Lurker > NeoElfboy

Means is a creepy authority figure who proudly proclaims "The ends justifies the means", while the other suspects are just kids. Hugh becomes a bit more credible as a suspect when it's revealed he's actually 25 or whatever but from the getgo I felt like it was obviously Means. Actually that's one of my complaints about 5-3, that I felt like the killer was so obvious and yet there's a lot of fake drama about who else it's gonna be, so it's interesting to see you felt differently! Probably helps explain why the case worked better for you than me, actually.

AA killers really are disproportionately old authority figures. I think the only one who's even under 20 is Dahlia? Very much unlike reality (though of course, AA doesn't exactly cover "typical" murders, which is fine!).
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Athena actually had me wondering for a bit, but I never suspected Ema for a moment. Probably because (a) we'd literally just seen the writers try the same stunt with child Edgeworth and (b) the proposed method of murder is pretty dumb and Gant is obviously slimy as ****.

"There's someone else with a big neon I DID IT sign" is also why I never for a moment suspected Hugh, though I could see why someone might.
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I wouldn't call Morgan a red herring; conspiracy to commit murder makes you a murderer too (and the AA-verse obviously agrees given her fate).

I was also suspicious of Desiree and I'm not sure there's another red herring character I was happier to be wrong about. She and Ron just seem so happy, y'know? Happy couples feel pretty rare in this series.
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Crab is an excellent choice and would probably be mine.

Olga Orly deserves a mention not because she's an amazing character but because it is a legitimate swerve coming off of 1-1, 2-1, and 3-1, in which the only third-party witness is the only possible candidate for murderer if you assume your client is innocent.
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Nothing to add, but yeah, that moment is so good.

Amara's stage presence is freaking amazing. I feel like she deserved a better role in the story than she got.
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I like Rayfa quite a bit.

But every young woman in the series who plays an assistant role (and I'll include her for this) has some strangely dumb moments for comedy (some more than others) and she's no different. Not really the most flattering pattern.

Alternative observation: that entire family is kinda dumb. Ga'ran's manipulations of them work way better than they should.
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I'm pretty down with using Edgeworth in lower-stakes cases in principle, but I'm not a big fan of his 6-6 appearance anyway.

LeonhartFour posted...

I think the main reason DD is longer despite similar line counts is the fact that there are no free investigations. Give it free investigations, and it probably crushes T&T in line counts.

Yeah that's probably true now that you mention it; I keep forgetting that you include optional lines. So the newer games really are just bigger.
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DD (and presumably SoJ) has a similar line count to T&T but takes more time. It's not just because they have more/bigger cases, or the line count would be greater too. I think they're a bit slower/belabour their plot points a bit more. Like any time something dramatic happens in them you're more likely to get long dramatic pauses and sometimes even repeating previous scenes (SoJ has a particular problem with going to mini-flashbacks all the time - I dunno if you've been counting repeat lines or not, granted!).
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Yeah, the new games don't have more text. They do take significantly more time, though, which is a problem.
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LeonhartFour posted...

the problem with that is that 3-5's ending is meant to validate his feelings about Iris

I agree; I imagine your reaction is what the writers intended. Doesn't mean I have to like it, though! It also means I have zero problems with the writers going "annnd that was dumb" and not following up with this plot point.

LeonhartFour posted...

Also, I don't think Phoenix is completely ignoring her when she asks for the necklace back. He just doesn't think she's serious (and why should he?

Annnd this would be the "perpetuating bad ideas about relationships" thing I was talking about.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

I never noticed until now that the Tempest Trial is named after a chapter in Radiant Dawn. Part 4-P is titled Chaos Named.

I'm a tad disappointed we didn't get the music for that battle in as well; FEH is very lacking in RD tracks. We're still just at one IIRC? They've pretty much used PoR music over RD music at every opportunity for some reason.
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There's a definite lack of romantic relationships for AA characters. SD's point about appeasing fans is pretty much to blame here, I think - they know that any relationship they would write would annoy some of the fanbase (because it's not their preferred pairing), so by and large they just don't. It's a bit cowardly IMO but it's not the end of the world, and hey I kinda like that Edgeworth seems to be outright asexual since that's a pretty underrepresented demographic in media.

