Lurker > KamikazePotato

Yeah I went from Suikoden 2 to Suikoden 5. It was a rough transition.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

One underrated thing about it is that the random battle music syncs up really well with the low startup time because the music has a gradual buildup. If it was just a loading screen without the music or flashy (by 2000 PS1 standards) camera pans, it would be pretty heinous.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

One day I'll be as pro as other people at the Earthbound metagame

I think the RPG most ruined by random battles is Suikoden V. Great game, love its story and characters and atmosphere. Music's pretty good. But it had a battle loading time that puts FF9's to shame and the encounter rate was super high. It was so bad that I googled it and found others complaining about the same thing, which thankfully directed me to a hidden accessory that heavily reduced the rate. Otherwise I don't know if I could have finished it.

Oh yeah. This is a character list. Will continue this sometime today!
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

I really like the rolling HP meter mechanic of Earthbound, and battles are still fun to me because of the atmosphere, but yeah it's pretty archaic. At least you can see monsters on the map, but it's impossible to avoid most of them so it doesn't make much of a difference.

I've played Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal. It was fun!
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Oh

Suddenly I'm interested!
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

I've been pretty spoiled by how recent games have all moved towards having enemies on the map instead of interrupting you with a forced encounter. I can still deal with it simply because I grew up playing games with that, but yeah.

I wonder what someone who started gaming recently would think of how old RPGs handled encounters. They might not be able to stand it.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Awesome to see James on the list.

Was hoping one of the few horror games fans on B8 would appreciate that!
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

As a general rule, I've found that I like newer games more than older games. It gets tougher for me to go back to my some old favorites the more things advance. I'll always love Skies of Arcadia but it really needs an HD rerelease with an overall game speed boost and random battle encounter rate rebalancing.

Not to say I'll definitely never play Lufia II, but there would have to be some sort of gaming drought going on.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Also I've never played Lufia 2. Might play it someday but I think I'm at the point where I can't afford to devote my time to 20-year old SNES JRPGS instead of trying out new stuff.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Dreamy Luigi was too big to fit on this list
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

ZenOfThunder posted...

nice to see you still got good taste after all these years KP

Aw yeah it's Zen! High five to you, buddy
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

10. James Sunderland (Silent Hill 2)

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/silent/images/f/ff/Dream.gif/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20161009072903

"Don't worry, I'm not crazy... at least, I don't think so."

Somewhere, in remote area far removed from the rest of civilization, is a town covered in fog. Few people manage to find it, fewer find it on purpose, and even fewer return. While the town is empty, you're never alone. There are...things, there. Things straight out of your nightmares, and none scarier than the town itself, which seeks to break you at every given opportunity, physically and mentally. Especially mentally.

A town like this, one so alien and horrifying, begs a very interesting question: what kind of person would seek out a place like Silent Hill?

James Sunderland is unlike any other main character in gaming. Most protagonists fall under the category of power fantasy, everyman, or somewhere in-between. James is none of them. He's far from a power fantasy, and while he appears to be an everyman at first glance, there's too many things...off about him. He talks in this stilted, tone-deaf manner that kind of sounds like bad voice acting until you realize just how tired he truly is. The few people he meets in Silent Hill are messed up, and despite James trying to talk them through some bad spots, his heart never sounds in it. His mannerisms are disconcerting; he spends a little too much time fascinated with objects related to violence or death, like the noose he slooowly pulls down to solve that one puzzle. And even considering the circumstances of why he went there, the way he determinedly trudges through the hell that is Silent Hill without a moment's hesitation beggars belief. At some point I lost count of how many holes he was willing to jump down into despite there being no guarantee of his own safety. And there's the way he clams up whenever topics personally uncomfortable for him are broached - you can visibly see how hard he works to suppress whatever thoughts are bouncing around inside his mind. James, in a word, is worrying.

Which means he's the perfect protagonist for a game like Silent Hill 2, which is as much a dissertation on James' character as it is a horror game, Silent Hill 2 utilizes the characterization of its protagonist and weaves it into every aspect of the experience in a way that is unmatched by any other game. There are so many little details present in Silent Hill that give insight into James' character, yet are done subtlety enough to only affect you on a subconcious level on your first playthrough. It slowly peels off every layer of James' psyche, and each time it does, it reveal more about the plot, the town, and James himself. And when the game takes off the kid gloves and decides to forget subtlety, it has no problems with giving you a good ole' emotional gut punch. In particular, the final stretches of the Hotel leave you mentally drained and ensure that you will never look at James the same way again.

