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LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Hey, psst. It's me, double posting. This next update is gonna take a while because I have to replay the whole game up to now on Normal.

Still, I could use some advice. I'm going to be playing the three Fire Emblem 12 DLC Chapters for this LP. They take place between the end of this game and the start of the next one. I'm conflicted, though, on where I want to put them. Would you prefer it if I interspersed them throughout the LP, preferably after meeting characters who are important in them? Or should I save them all for the end?

I'm leaning towards the former, so the finale can be...the finale, but if people strongly prefer it the other way I'll do that.

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vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Voting the former. I mean, most characters aren't going to say anything after their recruitment chapter anyway, so if you wait too long we might forget who they even are :v:

Miacis
Oct 9, 2012

Get off my lawn!!

vilkacis posted:

Voting the former. I mean, most characters aren't going to say anything after their recruitment chapter anyway, so if you wait too long we might forget who they even are :v:
This, and they can serve as a little break between chapters, sort of like the Gaidens. Plus they aren't really complex chapters or even have a preparations screen if I recall, so they should be rather fast to record and write.

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

magikid posted:

I've probably asked this about Fire Emblem before, but how do you guys deal with it all? Everything about these games just seems hilariously "anti-player."

Permanent character death, so no room for mistakes. Limited experience that you have to carefully balance between characters (while still trying to clear the stage). Random level gains, so characters you've put work into can turn out terrible for no reason. No failsafe if that happens. Weapon durability for everything. Replacement weapons can only be bought in the middle of battle, when presumably enemies are trying to kill you. Weapon ranks and character relationships, so there's more stuff to manage. Gold comes from villages, which enemy thieves can destroy apparently? Really, all that's missing is hunger and thirst meters for everyone.

Are the games just generally easy enough that it doesn't matter much? I've never played any of them, but they just look like this massive brick wall that hates all life.
I've been gone 2 weeks and I wanted to answer this myself.

Its less antiplayer and more play efficient;y, which basically boils down to choosing 15 or so characters to use period and never giving anyone else any experience no matter what, You can max out a full squad easy outside of 8 where the game ends around level 20/10. 80% of the series difficulty tends to be in the first 1/3 of the game, after that you have a full squad 5-10 levels above the opposition for the rest of the game and you just go on a murder rampage. I've never had a character turn out anywhere bad enough to not be usable, and I frequently use the so called worst characters, who yknow turn out in my upper tiers, I am the crazy person that solo'd 12's boss with Feena and took Meg to the finale in 10. Weapon durability is cool, it helps you have less clutter, 6-13 all give you more than enough weaponry through drops and recruits to never have to buy any and still have like 2000 uses leftover, I'm pretty confused as to why OP is buying any tbh. Honestly Gold only matters if you forge or theres a statbooster/promoter shop.

Also 5 has a fatigue system where you have to sit characters out so they can rest, I havnt played, I assume I will die horribly if I ever do.

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

Edit: Sorry it said I failed.

LifeofaGuardian
Oct 26, 2013

Every part of every human being-even their ugly sides-is beautiful. There is no limit to beauty.
Oh man, I forget to check SA for a month or so and this thread pops up.
And about Matthis, I used him in FE12 (mostly because I like using unpopular units, I also used Bord and Cord) and he turned out like this :allears::

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

LifeofaGuardian posted:

Oh man, I forget to check SA for a month or so and this thread pops up.
And about Matthis, I used him in FE12 (mostly because I like using unpopular units, I also used Bord and Cord) and he turned out like this :allears::


Welcome back! Unfortunately I must regretfully inform you that this is a positive Matthis free zone, because he has a bad haircut and a crush on his sister.


Also the Normal mode run is going...



well.

Dwarsen
Jan 27, 2004
Dungeon Master
Can't wait to see the ritual mass suicide run.

Blogkb - because you too like video games, old and new (it's just a blog)

Miacis
Oct 9, 2012

Get off my lawn!!
"I keep sending my units in the Arena, and they just won't die!"

I can see no other explanation.

Camel Pimp
May 17, 2008

This poster survived LPing Lunar: Dragon Song. Let's give her a hand.
Isn't there a patch out there that will unlock the gaidens without the stupid "murder all your own units" condition? I sure as poo poo won't judge if you use it.

Unless you're determined to mass murder your own team for comedy. Then I understand.

Camel Pimp fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Jan 8, 2017

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

Camel Pimp posted:

Isn't there a patch out there that will unlock the gaidens without the stupid "murder all your own units" condition? I sure as poo poo won't judge if you use it.

Then you're determined to mass murder your own team for comedy. Then I understand.

Its a part of the game that should be shown. Especially since Tena Crane didn't archive his adventures with it.
Like if hes not having fun and burning out from the extra load it's the obvious thing to cut, but mass murdering dudes in fire emblem is strangely cathartic.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Chapter 6x: A Vonderful Day To Die (Prep)

: Sir Jagen, I’m afraid I don’t understand.

: I may have mixed up a few minor details. Such as downplaying my glorious contributions.



: Glorious.