Though I gotta say I hate Phoenix/Iris. Their entire interaction consists or Iris trying to ask Phoenix for something and Phoenix completely ignoring her, seems like a terrible basis for a relationship to me. I definitely read Young Phoenix as an idiot phase he needed to grow out of (and he did!), and that includes getting over his love for someone who didn't give a damn about him. Saying "oh but she grew to love him over time anyway" perpetuates some bad ideas about relationships.
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I forget, where is the Magatama of Parting used in 6-3 acquired? It's a Khu'rainese one, right?

If so my theory would be that Morgan had the Magatama of Parting used by the Fey clan (which she credibly could have used in 2-2 had the situation been real instead of faked, since if she were lying Maya would be able to call her on it), but hid it so it wasn't available to be used by Misty (or anyone else) in 3-5.
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If they wanted to make money I feel like they could just do a special banner with the TT units, kinda like seasonal characters. It'd give big fans of those characters not just a chance to merge them as much as they want, but also find a good boon/bane.

Re Clive/Tobin:

The only thing Clive has that's remotely valuable is Hit and Run, a skill I personally find highly situational which is anyway available from Clair in the 3-4* pool (and is largely interchangeable with the also common Drag Back to boot). The only thing Tobin has that's remotely valuable is the Armourslayer (maaaybe Pivot?), also a highly situational skill available from multiple units in the 3-4* pool.

I've sent home more Hanas, Donnels, and Clairs than I can count at this point so I'm not seeing a compelling case to hoard Tobins or Clives.

I've definitely foddered multiple Camus (Goad Cavalry), Robin-F (B Tomebreaker), Lloyd (Iceberg), Fallen Takumi (Fury)... probably others, I dunno. Interestingly I don't think I've ever foddered the ones you have though that's a bit of a personal oddity in the case of Iote's Shield I'll admit. Gronnraven+ Spring Camilla was at the core of my early flier teams though and she kinda mocks arrows without needing Iote, and more recently there's a sacred seal.
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Why would you let Clive and Tobin take up barracks space? Not like either has particularly useful SI fodder. I keep one of each around for competionist reasons but even that's a questionable idea objectively; there's zero reason to hold duplicates unless you plan to merge them.

MM is a good reward for those who use her, she's getting close to +10 now if you've gotten them all (I forget the exact number). Pretty great considering how ridiculous her refined Falchion is. I prefer regular Lucina for aesthetic reasons but it's hard to begrudge them handing out rewards which are useful for some players even if they're not specifically useful to you or I.

Though I do agree that I'm not sure this is the best way to distribute these units; I hope they'll come up with other ways to distribute these units just so their fans will be able to +10 them before 2025.
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Dark Young Link posted...

Man...

For dunking on green mages, Fjorm sure seems squishy against actual fucking red swords if 11-5 Lunatic means anything.

Even without the Cancel Affinity gimmick being in play, she needed buffs just to avoid getting one rounded by Laevatein. Then on the final turn she almost couldn't even do enough damage to finish off Laegjarn. I guess that is what happens when your attack is lower than PA!Azura's... Hell, even unbuffed Lloyd has higher base attack, even if he wasn't merged to +2 >_>

Her innate Atk/Def Bond patches up her Atk stat nicely. I like her with Close Def to complete her mastery over such matchups though (as well as shredding non-green dragons).

Lunatic Laevatein has really juiced stats (especially if she receives stat buffs) so is a threat to many blues in a way than most other content isn't capable of.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Teaming up Phoenix and Rayfa for 6-3 might be the smartest thing SoJ did (aside from letting Apollo take the lead for 6-5, that is). It gives Rayfa some much needed character development that she'd have been hard pressed to get elsewhere, and their dynamic is really unique.

