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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.



Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, often abbreviated to “SD” or just “FE11”, is the first DS game in the franchise, a remake of the original Fire Emblem, and one of the least beloved games in the series.


Many fans think that, after the comparatively very complex Radiant Dawn, which included skills, third-tier class upgrades, the Shove mechanic, etc., returning to basics felt like a pretty backwards move. Add in an extremely bare-bones story, a host of characters who have literally no lines aside from death grunts, the worst requirements to get bonus chapters in the franchise (and possibly just...video games in general) and a rather poorly received shift from fancy 2D sprites to very rudimentary 3D models. The game wasn’t very well liked, and the sequel didn’t even get localized.

All that aside? I still think Shadow Dragon is a good game. It’s probably one of my least favorite Fire Emblems, but it’s a good game.

So I’m LPing it. Welcome.

What kind of game is Shadow Dragon?

The Fire Emblem games are turn-based strategy games, known for featuring pretty huge casts. That’s because, unlike games like Advance Wars, your units are not replenishable, as any characters who fall in battle stay dead forever. Your goal is not to let that happen as you use the variety of available units, classes, and weapons to complete all of the maps and save Archanea.

Didn’t you already do this?

I did the sequel, New Mystery of the Emblem/Heroes Of Light And Shadow. Honestly they look extremely similar. That’s on the Archive here: http://lparchive.org/Fire-Emblem-Heroes-Of-Light-and-Shadow/

Certainly not “required reading”, I wouldn’t submit anyone to that many of my awful jokes, but I’ll probably reference it a lot because I’m incorrigible.

What kind of playthrough is this?

I’ll be doing two playthroughs. The main one you’ll see will be on Hard Mode (Just basic Hard, not 2-5 stars because I am, in fact, not very good), but Hard does not include the Prologue. So the Prologue and bonus chapters will be taken from my side run on Normal. On this main run I’ll be recruiting every single character, and not letting any of them die. I also plan to mess around a lot more with the Reclass system than I did in FE12, to try and make some more interesting combinations. There are some hidden gems.

This game has a bizarre requirement to get the bonus chapters that requires your total unit count to fall below a certain threshold to unlock them. Basically you have to make your army commit mass suicide. It’s stupid. So the Normal Mode run will basically be me ramming my units into a meat grinder to unlock the bonus chapters, and then playing through those. I’ll just show off the highlights of this one, not the whole thing, so you don’t have to watch the whole game twice.

If you think FE11 is so bare bones, are you doing something else with it?

I’m planning on trying to spice up some of the dryness by adding in some bonus content from the sequel, which adds much more dialogue for the characters. I also never played the DLC maps in my last LP, so I’ll be rectifying that here, as some of them serve as pretty nice epilogues to this game to bridge the gap between it and the sequel. That being said…

Audience Participation?

Though FE11 is a very linear game, the reclassing function opens the game to a lot of fun alternate classes for units. I have a few ideas in mind, but if you’re familiar with the game and want to toss out a class+unit combination, or unfamiliar and just want me to try something out, I’ll give it a shot so long as it doesn’t cause me to get totally obliterated. Unfortunately, reclassing won’t be unlocked until Chapter 4, so you’re stuck with my decisions until then. Sorry in advance.

Sadly there are no hats in this one.

Spoiler policy?

Shadow Dragon has about the most generic fantasy plot of all time. I’m not super worried about this, especially since I’m kind of LPing these games out of order. I’m just fine with story spoilers, I’ll probably drop a few, although I’d rather not do gameplay ones. For example, saying we’re going to fight X Dude is fine. Just please don’t talk all about the map surrounding X Dude until we get there.

Update Schedule?

Nothing concrete, I try to just kinda pace it with the thread, which is code for "i do not know exactly". I'll probably be moderately paced at the start, slow in the middle, and fast at the end, because somehow that's how these all turn out.

hard 1 c’mon man

I have a hardwired fear of ballista and ballista accessories.

Table of Contents
Prologue 1: Humble Beginnings
Prologue 2: Enter The Frey
Prologue 3: The Three Cavaliers
Prologue 4: Sacrifice

