilities that only certain characters have. Some, like Sigurd, only have one, but others can have as many as FIVE Special Skills! And there are as many Special Skills in this game as there are Pokemon in the Pokemon series! Some can sometimes allow a unit to hit an enemy up to 10 times in a single fight, some can sometimes allow a unit to have DOUBLE the amount of Atk they would normally have, some allow you to take an enemy unit's Gold from there...you get the point.

Unfortunately, Sigurd here only has one Special Skill. But the one he DOES have is probably the very best one in the game. If you click the R Button in order to check it out...



Whoa! Look at that! This baby allows Sigurd to attack an enemy unit not just once, but TWICE so long as he is faster than them! How can you tell if he's faster? Well, take his Spd...



...subtract it by the Weight of his weapon...



And you'll see that the resulting number (or Attack Speed/"AS", as we Fire Emblem 4 players call it) is 9. On the other hand, the Iron Axe guy has 7 Speed, and wields a weapon that has 18 Wgt, so 7 Spd - 18 Wgt = -11 AS. So yeah, Sigurd is DEFINITELY fast enough to hit the other guy twice when he attacks with his Steel Sword! And since Sigurd has 24 Atk compared to the other guy's 5 Def, he'll not only do 19 Damage per hit, but he'll deal TWO hits instead of just one during a round of combat. And since the Axe guy only has 36 HP...

...

Yeah :cool:. Clearly you see see just how amazing skills are. And best of all, each and every single unit you have, and will ever get, will ALWAYS have at least one skill, while the enemy units usually have none. Pretty AMAZING eh?

So I know this all sounds pretty tedious, and it sounds like it involves a LOT more number crunching than is actually fun to do...but actually, it's not as bad as it sounds becaaaaaaause...









Because of this. Don't be fooled by the "Acc" rating here. Unlike the "Accuracy" rating we already talked about (the one that belongs to individual weapons), this number is generated AFTER the game subtracts the enemy's Evade from however much Hit you have. So actually, the game already does a lot of the math FOR you. Because if you decide to have your unit attack an enemy, but then decide that you don't like the numbers displayed her, you can actually CANCEL your decision instead of actually going through with it.

As for why the enemy's hit is so much higher when Sigurd uses a lance, even though Sigurd didn't suffer that sharp an Evasion drop...that's because there's a little something called the "Weapon Triangle" mechanic in this game. Basically, if you attack an Axe-Wielder with someone using a sword, you get a 20+ bonus to your Accuracy and Evade. But if you attack said Axe-Wielder with a lance, then you get a 20 point penalty on your Accuracy and Evade. Same bonus applies for if you attack a Lance-Wielder with an axe, and the same penalty applies for if you attack said Lance-Wielder with a sword. And then of course, I think you can guess what happens if you use a lance or an axe against someone using a sword...

But man, that is a HECK of a lot of words I just threw at you, isn't it? This game must sound like some boring board game or something, huh? Well, actually it's not. In fact, before I end this update, let me show you just a little taste of just how exciting it can be...



Yeah, LOOK at those awesome animations! Look at how fast that went! Yeah, that's part of what makes the Fire Emblem series so great. Because of the story, the unique characters, the (usually) well done graphics, and the animations, the series itself is FAR more dynamic than a lot of other Strategy RPG's. Because of this, the games are able to be appealing even if you're not the kind of guy who'd be willing to, say, sit down at a Dungeons and Dragons game for 3 hours. Or something nerdy like that. So once you get the mechanics down, these games are seriously a ton of fun to play, so don't be intimidated by the epic mechanics-dump I just gave, alright?

So, anyways, I think I'll call this a day. We've went over a LOT of ground today, and I've already given the mother of all info-dumps. So then, how will Sigurd save the fair lady of Jungby? What will be done about Gandolf? Will he have to stop the Verdane army all alone? When am I going to start talking about what a "Max Rank Run" looks like? And...just what does the game mean about "cracking open the door of fate"? Find out, on the next EXCITING episode, of Let's Play Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War! Have a nice day...and God bless you :) !

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Sep 1, 2020

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Onmi
Jul 12, 2013

If someone says it one more time I'm having Florina show up as a corpse. I'm not even kidding, I was pissed off with people doing that shit back in 2010, and I'm not dealing with it now in 2016.
Seems like a deec covering of the mechanics and other interesting notes in FE4. Can't wait to see how this goes

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
This is one of the two FE's I've never played, looking forward to seeing it done.

Also you explained mechanics more thoroughly in your first update than I have in like 40 :v:

Well done.

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

This is right up there as one of my favorites in the series, though I've never tried ranking it.

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Fionordequester posted:

In vain we prayed to the bleak heavens.

Twelve gods descended from above

Narrator is a bit of an ungrateful prick, isn't he? :v: I mean I don't know what he was expecting, but twelve gods is a pretty good result in my book.

And you still have that broken :3: smiley and Gandolf:'s army :argh:


Anyway I'm interested in seeing where this goes, I never managed to play the game myself for long and wasn't around for the previous thread.

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make

vilkacis posted:

Narrator is a bit of an ungrateful prick, isn't he? :v: I mean I don't know what he was expecting, but twelve gods is a pretty good result in my book.

:lol: ! Vilkacis, you are a funny man! I've gotta show that to BookofHolsety xD!

vilkacis posted:

And you still have that broken :3: smiley and Gandolf:'s army :argh:

Heh...well that was careless, wasn't it? Oh well, I fixed it now!

vilkacis posted:

Anyway I'm interested in seeing where this goes, I never managed to play the game myself for long and wasn't around for the previous thread.

Aw, thank you Vilkacis! Next update will be tomorrow, and I'll even be bringing two co-commentators who've already agreed to come on board. See you all then!

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Jun 25, 2015

MarquiseMindfang
Jan 6, 2013

vriska (vriska)
I love this game so much, glad to see it LPed once more.

When can we start fighting about shipping?

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Fionordequester posted:

:lol: ! Vilkacis, you are a funny man! I've gotta show that to BookofHolsety xD!

Well funny or not, it is either a pretty big contradiction or a severe case of ingratitude.

MarquiseMindfang posted:

When can we start fighting about shipping?



It's free, why would you need to fight???

Einander
Sep 14, 2008

"Yeh've forged a magnificent sword."

"This one's only practice. The real sword I intend to forge will be three times longer."

"Can there really be a sword as monstrous as that in this world?"

"Yes. I can see that sword... Somewhere out there..."
It's kind of funny that you talked about Sigurd being stupid to go off fighting alone, because Sigurd solo runs are significantly easier than normal gameplay. Some of this game's mechanics are really, really dumb.

Looking forward to this either way, though. I know absolutely nothing about the ranking mechanics and requirements in this game!

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make

Einander posted:

It's kind of funny that you talked about Sigurd being stupid to go off fighting alone, because Sigurd solo runs are significantly easier than normal gameplay. Some of this game's mechanics are really, really dumb.

Heh heh, yeah. Actually I was going to make a joke about that at some point I think. Maybe I still will :cheeky: .

Einander posted:

Looking forward to this either way, though. I know absolutely nothing about the ranking mechanics and requirements in this game!

Wonderful! Speaking of which, the next update is almost ready to go. I already finished saying everything I had to say, but I decided to have two co-commentors join me, and now I'm just waiting for them to finish their commentary! So look forward to it!

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make
Hello everyone, and welcome to Let's Play Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War! Today we have two co-commentators joining us today! We have MartyTheDemonSlayer, who has done numerous AAAA Ranked Runs and other kinds of special runs...

Yeah, mostly what he said. Check out my FE4 0% Growths playthrough if you want to see more efficient Fire Emblem Play.

...And we have Grandmaster Arcturus, who is new to the Fire Emblem series, and will be here to give a fresh perspective on everything that's going on. Marty's text up there will be bolded, and GM's text will be...

Italicized like this.

And in case you're wondering who GMActurus is, he's the one in charge of the ongoing Kingdom Hearts thread. So then, with that all said...





Why the heck am I getting vibes of Final Fantasy Tactics from this song? - GMArcturus

Alright then, let's get started! First, I have to introduce our new units!



Level 2 Social Knight
As opposed to the Unsocial Knight that spends all his time alone playing MMOs when he isn't on the field of battle - GMArcturus
HP: 32 (70%) Spd: 10 (30%)
Str: 9 (30%) Lck: 4 (30%)
Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 7 (30%)
Skl: 9 (40%) Res: 0 (5%)

Move: 8
Weapon Ranks: Sword (B), Lance (C)
Items: Iron Sword, Iron Lance
Skill: Pursuit, Awareness


First of all, those percentages that are listed in parenthesis are what you call a characters "Growth Rates". What are those you ask? Well, remember last update when Sigurd killed that Axe guy, and got 22 "Exp."? Well, that "Exp." ties back into a unit's "Level". Basically, once a character gets 100 Exp. or more, they receive what is called a "Level Up". And during that level up, all of their combat stats have a chance of increasing according to the percentages listed. So Alec here has a 30% chance of getting an extra point in Strength once he gets a level up.

In addition to that, your character's Level also increases by 1. That's good in one way since most characters get something very special when they get to Level 20, but it's also bad because the higher your level is, the less Experience enemies give you. And if you want the exact formulas for how that all works, here they are!

Experience from doing damage = 10 + (enemy’s Level – Level)

Experience from defeating enemy = 30 + [(enemy's Level - Level) x 2]

So basically, you get more Damage from defeating an enemy rather than just damaging one. And the lower the level of your unit, the more Experience you get from enemies. Finally, the enemies themselves also have levels, and the higher THOSE are, the more Exp. they will give your units when they are damaged or defeated. Pretty simple, right?

Now onto Alec. First of all, Awareness is...something I guess. Basically it nullfies “sword skills” (we'll be seeing those), the Critical skill, and even “Effective Weapons” (weapons specifically designed to double your Attack Power against certain enemies). So that's nice, but...we don't really fight a lot of those enemies anyway, so it's one of those skills that just doesn't really do anything for us, for the most part.

So really Alec is just kind of unimpressive. You see, in addition to having a weapon triangle, this game also tends to give different types of attributes to each weapons. So swords are really light and have a lot of Accuracy, but they're also lacking in power. Axes, on the other hand, are exactly the opposite. They pack LOTS of Might, but are also extremely heavy, and don't have much Accuracy. And then lances are like axes, except they trade a little bit of Might in exchange for being much lighter and a bit more accurate.

So since Alec is stuck with only a C Rank in lances, he can't really use any strong weapons until much later. Combine that with his middling Strength growth, and the fact that he already has lower Strength than anyone else in the group, and you've got someone who kind of hits a wall once Chapter 2 starts.

Furthermore, his Defense and HP growths are merely decent, not great. So he also falls behind the others in terms of durability. So the only thing that stands out about him is his Speed. And actually, that will be handy in this run, but it's not going to make him amazing or anything...

But for now, the enemies here have almost no Defense, the ones next Chapter aren't much better, and Alec has the almighty Pursuit. So in spite of his later problems, Alec can still kill most enemies in two rounds, and is still strong enough that he can take 3 hits before dying.

So at the end of the day, the guy's kind of like Yamcha from Dragon Ball Z. He starts off decently...but then starts to taper off, to the point where he's just about worthless by the time all is said and done. That said though, we still have to train him anyway for the sake of max rankings, so he will be getting some use if you're doing such a run. Otherwise though, use the guy a bit for the Prologue and Chapter 1, but DON'T focus too heavily on giving him too much Exp.

For reference, please see any of Yamcha's scenes in Dragonball Z Abridged. For example, see this scene.

Alec is pretty much mediocre. The one thing worth mentioning is that upon promotion he gets a +5 boost to magic, which in conjunction with the magic ring [item that grants 5+ to Magic] and a sword you get later allows him to one round a fair number of enemies at one to two range. Since having a promoted unit soak up a bunch of kills in a ranked run this is useless for the purposes of this playthrough, but Alec can find some niche uses in other types of runs.



Level 3 Social Knight

HP: 33 (80%) Spd: 8 (20%)
Str: 11 (40%) Lck: 4 (20%)
Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 8 (40%)
Skl: 7 (30%) Res: 0 (5%)

Move: 8
Weapon Ranks: Sword (B), Lance (C)
Items: Steel Sword
Skill: Critical (sometimes doubles Attack Power), Charge (Can activate 4-19 extra rounds of combat)


So obviously I didn't give a very flattering review to Alec. So maybe this guy is a little better, right? Well...unfortunately, the answer is no.

First of all, Noish doesn't have Pursuit, which means he doesn't have the ability to double attack like Sigurd and Alec. Oh sure, he has the Critical skill, but that doesn't activate every time like Pursuit does. In fact, the formula for it is (skill + weapons kill bonus)%. And Noish doesn't have a weapons kill bonus yet, and he's not going to get that without a lot of help. So really, Critical only has a 9% chance of activating for him at any one time. So despite starting with more Strength, and having a higher growth in it, he is actually weaker and slower than Alec under most circumstances, which is bad enough already. But compounding that problem even further is Charge.

The reason for this is that, by activating another round of combat, Noish also allows the enemy to attack again. So, say Noish has like, 25 HP left, and he attacks someone who does 13 or more HP of damage back to him, but doesn't have Pursuit (so basically, most boss fights). Normally, he'd be able to safely attack that person, and then maybe face another enemy without fear of death. BUT, because Charge activates another round of combat, his enemy might very easily KILL him anyway, even though he normally wouldn't attack twice!

Now, fortunately, the chance of Charge activating is pretty low because it's activation rate relies partially on your current HP. In fact, it won't even work period if Noish's HP is below 25...But still, the problem itself is still there. I simply cannot use Noish against anyone really strong without risking his demise. So that's a problem!

Even without that issue though, Noish simply isn't that good. He's basically Alec with slightly more Strength and Defense, but no Pursuit. So if Alec is Yamcha, then Noish is Chiatzu, a character who doesn't really have ANY time to shine... [Ha ha ha. this is so perfect here. - GMArcturus[/i]

That said though, there ARE ways to get around Noish's weaknesses. In fact, there's even a way to give him Pursuit. And once you do that, his decent HP and Defense growths will help to make him a far better combat unit. Of course...we have to do quite a bit to make that happen, things that would never be worth it in a regular playthrough. But since this is a Max Ranked run...well, I suppose you'll have to wait and see what I have in mind ;) !

Yeah... he's pretty bad... He can be very good with certain resources, but those resources are all better used elsewhere.



Level 3 Sword Armour
Does this mean there is a Shield Armour class? - GMArcturus

HP: 36 (90%) Spd: 4 (20%)
Str: 13 (50%) Lck: 3 (10%)
Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 13 (40%)
Skl: 5 (10%) Res: 0 (5%)

Move: 5
Weapon Ranks: Sword (B)
Items: Iron Sword
Skill: Ambush (Attack before enemy even when enemy attacks first, as long as you have less than half HP)


Hoooo boy...you wouldn't think there'd be a character worse than Noish, but...here he is :sigh:. Or at least, he's useless for most of the game. See, as I said earlier, most characters get something special when they get to Level 20. Once that happens, they get the option to undergo a ceremony called "Promotion" as long as they are inside their home castle. And when they "Promote", they'll gain some stat bonuses when they do. Some units only get those bonuses, but OTHER units also get new Skills, and even receive a significant upgrade to what kinds of weapons they can use...

