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As a fan of accurate localizations, hard disagree. E: What a terrible page snipe.
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Oct 20, 2022 05:10
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Melomane Mallet posted:As a fan of accurate localizations, hard disagree. There are no accurate localizations. Traduttore, traditore and all that. Best way to compensate is probably by making the best script you can think of with the resources you've got.
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Oct 20, 2022 09:54
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Lord Koth posted:Also, the way I've always visualized the Kingdom in terrain is Siberia. In terms of building a country it's really goddamn terrible terrain overall. Also makes you wonder who the hell the Sreng are, given they apparently live NORTH of this Siberia expy. The poverty of the Kingdom and lack of arable land is a subtle but recurring plot point if you pay attention. My best guess for the Sreng is that they're meant to be Viking analogues. I think Faerghus in general draws heavily on medieval England for thematic inspiration, as viewed through the lens of anime writers who have probably never been there, and specifically Arthurian mythos. The juicy Arthurian mythos with knights running around having affairs, people going mad because I HAVE FAILED MY LORD AND THE CODE OF CHIVALRY and living as shirtless hermits in the woods before getting pulled back in, and the occasional berserk rampage. In this analogy, Duscur is probably Ireland, or maybe Wales.
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Oct 20, 2022 13:11
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It's more likely Faerghus is supposed to be medieval France, though I couldn't tell you why beyond "they preceded and conquered England through Normandy. and all their myths and customs about chivalry trickled down into English culture".
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Oct 20, 2022 14:10
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For fun I like to imaging Faerghus as being the “everyone fighting everyone else” medieval England. You know, the type where a local lord will take like three knights and a dozen peasants and just steal a farm or a mill or a lumberyard from the next lord over, so the other lord takes his own troops and steals a tiny chunk of land from his own neighbors, and so on and so forth. Constant low-level, low-impact ”wars” that instill a culture of “you must know how to fight!” and “stealing from your neighbors is a-ok!” despite the entirety being at “peace.” The latter of which explains a lot about certain things going on in and around that country.
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Oct 20, 2022 16:43
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Cythereal posted:The poverty of the Kingdom and lack of arable land is a subtle but recurring plot point if you pay attention. Yeah, that's why I compared it to Siberia. Dimitri mentions at one point what the weather is like in Fhirdiad in winter, mentioning incredibly low temperatures and absolutely massive snowfall. And then you look at a map and realize Fhirdiad is actually only slightly north of center in the country, not even close to the northern border. Ingrid's province is described as a barren waste, and that's towards the south of the country - though for climate chat, it being right up against the mountain range separating the Kingdom and the Alliance could somewhat explain that, and also explain why Alliance land seems much better off. Regardless though, the Kingdom as a whole is described as having very little particularly arable land, and what they do have is mostly located near the border with the Empire. Thematically yes, the Kingdom absolutely evokes elements of the British Isles and lore, and Arthurian lore in particular. But wow is the terrain and climate so, SO much worse than the fairly temperate British Isles. As for Duscur, they don't really match either Ireland or Scotland particularly well thematically, but that's probably about as close as you're going to get. Wales doesn't really fit for a number of reasons.
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Oct 20, 2022 22:10
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Blaiddyd is the most Welsh name imaginable
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Oct 20, 2022 22:38
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Lord Koth posted:Ingrid's province is described as a barren waste, and that's towards the south of the country - though for climate chat, it being right up against the mountain range separating the Kingdom and the Alliance could somewhat explain that, and also explain why Alliance land seems much better off. TBF, Ingrid's land in particular also has some other stuff going on that might be relevant here.
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Oct 21, 2022 01:46
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I usually just give up on the geography in this game. By all accounts it doesn’t make any sense. Some things make more sense if you just imagine the compass rose on the map is off by a slight angle, but just wait until we see Sreng.
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Oct 21, 2022 06:31
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Looking over the lore dump one thing that surprises me is that Brigid was made an imperial client state three hundred years prior to the start of the game. I had assumed it was a recent thing.
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Oct 21, 2022 15:09
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One potentially interesting world-building detail from Three Hopes about the noble families of Fodlan, which may or may not have been intended for Houses, is that according to Hopes most of the noble families in Fodlan are so heavily intermarried that just about any Crest can pop up in a child of any noble family, and there's a history of noble families discretely adopting children who pop up with the relevant family's Crest. If you take this detail as canon, just about all of the noble and royal characters in Houses could be accurately described as cousins of varying degrees of remove.
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Oct 21, 2022 15:45
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I mean, they're nobles that's not surprising if you look at European history.
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Oct 21, 2022 15:47
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I dunno, when I think of “Europe,” “nobles,” and “marriage” in quick succession, my brain defaults to “Habsburgs.” Which is just about the exact opposite of heavy intermarrying between families.
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Oct 21, 2022 22:57
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Dr Pepper posted:Looking over the lore dump one thing that surprises me is that Brigid was made an imperial client state three hundred years prior to the start of the game. Because it also is. Brigid has been swapping back between independence/Dagda-control/Imperial-control all that time. Currently they're under Imperial control after they lost the Dagda and Brigid War - which isn't included in the books.
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Oct 22, 2022 15:58
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With Blastinus' permission, probably the last Three Hopes thing from me while I'm on this campaign.Imperial Territories of Adrestia Book Two posted:
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Oct 23, 2022 02:27
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Chapter 3: Mutiny in the Mist Rumors of a Rebellion  Last time, we resolved the bandit subplot, leaving us with a certain shortage of villains. Guess it's time to introduce a new conflict. Cutscene - Garland Moon  Garland Moon posted:When the warm winds blow from the sea to the south of Adrestia, residents of Fódlan know that the rainy season is upon them. Before the heavy rains take their toll, young women hurry to pick the last of the white roses. The ivory buds are woven into garlands and given as gifts to close friends or potential lovers. Not coincidentally, this chapter will also mark the beginning of giving gifts to others. See, it all comes together.  Not a whole lot of cash to work with to start this month, but remember we also got that Large Bullion, so just add 5,000 to that.  Music - Guardian of Starlight  : We have received reports that Lord Lonato has rallied troops against the Holy Church of Seiros. : Why would he do that?From what Ashe was saying, he seems like a really nice guy. Doesn't make a lot of sense.  : Lord Lonato is a minor lord of the Kingdom. He has been showing hostility towards the church for some time now.: A vanguard unit from the Knights of Seiros is already on its way to his stronghold, Castle Gaspard. Lord Lonato's army is nothing compared to the knights. It's quite possible the rebellion has already been suppressed.: Even so, I would like for your class to travel with the knights' rear guard to deal with the aftermath.: War zones are unpredictable. We do not expect you will have cause to battle, but be prepared for the worst. Gaspard is right here on the world map, just on the border of the Empire. Also, note that this region of the world is the domain of the so-called Western Church. We're technically not supposed to know that yet, considering how quickly the world map whooshes past, but let's just keep that in the back of our collective minds.  Suddenly a new character. One of my favorites, as a matter of fact. Music - Beneath the Banner   : Nice to meet you. We've heard a lot about you. If you need anything, just ask.: She is one of our bravest knights, and that is no small feat. Only an exceptional few have what it takes to join the Knights of Seiros. This mission should prove useful in demonstrating to the students how foolish it would be to ever turn their blades on the Church...You want to run that line by me again? Setting that far, far to the side, Rhea is correct about Catherine's courage. She is all offense, and we'll get to see firsthand what her skills are like in this chapter.  Enjoy the flowers, you jerk.  We've been set free to plan our month however we want, but I'm always going to explore first just to get it out of the way.  