Chapter 1: Pirate Palooza
Chapter 2: The Ballad O' Shanty Pete
Chapter 3: Unfortunately Named Bandits
Chapter 4: Lea: An open area of grassy or arable land. (Prep)
Chapter 4: Lea: An open area of grassy or arable land. (Battle)
Chapter 5: The Catastrophic Cavalier Cavalcade (Prep)
Chapter 5: The Catastrophic Cavalier Cavalcade (Battle)
Chapter 6: Ocean's 14 (Prep)
Chapter 6: Ocean's 14 (Battle)
Chapter 6x: A Vonderful Day To Die (Prep)
Chapter 6x: A Vonderful Day To Die (Battle)
Chapter 7: Death from Above, Also Below (Prep)
Chapter 7: Death from Above, Also Below (Battle)
Bonus Chapter #1: By The Sword
Chapter 8: Render Unto Caesar (Prep)
Chapter 8: Render Unto Caesar (Battle)
Chapter 9: Questionably Canon Dragon (Prep)
Chapter 9: Questionably Canon Dragon (Battle)
Chapter 10: Ave Maria (Prep)
Chapter 10: Ave Maria (Battle)
Chapter 11: This Map Gave Me A Kidney Stone (Prep)
Chapter 11: This Map Gave Me A Kidney Stone (Battle)
Chapter 12: It Takes Ages (Prep)
Chapter 12: It Takes Ages (Battle)
Chapter 12x: Saint Jagen (Prep)
Chapter 12x: Saint Jagen (Battle)
Chapter 13: Pretty Much Just Me Sighing For Several Images (Prep)
Chapter 13: Pretty Much Just Me Sighing For Several Images (Battle)
Chapter 14: Gra'dess Of The Skies (Prep)
Chapter 14: Gra'dess Of The Skies (Battle)
Chapter 15: Welcome To Wizard Hell (Prep)
Chapter 15: Welcome To Wizard Hell (Battle)
Chapter 16: It's Pronounced Like "Chainy" (Prep)
Chapter 16: It's Pronounced Like "Chainy" (Battle)
Chapter 17: Marth Meets Morzas, The Matricidal Mage Manakete (Prep)
Chapter 17: Marth Meets Morzas, The Matricidal Mage Manakete (Battle)
Chapter 17x: Thiefless Speedrun (Prep)
Chapter 17x: Thiefless Speedrun (Battle)
Bonus Chapter #2: Wind and Thunder
Chapter 18: Sable Showdown (Prep)
Chapter 18: Sable Showdown (Battle)
Chapter 19: 60% Orb Ratio (Prep)
Chapter 19: 60% Orb Ratio (Battle)
Chapter 20: Grust to Grust (Prep)
Chapter 20: Grust to Grust (Battle)
Chapter 20x: The Reason I Went For The Generic Units (Prep)
Chapter 20x: The Reason I Went For The Generic Units (Battle)
Chapter 21: Nothing Title-Worthy Happens (Prep)
Chapter 21: Nothing Title-Worthy Happens (Battle)
Chapter 22: Long Live The King (Prep)
Chapter 22: Long Live The King (Battle)
Chapter 23: Throwdown at Thabes (Prep)
Chapter 23: Throwdown at Thabes (Battle)
Bonus Chapter #3: Assassins
Chapter 24: Day Late, Dolhr Short (Prep)
Chapter 24: Day Late, Dolhr Short (Battle)
Chapter 24x: Dimensional Detour (Prep)
Chapter 24x: Dimensional Detour (Battle)
Final Chapter: Shadow Dragon. (Prep)
Final Chapter: Shadow Dragon. (Battle)

Finale: Goodbye, Archanea

Bonus Post: Camel Pimp's Archanean Safari: Other Great FE1 Art

Fan Art





vilkacis and I were both pretty happy to see Wrys again. But gently caress Knorda Market.






Vilkacis also helps you envision Camus as that guy from your Literature and Philosophy classes who wouldn't take off his ascot, but that might just be my experience.







Vilkacis also found great use for Astram, Camus, and Hardin's old art.





Camel Pimp knows Caeda rules. Everyone should. Camel Pimp also makes portrait edits and they rule.

Camel Pimp also presents the ideal Shadow Dragon.

Also the ideal Marth.



Camel Pimp also gets in on the forbidden romance craze.




chiasaur11 shows us the true use of the Fire Emblem, opening chests with extreme prejudice.



Blaze Dragon has achieved the best possible result in Fire Emblem Heroes.



LifeOfAGuardian discovers the long lost relic of Khadein, Elrean's fabled Smugspheres.

LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Jun 25, 2017

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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.
Prologue 1: Humble Beginnings



Altea Castle, 10 AD (After Dragon)

: We’ve done all we can, Marth. He doesn’t have much time left.

: ...I see.

: I’d say I’m surprised, but...he’s like 100.

: Sire! Am I here in time?

: Barely, Knight Captain Steve. You’ll need to hurry. I’m sorry...he’s asked for you specifically.




: Steve? Is that you?

: I’m here, Sir Jagen.

: I am not long for this world, Steve...but before I go…

: Anything, Sir Jagen!

: ...Have I ever told you the story of the War of Shadows?

: ...Sir Jagen, please-

: Too late...Marth locked the door behind you…

: Please do not spend your last moments in flashback!

: IT WAS MANY YEARS AGO-







I’ve missed these guys. Intelligent Systems has worked on every single Fire Emblem game, as well as games like Advance Wars and Paper Mario. They recently did Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., which I heard was bad? Shame.

Dunno what a “nintendo” is. They’re probably out of business.








The screen divide on the DS has not been kind to this woman’s torso.




The horse butt is fully intact, however.




Now we get some rapidly appearing action shots!




This one is really more of an implied action shot.













I’m not sure how the trajectory worked on that dragon slicing. Maybe he ricocheted off the rock?










These two are pretty important.




This is a pretty cool title screen. I’m pretty sure nothing like this ever happens in game. But it’s a nice title screen.




I doubt I have to explain “Continue” or “New Game” to you, Copy and Erase Data are just for messing around with your save files. “Extras” contains some stuff we won’t get into, like the defunct online battle mode, and “Suspend Point” will be explained when that becomes relevant. Chapter 2, I believe?




I’ll be doing the main LP on Hard, but you don’t get to see the Prologue on that difficulty.