I'm not sure if I like James. I'm not sure if I root for him. Terms like those don't really work in a setting like Silent Hill. But I do understand him, and I do find him interesting, probably more than any other character I've seen. Silent Hill 2 is one of those classic games that ages like fine wine, and James is one of the biggest reasons why.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

There's also a Falchion Banner on the horizon. Good luck getting who you want from a quadruple red banner.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Saber - 1299 (199)

The FEH Reddit made a compendium of a list of +10 builds for every character in the game. It's completion was stalled for like 3 weeks because after every other character had been submitted, no one could find someone with a +10 Saber.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

KommunistKoala posted...

eagerly awaiting velvet write up

not eagerly awaiting vyse write up

Wow can you give me the next lottery numbers???
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

up
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

A Hero Rises interim results:

https://twitter.com/FE_Heroes_JP/status/961525014875881472

Vanguard Ike
Hector
Winter Tharja
Performing Azura
Brave Ike
Lucina
Summer Corrin
Azura
Myrrh
Ayra
Brave Lyn
Takumi
Gunnthra
New Years Azura
Micaiah
Bridal Cordelia
Ninian
Celica
Halloween Nowi
Ike

Two Ikes in the Top 5 of a voting list. Business as usual.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

A bit busy today - will get started on the Top 10 when I can.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Yup
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

up
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Chie
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Still trading for Yosuke
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Trading for Yosuke
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Kanji
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Janus5k posted...

Trading for Kanji auto no cats

Get Yosuke
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

These ones never get old
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

greengravy294 posted...

Woah ike is already out

My power rankings are falling apart man

As someone who played Mercs you should absolutely know one of the guys in my Top 10!
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

I like P4 people though
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

LeonhartFour posted at 2:19:16 PM...

all right see ya

LeonhartFour posted at 2:21:12 PM...

welcome back

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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Joel and Ellie are more than their relationship with each other, but even their independent growth is usually linked to the other. Like how Ellie's biggest growth period came about when she had to take care of Joel on her own. Their relationship largely defined the game for me so it's tough for me to mentally seperate them.

I didn't play Left Behind, though, which may be part of my view on things.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Yosuke
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

This topic is doing a great job of reminding me why I don't interact with the fighting game community
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Who cares

If people wanted to still be playing Third Strike, they would

If people wanted to stop playing Melee, they would

Let people play what they want to play
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

I want them to add Kellam to everyone's barracks without telling anybody they did.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

11. Ike (Fire Emblem series)

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/8/84/Ike_fe10_lord.png/revision/latest?cb=20090516063807

"I'm Ike, of the Greil Mercenaries."

Ike is definitely one of the more simple characters on this list. He's not a super deep character and I'm not going to have to dig deep to talk about why he appeals to me. Truth be told I'm not quite sure myself why I like Ike to the degree I do, but man he's just such a fun character to me. I love him in both of his Fire Emblem games and he was one of my mains in Brawl and SSB4. I've got an Ike Amiibo right next to me! I Like Ike. (List Spoilers: this is one more character on this list in the Top 10 with an existing Amiibo. I own that one too.)

Ike has not one, but two great character designs. Path of Radiance Ike is a good take on the more typical anime JRPG protagonist, looking more like a young man than a young teen and rocking the headband to boot. Radiant Dawn Ike definitely took some 'roids in between game but its still a huge breath of fresh air to see a mercenary who actually looks like would be able to swing a sword that big. Speaking of swords, Ike's shoots lasers. Lasers! He can also heal himself by activating Aether which is frankly silly and breaks the last 1/3 of Path of Radiance but also super fun to watch. Ike is a one-man army.

What I like the most about Ike, though, is his place in the world. Tellius, the continent Ike lives on, is a bit of a messed up place. It takes the typical political infighting up a notch by adding in a severe case of fantastic racism towards beast-people called laguz. There's murder, backstab, betrayal, even a genocide. Every country and race is super distrustful towards each other, and for good reason.

Ike rises above all that. His outlook on things are so simple and direct hat nothing ever manages to corrupt or change him for the worse. He's not stupid - not even close - he's just 100% honest and treats everyone equally. One little example I like is early in Path of Radiance, where he unknowingly uses a racial slur against a laguz and gets chewed out for it. Ike's response is to apologize, change his language, and continue the conversation without missing a beat, talking like he normally would to anybody else. The laguz is left a bit speechless over how quickly Ike adjusted while at the same time admitting fault, and by the end of the game Ike has become the strongest liason between humans and laguz in the entire continent simply because the laguz realize that Ike doesn't see any difference between them and humans.

There's plenty more examples that happen throughout the series. When one laguz is attack by a mob of humans, instead of letting the laguz attempt to escape on his own (which is what the laguz asked Ike to do), Ike intervenes and calls out the crowd even though it drew attention to him when he was trying to stay undercover. When the deposed princess Elincia is subjected to political insults and backbiting by the Begnion senators, Ike yells at them to apologize, literally telling them that should be ashamed of themselves. Ike his no filter and no patience for small-minded crap, and while it gets him into trouble more than a little, it's also what wins him so many allies and friends.