And Ardan is one of those units. In addition to getting some extra stats, his promotion also DRASTICALLY improves his weapon selection. Instead of only have B Swords, he'll have A Sword, A Lances, B Axes, and B Bows. So yeah, he goes from being stuck with swords, to being able to use like half of the weapons in the game. PLUS, he also gets Big Guard, a skill that has a chance of completely nullifying an attack. And it activates pretty often, since it's activation rate is (User’s Level)%. So that's neat...but, does that actually make him good?

Once again, the answer is a resounding no, because even WITH those bonuses, he still has two major problems. One, no Pursuit, and that's bad enough already. But secondly, he only has 5 Move! 5 Move! And to give you an idea of how much of a hindrance that is...here's the map we're on right now (thank you NomadicGirl for making these maps for Serenes Forest)...



Yeah, good luck getting him across that! Alec wasn't kidding when he was talking about how slow he is! He can't even keep up with you half the time! And even if he could, his combat is still subpar! He's got high defenses, and his Strength is good...but he's locked to swords and he doesn't have Pursuit. As for Ambush, it's neat, but still doesn't do much without good offense to back it up.

So if Alec is Yamcha, and Noish is Chiatzu, this guy here would be Yajirobe. He's literally so weak, that he never even bothers to show up for any of the fights, ever. Hey, at least Yajirobe fought off one of Piccolo's minions in Dragonball. - GMArcturus



Level 5 Lord Knight

HP: 35 (110%) Spd: 12 (30%)
Str: 14 (50%) Lck: 7 (40%)
Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 9 (40%)
Skl: 11 (50%) Res: 3 (5%)

Move: 9
Weapon Ranks: Sword (*), Lance (B)
Items: Steel Sword, Iron Lance
Skill: Pursuit


Alright, so here is our main character, Sigurd himself! How good is he? Is he any better than his men? Well, actually, he is pretty good. No, great actually! Superb even! Wait, even that's not good enough...so how do I put this...? Oh, wait...I know. How about this?

:)

Sigurd is, without a doubt, the absolute best unit in the entire game. I mean, first of all, just look at that Strength! It isso high, that Alec can literally gain 16 Levels, and STILL be one point weaker than Sigurd is...AT LEVEL FIIIVE!! HIS STARTING LEVEL!! And units can only go up to Level 30, so even counting promotion bonuses, there's no way Alec is ever passing him up. In addition, Sigurd has Pursuit as well, so neither of those two even come close to him. Oh, and he's got a B Rank in Lances, and a * Rank in swords. So even if we don't count his 50% Strength growth, he's already way better at hitting things than his three buddies will ever be.

And then finally, we have those growths...those beautiful, beautiful growths. First of all, that 110% growth is amazing. Basically, if you have a growth rate of over 100% in any area, you are not only guaranteed a 1 point boost in that stat every level, but you could even get a 2+ boost there! That's right, Sigurd can actually get 2+ HP per level if he gets lucky!

Furthermore, the rest of his growths are also amazing. They're like if you took all of the best qualities from Alec, Noish, and Ardan, and then put them all on one character, with none of their weaknesses!

Because of that, if Noish, Alec, and Ardan are Chiaotzu, Yamcha, and Yajirobe...this guy would be Goku. So he doesn't care about his kid and dies a lot? - GMArcturus He's always way ahead of everyone else, useful in literally ever possible situation, is always getting stronger and stronger...and he even inspires others! No really, he's got two leadership stars, so he even gives a 10+ Hit and Evade boost to anyone who's within 3 spaces of him! So use him, love him, and never leave the castle without him!

Undoubtedly the second best unit in the series after Robin in FE13. He obviously has great stats, growths, and movement, and with b lances and * swords he can use pretty much any weapon you would ever want him to use (axes are bad.) To give a bit more detail on how amazing his stats, with no growths Sigurd remains a powerful cavalry unit until the end of chapter 3. Yes, his bases only start to fail him two thirds through his part of the game. And he has amazing growths. What a guy.

So all that gushing aside...let's talk about the Rankings for a bit, in a little section that I'm blatantly stealing "homaging" from Melth's LPs of FE6 and 7...



The War Room, Part 1 (What Is Max Ranking About?)

Yeah, about time I talked about this. Can't very well get invested in a "Max Rank" run if you don't even know what that looks like, right? So then, when you play all the way through to the end of the game, there's going to be a scoreboard where the game basically tells you how well it thinks you did based on these four items...

Survival: This one is pretty simple. Get every single playable character (not everyone is gotten automatically like Sigurd and his gang are), and then have every single one of them alive by the end of the game. Do that, and you'll get an A Rank, the highest rank you can get! Otherwise, if 1 dies, it's a B Rank. If 2 die, it's a C Rank, and etc. etc.

Tactics: So remember how I said that you and the A.I. take turns attacking each other? Well this judges you on just how many turns you took to beat the entire game. So if it took you 399 Turns or less to beat it, great! You get an A Rank! But if you took 400-549 turns, then you get a B Rank, and if you took even more than that...well, you get the idea.

Honestly, this is a really easy category to do well in, because even the A Rank requirement is pretty lenient. It's so lenient in fact, that I've even seen people exceed it by more than 120 turns!

I watched a nicovideo playthrough where someone exceeded the requirement by 239 turns (but with A LOT of rng abuse.) Needless to say, this is pretty lenient.

Indeed. The next one however...

Experience: Now here's where it starts to get tricky. This ranking judges you based on how many Level Ups you got by the end of the game for all the different characters. If you got 1000 or more level ups, you get an A Rank.

The problem with that though is that you actually don't really have that many levels available to gain to begin with. In fact, between all of the characters in the game, they only have 1165 total levels. Not unreasonable at all, certainly, but it still doesn't leave that much wiggle room for being lazy, even if it means...*gulp*...training Noish :gonk:...

That there is one of the biggest challenges in a Maxed Rank run. I don't have to use absolutely everyone...but I do have to use many of the worst characters in the game, so I have to somehow find ways to make them usable despite all their problems.

Eww we have to train Arden?

:shrug:

And then there's a second problem. This is getting into slight spoiler territory, but this game is actually divided into two distinct halves in terms of plot. Right now we're in the first half, with Sigurd and friends, but after Chapter 5, there's going to be a time skip of about 17 years. So at the start of Chapter 6, we're going to have a whole new cast of characters. And the only Generation 1 character who's actually going to join the Generation 2 cast is a guy called Fin. So if you don't get at least 487 non-Fin levels by the end of Chapter 5, you'll have already failed the Exp. rank, even if you get everyone in Generation 2 to Level 30.

And actually, for all intents and purposes, the cut-off point for a good Exp. Rank is Chapter 2, because there's a LOT of important stuff that happens there, like getting a ton of optional items you won't get anywhere else, getting tons of Gold, and even leveling up a character that's only fully usable for that one chapter. So you really CAN'T just take a "learn-as-you-go" approach to Max Ranking this game. No, you have to have things fully figured out by the time you get to Chapter 2, otherwise you're at a real risk of never recovering from a disastrous Chapter 2 run.

That said, there is some good news. If you DO get past Chapter 5 with all the levels you need, and in a decent amount of turns, you're already going to be in a pretty great position to A Rank Exp. Because for reasons I won't get into just yet, the Gen 2 cast are WAY stronger than the Gen 1 cast! Plus, you have a lot of valuable, overpowered items at the start that you don't have right now, and enemies are much more numerous, and much higher leveled! So it's not like the Exp. Rank is that grueling, you just have to be careful, that's all.

Combat: Oh boy...here's the most jerkish rank of them all. So, the Exp. Rank is tough but manageable. But this is just unfair. Basically, you can't have more than three deaths by the end of the playthrough.

At first that sounds redundant since there's already a Survival rank, but there's more to it than that. Suppose you saved your game (you can save at the beginning of every Turn in this game), and one of your units die. "No big deal' you may think. 'I'll just reset the game, and then my character won't be dead! Problem solved!" Except no, that's not the case. Because in this game, each character has their own personal score for how often they've "won" a fight (meaning they killed someone) and how often they've "lost" (how often they've been killed). And even if you reset the game, the game will still remember that your character lost, and will keep penalizing you for that until you restart the Chapter itself.

"Ok, that sounds annoying...' you think in response to this. 'But hey, I have a clever idea! How about, every time I save, I keep using a different file each time! That way, if someone gets killed on Turn 11, on File 3, I'll just switch to File 2, where I saved on Turn 10! That oughtta work, right?" Well, let's see how that works...



...

........

Yes, that's right. The game designers were so cruel, that they actually made the game track deaths that you suffered on other files!! Or at least, other files you saved on within the same Chapter. So the only way you can erase those Losses is by restarting the entire chapter, no getting around it.

At this point, you're probably getting desperate...you're just SO angry at this requirement, that then you have one more hare-brained idea. "Suppose I get into combat with someone who will kill me...but I reset, BEFORE that person actually lands the finishing blow? Like, if I redid that fight between Noish and that flying thing, but then reset the game right at...'




'...this point here. Might that work?" Again, the answer is no. Because apparently, all of the battle calculations and all that are done BEFORE any of the animations ever play, so the only way to avoid a "loss" is to avoid that fight altogether.

Trust me. When the game tells you "do not ever die"...it REALLY means, "do not ever die"! And that's part of why I created this specific route to make getting the maximum ranks as easy and efficient as possible. This route isn't going to involve many of the fancy tricks found in all the other completed AAAA Rank runs, but it WILL be easily replicable AND quick!

So that's our first little "War Room" session over. But of course, there will be more, as these will be the segments where I explain how to more effectively play the game, just like in Melth's Max Rank runs! So back to the game...



Playing Through



If you press the A button on any space with no unit on it, you'll get these menus. Most of these aren't too important, but you'll note the "Save" option. As I alluded to earlier, you can save your game at the beginning of your turn as long as you don't actually move any of your units. Once that happens, you have to wait until your next turn to save again.



Then here's the Configuration menu. Message speed decides how fast text boxes go, Enemy Speed determines how quickly the A.I. moves it's own units when it's turn comes (so don't worry, the enemies themselves don't get any stronger), and then Auto Cursor makes it so that the cursor starts on Sigurd every time your turn begins. Otherwise, it just starts at whatever spot it was at when you ended your previous turn.

As for Auto-Save, this is pretty important. Turning this on means that at the beginning of every turn, you'll get a prompt that asks if you want to save on the specified file (in this case, File 4). As you're going through this game, you're always going to want to be saving every turn, that way if you slip up, or decide you want to redo something, you can just load up your turn, and try it again. But at the same time, you don't want to mess yourself up by not giving yourself a chance to go back to an earlier turn as well. So here's what I do...



Basically, I keep a save at the very beginning of the chapter. Then every time I conquer a castle before the end of the map, I create a save point at that specific spot. And then File 4 is the one I'm saving on every turn. This system here will allow you to reset if you incur a "Loss" while still giving you some flexibility to fix whatever mistakes you made without having to restart the chapter.

As for Normal vs. Hard A.I., Hard A.I. Is a setting that you unlock after beating the game at least once. It's supposed to make the game more challenging...but really, all it does is make the enemy more predictable. To give you an example, suppose you're fighting 8 enemies, and all of your units are at full health, except for Alec. On Normal Mode, the enemies will choose who they attack more or less at random, with some guys attacking Sigurd, some guys attacking Noish, and etc. But on Hard Mode, every one of those guys will immediately dog pile on Alec until he's dead. Sounds bad...

Except, you really shouldn't be risking low health units like that anyway, especially on a Max Ranked playthrough. So because of stuff like that (there are other A.I. changes), all that happens is that the enemies become easier to manipulate, because now you know exactly who they're going to attack, rather than having to guess at it. Because of that, I actually think Normal mode is the harder mode, at least for me. So that's what I'm sticking with.

So let's like, actually play the game, shall we?


Turn 1:



Now then, normally you'd want to put Sigurd on the forest tile (the tree) near him, because those give you a 20+ boost to Avoid. But not me! Every move I make from now until Turn 4 is one specifically designed to take advantage of the Random Number Generator (that's what handles "random" occurences in this game) in order to give Sigurd awesome level ups! So if you want to follow along with me, follow the pics to the letter. Otherwise, just head to Jungby with Sigurd, save the villages with Alec and Noish, and remember that Forests are awesome!

FionordeQuester doesn't like to manipulate the random number generator so it won't be too important for this play through, but I'll explain a little bit more about how it's "random." The RNG is deterministic, meaning that if you play the game the exact same way multiple times the same random numbers will be generated and the output will be identical. The AI uses random numbers sometimes to decide who to attack, seeing whether attacks hit or not uses random numbers, as does checking if skills activate, and level ups use RN's to see which stats are gained. In every chapter with an arena (ie any chapter other than the prologue and 6) you can abuse the arena to rig whatever outcomes you want, but you won't see any of that here.

Well, you might see teensy, tinsy fragments of it, since winning Arena fights is so important to A Ranking experience. But yeah, if it is there at all, it's going to be EXTREMELY minimal, to the point where half of the Gen 1 route is me going out of my way to make it unnecessary. Now then...



There we go. Remember, the colored arrows are color coded to each character. Since Alec is the green knight, he gets a green arrow, and since Noish is the red knight, he gets a red arrow!



So now it's the enemy's turn.



And hey, more story!

Gandolf: Never mind, I’ll do it meself!



:ohdear:





Gandolf: But I've gotcha now. Die!



Yeah, dude never really had a chance, did he? I mean yeesh, did you see the Defense Gandolf had? I mean, yikes! Sigurd is literally the only guy on our time who actually has a fair chance against Gandolf right now! Craziness I tell you!





Uh oh.





Gandolf: Hell, we may even press on to Barhara. There’d be no one to stop us if we did! Make yourselves at home here, boys. Anything goes!

DiMaggio: Heh… you can count on us for that.

You know, I always have to question Gandolf's intelligence here. The whole reason he's attacking Grandbell in the first place is because most of it's military is currently stationed in Isaac. And that's fine for right now...but, just WHAT does he plan on doing when said military gets back? The game hasn't really made this clear yet, but Grandbell is basically the local super power on the continent. It is to the world of Jugdral what the United States is to the rest of our world. It is so strong in fact, that Sigurd and his men, alone though they are, are still going to be strong enough to drive them back. And the game literally just got through saying that they're only a tiny fragment of Grandbell's army...