Hi. So, uh, you might be wondering what I’m doing here, and the answer is that because it’s Normal Mode and a side run, I’m just Boss Abusing here.

Boss Abuse, which I explained in the regular playthrough but I’ll restate here, is using the fact that bosses regenerate their HP on thrones to just endlessly milk experience off of them. I’m doing it with Jagen and Norne here. Norne can simply sit out of his range and plink away at him, but Jagen has to be healed up by Wrys.




The only real casualties here (besides my time) are weapon uses. I burnt out Wrys’ whole starting Heal Stave here, which conveniently got him a lot of EXP as well.



: And then we hit Gazzak. And then we hit Gazzak. And then we hit Gazzak. And then we hit Gazzak. And then we hit Gazzak.

: …




I stopped once Norne had hit Level 10, broken two entire Iron Bows, and maxed out her Bow weapon level. In chapter one.




Naturally Jagen got the kill, though.


It only took...94 turns.

To be fair most of them were just using Norne or Wrys, so it didn’t take nearly as long as it looks.



Norne was so buff she just obliterated poor Darros before he could even recruit himself.




: We had little time to mourn the loss of Cord.

: Bord?

: No, I’m having a great time!




On Normal, Castor can’t one shot Caeda. How generous.




Ogma still does fine.




Things didn’t go well for Cord here. In case you didn’t read that part of the OP, yes, mass unit suicide is REQUIRED for the bonus chapters in this game. It’s dumb and bad. Thankfully they never brought it back.

: Next, we entered the Samsooth Mountains...




I missed his attack line last time around, so here you go.

: You go on ahead…Save yourself! Here, I could use this Warp staff to send you someplace safe-

: Uh-uh, honey. No can do. I didn’t betray my boys back there so you could zap-





: SEND YOU SOMEPLACE SAFE.




: drat.




Lena didn’t make for a great chokepoint.




: Naturally, I held the line, defending the valley against the foul marauders who slew the cleric!

: Sister Lena helped you get into this bed, Sir Jagen.




: The Scarlet Swordsman was nothing before the might of my Silver Lance!




: Then I absorbed his powers.

So, once you reach Chapter 4, AKA the first one with the prep screen, you get this conversation with with Malledus if you don’t have enough units to max out the deployment cap.



: Naturally, the possibility of espionage worries me… but they seem honest enough.

: We do sorely need the help… If they still wish to fight, tell them I will gladly have them!




Any prep screen where you don’t have enough units to fill the available slots for that chapter will supply you with Generic Units like these guys. They...work a lot like normal characters, only lacking portraits and any support bonuses. They have their own growth rates, base stats, etc.




It’s not enough to save them from the bloodlust of the Gaiden chapter requirements.



Oh, they also don’t have any dialogue. But, again...Shadow Dragon.



:allears:




You can even send them into the Arena!




On a semi-related note, the Arena guy has unique quotes if someone dies!




: Then I became a wizard.




: With my own special spell!

+10, by the way, is the Might cap for weapon forging.




: I was the most powerful elderly Sage in the land!




: …I made sure of that. Thankfully Sir Sedgar joined us!

: What about the rest of the Wolfguard? Or Hardin?







: ...Don’t worry about it.



I also found out that if you take too long on this chapter, some cavaliers and Pegasus Knights start to spawn from the forts. I think this is the first instance of reinforcements in the main game.




Sorry, Rickard. You’re worth a lot of Experience.




I got it this time.

: And then we went to the beach.




: The War Beach!

To unlock this chapter, as well as any other Gaiden chapter in the game, you have to have less than 15 units remaining. This means you’ll have to keep killing off recruits if you want to continue getting them.




I love that guy in the front doing the Jerry Seinfeld shrug.



: Pirates had struck the war-torn village at its weakest and abducted its children. Marth could not ignore such an injustice, and rode with his army to the rescue…



These characters, and Draug slightly offscreen, are all that’s left.



This map is pretty straightforward. We’ll need to make our way along these coasts and bridges to reach the southwest island.



The enemies are pretty numerous, but they’re decently scattered and pretty low level, there’s not much to worry about in terms of large scale attacks or chokepoints.




Notably, this Village is in the northwest corner of the map, as well as a Mage. Those are always worth noting because of awful Resistance pretty much across the board in this game.




The boss is really nothing worth noting. He’s got less Attack than that Silver Lance regular Cavalier from the last map. He’s even there on Normal, by the way.



Also Barst is a Pirate now.

Next time we meet the best Gaiden character.

LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Jan 9, 2017

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

Jagen Tales confirmed the best part of any fire emblem LP ever.

My sides are destroyed, senile bloodthirsty Jagen is love.

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

Finally made it to the first Gaiden chapter. Let's see how it goes...

MonstrousMouse
Apr 15, 2014

LordHippoman posted:

Jagen's senile ramblings about an alternate playthrough

This LP keeps getting better and better. Every one of Jagen's lines is gold.

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Huh. Shadow Dragon makes a whole lot more sense if you assume all the weird poo poo is just the results of a fever dream senile old Jagen is having.