So, for completion’s sake, these first few updates will be using the “Normal” difficulty. Not turning on tutorials, because that’s kinda my job.

I’ve already set us up for disaster.




This map is on the bottom screen the whole time, by the way, so I’ll crop it out of future exposition shots.

: beginning an age of fear and despair for all its people.




This is Anri, one of Marth’s ancestors. He went on some long journey full of deserts and icecaps and it was the worst.


: He stood against the Shadow Dragon, and struck him down. For some time after, the land enjoyed an age of peace.






Fiendish Sorcerer pictured on the left. That other guy is a Paladin. Not very fiendish either.

: and their combined might toppled kingdom upon unsuspecting kingdom. Again, darkness threatened to engulf the continent.




: to sally forth with the divine blade and fulfill his blood destiny.

(yeah they reuse this whole panorama in the sequel :shh:)



: and a garrison manned by Altea’s neighbor and ally, Gra. Thus the boy applied himself to the ways of both pen and sword, until one day…




I really like these prologues, they weren’t in the original Fire Emblem this is a remake of. But they’re good tutorials with a fair amount of personality that I feel the main game suffers for not having.

The titles kinda suck though.







: She seemed to be, sire, but her words implied a certain urgency. She bade you dress quickly and wait by the throne.

The generic soldiers have portraits in this LP!

This is the only improvement I’ve made in two years, please enjoy.

: ...Has something happened?

: It’s our forces off in Gra, sire. There seems to ‘ave been some sort of incident, but… Well, I’m not privy to the specifics.

: I see… Thank you. I’ll be there shortly.




Marth actually walks out into the hallway now.




I’m sure it’ll be fine. How many heroic fantasy dads do you know that just up and die?




My unfunny pointing out of common storytelling tropes aside, let’s take a look at Marth here.

Marth is the main character of this game, no My Unit this time to contest it. He’s the only Lord in the game, and if he dies, it’s Game Over. Marth is a pretty okay unit, his stats aren’t going to blow you away, but it doesn’t really matter because he’s literally required on every map.

Up at the top screen on the far left you can see Marth’s current Stats. Might as well get that infodump out of the way here.

HP is hit points, if those hit 0, you’re dead.

Str is Strength, which is added to the damage you deal with most weapons. It also lessens the penalty to effective Speed with your heavier weapons.

Mag is Magic, which affects the use of Staves (More on those later) and the damage dealt by Tomes. Marth can never use either, so Magic is completely irrelevant on him.

Skill governs your chance to hit or critically hit (Triple Damage).

Speed determines if you can hit an enemy twice in one round of combat, or NOT get hit twice. This is a big deal, as it can potentially double or halve damage.

Luck is pretty much the inverse of Skill, it helps with lowering enemy crit chance.

Defense is subtracted from the damage of enemy physical attacks.

Resistance is subtracted from the damage of enemy magical attacks.

It seems like a lot at first, but you get the hang of what all this means pretty quickly. Just know that bigger numbers are better, and that nobody is ever going to get any drat Res.




This is how far Marth can move per turn. The red squares represent places he could attack...if he had anyone to attack.

Marth has a Movement stat of 7, which you can see to the right of his portrait. “Rng” refers to range. Swords have a range of one tile, and that’s what he has equipped right now.




Marth’s got to get to the throne to talk to Elice. Thankfully, the R button allows you to swap between the Stats view and an overview of the whole map. Looks like the throne is just down this hallway.




Seems like a pretty uneventful journey. After moving, you can use an item, but since we have none, Marth’s just going to Wait.




This bodes well.




: We’re soldiers of Gra, li’l prince. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll surrender to us without makin’ any trouble.

The generic goons in this game have some kind of accent. I’ve always read it as Irish, but Cockney is probably more what they were going for.

: Surrender? But that’s ridiculous… Why would I surrender to the army of an allied kingdom?

: Meh heh heh… They don’t tell you much, do they? No matter. You’ll ‘ave the full story soon enough. Now…lay down your sword.

: I will not. I am the prince of Altea. I will not yield to you or any other nation, here on my own land, under my own castle roof!

Marth’s supposed to be like 16 14 (thanks CamelPimp) here. Pretty brave kid. Especially when his babysitters are vaguely threatening to kill him.

: Heh, you talk big, brat. Have it your way. If you won’t lay down your sword, then we’ll just have to take your life instead!

Alright, now literally threatening to kill him.




Four red dots appear! (also pretend that says “Enemy Phase”, I promise, I get a better shot later.)




Two of these enemies will run down the hallway after Marth.







This just became a little more complicated.




The Gra soldiers near the throne are...Soldiers. They’re an enemy-only class because they really, really suck. They can only wield Lances, and don’t excel in anything.




The axe wielders rushing Marth are Fighters. Fighters use axes, and they do big damage...when they hit. They’ve got pretty terrible Skill, and aren’t the most reliable of units. They’re decently sturdy, though, so they can afford a mistake or two.

That applies to most fighters, I mean. These guys are just awful.




I’m swapping Marth’s weapon out for the Iron Sword. Those numbers next to the weapons indicate their Durability, once they’ve been used that many times, they disappear into thin air! The Rapier is a good, rare weapon, and I don’t want to waste Durability on these chumps.