Yep I agree with this.

6-3 is a bit of a miss for me but that Phoenix/Rayfa dynamic is excellent.
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I don't care for Lilina so I wouldn't use her either but V!Lilina but she seems really good objectively, horse mage with that much atk can wreck faces easy.
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KamikazePotato posted...

Yeah I'm actually a little confused about why the like:dislike ratio is so bad for this video even in comparison to the other alts that were getting people upset. Lucina actually hasn't been pimped out as much as some other characters.

Looking like she might not be so strong though:

Late, but nice to see embarrassing rants like this get shown up. :)

Interesting about the new arena numbers. I feel like I stand to benefit as someone near the top of 19.5 (I can get close to staying in tier 20 if my bonus hero is good, but never quite enough), but who knows; there are probably other 19.5 players who will dump feathers to improve things and not sure if I'll keep up.

Also, perma-tier 20? How does that work?
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Punnyz posted...

Tharja just learned Vengence and My dude just learned Ignis

if I had known about the passing on things I would've waited until they known these

Vengeance is funny (and the best way to hear crit quotes) but not actually that great since you should be ORKOing most of what you fight without it. Anathema (massive passive AoE evade and crit-evade debuff) is the skill you want to pass from Tharja generally.
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They're quite different bosses and success has far more to do with how you figure out how to deal with them than your level. Level's not that important in this game, thank goodness.

That said Kokabiel (assuming that's who you mean by second to last boss) is generally easier than Armaros Manifest, yes.
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Yeah that's certainly a fair point; it does feel like the mode needs an Infernal setting for sure.
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Disagree pretty strongly, this is much closer to what I want new content to be. Rival Domains is terrible and Tap Battle is fun enough but not really FE. I'm fine with standard FEH gameplay (which, y'know, is good - that's why I'm playing) with support conversations. I'd probably be more excited if I cared about the characters involved this time but that's fine.
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I would generally agree with Dancer = good but with Awakening's ninja reinforcements I found Olivia a liability much of the time. Probably not much of an issue on Casual though.
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People in Ace Attorney die really easily compared to real life in general, particularly from blunt trauma.

I wish the series weren't so madly in love with murder. You could do a lot with intended murder where the victim comes to but has only very limited memories.
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You can revive people with a one-shot staff that you get late in the game.

You kill her and revive her so that you can have two manaketes for the final boss: the requirement for unlocking the second manakete is to have neither Tiki nor the Falchion at the end of Chapter 24. The super-pro-strat is to hand the Falchion to Tiki and kill her off in that chapter. You'll unlock Nagi. The Falchion then shows up in your inventory (because that's what happens to any killed character's inventory in this game, IMO one of the nice improvements this game introduced). Then you can revive Tiki in the next chapter.

Silly but it works and doesn't require massacre of your entire army like all the other side-chapters.
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I don't really like the Khura'in Judge; way too similar to the previous judge. I guess that's the joke (and it worked well enough with the Judge's Brother, since they are brothers) but at this point every damn judge being a slight modification of the same character feels incredibly lazy.

The Incredible Payne is great though. I felt he fell flat in DD but his SoJ appearance/role is the high point of 6-1 to me.
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Athena seems headed for #6 for sure. I guess the only question left regarding the top ten's order is where Ema lands. I remember thinking she was pretty damn minor for a detective but she only needs a bit over 400 lines to hit #9.
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I'd say Blackquill's psychological manipulation is hyped up somewhat for a prosecution trick (though manipulating the judge is certainly nothing new for prosecutors, when all of them except Payne do it to some extent, and Manfred arguably does it more than Simon even), and somewhat for his plot connection as a devoted student of Metis. It also emphasises his connection with Athena as well.
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"Okay, I know the drill! You want me to swap this statement into my testimony, don't you!"
"What? No, um..."
"Way ahead of you! I'll just swap it in!"