...it's pretty amazing.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Chapter 6x: A Vonderful Day To Die (Battle)

This is our first Gaiden map, and it’s going to be a pretty short and sweet affair. These chapters, are, in general, pretty easy, most likely because they’re meant to replenish the rosters of players who are struggling and have lost a lot of characters.



So let’s just get started.







: But you’ve barely recovered! If you try to fight the pirates in that state, you’ll only-

: Only vat? Die? If your villagers had not pulled us from the sea, ve vould have been svallowed by the vaves anyway. That is the least ve can do. Vat sort of selfish creature do you take us for?

Have you figured out Athena’s gimmick yet?

: But there’s no way you can stop them! There’s only one of you-er, yous.

:allears:

: Look, please just wait a little longer. I’ve sent our younger folk to find help. Give them a chance to return!

: ...Very well. Ve vill vait for this “help”. But if no vun comes, make no mistake: ve vill not sit idly by.

She will absolutely sit idly by until we get there.




The map is nice enough to start you near some convenient forts. Or, they’d be convenient if YOU reached them on the first turn. I’m dumb and let Julian stand where a pirate is going to get the fort bonus. Ah well.




The first wave of enemies on this map will rush you, so it’s not a bad idea to just stay near the start and cut them down as they come to you. I’m not doing a speedrun here.




The enemies that do rush you are...a little erratic, though. It seems to just be some very arbitrarily placed units.




I took out the pirate that came for Julian, with some help from Merric, and now Barst is going to show these pirates using forts how to really be a pirate on a fort.




Yes, like that.




I’m not going to show all the levels in these Gaiden maps, because they don’t affect the main run, but I wanted to remind you all that Barst is, in fact...good.




: “Stand behind the beefy pirate”, they said to me, “He’s got a fort!”, they said. Bah! Axes beat lances, but y’know what beats Axes?

: Swords?

: Fire.



Honestly, these enemies can do decent damage, but they’re all fairly slow and you’ve got control of the space. This opening salvo of guys is pretty much some free EXP.




The design of the map works against the enemies, too. This archer is completely cut off from his friends thanks to the river tiles that surround the islands. Unfortunately, Caeda can’t one shot him yet, so I didn’t do this. We’ll have to be a little patient…




You can go either way here, both the north and south paths will lead you to the boss, but I just split the army and took both. Marth is going to want to head north for the village, though.




Here’s the benefit of the Pirate class. They can walk on water! This little trick is usually pretty useless, but on maps like this we can get some nice advantages. Time to soften him up for Caeda.




Or, it would be, if Barst wasn’t just an unstoppable blender of pain.




Frey is pretty much just soloing the lower path, because all it has now is...this archer.




Nothing really notable in this shot. I just wanted to point out that Heroes, the class I put Sedgar in, do silly backflips after every attack.

Heroes, by the way, are promoted Mercenaries who can also use Axes.




Just hanging out here in the ocean. The ocean gives you 20 Avoidance, by the way!



Still, that’s enough goofing around, let’s get a new character.




: Ah, splendid. How many of you? Gather your men, and we’ll be on our way at once.




Athena is so good.

: I heard pirates took the village children, so I brought my army straightaway.

: …If you say so. Ve are called Athena. The vee vuns have been visked away to a castle south of here. Come. Ve have a fair bit of skill vith a sword; hopefully the same can be said of you, Marth of Altea.




Athena, despite my dislike for Myrmidons in this game, is a really, really good unit. Some people purposely kill off a lot of units in the first part of the game just to get her. She comes at a really high level with good base stats. When it comes to Growth rates, Nabavarl has her beat in a few categories, notably Strength and Luck, but she’s still solid, and I like her a little more.




Sadly Wrys has gotten 3 empty levels in the eight he’s scored as part of the team :smith:




All that’s really left to worry about now are these two guards near the boss.




Barst and Jagen, at the ready.




I wanted to show this Sedgar level just to point out the +2 in HP. That means his growth rate was over 100%, so he automatically got a +1, then it procced again. I think HP is the only stat you can see that in in this game.




Yikes, Jagen’s pretty brittle. I’ll keep that in mind.



Meanwhile Barst has a duel with a wizard in the middle of the ocean.




Bathys is...a huge chump. WIth a little luck a fresh Athena can solo him (on Normal).







Of course, a little help (and a little extra XP) is never something to turn down.




: Yo ho, gangplank, shiver me timbers, rattle me bones, broadside!




:toot:






Marth just stares, stone cold at these kidnapped children. He sorta tends to do that a lot in this game.




: We were ready to abandon all hope, but you came to our aid when no one else would, when you did not have to. I know today’s battle means little when the entire world is at war. History may not remember it- but we will. Our village will speak of your feats for generations to come.

:unsmith:




: You have?


: It is the least ve can do. Vat sort of selfish creature do you take us for? Ve vill join you, and you vill be grateful. Do ve make ourselves clear?

: P-perfectly clear, Athena. Your swordsmanship will turn the tides in many a battle to come.




Next time, back to the main run for Lefcandith Gauntlet. For real.