So who cares how far Gandolf and his men go right now? Yeah, they're doing good NOW, but they're doomed the moment Lord Bryon and the rest of the military gets back! These guys are going to get slaughtered so hard, they're practically going to be scraping blood n' guts off the walls by the time Grandbell is done with them! And once that's done, WHOOP, there goes Verdane! Because if the people were SO upset at Isaac just for attacking an Isaacian town they felt some kinship with, there's NO WAY they're going to let THIS incident go!

Methinks these guys didn't think very far ahead -_- ...





Yes there's a point to the above image.









Well, that's a very Gandolf thing to do isn't it? Dude's living up to his name :cheeky:.



Gandolf: She’s my booty! I’m takin’ her back to be my wife. She’s a keeper, wouldn’t ya say?

Gerrard: Yeah, she’s makin’ my mouth water.

Gandolf: You wipe that grin off your face! You’ll get your needs met once Grandbell is ours. Show a little self-control till then.

Not technically a mis-translation, but this patch actually downplays the horrors of what Gandolf and Co. plan on doing. BookofHolsety's script? That one has Gandolf saying that Gerrard would "get his pick of all Grannvale" once they're done conquering it...

:gonk:

Aideen: You’re all animals… Dear Lord, please instill these people with a little decency.

Gandolf: What’re you mumblin’ about!? We’re goin’! No fallin’ behind this time!





Yeah, the game doesn't flat out tell you this right now, but Genoa is where Kinbois and his men are, and...it looks like it should be pretty far away, right? Yet Gandolf's just casually strolling there in just a few seconds?

Really, that's one of the most hilarious things about this game. Just about EVERYONE in it has this inexplicable ability to just haul rear from one end of a kingdom, all the way to the other, and then to another corner of it, and then RIGHT back to where they started, all in less than a minute. Heck, that's what Gandolf and Aideen just did, going from Jungby all the way to Evans in like what, 10 seconds?

I can only imagine that if Gandolf were ever to wake up one day, and decide "you know what? I feel like jogging to the opposite fricken end of the continent, where Ganeshire is. Because that sounds like fun"...it might take him like, 5 minutes, tops. And if he were to then decide to run a lap around Jugdral? 25 minutes, maybe 30 if he decided to take Aideen along, and she felt like taking a water break at some point. Funny stuff man.





So time to deal with these lovely human beings...



There's one now!





Dang, 10 Damage? At 25% hit rate? That's too bad! Except not really, because that's actually exactly what's supposed to happen if I want those three awesome levels for Sigurd :cheeky: .

The RNG is configured at the beginning so that someone is almost guaranteed to get hit despite the barbarians' low hit rates. This can be seriously annoying in drafts.





Now if ALEC had been hit, well, THEN that would've been bad. But he wasn't, so that's good. It's just too bad he can't do more damage to that Axefighter. Yeah, he two-rounds him, but these are literally the weakest enemies in the game right here :P ...



Now in addition to regular Axefighters, there are also enemies called "MBandits", whose sprites look a bit different than the other Axe dudes. THESE guys won't ever actually attack your units. No, instead, they go to Villages, and then start torching them the way this guy is doing.

As for what Villages do, each one you visit can give you a Maximum of 5,000 Gold if you visit them. But unfortunately, you lose 500 Gold off of that amount for every time a village gets attacked by an MBandit. So we'd best kill that MBandit quick!





So it is now the start of our second turn and...





Ah, look who's here! More blue guys!



Lex: He’ll sure be happy to see us. You just can’t stay out of these things, can you, Azel…

Azel: Yeah, but with the military on engagement to Isaac, Grandbell’s completely strapped! Sigurd and the few soldiers left in Chalphy are out here fighting for their lives! I can’t just leave them hanging…

Lex: Oh really… I’m not quite buying your story, Azel. What aren’t you telling me?

Azel: Wh…what’re you talking about!?

Lex: I’d surmise that you’re all worked up about Lady Adean of Jungby. I know you like her.

Azel: Y…you’re nuts!

Lex: A-ha! Face is getting red there, buddy! You little player you.

Creative Liberty #2: Original script is more like "Ha! You're so cute" on that second sentence :3:

Azel: Lex, knock it off! Now come on, let’s get going.

Lex: Hahahaa… Alright, let’s do this. Finally, a chance to kick some rear end.

And kick butt we shall :black101: ! But first, let's cover our new characters!



Level 1 Mage

HP: 30 (70%) Spd: 9 (50%)
Str: 0 (10%) Lck: 2 (20%)
Mag: 10 (40%) Def: 2 (20%)
Skl: 7 (20%) Res: 6 (10%)

Move: 5
Weapon Ranks: Fire (B), Thunder (C), Wind (C)
Items: Fire Tome
Skill: Pursuit


Well, he's certainly...specialized, isn't he? Gets a ton of Magic and Speed but not a whole lot of anything else. Combine that with his low HP and Defense, and you've got yourself what we RPG gamers like to call a "glass cannon". Someone who can dish out a lot of punishment, but can't take much back...

Or at least, that's what Azel would be if Fire Magic didn't STINK! Yeah, just like the Weapon Triangle I mentioned last update, there's also a Magic Triangle. Thunder beat Fire, Wind beats Thunder, and Fire beats Wind. But the problem is, unlike the Weapon triangle, where each type of weapon had it's own pros and cons, Fire magic has NO advantages over Thunder or Wind. Each kind of magic has the EXACT same Might, and the EXACT same Accuracy. The only difference between the types is that Wind Tomes have a weight of 2, Thunder Tomes have a weight of 7, and Fire Tomes have a weight of 12.

That is literally the ONLY difference between them. So basically, despite having high starting Speed and a nice Speed growth, Azel actually ends up being even slower than Ardan because of how heavy Fire Magic is! So while he can still double a lot of these beginning enemies (they're pretty slow after all), he can't Dodge very well at all. So in addition to having the Ardan problem of having only 5 Move, you can't really even use him without constantly having to protect him! So I guess that would make him like Tien. He'll slam you with one or two really, REALLY good attacks...but then drop like a fly the moment his foe actually gets to attack. Because he's so fragile, he may as well be made of styrofoam...

Things do eventually get better for him though. As you can see, he's got some mastery in Thunder and Wind magic as well, AND his offense is actually really good, so he DOES actually have a niche. Plus, he even gets a horse upon promotion! So eventually he'll get better...at like, Chapter 4. Till then, he's...not gonna get a lot of use :sigh: ...

Yeah. If he started mounted he'd be great but... yeah... Azel is actually good when promoted because not many physical units have strong 1-2 range in this game, but getting him there is an ordeal. And fire magic is just bad.



Level 4 Axe Knight

HP: 33 (90%) Spd: 11 (20%)
Str: 10 (40%) Lck: 8 (20%)
Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 9 (50%)
Skl: 10 (20%) Res: 0 (5%)

Move: 5
Weapon Ranks: Axe (A)
Items: Iron Axe
Skill: Ambush (Always attack before enemy when less than half HP), Elite (Doubles Exp. Gained)


This guy right here is the exact opposite of Azel in terms of growths, and he's got Ambush. In fact, he's basically Ardan, but on a horse, and with powerful axes rather than weak swords. And that's not a bad way to be actually. Already that makes him at least kind of decent, since it solves one of Ardan's main problems, and makes the other one a little more bearable.

What REALLY makes him though is Elite. Yes, when I say it doubles Exp. gained, I mean ALL Exp. gained! This guy actually grows TWICE as fast as everyone else on your team, which is exactly as amazing as it sounds. So if he gets lucky on his Defense growth, you're going to have someone who's as durable as Sigurd, if not more so!

Only thing is though, he doesn't have Pursuit. He's one of the few units in the game who still manages to be useful despite that weakness, but that still cuts into his offense a lot. But that's ok. He's going to be getting a very special weapon very soon, one that allows him to execute TWO attacks! And unlike Pursuit, this weapon allows him to attack consecutively, so if he's strong enough to kill someone in two hits, they won't even get a chance to attack! And once he combines that weapon with his high Strength and Durability...dude's gonna rock your socks off! At least until Chapter 5, where his offense starts tapering off slightly, but Gen 1 is basically over at that point.

So I guess I'd compare the guy to Piccolo. He starts off just good, but then becomes AMAZING the instant he gets the power up that he needs. And then after that, he pretty much always remains strong. Definitely use him, immediately!

Very good, and Elite means you essentially don't have to worry about his experience. Essentially a mounted and spiked brick wall.



Oh, and save first of course :) !



So if you did exactly what I did on Turn 1, you'll want to have Noish attack this MBandit from this spot here before you do ANYTHING else, because...





He'll activate Charge and kill him outright! Seems a bit contradictory considering I dissed it so badly, but trust me, there ARE quite a few ways to make it useful on units who don't have Noish's weaknesses.

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Jun 24, 2015

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make


Now then, one amazing thing about Social Knights and other mounted units is that in addition to their high Move, they can also move AGAIN after attacking an enemy! But they can only move by the amount of unused movement squares they have. So if Noish here had traveled just one square to attack the MBandit, he'd be able to move 7 more squares after attacking. But if he has to use 7 squares just to reach the MBandit in the first place, he'd only be able to move 1 more square after attacking.

Even still though, it is perhaps one of the most useful abilities in the game. In fact, it may even be TOO good. Because combine this with the giant maps, and the high Movement that mounted units have, and you're creating a situation where foot units like Ardan and Azel pretty much HAVE to have awesome stats and skills just to justify their usage. Rather unfortunate, that...



Fortunately though, Azel already starts really close to the action, so let's use him a bit, shall we? One neat thing about Magic is that it's a 1-2 Range weapon, meaning that it can attack from either 1 square away, or 2 squares away. And if you attack an enemy from 2 squares away, and that enemy only has a 1 Range weapon...



You can pretty much kill them without risk of harm! Of course, that only works out if he's not in range of a ton of other enemies as well. If he is, he'll probably die due to everyone doing like, 20+ Damage per hit to him. Still, he IS relatively useful for this small part of the Prologue.



Still setting up for those awesome level ups, hence this seemingly nonsense move.



Alright, now it's time to defeat the archer! Speaking of archers, they are another physical class, except they use bows and arrows rather than the other three weapons. These weapons can shoot from 2 squares away, but unfortunately, they CANNOT shoot from 1 square away. So if someone like Sigurd attacks them from 1 square away like so...



They have the exact same problem as the MBandit did against Azel. They can't counter-attack at all!



Also, another benefit to being a mounted unit. You can also do THIS!



Yeah, you can actually change weapons on the fly! Technically, foot units can do this as well, but they can't do it immediately after attacking someone like mounted units can. The minute they attack someone, they're stuck with whatever they attacked with until your next turn. But if you're, say, Sigurd, you can use the Iron Lance on archers to conserve Steel Sword uses...



And then switch right back to swords, making it so that the Axefighters still can't easily hit him! Pretty neat, and part of what makes Sigurd so insane actually. Dude is just so useful :allears:.



So that's the turn. I didn't do anything with Alec or Ardan because they would mess up the awesome level ups.





Fortunately, the Axefighter is dumb, so he all but throws himself upon Alec's blade. In fact, almost ALL enemies will fight to the death, no matter HOW hopelessly outmatched they are, which is...kind of odd, to say the least. Speaking of suicidal enemies...



Two more enemies get themselves killed trying to take on Sigurd, and gives him just enough Exp. to finally reach Level 6! So here's the first of three awesome level ups I've been hyping so much. What will it look like?



It looks awesome of course! Would've been nice to get Defense of course, but Speed and Strength (especially Strength!) are especially great things to get this early in the game. In fact, part of the reason I'm manipulating the game like this is because I want Sigurd to get at least 2 points of Strength before he takes on DiMaggio and his gang. And of course, since we don't have very many units right now, and since this is right in the beginning of the game (the Random Number Generator will ALWAYS generate the same string of random numbers every time you start a new game), manipulating level ups like this is much simply than it would otherwise be later on.

That said though, if I really wanted to, I could have just literally made a turn-by-turn guide for literally the ENTIRE game. After all, why not? Like I said, the string of random numbers generated by the game when you start a new file is exactly the same every time, so I could theoretically do that. But obviously that wouldn't be a lot of fun, so we're going to stop doing this once Sigurd gets to Level 8. But for now, this will help to make the Prologue go a little more smoothly, for reasons you will see later on.

If you don't get two points of strength on Sigurd you can work around it by having him use the iron lance instead at one point. It has two higher might than the steel sword which makes strength procs unnecessary, but then it's a bit of headache to manage Sigurd's health, so doing it this way is better.



Back to the game, one thing you will find here is that Magic Tomes and Bows aren't the ONLY way to attack from range. No, there are actually weapons called Hand Axes and Javelins that can attack from 1 square away AND from 2 squares away, which also means that when you equip them, NO one will be able to attack them without getting hit themselves. There is one weakness to them however...



For however useful they can be at times, they have TERRIBLE stats! For reference, the Iron Axe, the second weakest axein the game, has 70 Hit, 14 Might, and 18 Weight. Even with just those stats, it is fairly inaccurate and very heavy compared to other weapons. But the Hand Axe? That has 50 Hit, 10 Might, and 20 Weight! And the Javelin is even worse compared to the regular Iron Lance. That doesn't suffer a Might drop, but it makes up for that by having 18 Weight as opposed to the regular 12 Weight.

So if it weren't for their 1-2 Range capabilities, they would be the worst weapons in the game, by far.



Now then, Azel dispatches an Axe Fighter that tries to attack him.



And then the Sigurd pain train continues as two more Axefighters pointlessly kill themselves! Then at the end of the enemy phase...





Three more new playable characters show up! Awesome!



Ooooh, we're getting more magic are we :allears: ?

Ethlin: I’m sure I can put my Live Staff to some use around here. I’m sorry to pull you into this, Cuan. I know I’m no longer a Chalphy, but I can’t just sit back and do nothing. On my brother’s behalf, thank you so much for coming.

I'm bolding this particular point because this part expresses an...interesting thing about Japanese culture that kind of gets lost in translation when translated literally. You see, Japan is definitely a wonderful culture in many ways. I love the messages that are always being touted by their anime, I love their culture, I was inspired to become a martial artist because of them...heck, I'm even planning on learning their language, and have already taken Japanese 1!

But, every culture has their warts, and in Japan's case, it is...more than...a little sexist. Or at least, sexism has been a problem in the past for them, don't know if that's already gotten better for them or not. But the way it relates to this is that, when you're a woman, and you marry into your husband's family...you're apparently supposed to kind of cut ties with your original family. It's like you get assimilated into your husband's family, to the point where they're supposed to be a bigger priority than the family you came from. As expressed by an anecdote that I once read from one of BookofHolsety's proofreaders...

Amellion posted:

The literal meaning behind Ethlyn's words is a pretty big deal if you're familiar with Asian sexism. When my aunt (dad's brother's wife) brought back treats from America for her siblings' children, her husband said, "Why are you still thinking of them? You're not a Zhou anymore, you're part of the [my last name] family now."

So yeah, I'm pretty sure Ethlyn's line is ... that thing.