I also can't go the whole writeup without mentioning his rivalry/vengenace story against the Black Knight. It's the result of one of the more emotional events in the series, forcing Ike to grow as a person over the course of several years. There's one line where, after defeating the BK for the first time, it mentions that Ike slept well for the first time in months. It's a little thing, but it's effective. Ike is a character made up of little things that add up to make an extremely likable guy. I Like Ike, We Like Ike, Everybody Likes Ike.

No, seriously, he's effectively supplanted Marth as the mascot of the series. Sorry man!
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

RIP
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

12. Vivi (Final Fantasy IX)

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/5/54/Vivi_FMV.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080905223145

"I was very confused when my grandpa died. He told me, 'Vivi, no need be sad.' So I told myself I can't be sad. That's why I felt confused when I heard everyone was stopping around here. I didn't know what to do or what to feel... But when I saw Dagger crying when her mum died, I wasn't confused anymore. I was sad... If I were just a puppet, I never would've felt that way. Mr. 288... we aren't puppets. I know we aren't."

Vivi is another character that makes me hope Square never remakes FF9. His cameos in Kingdom Hearts 2 and World of Final Fantasy were not so good.

Vivi is the perfect combination of charming and nuanced. He's got that classic Black Mage design which is considered timeless. He's an adorable little guy who wouldn't hurt a fly unless pushed way too far. He's also grappling with his own existence as a manufactured mage whose lifespan is on a short timer. That part's a little less fun.

The Little Black Mage That Could goes through a lot of changes throughout the course of Final Fantasy IX. He starts out as a naive, weak-willed, easily-led-on guy and slowly transforms into a mature person who is able to face their own mortality head-on. Vivi gets knocked down a lot in ways both big and small, but he always manages to stand back up - at first through the help of his friends, but later of his own volition. One of my favorite scenes is the game occurs a bit after discovering the Black Mage Village. After Vivi learns about what it means to be a manufacture Black Mage, Dagger wants to chase after him and console him, only for Zidane to hold her back because he believes that Vivi is strong and independent enough by now to come to a conclusion on his own. He's entirely right, and it shows just how far Vivi has come from the little guy who let himself be manipulated by a rat-faced punk at the start of the game.

One of the best parts of experiencing Vivi's journey is watching his interactions with other. Vivi brings out a lot of different aspects among his party members that they don't tend to share with others. My two favorite examples are how Zidane acts like a big brother showing him the ways of the world while Steiner acts caring and protective (in a much less...excitable way than he does for Dagger). It extends beyond the party, too - most NPCs aren't too happy with the emotionless manufactured Black Mages going around setting cities on fire and they're all too eager to express their discontentment towards Vivi. It serves to both kick him when he's down and show that the world at large is reacting to the events of the plot, not just the party. Vivi also knows little about the world, and while it's fun to watch him learn, it also means he gets tricked by a good number of people. The monsters.

Vivi is the star of FF9, through and through. He's the most popular character in the game and he deserves that status. When playing through FF9 you find yourself cheering on Vivi and savoring every victory he gets because come on, how could you not? He's effortlessly inspiring in ways few other characters can match.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

I find it hard to put 9S in terms of like or dislike. His character arc is so far removed from traditional notions like that because of what the game does to him. The 9S at the end of Route C isn't acting anywhere near what the 'normal' 9S would act like - if a normal 9S even exists anymore.

It does help that I think his character carried 2B's even before Route C. 2B was kind of dull for a good while.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

13. 9S (Nier Automata)

https://www.thebitbag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/%C2%A9Square-Enix-Platinum-Games-Nier-Automata-Glory-To-Mankind-119450310-Trailer-9S.png

"Isn't that HILARIOUS? Doesn't it make you LAUGH?"

I'll try to be a little vague here because Nier Automata is fairly new, but once again, spoilers are inevitable.

I had no idea I was going to like 9S as much as I did when starting Nier Automata. 2B was the poster girl, the one in all the advertisements, the one striking a heroic pose on the box art. 9S looked like her dopey sidekick. While 2B was designed to look a strong combination of attractive and cool, 9S was...not. If looking like a very young teenager wasn't bad enough, he's wearing shorts. No one can make shorts work.

9S proceeds to subvert your expectations about half an hour after he's introduced; hacking the Engels to allow you to fight it, sacrificing his flight unit to save 2B, continuing to hack Engels even while half-dead, and then sacrificing himself by uploading 2B's data to the bunker first before they blow up. Quite an entrance for a dude wearing shorts (okay, I'll stop).