Bonus Content

Athena's really the only choice here, right?



The Swordsman of a Foreign Country, Athena

Uh :stonk:

That's not how spines...work.

One sec, Athena deserves better.



As a remake exclusive character, Athena got her own artwork.

LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Jan 12, 2017

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

LordHippoman posted:

Meanwhile Barst has a duel with a wizard in the middle of the ocean.
I mean, he is the master of time and space. Sounds like a regular Monday for Barst.

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

This is one of the few times Shadow Dragon acknowledges just how much the tone of the series has changed.

The early games tended to be written as "And the next data point historians have found is that Marth's army was here."

Up to, Binding Blade, the endings were "And this is who was remembered by history and how. We're pretty sure the dragon chick wasn't actually real, but she adds a certain something to the plays written about the campaign later." Then the transition to Blazing Sword subtly changed it to "This is what happened. And this is how they lived their lives afterward."

And here, in a remake of the first game that changes very little, we have these side chapters, where "History won't remember this. But you totally did do it, and it mattered."

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

MightyPretenders posted:

This is one of the few times Shadow Dragon acknowledges just how much the tone of the series has changed.

The early games tended to be written as "And the next data point historians have found is that Marth's army was here."

Up to, Binding Blade, the endings were "And this is who was remembered by history and how. We're pretty sure the dragon chick wasn't actually real, but she adds a certain something to the plays written about the campaign later." Then the transition to Blazing Sword subtly changed it to "This is what happened. And this is how they lived their lives afterward."

This is a really good point and something I didn't notice. There's a very noticeable shift between the very character focused plots of something like Awakening and the impersonal, history book sort of things like FE3 or those Satelliview games.

From what I've seen of FE4, mostly just through fionordequester's LP (I'd recommend it, he knows his stuff way more than I do and goes into some fantastic detail!), that one goes a lot more in depth than FE usually does with the setting.

Like, this game is sorta like "Gra exists" while FE4 would go with "The kingdom of Gra, founded in the lunar year 321 is a mercantile republic ruled by Duke Something, who is currently in political negotiations to expand his borders three feet west, threatening to disrupt the volatile pseudo-alliance grafted by the Treaty of Manfroy in 240." It slows down a bit after the intro cutscene, but they give you a heck of a lot of information and try to flesh out a very "medieval world" kind of setting.

The backstory kinda feels like someone's Fire Emblem mod of Crusader Kings. (Is that a thing? That's gotta be a thing.)

LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Jan 10, 2017

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



LordHippoman posted:

This is a really good point and something I didn't notice. There's a very noticeable shift between the very character focused plots of something like Awakening and the impersonal, history book sort of things like FE3 or those Satelliview games.

From what I've seen of FE4, mostly just through fionordequester's LP (I'd recommend it, he knows his stuff way more than I do and goes into some fantastic detail!), that one goes a lot more in depth than FE usually does with the setting.

Like, this game is sorta like "Gra exists" while FE4 would go with "The kingdom of Gra, founded in the lunar year 321 is a mercantile republic ruled by Duke Something, who is currently in political negotiations to expand his borders three feet west, threatening to disrupt the volatile pseudo-alliance grafted by the Treaty of Manfroy in 240." It slows down a bit after the intro cutscene, but they give you a heck of a lot of information and try to flesh out a very "medieval world" kind of setting.

The backstory kinda feels like someone's Fire Emblem mod of Crusader Kings. (Is that a thing? That's gotta be a thing.)

You still see odd little snatches of the old view in modern endings with the "Future historians" ones, but yeah. It's been a process. Six was basically FE1 but portable, but 7 gave the player a ground level view between the tactician and the more personal story, then eight had everything focused in on the personal conflict between Lyon and the two lords, then FE9 starred the mercenaries who'd slowly get nudged to the margins of the history books...

As was mentioned, it's not even so much a change to the events of the narrative as it is a change to how they're focused. Aside from the time travel, Awakening's a pretty basic Fire Emblem plot. Jackass neighboring country, evil dragon god, and wars, wars, wars. But since it's mostly from Robin's point of view, you get an offhanded mention from Chrom that his dad was a massive warmongering rear end in a top hat, where FE4 would have that be one of the central points of the opening narration.

This lead, in turn, to Fates, where you get pretty much nothing about anything except insofar as it makes Corrin more special.

On the other hand, post-Kaga games tend to have better odds of playable female characters over 25 (who aren't magic dragons who look 12), so, you know. That's nice.

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

MightyPretenders posted:

And here, in a remake of the first game that changes very little, we have these side chapters, where "History won't remember this. But you totally did do it, and it mattered."

"Except for the part where you got 80% of your army killed in the process. That part didn't happen."


It's a good point, though.

chiasaur11 posted:

Six was basically FE1 but portable

And with a better protagonist :colbert:

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

vilkacis posted:

"Except for the part where you got 80% of your army killed in the process. That part didn't happen."

I like that according to the sequel, yes, this is exactly how it worked out.