So that's pretty messed up I think. Count that in with Gandolf's plans for the Grandbellian women, all the stuff that happens with a very important, plot critical female later on, and some other stuff we'll see in the future, and the story makes it pretty clear that Jugdral is not a safe place for the women who live on it. I mean, nothing really bad happens on screen (nothing M-rated anyway), but there's plenty that happens off-screen.

Which is actually the case for MOST of the world even today...but I digress. Don't worry, the game doesn't dwell on it too much, and in fact, most Fire Emblem games are a little more child friendly as far as that goes. This one just happens to be a little more mature than most of them. So anyways, back to our plot.

Cuan: You don’t need to thank me, Ethlin. You know Sigurd and I go way back. Not to mention that he’s my brother-in-law now. Besides, I can’t have you fighting alone.

Ethlin: I sure appreciate it, dear.

Fortunately, Cuan is a total bro about the whole thing, so none of the stuff I mentioned ends up being a problem :) .

???: Forgive me for interrupting, but we should hurry. The battle is just up ahead.

Yes it is, blue-haired guy. Yes it is. Actually, what's your name again?



Level 1 Lance Knight

HP: 32 (70%) Spd: 10 (30%)
Str: 9 (30%) Lck: 8 (50%)
Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 7 (30%)
Skl: 8 (40%) Res: 0 (5%)

Move: 8
Weapon Ranks: Lance (B)
Items: Iron Lance
Skill: Pursuit, Prayer (When under 11 HP, Evade rises by [(11 - HP) x 10] for one turn)


Oh yeah, that's right! Fin! Anyways, Fin is basically Alec, but with Prayer instead of Nihil, and access to stronger weapons. No, seriously, look at his growths! They are literally the exact same, aside from Fin having 20% higher Luck!

In spite of that though, Fin actually is a lot more helpful than Alec is, partially due to having access to stronger weapons earlier on (before the really powerful swords start showing up), partially due to getting free gifts that Alec doesn't get (you'll see later), but mainly due to the fact that Prayer is absolutely AMAZING if you know how to use it right.

You see, since Lances have a lot more oomph to them than Swords (at least for now), Fin actually does pretty good damage to people in spite of his weaknesses. And if you can get him in a situation where he's dropped to say, 1 HP, while he's surrounded by enemies, he will literally gain a 100 point boost in Evade, dodge every single attack, and then kill every single enemy. And this is something that is EXTREMELY useful to have as you go through the game, especially in Chapter 2. And what's more, this guy actually WILL show up for Generation 2, which means you're going to get more use out of him than most of the other characters.

So, I guess the guy's kind of like Gohan. Pretty young, but also pretty good at fighting. Not AS good at it as some of the other hitters...but still better than a lot of the others. Plus, he's got one HECK of a second wind, one that he WILL unleash on you if you push him into a corner (though it only lasts for a short time).

Absolutely amazing. Prayer is ridiculous if you plan things right. Seriously. Even DEIDRE [a later playable unit] can be made useful with prayer.



Level 5 Duke Knight

HP: 32 (110%) Spd: 10 (40%)
Str: 16 (50%) Lck: 5 (10%)
Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 10 (50%)
Skl: 10 (30%) Res: 0 (5%)

Move: 9
Weapon Ranks: Lance (*)
Items: Steel Lance, Javelin
Skill: Continue (Sometimes allows a consecutive attack. Activation Rate = (Attack Speed +20)%


So, you may have thought that Sigurd was the best character in the game. You may have thought that nobody was as broken as him. You may have thought that no one as strong as him...And you'd be right, but this guy definitely takes second place (yeah, I know there's Holsety!Levin, but he really only gets to flex his muscles in Chapter 5 if you're moving at a decent clip).

I mean look at that Strength! Even Sigurd doesn't start with as much! Plus, he has access to almost every single lance in the game. What this means is that his attack is so absurdly high, that he's one of the few units in this game who can not only survive, but thrive, even WITHOUT Pursuit. But if he DOES get it...oh baby!

Plus, the guy's Defensive growth is also through the roof. So essentially, this guy actually manages to be an even stronger version of Lex, the same guy who is already one of the strongest Generation 1 units you will get. Oh, and Continue is awesome of course. I mean, check it out.



BAM! Instant death upon activation! Basically, Continue is like Pursuit, except, it actually allows you to attack twice BEFORE the enemy ever gets a chance to hit you. Of course, as you can see, it doesn't activate nearly as often as Pursuit (which is 100%), so of course you can't build strategies that rely upon it. But when it DOES activate for Cuan, you can pretty much say goodbye to whoever he's fighting.

So really, Cuan's only issue is that he's exclusively a lance user, when almost every enemy here and in Chapter 1 use axes. But he's tough enough to take the hits, he has enough Move to get out of danger, and he's already got a Javelin to snipe with, so it's all good. All in all, this guy is Vegeta, except without the attitude. He's not quite as good as Sigurd, he' never that far behind him, and he is the ONLY guy in all Gen 1 that can actually say that.

Beast.



Level 1 Troubador

HP: 28 (60%) Spd: 12 (30%)
Str: 5 (30%) Lck: 8 (20%)
Mag: 8 (5%) Def: 4 (20%)
Skl: 11 (30%) Res: 6 (10%)

Move: 8
Weapon Ranks: Sword (A), Staves (C)
Items: Slim Sword, Live Staff
Skill: Critical (sometimes doubles Attack Power)


So Ethlin...yeah, she has swords, but she's definitely not made to be a front-line unit :sweatdrop:. But that's ok though, because she can do this!



"Whoa! You can actually heal people in this game?" Why yes you can! You see, staves are magic items that can actually heal people by varying amounts depending on what kind you use. For example, the basic Live staff heals units by Restores ally’s HP by [10 + caster's Mag], but later healing staves will be even better than that. And then OTHER staves will have some offensive purposes, like nullifying enemy magic, or putting enemies to sleep, or even reviving dead units (without removing their recorded "Losses" of course)!

There are other ways to heal people, but staves are far and away the most convenient and effective way of doing so, ESPECIALLY when the one using them is on a horse, like Ethlin! And really, that's all she needs to make her one of the most useful Generation 1 units you can have. So basically, she's Bulma. She can't scrap the way Sigurd and Cuan can, but she is SO insanely useful as a support unit, that she's still one of the best people you have anyways, so you will ALWAYS want to be using her...

No but seriously, Bulma probably contributed way more to saving the world than most of the Z fighters ever have. Seriously, she invented the Dragon Radar to help get the Dragon Balls, she made the ship that allowed everyone to go to Namek and revive their friends, she found Dr. Gero's lab, she and Trunks were one of the main reasons why Vegeta eventually became a good guy, she invented the remote that would've instantly shut down #17 and #18, and INVENTED A FRICKEN TIME MACHINE (the ONLY reason why the Cell Saga had a happy ending)!! When you really stop and think about it, Earth probably would've been destroyed like 17 times over if it weren't for her.

Another perk of Ethlin is that she gives Sigurd and Cuan +10% to evade and hit rates due to sibling/lover supports. Essentially, if you are within three squares of a sibling/lover you gain a +10% bonus to evade/hit, and this stacks with leadership/other bonuses. A unit also temporarily gains the critical skill if they attack while adjacent to their lover/sibling. Anyways, if Ethlin, Sigurd, and Cuan are all within 3 squares of each other Sigurd and Cuan get a +20% boost to hit/evade and Ethlin gets a +30% boost, which is ridiculous. Furthermore, the AI likes to attack Ethlin way too much, which can be incredibly helpful to sheild more vulnerable units. She is weak defensively, but with weapon triangle advantage, high evade to begin with, and a +30% boost Ethlin is extremely dodgy. Definitely one of the best units in the game, she has so many uses.





So back to the game. First, let's put Noish back here so he doesn't get in the way of Sigurd's level ups. Like so. And then we come to yet another mechanic in Fire Emblem 4 (don't worry, I promise this will be short).



WHOOA!! LOOK AT THAT MOVEMENT RANGE!! But, isn't Cuan only supposed to have 9 Move? So what in the world is this :stare: ?

Well, in addition to Forest terrain, which I covered earlier, there are also Road terrain, Village Terrain, Mountain Terrain, and other kinds. And Road Terrain is peculiar in that it can actually BOOST your movement depending on how many Road squares you can step across with your natural movement. Basically, if you can manage to step across 3-4 Road tiles total, you'll get a 1-Square boost to your movement. If you step across 5-6 Road tiles, that will give you a 2-Square boost instead of just 1. If you step across 7-9 Road tiles, that gives you a 3-Square boost. And then finally, if you step across 10+ Road tiles, that will give you a 4-Square boost. After that, no more movement boosts are available, no matter how high you pump your Move.

Note when I say "step across the tiles", I'm not counting any Road tiles your unit is already standing on. Those won't do anything for you. But fortunately, you don't have to go through the tiles in order. If you have a 6 Move unit who steps across a Plains tile, then a Road tile, then a Plains tile, then another Road tile, and etc., they'll still the 1-square boost to their movement...

At least, I firmly believe that this is how it works. I know it's not a purely linear formula due to the fact that the boost caps off at 4 squares, but I don't have the official (Japan only) strategy guide or anything like that. I worked this out purely based on trial-and-error. So then...



I put Cuan right here, and then equip him with a Javelin so he can fight a nearby Hand Axe guy. And then...





I move the rest of my units like so! I'm not having Lex or Azel pick up any of the villages, partially because they don't need it, and partially because they've still got more villages to save. Now as for Sigurd...



He moves right here and equips the Steel Sword immediately after bumping off the archer in his way. Now let's see how the next enemy phase goes!









Well, seems everyone has things well in hand. Let's see what level up we get this time!

2+ HP! 1+ Skl! 1+ Str! 1+ Spd! 1+ Lck! 1+ Def!

Ha! Now THAT'S a level up! And that Strength boost right there is the last one we really need in order to make the rest of the Prologue a joke for Sigurd, because now, this guy literally kills EVERYONE! Well, except the Hand Axe guys. Technically DiMaggio as well, but, now we can kill him in just 3 hits instead of 4. So as long as Sigurd dodges just one of his attacks, he'll be essentially in the clear!







In other news, these three MBandits have reached the villages, and are now putting them to the torch! I sure hope we can make it there in time :ohdear:. Maybe if we got some more allies next turn?





Nope! Looks like the game's finally done giving us new units for now. Looks like we'll just have to push on through!



Now then, as I said earlier, the last Sigurd level up we got was the last perfect one we really needed. In fact, it's the last one you're going to be able to get if you're playing on Hard A.I., since the A.I. moves it's units a little differently in that mode.

That said though...we're going to go ahead and get one last perfect level up, just because it's easy, so why not? To that end, we'll want Azel to go where he is now, and then NOT ATTACK. Repeat, move him 2 squares west of this guy, and DO NOT ATTACK!



And then move Lex exactly one square west. I repeat, move him exactly. One. Square. West :cheeky:.



Then move Fin here after he kills the Axefighter...



Then Alec and Ethlin move like this, with Ethlin healing Fin...



Sigurd kills one of the three guys guarding DiMaggio (they don't ever move just so you know), then parks himself right in front of him...



And then Noish heads on over to the nearest village. Because you know, we're KIND OF supposed to have started visiting them a while ago? Guess we kind of forgot about that :shrug:.



Now then...here we go...



Azel dodges...



Gets a one point level up to exactly the stat he needs most...



And finally, he narrowly avoids death as he turns the Axefighter into a crusty cinder.



Cuan shows another Axefighter how long ranged combat is done...



And then two more Axefighters are kill by Sigurd. And that's all the small fry out of the way.

Yeah, Sigurd can also use an iron lance here to kill this barbarian at base strength, but unless you plan very carefully he will probably get hit, and there are so many enemies near Dimmagio that as good as Sigurd is things can get dicey.





AND NOW! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME TO THE FIRST, ANNUAL FIRE EMBLEM DEATH MATCH!! IN THE BLUE CORNER, WE HAVE SIGURD, COMING IN WITH 13 WINS AND 0 LOSSES! AND IN THE RED CORNER, WE HAVE...DiiiMAAAAAGIO!!



Oooh, and the trash talk has started ALREEEADY! Sigurd doesn't say a word, but you can practically feel the tension in the air! He looks like he could pounce at any minute!



Who will win this fight? Does Sigurd have a chance? He's made an explosive entry into the Jungby scene, but can he procure his first win here in the Holy War division? Let's find out in 3...2....1...



GOOOOOOOOOO!!!



Oh, Lord DiMaggio is starting off with his patented crab-walking technique!



And he follows that up with a VICIOUS barrage of haymakers! If Sigurd doesn't start hitting back, it looks like he could start getting into a LOT of trouble here!



Oh, wait, looks like DiMaggio's stopping to catch his breath, and it looks like Sigurd is going for a feint. He's going to have to be VERY careful here, because if he miss-steps...



WHOA!! Look at that transition! Sigurd has rushed in on the back swing, right as the axe was at it's lowest point! That's the problem with axes! They've got a lot of power behind em', but once you choose a direction, it's hard to have to redirect yourself, and...



OOOH! THERE HE GOES, SIGURD, SWINGING FOR THE FENCES, AND WOW! He keeps going, just TEARING into DiMaggio with every shot he makes! Looks like going on the offense was a bad move for DiMaggio, Sigurd, using his speed and form to dominate this match! It looks like we may have a winner here!



2+ HP! 1+ Skl! 1+ Str! 1+ Lck! 1+ Def!

Ha ha, and another awesome level up! So back to being serious for a moment, this here's the end of my RNG shenanigans, as I think this is about as far as I think I can actually remember. Like I said, I want the route to be easily replicable, that way you don't need a spreadsheet or a word document just to figure out what you're supposed to do. Plus, we're about to get yet another companion, there's going to be a ton of new enemies after facing DiMaggio, and things are just generally going to be getting a bit messier.

Sigurd is love, Sigurd is life.



So now, as of this turn, we're doing things fair and square.



First order of business, kill DiMaggio here. I made him look like a chump, but this guy is actually pretty scary if you're doing things "legitimately", and are trying to kill him by Turn 5 or so. I mean he hits like a truck AND you're getting bombarded by his minions while trying to stand up to him. So if you decide not to follow the RNG manipulation route I took for the first 4 turns, then be careful not to wait too long before pressing Reset, alright :ohdear: ?



Alright then, DiMaggio is killed, and the castle is ours!





Sigurd: Hey, isn’t that Midir!? Come on, Midir… pull it together!

Midir: Uahhh… Sir Sigurd??

Sigurd: Midir, are you okay!? Where’s Aideen?

Midir: I don’t know. Gandolf was here though…

Sigurd: Is that right… Well, don’t worry. I’ll get her back. Give yourself some time to heal up.

Midir: No, Sigurd. I must join you. I can’t begin to tell you how worried I am about her!

And for good reason!