Speaking of weapons, I should talk about the Weapon Ranks. You see to the right of Marth’s stats, it has a list of icons and...hyphens? Well, for weapons you can use, you’ll get a rank, E through A. The better the rank, the more types of that weapon you can use, and you’ll get some minor bonuses at the higher ranks. Weapon Rank increases the more you use that weapon type. Marth can only ever use swords.

While I have the Iron Sword selected, you can also see its stats on the bottom screen. It’s E rank, has 5 Might (added to Strength to make total Attack), 100 Hit Chance before other stuff effects that, 0 bonus Critical chance, one Range, and a Weight of 4. Weight makes you effectively slower, but is reduced by your strength. It’s a weird mechanic and this is the last game they used it in.

Sorry for all the mechanics chat in this update, but not much else is happening.




There’s the good Enemy Phase shot!




The first soldier attacks Marth, and the fight plays out on the top screen. You can see the damage, chance to hit, and chance to crit of both units, from left to right under them.

This guy missed.




Marth struck back twice and killed him. The other soldier tried the same thing, and met the same fate.




Time to keep advancing towards the throne.




This enemy won’t move until Marth gets in range. A lot of the game’s foes work this way, and you’ll have to exploit it to your advantage for a clean run.




This dialogue triggers as you enter the throne room.




Hey! That’s our Throne!




: I have to get rid of him before my sister arrives!




The other Soldier attacks, however, and you might notice that Marth’s sword has a red arrow under it. This is the Weapon Triangle in effect, a staple of FE games. Certain weapon types put others at a disadvantage, effecting damage and hit rate.

The triangle is: Swords>Axes>Lances>Swords

None of the other weapons factor into it.




Since this is the first time I’m attacking on my own turn, I can show off the combat forecast. You can check the way battles will go beforehand with this information. The x2 means Marth is fast enough to hit this guy twice.




With all but the final soldier cleared, Marth hits 100 Exp…




It’s a level up! A lovely level up! Each character has a percentage chance for each stat to get increased on a level. This does add some randomness to the game. There are ways to gauge some characters chances here, called “growth rates”...but we’ll talk about that later.




Right now let’s attack the final soldier. Since he’s on the Throne, as indicated on the top screen, he gets bonuses to Avoidance and Defence this turn.




He also heals! Most bosses are on Thrones for this reason.




Still, he’s no match for the 1614 (thanks Vilkacis and also CamelPimp again) year old with no practical combat experience!




With the enemy cleared out, we can seize the throne to end the map. Every map in FE11 ends by Seizing a tile, which only Marth can do.




This game doesn’t have “MAP CLEAR!”, to my eternal disappointment.

:toot: anyway







: Steady yourself, Marth. I have grave news. Our father was defeated by the Dolhr-Grust allied forces.

Dohlr is an empire ruled by a bunch of crazy dragon people. Grust has...uh...horses? The locations in Shadow Dragon aren’t exactly fleshed out.

: What? No…

: It was Gra. Our own ally betrayed us and struck Father’s army from the rear. I am… I am not sure if he is safe. The scouts who returned gave conflicting reports…

: Father...it can’t be…

:smith:

He might be okay! (he’s not okay)

: As we speak, soldiers sent by Gra are trying to take the castle. Mother and I were separated during the escape. I do not know where she is.


It’s hard to overestimate how unimportant Mama Marth is in these games. I don’t think she even gets mentioned in the sequel.

: …..

Hey, save those dots, I know a guy later who’s going to want them.

: Marth, I need you to listen to me. You must flee the castle. Go on without me.

: What?


: We’ve not many soldiers left...This is hard to bear, I know, but the castle is lost. We must face that. I will find Mother and join you as soon as I can. You find Jagen and get away from here- far away. Understand?

: ...All right. But promise you won’t be long.




That’s the end of the first map. Only...28 to go, not counting Bonus Chapters.

what have i begun

LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Jun 5, 2017

Torrannor
Apr 27, 2013

---FAGNER---
TEAM-MATE
Steve! :swoon:

I enjoyed your last FE LP so much, Lord Hippoman, very much looking forward to this one.

There's no MyUnit in this game?

BlackPersona
Oct 21, 2012


Oh, hey, this exists now! :allears:

...Except I forgot how bad it was compared to FE12. Ah well, I'm sure you'll make it as entertaining as the last LP, Hippoman :)

Mysticblade
Oct 22, 2012

I don't think you'll match TenaCrane's lust for blood or whatever that guy was called.

But I'm looking forward to this LP. Good luck!

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

Torrannor posted:

There's no MyUnit in this game?

The My Unit/Avatar system was started by the next game. This one only has one interesting thing, and that's the game genuinely wanting you to kill your own units.

You can see why people dislike it.

BlazetheInferno
Jun 6, 2015
Welp, this oughta be interesting. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
Yeeeeeeesssssssssssss :swoon:

RareAcumen
Dec 28, 2012




LordHippoman posted:



This map is on the bottom screen the whole time, by the way, so I’ll crop it out of future exposition shots.

: beginning an age of fear and despair for all its people.

Looking forward to the LP and everything but I do have a suggestion for a not-problem in the update.

Maybe take the top screen with the text and put it right before Jagen's words too so it reads cleanly? Like, double post the image but cut out the map screen.

quote:



This map is on the bottom screen the whole time, by the way, so I’ll crop it out of future exposition shots.