Also I realized I forgot to put the bonus content in the last two updates, so it's in now.

booksnake
May 4, 2009

we who are crowned with the crest of wisdom

LordHippoman posted:


: …If you say so. Ve are called Athena. The vee vuns have been visked away to a castle south of here. Come. Ve have a fair bit of skill vith a sword; hopefully the same can be said of you, Marth of Altea.

Should I be happy this is not the ridiculous-looking "svord" or unhappy that they aren't fully consistent with the wuh->vuh? I am conflicted

edit: well, if you forge her a sword i know what i'd want to name it

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
Well, the word "sword" doesn't really pronounce the W, so it wouldn't make sense except visually.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

but awvay is :eng101:

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Chapter 7: Death From Above, Also Below (Prep)

So, after our brief detour into that parallel playthrough, it’s time to get back to the main game of Shadow Dragon.

(i’m sorry)



It’s...it’s one of these save files.




There we go.







: They followed the Middleroad south, bound for Archanea Palace- a perilous route, for it took them right into Lefcandith Valley and the jaws of trouble. The countless fortresses lining the valley made it a veritable gauntlet, and compounding the danger was the presence of the Whitewings, a knightly order led by Princess Minerva of Macedon. It would be a fierce battle

Minerva sounds like bad news.




I’d like to note that, in a nice detail, the name of our forces is “Arch. League” from now on instead of “Altea”. Because now Marth has the Fire Emblem or something.



Just going to bring the usual team for this mission. You’ll probably want at least one bow unit for this map, because fliers are about to rear their ugly, dragon/horse heads. Wolf and Draug should work for us. Also, countering lances is good, so if you’ve got a powerful axe unit, say with high durability, stren-

Barst. I’m saying use Barst.




Sadly, I want to keep the squishy units to a minimum in this one, and movement’s at a premium, so Hardin’s going to have to quit being Minwu for now.




Lefcandith Gauntlet is...a gauntlet. We’ll want to run most of our units down that long path to the west. We do have a few complications, though, aside from all those red dots.




Namely, I’ve got to send Marth to this village...which is oddly well defended, with two archers, two Mercenaries, and a locked gate. So he’ll want backup as well.




This archer has a nasty surprise, the Longbow. It’s the only 3 range weapon in the game, so he’ll be able to avoid counters, even from other archers! I’ll probably want to rush him down.




This whole path is pretty empty and easy to run through. Well, for now, at least.




There’s a thief with a redundant door key here. I assume that’s in case you have no other way to open the gate. Unfortunately, that’s not our only foe. There are a lot of forts scattered along the south side of the valley...and they’ll be pumping out enemies each turn. That’s bad, bad news, especially on Hard Mode. We’ve got a fight ahead of us.




To add to our problems, Macedon reveals their main gimmick in this chapter, flying units! The Dracoknight is a promoted Pegasus Knight. Imagine Caeda but buff and also she’s got an axe.




Thankfully the boss is nothing special. Another General without a two range weapon. Cord fodder.

He’s probably not the most notable face here, though...




Princess Minerva is a badass with a dragon and the best axe in the entire game, and she hates us right now. It is in our best interests to stay FAR AWAY from the Dracoknight.



She’s also brought her underlings. Est’s packing a Ridersbane, so despite her fragility, she’ll hit our cavaliers hard.




Palla’s the strongest of the Pegasus Knights.




oh gently caress it’s the queen of the skies




Clearly we’ll have to prepare.




Fun fact, Caps take up extra space in this game. So “BARST OWNS” didn’t fit. “BARST Owns” did!

Next time we run the Gauntlet and I probably regret my choices.


(As a sidenote, this is now the official "Jagen For Fire Emblem Warriors" Thread, please support your local Jagens.)

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
Ah, the Pegaus Trio. There are so many LPs where Catria turns out to be a murder machine, I'm looking forward to seeing her in action here.

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
Whenever I see a Pegasus Knight I'm sad because it's not Farina, Queen of the Sky

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

LordHippoman posted:

Imagine Caeda but buff and also she’s got an axe.

:hawaaaafap:

"you are free to stop imagining it any time"



LordHippoman posted:

(As a sidenote, this is now the official "Jagen For Fire Emblem Warriors" Thread, please support your local Jagens.)

I want literally Jeigan Warriors with a cast of characters all over 40.

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

vilkacis posted:

:hawaaaafap:

"you are free to stop imagining it any time"


I want literally Jeigan Warriors with a cast of characters all over 40.

Caeda looks good with an angry face. Also this is worse if you remember the phrase "in the buff".

Sprites with emotions om FE15 please.

RareAcumen
Dec 28, 2012




LordHippoman posted:



Princess Minerva is a badass with a dragon and the best axe in the entire game, and she hates us right now. It is in our best interests to stay FAR AWAY from the Dracoknight.



Palla’s the strongest of the Pegasus Knights.




oh gently caress it’s the queen of the skies

So Hard Mode just moves a fight you'd be having 17 chapters later to here huh?

LordHippoman posted:

(As a sidenote, this is now the official "Jagen For Fire Emblem Warriors" Thread, please support your local Jagens.)