The game seems to expect this, so we're getting most of the events up front. This won't ALWAYS be the case, but it might as well be.  First though, we've got a couple of folks ready to skip to the next grade.  Soldiers are back as a class, baby! Sadly no additional on-foot lance classes, so we'll have to continue our horse studies in order to get Dimitri ready for the next step.  You were literally unable to fail.  Felix's interests make it pretty easy for him to slot into Fighter or Myrmidon. OR Mage, eventually. Why are you so good at everything, Felix?  But you know what, I think he'll be our sword guy. Besides the Professor, that is. He'll naturally still be firing a bow as need dictates. Would be wasteful otherwise.  Music - Life at Garreg Mach Monastery Oh hello. Have you been hovering there long?  : You have spent quite some time in here, engaging in such idle chatter. Do you not know that we do not have a moment left to waste?: I had forgotten.: Forgotten? I don't believe that is the truth. No, it is more likely you were dreaming the whole day away. You must try harder from now on.What's the hurry? The day only ends when I say it does.  Yeah, that's brief enough of a message to be Jeritza. Let's see what he wants via the power of fast travel.  Huh. Odd to see him taking in the lake.  : What? I desired fresh air.: That's not like you.: True...Everyone's got multiple sides to them, I guess.  Here's what we're going to need cash for, since we're going to be buying everyone but grouchy boy Felix a new Battalion.   : Have you talked with Catherine yet? If the knights are the cream of the crop, she's the cream of the cream. Oh, and that Relic of hers! I hear it's nothing short of amazing.Catherine is pretty great. She's got somewhat of a glaring weakness, but it's one that most offensively-minded characters share, so you can hardly blame her.  How's it hanging, Hilda?  : Professor, your clothes are a bit dirty. If you don't pay attention to your hygiene, the girls won't like you! I hate when my clothes get dirty. That's one of the many reasons I find it best to train as little as possible.Look, I wear the one outfit all day, every day, and that's not showing signs of changing any time soon. If I end up smelling like an expired ham, then that'll just throw my enemies off their game.  There's a new feature in play starting this chapter, and that's Mission Assistance. Basically, if we want to, we can temporarily add a student from another House to our squad with a predetermined loadout and a set level. They won't gain experience, but we can gain support points with them, which is handy for recruiting purposes.  Not recruiting Hilda though, so let's just get to the reason why we came to this market.  First off, like I said, Battalions take damage when characters do, so they need to be replenished with new troops after fights. Don't worry about morale or the like. There'll always be fresh faces for the threshing floor.  And speaking of fresh faces, we have ourselves some Battalions for hire. Like weapons, you can only equip a Battalion that you have the Authority rank for, but having one equipped will also give us Authority training, so even the folks who are behind will eventually get up to snuff. Except Felix. For the moment, our pool of personnel is limited to Church and Kingdom soldiers. Each faction has its own lives for sale with different abilities, and I'll try to keep on top of what's new on the Battalion side.  I won't bore you with the nitty-gritty of who gets what. We'll get to see them in action when we go out for drills in the next update.  The important thing is that we've gathered our troops to Jeritza's satisfaction, so we've been rewarded with a handful of raw chicken. I love RPG's.  Not much else that's especially interesting in the stores, so I just buy a torch. What with this chapter being called "Mutiny in the Mist", I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm gonna need one. But if you're not entirely quick on the uptake, there's a knight in the marketplace who'll spell it out for you.  : Since we're heading to Castle Gaspard, that means we'll be passing through Magdred Way. The road is well known for its beautiful surroundings. Depending on the time of year, it can be incredibly foggy, though. When it's like that you can't enjoy the lovely scenery... Lucky for us, it shouldn't be too foggy while we're there. Not that we'll have time for sightseeing anyway.Gotta pay attention to what folks are saying. Usually a big hint for what's coming up.   Over around the side, we have a new area that's opened up. Not for any particular activities, but we can usually find knights and students milling around.  For instance, Marianne here.  : Oh. Hello, Professor... Um. Was there something you needed?: I came to see the horses.: Oh! You like horses? I like them too. They're such kind creatures.Huh. That's the most she's opened up since we've got here.  So as stated, my goal is to recruit Marianne, and to that end, she's going to be the lucky person accompanying us on missions this month. We've got 10 slots and only 9 Blue Lions members, Byleth included, so she'll fit in just perfectly.  In the Knight's Hall itself, we find our fearless leader, plus Dedue just offscreen.  : Doubtless, there are times when one must take up their blade, even if there's no chance of winning. But this... It's downright senseless. Lord Lonato knows better. If he had enough allies to back his rebellion, it would be a different matter...: Allies?: Ah, my apologies. I was just thinking aloud. This whole situation is a bit too strange for my liking. Even with the necessary preparations in place, there is always a chance that something unexpected will occur. Please be ready for anything, Professor.Has Dimitri also been mulling over what it'd take to topple the Church? Best be careful about vocalizing those thoughts within these halls.  : His Highness is strong. But on the front lines, anything can happen. Losing him would be devastating for Faerghus. I hope the church understands that.It's doubtful they'd care if they did. Seems like folks at this school are just expected to follow the Church's whims without question, even if they conflict with your own nation's interests. Remember, Lonato is a Kingdom noble. We're being asked to fight ourselves.  Not that the nobles here at the academy are especially sympathetic to this Lonato guy.  : It's a noble's duty to protect the commonfolk, not to endanger them by rallying armies in such a feckless and improper manner. Abuse of that kind is no better than slavery. A proper noble must guard the people from such a fate, wouldn't you say?: We don't know all the details yet.: There can be no legitimate cause for a noble to abandon that basic obligation. Let us put an end to this quickly.It's true enough that when people wage war, the folks who suffer the most are the ones at the bottom. Still, Lonato isn't just doing it for the heck of it. Something else is up here. : Catherine has invited me to train with her. How much do you think I should train before I'm ready to train with someone that strong?I'd say the less trained you are, the more you'd benefit from it. That way you can avoid making mistakes that you have to unlearn first.  Seems like this is a chapter for folks staring pensively into the middle distance.  : I'm studying here so I can be the best there is, just like Captain Jeralt. Do you think I've got it in me to be a top tier mercenary, Professor?: You really want to bring the money in, huh?: I do! Though, it's about so much more than being rich. It's about honor.But also being rich is nice. I think we can all agree.  : I heard about your class's assignment, by the way. Good luck subduing those treasonous nobles!No, I'm not leaving anything out. That's the entirety of Ferdinand's dialogue for this chapter.  : Hey, Teach. There's some minor noble rebelling in Faerghus, right? He has no chance of winning. I wonder what he hopes to achieve... Huh? Are you going along to help? Sounds like an easy victory, but good luck out there.Seems like the mystery everyone's struggling with.  To wit, our last House leader is mulling over the very same thing.  : Something about this situation doesn't feel right. Why would a minor lord raise an army against a foe he cannot possibly hope to defeat? : Lord Lonato must know that his efforts are futile...yet he can't help but fight. If I were in that situation, I would do whatever it took to ensure victory. You can count on that.Well, half of getting yourself out of a bad situation is not getting yourself INTO the situation to start with. I don't think that Edelgard would ever seriously go running off into a battle where she was at a massive disadvantage.   : Catherine, hm? Her skill is impressive, I'll admit. So is her sword. But I think she's hiding something. Nobody knows anything about her past. You should spar with her. She's strong. Stronger than you are, I'd bet.You know she can probably hear you, right? Well...no, it's Felix. He probably wouldn't care. : Here to train? You really are as hardworking as they say.: That's an overstatement. I'm just me.: Spoken like a true hard worker.It's actually kinda funny how easygoing Catherine is, considering how everyone's intimidated by her. Have they considered just going over and talking?  Probably noticed the blue glowies. They're part of a mechanic we're being introduced to this chapter. Not a fan.  Hopping over to the dorms, we've got this guy just standing in a corner.   : Are you unfamiliar with Garreg Mach's underground? The place is an absolute paradise for those who can't stay above ground.Can't stay above ground...Is this guy being metaphorical? Is Garreg Mach infested with a colony of mole people? The actual answer is much, much dumber.   : H-huh?! Um, is someone there? What do you want? : Hey, Professor! Do you happen to have any food on you? I'm starving! No matter how much I eat before I train, I'm always so hungry after. My muscles must be going through a growth spurt!Just regular Bernie and Raphael things.   So today's an event day for plants, which means that when you do your harvest, you get some bonus crops over the usual. Not that you'd notice that much, since we can only plant one seed at the moment.  : This flower is one that is eating insects. Is that factual too? I am wondering who watches over the plants in Fódlan...I don't think I noticed before how much dialogue doesn't actually make sense when you don't have the House-specific lines to set them up.  : If the flowers within the greenhouse are removed, they will soon wilt and wither... Is that not so, Professor? I feel I can empathize with them... The flowers. Flowers that thrive-despite their environment-are truly inspiring, are they not?Perhaps in this case, the flower could survive out in the wild, but the flower's older brother is keeping it inside. Hypothetically.  We're also going to get involved with some fishing today, but before we do...  Hooray for the power of reading. That'll give us...drum roll please... +1 Activity Points, +1 Lecture Points, +1000 Gold per month, and +1 Gardening Plots. My goal is to become an A+ prof by the end of this first campaign. It's not very hard to do at all and the benefits carry over to subsequent playthroughs. The extra activity points will be especially nice.  So. Fishing. Cue the battle music. Music - Battle on the Waterfront  Now that I'm using my own bait, I'm going to bore you with some facts.  The art of fishing involves two basic calculations. There's the random chance of what fish you'll find, which is entirely irrelevant of what kind of bait you choose. The game just consults a percentage table, based on whatever events are currently going on.  On a normal day, there are four kinds of fish that can appear: Small (40%), Large (30%), Giant (25%), and Golden (5%). You get three prompts to catch a fish, so if you get a small one to start, you want to wait and see if the game gives you a better option.  Once you successfully catch the fish, the game then checks a specific row on a table, based on the value of your bait, +2 if you got a perfect hit on every ring, otherwise +0. The game then hands you one of three fish of escalating value in that row. Naturally, the higher your...I guess I'd call it a "fish score", the greater your percent chance of getting the valuable fish. For instance, on a small fish, the odds are as follows... (Source is Serenes Forest, if you care)  So if you have a 2-star bait (An earthworm, for reference) and you get a perfect score, that's a total of 4 and a 50% chance of getting the rare one.  So what does this all mean for the Golden Fish event? Well, not much really. All that changes is that Large fish are now 20% while Golden Fish are now 10%. Yup...  But at the end of the day, we have ourselves a valuable find, which we can sell...as soon as a vendor appears who'll buy food items. In two more chapters.  Well, that's the kind of lead-in that demands an explanation.  : Professor, I feel I must speak to you about Caspar's eating habits. I've never seen the likes of it. He inhales entire plates of food in mere seconds.: Sounds unhealthy.: Hence my mentioning it to you. Good luck with him. : Today's meal was delicious! Linhardt keeps bothering me about eating too fast. Says I'm gonna choke or something.: It's not safe to eat so quickly.: You're really gonna agree with that guy? Why is no one here on my side?For the time being, Caspar is not my problem. I'm not looking forward to the moment when he will be.  Oh boy, what's he on about? : If you have a moment, I would like to have a word. It has been brought to my attention that certain individuals have been making advances towards Flayn. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?: Not at all.: If you do see anyone getting too close with Flayn, please, inform me of it at once.You do realize that this kind of attitude is driving your sister to make tortured analogies about flowers, right?  : I'm sorry, but I must vent to someone, Professor. You're familiar with Manuela's slovenly behavior, yes? That woman! She borrowed a book last week and returned it with stains of unknown origin on the cover, and several pages either folded or torn. Just now, she dropped a sandwich on the floor, picked it up and kept eating. When she saw my shock, she said simply, "Three second rule." Ugh!I can't believe that I'm in this game. Someone should have consulted me first.  : I saw him at the training ground. : Ah, of course he's there. Sorry for bothering you, Professor. Thanks!9 times out of 10, it's a good guess that he'll be there. He's a training elemental.  On our way to the chapel, but we're going to pick up some more students along the way.  : We're going on a mission with the knights, right? I wonder if... Oh... Sorry! It's nothing. I was just wondering if someone I've been searching for might be among them.: I hope you find whomever you're looking for.: Thank you. I'm definitely going to find him one of these days!You want to eventually tell me his name maybe? Some kind of distinguishing characteristic? I mean, aside from the hair color. This is an FE game. That's basically a given.  : I've heard whispers about Lord Lonato. They say he is a very kind and gentle lord. Why would such a kind man suddenly raise an army? Oh, Professor. You were working late last night, weren't you? You shouldn't overdo it. A ghost might rise up from the well to get you if you stay you too late! Or so I'm told.There's a 60-70% chance that I've got a ghost living in my head already. Doesn't seem too bad, really.  Hey, you know what, I'm on my way up there anyhow, so why the heck not?  : Are you going to fight alongside the Knights of Seiros? Hmm... Let me know if you meet anyone I might be interested in, OK?  : Only four years ago, they murdered our king and slaughtered the soldiers and knights who were with him, all of whom were innocent. Even if he can forgive them, I can't–not ever. What they've done is against all codes of honor and ethics.It's a good question. Well, no, it's a very bad question, but it does give cause for thought. Even though the people of Duscur are supposedly to blame for the death of Dimitri's father, his best friend and closest ally is from that nation. Methinks that Dimitri realizes something that's eluding the populace of Faerghus at large.  Regrettably, Lysithea's so short that she can only stare into the lower-middle distance instead.  : The monastery grounds are far too spread out. Feels like it takes hours to get from one area to another. And, no, that's not because I'm getting lost. I'm a fully capable, mature person! Who never gets lost.Of course not.  Oh dear, he's not taking this well.  : Please, Professor, there must be some mistake. Lonato would never raise arms against the church. At least, he never said anything to me about it.Wish I could say anything for sure, but all I know is secondhand. I trust Ashe to know Lonato's character though, so if he thinks there's something up, then something almost assuredly is.  : Lord Lonato... He used to stay at the monastery rather frequently. He was such as pious man. A true believer... Such a terrible shame. I wonder what changed him... Rather than dwelling on something we don't know the answer to, we should instead focus on an area where we can be useful: helping people with minor issues.  When you grab a note, you have 30 seconds until it self-destructs or whatever, so you need to give people a satisfactory answer within that time. Let's see...now we obviously know who this is, so how would they approach getting someone to show them a Crest? : Try a bribe.  I guess Hanneman doesn't appreciate being called out like that.  But an effort was made, so we complete the sidequest anyway. Hooray for more free stuff!  And speaking of free stuff, there are more quests awaiting us on the second floor.  You'll want to pick this up. Actually, you'll want to always pick shinies up, but this one especially.  It's a vase, Ignatz. Dial your enthusiasm back a bit.  : This place has so many breathtaking works of art. I feel like I'm living in a museum. Each piece can teach us about styles and techniques from a thousand years ago!: Do you like art?: Oh yes, very much. I'm from a family of merchants, so I've been able to see a lot of art.Historical value or not, it just looks kinda faded and blah to me. Maybe it's more fascinating if you know the history of Fodlan(ic? ish?) art.  : Meting out appropriate punishments to the sinful... It is a sacred duty with which we have been entrusted. As a member of the church yourself, I hope that you will take that to heart.So really, organizing a squad to wipe out some small upstart noble is just another Sunday afternoon for these guys. Great...  : Professor, I heard that you may battle alongside Catherine. Even among the knights, she is something special—a holy knight who is able to wield a Hero's Relic. Still...she can be a mite difficult.Catherine is really great. We get it.  Now what could be on Manuela's mind, I wonder?  : Did you hear? There's news of someone in the Kingdom raising an army. The Kingdom, the Empire, the Alliance... They do love a good war, don't they? Spilling the blood of young men and women...and for what? Just to enjoy the horror of it?That's a thoughtful observation. The three nations are currently in relative peace with one another, but history shows that they could erupt into war for any reason. For a healer, that's gotta weigh a lot on Manuela's mind.  Let's see if we can take her mind off of it with some personal lessons.  Faculty Training is how we can keep Byleth current with the students that we're teaching, with two provisos: 1) Each lesson costs an Activity Point, so that's one less thing we can do with our students, and 2) Every possible teacher can only offer a lesson once per Exploration.  : Practice yields results.Faith is going to yield a Budding Talent for Byleth if we work at it. Magic isn't his strongest suit, as we'll see with the summary that I'm going to post at the end of this update, but it's still viable enough that it's worth diversifying.  It's rare that someone gets paid to be taught, but I'm not going to complain.  Gee, I wonder who this could possibly belong to. But before we can answer that question, we have to unlock the ability to give things to people. Seriously.   : It was by request of the son of that family... Christophe, I think it was.Finally, some new information. The fact that no one else has mentioned Christophe should be a cause for some concern.  I think we've already found the kind of thing that he's looking for.  Sure enough, since we already found that wooden flask, the game's just going to hand the reward to us, which turns out to be a bunch of...gift boxes?  