: beginning an age of fear and despair for all its people.

Silly nitpicks aside, I'm looking forward to the rest of the LP, since the last one went so well.

Camel Pimp
May 17, 2008

This poster survived LPing Lunar: Dragon Song. Let's give her a hand.
How serendipitous, I just beat this game. I mean, I get where people are coming from (and I didn't even bother going for the optional chapters except for the last one) but after binging a ton on Fates, the simplicity of this game was kind of refreshing, honestly.

Also, I want to say Marth is actually 13 in the prologue, but I could be totally wrong.

Camel Pimp fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Nov 21, 2016

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
I never got too far into this game. It's pretty bad when the GBA Fire Emblems have more intriguing stories than you.

That said I can't believe you lied right to my face screen about waiting a while to do another LP. I thought you were my BFF. The trust is gone. GONE!

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Aw man, the positive reception so far :unsmith:, thank you a ton. It helps it go along faster knowing people are enjoying me floundering my way through the game.


Torrannor posted:

There's no MyUnit in this game?

Like BlazeDragon said, FE12 was the establishing of MyUnit. They did it again in Awakening, and after Robin was so successful, plus judging by Fates, I think that trend is going to stick around for a while. (steve for smash 5)


RareAcumen posted:

Maybe take the top screen with the text and put it right before Jagen's words too so it reads cleanly? Like, double post the image but cut out the map screen.

I was considering that, but I didn't want people to get tripped up by the double image. I'll keep that in mind for future updates, though, it does look good the way you showed it.


Camel Pimp posted:


Also, I want to say Marth is actually 13 in the prologue, but I could be totally wrong.

Whoops, yeah, did a re-google, he's 14 in the prologue, 16 in the main game. I'll fix that.


Rabbi Raccoon posted:

That said I can't believe you lied right to my face screen about waiting a while to do another LP. I thought you were my BFF. The trust is gone. GONE!

I honestly didn't plan on starting this so soon, but I've got a lot of work right now that requires me to sit at my computer and wait for things to upload, and this is a really enjoyable way to spend downtime for me. I ended up missing it more than I thought I would. I don't have a problem. :sludgepal:

BlackPersona
Oct 21, 2012


LordHippoman posted:

Like BlazeDragon said, FE12 was the establishing of MyUnit. They did it again in Awakening, and after Robin was so successful, plus judging by Fates, I think that trend is going to stick around for a while. (steve for smash 5)

For what it's worth I think there was some leftover data for a My Unit in this game, it just... got scrapped. For some reason.

theamazingchris
Feb 1, 2016

: D
I'm excited to finally catch one of your LPs live, LordHippoman. :) Not that I do anything but lurk, but hey, it's fun to watch the sausage get made.

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

BlackPersona posted:

For what it's worth I think there was some leftover data for a My Unit in this game, it just... got scrapped. For some reason.

That seems to be indeed the case. The Cutting Room Floor mentions it, quoting them:

TCRF posted:


The My Unit feature, which allows players to create their own character, may have been planned to debut in Shadow Dragon, instead of Shin Monsho no Nazo. In the game, there is an unused and untranslated heading for a "My Unit Registration" and "My Unit" is spelled in exactly the same way as the custom character in Shin Monsho no Nazo and Awakening.

Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011

Sleep with one eye open

We're off to Gritty Gritty land




I tried playing this game, but the growth rates on most characters were killer

ugh

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Whoops, I just noticed the backgrounds on the soldier portraits are white instead of transparent. I'll work on fixing that. So, uh, if some of them disappear for a while, don't worry, it's just routine maintenance. (in retrospect I think this improves the joke about this being the only improvement over the past 2 years.)


BlackPersona posted:

For what it's worth I think there was some leftover data for a My Unit in this game, it just... got scrapped. For some reason.

This baffles me because that would have made Shadow Dragon so much better. With the reclassing there was already precedent for this being the "customization" Fire Emblem and...ugh. I'm a little harsh on a lot of the flaws in SD because they might have contributed to FE12 not coming over here. Which is like, top 3 Fire Emblems for me.


theamazingchris posted:

I'm excited to finally catch one of your LPs live, LordHippoman. :) Not that I do anything but lurk, but hey, it's fun to watch the sausage get made.

Well, I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to post if you have any questions or anything or notice any mistakes! No pressure, I will not lampoon you in the updates.


Nissin Cup Nudist posted:

I tried playing this game, but the growth rates on most characters were killer

ugh

Yeah, that's something I think Awakening and Fates really do right, everybody is pretty drat usable, and you have more padding against someone just getting utterly run over by the RNG. It allows them to make the maps a little more nuts too. (Fates really starts to run away with it towards the end.)

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Did someone say Fire Emblem thread? Because I think I heard someone say Fire Emblem thread! And oh boy, Steve... It's certainly been a while!


LordHippoman posted:

: She seemed to be, sire, but her words implied a certain urgency. She bade you dress quickly and wait by the throne.

...And she specifically asked me to tell you not to forget your trousers this time.


LordHippoman posted:

Whoops, yeah, did a re-google, he's 14 in the prologue, 16 in the main game. I'll fix that.