The Fulbright/Phantom showdown is at its best when it's balancing the seriousness of the situation with the levity of Fulbright being, well, Fulbright. Great stuff.
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Interesting. I knew that the localization had made Ike and Elincia's dialog seem more potentially romantic (resulting in some whiplash for their shippers in RD when the latter game made it clear that nope that wasn't a thing at all), but didn't know that about Ike/Soren.
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Translations change stuff and this isn't remotely new. Sometimes it's to the benefit of the game's local market; the most obvious example here is that the "petting" mini-game in Fates would have created bad press, so it's hard to argue it was a bad decision to remove it. The Soleil change probably falls under this too honestly; her Japanese version pushes "being gay is just a phase!" really hard IIRC. Some other changes like the Beruka/Saizo one I don't get and yeah deserve the criticism they receive.

The removal of Maniac Mode in PoR is a far greater sin, because it actually does change the game itself; in particular, as a Fire Emblem expert, Path of Radiance is the most toothless game in the series on its highest difficulty, and it's this way because Nintendo of America clearly gave no thought to players like me. (I still like the game and circumvent this issue by doing goofy challenges, but I shouldn't have to.)

Though in all cases I think there's been a recent overreaction to poor localization choices; at worst they rarely have a profound effect on the game and you should still easily be able to appreciate (or criticize!) the underlying game just fine. I think it's crazy how some people will boycott a game over a changed outfit.
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With the exception of perhaps Hector Mode Unfulfilled Heart (in which one of the shops is guarded by Vaida, necessitating some rescue shenanigans to use it without baiting her... of just using a unit with mounted movement), shopping never creates danger. It creates tedium, as you have to redo it if you restart the fight. This is not fun.

The rush to a treasure chest or a village on the other hand is a great thrill which also punishes degenerate turtling strategies. It's obvious how that adds to the game. If there were a map where you had to rush to a shop before a bandit ransacked it I'd agree with you that there are some merits to the system!
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pxlated posted...

going several chapters without shops is a benefit to FE7.

No it isn't. For experts it at best has a neutral effect on the game (they know what things they'll need and when the next shop is, so they buy in advance), for more casual players (or just experts who are forgetful) it's extremely annoying and leads to situations where "oh you can't actually give promoted Priscilla/Serra a weapon for several maps because you forgot to buy one in advance". In general it mostly just rewards players for looking things up in a guide to know what things re-appear in shops when.

Also, the fact that you can only shop in battle is both annoying gameplaywise and narratively ridiculous. Take, for instance, the shop in the chapter Pirate Ship. How silly is it that the player characters choose the exact moment they are under attack by the Black Fang to shop, and can't do so before or after? It takes time away from the fighting, and if you lose the fight you have to re-do the same shopping again. And then for some reason the shop doesn't sell iron lances or iron axes, which feels like a dev oversight rather than anything justified by the setting - why would Fire Emblem pirates not have axes available?

There's a reason this system has not been seen since FE7.
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Edgy Apollo isn't something I would have expected to like but they pull it off well. I enjoyed the fact that he pulls the Kristoph pose, too.

"...........It's fine, Mr. Wright... Even a bluff would suit me just fine... As long as you can... clear up this doubt inside me!" gives me chills.
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I kinda like it, but I can't stand the tinny voices in it. Aria's a beautiful piece of music once you remove its voices, but those kill it for me. Despite liking the scene for thematic reasons (especially on replays when you know more about Celes's character arc), I just kinda laughed it off the first time I played it, and that first impression sticks with me.

Ultros is always a good time, though.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

(Radiant Dawn is my favorite)

Excellent taste. RD's about the only Fire Emblem where I feel the plot/setting actually adds to my opinion of the game. PoR's not bad for setting up some of that same good stuff but it really fumbles the last third of the game or so.

On the map mechanics discussion:

Rain/snow are terrible mechanics because you have no control over them and they just grind gameplay to a sluggish mess for a while. There's a reason they never came back despite the fact that FE8 otherwise copied over almost all of FE7's mechanics.