Throughout the rest of the game, 9S shows himself to be competent, resourceful, and intelligent. He's also the more emotionally aware of the duo - 2B's insistence on following the "emotions are prohibited" rule comes across as bizarre considering no other androids bother, and 9S' attempts to get her to open up offer some nice development for the both of them. At the end of Route A, 9S is a likable guy, although not one with much depth to him.

Route B is where his character truly starts getting interesting. Playing from 9S' perspective offers a different look at both 9S himself and the world as a whole. You see his mixed feelings on the machines, his dark repressed emotions he may have for 2B, and his misgivings on YorHA as a whole. The route ends with 9S discovering some pretty awful secrets and it already starts to take a toll on him.

Then Route C happens. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that 9S has the greatest mental and emotional collapse I've ever seen in a video game character. When it comes to character development in game heroes, most of it is positive. Even if they regress at times, they'll inevitably bounce back. At worst they slowly become an antihero or a villain, but even then they never become an emotional wreck. 9S falls off a cliff both literally and figuratively and he never comes back from it. Rage, denial, and grief all mix together in an explosion of emotion that's paralyzing to watch. You find out more secrets about the truth of the world, the machines, YorHA, and his relationship with 2B, and each one both makes 9S a much more complex and interesting character while also tearing his heart to pieces. This is all sold by his voice actor Kyle McCarley, who may have put out the actual best VA performance I've ever seen in Route C 9S.

Some characters have journeys. Some have ordeals. 9S has a slide. He just keeps going down and down, and it's incredibly engrossing to watch. Some of his lines are still stuck in my head. I think it'll be a while before a game character can make me summon the degree of emotions that 9S was able to make me do.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Oh, and Alm's gains a Brave Sword effect. Only active when at full HP. Takes 5 damage after combat.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Felicia's Plate also grants +1 to special cooldown if in combat with a magic user, which is pretty slick.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

14. Dante (Devil May Cry series)

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/devilmaycry/images/6/63/Dante_4.png/revision/latest?cb=20150419230108

"Let's get this party started!"

Dante is fun incarnate. He gets stabbed through chest by 10 scythes at the same time and is more concerned with turning on his jukebox and grabbing a slice of pizza. He runs down the side of a 50-story tower, jumps into the mouth of a giant flying whale for no reason, then beats the hell out of it from the inside and crashes it back into the same tower. He surfs on rocket missiles. He gets shot several times in the head and reacts with minor annoyance. He toys with nearly every enemy he counters, partially to put them off their game but mostly because he likes bugging the crap out of them. There there's stuff like this:



Seriously, watch that. It might be the best cutscene ever. Dante is a huge goofball always trying to look cool and it's so much fun to watch. I think my favorite rendition of him is in Devil May Cry 3, where half of his moments of trying to be a badass are undercut by him messing up a little and looking like a complete dork as a result.

It extends beyond cutscenes, too. Devil May Cry 3/4 have some incredible, deep, and satisfying combat systems, but the games wouldn't be nearly as fun as they are without Dante pulling it all together. When fighting enemies he showboats in tons of his moves and always sounds like he's having the time of his life. The game's Style System incentivizes you to style all over fools by mixing up your attacks instead of spamming the same moves over again and it feels perfectly tied in to the game's atmosphere. Hell, one of the best ways to build up Style is to stop fighting and taunt, leaving yourself completely open while doing so. Dante takes showboating to a new level.

While it's not the focus of his character, I also appreciate the serious part of Dante that appear every so often him. The few moments where he acts in a more subdued way are made pretty memorable by how over-the-top he acts 90% of the time. In partcular, his relationship/rivalry with Vergil in Devil May Cry 3 is far better written than it has any right to be and sets the video game standard for two characters acting as perfect foils to each other. Man, writing all this out makes me want to play Devil May Cry 3 again. Dante's the best.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Elizabeth
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Peace___Frog posted...

https://twitter.com/SubMedina/status/960949539401359361

The liberal media is extorting antifa to impose sharia law.

(Create your own right wing conspiracy)

Al Sharpton is funding refugees to overthrow Trump

That's almost word for word what a lot of people have already said
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Zigzagoon posted...

KamikazePotato posted...

Still trading for Yosuke too

For Koromaru?

Koro
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Still trading for Yosuke too
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Trading for Yosuke in 5 minutes

Get it while it's hot
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Yosuke
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

Is it that hard to believe that Infinite just didn't make the cuts based on its own merits? Outside of Tag Battle, every other game deserved to be there more. Infinite shouldn't get in just because of a pedigree.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.

New banner: Elincia, Tana, Amelia.

Decided to draw a few for funsies. Out of four, got *5 Elincia and *5 Catria. Not gonna complain about that!
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.