I'm curious how they're going to stay true to the games and have the Jagens not really measure up compared to regular units.

RareAcumen fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Jan 14, 2017

Last Celebration
Mar 30, 2010

RareAcumen posted:

So Hard Mode just moves a fight you'd be having 17 chapters later to here huh?

They gently caress off after a few turns on every difficulty, I think.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



vilkacis posted:

:hawaaaafap:

"you are free to stop imagining it any time"


I want literally Jeigan Warriors with a cast of characters all over 40.

So, Nowi, Nyx, and Myrrh as the starting lineup?

Slightly more seriously, there's not that many people over 40, proportionally, and even fewer of them are women if you leave off the "They're really TWENTY XTY SIX years old, even though they look twelve!" entries. Lessee... Niime, Flavia, and... maybe Tiki?

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

Torrannor posted:

Ah, the Pegaus Trio. There are so many LPs where Catria turns out to be a murder machine, I'm looking forward to seeing her in action here.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

Whenever I see a Pegasus Knight I'm sad because it's not Farina, Queen of the Sky

You don't have to pay Catria to get results. She is a freelance rear end kicker.


vilkacis posted:

I want literally Jeigan Warriors with a cast of characters all over 40.

RareAcumen posted:

I'm curious how they're going to stay true to the games and have the Jagens not really measure up compared to regular units.


I would unironically be completely okay with Jeigan Warriors + Chrom with a false mustache to conform with the trailer. They'll probably go mostly Awakening/Fates, although I'd like to see more varied stuff.

I'd imagine that if any Jagen-esque characters got in the game, they probably wouldn't acknowledge their stats, although it would be kinda funny to see Jagen being totally busted for the first five minutes of a battle and then suddenly just losing a bunch of damage because he gets too tired and has no growth rates.

MythosDragon posted:

Sprites with emotions om FE15 please.

They did it in 13 and 14, so I wouldn't be too surprised to see them roll it out again.

Last Celebration posted:

They gently caress off after a few turns on every difficulty, I think.

Yep, or you can "kill" Minerva and they'll all leave.


chiasaur11 posted:

Lessee... Niime, Flavia, and... maybe Tiki?

Isadora maybe. It's hard to tell how old people are supposed to be in Blazing Sword. Joshua's mom from Sacred Stones? But she wasn't playable until postgame...we really need more old ladies in this series.

rannum
Nov 3, 2012

The best way to handle Jeigan is to make him the stand in for the "generic" captains that you have to constantly rescue and worry about them dying.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Chapter 7: Death from Above, Also Below (Battle)

We’re finally taking on the Lefcandith Gauntlet this time, and I’d say it’s easily the hardest chapter so far. Let’s get a slow start with some exposition, though.



“I don’t even want to look at your tactics.”

: Let me attack the rebels head-on, and keep my pride as a knight of Macedon.

: Ah, you mean the same pride that cost us all those soldiers back in Aurelis? I think not, Princess. If we’re to regroup, we need to buy time. My tactics are necessary. The emperor himself has named me commander of this post. Either obey, or accept the consequences.

Oh man, I don’t know how we’re supposed to know if he’s a bad guy-

: Your little sister Maria is still under our ward, is she not? What a shame it would be, if we decided we could no longer care for her…

Oh, there we go.

: Enough! …I will obey. But the Altean knights are smarter than you give them credit for. They will prevail here, and you will regret having acting so rashly, General.

It’s one of the few subplots Shadow Dragon doesn’t drop like a hot potato.



Just immediately opening up this door with Julian. No sense waiting around...except the potential that both of those archers shoot and kill him! The one on the right has a longbow, remember?




Thankfully Cord can double one down. I thought I’d have to heal him up, but he just dodged the shot.




I really wish he’d start getting more Magic, but I can’t complain about Speed.




Marth, of course, also has to head down that way, so he can reach that village and get whatever’s inside.




Everyone else just charges south.




These archers are having an awful day. Maybe they should start using complete arrows.




Oh, uh, also Minerva’s bearing down on us. All the flying units will charge you off the bat, and without the worry of terrain, they can zip across this map extremely quickly.




False alarm, pull back!




:tif:

So this looks like a really bad situation. It...isn’t. Minerva and her allies will retreat as soon as the enemy phase starts, because:

: Fie, enough! I’ve no stomach for these cat-and-mouse tactics. Come, Whitewings, we fly! Hyah!

Uh, that, I guess.

Or you can just kill her. She won’t actually die here, nor will her subordinates. Easier said than done, but she is weak to Bows…





Wolf and Draug set her up…



And Navarre knocks her down. Check out that damage on Minerva, by the way. Hauteclere ain’t nothin’ to gently caress with. She’ll annihilate squishy units, given the chance.







Which Pegasus Knight speaks here depends on which are still on the battlefield. If you take out Palla, Catria gets a line, and if Palla and Catria go down, Est does.

: The commander left? Then I’ve no reason to stay.

: Sorry, General. My place is with the commander.