Still haven't fixed it in the second place you mention it :ssh:



you should use wrys, wrys is still the best character

vilkacis fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Nov 22, 2016

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

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

vilkacis posted:


...And she specifically asked me to tell you not to forget your trousers this time.


Still haven't fixed it in the second place you mention it :ssh:

Good catch, somehow I missed that while I was replacing the soldier portraits with the transparent ones. (it's because I hit Ctrl-F and called it a day).

Also I'm highly tempted to just have a bonus update where I post the official art for FE1/3 because oh my god. Miniskirt Marth is the tip of the iceberg.

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

This one's my personal favourite.



Between the incredibly :smug: look and the very oddly-shaped face, it honestly amuses me that this is the same pure good bishonen we all know.

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

I really want to say a good portion of this games flaws come from being a remake of one of the oldest games known to mankind, but then FE12 comes along and just completely destroys those problems and all it really took is supports. I'm forced to kill characters whenever I play this because Athena is my favorite non-plot character and shes locked in the gaidens.

I'm a huge supports fan, my ideal Fire Emblem is the Map Number Unlock method for supports with like a post game grinding map for them, because honestly, the option of grinding is the biggest flaw of 13 and 14, it just takes all the fun out of the games and then they get balanced around a bit of grinding, and ugh. I honestly hated 10, even though its the best mechanically because there were no supports.

AradoBalanga
Jan 3, 2013

LordHippoman posted:

This baffles me because that would have made Shadow Dragon so much better. With the reclassing there was already precedent for this being the "customization" Fire Emblem and...ugh. I'm a little harsh on a lot of the flaws in SD because they might have contributed to FE12 not coming over here. Which is like, top 3 Fire Emblems for me.
One reason that I personally believe contributed to this was that Shadow Dragon followed up years of refinement and changes to the gameplay formulas, only to keep a few of them and heavily lean on the old mechanics from FE1. Which by 2008/2009 were so outdated and radically different from the games that did get released internationally (FE7, 8, and both of Ike's games) that it turned off a lot of people to Shadow Dragon.


At least Shirow Masamune remembered to give Marth pants, even if his artwork for the remake is a mixed bag.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

I, frankly, want this smug Jagen to be my avatar on all forms of social media immediately.
Prologue 2: Enter The Frey

Welcome back. Last time we met our hero, Prince Marth, as his sister told him to find Jagen and escape the castle. Today we’re going to find Jagen and escape the castle.



The bottom screen is blank during these prologue titles. I wanted to show that off, and this was definitely not a cropping error.




These two men on horseback run up to Marth as soon as he enters the scene.






: Sire, we must be quick. Sir Jagen awaits us at the gates.


There’s no actual time limit here, but I’m sure you don’t want to keep Jagen waiting.




Seems things won’t be that easy, though. Jagen may be at the gates, but he has no trouble letting enemies just run on through.




: Jagen and the others will be caught like mice...we need to seize the gates and secure the area, immediately.




It’s not immediately obvious where “the gates” are, but if you check the map, you can helpfully see the objective tile highlighted in yellow.





By the way, just like you can see allied movement ranges, you can check that for enemies too. We don’t want any of our units getting ganged up on, or hit with an attack you don’t think they can take, so this can be extremely helpful.




That said, I’m just going to charge these dorks because they’re awful.

Abel is honestly one of the strongest all around units in the game. He has the most availability possible (except Marth on Normal), and respectable growths in pretty much all his stats. Growths are your chances to gain a point in each stat on leveling, and they vary for each character and class. He also starts able to use the Javelin, a 1-2 ranged weapon. It’s hard to go wrong with Abel.




For example, he immediately doubles this Soldier, killing him without taking a counterattack, like you normally would between hits. That’s the power of the Javelin!

This is probably a good time to introduce the Cavalier as well. Abel and Frey are both Cavaliers. They have extremely high movement and access to Lances and Swords. They’re well rounded, and honestly one of my favorite classes. Hopefully they’re one of yours too, because Shadow Dragon vomits Cavaliers at you.




Against the fighter, I’m sending Frey. Frey is like Abel but even better. He’s got better growths in almost everything.

Oh, he’s also not available on any mode but Normal. So...that hurts.




Sadly he can’t double the fighter for all of his HP, but I’ll scoop up the kill during the Enemy Phase.




: Ho ho… What’s this? I spy the Altean prince. Oi, listen up, you lot! Bag the prince! Dead or alive, he’ll fetch us as sweet a reward as the mind can conjure.

: Sir Jagen, did they really all have that accent?

: Do you really still have all that poo poo on your head?

: …




The fighter goes for Abel and does some damage, but he dies for his trouble.




We’ve still got four enemies left on the map, though. Two soldiers and




Yeah, archers.



Archers exclusively use Bows, and can only hit from 2 squares away. This makes them easy to avoid counters with, but they have trouble countering themselves. Their high Skill makes for good hit rates and lots of criticals, but you have to be very careful with these units, or they’ll get destroyed on the front lines.




I’m using Frey down there to lure in the last soldier.




It worked out splendidly!




Now I do the same thing, but with Abel and the archer. Honestly, these enemies aren’t dangerous, you could just bum rush the boss, but I want to show off some strategy in the early parts of this strategy game.




Now you see him.