So there's that...rather abrupt end to the conversation. And Jungby is captured! But what about Aideen? Has she managed to keep herself out of harm? Can she find a way to hold out until Sigurd gets there? And what of Gerrard and his men? Can Sigurd and Co. find a way to ford the river without a working bridge? And even if they do, CAN THEY DEFEAT Gerrard? Or will he prove to be too powerful? And when is the rest of Grandbell going to get back? FIND OUT, on the next explosive episode, of Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War! Have a nice day, and God bless you all!

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Jun 27, 2015

Dr Pepper
Feb 4, 2012

Don't like it? well...

Please continue to compare the cast to DBZ characters. :allears:

wokow6
Oct 19, 2013
Okay, I'm loving this so far. The DBZ comparisons were quite great, and I can't wait to see how things go for you in the future.

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

I do not understand why the complete assness of (most) axes and fire magic is a thing in this game's design. "Let's make three types of magic identical, except one will actually be poo poo and one will actually be king and then have two other types of magic that trump them altogther and then give the first spellcaster you recruit the worst type."

Also, I'd like Road tiles to return, if only to make moving across some large maps faster for infantry.

SMaster777
Dec 17, 2013

I wish this was my Smash main.

Dr Pepper posted:

Please continue to compare the cast to DBZ characters. :allears:

I... can totally support this; definitely an interesting read in general, and I look forward to more.

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make
Alright, SO, it turns out the title of Alvis's theme is kind of a spoiler...any way of changing the Tindeck title without manually downloading it, and then re-uploading it? I'm getting all the Tindecks from WindGodSety's old LP. And while I'd usually just go and download it manually, my Anti-Virus software is telling me that the link I get when I try to do that isn't safe.

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Jun 27, 2015

Dire Wombat
Oct 29, 2011

In this world, there is no truth. The truth is made later on and overwrites what comes before it. Real truth doesn't exist anywhere.

Fionordequester posted:

Alright, SO, it turns out the title of Alvis's theme is kind of a spoiler...any way of changing the Tindeck title without manually downloading it, and then re-uploading it? I'm getting all the Tindecks from WindGodSety's old LP. And while I'd usually just go and download it manually, my Anti-Virus software is telling me that the link I get when I try to do that isn't safe.

I suspect everyone reading this LP already has an idea of the plot, if only from reading WGS's LP. Don't worry about it.

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Holy :lol: DiMaggio's crab walk is fantastic.

quote:

So basically, you get more Damage from defeating an enemy rather than just damaging one.

I think you mean experience?

quote:

[Ha ha ha. this is so perfect here. - GMArcturus[/i]

And you have a broken tag here.

Fionordequester posted:

Alright, SO, it turns out the title of Alvis's theme is kind of a spoiler...any way of changing the Tindeck title without manually downloading it, and then re-uploading it? I'm getting all the Tindecks from WindGodSety's old LP. And while I'd usually just go and download it manually, my Anti-Virus software is telling me that the link I get when I try to do that isn't safe.

You can't rename someone else's tindeck uploads, no. Just ignore the warning..

Dire Wombat posted:

I suspect everyone reading this LP already has an idea of the plot, if only from reading WGS's LP. Don't worry about it.

vilkacis posted:

Anyway I'm interested in seeing where this goes, I never managed to play the game myself for long and wasn't around for the previous thread.

Dr Pepper
Feb 4, 2012

Don't like it? well...

Lotish posted:

I do not understand why the complete assness of (most) axes and fire magic is a thing in this game's design. "Let's make three types of magic identical, except one will actually be poo poo and one will actually be king and then have two other types of magic that trump them altogther and then give the first spellcaster you recruit the worst type."

The thing about this game is that it was pretty clearly written as a story first and then a game built around it.

This makes for pretty bad balance.

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make
Indeed. Although some of the decisions they made are just bad balance in general, like Fire vs. everything else, and having ALL of the Holy Weapons be the exact same Might. That's just absurd right there, and actually kind of contradicts what they usually go for with the weapons. Also mounts vs. foot soldiers and etc...

Anyways though, looking through BookofHolsety's script, there are actually two more creative liberties the patch writers took that I forgot. As follows...

Creative Liberty #2: Instead of saying "you know that Sigurd and I go way back", Cuan actually says "Sigurd is every bit as important to me as he is you, remember?" instead. Pretty interesting change, since the new line kind of goes for the same thing, but is less exaggerated. Plus, it also kind of demonstrates a difference in BookofHolsety's writing style and the path writers in that, BookofHolsety tends to be a bit more emotional, and the patch writers tend to be a bit more Hemmingway-esque (shorter and simpler sentences, not quite as expressive, a little cruder, a bit better about using active rather than passive voice, etc.). As for this particular line, I kind of it better, considering Cuan's personality in general...but there are places where I prefer BookofHolsety's take on things as well. Both of them have pros and cons is what I'm saying.

Creative Liberty #3: Ethlin's line, "I'm sure I can put my Live Staff to some use around here" is much more natural than it is in the original script. In there, she literally just flat out says, "I want to do all I can as a healer to help and save lives...". So, the patch script isn't quite as clear about what Ethlin's role in combat is...but on the other hand, it's much less expository, and therefore, I like it better. Besides, it's not like I couldn't have figured that out on my own :P .

That said, would you guys prefer I point these out in the updates themselves, or just put these in their own separate posts (as to not break the flow)?

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Jun 27, 2015

wokow6
Oct 19, 2013
Hmm, I actually do find the translation stuff interesting. But I do think it does interrupt the flow of the update, so maybe in their own posts would be best.

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Why not just put it at the end of the update? I don't see the need for separate updates unless you have a huge amount of stuff to go through.

Victis
Mar 26, 2008

This was the first Fire Emblem I played, fond memories of an incomplete translation patch and trying to figure out the most overpowered kids. I remember there being some sword attack in the intro that I could never figure out how to do.

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make


Hello everyone, and welcome to Let's Play Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War! Last time, we won our first boss fight, got a ton of extra allies, and even managed to recruit Midir, whom we thought had died against Gandolf! So, let's start off by talking about the guy, shall we?



Level 2 Archer Knight

HP: 32 (60%) Spd: 9 (40%)
Str: 9 (30%) Lck: 3 (10%)
Mag: 0 (5%) Def: 7 (30%)
Skl: 7 (30%) Res: 0 (5%)

Move: 8
Weapon Ranks: Bows (B)
Items: Iron Bow
Skill: Pursuit, Charge


So, remember when I was talking about Alec? How his middling Strength and Defense growths and weak weapons severely limit him? Well, this guy has that exact same problem. In fact, he IS basically Alec, except he uses bows rather than swords and lances...

And yet...he's still a teensy bit more usable. In fact, Midir is actually kind of interesting character. See, I dissed Charge last update for the fact that it was a double-edged sword, but for guys like Midir...that's actually not necessarily a problem. After all, activating more rounds of combat is not a bad thing when you're attacking in a way that the enemy CAN'T counter-attack you, like Midir can to anyone who doesn't have 2 Range. So Charge actually works to his advantage in a way that it doesn't for Noish.

Plus, there's a weapon called a Killer Bow that weighs only 3 Weight (compared to 8 Weight for most other bows), automatically gives the Critical skill (yes, items can actually grant you skills when you have them equipped), and has a pretty good amount of Might! Granted, it's something that technically belongs to a future ally, but said ally is only a 6 Move foot unit. So in a normal playthrough, the Killer Bow is better used for Midir...

In a ranked playthrough however, that 6 move foot unit is good enough to greatly contribute to the Exp. Score, so he actually wants that Killer Bow until Chapter 4. And unfortunately, the Killer Bow is EXTREMELY expensive, so I can't just have the two toss it back and forth between each other. So until then, Midir is kind of in the same boat as Azel, but for opposite reasons. Whereas Azel is strong but slow, Midir is speedy but weak, to the point where feeding him kills is pretty tough. Still, just like Azel, there's also a great opportunity to train him later on, so he'll still be gaining levels. Just not right now.

So...I guess this guy is basically Krillin! He can occasionally do some neat stuff, and catch you by surprise by pulling out a cool trick or two out of his hat...but he's still too weak and fragile to actually DO much of anything to his opponents. And as a result, his crush gets taken away by some ugly monster, and there's nothing he can do about it. Quite sad, that.

With the killer bow and his high movement he has some nice contributions to a low turn count playthrough, but in a ranked run he's just another middling unit who requires a bit of investment to get levels. He also sometimes has accuracy problems later on (made worse by the one RN system), which can be annnoying. However, he's still a solid unit. One of his more surprising uses is for AI manipulation, as the enemy has an unhealthy obsession with attacking him, sometimes over better targets. Also, for some reason the hand axe enemies in the prologue and chapter one often attack him at two range even though they can attack him at one and avoid a counter attack, so sometimes Midir can help with AI manipulation.

...Wow, really? I...actually didn't know that! Thanks Marty!



Alright, let's start Turn 6! Now seeing as how Midir is so fragile, we'll want to position him so that he won't get killed. So to check where enemies can and can't attack, you'll want to press the A button on them. The green squares are how far they can move, and the orange squares represent the edge of their attack range.

Also, remember what I said about roads last update? Well, it does seem to apply for if you make your full movement on roads, but, according to my calculations, this guy SHOULD be able to go 3 east and 5 north (8 spaces) since 5 Road tiles should give him a flat 2+ movement rate, and he's got 6 Move to start with. And yet, he's only able to go 3 east and 4 north instead (7 spaces). So perhaps the moment you step off the road, the movement bonus kicks in, and does NOT stack linearly with whatever available movement you already had? Hence why this archer can only wander 2 spaces away from road rather than 3?

In addition, it turns out that moving across 3 Road tiles is not enough to gain ANY boost to your movement. No, you have to walk across 4 tiles for 1 space, and then 5-6 tiles for 2 spaces...so, there you go. I guess the take away is that even I don't fully understand the mystery of Road terrain...but oh well. What I said earlier should still be enough to keep yourself out of dangerous situations :) . Anyway...



This is about as far away from the action as I can get Midir. If I'm unlucky, he'll still be reduced to 10 HP, but, at least he'll be safe till Ethlin can get in there and heal him. As for Cuan's group...



Alec helps to damage the Hand Axe fighter near Cuan himself...



And then Cuan kills him before going west, along with everyone else.



And then Azel and Lex go west to liberate the next village...



And finally, Noish visits one of the villages, at long last! What happens when you do that? Well, let's check it out!



Here’s a small sum of money we all pooled together. Use it how you see fit. Please help out the other villages if you can. They’re sure to appreciate it.



Whooo! Not only do we get some neat flavor text, but we even get some Gold as well :whoop: ! Actually, you know, what, I DO believe that this calls for another Waaaaar Roooooom!!





The War Room, Part 2 (The Elite Ring, the Arena, and Why We've GOT to Have, Moneyyy...)

So let's talk about money, shall we? In all Fire Emblem games except the 2nd one, you always had Gold that you would get more and more of as you went throughout the game, whether it was given to you in a story event, whether you got it from a chest, or just got it through some other way. And in most games, all the Gold was stored in one place, meaning that you could visit a shop with ANY character, and still have the same amount of Gold to throw around.

THIS game however (and maybe FE5) is different. Instead of the money all being pooled in one place, each character has their own stash of cash. For example, Cuan, Lex, Azel and Sigurd start with 5000G, Ethlin starts with 4000G, and all of Cuan and Sigurd's cronies start with 2000G...

So here's where things get tricky. In fact, we're going to be jumping ahead a bit in order to talk about a lot of nuanced things that aren't going to become relevant until Chapter 2. So if you're new to this LP, and you don't fully understand everything I am about to say, that's ok for right now. In fact, you can skip all of this until Chapter 2 if you want. As long as you follow the LP until then, you won't miss anything at all! But, if you HAVE played this game before, but have not done an AAAA Ranked Log, then this War Room here will be perhaps the most important one you can possibly read before trying to do one on your own.

Now then, for the purposes of this playthrough, we need to make sure that almost all of our guys can raise up to 40,000G or more in order to level them up effectively. Why 40,000G exactly? Well, it's because there's one specific item, the Elite Ring, that happens to cost that much. And this item is SO critically important, that your Exp. Rank will be all but determined by how well you use it, and how often you are able to pass it around for everyone to use. Why is that?

Well, whoever has this in their inventory will gain the Elite Skill for as long as they have it, doubling their experience gain. However, the Elite Ring is also VERY expensive, costing 40,000G in a game where the Gold cap for each unit is 50,000G. So passing it around isn't something you can do just like that. No, you have to plan things EXTREMELY carefully, so that everyone can have a turn with it while still making sure that they have enough money for it in the next chapter. And considering that most characters will start with just 5000G (at best)...well, getting everyone that kind of money will be very tricky.

So let's go over all of our options, shall we?

1) Every chapter besides the Prologue and Chapter 6 has something called the Arena, a fighting pit with 7 opponents in it. Each time you beat an opponent, you get a progressively larger sum of money, getting 1000G from the 1st opponent, 1500G from the 2nd opponent, 2000G from the 3rd opponent, 2500G from the 4th opponent, and so on and so forth. But you can only beat these guys up once for each character you have. So what this means is that each character can win up to 17500G from each Arena they fight in...

Not only is this by far the most lucrative way of gaining money, but Arena enemies also tend to be extremely high leveled. In fact, they are SO high leveled, that most units can literally gain five whole levels just by beating every enemy with the Elite Ring on! So THAT'S pretty cool...

Except, clearing the Arena is much easier said than done. Because the thing with higher level opponents, is that they ALSO tend to have much higher stats, especially once you start getting to the later opponents. And while units like Sigurd will still be beating them with ease, units like Noish and Alec will spend pretty much the entire game struggling just getting past the 4th opponent if we try to make them fight as they are!

So due to their limitations, we also need to make sure they're properly geared up with awesome weapons and everything. But that in itself costs even MORE money! So if our weaker units are ever going to have any hope of consistently clearing Arena's, they will have to resort to alternative means of raising money, like...

2) Visiting villages the way Noish just did. Villages give a maximum of 5000G to whoever saves it, but will give 500 less for each and every turn that it's attacked by an MBandit. For example, that village Noish could only give 4500G since we couldn't stop the MBandit from attacking it at least once. What this also means is that a village can be attacked 10 times before it's finally just reduced to rubble, so you don't actually HAVE to rescue them immediately. It'd just be preferably to rescue them sooner, that's all.

Anyways, I'd consider this one of the easiest and most profitable ways of gaining cash...but Villages don't exactly grow on trees. In fact, Noish here will literally visit almost every single one of them this Chapter, and STILL only get 15,000G! So villages alone will not be enough for us.

3) Our characters can sell their weapons and items for half of their buying price. Not very lucrative, and the penalties are obvious. BUT, it also means that each character will get back 20,000G for every time they have to sell the ring to someone else, so that's pretty nice!

4) Each and every character will get 1000G for every castle we're able to protect from the enemies. For example, we liberated Jungby by "Conquering" it with Sigurd (which only he can do). Therefore, if we end the Prologue with it intact, each character will get an extra 1000G at the start of the next map. However, if an enemy manages to get to Jungby's entrance, they will level it to the ground just like this...