Hinoka's map is much more interesting because it puts the control in your hands. You can activate the dragon vein when it's most beneficial for you to do so. You can, also, if you wish, just ignore them entirely, and rely on a mix of your own fliers acting proactively and your ground units baiting enemies into losing fights. Yes it's a mechanic to learn, but it's much more interesting, and it puts choice squarely in player hands.

Narratively the structure of Hinoka's map is also very satisfying. You're fighting a dragon-blooded pegasus knight commander on her home turf who uses dragon veins to bolster the tactical options of her own soldiers, but are given a weapon to counter this so that it isn't just "by the way here are some OP fliers for you to fight". It makes you really feel like you're breaking into the enemy's stronghold.
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The uses of the mood matrix in 5-5 are great honestly. It's where the mechanic graduates from "this game's new gameplay gimmick" to "oooh, that's why this is in the game"

LeonhartFour posted...

although it kinda bothers me that they never draw attention to the fact that the killer's heart was still beating after Athena stabbed him which meant it couldn't have been her mom because the autopsy report says that Metis died instantly after being stabbed, which meant her heart would've stopped beating immediately

Hmm, they never do, do they? On one hand I kind of agree with you, on the other hand it means I didn't have to deal with suspending my disbelief over AA autopsy reports including near-psychic details again.
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Punnyz posted...

I had no idea weapon rank effected anything other than what you're able to equip

In earlier FEs, it didn't! In Shadow Dragon onwards, raising your weapon rank (except from E to D for some reason) also increases your Atk by 1 or Hit by 5 (which one depends on the weapon type and rank... generally lower-Atk weapons i.e. swords gain more Atk, and lower-Hit weapons i.e. axes gain more Hit). Having triangle disadvantage nullifies these stat boosts in addition to any other effects of the weapon triangle.

Punnyz posted...

I wish I had a female swordmaster :(

Good news, Swordmaster has a minimum weapon rank of C so you can change someone into it at any time and they'll be quite competent at it. I like doing that when I feel that a unit is going to have too much trouble doubling on an upcoming map, since it comes with a great speed push as well.

MalcolmMasher posted...

I love deploying both Ballisticians and making Xane copy one, so that I have triple ballistas.

I really wish the game wasn't so stingy with ballistas (the weapons) themselves. The common one (Stonehoist I believe?) has horrid Hit so I don't like using more than one for that reason, you only have one Arrowspate for the longest time. They're a neat class idea though and I was a bit sad that Mystery dropped them.
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I'd have to check the stats but I believe that on average, all three of the initial cavaliers (Cain, Abel, and Frey) have very good stats. So yeah he's supposed to be good. I agree that it's surprising that the canon sacrifice isn't worse. Sadly you can't get him on Hard Mode.

Malcolm covered how the weapon triangle works in SD well, but it's worth noting that the effects vary game to game. In FE6-10, for instance, having triangle advantage is +1 atk and +X hit, and -1 atk and -X hit for your enemy. X is either 10 or 15 depending on the game. In FE11-14, the exact effect is more complicated and based on the weapon ranks of both units involved.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Yeah, AJ was always intended to be Takumi's last game in the series.

I actually didn't know that and it surprises me a bit. AJ just doesn't feel like anyone's last game, the way T&T does. Everything about the way the game ends (revelations about Apollo and Trucy left hanging, Apollo's character development in general) makes it feel like it's leading to more. It seems strange to me a writer would deliberately write something intended for a different writer to finish, but I suppose this isn't the only case of such things happening.
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Also:

Both Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones are really good, and you can't go wrong with either. Sacred Stones is the more polished game (doesn't have a weird issue with going several chapters without shops) and is the better-written one, but FE7 has much more varied map design (and the ranking system makes a good in-game challenge). Also FE8's normal mode difficulty is broken and promoted enemies are way too weak. When I was younger I disliked the fact that FE8 let you grind between fights but now I no longer care, since you can always choose whether to do it or not.