Now you don’t. Abel got a critical there, you can tell when the screen flashes yellow and your character has a special attack animation. It’s quick and hard to capture with Javelins, so I’ll try to grab a better shot later.




While Abel goes to deal with the second and final archer, Frey is taking on the “boss”, which is just a normal soldier who won’t move off of the point.




Again, really not much in these Prologue goons.




Abel did get a hit off on the archer, filling up his EXP bar and getting him his first level!




And it’s terrible. Don’t get me wrong, Speed’s a good stat, you just...hope for more than just that and HP, especially on someone as good as Abel is.




Frey also rides over to kill the archer, so I can try my luck at the Level Up wheel one more time.




Oh, this is a bad, bad omen.




I’m leaving these damned halls. I will flee the bad RNG, but it could always linger.




Glad to know Jagen is always rocking those ridiculously dangerous shoulderpads.




This guy wasn’t here for the Chapter itself, he just shows up in this cutscene.







Marth says “Yow!” a lot. Hopefully it’s a habit he’ll grow out of.

: Sire, it’s really you...I feared the worst. That his message would go undeliv...Agh…

: In that state I don’t know how you even stayed ahorse.

He’s not a horse, he’s a Cain :v:

: Those gashes must be treated at once-


: No, sire, Not until we’ve escaped.




There’s the Jagen I know and love. :allears:


: Of course, sir...I aim to please…




This is a really minor nitpick, but the Throne Room of Castle Altea looks nothing like this. There are like, three different throne room maps spread across the two games in this duology for this one castle. Maybe they just remodel a lot.

: No, Malledus, I am staying here.

: S-staying here?! What madness is this?

: Too many people have died to keep Altea and its castle safe. I cannot abandon what so many lives have brought. With Father and Mother unaccounted for, I am the natural choice to remain with Altea’s people. And besides, by staying, I can buy time for the rest of you to escape.

Elice making the bold choice of assuming they won’t just immediately stab her like they did her dad.


: Nonsense. Just gather your things, and-”

: Malledus. I am not suggesting. I am commanding. If something befalls Father, Marth will become the last person in the entire world worthy of wielding the Falchion. I want you to guide him, Malledus- even when the rest of us no longer can.

Little bit fatalistic there.


: Princess...I will try my best.

: There’s not much time. Go, Malledus, go!




And he went.


So, since these updates are fairly short, I figure a bit of bonus content’s in order. In Japan, the Fire Emblem Card Game, known as Fire Emblem Cipher or Fire Emblem 0, has been picking up steam. Because of that, we have lots of cards of our favorite characters, even from Shadow Dragon! So I’ll try to show some of them off, since the art is available online. Credits to the Fire Emblem Wiki for that. Today, we’ll go with our new pal, Abel.



The Green Knight, Abel

I’m not sure why everything around him is on fire. I also don’t know how to play the card game, although evidently you get some sort of bonus for playing Cain and Abel at the same time!

LordHippoman fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Nov 25, 2016

Booky
Feb 21, 2013

Chill Bug


I've heard many things about this game... :allears: Very interested in seeing how it goes!

LordHippoman posted:

Also I'm highly tempted to just have a bonus update where I post the official art for FE1/3 because oh my god. Miniskirt Marth is the tip of the iceberg.

Do it. :colbert:

Also, as noble (I guess?) as it is to stay with the castle for the people, it'd probably be a better idea for Elice to join up with Marth's group so she can help him out more in the long run.

Booky fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Nov 23, 2016

BlackPersona
Oct 21, 2012


I forgot Malledus ever existed. Thank God they replaced him with Jagen in the sequel.

I am OK with you posting the artwork for FE1/3 the Ciphers because those are pretty rad too.

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Blaze Dragon posted:

This one's my personal favourite.

Oh, it's good, but it doesn't show the glorious lack of pants.

LordHippoman posted:

This is probably a good time to introduce the Cavalier as well. Abel and Frey are both Cavaliers. They have extremely high movement and access to Lances and Swords. They’re well rounded, and honestly one of my favorite classes. Hopefully they’re one of yours too, because Shadow Dragon vomits Cavaliers at you.

Well I mean they're not bad or anything, but they can't compete with archers. Archers are the best class. (After curates, but that goes without saying.)

LordHippoman posted:

Marth says “Yow!” a lot. Hopefully it’s a habit he’ll never grow out of.

Fixed :colbert:

LordHippoman posted:

He’s not a horse, he’s a Cain :v:

I am unAbel to deal with this. I just Cain't.

Taciturn Tactician
Jan 27, 2011

The secret to good health is a balanced diet and unstable healing radiation
Lipstick Apathy

vilkacis posted:

Well I mean they're not bad or anything, but they can't compete with archers. Archers are the best class. (After curates, but that goes without saying.)

My main experience is in 7 and 8 so this sounds like an insane thing to say. Is the unit and scenario design just really different in this game?

Mysticblade
Oct 22, 2012

There are some pretty tough flyers in this game but loving archers in this game feels like a personal preference thing. They're really important in the harder difficulties, I hear, but I don't play them.