And, one thing I forgot to mention, your Tactics rank will automatically drop for each and every castle that's destroyed. Plus, if they do this to your starting castle (Chalphy in this case), then that's an automatic game over. So that's bad :ohdear: !

Fortunately, as Ardan and DiMaggio have already demonstrated, you can choose to have someone Guard the castle, meaning that no one can capture or destroy anything until said unit is defeated. What's more, whosoever guards the castle will get a 30+ boost to their Evade, and will ALSO get to gain back 20% of their maximum HP per turn.

So this here is the easiest way of gaining Gold. But the downside is that the Gold it does give is minimal at best, and therefore, nowhere near enough to solve all of our money problems. Still helps though :) !

5) Later in the game, your male units can become married to one of your female units in a purely monogamous relationship. THAT is something we will get into later, but for now, just know that when they tie the knot, they gain the ability to use the "Give" command on each other, which allows one of them to give the other all of their Gold. However, even if you manage to pair the right units with each other (which is in itself an exercise in planning), they'll still only have the ability to Give to each other, and not to other units.

6) There's also a unit class called a thief that can use the "Give" command on anyone (though no one but their Lover can "Give" back to them), and can also steal whatever Gold an enemy unit has just by attacking it once. Plus, there's a C Rank weapon called the "Thief Sword" that allows anyone who can wield it (like Alec) to do the same. However, we're only getting one thief for each Generation, and both of them are very weak and fragile. So actually GETTING them money without them dying can be a problem.

The method I used to get thieves money in my 0% growths playthrough (where they're even more pitiful than usual) was to have them attack bandits, who all have a rather hefty 5000 gold. Axes are so bad that no matter how strong they become your thieves should be safe.

Well...as long as they can't one-shot them. That's not generally a problem anyway due to the save system, but considering the Combat Rank, I still end up having to do some fancy stuff to cut that risk out of leveling Dew in Chapter 1.

So anyway, there's all our options. And despite the problems that come with each one, we'll still be using every single one of them to use the Elite Ring the way we want to. For example, when you combine the 17,500G that comes with Method 1, the 20,000G that comes from selling the Elite Ring in Method 3, and the free Gold that comes from Method 4, that's enough for units like Cuan to buy the Elite Ring every Chapter, WITHOUT any help...But not everyone is Cuan. In fact, Generation 1 specifically has seven different units that struggle to accomplish anything in the Arena, and they are as follows...

Alec (Needs a Speed Ring in Chapters 1 and 2, and wants a Defense Ring in Chapter 3. Benefits from an amazing weapon we'll be getting.)

Noish (Needs the Speed and Pursuit Rings, and wants the Defense Ring in Chapter 3. Benefits from an amazing weapon we'll be getting.)

Ardan (Needs an amazing weapon we'll be getting, and a ton of kills in Chapter 3 or 5)

Azel (Needs a Wind Tome from Chapter 4, and a ton of kills in Chapter 3)

Midir (Needs a Killer Bow and a ton of kills in Chapter 4)

Dew (Needs an amazing weapon we'll be getting.)

Beowulf (Needs to rig two points of Speed in Chapter 2, and wants the Defense Ring in Chapter 3. Benefits from an amazing weapon we'll be getting.)

So out of those seven, we need to pick at least 5 of them that we want to train. Me personally though, I'm going to invest in all of them instead, but only because I think it's faster to do that rather than grinding Sylvia (a later character) up to Level 30, or getting EVERYONE in Gen 2 up to Level 30, or doing something like that. So that's our plan as far as they go.



Playing Through:





Now, back to the game...



:stare:

Gerrard: Prince Gandolf won’t be pleased. drat it all! Go put th’ bridge back up over Jun River. Let’s get it right this time!

Wait wait wait, Gandolf specifically told you NOT to do that. Not only that, but you're literally giving up one of the greatest advantages you have in this fight, BEFORE Gandalf has even gotten back with Kinbois and his men? And you're insulting DiMaggio for his worthlessness? Methinks you ought to be looking at yourself first :colbert: .



Anyways, Gerrard spawns a huge army to attack you with...but the enemies are just as weak as before, so really they're just more fodder for Sigurd's blade.



As for the rest of DiMaggio's men, they try, but they only succeed in chipping Alec's HP before getting more of themselves killed by Sigurd.



Sadly though, even Sigurd can't stop yet more 500G chunks from going down the drain...





But wait! Is that...is that a green unit? What is HE here for? What could this possibly mean?



So wait, are you talking to Lex and Azel, or are you talking to yourself :raise:?

Alvis: His majesty wants me to check on things... The savages sure aren’t going down easy. Sheesh...Sigurd, you don’t impress me much.

...:sigh:...

Ok, so I like this translation patch...but this particular line here? This is a really weak translation for what's actually supposed to be a pretty powerful line. Instead, it really should be more like "So, this is all you ever amounted to." Or, "It truly is sad, witnessing just how worthless you really are." Or maybe even "Well now, it seems we have found your ceiling...and it is the exact width and size of a pack of empty-headed mongrels. How sad."

Combine this with the fact that he's standing around trash talking, all while Sigurd and co. are still fighting for their lives as we speak, and...yeah. He's...kind of a jerk, to put it lightly :reject: . I mean, I don't know what what he was expecting, but soloing almost the entire army by himself seems like a pretty big point in Sigurd's favor to me. So unless he's got like the greatest stats ever, I don't think he's in any positi-



:eek:



:eyepop:



:stare: :stare: :stare:

Alvis: You were saying?

....heh...HEH...HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!! WELL! That's uh...um...yeah, so this guy is pretty much immortal. And he's got 70 Attack in Magic Power, an amount so high, that he can literally one-hit K.O. GANDOLF of all people! GANDOLF!! And that is absolutely insane!





And fortunately, he's on our side, so just in case there was ANY doubt that you could complete this Prologue...yeah. The moment you beat DiMaggio, you've basically won.





So, now that we've conquered our first castle, I take a moment to make a save on File 1, that way if we make a mistake while auto-saving on File 4, I can still go back and fix it without having to start the chapter over (though I'll have to do that anyway if one of my guys gets killed).



Now then, when we Enter a castle...





We get access to some cool options here! The Fortune Teller will tell you how many Wins and Losses a character has (Wins being how many enemies a character kills), the Pawn Shop (where a character can sell their junk for another character to buy), Storage (where a character can clear inventory space by storing one of their items), and also the Weapon Repair shop (where you can fix your weapons). As for the two blank slots, the left one is where the Arena will be once you get to Chapter 1, and the right one will be where you can access the Item Shop, where you can buy ALL NEW items that you didn't have before!



So for now, the only thing we need to do is visit the Weapon Repair shop, and get our Steel Sword fixed up. You see, when a character has a weapon or staff, they can't just use those as many times as they want. No, almost every weapon has just 50 "Uses" that you can get out of it, which means that when you hit an enemy with it 50 times, it will break. And when THAT happens, it will become a "Broken Sword/Lance/Axe/whatever", and have 0 Might, 30 Hit, and 30 Weight. So basically, it becomes completely worthless, killing your Attack Power, Attack Speed, and Accuracy all at the same time.

Fortunately we can fix that! Just have this guy look at it, and then restore all of it's uses! Of course, the flip side is that you have to pay 2% of it's buying price for every use that has to be restored. So if this Steel Sword has 40 uses left, you have to pay 600G (20% of it's buying price) to give it 50 uses again. But if it only has 1 use left, then you'll have to pay 2940G (98% of it's buying price) to give it it's 50 uses.





Anyways, Sigurd starts off with 5000G, so he's got more than enough to fix up his sword, meaning that now he can go and solo the rest of the map :D !



So after he moves out, Ethlin heals Alec up...



Midir and Alec take care of their respective enemies, with Alec going to protect the castle from the lone Axefighter...



Fin goes and kicks the Axefighter around a little...





And then Lex, Azel, Noish and Cuan go further west before closing off our turn.



That said, nothing much happens. An axefighter futilely attacks Alec, the MBandits keep trashing the villages, and people just move around a little.









So basically we just spend our next turn mopping up the remainders of DiMaggio's men while killing two MBandits and getting ready for the next wave. Also, we get a level up for Alec!

1+ Strength!

Ok, so it's not a very GOOD level up...but at least Alec got a point in one of the areas he struggles in :shobon: .

Due to the terrible balance of the weapon triangle in this game sword users actually don't need a huge amount of speed relative to other games to double lots of enemies. Lances and Axes are so heavy that unless a sword user is really bad they will always double lance and axe users.


Yeah. To be fair, it still does kind of work in this game, since a lot of the weaker sword users have trouble doing good damage...but yeah, Pursuit + Axe Weight really tends to mess up axe users, ESPECIALLY as you get further into the game. Lances are still pretty decent though.



Anyways, this Village has got something particularly special for Alec, so this will be the only one I'll be feeding him this Chapter. So let's see what it is!



I KNOW RIGHT?! Oifaye tells us we gotta save you, and then it only takes us like, 4 Turns of running around to actually do it! Crazy huh :haw: ?

I thought we were doomed! I’ve got a ring for you in appreciation. It’s called the Speed Ring. Slip her on for a little boost in speed. Go ahead… put her on! Your enemy’ll have a tough time hitting you now!



And there we go! This baby gives you 5+ extra points to Speed for as long as you wear it, which for Alec, means that I won't have to rig points of Speed in order to have him clear Chapter 1's Arena! Quite nice that!

Rings in this game are ridiculous. Stat boosters that just give +2 to a stat already can make a huge difference in other titles, and these not only give a +5 bonus but can also be moved around your units.



Oh, and we've got more Gold, and that's always nice.



Speaking of Gold, here's a Church tile. When you have a unit stay on it for a turn, they'll automatically get back ALL of their HP as long as they 5 Gold for each point of HP restored (trust me, that's more than a reasonable price).



Also, more Gold for Noish! And some flavor text of course.



Swords are stronger than axes, axes are stronger than lances, and lances are stronger than swords. Keep that in mind when you’re in combat. And if you find yourself hurting, the church is your one stop to full recovery. But it ain’t free, mind you. The going rate is 5 gold for each hitpoint.

And there you go. Just some review about stuff we already learned, but oh well, it's still a good refresher :) !





One more turn village. One more turn, just make it through this Enemy Phase, and you'll finally be free :ohdear:.





Alright, time for some fun!!



:woop:

Yeah, look at THIS awesomeness! Sigurd literally soloing the ENTIRE mob, all by himself! It looks risky, but Sigurd's Defense has literally gotten so high, that these guys only do 6-8 Damage to him, so they would have had to have hit him three times, at just 8% accuracy (28% for the archers) in order to do him in.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Sigurd is a complete monster. He's not just "decent", he's not just "adequate". No, he's completely broken, and he's about to get even MORE overpowered very shortly :keke: !



So then, now it's our turn, Ethlin heals Sigurd...



And now we get a new Command, the Talk command! Like villages, you'll get some flavor text, but UNLIKE villages, you won't always get anything from it. Sometimes you'll get a new item for someone, sometimes someone will get a permanent boost to some of their stats, but mostly the Talk command is just there for flavor text. So let's check it out, shall we?





Ethlin: I was so worried when I heard about Verdane’s invasion. I’m just glad you’re okay.

Sigurd: You didn’t think I’d lose to Verdane, did you?

Ethlin: Yeah, but I heard you only had a few soldiers in Chalphy. And I know you, Sigurd. You are always jumping into this kind of stuff without thinking. Especially with Father being away...I knew I had to come.

Yeah that's the truth. We all saw how suicidal "self-sacrificial" Sigurd was feeling when we started this Prologue. Though to be fair, it's not as though Noish and Alec are that great anyway :cheeky:.

Sigurd: Heh heh...you’ve always had your head on straight, haven’t you...You know you did a great job filling mum’s shoes after she passed away. When you married into Lenster’s royal family, I swore we had a lady on our hands. But you’re still the same old Ethlin. Poor Cuan! Hahaha!

Ethlin: Sigurd! If I’m a nag, it’s because of you and dad! If both of you weren’t such slobs!

Sigurd: ...Yeah, you might have us there. But we still appreciate everything you’ve done. Ethlin, I’m sorry you had to come all this way. I can’t thank you enough.

Ethlin: Sigurd...

:3:

So yeah, that's all pretty neat. Every Chapter you go into, you will have units who can talk to other units in order to have conversations like this. In order to find out who can talk to who, just bring up the menu...



Click on the Unit option...



Then press left until you get to this screen, and there you go! And it turns out, Azel, Lex, and Cuan can ALSO talk to Sigurd, though none of them actually give you anything but flavor text. Oh well though, we'll still go through em' anyway :) .





So anyway, Cuan weakens this Axefighter here for Midir to kill.



And then Midir gets a level up!

...Uh...I got nothing.

:o ...SUNNOVAGUN!!! He didn't get ANYTHING! And considering how weak Midir already is...yeah, this isn't helping him.



Alright, so Midir totally bombed that one...



So let's see how you do Sigurd!

1+ HP! 1+ Skl!

...:sigh: . Alright, so there's the downside to having all of your level up bonuses operate on percentages rather than fixed amounts. Sometimes you will get really awesome level ups...and then some level ups will be complete garbage, even for Sigurd.



Oh well though, at least he'll get to do some more killing by moving to this exact spot. You see, this one Hand Axe fighter to the left will never move off of that spot. But that specific spot is the only place where archers and Hand Axe fighters can attack Sigurd from 2 Range! As a result, Sigurd WILL be able to kill the Iron Axe fighters without having to risk getting hit by archers, or having to wait until the next turn to beat them!



And to top it all off, we FINALLY get to kill the last MBandit, which means that all the villages are safe now! Absolute NO ONE will be looting them now!



So after doing all that, and then moving Lex, Alec, and Fin closer to the main group, we end the turn.





Once again the enemies all but attempt to swallow Sigurd's sword (to no avail)...



And then the computer, not knowing what else to do, just kind of throws an archer in front of Sigurd, even though it cannot actually attack Sigurd from 1-range.

Units in a squad have a very specific order that they move which is always the same. This can be useful in situations where you want a unit to be hit by some enemies but not others.





So in return, Sigurd takes advantage of this monumental display of stupidity...





And then Lex and Cuan do their best to kill the Hand Axe fighter in Sigurd's way, to no avail (Cuan didn't activate Continue like I was hoping).



But Cuan gets a level up! Let's see what he gets :popcorn: ...

1+ HP! 1+ Skl! 1+ Spd!

Okay, kind of decent I suppose. Hey, at least it helps him activate Continue!



Anyways, more healing is done (from now on, just assume that I'm doing this off-screen, for the sake of brevity)...



Noish keeps moving to get the other villages...