Binding Blade is generally worse than both unless you're seeking a challenge.
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This entire sequence reminds me why I never do arenas (outside of FE7 runs where I'm trying to buff my exp ranking), like there's no way the extra exp you get from them will make up for the risk of a huge time loss. FE provides so many ways to grind up units more safely if that's your thing (boss abuse, kill feeding, etc.).
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Classic series I assume?

Gravity Man's stage is the first thing that comes to mind. Amazing stage concept, you could make a whole game out of it (and people have!).

MM8 Wily 1 is of course a classic. It's not really interesting enough to be my pick (it is, obviously, all about jumping or sliding at the right time, though there is some left/right movement that helps) but it's engraved into my brain in the best way anyway. I love how it doesn't bother with the slow speed-up like the equivalent sections in Frost Man's stage and just goes "nope, full speed from the start, do this or die".

As a collective I think the doc robot stages are terrific too. Suped-up versions of existing stages with TWO suped-up versions of MM2 bosses apiece? Great stuff. MM3 has one of the weakest lategames of any MM but that midgame more than makes up for it. Tough to pick a single favourite stage, probably Shadow or Spark.

Tornado Man's stage has several neat gimmicks done well and is pleasantly tough.

MM2 doesn't really have a standout stage for me which is interesting because it's one of my favourites (and generally the most popular overall).
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Athena's black psyche-locks are great.

Kristoph's black psyche-locks felt like the game trying to make the most badass villain imaginable in a very fanfic-like way. I kinda thought maybe they were also saving something about Kristoph for a sequel which never materialized but that may have been me reading too much into it.
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I don't remember the exact instance in which he uses the nickname, but in a vacuum, Edgeworth calling her Pearls makes sense to me. He's barely interacted with her directly and probably mostly knows about her via Phoenix talking about her (DD suggests the two are indeed friends non-professionally in the years between T&T and DD), so if Phoenix calls her Pearls in those situations (which we don't actually see), there you go.
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Yeah, I enjoyed that map concept. I love how he's a mage and it's a desert, so of course he can outmaneuver most of your units.

Echoes maps suffer from having a lot of empty space and it's obvious little thought was given to unit placement. It was an enjoyable enough romp and I liked the different take on various mechanics (magic costing HP is super-cool and reins in an otherwise overpowered skillset in an interesting way) but I don't have much desire to replay it compared to like every other FE, even ones I consider worse than it.

Punnyz posted...

what do yall think of Fates?

Outstanding game (mostly Conquest, but Birthright is fine too; it just has notably worse map design) with the best gameplay in the series. Conquest is the game to play if you're looking for a tough challenge which is also extremely fair. (And if you find it too tough you can adjust the difficulty downwards midplaythrough). Every map is very obviously hand-crafted with a lot of love and most of them are really memorable. Good characters too. Plot and setting is weak but I feel that way about the rest of the non-Tellius series too so eh.

It's very controversial though, even moreso than Awakening (which is impressive). Both games brought in lots of new fans but do some things differently with respect to characters and tone (there are more goofy joke characters). Fates in particular also brings back the second-generation mechanic but gives it the goofiest explanation imaginable (it's obvious that it wasn't "supposed" to be in the game but IntSys was terrified that not having it would lead to a drop in sales). Regardless, there's a definite friction in the fanbase between the old and new fans over the two games, which is unfortunate IMO because I think both the older and newer FE games do great things which makes them 100% worth playing.
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Mixing it up is good. Echoes I recommend as a game when you're finding FE is getting to be too much of the same, since it's probably the most different. Awakening's a pretty good one to dive into whenever. Radiant Dawn is my personal favourite but it definitely has that pressure you described in a heavy way early in the game, so I'd pick it up when you're in the mood for that.
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I enjoyed both 3 and 4 a lot, fun battle systems. Plots are... Tri-Ace plots which means they have some neat ideas but the execution can be a bit wobbly, to put it mildly. Solid casts though.

Haven't played 5.
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The RPG Duelling League: www.rpgdl.com
An unparalleled source for RPG information and discussion