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
I remember in the first Fire Emblem on GBA I got an absolutely insane Rebecca once. 5 stats going up per level was fairly normal for her and she slaughtered everything that looked at her funny. Best archer ever

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I remember in the first Fire Emblem on GBA I got an absolutely insane Rebecca once. 5 stats going up per level was fairly normal for her and she slaughtered everything that looked at her funny. Best archer ever

I have insane luck with these games, I've literally never had a bad unit that wasnt inherently screwed, so prepromotes that you get at the very end. I had quite possibly the best Meg ever in 10, She was useful in the final battle for petes sake.

I'm really bad with choices and I really dont want to waste exp so my basic strategy is to use only The Lord and girls because there are a lot less girls than guys in 6-12. I think in 9 you only have enough to fill out the final with 1 extra. As a side effect of this I am absolutely enamored with Pegasus Knights and Archers since those are the female heavy classes and basically have no experience with Cavaliers as thats almost exclusively male.

Taciturn Tactician
Jan 27, 2011

The secret to good health is a balanced diet and unstable healing radiation
Lipstick Apathy

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I remember in the first Fire Emblem on GBA I got an absolutely insane Rebecca once. 5 stats going up per level was fairly normal for her and she slaughtered everything that looked at her funny. Best archer ever

The problem is that scenario design in 7 was mostly "large numbers of melee units" with some 1-2 range units scattered in. Fliers weren't especially common, and units with low avoid and higher defence than res were common. Hence, an archer would kill one enemy on player phase and then doing nothing on enemy phase, whereas a mercenary would kill one enemy on your phase and five on the enemy phase, and a mage would be even more likely to rack up tons of enemy phase kills. Having a high skill two range unit isn't great against a bunch of 1 range mooks who you could get 100 hit on with mediocre skill.

The same issue happened in 8, where snipers got an ability that sometimes made them hit the next shot l regardless of their hit chance, but they had high skill so their hit was always 90+ anyway and usually just 100.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

LordHippoman posted:

Prologue 2: Enter The Frey
Oh goddamnit.

vilkacis posted:

I am unAbel to deal with this. I just Cain't.
Oh goddamnit! :argh:

Camel Pimp
May 17, 2008

This poster survived LPing Lunar: Dragon Song. Let's give her a hand.

I'm so happy to see you

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Taciturn Tactician posted:

My main experience is in 7 and 8 so this sounds like an insane thing to say. Is the unit and scenario design just really different in this game?

:thejoke: :ssh:

Although I think they're supposed to be better in the DS games than the GBA ones.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I remember in the first Fire Emblem on GBA I got an absolutely insane Rebecca once. 5 stats going up per level was fairly normal for her and she slaughtered everything that looked at her funny. Best archer ever

What's up, awesome Rebecca buddy :hf:

Last time through, she soloed Nergal for me. I was very proud of her.

theshim posted:

Oh goddamnit.

Oh goddamnit! :argh:

You won't be Bord with us Arrand! Just reLex and don't Barst a vessel.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

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

Booky posted:

Also, as noble (I guess?) as it is to stay with the castle for the people, it'd probably be a better idea for Elice to join up with Marth's group so she can help him out more in the long run.

Elice's idea is to stay so they'll waste time trying to capture her and not Marth, I guess. Presumably the Queen would be better at that, but Mama Marth will never, ever appear.


BlackPersona posted:

I forgot Malledus ever existed. Thank God they replaced him with Jagen in the sequel.

I am OK with you posting the artwork for FE1/3 the Ciphers because those are pretty rad too.

I think my favorite thing about the abrupt Malledus/Jagen swap in the sequel is that Malledus is just never even mentioned. I think everyone just made a pact to forget he existed.

And oh yeah, posting the Ciphers isn't going to stop me from showing the FE1/3 art, though that'd probably be like a bonus update. I'll also probably grab some of the Mirage redesigns from SMTxFE because...uh...some of those are interesting.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I remember in the first Fire Emblem on GBA I got an absolutely insane Rebecca once. 5 stats going up per level was fairly normal for her and she slaughtered everything that looked at her funny. Best archer ever

I think my best was Virion, but Awakening is probably cheating because almost everybody can get pretty broken.


Camel Pimp posted:

I'm so happy to see you

"Maybe if I don't mention it in the captions, they won't notice."-Me, before posting.


vilkacis posted:

You won't be Bord with us Arrand! Just reLex and don't Barst a vessel.

Careful, I need these for update titles. Please Wrystrain yourself.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

LordHippoman posted:

"Maybe if I don't mention it in the captions, they won't notice."-Me, before posting.
We could never fail to notice the blink animation :allears:

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

Elise staying behind was different in that short anime adaptation. She forces the issue by using a Warp staff to just teleport Marth several miles away.

AradoBalanga
Jan 3, 2013

LordHippoman posted:



Against the fighter, I’m sending Frey. Frey is like Abel but even better. He’s got better growths in almost everything, and his only real downside is that he can’t use Javelins off the bat, with only an E in lances.
Frey has an E-rank in swords, not lances.

LordHippoman
May 30, 2013

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

AradoBalanga posted:

Frey has an E-rank in swords, not lances.

Whoops, I was thinking of the other guy. My bad. Good catch.

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Nissin Cup Nudist
Sep 3, 2011

Sleep with one eye open

We're off to Gritty Gritty land






ShadowDragon.jpg



these growth rates :suicide:

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