Yup, we now have a quick and easy way to farm out support points, assuming that we have the supplies to do so. Lost Items are fairly straightforward. The game will give us hints for who the item belongs to, ranging from "could describe basically anyone" to...  Well, this.   I dunno, just intuition I guess.  We'll go more into gifts and lost items in due time, but for now, let's just close with a support. Music - A Gentle Breeze  : I am! It's quiet here. Easier to concentrate.: It really is. Hey, would you like to study together? We can help each other out if we get stuck.: Oh, yes! We'll get a lot more done working together. And so the designers sunk their models into the floor so it looked like they were sitting.  : What's the matter, Ashe?Gotta be honest, that stare's a bit terrifying. : This question's got me stumped. "A ballista inside a castle is ready to fire at enemies outside. What angle should be used for the shot? Assume the ballista is the same as those in Garreg Mach. Ignore the effects of wind."Who wrote this stupid question? : This is for defensive strategy, isn't it? Why is it so complicated? Don't you just aim and fire?I think the better questions might be, "What's the distance and elevation?" Without those parameters, the answer could be literally anything. Though I guess that, since they're not concerned about that detail, it's possible there's an illustration that we can't personally see. : Hmm... It may help to focus on maximizing target accuracy to reduce your miss rate. This is important stuff. This math will be useful on the battlefield one day. To start, let's sort out the setup. Let's see...using these ballista specifications...If the ballista quarrels follow this trajectory, they'll hit the enemy lines, right?: Oh, that makes sense! Because the enemy line will be here!: That's it! OK, now try using that same technique and applying it to this other problem.: If the walls are this high, and the enemy lines are at that distance—ah! I think I see!: I knew you'd get it.Ashe has the unfortunate trait of being an everyman, which means that everything he says is basically ordinary and not too quirky or unusual. He's not BAD, per se, but he's just kinda there most of the time in conversations.  : This is tough. Numbers are not my strong suit. But this really is the sort of thing you have to know if you want to command troops.: That's true. But not everyone is good with numbers. That's why we have tacticians do these calculations for us, or prepare them before we go to battle. A century ago, the Empire's mathematicians played a huge role in the Battle of the Wall of Fódlan.: I had no idea. Hey, you really know what you're doing, Annette! : Definitely! You've obviously done a lot of studying. I really admire that.: I suppose I have! Studying is a necessity if you want the advantage over your enemies.  Well, that's very adorable. They're good kids, Ashe and Annette. Shame we're going to kill Ashe's adoptive dad. And on that cheery note! Bonus: Now that I've laid out the basics of character growth, I'm going to start giving bios for characters, starting with the Prof themselves. Most of the skills and spells won't be things we've seen, but that's okay, we'll go over them as they come along. Byleth Eisner - Child of Jeralt Eisner. Ex-mercenary and newly-hired professor at Garreg Mach Monastery. Reserved, quiet, difficult to faze, and unwitting host to the central figure of an entire continent's religion. Probably should have started with that part. Starting Weapon: Swords Personal Skill: Professor's Guidance (1.2x Experience gain to unit and adjacent allies) Crest: Mystery - 20% (Heal 30% of damage/+5 Dmg and no counters) Skills - Strong (Swords, Brawl, Authority), Budding (Faith, teaches White Magic Avoid +20) Stats - Max and Growths: pre:HP: 27-88 (45%) Str: 13-77 (45%) Lck: 8-66 (45%) Mag: 6-55 (35%) Def: 6-55 (35%) Dex: 9-66 (45%) Res: 6-55 (30%) Spd: 8-66 (45%) Cha: 7-99 (45%) Combat Arts: Bane of Monsters (Swords C+), Windsweep (Swords A), Draining Blow (Brawl C+), Mystic Blow (Brawl A) Reason: Fire (D), Thunder (D+), Bolganone (C), Ragnarok (A) Faith: Heal (D) Nosferatu (D+) Recover (C), Aura (A) Analysis: Our protagonist, and the character we're stuck with for the entire game. Byleth has solid starting stats and has even growths in a number of areas, but suffers from the fact that you can't learn through classroom teaching like the students can. As a result, Byleth's skill development is going to lag behind a bit, which will make it difficult to train into new classes. We have the option to do Faculty Training, but that takes time out from raising students' Motivation. It's a delicate balancing act, especially in the early game. Byleth's stats are definitely skewed towards unmounted physical offensive classes, with growths that emphasize strength, dexterity, speed and charm in particular. However, what with their passable spell list (not as good as dedicated spellcasters, but definitely workable), you could also make Byleth a backup spellcaster if you're on a team where magic is kinda weak. Like, say, the Blue Lions. And not to spoil too much too soon, but there's a unique class that'll unlock for Byleth that adds an extra 10% Mag and 5% Def, making them significantly healthier growths than they initially appear. A solid all-rounder overall, with only one especially weak stat. Quite fitting for a main character.
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Oct 27, 2022 05:23
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Ashe is the only Blue Lion who doesn't have tragedy and bad feelings in his backstory. This is the universe righting itself. As for Catherine, I get why some people hate her, but she's one of my favorite characters in the game. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Oct 27, 2022 |
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Oct 27, 2022 12:27
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Hey, ashe gets a character trait beyond being a nice boy. He's also the guy that says lord lonato a bunch.
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Oct 27, 2022 13:12
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I like Ashe partly because bowfighters are just so broken in FE16 even though he's probably the weakest of the bunch available, but mostly because his voice is so unique from what I'm used to in anime dubs. I can't exactly pin what kind of accent that is, but it still sells the vibe his character is going for.
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Oct 27, 2022 14:05
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Delphisage posted:I can't exactly pin what kind of accent that is, but it still sells the vibe his character is going for. It's a mild Irish accent. As for Catherine, I think she's one of those characters that, if she rubs you the wrong way, she's going to really rub you the wrong way, especially if you only play one particular route. I think she's genuinely one of the more complex and interesting characters in Houses, but I do completely understand why some people hate her with the fury of a thousand suns. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Oct 27, 2022 |
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Oct 27, 2022 14:30
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Chapter 3: Mutiny in the Mist A New Angle  Alrighty, so fighting bandits was one thing, but if we're going to have our kids duke it out with a minor lord, we're going to need to hit the books.  I'm still pressing these Budding Talents as much as I can. They might pay off, or they might not, but I'd like to have them cleaned out regardless.  : That was helpful coaching.So you say, but we've stilll got pretty far to go.  : This will be useful!: I've learned a lot! Looks like you're going to be learning a lot more. : That's a relief.: (Praise): Hahaha, you're making me blush.Whatever gets you off of lances faster. We've got more than enough lance folks already.  : Wow. I seem to be on a roll.: Hey, that was useful.Nothing but Great and Good from him this time around. Shame.  Ingrid doesn't have any Budding Talents, but she really would love to be a mounted unit of some variety, so I'm going to give her a helping hand in that direction.  : I appreciate your guidance. : Looks like I did it!: (Praise again): Ah, no big deal.It's like false humility runs in this crowd. Just take a compliment and run with it already, for pete's sake.  So I'm thinking...they're both mounted characters in training, so why not slap them together on horse care? Surely nothing bad can come from this.  Question time for this month. No guest participants, but Ingrid's also easy to read.  See, she's a perfectionist at heart, a real go-getter who's constantly critical of her own performance. The right advice is honestly something that people have told me about my own work. :   Perfection doesn't come immediately. You'll develop your own style with repetition and effort.   Oh? I love to see that!  : Looks like we've got everything we came for. Time to head back to the monastery. To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure if the money that knight gave us would be enough. We managed to scrape by though! I'm glad those shopkeepers were willing to strike a few bargains.: Thanks to your bartering skills.: It's one of the few things I'm really good at. I've got a lot of experience living in the city. Money was tight for me too. At least until a kind noble adopted me into his family.Ashe, as a Crestless commoner, does provide a unique perspective that the other kids from Faerghus can't. He's had to live from day to day, just trying to make ends meet. And judging by that Lockpick skill, not always through savory means. : Come to think of it, you were originally a mercenary, weren't you? I'm sure you've traveled all over Fódlan. That must have been a pretty different life from regular folks like me.: You're probably right. : But a mercenary's whole job is fighting, isn't it? Must be a pretty tough way to live.: It was pretty tough.: I believe you. I can imagine! Suddenly, something catches Ashe's eye.  : What's the book?: Loog and the Maiden of Wind. It's a well-known tale of chivalry in Faerghus. L-Loog is the King of Lions. This book is full of his exciting adventures! I've loved this since I was a kid! It was what got me learning to read.Loog, as we recall, was the founder of the Kingdom of Faerghus, so no doubt there's a wealth of legends, perhaps with a certain degree of exaggeration, as it tends to go.   : Hey, creep! Don't touch the merch!Oh no, book bandits! The worst kind!  Nice reaction times. : What the—?! Somebody catch that thief! Cut him in half, like my prices!: Please... Calm down, ma'am.: You calm down, kid! If he gets away with that valuable merch, it'll be a huge loss for me!: Here, allow me to compensate you.: Are you sure about that, Ashe?: Huh? Are you serious, kid? I mean, no objections over here, but that sounds crazy.I guess being adopted into a noble family means you have a certain amount of disposable income, but also, that book doesn't look like it'd be cheap... : Don't you worry. That thief will be paying me back, just as soon as I catch him. Head on back to the monastery, Professor. I'll take care of everything here!  We'll pick up on that story another time. It's actually quite interesting where it goes.  Honestly shouldn't just be throwing flowers around, but it'd feel weird to just ignore their birthdays. If this was me, of course, I'd just give a half-assed "Happy B'day" text and let that be that. I'm not good at gift-giving.  : Stop messing around and get moving. You don't work, you don't eat.: Fine, fine. Let's do this! : You're a glib one, aren't you, Sylvain? I did the bulk of the work here, you know... These two get along so well together. Which is a shame, because they have a funnier quote when they don't.  Another spell! Excellent. More the merrier.  I'm going to be hitting the Seminars pretty hard this month because I want to be doing classes nonstop. Seteth is handy for this crowd because a large number of them like Lances and/or Authority.  Unfortunately, Seminars don't count towards Budding Talents, so these skills aren't especially useful for Ashe. We need to get ourselves an archery instructor, I'm thinking.  One clutch Perfect in his tutoring sessions means that Ashe gets just enough lessions. Behold!   Shatter Slash is a lance art that reduces a target's Def by 5 for one turn. Pretty handy under the right circumstances, but at the moment, we're mostly just fighting unarmored enemies on foot. Also, if I'm gonna be honest, Ashe doesn't really...use lances that much? Like, he has no unique lance attacks aside from this. No idea what the point is.  No. It really isn't.  Okay, so Ashe's Budding Talent was kind of uninspiring, but now that Mercedes has her magic online, we can start working on hers.  And you can probably guess what I'm teaching Annette. I should really focus on her Reason more, but I'm having too much fun with this.  I feel like I'm perhaps rushing skills a bit much. A lot of characters are hitting C ranks when they haven't even gotten their first certifications yet. Maybe if someone asks "What are you bringing to the table?" I can just say "I have no idea what I'm doing." We're winging the heck out of this.  Uh... So students will recommend Study Goals that you can adopt, as sort of a guide to where the devs feel they should be leaning, but the game pays no attention to whether you're already telling them to do the thing they want to do, which is where stuff like this comes in. Always kinda funny when it happens.  Is Mercedes' motivation bar currently empty? Then yes, it's a good time.  : That's right.: I commend you for working so late into the evening. All of my days at the academy are enriching, thanks to you. Try not to overtax yourself, all right? I'm concerned for your health. We wouldn't want you to wear yourself out. The goddess won't smite you if you rely on others for help, you know.: Even so...There's a lot of work involved in being a teacher. It can't be helped if you have to burn the midnight oil now and then.  : To be perfectly honest, I had my doubts when I first met you.: That's surprising.: I don't want you to think less of me for saying this, but here we are. At first I thought you seemed too young to be a professor. It is unusual, you have to admit. Yet, you seemed very composed and mature, despite your age. You're strong-willed, encouraging, and you go to great lengths to ensure that everyone is cared for. But it almost feels like you're trying too hard to be a perfect role model for your students.: It comes with the territory.Some interesting insights from Mercedes into Byleth's character. All he's known his whole life is hard work, and pushing himself is something that he likely does without even thinking about it too much. : If that's how you feel, then I can't disagree. But I think it's necessary to give yourself a break every now and again. The mind has a tendency to make mistakes when you've exhausted yourself. : Mistakes?: Oh, you know. I'm always mixing up the dates for drills or misplacing things. Just the other day, I forgot to put on my uniform and headed out to practice wearing only my--Oh, um. Well, you can imagine how embarrassed I was. My mind can be so scattered sometimes.That would have been quite the awkward practice session. Sounds like her problem isn't making mistakes so much as just having trouble focusing, like she's got a lot on her mind. Given what we'll discover, she has quite a few reasons to be distracted. : Anyway... Where was I? Ah, that's right. What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't push yourself too hard. If you do, you might end up in a pretty bad place. That reminds me! Is there anything I can do to assist you, Professor? If it's all right with you, I'd like to help in any way I can.: Thanks, I appreciate it.: Whatever you need, just say the word.  Another C support in the bag. We actually want to chase supports as quickly as possible, because for some supports, there are deadlines for when you need to see them. If you don't, you're cut off for the entire playthrough.  : Ugh...: We have a rocky road ahead... : You are giving me a headache... In any case, I have managed to finish the work. I wasn't expecting much with that pairing, and for good reason. Their chance of success was 1 out of 5 stars. Maybe if I jam them together long enough, they'll at least learn to tolerate one another.  Oh ho! Now we're cooking! Battalion-based Authority skills only activate when the Battalion drops down to less than 1/3 of its endurance, but are guaranteed to work as long as they stay below that threshold. What does Wrath do? Just a little thing called +50% to crit chance!! That is, if Dimitri has 7% crit chance already, now he has 57% for every single engagement. That's a lot of potential crits. This and another skill that's coming up are a one-two punch that can make Dimitri practically untouchable. Can't wait to show it off.  Forcing my students to do odd jobs really helps to shore up the Flower Fund.  Right. Next verse, same as the one before.  Aside from Sylvain, it's not enough to get folks wholly pumped up. But that's okay. Half is still good.  : I thought this was a test...: (Praise grudgingly): All right, that's enough praise.Darn right.  Yup. Saw that coming. : I was certain I had it.: (Critique): I accept your judgment.Dedue, like Dimitri, has a humble self-judging attitude, which means he takes well to criticism of his technique.  And he rebounds enough to learn a new art, albeit a generic one that all Brawl users get at D rank. Fading Blow is a single punch, but it withdraws you backwards after using it and also gives you +30 Avoid, making it quite useful as a way to lay on a bit of harm to an enemy and then free up the space for another melee character. We'll see that in a moment.  Whatever, Dedue.  : I'm not sure... But even if we don't finish, it probably won't be much of a problem!: Same old Mercie! Well, let's do this! : Sorry! We, uh, got carried away chatting during our break... Yeah, I can understand the need for people at this age to..."chat" with one another.  Here's a super-handy tool for the axeman in training. The Weight -X skill line does exactly what it sounds like; reducing the weight of equipped weapons and accessories for a net gain in attack speed. Really, anyone can gain from it, and it makes Steel weapons even more viable as an option.  Let's close this out with a training battle. We get a certain number of Battle Points for use on marked battles and side missions, but in Normal, we also get an infinite number of free battles for grinding as we see fit. Considering that a number of our units are REALLY behind (like I'm talking Level 2 on some of them), it wouldn't have been the worst idea to do some grinding just to get them up to speed.  But hey, let's do a mission where all the enemies are Level 7. What's the worst that could happen?  Oh. That. An army of thieves is actually a lot deadlier than you would think, because overleveled as they are compared to our dudes, they're almost guaranteed to double.  Supporting us in this endeavor to punch above our weight class is a Level 5 Marianne with some fancy new healing magic. Also a different starting spell. Blizzard has the highest crit rate of the basic attack magic but the worst accuracy. Otherwise, just more of the same. Anyway, I want to show off something and never do it again. If you saw the gameplay footage for Three Houses when the game was first coming out, you might have seen that units were sometimes seen running at eye level towards one another. That's because this game features a brand new, never been done before feature.  Yeah, that just looks wrong. In Chase Cam mode, movement is basically free and unrestricted. You can run around like you're in some kind of 3D action game, within your area of movement, that is.  I don't mind it in theory. It certainly makes your units and the enemies' seem more dynamic and less like pieces on a chessboard. It's just incredibly disorienting to me, because I'm used to seeing the wider picture, like it was a strategy game or something. I dunno, maybe if I do a free battle where I don't have to worry about the enemies kicking my rear end, I could just do an entire battle like this and show you what it looks like.  Another thing though: you see Annette's movement range and how it's really not in a position where she can back Ashe up? Three Houses has really massive maps, and it's difficult to engage strategically when you can't even reach the folks you're trying to fight.  Fortunately, I bought us a solution.  A cloister of pious cheerleaders! Stride is a Gambit that's entirely supportive in nature, granting +5 Movement to all allies within its area of effect. Not too noticeable when it's just Annette like this, but on maps where the entire deployment is clustered together, this can enable a devastating turn 1 offensive.  