And here I have a decision to make. "Do I put Midir in range of the archers and the Hand Axe guys, and risk getting him killed via the Charge skill? Or do I keep him away, and pass up a chance at some experience?" Ultimately, I choose the latter, as the Combat rank is FAR too unforgiving to take risks like that, and really, this bit of lost experience won't make such a big difference anyways...





Anyways, Sigurd gets yet another level up on the Enemy Phase...

1+ HP! 1+ Str! 1+ Luck! 1+ Def!

An AWESOME one btw :D





And then Alvis moves a bit closer, no doubt intending to insult Sigurd for "only" getting up to 18 Strength as opposed to like, 29 or something crazy like that.



That said though, he's also got something very valuable to give us, and will automatically use the Talk command on us when he gets next to Sigurd. So I make sure that he can reach him at the end of the next Enemy Phase.



Now, I'm going to skip over the rest of the enemies on this turn and the other ones, just because the commentary is getting slightly repetitious now. So just know that from now until the end of the Prologue, I...

1) Keep healing people with Ethlin

2) Visit both of the remaining villages with Noish.

3) Try to give the most Exp. I can to Cuan while also trying to snag some for Midir and Lex.

So there you go. Now let's talk to Alvis, shall we?





Just LISTEN to that music! Alvis may be a dork, but he's got a great song playing on his iPad!

Alvis: His Majesty was worried, so he sent me to assess the state of the conflict. He also sent this with me. It’s for you.

Sigurd: Whoa...a silver sword! He wanted me to have this? What an honour! Lord Alvis, please express my sincerest gratitude to His Majesty.

Alvis: Will do. By the way, I heard my brother Azel has joined your army.

Sigurd: Yeah...sorry. It sounds like he came behind your back. I couldn’t just turn him away. If at all possible I’d like him to stay with us for a bit longer.

Alvis: Well, keep him safe. Azel’s my only brother. We may have different mothers, but he still means the world to me. I wish he and I got along better, but that’s the way these things go. Sigurd, I’m leaving him with you in good faith. Show him the ropes, okay?

Sigurd: I’ll do that. I’ll see if I can get him to return home once we finish up here.

Alvis: I appreciate it. Well, I need to get back to Barhara to watch over His Majesty. Don’t let me down, Sigurd.

So, I slammed the patch writers earlier for their weak translation of what should have been a pretty powerful line from Alvis...but putting that aside, they actually did a really good job of writing Alvis here, aside from making him just a touch more plainspoken than perhaps he should be.

I mean, look at his dialogue. Notice how terse and to-the-point he is. Notice how he's never actually asking anything from Sigurd so much as he's commanding things from him ("Don't let me down" as opposed to "Please watch over Azel". Or "Well, keep him safe" as opposed to "Could you please make sure to look out for him?"). He's not necessarily impolite, but he's very direct, and doesn't waste much time with social niceties, which is exactly how he is in the original script.

Combine that with the high and mighty music that plays for him, and you get the impression of someone very regal. Very stoic. He comes off very cold, and sort of arrogant...but he CAN actually back it up, as seen by his stats, and his position as Commander of the Royal Guard. Also, this is the dialogue you get when Azel is alive...but what happens if you got him killed before Alvis arrived?

Alvis: Sir Sigurd, how’ve you been?

Sigurd: Lord Alvis!? What’re you doing here?

Alvis: His Majesty was worried, so he sent me to assess the state of the conflict. He also sent this with me. It’s for you.

Sigurd: Whoa...a silver sword! He wanted me to have this? What an honour! Lord Alvis, please express my sincerest gratitude to His Majesty.

Alvis: I will. By the way, I heard my brother Azel has joined your army. Is he alright?

Uh....

Sigurd: Well...Actually Azel was...

Alvis: He got himself killed, didn’t he...

Sigurd: I’m so sorry. There was nothing I could do...

Alvis: Azel...you fool...

Still more of that steely stoicness...I think we can guess just what character archetype Alvis is.





And then he just...leaves...yeah...I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, and say that he wants to be at Barhara, just in case Agustria decides to invade as well. Still, he couldn't have at least stuck around to help us with the rest of the Verdane army? I mean we don't really need the help now, but still, as long as he's here...



So just in case Sigurd wasn't broken enough...



Yeah. He gets a Silver Sword. Which only he and Ethlin can use (and Ethlin won't be using it). It's just like the Steel Sword, except it has 4 more Might, without ANY downsides whatsoever. Because you know, Sigurd clearly needed the boost, right?...

...

Did I mention that this game might have some slight balancing issues? Anyways, Gerrard's men are basically dead now, and Noish is about to snag the last village...so how about those other conversations? Might Azel have something to say about Alvis?





Azel Talks to Sigurd



Now obviously the game expects you to have had this conversation BEFORE Alvis had talked with Sigurd, hence why he just walked right by Azel on the turn he arrived, despite supposedly being worried about him :cheeky:.

Azel: Lex and I came to help you fight Verdane. We came as quick as we could. Please, let us fight with you.

Sigurd: Geez, I could never ask you to fight. Does your brother, Lord Alvis, know that you’re here?

Azel: Er...no, I doubt it. He’s back in Barhara commanding the Royal Guard. Actually, he specifically forbade me from stepping outside the capital.

Sigurd: I bet he did! Have you considered the consequences of leaving like you did?

Azel: Yeah, but...I shouldn’t say this, but Alvis scares the living hell out of me!

:stare:

Azel: I don’t think I live up to his expectations. I...I feel like I’m just a burden on him.

Sigurd: Well, you have your reasons. I’m glad you came, Azel. You stay as long as you want.

Azel: Thank you, sir!

(Sigurd leaves)

Azel: Wow, he’s just like everyone said he was! I wish Alvis could be more like him...

...Wow. Alvis. You know you're cold when even your own brother is scared of you. Yikes.





Lex Talks to Sigurd



Lex: Actually, Azel, that little punk...he dragged me here.

Sigurd: You’re too much, Lex...haha. Does Lord Langbart know you’re here?

Lex: Hell no! No offense, sir, but my father can’t stand yours. No way in hell he’d consent to me helping the Chalphys. I’m here by my own reckoning. Sir, just so you know...I’m not here for your little mission. Azel’s just a good bud of mine.

Sigurd: Er...I see. Well, all the same, I appreciate you guys coming.

Lex: Well, we’ll do what we can. Those barbarians have had their way long enough.

Langbart, in case you forgot, is this guy on the right...



The opening narration describes him as the "avaricious" (it's words, not mine) Lord of the Dozel Duchy. He's formed an alliance with Prime Minister Reptor, resents the righteous and good Lord Bryon, and has the angriest looking set of eyebrows on the meanest looking face you can have...

But fortunately, it looks like Lex is a different sort of person. Which is good, because otherwise we would be out one VERY valuable unit!





Cuan Talks to Sigurd



Cuan: We heard about your skirmish with Verdane. We’re here to fight.

Sigurd: How about Lenster? Don’t you have Thracia to keep an eye on?

Cuan: We do. That’s why I only brought Fin. My father took command of the Lance Ritter.

Sigurd: I see...Geez, sorry to drag you in to all of this, Cuan.

Cuan: Sigurd! Did you already forget about our pact?

Sigurd: Huh?

Cuan: Remember the academy? We all met at the military academy back in Barhara. It was the three of us. You, me, and Eltshan. We were talking late that one night. And we took a vow to help each other out if one of us was ever in a bind.

Sigurd: That’s right. No...I haven’t forgotten.

Cuan: Ok, then. Let’s get to work and rid yourself of this little nuisance. Don’t forget, Sigurd. I’m always here for you. Especially in times like these.

And finally, we have an unused conversation between Midir and Azel. I'm not entirely sure why the game designers cut it out (or if they even meant to), but, I think it's kind of neat myself. So let's check it out!





Midir Talks to Azel

Midir: Azel...

Azel: Hey, Midir. How are you doing?

Midir: Azel, I’m so sorry about Lady Aideen. I really blew it this time.

Azel: Naw, it’s not your fault. Don’t let it bother you.

Midir: Yeah, but I know that she means a lot to you.

Azel: Yeah, but that goes for you too, right?

Midir: How’s that?

Azel: ...look, we’re both hurting. Let’s work together to get her back.

Midir: Yeah, let’s do that.

Hmmm, that's interesting. So, Midir has some feelings for Aideen as well? Guess that's part of the reason why he fought so vehemently to protect her.

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Jul 1, 2015

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make


Now, lest we forget, Noish still has two more villages to visit, so let's see the flavor text for this one too!



It’s no surprise as the Chalphys are all descended from Baldo, the God of Light. If we just had Lord Bryon’s Holy Tyrfing, those barbarians wouldn’t have a prayer!

Yeah, that's the truth! The Tyrfing is a sword that has 30 Might, 7 Weight, and 80 Hit, but also gives a free Prayer skill, and ALSO boosts your Skl and Spd by 10+, and raises your MDef by 20+! So when she says that these barbarians wouldn't have a prayer...trust me, that's no hyperbole.



Now then, there's just one more village, and Gerrard's day has come! Technically I could just end it all with Sigurd on the next turn, and clear this Prologue by Turn 12...but, Noish isn't going to reach his last village until Turn 13, so instead, I'm going to have my weaker troops grind Exp. by tinking Gerrard a bunch of times. To that end, Lex is parked in front of him, and Sigurd is in a spot where he'll be giving everyone his Leadership Bonus. Now let's see how this goes!







Owch. Not only did Gerrard take off more than 75% of Lex's health, but he even managed to dodge the counter! Yeah, it's easy to miss but, Gerrard is actually really tough for this point in the game. I mean, we were all amazed by Gandolf's 60 HP, 17 Strength, 18 Speed, and 16 Defense...but Gerrard actually isn't much weaker than that. Dude's got 55 HP, 14 Strength, 16 Speed, and 14 Defense...and he even manages to make up for his weaker Strength by having a Steel Axe in addition to a Hand Axe. So actually, just in terms of raw attack power, he's actually stronger than Gandolf!

I mean, obviously he's still no match for Sigurd and his Silver Sword, and Azel can still chump him and his lack of Res...but even so, Gerrard's actually pretty impressive, especially when we count in his castle's 20% HP Regen and 30+ boost to Evade. That said though...



He's also has an EXTREMELY high level, coming in at Level 20 at a point where most enemy units are only Level 1. What that means is that all of our units get 25-30 Exp. just for hitting the guy! They don't even need to kill him, they just need to hit him! Combine that with Lex's Elite skill, and the guy actually gets 54 Exp per hit!

1 Str! 1 Def! 1 Res!

And a pretty nice level up to boot :) ! Oh, and the others get some as well...

1 HP! 1 Def!

1 Str! 1 Luck!

Why yes, Ethlin DOES get Exp. for healing people, in case I didn't mention that before! Right now she's only using the basic Live Staff, so she only gets 15 Exp. per heal. But later on, we're going to be getting staves that give WAY more than just that!

Also, Midir has a special conversation with Gerrard if he attacks him...



Yeah...I actually kind of wonder if Midir was originally supposed to be recruited at the beginning of the Prologue rather than after Jungby's capture. For one thing, there's that unused conversation between him and Azel, and plus, DiMaggio does NOT have any ranged options like Gerrard does, so his whole "WHAT, YOU'RE ARROWS?! YOUR A CHEATER!" comment would make a lot more sense. But oh well.



Now then, Noish will be getting the last village next turn, and Gerrard, for however strong he is otherwise, has a crippling weakness to magic attacks, so he's definitely not long for this world. So after some further weakening...





Azel finally put him down once and for all!



Like so!



Gerrard: Prince Gandolf's got her.



Yeah yeah, whatever you say. Let's check out Azel's level up.

1 HP! 1 Skl!

:sigh:





And now with all the enemies dead, we get the "you've almost won!" theme, which will play until either you've conquered the last castle, or until more enemies show up. Now then, once last village, and then we're done!



Duke Ring had himself twin daughters and a son. However, Lady Adean’s twin was abducted by pirates as a youngster. The son, Sir Andrei, joined his father on the campaign to Isaac. You didn’t hear it from me, but there seems to be quite a bit of friction between the two.

Yeah, in addition to Lord Bryon, Prince Kurth also has Lord Ring as his other trusted advisor, as the intro said. These two aren't relevant now, but, they will be later. So after finally conquering Evans...we've got more story!





Oifaye: Verdane must have taken her away before we arrived. I hope she’s alright.

Sigurd: Grr! I’m hunting those bastards down! We’re getting her back!



And then more green units arrive!





Finally, Sigurd gettin' some respect around here! Stupid Alvis, he don't know WHAT he's talkin' about!

Filat: His Majesty is exceedingly pleased and has ordained you a Holy Knight of the Kingdom.

Sigurd: I hardly deserve such a great honour! I pledge my allegiance to His Majesty.

Hey don't let Alvis get you down Sigurd, you did fine. Trust me :D !

Filat: We gravely need your help in protecting these castles. You will be duly compensated. Of course the sum will go down if the castles incur any damages. Please continue to be vigilant in the ensuing battle.

Will do! Like I said, Castle funds may not be very much, but they're still valuable!



And now we have reached the end of this update, at long last. And yet, our princess is still in another castle...so then, can we get her back? Can we find Aideen before something awful happens to her? Are we going to be able to make peace with Verdane? Or will we have no choice but to level it to the ground? And what of Alvis? What role will he end up playing in the events to follow? Just what DID the Prologue mean when it talked about an "oncoming storm" coming as a result of our actions here? And CAN I get all of my guys through the Arena next Chapter? Find out, on the next EXCITING EPISODE, of Let's Play Fire Emblem 4! This is Fionordequester, signing out. Have a nice day, and God bless you all!

Turns Taken: 13 Turns (A pretty good amount. A good Prologue clear should never be any longer than 15 turns, but trying to get under 11 is a little much).

Turn Surplus: +20 (This game has 12 maps, and the A Rank requirement for Tactics is 399 Turns, so you need to get an average of 33 Turns on each map. And on this one, I beat it in 13 Turns, so I've got 20 turns to spare :D !)

Time Taken: ~36 minutes and 25 seconds. The animations were on, however, from testing a fight, I've found that No Animations vs. Animations only saves about 1 second, so I don't think that should matter much.

Things I Regret: The fact that Noish had to hang back as I rigged levels for Sigurd. Had it not been for that, I might've been able to get some more money from some of the villages :( .



Translation Tidbits:

Mistranslation #2: When Azel's telling Sigurd about why he came, Sigurd is...actually pretty happy about this in the original script. Instead of saying "Geez, I could never ask you to fight", his line is actually more like "Huh, awesome! More people to help me out! But wait, does your bro know about this?" And THAT'S when Azel's all "Well, uh...actually, my brother...kinda...sort of, in no uncertain terms, forbade me from coming...(embellishment of course)". Then Sigurd's all "Dude, big bro is gonna yell at you..."And then when Azel tells him how much Alvis scares him, Sigurd's basically all "Alright, alright, I'm sure you've got your reasons! So if you think you're ready, I'd be REALLY glad to accept your help!".