Still not a huge fan of Navarre as a front line unit. Might reclass him to Archer and see how he does.




Although Minerva and the Whitewings are gone, we’ve still got these three fliers to worry about (the thief is unimportant), and if they collapse on someone, they could kill a squishy unit. The Dracoknight’s the highest hitter, so we’ll try and focus him down.




That’ll do. Keep in mind that Dracoknights are very dangerous because fliers rule in the DS games, so bow users are a good idea, as being able to one round kill a Dracoknight is a highly valuable ability.




Oh, also the thief’s dead.



You’d have to make an effort to let that guy through all the way to the village.



The Pegasus Knights attacked for negligible damage, leaving them easy pickings for the rest of the team.




Maybe NOW I can get to the village…




Once I reach the part of the map that opens up into the southern half, I immediately want to step on those forts!




Caeda’s great for this one, as it’s out of the way and surrounded by mountains, which she doesn’t care about.




The reason I did that is reinforcements. I couldn’t confirm online exactly what triggers these guys, but I think it’s Turn 4 starting. A Cavalier will pop out from each of the four forts down here at the beginning of Enemy Phase.




This is, in my opinion, the most drastic change between Normal and Hard mode. On Hard, they get to take their turns, basically giving them an ambush on you.




One of them threw a Javelin at Hardin, which dents him pretty bad. I don’t want to go all out and push here, though I probably could, but it would be pretty risky for say, Wendell or Lena. So for the next several turns, I’m playing defense down here. This is the meat of the map.




Longbow guy has an unfortunate encounter with the unforgettable Barst.




I also swapped Hardin out for Wolf, since he can hold the fort better. Hardin would probably do fine with a vulnerary and perhaps the Physic Stave on Lena, but I’d rather not take chances here.




At the start of the next turn, it happens again. This would be four cavaliers, again, if we didn’t plug those two forts.




Meanwhile...Marth.




The Cavaliers ignore Wolf, preferring to go for the easier prey. That’s something the enemy AI likes to do in this game, even though Wolf is holding a bow and can’t retaliate. They seem to prioritize damage.




I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that this poor mercenary is terrible compared to his ally. He does less than half the damage to Marth. It’s like the little brother you put in your kickball match so he doesn’t feel bad. Then he gets hit in the face with the ball.

i’m not projecting.




Thankfully, we can poke away at the Iron Lance cavaliers pretty safely from back here with ranged units, so Draug is doing work.




Also leveling up, he’s doing that too.




Lena and Wendell are gonna get a workout on this map with their Staves. I probably should have given Lena that Heal back. See if you can spot the really dumb inventory mistake in this update where I was praying for a ranged healing stave!




These two spaces where Abel and Ogma are are the only way to pass into the...pass, so beefy units are good to block them. For the Javelin wielders, sticking a ranged unit behind or adjacent to them, like Draug here, can help coax them into hurting themselves.




3 damage. Here’s the metaphorical kickball kid again.




Watch out for the Javelin damage, though, these guys don’t pull punches.




Case in point, even Ogma’s getting beaten down pretty bad. Wolf continues to be totally ignored.




However, the reinforcements seem to have stopped for now, so I can get a little more offensive.




Still...inching forward...because…




AHA! Can’t trick me (a second time)!




Always keep in mind that just because reinforcements pause doesn’t mean they’ve stopped coming. To be honest, I looked around online a lot to try and find out exactly what the conditions are for these waves spawning, but I got a ton of different, conflicting answers. I think they start on Turn 4, regardless, and then more start coming when you pass the invisible line between Hardin and Ogma in this shot.




Lena’s lack of Magic is also a little worrying. I’m only going to get so many stat boosters, you guys.




Finally, at least, Marth has reached his destination.




Ban-Ban!

: She must be found, boy! Tiki is the last of the Naga, the divine-dragon clan. Without her powers, we cannot challenge the Manaketes who serve Medeus… Me? I haven’t the power. I am a fire dragon, yes… But in the name alone, in name alone. I lost my firestone in Pyrathi. Without it, I cannot do battle. …You will be traveling much, yes? I wish to go with you. Perhaps together we can find Tiki.




Bantu has joined our team now. And yes, he’s a dragon. Kinda. Manaketes, they’ll get explained soon. I know he looks awful now, but as he hinted, he needs his Dragonstone to show off his true potential, which...I think I left in someone else’s inventory :v:

But rest assured, once he gets it...he’s still extremely terrible. I love him, though, he’s a friendly grandpa who turns into a kickass dragon.




However, we’ve still got this to worry about.




At least Abel gets a pretty great level from taking so much abuse here.




Also, yeah, Marth now has to walk all the way back. This will be a long map if you want to get Bantu. And you do, for something later.




There’s also the whole matter of these guys not letting up. I’m basically just rotating people back and forth between Lena/Wendell and the front lines at this point.




This was Abel. Dude’s doing great this map.




Also, Barst is back. :get in:




...He can do better.




No, don’t start following his example! In this very particular case, I mean.




Oh, also the Mend broke. And I pulled Wolf back because at this point I was making lunch. This chapter isn’t exactly engrossing.