Check out the difference on that. We're still not throwing Annette into the thick of it though, because...  Heh heh...yeah, that's a problem.  A big, BIG problem.   That's going to leave a mark, or it would if I didn't have time powers.  Let's just pretend that didn't happen.  We're going to approach this with the lightest weaponry possible to avoid getting doubled. That's basically the only way to survive.  More speed definitely helps in that regard.  : I'm not gonna lose! I think that's our first critical animation of the game? Surprised it's taken this long. Three Houses is continuing the trend started by Awakening of doing a cut-in of the character combined with them shouting a one-liner of some kind. That one is...eh, 5/10. Could be worse.  Yes, the level difference is so huge that she got ANOTHER one off of that. Almost the exact same stats too. Weird.  My goal with Marianne is to jam her up next to Byleth as much as I can. If she gains a support rank with the Professor, her recruiting requirements go down, which means I have to learn a lot less Riding.  Ingrid's significantly safer strategy of using a Training Lance (that I had her doing all this time and I would never even consider giving her a Javelin) is paying off.  She's the fastest of the lance users in my team, but throwing weapons are friggin' heavy for no good reason.  Dude, stop standing in the shot! Who's hiring these extras anyway?  Could you perhaps get more defense while you're at it?  I've been neglecting Ashe's axe training a bit. Let's work on that.  No complaints on that one.   Byleth learned a new emotion this day: disappointment.  If I do have a major complaint with this game, it's that I wish there was a happy medium between the game's normally glacial pace of animations and this hyperactive chipmunk speed. It never feels quite right either way.  Dang, Dimitri's already on C+ Lances, and for that he gets Piercer. What, you think there's something else there? Don't be silly.   And dropping some heals gets Mercedes her next Faith spell, which is effectively a long-ranged heal. Now normally we wouldn't be getting that kind of thing until mid-to-lategame in previous Fire Emblem games, but they're being nice to us about it.  Speaking of throwing struggling classes a bone, Ashe has learned a vital skill for archers. Normally the big weakness of archer characters is that their attacks are 2 range, period, meaning they can't counter attacks at point blank range and their experience growth suffers as a result, since they can only defeat a maximum of 1 enemy per turn in most cases. Not this time. This skill turns EVERY bow into 1-2 range, which'll help archer characters like Ashe to function better on the front lines. And that's also why Claude doesn't suffer by emphasizing the bow either.  I think I might need to certify Annette into a physical class to up her strength a bit. She's cool, but she could be MORE cool.  Please get more defense. Seriously.  I'm alright with this.  I hope you don't mind me not showing this map too much, but we're basically just creeping upwards while holding down chokepoints. Great level though.  I tell you what, at least his Gambits are getting stronger.  Maybe there's something encouraging to say about bandits that welcome priests into their ranks, but I'm too busy gut-punching them to consider what that might be.  I'll take it.  Training battles usually have an extra gimme in addition to money. In this case, we're walking away with some bear meat. Wonder how that tastes...  There are some additional supports we built up over the course of that fight, but we'll deal with that in a separate update. Instead, we'll close on two more promotions.  : Oh, what a relief!I chose Fighter for Ashe because it provides +5% Str growth mostly. Guy needs all the help he can get in that regard.  : It's all thanks to hard work!Unfortunately, I had to choose Monk instead of Fighter for Annette because the other classes can't use magic. It'd be sacrificing her long-range utility in exchange for doubling down on the axe idea. Fortunately, magic classes can still use weapons, so she'll still lay down some hurt when the opportunity arises. Like I said though, first opportunity, grabbing her a physical class. Hold me to that, because I'll likely forget. Extras Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd - Heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Faerghus. Kind, gentlemanly, and eager to help, but there are already clues that he's swallowing down a great deal of sorrow and grief. Also appears to enjoy chomping down on grass. Dunno what's up with that quite yet. Starting Weapon: Lances Personal Skill: Royal Lineage (1.2x Experience gain to self) Crest: Blaiddyd, Minor - 10% (Double dmg and durability usage of Combat Arts) Skills - Strong (Swords, Lances, Authority), Weak (Axes, Reason), Budding (Riding, teaches Seal Movement) Stats - Max and Growths: pre:HP: 28-99 (55%) Str: 12-87 (60%) Lck: 5-42 (25%) Mag: 4-38 (20%) Def: 7-57 (40%) Dex: 7-69 (50%) Res: 4-36 (20%) Spd: 7-69 (50%) Cha: 9-77 (55%) Combat Arts: Sunder (Swords C+), Windsweep (Swords A), Monster Piercer (Lances C+), Glowing Ember (Lances A) Reason: Thunder (D), Thoron (C) Faith: Heal (D) Nosferatu (D+) Recover (C), Aura (A) Analysis: Dimitri is designed to whack things primarily with swords and lances, and that's fine. Not everyone has to be a combination spellslinger and multi-weapons fighter who has two separate sources of additional power, FELIX! Dimitri is strong in just about every physical stat though and is a disgustingly charming prince besides, letting him wreak havoc with Gambits whenever he's bored from steamrolling things with his regular attacks. He's fast, he's sturdy, he's friggin' strong, and when you throw his Battalion skills into the mix (Vantage to go first, and Wrath for boosted crits), there's a high chance that the enemy phase will go by without anyone even being allowed to take a swing at him. Class-wise, Dimitri's emphasis on lances means that he'll likely be up on a horse as a Cavalier. However, since his only physical weakness is in axes, you could take him down a few other paths and he'd still be viable. On the magic side, don't be too impressed by his Faith spell list. Everyone, literally everyone, gets Heal and Nosferatu, plus some variable C-rank Faith spell. I'm not saying you can't put Dimitri in robes, but it's kind of a waste of time compared to what he can do physically. Blastinus fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Nov 3, 2022 |
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Nov 3, 2022 02:13
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Blastinus posted:Also, if I'm gonna be honest, Ashe doesn't really...use lances that much? Like, he has no unique lance attacks aside from this. No idea what the point is. I think Ashe's budding talent in lances is meant to put you towards the utility of getting him on a horse with locktouch, in case you didn't pick up on the wyvern option. Blastinus posted:
Dimitri is very awkward to develop mechanically because he has a weakness in axes, easily the most important skill for physical combatants, and can't be a pegasus knight. His speed is a coin flip, but ground horse classes have a significant penalty to speed growth and will tank that coin flip. His unique classes are a niche that otherwise don't exist in this game and can be difficult to support. On the other hand, he tends to have enough raw power that as long as he's using physical combat stats it's hard to go too wrong with him. My particular favorite option for him is Assassin, patching his speed beautifully.
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Nov 3, 2022 02:29
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You somehow mislabelled Dimitri as Claude in the Dimitri/Felix stable care task. :P
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Nov 3, 2022 14:17
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SoundwaveAU posted:You somehow mislabelled Dimitri as Claude in the Dimitri/Felix stable care task. :P So I did. Thanks for the correction!
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Nov 3, 2022 14:31
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Blastinus posted:My goal with Marianne is to jam her up next to Byleth as much as I can. If she gains a support rank with the Professor, her recruiting requirements go down, which means I have to learn a lot less Riding. If I'm not mistaken, invited units gain support with Byleth every time any of the 2 acts, regardless of where they are on the map. For support purposes, they're like adjutants you can control.
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Nov 3, 2022 14:42
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Storm One posted:If I'm not mistaken, invited units gain support with Byleth every time any of the 2 acts, regardless of where they are on the map. For support purposes, they're like adjutants you can control. I was actually curious about this, so I tested it myself. Looks like the invited unit gains support points with Byleth for acting, no matter what they do, but Byleth has to be standing next to them to give support points as well. Still, good tip! This'll make things a lot easier. Well, except for the fact that Marianne can't really fight physical units on her own, otherwise I'd just be throwing her into a forest and telling her to dodge everything. You know, so I can be her friend. Blastinus fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Nov 4, 2022 |
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Nov 4, 2022 00:38
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Hey, so everyone is aware, this update is going to be a bit late. Been fighting a nasty cold and it's been hard to avoid falling asleep at my desk. Sorry for the wait. Should be just a day or two.
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Nov 9, 2022 19:31
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Blastinus posted:Hey, so everyone is aware, this update is going to be a bit late. Been fighting a nasty cold and it's been hard to avoid falling asleep at my desk. Sorry for the wait. Should be just a day or two. Oh man, I feel you on that. Seems like there’s colds going around everywhere right now. Take care of yourself, ok?