So basically, Sigurd's kind of curious about why Azel's here...but at the same time, he's really just kind of happy to have more help, so to imply that he has any misgivings about the whole thing goes against the point of the original script. To be fair though...BookofHolsety made that exact same mistake before one of his proofreaders corrected him :cheeky:.

Mistranslation #3 (or at least, I think it's one given that BookofHolsety's script differs, and none of his proofreaders contradicted him): When Filat is saying why defending the castles is important, he's not actually saying that we need to protect the castles in general. He's saying that Evans specifically needs to be protected because it's a valuable foothold into Verdane territory. That said though...I do actually prefer the "mistranslation" just because it's more valuable from a gameplay perspective. It's clearer about the fact that you'll get paid for protecting ALL of the castles, not just Evans. Plus, there's always the possibility that the patch translation is more correct, just because the Japanese language can sometimes be somewhat vague about whether someone is referring to one object, or many objects.

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jul 2, 2015

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Verdane Army theme is pretty catchy :dance:

And weapon repair shop seems like it changes the typical FE dynamic quite a bit.... if not quite as much as infinite use weapons, of course.

Fionordequester posted:

Alvis: His majesty wants me to check on things... The savages sure aren’t going down easy. Sheesh...Sigurd, you don’t impress me much.

I knew I had seen this guy before!



quote:


Hey, FF is not lame was not yet lame when this game came out :saddowns:

quote:

Still more of that steely stoicness...I think we can guess just what character archetype Alvis is.

He's the Oifaye! :downs:

quote:

Barhara

And this bothers the hell out of me, especially with names like Sigurd and Tyrfing flying around. Is it really not supposed to be Valhalla?



e: Oh yeah, and you ran into the smiley limit in the first part, so maybe split it earlier? You're only allowed to have so many of them per post before they stop working, see:

:v::v::v::v::v:
:v::v::v::v::v:
:v::v::v::v::v:
:v::v::v::v::v:
:v::v::v::v::v:

vilkacis fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Jun 30, 2015

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

vilkacis posted:

Verdane Army theme is pretty catchy :dance:
It really, really is! Unfortunately, without the magic of fast forward, enemy turns last a very long time in FE4, so some of them get really old.

quote:

And this bothers the hell out of me, especially with names like Sigurd and Tyrfing flying around. Is it really not supposed to be Valhalla?
Um, I'm pretty sure his name is Zigludo :colbert:

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make

vilkacis posted:

Verdane Army theme is pretty catchy :dance:

And weapon repair shop seems like it changes the typical FE dynamic quite a bit.... if not quite as much as infinite use weapons, of course.

IF you think THAT'S catchy, just wait till you get to the Chapter 2/3 and Chapter 6 themes :D ! And yeah, FE4 game balance is...pretty interesting, to say the least.

vilkacis posted:

Hey, FF is not lame was not yet lame when this game came out :saddowns:

Well, it most definitely is not lame. Whether it's still GREAT or not though...well, that's another question entirely, isn't it :cheeky:?

vilkacis posted:

He's the Oifaye! :downs:

Hmm...I dunno, he's a little too strong to be an Oifaye. But maybe an Athos, or a Tibarn? Maybe THAT'S what he could be. Who knows.

vilkacis posted:

And this bothers the hell out of me, especially with names like Sigurd and Tyrfing flying around. Is it really not supposed to be Valhalla?

Yeah...that IS definitely what it's supposed to be a reference to, though obviously it'd be a little anachronistic to just flat out call it that. On that note, BookofHolsety's upcoming patch calls it "Belhella" instead, so look forward to that.

vilkacis posted:

e: Oh yeah, and you ran into the smiley limit in the first part, so maybe split it earlier? You're only allowed to have so many of them per post before they stop working, see:

:v::v::v::v::v:
:v::v::v::v::v:
:v::v::v::v::v:
:v::v::v::v::v:
:v::v::v::v::v:

Wow, there's actually a smiley limit? I...never knew that. And I already (mostly) completed my 7th Saga and Dragon Quest 1 LP's...so...does this mean that this update here actually has more smilies than in ANY LP Post I ever made? Wow, we're setting records here folks :keke: !

Now then, one thing I forgot to plagiarize "reference" from Melth's LP...

Turns Taken: 13 Turns (A pretty good amount. A good Prologue clear should never be any longer than 15 turns, but trying to get under 11 is a little much).

Turn Surplus: +20 (This game has 12 maps, and the A Rank requirement for Tactics is 399 Turns, so you need to get an average of 33 Turns on each map. And on this one, I beat it in 13 Turns, so I've got 20 turns to spare :D !)

Time Taken: ~36 minutes and 25 seconds. The animations were on, however, from testing a fight, I've found that No Animations vs. Animations only saves about 1 second, so I don't think that should matter much.

Things I Regret: The fact that Noish had to hang back as I rigged levels for Sigurd. Had it not been for that, I might've been able to get some more money from some of the villages :( .

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

theshim posted:

Um, I'm pretty sure his name is Zigludo :colbert:

You want my jihad to descend on your rear end or something? :mad:

Fionordequester posted:

Yeah...that IS definitely what it's supposed to be a reference to, though obviously it'd be a little anachronistic to just flat out call it that. On that note, BookofHolsety's upcoming patch calls it "Belhella" instead, so look forward to that.

How is it "anachronistic" when the game is already busting at the seams with references to Norse myth?

...And they're changing it to Belhella? :doh: That's even worse, and for even dumber reasons!

This is one case where you should either stick with the blatantly intended mythological reference, or have the balls to make major enough changes that it doesn't stick out as failed translation of the the blatantly intended mythological reference and doesn't include the word "hella".

Twilkitri
Feb 23, 2013
Assuming that this is one of the patches done while I was maintaining it, it's using Barhara because that's the name embedded into the world map and I didn't want to have the game inconsistent with itself if possible. If/when it became possible to alter that text then it would have reviewed, although this wouldn't have guaranteed it being changed to Valhalla. A distressingly large amount of reference hunters seem to feel that all referenced names need to be exact copies otherwise they don't count or something, which I'm sure will come up later. Not to say that Barhara is a particularly good example.

I want to say that Belhalla is used somewhere in Awakening, but I'm not completely certain on that.

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make

Twilkitri posted:

Assuming that this is one of the patches done while I was maintaining it, it's using Barhara because that's the name embedded into the world map and I didn't want to have the game inconsistent with itself if possible. If/when it became possible to alter that text then it would have reviewed, although this wouldn't have guaranteed it being changed to Valhalla. A distressingly large amount of reference hunters seem to feel that all referenced names need to be exact copies otherwise they don't count or something, which I'm sure will come up later. Not to say that Barhara is a particularly good example.

I want to say that Belhalla is used somewhere in Awakening, but I'm not completely certain on that.

Twilkitri! YOU'RE HERE?! Whoa, that is just awesome! I'm definitely looking forward to whatever other commentary you might have :D ! In fact, there is one thing I've always wondered about...in terms of the Reparation Patch 0.87d (which I'm using)...how much of the dialogue was done/revised by you, and how much was left over from the old translation patches?

For those not in the know, the original translation patches were done by a group called J2E Renegade (who may or may not have been responsible for the extremely flawed Final Fantasy IV translation patch), with two people called "Jay" and "Boo" doing the dialogue. But then they quit about 80% of the way through, stating that the patch they left us with was "not to be enjoyed" (due to a variety of game crashing bugs and the like).

Then another group started the project up again, and Twilkitri got involved with helping them before going ahead and doing "Reparations" to the patch after the second group also quit. When that happened, he fixed some stuff up, and solved most of the game crashes (including two particularly hilarious instances in which he inserted "filler" dialogue into textboxes that didn't have translations available for them. He could've made it boring, but instead, he made them jaw-droppingly hilarious :keke: !).

That said though, I'm not sure how much of the dialogue we're seeing here was done by him or someone else, and how much of it was done by Jay or Boo. So, do you remember the answer to that question Twilkitri? Or, has it been so long that you just kinda forgot :cheeky: ?

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jul 3, 2015

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Twilkitri posted:

A distressingly large amount of reference hunters seem to feel that all referenced names need to be exact copies otherwise they don't count or something, which I'm sure will come up later.

The problem is that when you translate an obvious reference as something that's recognizable as, but differs from the reference, it looks like you hosed it up, which makes it stand out a lot more than just running with the reference probably would. If it has to be changed for some reason, man up and change it to I don't know, Fuckburg or New York or some poo poo that doesn't look like you goofed up a reference.

I mean there are obviously reasons why you'd want or need to change a name, like loving Milady, but Valhalla is a place name and JRPGs reference mythology all the time, so I don't see any reason why this one mythological reference in a game full of mythological references must not be allowed to stand.

And Belhella, the castle that is Hella Bel, just comes across as silly, which is probably not the intention.

Twilkitri
Feb 23, 2013

Fionordequester posted:

Twilkitri! YOU'RE HERE?! Whoa, that is just awesome! I'm definitely looking forward to whatever other commentary you might have :D ! In fact, there is one thing I've always wondered about...in terms of the Reparation Patch 0.87d (which I'm using)...how much of the dialogue was done/revised by you, and how much was left over from the old translation patches?

I want to say that the vast majority of the dialogue is the same as in j2eR's version outside of name & spelling changes and deyokelisation, but it's been a long time. Without having a proper translator on hand most if not all of the changes I made would have been to clean things up rather than to correct any meanings.

The original files from j2e Renegade are online at http://twilkitri.fewiki.net/FE4/trans/fe4-0.50.9.1-jay.tar.bz2 and http://twilkitri.fewiki.net/FE4/trans/boo-ref.2002.10.03.zip if anyone wanted to go over them.

Fionordequester posted:

including two particularly hilarious instances in which he inserted "filler" dialogue into textboxes that didn't have translations available for them. He could've made it boring, but instead, he made them jaw-droppingly hilarious

I'm actually fairly embarrassed about those, I didn't expect them to end up sticking around for all eternity or I would have done something less tonally inconsistent.


vilkacis posted:

The problem is that when you translate an obvious reference as something that's recognizable as, but differs from the reference, it looks like you hosed it up

I don't believe it should, which is kind of the crux of the issue.

To continue on the topic of Barhara, I'll just note that it's spelled Ba - Ha Ra (preview keeps turning the actual characters into gibberish for some reason) - assuming that the FE4 team didn't typo the name or misunderstand how Valhalla is pronounced, and assuming that I personally properly understand how Valhalla is pronounced (all of which are fairy shaky assumptions), Valhalla is not a viable translation from a literal standpoint. Barhala/Barhalla/Varhala/Varhalla are fine, but the first 'r' isn't convertible to 'l'. (Of course NoA decided to do that anyway when they translated it as Belhalla.)

vilkacis posted:

I mean there are obviously reasons why you'd want or need to change a name, like loving Milady, but Valhalla is a place name and JRPGs reference mythology all the time, so I don't see any reason why this one mythological reference in a game full of mythological references must not be allowed to stand.

And Belhella, the castle that is Hella Bel, just comes across as silly, which is probably not the intention.

It's like, it's hardly the only place name which is a reference that doesn't have the 'proper' spelling. The continent is being called Jugdral rather than Yggdrasil for a start. If you don't like Barhara you're going to hate one of the place names to the northeast, and there are several to the mid/southeast that I'm aware of. I'm sure that someone somewhere has documented all of the differences.

Ultimately, as stated, I didn't have any tools for changing the text on the world map, and I wasn't about to have the world map use one spelling while the rest of the game used another.

I'm going to assume that 'Belhella' was a typo for Belhalla until confirmed otherwise.

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make

Twilkitri posted:

I'm going to assume that 'Belhella' was a typo for Belhalla until confirmed otherwise.

http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Belhalla

...Huh, what do you know? Looks like Twilkitri is right! My bad :cheeky: .

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Twilkitri posted:

I'll just note that it's spelled Ba - Ha Ra ... Valhalla is not a viable translation from a literal standpoint.

Maybe it's just easier to write "similar to but not actually Valhalla" in a way that looks sensible in Japanese.

quote:

It's like, it's hardly the only place name which is a reference that doesn't have the 'proper' spelling. The continent is being called Jugdral rather than Yggdrasil for a start. If you don't like Barhara you're going to hate one of the place names to the northeast, and there are several to the mid/southeast that I'm aware of. I'm sure that someone somewhere has documented all of the differences.

At least for me, Jugdral is sufficiently different from Yggdrasil not to trigger the "did you mean this other thing that is actually a name" reflex. It's like, if it were called Valar Castle or something.

quote:

Ultimately, as stated, I didn't have any tools for changing the text on the world map, and I wasn't about to have the world map use one spelling while the rest of the game used another.

That is a reason I can definitely respect, though it doesn't seem like it's relevant for the new translation.

Fionordequester posted:

...Huh, what do you know? Looks like Twilkitri is right! My bad :cheeky: .

That is hella better than Belhella, and probably the best version of "similar to but not actually Valhalla" I've seen so far.

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make
Personally, I find what you're brought up to be pretty interesting Vilkacis. Because on one hand, I think the same way in terms of references, but on the other hand, it's not always fun to have a reference be so straightforward. Like, the Super Mario Bros. Super Show once had a character whose name was a clear reference to Indiana Jones...but that wasn't his name. No, his name was Indiana Joe instead, much funnier than it would've been if they had just flat out called him Indiana Jones. And sometimes when a reference is more hidden, it makes it all the more gratifying to realize that there even was a reference there in the first place...

I guess it's all about middle ground, isn't it? Unfortunately, "Belhalla" vs. "Valhalla" can still very easily look like a romanization error due to the Japanese language using "B" sounds in order to transcribe "V" sounds. For example, "Vegeta" is pronounced "BAY-Jee-Tah" in Japanese, because they didn't really have any kind of "V" sound until very recently (or at least, by the time FE6 came out)...

So that said, I dunno. I used to prefer Belhalla, but thinking about what Vilkacis said, I think I actually would prefer Valhalla, if for no other reason than the fact that it sounds cooler to me.

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Jul 4, 2015

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Indiana Joe is a good example of something that does come across as a reference, because it's never a question of "Joe" not reading like a real name. It feels intended.

Fionordequester posted:

"Belhalla" vs. "Valhalla" can still very easily look like a romanization error

But I'd say it seems less so than "Barhara". "Bel" feels like it could potentially be a name (or maybe it's just because I recognize it from other mythology).


e: I believe Phantasy Star IV had a "Vahal Fort", which also worked as a "reminds me of something, but is sufficiently different not to look like an error" name. I'm not sure if that area was actually supposed to be Valhalla or not, though.

vilkacis fucked around with this message at 12:06 on Jul 4, 2015

Cake Attack
Mar 26, 2010

didn't they call it Belhalla in awakening, and the new patch is always going with awakening when possible?

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Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make

Cake Attack posted:

didn't they call it Belhalla in awakening, and the new patch is always going with awakening when possible?

Yes. That is correct.

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