That means a bonus Cav, hooray!




However, that means an open fort, and Caeda has been waiting.




Never make Caeda wait.




Cain’s not quite the constant prescence Abel is here, but he’s still doing well. I might reclass one of them so we don’t have three separate Cavaliers. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but more variety should make this more...watchable.




Take this crit as my apology that you had to read this chapter.




And that is, actually, the end of the Reinforcements. Turn 14 was their last spawn. I don’t know if that’s constant for everyone, just...let’s get this map done with.




Pictured: Terror that someone else shows up as soon as I hit that End Turn button.




Now pictured: Relief, and an urge to filet these guys because I’m far too tense now.




Cord...please, Magic?




And so, it’s down to us, Harmein, and...Harmein’s friend the Curate. I’ll take care of that offscreen.

It’s down to us and Harmein.




Oh, also, gently caress this Fort. This fort sits at the top of the map and makes you nervous the whole drat time, because every other one in the chapter vomits Cavaliers. This does NOTHING and I’m convinced it’s just to freak you out. :argh:




Really not much to do now but let Cord do his thing.




If you didn’t defeat Minerva, and she left on her own instead...his dialogue actually changes.

: Curse Minerva and her pride! Grr, no matter. If I am to die here, then I won’t be dying alone!

There’s little touches of effort like this in Shadow Dragon that I really do like.




Oh, here’s a Wendell level. I love how speedy this old man is.

But hey, Marth should get the final hit in on this boss. For Style Points.




Oh no. He whiffed.




Oh gently caress. :stonk:




As usual, Caeda saves the day.

: This is pretty much how their marriage works nowadays.

: I’m standing right outside. :smith:









Bless you, Caeda, for being a shitwrecker.



:toot:




Oh, yeah, Malledus exists.

: Manaketes? You mean the dragonkin?

: Yes, sire. I was not sure how much knowledge you had of the Manaketes. The Manaketes inhabited our continent long before the dawn of humanity. However, ordinarily their draconic disposition stayed suppressed; their power sealed within special stones. Thus rather than terrorizing humankind, they chose to live simple, peaceful lives in the quieter reaches of the world.




He’s an Earth Dragon!

: and created what would be a great empire there. His forces invaded the human realm, and in the blink of an eye, he had subjected all of the land.




: In his hand was a shining blade of light- Falchion- which he plunged into Medeus- and the tyrant was no more. Anri went on to found Altea- and the rest, I believe, you know.

So, Medeus is back now, somehow, (I don’t remember if they explain why, but I assume it has something to do with another villain we’ll meet later), and he pretty much just did the exact same thing, what with the invasions and the conquerings.

: Yes, Malledus… Is that what this was about? I do know my own kingdom’s history. And I know what I must do, now that Medeus has revived and restored Dolhr to its former might.

: You are Anri’s last male descendant, the only one who can wield Falchion. You must find the blade that was taken, and put an end to Dolhr and its misguided Manakete rulers.

Also Falchion runs a check on your bloodline and your gender to see if you can use it. Rude rear end legendary sword.

: I will finish what my father started. I will avenge him, and bring light back into our world.




Next time we might go to Port Warren.

Bonus Content


The Watcher of the Dragon Princess, Bantu

This is about the coolest depiction Bantu will ever get, though I must admit I’d prefer his old man form.

LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Jan 18, 2017

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

In the more egalitarian future of 201X, someone finally realizes that no, the Falchion does not have a male-only clause. Why would it? It's a dragon's discarded tooth. Its two powers are being able to kill other dragons, and being organic enough to heal back over any chips or cracks.

Jury is still out over whether it's really tied to a particular family or not, seeing as how Anri never had children, and so has no descendants. Marth is descended from Anri's cousin.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.

MightyPretenders posted:

In the more egalitarian future of 201X, someone finally realizes that no, the Falchion does not have a male-only clause. Why would it? It's a dragon's discarded tooth. Its two powers are being able to kill other dragons, and being organic enough to heal back over any chips or cracks.

Jury is still out over whether it's really tied to a particular family or not, seeing as how Anri never had children, and so has no descendants. Marth is descended from Anri's cousin.

I mean, (Awakening Spoiler) Lucina uses it fine, unless there was time travel shenanigan fuckery involved there, I honestly don't remember. I think the Anri thing actually doesn't get mentioned in the remakes, by the way, so I'm not sure if that's even canon now.

I think they just don't want Caeda using it, because she would just become an unstoppable death goddess. Turns out it's just keyed to blue hair.

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AradoBalanga
Jan 3, 2013

LordHippoman posted:

I mean, (Awakening Spoiler) Lucina uses it fine, unless there was time travel shenanigan fuckery involved there, I honestly don't remember. I think the Anri thing actually doesn't get mentioned in the remakes, by the way, so I'm not sure if that's even canon now.

I think they just don't want Caeda using it, because she would just become an unstoppable death goddess. Turns out it's just keyed to blue hair.
If that's the case, then why can't Barst or Catria wield Falchion? They both have blue hair.

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