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Nov 9, 2022 23:55
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Chapter 3: Mutiny in the Mist The Magdred Ambush  Jeez, not two steps out from the monastery and we're already in a fight? The encounter rate in this game is ridiculous!  : Thunderbrand? : A long, long time ago, the goddess bestowed divine weapons upon 10 heroes, which were passed down to their descendants. It's an honor to wield, but I'm afraid there won't be any chance for that today. Our mission is to help clean up the aftermath, not to fight.In Japanese, it's known as the Raitei, or Thunderbolt, so the meaning is basically maintained across versions. I don't suppose it's a coincidence that it also has six branches, just like the Shichishito, or Seven-Branched Sword. References to that weapon show up a lot in Japanese games, including one sword known as Amatsu in Fire Emblem Awakening. It's just a very unique design. But enough about the sword. Back to the matter at hand.  : You should know more about that than any of us, Ashe.: Well, I don't. Lonato never mentioned anything of the like to me.: He probably didn't want you getting caught up in his own personal vendetta.: What vendetta?The game gives you the option to ask whether Ashe is related to Lord Lonato, which is nice if you haven't been paying attention to the incidental dialogue during Explorations. But the way we've been doing it, it just makes us sound stupid. : How much do you know about the Tragedy of Duscur, Professor?: I've heard of it.: It's when the king of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus was...was murdered by the people of Duscur. It happened about four years ago...: It's OK, Catherine. Please, go on.: Right. Well, Lord Lonato's son, Christophe, was accused of being involved in that whole awful affair. He was executed by the church.: Why was the king targeted? : King Lambert was attempting a major political reform. Needless to say, he had many enemies.Actually, let me include both questions. This is an interesting conversation. : The church executes prisoners?: Speaking from the church's perspective, we simply passed judgement according to our doctrine in place of the Kingdom, which was in complete chaos. Whatever the truth behind that incident may be, Lord Lonato has harbored resentment to the church ever since. Oh...that's wonderful. The fact that Rhea is assigning Catherine specifically to this mission is either a gross lack of judgment, or she's purposely twisting the knife. Either way, good job. That's some...fantastic pope-ing.  : Their numbers are far greatly than we predicted. They used the fog to slip past the knights' perimeter!: It looks like our mission just changed, Professor. Everyone, prepare for battle!Oh no, it's a Magdred Ambush due to Mutineers. In the Mist.  Emphasis on mist. We can't see a dang thing out here.  The game doesn't do fog of war often, but it's pretty self-explanatory. We can only see a few tiles ahead of us, and enemies will be coming from unexpected angles.  Since we've gotten Byleth maxed out on Commoner, we're gonna hop right into Myrmidon. As seen here, the Myrmidon class provides a +1 to skill experience for Swords every time you attack with one. The same applies for Soldier (+1 Lances), Fighter (+1 Axe/Bow/Brawl), and Monk (+1 Reason/Faith).  : A new path to tread.Yet another way the game tries to nudge the player towards using certain weapons, even if you don't necessarily HAVE to. Combat can be as good a teacher as classroom study, and higher-tier classes will provide more and skill experience in their designated weapons.  : Ah, a new way to fight.Felix hasn't mastered Commoner yet, but frankly I think that he'll be fine without that +5 HP. At least, on this difficulty.   Okay, Torch in hand, let's hop to this.  : The enemy could be trying to surround us, but they shouldn't have enough soldiers to form a tight circle. Take down anyone who breaks through the fog, and let's push through! : Shouting from within the fog... It seems the knights are already battling.More mention of knights that aren't actually there. This game really is a theater of the mind.  You can definitely get the sense that they wanted to simulate giant army battles and just weren't able to hit the mark on that.   And by that, they mean that if Catherine's hanger-on soldier buddies go down, you're not getting a reward at the end. Music - Fodlan Winds (Rain/Thunder)  First things first, it's time to show off what we can actually do with Stride. You'll note that its AoE is a diamond shape emanating two spaces in every direction from its origin point. That's shockingly generous, considering how almost every battlefield jams the party close together.  In retrospect, I should have centered it on Ashe if I wanted to get the optimum number of units, but I wanted to include Annette in the movement boost. "But couldn't you have just moved Annette to the bottom during map prep?" Very observant, to which my answer is "shut up." The point is, 6/10 of our units just got the zoomies.  Torches. They increase your vision range, then your vision decays turn by turn. As you might expect, the only enemies we can fight are the ones we can actually see, but they have no such limitation. Even if we don't have vision of them, they're perfectly fine with moving and attacking without vision, because the AI knows and sees all.  So you remember how we were struggling with those Level 7 enemies?  Well, these aren't those. They're decidedly not Level 7 at all.  Nobody's talking when they achieve anything in this map. They're all just fighting in complete stony silence. And who can blame them?  : Why, Lonato? Why did you drag so many others into this?And why'd you give them such cringeworthy lines?  Spoilers: no suffering was had on our part.  Well, aside from that level.  Dudes, you attacked us!  Catherine and her cohorts are naturally going to move on their own, and they're just going to advance, regardless of conditions. Now, Thunderbrand is definitely an impressive weapon, but I mentioned that Catherine has a problem, didn't I? And here it is.  Specifically, while she'll absolutely devastate anything she connects with, actually landing a hit is more of a challenge than you'd think. Admittedly we're in a forest, but Thunderbrand has an accuracy rate of 70% on top of that. The fact that it's a Brave weapon (that is, it swings twice per attack) just means that it misses twice as much.   Story battles in Act 1 (on Normal, at least) feel like they're trying to compensate for the possibility that the player won't be doing a lot of leveling. Even with training weapons, these enemies go down in a flash.  As for Marianne, thanks to the helpful contribution of Storm One, I've been clued in to the fact that she gains support points with Byleth for doing just about anything. As a result, she's on boo-boo maintenance duty. No wound is too small.  If I wasn't playing on Normal, running ahead like this with Byleth would be a very bad idea. On the bright side (heh), this IS Normal.  Yup. Normal Dedue level.  I'm having trouble believing the activation rate of that crest is just 40%.  You see what I mean about enemies just popping their heads out of the mist? Absolutely blatant cheating.  This counts as a miss, I should just mention.  Sylvain and Ingrid have been missing out on the..."fun", so let's give them a boost.  +5 movement is just absolutely bonkers, I tell you.  Oh heck yeah! Ingrid's really popping off!  Well, at least he's hit Level 5.  This plague doctor wannabe has his own Battalion, so he's gotta be important somehow.  Dang, it looks even goofier up close.   Yeah, I think we've got this.  Magicians have a significant kick in this game if you're most physical characters, so I like to use my spellcasters for the task instead. Alternatively, you rush them with gauntlets before they even get a spell off, but Dedue was too far behind.  If the fog's being caused by magic, why even bring up the detail that the road gets naturally foggy?  Oh right, it's so this cutscene can happen.   In-story, the Relic Weapons of the 10 Elites are meant to be fearsome and capable of performing massive feats of destruction.  The effects are less pronounced in gameplay, naturally, but if they show up in cutscenes, someone's due for a bad time.    : It was your wretched zealotry that killed my son!: The only name I answer to is "Catherine".Lord Lonato. Glad you finally made an appearance. Also, interesting detail about Catherine's name. It won't be the last time someone's gone to work for the Church under an assumed identity.   Also, yeah, I can see why folks might say that Catherine is terrifying. Her game face looks like she wants to eat her enemies for dinner.   Honestly, fog of war is a pain in the behind, so I appreciate that it only lasts for half the map. Now it's just cleanup.  A Level 6 paladin? That's just plain impossible. Unlike Kostas, Lord Lonato has a mix of melee and ranged weaponry, so you can't cheese him with spellcasters. Well...you can, but you have to do it in a single turn. Also, he's got a fancy new ability.  General, and abilities like it, are designed to give bosses resistance/outright immunity to some of the cheaper techniques you can pull on them. It's a problem, since you'd want to be using Gambits on bosses most of all, and they're just cutting them in half.  Actually though, if you REALLY want to see impossible, how about a Level 5 Swordmaster? That's a tier 3 class and you have to be Level 20 to get it. No one is following the rules around here.  Honestly seems overkill for this map besides.  : I am sorry... But did you really think you would get away with this?I guess we're supposed to find it logical that if people love their liege enough, they'd be willing to throw their lives away for his sake, but honestly...no, I don't get it. This is a man's personal vendetta and anyone with a degree of sense would see how outmatched they are. Loyalty and respect would only get you so far.  Well, whatever their reasons, we have to defend yourselves. I can understand though why nobody is enjoying this.  Annette, I said no one is enjoying themselves. Stop smiling.   C-rank Axes. Nice! That's exactly where we need to get her. Helm Splitter is like Knightkeeler, except instead of mounted units, it's effective against armored enemies. Then again, so is magic.  That's a lot of strength.  Don't worry about that Fighter to the upper right. I've got Ingrid on the case.  ...I really shouldn't have to explain that Felix shouldn't be getting this much defense.  Honestly, the enemies haven't scaled well to our training at all. I don't think I've had to use a Combat Art this entire map. On the other hand, the fact that you're constantly fighting, constantly running into new dudes, means that this map is a lot more exciting than the previous one. They're making good use of the space given.   Another unnecessary crit gets us the C-rank Authority skill for Annette. Battalion Renewal restores 30% of max HP at the start of a phase if your Battalion is at less than 1/3 of its endurance. Could be handy, but it's not as strong as the other Battalion skills.  Now then, what are we going to do about this firing line? If we keep our distance, we only take two out of three gambits, but that's still not great. Well Felix, you've been showing off this far, so I'm sure you'll be fine.   He was not fine. If this was a harder game mode, he would have been tackled to death. It would have been friggin' hilarious.  Well, he had to get trampled by hundreds of people so that the rest of us could advance safely.  Noice. Finally some defense.  Oops, looks like they forgot to add an exception for leveling from healing people. But I guess that there's not much guilt in that.  When you're Rattled, your stats go straight down the tubes. Even with the fact that this is an armor knight, Felix shouldn't be doing so little.   Hey Felix, since it worked so well the last time, why don't you do the bait thing again?  Yup. We're doing damage in the 20's already. Rally skills are something else.  I should mention, by the way. Classes have special counter-attack animations for if they dodge an enemy first. The archer one is especially dramatic.  You're really lucky that I enjoyed that jump shot, Ashe.  Just about wrapping this up. All that's left is the man himself.  : You have lost all sense of justice. You want to fight me? So be it. I'll send you to meet your goddess.That triggers when Catherine gets to within a certain distance. She'll even stop short just to rattle off the quote before engaging next turn, so I guess we've got to be quick.  That terrain he's on, combined with his resistance, is going to make Lonato hard to nail with magic. It's fine though. We've got plenty of folks to engage with. : You have been deceived by that witch... I will show you the truth! Seems like the way to do it, although it's not the kindest thing to do to Dimitri.  : Lonato, I sympathize with your position. I really do. I have no wish to kill you, but I am afraid you have left me no choice. Please...forgive me.: Your Highness... I cannot stop here. For my child, and for the people of Fódlan. If you will not stand aside, then I have no choice but to cut you down. If you're expecting some unique animation, then I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. Just the same as Tempest Lance. We can't reach Lonato with Ashe this turn, but as you might expect, he has a unique conversation with him. : Stand down, Ashe. I must destroy these evil-doers by any means necessary!: Please surrender, Lonato! Whatever your reason for doing this, we can still talk it out!: Rhea is an infidel who has deceived the people and desecrated the goddess! We have virtue and the goddess herself on our side!: Even if all that's true, dragging the townsfolk into it like this isn't right!: Enough. If that is how you feel, prepare yourself! I'm putting an end to this!So that's all this is then, eh? Some kind of crusade? Lonato's meant to be a tragic figure, but he's also just plain dumb, and he doesn't care about who he walks over in order to accomplish his goals. Not even his own son. I have a hard time offering him my sympathies.   Well, I guess it's time to end this.  Uh...   Well, I guess it's time to end this.   Should have just settled your own scores instead of throwing away hundreds of lives.  : I never thought I'd see Lonato meet this fate. Well done, everyone. Let's gather our troops and go.   For keeping Catherine's flunkies alive, we get boosters to...frankly the least useful stats. The Secret Book and Goddess Icon permanently increase Dexterity/Luck respectively by +2 and +4. The former could be pretty useful for Dedue, but I'd have to look at our character sheets to see who's struggling with Luck right now. I don't usually pay attention to it. (It's also Dedue)  This doesn't turn out to be much of a shock. I'm going to need to get everyone else pulling their weight too.  : Everyone in the village was...was so nice to me. And I...I killed them. I killed them all! I had to, I know I had to... I know that! But still... What does that make me?: Please, don't beat yourself up, Ashe. We did what had to be done.: I'm...I'm sorry. I shouldn't be bothering you. I'm...I'm going to check on the town. I hope my brother and sister are OK. Poor kid. He didn't deserve to have been caught up in this.  : That is the reality of war.: Are you insane?! Those weren't knights or soldiers, but fathers and sons! We...we shouldn't have killed them. We should have found another way...I don't think Lonato was giving us much of a choice here. He was determined to march straight into hell, whether thanks to us or the Knights of Seiros, and drag all his subjects with him. : I...I'm sorry. It's not fair for me to blame you for the circumstance. I know that if we hadn't...done what we did, even more civilian lives would have been lost. At least, my mind understands that. But...my heart... Professor... Those in power, no matter the era, always claim they fight for a just cause. That they take life to protect it. But... Is it truly OK to take any life you please, all in service of some implacable "just cause"? Lord Lonato didn't take up arms out of a lust for power. He simply believed his cause to be just. Who's to say it wasn't?Wait, did you just contradict yourself in two back-to-back sentences? : Maybe we didn't have to cut him down like that. Maybe we could have reached a mutual understanding...found a path of peace. I...I have to believe that. Perhaps the notion sounds laughable to you. Mere lip service to naive ideals. But I can't believe otherwise.Those are all really noble-sounding sentiments, but as seen in the Ashe conversation, we tried the negotiation route, and he wasn't going to listen to reason. While I certainly agree that people can come to a mutual understanding and that's a goal to be desired, this scenario only provided a single choice.   : We can't tell who sent it, so the source is suspect, but the content is too disturbing to ignore. We must report this to Lady Rhea right away. I hope that it's nothing...An assassination plot, eh? Sounds like a convenient note to be leaving around, but that's going to be a subject for next time. Meanwhile, if you've got someone you'd like me to give these stat boosters to specifically, I'll have the character sheets updated on the front page. Extras Video - The Magdred Steamroller Bit of a stomp, this chapter. Even the folks lagging behind in levels can easily hold their own against these schmucks. I still think it's worth watching for the mid-battle cutscene.
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Nov 10, 2022 15:47
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Worth noting, allied NPCs can't actually kill bosses like Lonato. Catherine can bring him down to 1 HP, but the game is nice about reserving that juicy boss kill XP for you. Although bosses still award inflated XP just for fighting them so it's still worth your while to keep Catherine away from him.
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Nov 10, 2022 16:05
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I usually make Ashe kill him just for that sweet, sweet angst.
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Nov 10, 2022 20:06
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I do think it's a nice touch that the characters don't make their usual pithy commentary on level up in this chapter. In an ideal world they might even each have a unique line like they did when fighting the bandits at Zanado, but there's only so much work you can put into character writing in a game this large, so I get why they don't.
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Nov 11, 2022 07:28
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ungulateman posted:I do think it's a nice touch that the characters don't make their usual pithy commentary on level up in this chapter. In an ideal world they might even each have a unique line like they did when fighting the bandits at Zanado, but there's only so much work you can put into character writing in a game this large, so I get why they don't. Moreover, if Ashe isn't in your party, no one else fills in the slack of lamenting this situation during combat. The house leader gets one line and that's it. It feels a bit empty and it makes me wonder if the Lord Lonato storyline had more to it at one point, because in practice, his army kinda comes out of nowhere and you basically just have to take Ashe's word that he was a nice guy at any point, since he seems determined to kill even his own king and adopted son to accomplish his goal of revenge. Any other FE game, he would be the perfect example of a character who you could talk down using the right character, but in this case, NOPE! Time to shank an old dude. I can see why the characters feel down about this situation, because it really seems like pointless tragedy.
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Nov 11, 2022 15:36
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I think that this mission is narratively meant to show, not just tell, that Rhea is deeply unpopular with some people and some people have legitimate grudges against her. Up until now, the Church has mostly been on the level. This mission, however, shows that there are people willing to fight and die to attempt to overthrow her. It's not executed well, but I think that this is the idea.
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Nov 11, 2022 15:40
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Cythereal posted:I think that this mission is narratively meant to show, not just tell, that Rhea is deeply unpopular with some people and some people have legitimate grudges against her. Up until now, the Church has mostly been on the level. This mission, however, shows that there are people willing to fight and die to attempt to overthrow her. That, and it's Rheas attempt to impress Byleth with the power of her church - which is more obvious when Byleth is not with the Blue Lions. (There's a reason why it's always Byleth's house that gets sent on this mission - and it's not just that they're the PC.)
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Nov 11, 2022 21:36
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MightyPretenders posted:There's a reason why it's always Byleth's house that gets sent on this mission - and it's not just that they're the PC. Okay, this feels like overthinking things.
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Nov 11, 2022 21:46
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Delphisage posted:Okay, this feels like overthinking things. this is a case where the doylist interpretation of 'the devs don't want to make unique content for every route' and the watsonian interpretation of 'the church wants to make a point' can both be true
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Nov 12, 2022 00:59
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ungulateman posted:this is a case where the doylist interpretation of 'the devs don't want to make unique content for every route' and the watsonian interpretation of 'the church wants to make a point' can both be true It's overthinking things because I can't imagine there was any deliberate Watsonian effort to explain why the player gets these missions as opposed to other missions. Then again, that could just be my socio-political stance acting up in response to "Rhea wants to make the MU kill her opposition". Delphisage fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Nov 12, 2022 |
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Nov 12, 2022 01:24
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Delphisage posted:It's overthinking things because I can't imagine there was any deliberate Watsonian effort to explain why the player gets these missions as opposed to other missions. Then again, that could just be my socio-political stance acting up in response to "Rhea wants to make the MU kill her opposition". Rhea is very overtly showing the Church's power here. She can intervene in a foreign nation with direct military force and put down one of that nation's own titled nobles. She is also making sure Byleth gets a close-up look at her deadliest enforcer on the job. Rhea is making sure Byleth knows there's an iron fist under that velvet glove she wears.
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Nov 12, 2022 01:44
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It's a valid interpretation, but I don't think any of it is deliberate.
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Nov 12, 2022 01:53
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